It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the Thames, 8 miles (13 km) west of Charing Cross.

A 19th and 20th centuries mixed social and private housing locality: New Brentford is contiguous with the Osterley neighbourhood of Isleworth and Syon Park and the Great West Road which has most of the largest business premises.

[2]: 10 The name of the river derives from *brigant-, a Brythonic word, meaning "high" or "elevated" (possibly in a holy sense).

One well known Iron Age piece from about 100 BC – AD 50 is the Brentford horn-cap[4] – a ceremonial chariot fitting that formed part of local antiquarian Thomas Layton's collection,[5] now held by the Museum of London.

An amateur local history and an inscription outside the County Court claim that Julius Cæsar crossed the Thames here during his invasion of Britain in 54 BC, and fought a battle with Cassivellaunus close by.

In November 1642 a Royalist army advancing on London overcame a much smaller Parliamentarian force in battle at Brentford.

New Brentford was first described as the county town of Middlesex in 1789, on the basis that it was the location of elections of knights for the shire (or Members of Parliament (MPs)) from 1701.

[19] In 1795 New Brentford (as it was then) was "considered as the county-town; but there is no town-hall or other public building" causing confusion that remains to this day (see county town of Middlesex).

In 1909 a monument was made out of two stone pillars that used to support lamps on the old Brentford bridge over the Grand Union Canal.

In 1992 it was moved again to its present site at the junction of Brentford High Street and Alexandra Road, outside the County Court.

[27] Brentford's other Anglican parish church, Saint Faith's, is a comparatively recent building, dating from 1906 to 1907.

It rises like a great ship over the housetops and inside the view from the west end leads you naturally to the altar and up to the roof.

[31] St John the Evangelist Church, opened in 1866, was built for Irish railway construction workers, by an architect named Jackman.

An unconsecrated chapel was built from subscriptions raised from 57 prominent inhabitants on the site in 1762; previously the parish was part of Ealing.

The Weir public house, formerly 'The White Horse', was where the artist J. M. W. Turner lived for one year at the age of ten.

Brentford Dock came to single use and engineered enlargement as a freight terminus of the Great Western Railway.

[16] A spur line from the GWR at Southall was constructed to the Brentford Dock railway station to facilitate easy transferral of freight from lighters and barges on the Thames to GWR-served destinations in the west of the country.

[37] Brentford Baths (1896), also by the architect Nowell Parr, is a Grade II listed example of late Victorian architecture.

The London Museum of Water & Steam houses the world's largest working beam engine, and its narrow cuboid tower is an emblem of the town.

The Butts Estate, a Georgian square and associated conservation area, contains several Grade II listed buildings some dating back to 1680.

From 2002 until September 2005, it was the home of the London Broncos rugby league club – subsequently they were renamed Harlequins RL and transferred to The Stoop).

It appears in: Brentford's industrial status and the Great West Road are notable facets of Aldous Huxley's 1932 novel Brave New World.

[44] The Brentford Trilogy, a (ten-book) series of "far-fetched fiction" novels by Robert Rankin, humorously chronicle the lives of a couple of drunken middle-aged layabouts, Jim Pooley and John Omally, who confront the forces of darkness in the environs of western Greater London, usually with the assistance of large quantities of beer from their favourite public house, The Flying Swan.