Where the canal meets the river
Brentford Lock sits beside the High Street, where the Grand Union Canal, running here in the channel of the River Brent, drops down through its locks on the last stretch before the Thames. It is a good place to start for two reasons. There are hotels and a station close by, and it puts the whole of the most interesting part of Brentford at your back before you have taken a step.
Before heading west, it is worth doubling back for a short detour. A narrow path runs south beside the moored houseboats towards Thames Lock, where the canal finally meets the tidal river. The view there is across the Thames to the trees of Kew Gardens on the far bank, and at high tide it is a surprisingly wild bit of water to find a few hundred yards from a High Street. Come back up the same way to the road bridge by the lock.
The part of the path that leaves the water
West of Brentford the river frontage is private, the Thames Path National Trail turns inland, and for a stretch the route follows the London Road. It is not pretty and it does not need to be for long. A few minutes along, the path turns off the road into Syon Park, the estate of the Dukes of Northumberland, on a combined foot and cycle path.
This is the best part of the walk and the part most people do not expect. The path runs past the car park, the gardens and the front of Syon House, the family's London home, which stands on the site of a medieval abbey and was remodelled in the eighteenth century by Robert Adam. For a few minutes you are walking through parkland where the London Road traffic you left behind seems miles off. Then a long brick wall leads you on towards Isleworth.
Treat this as a daylight walk. The estate is private land with a route through it, not a public park open all night, and once the light has gone the sensible way between Brentford and Isleworth is the pavement.
Arriving in Old Isleworth
The path comes out through the gates onto Park Road, a short walk from Church Street, and suddenly you are in Old Isleworth: a riverside village of old houses, a church and a pub, that has somehow survived the whole twentieth century with its character intact.
The church is All Saints, whose medieval ragstone tower is the only part of the old building to survive a fire in 1943. The body of the church was rebuilt inside the old walls around 1970 in a modern style that people either love or are puzzled by, and the churchyard runs down towards the water. Opposite, in the middle of the river, lies Isleworth Ait, a long wooded island kept for wildlife and closed to visitors, which is at its best seen across a full tide.
The London Apprentice, where the evening can begin
Beside the church, at 62 Church Street, stands the London Apprentice, a Grade II* listed riverside inn rebuilt during the early 1700s on older foundations. It has a big terrace over the river, and upstairs a room whose windows look straight across the water to the Ait.
It is the obvious place to end the walk and begin the evening. Arrive towards the end of the afternoon, sit outside if it is dry, and watch the river do whatever the tide has decided it should do. The Thames here is tidal and its level swings by several metres between low and high water, twice daily, and on the biggest tides the water comes up over the riverside road in front of the pub. A pair of shoes that can cope with a wet pavement is not a bad idea.
If the London Apprentice is full, Town Wharf, at the bottom of Swan Street a minute away, has a terrace hanging over the same water. Between the two, an early evening in Old Isleworth rarely goes wrong.
Timing it, and getting back
Without the detour to Thames Lock, the walk from Brentford Lock to Isleworth takes about half an hour at an easy pace. With the detour it is nearer an hour. Start early enough to cross Syon Park in good light, which in midsummer means any time before the evening is well advanced and in spring and autumn means leaving by mid afternoon.
From Old Isleworth, Isleworth station on the line to Waterloo is a walk of about a quarter of an hour, and taxis will come down Church Street. Guests staying back in Brentford can simply retrace the walk along the road, or take a car for the few minutes it takes. Anybody heading on for dinner in Twickenham will find it a short drive south, or read the guide to Church Street in Twickenham for the evening that follows.
When two of you are walking it together
A long walk and a riverside table suit a particular kind of booking: an evening arranged by a couple, where two people who are already together would like a third at the table. It works like every other booking here, a companion, a set number of hours and a figure from the ladder, with time and companionship as the whole of it. The only difference is that Iris hears from both of you before anything is confirmed.
Four hours at £900 fits the walk, a drink at the London Apprentice and a long dinner without anybody checking a watch. Three hours at £700 is enough for the walk and one good table. Her fee is passed to her in person at the meeting point, before the three of you set off.
Cindy is anchored in Isleworth, prefers daylight starts and the river, and reads every plaque she passes, which on this walk will keep her busy. Nora, also in Isleworth, walks everywhere and takes Swan Street slowly every single time. Danielle, from the Brentford end, is on the curvaceous page and is the steady, attentive one in any group, which makes her an easy third at a couple's table.
Filed under: most of the names in this note also sit on the late twenties shortlist in the panel.