Wealdstone Brook - Wembley Park & GEC works

Wealdstone Brook
Wealdstone Brook flows south eastwards

Post to the north Preston


Post to the south Wembley Central 

Ashley Gardens
Pavilion Building.  Pavilion for Unigate Sports Ground until the late 1960s when it became Balnacraig Special School, moved here from Balnacraig Road in the early 1970s, for Brent Council and has been in educational use ever since.
Ashley Gardens Early Learning Centre. Currently in use as a temporary school to make up for shortfall of places,
Brent Adult and Community Education Service Centre.

Carlton Avenue East
Preston Library. Brent’s smallest library, now closed.
North Wembley Telephone Exchange
Preston Manor Primary School. Built 2011 by HLM Architects
St Erkonwald’s Roman Catholic Church.  The parish dates from 1932 and was called Wembley Park. The diocese bought land which had been part of South Forty Farm in 1929. The current church was opened in 1970. St Erconwald was Bishop of London in 675-686 and was then appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
St.Erconwald's Social Club
Wembley Christian Centre. This was set up in 1992 as a satellite church of Kensington Temple and is an Elim Pentecostal Church. The building was however registered as a mission church in 1952.

Castleton Gardens
Buxlow ‘Preparatory’ School. This school was set up by a Mrs Probyn who was born at Buxlow in Buckinghamshire. The school moved here in 1929 and was run by Mrs Probyn and her husband

East Lane
Willow Lane Nursery and Pre School Centre
Century Bowls and Sports Club
GEC Hirst Electrical Research Laboratory. This was one of the earliest industrial research laboratories in Britain. It was named after Hugo Hirst one of the founders of the precursor of GEC. The centre produced the cavity magnetron in the Second World War and also developed radar and was played important part in seeing up the national grid. . There was a landmarkj radio mast at the rear of the building. In the 1990s the centre moved to Borehamwood and the site was demolished.
GEC Medical was behind the Hirst Research Centre. It was formed from a merger of Watson & Son (X-Ray) Ltd. in 1954 with A. E. Dean and Co. of Croydon. Watson had originally made optical instruments, and in the late 19th century moved into X-Ray equipment which became their main business. They also carried out a service function of their equipment and held about 40% of the UK market. They also worked in Magnetic Resonance Imaging buying out EMI who had developed it.  They became part of the US Picker International who closed the lab in 1990
East Lane Business Park. On the site of the GEC laboratories.
Wembley Manor Primary School. This school opened in 1952 and closed on this site in 2006.
Wembley Park United Reform Church. This was opened in 1930 as the “North Wembley Free Church (Congregational)” but a year later it was felt the name would be discourteous to the Methodists so it became the Wembley Park Free Church”. The Kingsland Hall was opened in 1958. In 1972 it became part of the United Reformed Church.

Forty Farm Sports
Forty Farm. In the 19th this was famous for its horses
Holland and Holland Shooting ground which was built over after 1931. It became two sports fields.

Forty Avenue
Forty Green. This was an area of a small community at Forty Bridge. This was called Uxendon Forty, Wembley Forty or Preston Forty.
Forty Green Farm, also known as Pargrave's, or later South Forty Farm. In 1928 the farm became the headquarters of the Century Sports Ground.
Forty Bridge. Where the Sudbury to Kingsbury road crossed the Lidding – the Wealdstone Brook
Wembley Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue. The congregation dates back to the late 1950s when services were held in a local church hall and then a scout hut. They bought two houses in Oakington Avenue and another at the rear and then more in Forty Lane. A home for the elderly was also set up. The present Synagogue and the Edinburgh House were then built.
Preston Manor High School. This was founded in 1938 as Preston Manor County Grammar School. As a comprehensive school it became a Technology college in 1993 and a specialist Science College in 2002
Century Hotel. There are now flats on the site of the hotel.
Wembley United Synagogue is a member of the largest religious grouping within the British Jewish and takes its religious authority from the Chief Rabbi. The facilities include a hall, a kitchen and facilities for all ages. By 1928 there were Jewish families living in Wembley and the Wembley Hebrew Congregation was set up in 1928. A Ladies' Guild was formed in 1930 and the Congregation affiliated to the United Synagogue in 1931. At first the services were held in various halls, a Restaurant and a Ballroom. In 1934 the first temporary synagogue was founded and in 1939 12 Forty Avenue, was purchased and in 1949 no 10 and building began in 1956

Pellatt Road
Pellat Road Sports Ground. This was the old GEC sports ground. It has been renovated and is now run as a youth facility by AFC Wembley.

Preston Road
The Preston. Pub and restaurant
Harrow Golf Club. This was founded in 1892 a minute away from Preston Station. It disappeared in the early 1930s

The Avenue
Lawns Court. This was a speculative housing development by Cashmaille-Day and Lander for Haymills in the International or Moderne style. The six low-rise linear blocks are set back from the road with hedges around a communal green and communal front gardens with private back gardens.

Wembley Hill Road
St Augustine’s Church. The first church was a half-timbered wooden building in a field taken over by the London Diocesan Mission. When the British Empire Exhibition was held money from the sale of St. Mary Vincent Square, Westminster was provided to build a new church and this was completed in 1926 and included the church furniture from Westminster as well as some items from the empire exhibition’s Basilica. . During the Second World War the church suffered serious bomb damage or it might have been built on a pond. The church was demolished and a new church built in 1953. The original church built in 1898 became the church hall but was burnt down in 1970 but much smaller and not so grand. Its successor has too now been demolished. A new hall was opened in 200 plus a millennium yew tree

Sources
GEC Medical. Wikipedia web site
Hirst Research Centre. Wikipedia Web Site
HLM. Web site
London Borough of Brent.  Web site
London Gardens Online. Web site
Preston Manor School. Wikipedia web site
St.Augustine. Web site.
St. Erconwald. Web site
Wembley District Synagogue, Wikipedia web site
Wembley Park, United Reform.Web site
Wembleyspanishandportugesesynagogue. Web site

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