Uxbridge
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Uxbridge is a place in the London Borough of Hillingdon in West London, England. It is a suburban development situated 15 miles (24 km) west north-west of Charing Cross and near to the boundary with Buckinghamshire which is locally the River Colne.
The name is derived from "Wuxen Bridge" which was likely to have been near the bottom of Oxford Road where the "Swan and Bottle" now stands. The Wuxen were a 7th-century Saxon tribe.
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[edit] Modern Uxbridge
The town centre today comprises retail outlets and major office buildings, including the main European offices of several international companies including PAREXEL International, Xerox, Arri, APL, Herbalife Europe Ltd and the Anadarko Algeria Oil Company. Other employers include Apple, Parexel International Ltd, Unisys, F. Hinds, The Coca-Cola Company, WMS Gaming, Manpower, Heinz, AIB and General Mills.
The population in Uxbridge in 2001 is 62,000 people.
[edit] RAF Station
- See main article: RAF Uxbridge
Uxbridge also has its own Royal Air Force station, known as RAF Uxbridge, that is most famous for being the Headquarters of 11 Group (Fighter command) during the Battle of Britain. A replica Spitfire can be seen on display at the front entrance to the base.
[edit] History
Archaeologists found Bronze age remains (before 700 BC) and medieval remains when the new shopping mall The Chimes was being built. Two miles away at Denham, Upper Paleolithic remains have been found.
Uxbridge is not mentioned in the Domesday Book of the 11th century, but a hundred years later the existing church, St Margaret's, was built. The pub presently called "The Queens Head" has a sign depicting Anne Boleyn, wife of Henry VIII. The pub was previously called "The Axe" and possibly dates from the 1540s. A tunnel connects the pub to the church. At the bottom of Windsor Street there is a cemetery with an archway. It was here on Lynch Green that three heretics were burned to death in 1555. Foxe's Book of Martyrs gives the names as John Denley, Robert Smith and Patrick Packingham, but other sources call the last one Patrick Rockingham. He was found guilty of denying the trinity.
Under Elizabeth I, Roman Catholics were subject to severe constraints. Edmund Campion was a Catholic priest, trained in Douai in the Netherlands, to give covert support to Catholics. He travelled around England on horseback, giving sermons in secret and pretending to be a diamond merchant. In 1580 he came to Uxbridge and hid for a couple of weeks, in a house owned by William Catesby. In 1581 Campion was caught. He was hanged, drawn and quartered in London. The 40 or so Catholics who died in this period are called the "Douai martyrs" which is also the name of the local Catholic secondary school, in Ickenham.
In 1605 the Gunpowder Plot was uncovered. The flamboyant six-foot leader, Robert Catesby (son of William), escaped and hid in his house in Uxbridge. He was later shot. There were negotiations between Charles I and the Parliamentary side in Uxbridge, January 30 to February 22, 1645, commemorated in the name of a local pub and restaurant, the Crown and Treaty. This latter is on the A4020 Oxford Road where it leaves the town, at the canal overbridge.
The covered market was built in 1788, but the previous building was about twice as big, creating big problems for traffic. In the early 19th century, Uxbridge had an unsavoury reputation. The jurist William Arabin said of it residents "They will steal the very teeth out of your mouth as you walk through the streets. I know it from experience."
Uxbridge originally formed a chapelry within the parish of Hillingdon. It was split out as a separate civil parish in 1866, and became part of the Uxbridge Urban District in 1894 under the Local Government Act 1894. Click here to visit the Uxbridge Parish website.
In the 1930s George Orwell was a teacher at Frays College (Harefield Road) which later became Frays Adult Education Centre, but has since been demolished. His novel A Clergyman's Daughter was based on his experiences there.
For about 200 years most of London's flour was produced in the Uxbridge area. There were also breweries, THe last Brewery was called Harman's and was based in the High Street and extended up George Street. It was still in operation up until the early sixties. Near here Ellen Terry the Shakespearean actress spent her final years, as a pub landlady.
[edit] Transport
Uxbridge station, fronted by a pedestrian high street is served by the Metropolitan and Piccadilly underground lines.
The station is connected to a bus terminus with connections to Hillingdon, Hayes, Ealing, Ruislip, and Slough.
If approved and funded, it is planned that by 2013, the West London Tram Service will be completed providing a faster link into central London. The 427, 207, and 607 bus services would be replaced by the tram, which would run every 10-15 minutes along the 12-mile track on the Uxbridge Road from Uxbridge to Shepherd's Bush. The tram would connect into the Westfield London development in White City, planned to open in 2008. However, there is considerable opposition to the tram due to cost and the business model which shows a requirement of substantial funding to make the model work. Whilst the Mayor of London and TfL are in favour, the boroughs through which it would run (Hammersmith and Fulham, Ealing and Hillingdon) are all opposed to the proposal.
There were once three railway stations - Uxbridge Vine Street (originally just Uxbridge Station), Uxbridge High Street, and Uxbridge Belmont Road. All three have now closed, replaced by the underground and bus services.
The former Grand Junction Canal, now Grand Union Canal, which connects London with Birmingham, passes immediately to the west of Uxbridge, and forms the borough boundary. The first stretch was built in the late eighteenth century from Brentford to Uxbridge. Further upstream is Uxbridge Lock, and nearby is a flourmill belonging to Allied Mills. A Mister King, who called it “Kingsmill”, bought this in the nineteenth century. This brand name is one of the best-selling bread-makers in the UK, though most of the milling is now done on Tyneside.
[edit] Shopping
Much of the town centre is pedestrianised, and popular for shopping in West London. There is a current local debate about further pedestrianisation, which some local traders oppose. Uxbridge boasts two shopping centres, The Pavilions and The Chimes. Both contain a variety of shops, such as GAP, Next, BHS, TopShop and many more. The Chimes also is home to the 12 Screen Uxbridge Odeon. In addition, just off the High Street is Windsor Street, a short road still populated by old, traditional, independent shops. The Art Deco-style department store, Randall's, is owned by the family of the Conservative MP for Uxbridge, John Randall, who was elected in a 1997 by-election when the sitting MP, Sir Michael Shersby, died shortly after the 1997 general election. John Randall is a strong supporter of independent shop-keepers.
[edit] Nearest places
[edit] References
| Section 11: | London Outer Orbital Path | Section 12: |
|---|---|---|
| Hayes | Uxbridge | Harefield |
