Lot's Ait

Lot's Ait, covering {{convert|1.724|acre|1}},OS 25-inch map of 1910 Ordnance Survey London sheet LXXXIV revised 1891-94, published 1897. has a very narrow divide from larger, downstream Brentford 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 was once known as Barbel Island being a fruitful area for fishing. It contained a yard where barges were repaired until 1980, when it was sold. 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.{{cite web|title= News|url= http://www.brentford-dock.net/archive/2002-8.asp|work= Brentford Dock|publisher= Neil O'Dwyer|date= August 2002|accessdate= 2009-01-05|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080509165618/http://www.brentford-dock.net/archive/2002-8.asp|archive-date= 9 May 2008|url-status= dead}}
- {{cite web|url=http://list.english-heritage.org.uk/mapsearch.aspx|title=Map|publisher=English Heritage|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120424060625/http://list.english-heritage.org.uk/mapsearch.aspx |archivedate=2012-04-24 }}

In 2011, a lease on the island was granted to a local company, John's Boat Works, which commenced boat building works on the island for the first time in over 30 years and put it back into use.{{cite web|title= Blog|url=http://www.johnsboatworks.co.uk/blog/?p=19|publisher=John's Boat Works|date=September 2011|accessdate= 2012-01-10}} In January 2012, a new footbridge, Dahlia Bridge, was installed to link the island to the Brentford bank of the Thames at Smith Hill. It was designed by Beckett Rankine and built and installed by MSO Marine.{{cite web|title= Planning|url=http://democraticservices.hounslow.gov.uk/%28S%28czobl0450xbqi155ede3ifez%29%29/mgAi.aspx?ID=55275|work= Agenda Item|publisher= London Borough of Hounslow|date=September 2011|accessdate= 2012-01-10}}

• Film scenes in
• The African Queen
• Stratton
• Lots Ait boatworks featured in an episode of George Clarke's Amazing Spaces
• Site of the art performance "Offshore Rig" (1987) by Bow Gamelan Ensemble, which was the subject of an Alter Image (channel 4) documentary. {{cite web |title="Offshore Rig" Bow Gamelan |url=http://bowgamelan.com/bge-offshore-rig-1987.html}}

• Islands in the River Thames

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• {{cite book |title= The Thames Path: From the Sea to the Source|last= Hatts|first= Leigh|year= 2005|edition= 2nd|publisher= Cicerone Press|location= Milnthorpe|isbn= 978-1-85284-436-3|oclc= 276222230}}
• {{Cite web|url=http://www.pla.co.uk/pdfs/maritime/U10_2006_chartlet_Syon_and_Mortlakepdf.pdf |title=Syon and Mortlake Reaches: PLA 307 & 308 Main Surveys (Extract) |accessdate=2009-01-05 |publisher=Port of London |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720223108/http://www.pla.co.uk/pdfs/maritime/U10_2006_chartlet_Syon_and_Mortlakepdf.pdf |archivedate=2011-07-20 }}
• {{cite book |title= A History of the County of Middlesex|volume=7: Acton, Chiswick, Ealing and Brentford, West Twyford, Willesden |editor-last=Baker |editor-first=T F T |editor2=Elrington, C R |author=Bolton, Diane K |author2=Croot, Patricia E C |author3=Hicks, M A |year= 1982|publisher= Oxford University Press for the University of London, Institute of Historical Research|location= Oxford|oclc= 59178433|chapter= Chiswick: Introduction|pages= 50–51|url= http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=22557|accessdate= 2009-01-05}}

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{{river item box

|upstream=Isleworth Ait

|downstream=Brentford Ait

}}

{{coord|51|29|05|N|00|17|54|W|region:GB-HNS_type:isle_scale:25000|display=title}}

• [http://lotsait.com/index.html Lot's Ait.com] official site

{{Commons cat|Lots Ait}}

Category:Geography of the London Borough of Hounslow

Category:Islands of the River Thames

Category:Islands of London