North London Railway - Willesden Junction

North London Railway. The railway coming from Kensal Rise Station turns south westwards


Post to the north Willesden Junction
Post to the west Willesden Junction

This posting covers only the north west corner of the square

Brunel Court
Flats built on the site of a large block of stables facing onto the Harrow Road

Enterprise Way
Industrial and Trading Units built on the site of the Borough Transport Dept

Fortune Way
Industrial and Trading Units built on the site of the Borough Transport Dept

Harrow Road
College Park Hotel. Closed in the 1990s, it is now housing – but still has ‘Saloon and Luncheon Bar’ signage.
Railway bridges –between Harrow Road and Harlesden High Street the road passes over a series of railway lines on the North London Railway in its Hampstead Junction Extension. Leaving Kensal Green Junction, west of the site of the defunct Kensal Green and Harlesden Station up and down City Goods lines were built to bypass low level platforms at Willesden  Junction and other connecting lines, once known as City Line Loop.


Hythe Road
Junction Works (north of the Mitre Bridge Loop and east of the tunnel from Hythe Road .The works has had a number of occupants. This includes the New Engine Co. who made cars and aeroplane engines designed by G.F.Mort who had designed a light weight two stroke engine. 1913- c. 1922
Bostwick Gate and Shutter Co. (to the west of the tunnel). Founded here in 1880 and here since 1907. They made collapsible gates and a range of other items invented and patented by an American, Jabez Bostwick.  The company operated on this site until at least the 1970s but now appears to be dissolved.  There appear to be buildings on the site which may have been erected by them.


Letchford Gardens
This is part of College Park a 19th estate built on land which originally belonged to All Souls College.

Railway
Rail lines run into Willesden Junction Station to the west of this square
North London Line. As Hampstead Junction railway, coming from Kensal Rise Station to the north. This connection dates from 1869.
West Coast Main Line – which had originally opened as the London and Birmingham Railway in 1841 and by passes the station. The London Overground service to Watford from Euston, from 1910. 
Bakerloo Line coming from the Kensal Green Station to the west. The Bakerloo had been extended to Queens Park in 1915 and thence ran on the London North West Railway lines to Watford, via Willesden
Willesden Traction Maintenance Depot. The original servicing facility was on the south side of the main line, west of the station and closed, in 1965. The current depot was designed in the 1960s, to service electric locomotives and has 6 parallel roads each holding 4 locomotives and several associated external sidings. A line runs north of the shed to fuel supplies and some diversions of service stock. There are two lines connecting to the West Coast main line. There are also offices, a workshop and stores.
The West London Railway from the south east, with some sidings into industrial estates and the Mitre Bridge Loop.
The North London line to Richmond opened to the Hounslow Loop line by the North and South Western Junction Railway in 1853


Ridgley Road
College Park Community Centre. On the site of a Library. Closed


Scrubs Lane
2 Pentecostal City Mission. Church group running a Nursery and Community Project., food banks, supplementary school, etc etc.
Ellisland – building on the site of 1-2 in the late 19th
2 Homocea Ointment Works. Homocea was a cure all ointment. They came here from Birkenhead in 1900
8 Chandelier building. Headquarters of Impex Glassware. In 1870, in Bohemia, Adolph Schonbek started his own glassworks and made chandeliers. After the Second World War the company moved to America. One grandson came to London and established Impex in 1946.
2-12 Elliott Machine Equipment Ltd. Leading makers and distributors of lathes, and other machine tools
24 CMS Peripherals. Founded here in 1988, supplies data storage and related products.
30 Cumberland Park – this was a pub, long since closed.  The name can be seen on the first floor above the shop windows.
Willesden Laundry. On the CMS Peripherals site. The laundry was part of British Transport Hotels and closed in the early 1980s having lost British Rail contracts. It employed over 100 workers
69-71 Portobello Press. Then firm opened in the Portobello Road in 1983 and moved here in 1991 where they have a large colour printing concern
Cumberland Park Factory, J.G.Matthews making beds and bedding. By the 1950s Matthews has moved to Honeypot Lane in Kingsbury as Restulux Beds.  The company went out of business soon after.
Simplex Rubber. This company was making tyres here before the Great War.
United Dairies. Western Bottling Works. Where milk was distributed by rail around London. In 1939 they were handling 3,000,000 bottles a week,
80 Cumberland House. Seven storey system built office block
75-93 early 20th industrial buildings, now in light industrial and office use. Previously used by light engineering and motor accessory firms – many of them innovative in their field.
109 Delaney Gallay. This was originally founded in Switzerland by Jean Gallay who manufactured radiators for bi-planes. Delaney Gallay was founded in 1911 in the UK by Delaneys who made the Delaney-Belleville car. They built under license, the Gallay radiator the forerunner of modern radiators here in Scrubs Lane, eventually one of five sites. They were taken over by The Linen Thread Company Ltd, in 1959 and made innovative air conditioning for cars and moved to Wellingborough.   They are now part of the G&M Group in Glasgow.
Symbol Biscuits Ltd. Sunya House. This had been Lesme a couverture and biscuit firm from Blackpool. They became part of Lyons, for a while were called Bee Bee Biscuits, and then Lyons Bakery Ltd.   They made forty different sorts of biscuits sold under a variety of labels and introduced both Maryland Cookies in 1956 and Viennese Whirl in 1976.
77 APT Controls. Founded in 1961 by E.K. Bloom they were here in the 1980ss. They imported technology from the USA for car park ticket dispensers, vehicle detectors and rising arm barriers. This major company is now in Headstone Lane, Harrow.
Rail Bridge  crossing the West Coast Main Line and the Bakerloo

Sources
Bird. The First Food Empire
Clunn. Face of London
CMS Peripherals. Web site
College Park. Wikipedia Web site
Connor. Forgotten stations of London
Field. London place names,
Friends of the Earth. London Gasworks sites
Fulham and Hammersmith History Society. Buildings to see in Fulham and Hammersmith
Gallay Web site
GLIAS Newsletter
Hammersmith and Fulham Historic Buildings Group. Web suite
Mitchell and Smith. North London Line
Pentecostal Mission. Web site
Pevsner and Cherry. North West London
Portobello Press. Web site
Willesden Junction. Wikipedia. Web site

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