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Coordinates: 51°31′55″N 0°16′40″W / 51.5319°N 0.2778°W / 51.5319; -0.2778

Park Royal
Park Royal  Park Royal shown within Greater London
OS grid reference	TQ195828
London borough	Brent
	Ealing
Ceremonial county	Greater London
Region	London
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	LONDON
Postcode district	NW10
Postcode district	W3, W5
Dialling code	020
Police	Metropolitan
Fire	London
Ambulance	London
EU Parliament	London
UK Parliament	Brent South
London Assembly	Brent and Harrow
	Ealing and Hillingdon
List of places: UK • England • London

Park Royal is a suburb in North-West London, UK. It is the largest industrial and business park in London, occupying 1,606 acres (650 ha), and is promoted commercially by the Park Royal Partnership (PRP).

[edit] Location

Approximately 50% of the estate is in Ealing, 40% is in Brent, and 10% is in Hammersmith and Fulham. It contains over 1,200 businesses, employing an estimated 35,000 workers.^[1]

Map of Park Royal (OpenStreetMap)

Park Royal also has the Asda supermarket, the Central Middlesex Hospital, and the Brent Recycling Centre. Buses run into the estate and serve the Hospital and Asda (routes 187, 224, 226, 228, 260, 440, 487 and PR2)

On the northern side is the Network Rail depot at Stonebridge Park, which also has London Underground Bakerloo Line tracks running through it (and Harlesden station nearby). On the eastern side, Park Royal is bound by Acton Lane and Park Royal Road (B4492). The Central Middlesex Hospital is located here. On the southern side is the arterial Western Avenue (A40), which leads to the Hanger Lane Gyratory System. Park Royal Underground station, on the Piccadilly Line is located just off Western Avenue. To the west of Park Royal is the North Circular Road (A406).

As well as many small industrial firms, Park Royal is home to some large company buildings, including McVities^[2] and Heinz. The old Guinness brewery and sports ground site at the south-western extremity of the district has now been totally demolished. The first building erected adjacent to the new roundabout and bridge link to Western Avenue is occupied by international drinks company Diageo, owners of the Guinness brand and the redevelopment site [1]. The Female Health Company which manufactures Femidoms has its worldwide manufacturing plant here too.^[3]

The Grand Union Canal runs through the middle of the Park Royal industrial estate, with pedestrian access via the towpath.

[edit] History

The name Park Royal derives from the short-lived showgrounds opened in 1903 by the Royal Agricultural Society as a permanent exhibition site for the society's annual show. After only three years the society sold the site, and returned to a touring format for its shows. With its road, rail and canal links, Park Royal was subsequently developed for industrial use, mainly during the 1930s.

The Guinness Brewery Park Royal during demolition, at its peak the largest and most productive brewery in the world

For many years it was a centre of engineering, with firms including Park Royal Vehicles, GKN and Landis and Gyr. A summary of industrial development up to 1980 is given in.^[4]

Queens Park Rangers F.C. played on two grounds within Park Royal. The first was the Horse Ring, later the site of the Guinness brewery, which had a capacity of 40,000. When the Royal Agricultural Society sold the grounds in 1907, QPR moved to the Park Royal Ground, 400 yards (370 m) south, an almost exact replica of Ayresome Park, with a capacity of 60,000. The club were forced to move out in February 1915 as the ground was taken over by the Army.^[5]

In recent years, Park Royal has been a site for illegal squat parties, due to the presence of disused industrial buildings and remoteness from domestic housing.

[edit] Development

It is public policy to maintain Park Royal as an industrial area. It is designated as an Opportunity Area, and in 2008 the Mayor of London's office published a draft Planning Framework which aspires to maintain, "growing economic clusters of food/drink, transport/logistics and television/film."^[6] The framework does not preclude use of parts of the site for housing.

[edit] Transport

Numerous bus routes pass through the area, although most are not frequent.

London Underground stations are at Park Royal and Alperton for the Piccadilly line, and at North Acton and Hanger Lane for the Central line.

London Overground and Bakerloo line joint-line stations are at Willesden Junction, Harlesden and Stonebridge Park.

Despite these stations, public transport to central Park Royal locations has always been felt to be poor, and road congestion, particularly at peak hours, has become an unattractive feature of the estate. This has led to possible improvement schemes:

• A FastBus limited-stop bus service has been proposed for the area, promoted by the PRP, London Borough of Brent and the London Borough of Ealing. Some bus lanes have been added to one new road, to facilitate this. However, Transport for London has not yet accepted the FastBus proposal.

• A West London Orbital underground railway has been proposed by the 'West London Business' group.

• In 2004, the multinational Diageo company agreed to build extra Central Line platforms at Park Royal tube station, as part of its First Central business park, built on the site of the (now demolished) Guinness brewery. As of mid-2009, this had not yet happened.

Map of the NWLLR scheme, showing light railway through Park Royal

• In early 2008, the London Group of the Campaign for Better Transport published a plan^[7] for a light-rail service through the Park Royal site, connecting to Wembley, Ealing Broadway, West Hampstead and Finchley Central. This proposed North and West London Light railway line would mainly share existing freight railway lines, and then use old track beds through the Park Royal estate, if they could be reclaimed for transport use.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Park Royal Partnership
• February 2008 draft planning framework

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