Hounslow Heath

A survey of 1546 gave the heath as 4,293 acres (1,737 ha), 6.71 square miles; 82 hectares survive as the nature reserve. Staines Road, its northern boundary, follows the Roman road, and there are several historic references to Roman camps on or near the heath. Oliver Cromwell stationed an army here at the end of the Civil War in 1647, and James II camped his army here and staged mock battles intended to intimidate London. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the heath was known for highwaymen. Hounslow Barracks was built north of Staines Road in 1793 against a possible French invasion, and ten of its buildings carry separate Grade II entries: the Barrack Master's House, NHLE 1375623; the former Hospital, NHLE 1375624; the former Married Quarters, NHLE 1375625; the Hardinge Block, NHLE 1375626; the Medical Centre, NHLE 1375627; the NAAFI, NHLE 1375628; the Keep or Armoury, NHLE 1240633; the former chapel, NHLE 1240631; the former Officers' Mess and Quarters, NHLE 1240579; and the former coach houses to the stable ranges, NHLE 1260922. The barracks are a working Army site and not a place a visitor enters. Hounslow West Underground station is 1,315 m from the reserve on the Piccadilly line, Hounslow station 1,368 m on South Western Railway and Hounslow Central 1,488 m on the Piccadilly line.