1857 Leonora Rothschild was married to Baron Alphonse de Rothschild at Gunnersbury by the Chief Rabbi.
1858 A special Parliamentary resolution allowed Lionel de Rothschild to take his seat for the City of London. He had been elected five times before but as a Jew could not take a Christian oath. He remained an MP until his death in 1879.
1859 Darwin published The Origin of Species.
1859 The Great Western Railway leased a branch line to Brentford Dock. It crossed the canal where Augustus Close does now and again near Danehurst. Brentford Town Station was north of
the bridge over London Road near Commerce Road. Passengers were carried from this station as well as freight.
Access to the station up on the embankment was looked on as being hazardous for ladies in windy weather.
1861 Prince Albert died from Typhoid Fever.
1863 St George’s parish, Old Brentford became independent of Ealing Parish.
1865 The end of the American Civil War and the death of Abraham Lincoln.
1866 The Parliamentary Oaths Act cleared the way for Jews to enter Parliament without taking a Christian Oath.
1866 The Roman Catholic Church transferred from the Market Place to its present building in Boston Park Road (St John’s).
1867 The foundation stone of St Paul’s Church was laid by Princess Mary Adelaide, Duchess of Teck.
No other town in England was thought to have more poverty in relation to its size than Brentford.
The large number of inns in the town was thought to encourage the vice of drunkenness
The standpipe at the waterworks was damaged by frost and was rebuilt within the protective tower still standing at the Kew Bridge Steam Museum.
1869 The Suez Canal was opened.
1869 Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli was loaned funds by the Rothschild banking family to finance the British shares.
1869 A new police station was built at 42, High Street to replace the one at the corner of Town Meadow.
1870 The Education Act made the provision of elementary education a requirement where suitable provision did not already exist. School boards were elected to build schools and administer government grants.
1871 The Trade Union Act defined allowable methods of collective bargaining.
1872 The Ballot Act meant that voting in elections became secret.
1873 The tolls were abolished on Kew Bridge.
The Brentford Advertiser reported the town as being associated with ‘everything stagnant and disgraceful’ and again labelled it the filthiest place in England.
1874 When Northumberland House at Charing Cross was demolished, the Sixth Duke of Northumberland had the statue of the lion that had been on the front of the house removed to Syon where it was added to the east front.
1875 The Public Health Act was passed which incorporated and extended urban sanitary authorities into local boards. They were concerned with such matters as the erection of new buildings, the laying new streets, the sanitary condition of the property, the provision of means of drainage and other general health functions.
1875 Old and New Brentford and Brentford End were amalgamated to implement the terms of the Public Health Act, administered by the Councillors of Brentford Local Board.
The History of Brentford 
I wonder if there is any information on a John Giles, Ironmonger, who lived in 211 High St., New Brentford, in 1886.
Thanking you,
Jane Hills