Yeading Brook - Ruislip Gardens Station

Yeading Brook
Yeading Brook flows south westwards

Post to the north Ruislip Gardens


Bridgewater Road
Bridgewater Road Open Space

Northolt Aerodrome
Military airfield, one of the earliest, dating from 1915 but flight sheds and a twin hangar from that era no longer remain. Between 1925-30 an 'A' type hangar barrack blocks and messes were built plus, in 1939, a 'C' type hipped hangar and five 'H' type barrack blocks. During the Battle of Britain in 1940, it was a Sector Airfield and buildings were camouflaged as houses with gardens. Fourteen blister hangars were built in 1943 and runways were improved between. Polish squadrons were here 1940-4. Post-War development has included a new control tower and sergeants mess facilities. This square covers the north eastern area around the entrance gate and includes many of the sites buildings.
White House. Entrance block and buildings to the RAF base.
Hawker Hurricane, replica, gate guardian near the eastern station entrance installed 2010, commemorating the aircrew based at Northolt who had fought in the Battle of Britain.
Northolt Jet Centre is an extension of London City Airport Jet Centre and is used by corporate aircraft, and helicopters
St. John Ambulance service new premises
Police dog section, with kennels and a quarantine building, opened in February 2012
Bright Horizons Day Care Nursery
C-type hangar, former Squad hangar used throughout the Second World War to house Churchill’s personal aircraft in which he flew to meet Allied leaders.
Squadron Watch office which was  also the Aircraft Readiness room during the Second World War and was the building from which RAF Northolt’s pilots were scrambled.
Operations Block which was the prototype of the ‘Dowding System,’ a method of communication allowing the command chain to communicate to intercept enemy aircraft, the first such system in the world.
Statue, Letter from Home, of a First World War soldier reading a letter was moved here from Inglis Barracks in 2007. It is a replica of the statue at Paddington Station and was first unveiled in 1982
New Buildings for the British Forces Post Office and Defence Courier Service from Mill Hill, opened in 2007
Hangar facilities for the use of No. 32 Squadron and staff housing opened 2007
Officers' Mess, built in 1920s, refurbished 2007
Supermarine Spitfire. Replica, gate guardian to the passenger terminal,

Portal Close
RAF Housing in road named after Lord Portal, Commander in Chief, Bomber Command, 1940

Trenchard Avenue
RAF Housing in road named after Air Chief Marshall Trenchard.

West End Road
Ruislip Gardens Station. Between West Ruislip and South Ruislip on the Central Line.  The station is run by London Underground station and is on the Central line.  The original station was opened as a halt in 1934 on the Great Western Railway and Great Central Railway and stood adjacent to the site of the current station and had ‘pagoda building’. It was then on the line from Marylebone/Paddington to West Wycombe and ultimately Birmingham.  This closed in 1958.  The Central Line came as part of the 1935-40 New Works Programme, where services were continued west from a junction west of North Acton. It was intended to extend the service to Denham, but it was not until after the Second World War that work was continued and then only to West Ruislip, services starting in 1948.  Until recently the entrance to a passenger stairwell could be seen on the London-bound side of the Chiltern tracks.
Yeading Brook passes beneath the tube lines. The bridge was once called White Butts Bridge.
306 plaque on the house with date of 1875 and 'CHM' for Charles Henry Mills. Mills was the local landowner who owned Hundred Acres Farm, of which this is the remaining farm cottage
Odyssey Business Park. Site of British Airways offices, sold to private sector and subsequently refurbished

Sources
Connor. Forgotten Stations
Day. London Underground
London Transport Country Walks
Pastscape. Web site
Norris & Hayward. A short history of RAF Northolt.
RAF Northolt. Web site
Ruislip, Northwood and Eastcote LHS. Highways and Byways

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