Southall

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Southall

Coordinates: 51.5121° N 0.3779° W
OS grid reference	TQ125805
London borough	Ealing
Ceremonial county	Greater London
Region	London
Constituent country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	SOUTHALL
Postcode district	UB1, UB2
Dial code	020
Police	Metropolitan
Fire	London
Ambulance	London
UK Parliament	Ealing Southall
London Assembly	Ealing and Hillingdon
European Parliament	London
List of places: UK • England • London

Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha, Southall, UK.

Southall Broadway, November 2005

Glassy Junction pub, November 2005

For people named Southall, see Southall (surname)

Southall (Middlesex) is a London suburb in the London Borough of Ealing. It is situated 10.7 miles (17.2 km) west of Charing Cross. The name Southall (Southolt) means "southern wood" and separates it from Northolt.

Southall is located on the historic Grand Union Canal (formerly the Grand Junction Canal) which first linked London with the rest of the growing canal system. It was one of the last canals to carry significant commercial traffic (through the 1950s), and is still open to traffic and is used by pleasure craft.

1 History
2 Culture
3 Transport
4 Nearby places
5 Residents or Former Residents
6 Related pages
7 Further reading
8 External links

[edit] History

The opening of the canal in 1796 began a commercial boom, intensified by the arrival of the Great Western Railway in 1839, leading to the establishment and growth of brick factories, flour mills and chemical plants which formed the town's commercial base. In 1877, the Martin Brothers set up a ceramics factory in an old soap works next to the canal, and until 1923 produced distinctive ceramics now known and collected as Martinware.

A collection of Martinware - salt-glazed stoneware, grotesque faces, and birds - is on display at Southall Library. The largest collection, however, can be seen at Pitshanger Manor in nearby Ealing and Southall Library.

Southall was also the home of one of the earliest British film studios, Southall Film Studios which played a historic role in film-making from its creation in 1924 to its closure in 1959.

There has been locomotive works at the Southall Depot for near 150 years. Originally a Great Western Railway shed, it was possibly the last London steam depot outlasting Old Oak Common and Stewarts Lane depots. The depot was later used for DMU maintenance and as a base for the electrification program. Currently the site is used by three groups including Locomotive Services (where volunteers can contribute to the preservation and restoration of mainline locomotives), and the Great Western Railway Preservation Group.

[edit] Culture

Southall is primarily an Asian residential district. According to Commission for Racial Equality over 55% of Southall's population of 70,000 is Indian/Pakistani.^[1] One of the Sikh Gurdwaras in Southall won the Ealing Civic Society Architectural Award in 2003. The Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha, which opened in 2003, is the largest Sikh temple outside of India. There are two Christian churches (one Protestant and the other Catholic) and there are three mosques{fact}. The main street in Southall is called The Broadway. Southall contains the largest Asian shopping centre in the London area. Southall was the main location for the film Bend It Like Beckham. Southall is also the location of the Glassy Junction, which serves several Indian draught beers and was the first pub in the UK to accept payment in Indian rupees. Also the film GOAL starring John Abraham and Bipasha Basu was filmed in Glassy junction and outside icelands :D

There are also many housing estates situated in Southall these include: Convent Way (UB2) Havelock Estate (UB2) Willowtree (UB4) Windmill Estate,(UB2) Toplocks Estate (UB2) Lancaster Estate (UB1)

Southall is located within the parliamentary constituency of Ealing Southall and has been represented in the House of Commons since 1992 by Mr Piara Singh Khabra MP.

Richard Barnes was elected in June 2004 to the London Assembly to represent the constituency of Ealing and Hillingdon, within which Southall is located.