"Asylum Dock"

The building on the right, now St Bernard's Hospital, was originally known as Hanwell Pauper and Lunatic Asylum, back in the early 19th century.  Barges delivered coal for the asylum through a gate which is now bricked up.

The man in the red is a postman who delivers the mail to the barges which are permanently docked on the canal.  At one stage he crossed the canal using the narrow lock gates to deliver the post to an old lock keeper's cottage on the far side.