1949 The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation or NATO was formed.

1950 Britain was involved in a war in Korea.

1951 The Festival of Britain was held at the South Bank in London.

1951 The town at this date was an area of houses in varying state of age and repair all surrounded by industry and cut through by the Great West Road. A Middlesex Development Plan was drawn up that was based on the Greater London Plan of 1944 which tried to restrain the overall growth of population and industry and put into effect a planned programme of decentralisation. There was a policy of controlling development along the Thames and there was a proposal for an unbroken walk along the riverside. From then on many areas of the town became subject to planning blight and derelict as industry moved out of the town.

1952 – present Queen Elizabeth II

1953 Clifden House was demolished. It had been built in the eighteenth century for Viscount Clifden and was used for local administration from 1888. It housed the library until the present one was built in its garden.

1956 Crisis over ownership of the Suez Canal.

1957 The Treaty of Rome started the European Community of France, West Germany, Italy, Holland, Belgium, and Luxembourg commonly known as the Common Market or EEC.

1957 The Q Theatre near Kew Bridge was demolished. Jack and Beatrice de Leon ran it from 1924. Dirk Bogarde, Sean Connery, Joan Collins, Vivienne Leigh, Anthony Quayle and Margaret Lockwood were among the many who started their theatrical careers there.

1958 The last houses were demolished in the area of narrow alleyways and small crowded houses known as Troy Town.

The filter beds at the water works became redundant and the site was used to build the six tower blocks of flats that comprise Haverfields Estate.

1961 Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space.

The Berlin Wall was built.

1961 St Paul’s Church became the principal church of the United Parish of Brentford. St Lawrence’s and St George’s churches were then redundant. Zoffany’s painting of the Last Supper was moved to St Paul’s church from St George’s.

The Wesleyan Church was demolished and a new building erected in Clifden Road when the Windmill Road and New Road Methodist Churches combined.

1963 John Kennedy, the President of the United States, was assassinated in Dallas, Texas.

1963 Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother opened Boston Manor House after repairs and refurbishment which had cost £35,000. The National Institute of Houseworkers Ltd occupied it for a time. Their lease was later taken over by a housing association called The Over Forties Association. The name was later changed to Housing for Women. They provide flats in the house to rent with the State rooms open to the public on Saturdays, Sundays and Bank Holiday Mondays from the end of April to the end of October each year The house and park are now owned by the London Borough of Hounslow.

Frank Holland acquired St George’s Church to house his collection of automatic, old and odd musical instruments. It was then called the Piano Museum, later The Musical Museum and houses a collection of mechanical musical instruments ranging in size from a barrel organ to a cinema Wurlitzer. It has now moved to a new building along the High Street.

The newly built County Court opened.

The Gas Works closed and were demolished. The Watermans Arts Centre and park opened on the site in 1984.

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