Ivybridge (Isleworth)

Ivybridge, formerly Mogden, is a locality in the southern part of Isleworth in west London. Formerly agricultural, it was the site of Mogden Isolation Hospital, later South Middlesex Hospital, from 1897 to 1991, and since 1936 has been the location of Mogden Sewage Treatment Works.

The area is usually now called Ivybridge rather than Mogden. The Ivybridge estate is a council development with four tower blocks, with one of the highest levels of poverty in the Borough of Hounslow; many refugees have been placed there.

The area was formerly agricultural. In the early 19th century, Michael Keens developed two commercially important varieties of strawberry, Keens' Imperial and Keens' Seedling, on Worton Lane. In the 1890s, George Tebbutt was growing prize-winning damsons and lilies at Mogden House. The 18th-century house survives in Bankside Close.

The Duke of Northumberland's River flows through Ivybridge and was diverted to provide coolant for the sewage treatment plant. It is aboveground except for a small section near the main works buildings. The public footpath alongside it forms part of the Crane Walk.

Mogden Isolation Hospital opened in July 1891 as a hospital for infectious diseases. In 1939 it became South Middlesex EMS Hospital and in 1948, under the National Health Service, South Middlesex Hospital. During the Second World War it served many gynaecological surgery patients; from 1955 it housed the regional eye unit; by 1983 it was primarily a psychogeriatric facility. It closed in 1991. The site, on the south side of Mogden Lane near its junction with Whitton Dene, was sold and is now occupied by housing, a supermarket and a filling station.

Mogden Sewage Treatment Works was built in 1931–36 on the site of Mogden Farm, and treats sewage from much of north and west London. It has been expanded and upgraded several times and now covers 55 hectares (140 acres). Complaints about odours from the works led the Borough of Hounslow to serve an odour abatement notice on the operator, Thames Water, in 2001, and in 2011 a group of residents of the area won damages in court for contravention of their human rights by inadequate odour control.

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