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Uxbridge

Uxbridge is a large suburban town in northwest London, England and the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Hillingdon. It is located 15 miles (24.1 km) west-northwest of Charing Cross and is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan.^[1] It historically formed part of the parish of Hillingdon in the county of Middlesex and was a significant local commercial centre from an early time. As part of the suburban growth of London in the 20th century it expanded and increased in population, becoming a municipal borough in 1955 and has formed part of Greater London since 1965. Uxbridge is a significant retail and commercial centre, and is the location of Brunel University. The town is near to the boundary with Buckinghamshire, which is locally the River Colne.

Toponomy

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.

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^{[citation needed]}. 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 "Douy martyrs" which is also the name of the local Catholic secondary school, in Ickenham.

In 1605 the Gunpowder Plot was uncovered. The 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, 30 January to 22 February 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 its 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^{[citation needed]}, and became part of the Uxbridge Urban District^[2] in 1894 under the Local Government Act 1894.

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.^{[citation needed]}

For about 200 years most of London's flour was produced in the Uxbridge area^{[citation needed]}. 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.

The ANITA calculator, the world's first desktop electronic calculator, was developed and manufactured by the Bell Punch Company at its site on "The Island", off Rockingham Road. The largest manufacturer in Britain of mechanical calculators, ticketing systems, and taximeters, the company's electronic calculators proved hugely successful when launched in 1961. With further development, there followed a series of desktop electronic calculators, with hand-held calculators following in the early 1970s. In 1972 the calculator division was sold to Rockwell International of the USA, which decided to exit consumer electronics in 1976 and closed down calculator manufacturing. The Bell Punch Company continued manufacturing its other products till about 1986 when it too closed down.

The infamous highwayman and thief Dick Turpin used to hold people up on the roads of Uxbridge back in the 1700s, hence Turpin's nightclub on Vine Street opposite Randall's in Uxbridge in the early 1990s.

Modern Uxbridge

The town centre today comprises retail outlets and major office buildings, including the main European offices of several international companies including Kuehne + Nagel, Parexel International, Xerox, Arri, Bristol-Myers Squibb, APL, Herbalife Europe Ltd and the Anadarko Algeria Oil Company. Other employers include Apple, Unisys, F. Hinds, The Coca-Cola Company, Coca-Cola Enterprises, Amgen, Bayer, Canon, Anixter International, WMS Gaming, Manpower, AIB, General Mills and PricewaterhouseCoopers. The population in Uxbridge in 2001 was 62,000 people.

RAF Station

Uxbridge also has its own Royal Air Force station, known as RAF Uxbridge, that is most famous for being the Headquarters of 11 Group (RAF Fighter Command) during the Battle of Britain. A replica Spitfire can be seen on display at the front entrance to the base.

Transport

|222

|Hounslow |Uxbridge |Transdev London |[1] |-

|331

|Ruislip |Uxbridge |First London |[2] |-

|427

|Acton |Uxbridge |First London |[3] |-

|607

|White City |Uxbridge | |First London |-

|A10

|Heathrow Airport |Uxbridge |First Centrewest |[4] |Airport |-

|U1

|Ruislip |West Drayton Station |First Centrewest |[5] |Uxbridge |-

|U2

|Uxbridge |Hillingdon Hospital |First Centrewest |[6] |Uxbridge |-

|U3

|Uxbridge |Heathrow Airport |First Centrewest |[7] |Uxbridge |-

|[London Buses route U4|U4]]

|Uxbridge |Hayes Bourne Avenue |First Centrewest |[8] |Uxbridge |-

|U5

|Uxbridge |Hayes and Harlington Station |First Centrewest |[9] |Uxbridge |-

|U7

|Uxbridge |Hayes Sainsbury's |Abellio London |[10] |Uxbridge |-

|U9

|Uxbridge Station |Harefield Hospital |Arriva Shires & Essex |[11] |Uxbridge |-

|U10

|Uxbridge Station |Ruislip Heathfield Rise |First Centrewest |[12] |Uxbridge |-

|N207

Shopping

Uxbridge has two shopping centres, The Mall (formally "The "Pavilions") and The Chimes. Much of the town centre is pedestrianised. In addition, just off the High Street is Windsor Street, a short road populated by older shops; as well as being home to St Margaret's Church.

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.

The Randalls store was recently confirmed as a Grade II listed building.

Uxbridge as a filming location

The National Lottery - Advert - Was filmed in Windsor Street

Durex Advert - With the protagonists separated by a chain-link fence was filmed outside the Tube Station entrance. Uxbridge is an anagram of "Big Durex"... 

McCain Oven Chips - Advert

Take Three Girls - A new Bollywood Production

Extras - Comedy program written by Ricky Gervais - Many scenes were filmed around the town centre.

Genevieve - Filmed in an around Uxbridge, as well as West Drayton and other nearby towns.

Mind Your Language - Comedy Series

The Demon Headmaster - CBBC series filmed in and around the Atrium building.

Family Affairs - Channel 5 soap opera, filmed outside the Civic Centre in Uxbridge.

A Clockwork Orange - scenes from the Ludovico Centre were filmed at Brunel University.

The Sweeney - detective series in which the episode entitled "Thou Shalt Not Kill" was filmed at Brunel University. The entrance to the present Student Union building doubled as a university branch of a bank during a botched armed robbery and subsequent hostage situation.

The Wrong Arm of the Law - Filmed around Uxbridge Moor, just south of the main town - including memorable scenes of the getaway car leaping over Swan Bridge on Cowley Mill Road.

Only Fools and Horses - Scene filmed in Randalls department store

Press Gang - Shot entirely on location for the first series, with the Junior Gazette newsroom being represented by a disused building, however, that was demolished before the second series was due to start shooting, so the newsroom had to built at Pinewood Studios, and interior scenes were shot there for the rest of the series. However, outdoor scenes continued to be shot in and around Uxbridge.

Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging - Gurinder Chadha's (Bend It Like Beckham and Bride and Prejudice) film version of Louise Rennison's best-selling book was partly filmed in Bishopshalt School and Liquid, Uxbridge.

Campus - the pilot episode featured in Channel 4's Comedy Showcase was filmed at Brunel University.

Nearest places

Cowley

Denham, Buckinghamshire

Harefield

Hayes

Ickenham

Iver Heath

Ruislip

West Drayton

Yiewsley

Hillingdon