Editing Southall (section)

===19th century===
The opening of the [[Grand Junction Canal]] (later renamed [[Grand Union Canal]]) as the major freight transport route between London and [[Birmingham]] in 1796 began a commercial boom, intensified by the arrival of [[Isambard Kingdom Brunel|Brunel]]'s [[Great Western Railway]] in 1839, leading to the establishment and growth of brick factories, flour mills and chemical plants which formed the town's commercial base. In 1877, the [[Martin Brothers]] set up a [[ceramic]]s factory in an old soap works next to the canal and until 1923, produced distinctive ceramics now known and collected as Martinware.

A branch railway line from [[Southall railway station]] to the [[Brentford Dock]] on the [[Thames]] was also built by [[Isambard Kingdom Brunel]] in 1856. It features one of his (impressive for the period) engineering works, the [[Three Bridges, London|Three Bridges]] (although it is still often referred to on maps by the original canal crossing name of Windmill Bridge). where Windmill Lane, the railway and the [[Grand Union Canal]] all intersect – the canal being carried over the railway line cutting below in a cast-iron trough and a new cast-iron road-bridge going over both. Brunel died shortly after its completion. Sections of his bell-section rail can still be seen on the southern side being used as both fencing posts and a rope rail directly under the road bridge itself. It is listed as a [[Scheduled Ancient Monument]]. The other notable local construction by Brunel is the [[Wharncliffe Viaduct]] which carries the Great Western Railway across the [[River Brent]] towards London and which was Brunel's first major structural design.

[[Otto Monsted]], a Danish margarine manufacturer, built a large factory at Southall in 1894. The factory was called the Maypole Dairy, and eventually grew to become one of the largest [[margarine]] manufacturing plants in the world, occupying a {{cvt|28|ha|acre|abbr=off}} site at its peak. The factory also had its own railway sidings and branch canal. The Maypole Dairy Company site was later acquired by [[Lever Brothers]] who, as part of the multinational [[Unilever]] company, converted the site to a Wall's Sausages factory which produced sausages and other meat products through until the late 1980s.