The first houses to be built after the land sale in 1872 were on the west side running north from Albany Road. They were numbered consecutively with numbers 8, 9, 10 and 11 north of Grosvenor Road which ran down hill to towards the recreation ground. They were called Grosvenor Terrace and are now numbers 14, 16, 18 and 20 Brook Road South.
The builder, Henry Spicer lived at the Lord Nelson PH in Enfield Road was brought to account in 1883 for allowing these 4 houses to be occupied without giving notice to the Sanitary Authority.
That year the lease was held by Stephen Walker who was a timber merchant and a director of Montgomery’s Timber Company and also a local Councillor. He lived at Park Lodge, Boston Road which seems to be one of the large houses demolished when the Great West Road was built. His name is on the dedication stone of the Sewage Pumping Station in Town Meadow that was built the same year and there are memorials to him and his family in St Paul’s Church.
Grosvenor Terrace had a market value of £220 in 1883 and in May 1884 was bought by Mr Joseph Van of the Black Boy and Still PH for £705 with a mortgage of £450 from Marshall King, auctioneer of Brentford. In 1889 Mr Van (now at the George IV PH in Chiswick) entered into a further mortgage/reconveyance with George Kates of the Feathers PH, Brentford to secure £400. In 1902 the terrace was conveyed as freehold premises to Misses Alice and Florence Barratt of Sutton Lane, Chiswick. These ladies retained an interest in it until their deaths in 1946 and 1950.
Meanwhile in 1888 FW Lacey the local surveyor drew up plans to straighten the brook where it ran across Lateward, Grosvenor and Albany Roads and through the Recreation Ground which was the property of the Brentford Local Board, the local authority of the day. His map shows the bends to be straightened, the route to be followed and the site of the storm drains.
Building along the west side of Brook Road continued with the builder of 2 houses on the northern corner of Lateward Road being fined £5 having been in trouble for not having removed walls which had been found to contain bad mortar. He said the mortar was composed of lime and road sweepings that had been sold to him by the Local Board!
By the time the 1894 OS map was produced all the west side of Brook Road was built up except for a stretch between Hamilton Road and Clifden Road where later St John’s School was built and an empty gap opposite Braemar Road where the gated apartments stand now.
On the east side there was a row of houses north of Braemar Road but that road didn’t go all the way through to Ealing Road as now and there was a gap between the houses equivalent to the entrance to the football ground. To the north and south of the built up road the land was still shown as orchards and further north the brook was still an open water course running at the bottom of the gardens in Enfield Road.
The History of Brentford 
Dear Catherine
Do you know why the houses were built, what was the local industry they served to house the workers please?
Thanks and regards
Chloe
They were built to house canal workers – some on the tied-cottage principle.