@londonsuburbia

An Englishman’s home is his errrr, water tower? Well this is a fun one. This is not a castle in the Scottish Highlands, this is in Southall, a vibrant multicultural west London suburb. It is also not set in a manicured baronial estate with deer roaming free, it’s by a railway tucked away in the back streets. It’s not even a medieval castle, it’s a Victorian water tower. So what’s going on here? Well the accepted story goes that a boring old regular water tower was built in the 1800’s to provide water to the steam engines as they stopped in the nearby railway sidings. One day Queen Victoria was passing through on the train on her way to Windsor castle, saw the water tower and found the building to be ‘obscene’ and strongly suggested that it be disguised as a castle, (who hasn’t done that though eh?) What the Queen wants she gets, so in approximately 1895, this appeared. Don’t know if that’s true or not, Queen Victoria has yet to reply to the texts I’ve been sending her, will try faxing. Since the demise of steam trains, the castle/water tower fell into disrepair until a property developer bought it in the late 1970s and built flats inside. Good work all round I say, boring water tower to castle in the suburbs and you can actually live in it, brilliant! If I lived there I think I’d buy a falcon and parade down the local streets with it wearing a purple cape, tunic and leggings, but that’s just me. #hiddenlondon #london #southall #victorianarchitecture #victorianhistory #architecturephotography #architecture #castle #castlephotography #tfl #londontransport #londonhistory #steamtrains #1900s #architectural #brickbuilding #ealing #westlondon #architectureporn #canon6dmarkii #canonphotography #merryoldengland #britishhistory