ABSTRACT
Park Royal developed as an industrial estate between the world wars. The earliest factories were located on the northern edge of the area in the 1900s. They used either the Grand Junction Canal, one firm having its own branch cut right into the factory, or the Euston to Birmingham railway from which sidings were built into the estate. On the southern side of the site the Great Western Railway installed sidings in 1903 for the Royal Agricultural Society to its Paddington to Birmingham line. However, rapid growth of what became the largest industrial estate in southern England really occurred when the road network around it was improved. The A40 Western Avenue was commenced in 1921 at Wood Lane, Shepherds Bush, and by 1943 had reached Denham. The North Circular Road from Chiswick to Southgate was built as a new road in the 1930s. As Map 5.21 shows, these roads bordered the estate and gave it rapid
access to all parts of the large and affluent metropolitan market. Many of the industries established on Park Royal-biscuits, tinned goods, electrical goods, car components, pharmaceuticals, paper, and porter-were aimed at this market. The workforce was catered for by the tube line-North Acton station opened on the Central Line in 1923-and by the bus network, both motor and trolley. By the end of the 1930s the London Passenger Transport Board was voicing complaints about heavy peak loading at the commencement and completion of work, of buses which were ‘definitely uneconomical to run’.
