A tube station, a Jacobean mansion and their immediate vicinity, located on the Hanwell/Brentford border. This was Bordeston in 1377, so the name has nothing to do with any other Boston and is probably related to a Saxon farmer named Bord. Boston Manor was built in 1623 for Lady Mary Reade in preparation for her marriage to Sir Edward Spencer of Althorp. Merchant banker James Clitherow bought the house in 1670 and immediately set about enlarging it and adding some limited ornamentation. Another James Clitherow and his wife Jane entertained William IV and Queen Adelaide to dinner here in 1834. From the mid-nineteenth century houses began to line Boston Road as Hanwell stretched out its tentacles following the arrival of the Great Western Railway. The Midland District Railway skirted the northern edge of the mansion’s grounds in 1880 and Boston Road station was built, opening up the southern part of Hanwell to suburban development. The station was renamed Boston Manor in 1911. The Clitherow family remained at Boston Manor until 1923, when most of the grounds were sold for housebuilding and the council bought the house. Although its exterior is dour some of the rooms and furnishings are splendid, especially the elaborate state drawing room on the first floor. The walls are hung with paintings from Hounslow’s borough art collection. Opening hours are limited but admission is free.