Lot's Ait

It was for centuries used for growing of grass and osiers: basket willows, used for basketry, furniture, and cart-making, as well as cattle fodder.

It acquired a wild character with naturalised willows, rotting boats and rusting dock roofs and became a haven for wildlife.

In 2002, the island was offered for sale with outline planning permission for a restaurant, a leisure facility and boat storage.

It is accessible by footbridge, at low tide in sturdy boots across the thick, shifting mud bed of the channel against the Brentford shore, and by water from the slipway Goats Wharf off Brentford High Street.

[3] In January 2012, a new footbridge, Dahlia Bridge, was installed to link the island to the Brentford bank of the Thames at Smith Hill.