Do you ever look at the front of a bus and think "where the hell is that?"?
Wood End is the epitome of a nondescript place name, two words that could apply to almost anywhere in the country, but is an actual place in actual London. It even has a library, or rather it did but we'll get to that. You'll find it west of Sudbury, north of Greenford, east of Northolt and south of South Harrow, if that helps.
10 Things To See and Do in Wood End(each Thing better than the Thing before it)
1) Grab a service wash at Wood End Launderette
This is bottom of the heap so it's not that exciting. But feel free to bring your mixed cottons and pillowslips to Wood End Laundrette at 123 Wood End Lane, and perhaps even plump for a service wash with post-tumble ironing thrown in. The smell of detergent wafts out across the corner of Russell Road, evocative of washday for anyone of an appropriate age. Had you been here 100 years ago this would have been the entrance to Wood End Green Farm, one of the three farms in the hamlet of Wood End, but that's long been obliterated by suburban development. Yes they do duvets.
2) Return a book to Wood End Library
The borough of Ealing ought to have 14 libraries but currently has 13 because Wood End library, beside Wood End Primary School, has closed. More accurately it's been demolished and is being replaced by a stack of 11 flats because Ealing council have housing targets. In good news there'll be a replacement library space on the ground floor, but in bad news it'll be a fifth of the previous size so a far lesser facility. In even worse news the hoardings outside say "due to be completed by late 2023" but all that's visible from the street is a concrete shell awaiting cladding because the construction company went bust, so any borrowed books could be massively overdue by the time it's eventually finished.
3) Visit the split recreation ground
When Wood End's suburban avenues were being laid out in the late 1920s, two arrowhead-shaped gaps were left surrounded by back gardens either side of Russell Road. In February 1928 Ealing Council bought these from Corporate Development Trust Limited and created twin recreation grounds, as can be confirmed by the blurb on the information board in the larger of the two. These days they're called Woodend West and Woodend East, each accessible only by footpath and with a scrap of playground and a patch of grass to enjoy. They form a mundane but most unusual pair, and pigeons may not be fed in either.
4) Catch the train to Islip
Wood End's very own railway station opened in 1926 as a spur to developing housing locally, a catalyst which patently worked. It was initially named ‘South Harrow & Roxeth’ before being changed to ‘Northolt Park’ in 1929 in recognition of a nearby place of interest frequented by tens of thousands of punters, which is Thing Number Nine so I won't reveal it yet. These days it's run by Chiltern who don't bother with anything as posh as station buildings, only a locked shed and a couple of shelters, nor do they bother stopping trains very often either. The least served destination is Islip with just one train on weekdays at 10.49pm, although Marylebone is likely where most locals escape to.
5) Buy one of Wood End's original cottages
Such was the impact of suburbanisation on rural Wood End that all that remains of the original hamlet is a single row of six cottages. These appeared halfway along Wood End Lane in 1906 and were named Wood End Cottages because there was nothing else to confuse them with at the time. Today they find themselves sandwiched between later semis at the widest part of the lane, by the 7-foot width restriction, and are the only homes hereabouts with bin-sized front gardens. The end cottage recently went on the market for £375,000 which feels somewhat excessive for a two-up two-down with less than 50m² floorspace but nothing else locally comes close.
6) Enjoy Curry Club at the Greenwood Hotel
Wood End has only two listed buildings, one of which is a large L-shaped estate pub built by Courage in the late 1930s. According to the Greenwood Hotel's citation the architecture "epitomises the restrained respectability of the suburbs in their inter-war heyday" and "the interior survives very well." Since 2016 it's been a Wetherspoons so most punters care more about the fact it's Curry Club tonight than the fireplaces, cornices and panelling, but at least the place is being looked after and as a public house it has zero competition locally.
7) Shop til you drop at Oldfields Circus
Wood End has a half-decent shopping parade, at least in terms of size and breadth if not necessarily quality. It bears off from half a leafy roundabout, is topped by 30s-style flats and includes one of London's many chippies called The Codfather. The largest shop is a Polish delicatessen, indeed there's an Eastern European flavour to several outlets, but also an Irish butchers, a Turkish takeaway and a Scotch-based off-licence. Morgan's Office Furniture is piled high with upturned chairs on top of other chairs, all the way to the back, while Golden Crust Bakery looks to be a proper throwback of hot buns and filled rolls that thankfully hasn't been Wenzel-ed yet.
8) Enjoy the view from Wood End Wireless Station
By WW2 the whole of Wood End was housing apart from a large patch on the hilltop which had been occupied by an RAF radio station in 1926. Most of that land has since succumbed to become a loop of townhouses but a small park remains in the centre, a greenspace known as Woodend Wireless Station, still with two serious-looking communications towers locked away at the summit. As a place to exercise your dog it's proper unusual. A sign on the compound confirms this is still used by Air Traffic Control and is known as Greenford Tx Comms Station. I suspect it's related to nearby RAF Northolt but from the top of the slope the procession of planes descending into Heathrow is clearly seen so maybe it's of wider strategic importance.
9) Visit the racetrack where George Formby rode Lucky Bert
The UK's first Pony Racing course opened here in 1929, complete with Art Decograndstand and a 1½ mile grass circuit. This looped through the former fields of Wood End Farm but they called it Northolt Park, hence the name of the station back in Thing Number Four. After a slow start it became ridiculously popular, drawing in half a million punters in 1938, some of whom came to see ex-jockey George Formby run an exhibition race, but the owners over-reached and sadly went bankrupt. After WW2 the government requisitioned the land for housing and created the Racecourse Estate, so all you can still see today are two strips of parkland and the original gates at the entrance to Dabbs Hill Lane. I could write more but northoltparkracecourse.wordpress.com has already sewn that up in brilliant detail so read that.
10) See part of St Paul's Cathedral at St Barnabas St Barnabas is Wood End's other listed building, designed pre-WW2 but not completed until 1954 so somewhat of an architectural anachronism. It has a lofty brickbellcote, a polygonal baptistry and "the design is redolent with medievalism", apparently. Best of all the doors were open when I arrived so I went in and hunted for a very specific chunk of marble I'd researched online. I didn't find it but I did meet the vicar emerging from the vestry so I asked him where it was and he didn't know. "It's from St Paul's Cathedral and I read about it on your church website." Still no recognition. "It's in the baptistry set in the wall near the foundation stone." So we went and looked, peeking behind a board dotted with mission posters, and there it was embedded in the wall. Best of all there was a framed letter hanging underneath signed by C. A. Linge, Clerk of Works at St Paul's Cathedral, dated 20th April 1953.
I'm still not sure the vicar was particularly excited to discover he had a block of white marble from St Paul's embedded in his baptistry, but if that isn't the best thing in Wood End I don't know what is.
