White City, London

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see White City.

Location
White City

OS grid reference:	TQ233807


Administration
London borough:	Hammersmith and Fulham
County level:	Greater London
Region:	London
Constituent country:	England
Sovereign state:	United Kingdom
Other
Ceremonial county:	Greater London
Historic county:	Middlesex
Services
Police force:	Metropolitan Police
Fire brigade:	London Fire Brigade
Ambulance service:	London Ambulance
Post office and telephone
Post town:	LONDON
Postal district:	W12
Dialling code:	020
Politics
UK Parliament:	Ealing, Acton and Shepherd's Bush
London Assembly:	West Central
European Parliament:	London
London \| List of places in London

White City is a place in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. Home to the BBC Television Centre and BBC White City, it was level arable farmfields until it became the site of the Franco-British Exhibition and the Olympic Games in 1908 and the Japan-British Exhibition in 1910. It was known at that time as the White City due to the white marble cladding used on the exhibition pavilions, and hence gave its name to this part of Shepherd's Bush. To house a part of Shepherd's Bush's growing population, a five storey housing estate was built, to which the name of the White City would come to refer. While, after the Exhibitions, the stadium in the north of the area hosted a greyhound racing track and athletics ground, sited where the BBC now has its administrative headquarters. White City contains the home of football club QPR.

1 New development
2 Nearest places
3 Nearest tube stations
4 Trivia
5 Gallery
6 External links

[edit] New development

Westfield Group (with Hausinvest Europa) is building a new shopping centre, bounded by the West Cross Route (A3220, formerly the M41 motorway), the Westway (A40) and Wood Lane (A219). This centre will be branded "Westfield London".

Two new stations will be built to serve the centre close to the sites of closed former London Underground stations. A new station will be built on the Hammersmith and City Line at the Wood Lane overbridge, between Shepherd's Bush and Latimer Road stations. This is located approximately where Wood Lane station was situated until it was closed in 1959 after a fire. The station will be positioned east of Wood Lane and north of the line, to minimise the walking distance for those connecting with the Central Line station at White City.

There will also be a new station opened on the West London Line which lies to the east of the site and runs between Clapham Junction and Willesden Junction. The station will be sited adjacent to the Holland Park roundabout close to the location of Uxbridge Road station (closed 1940) between Kensington (Olympia) and Willesden Junction.

[edit] Nearest places

[edit] Nearest tube stations

[edit] Trivia

In the early years of competitive international sport, the long distance marathon race did not have a standard set distance. The distance run at the first seven Olympics from 1896 to 1920 varied between 40 km and 42.75 km. The starting point of the race at the 1908 Olympics was at Windsor Castle creating a distance of 26 miles 385 yards (42.195 km) to the finishing line at White City stadium. In 1921 this was adopted as the standard distance. The extra 385 yards came about as a result of the finishing line being in the wrong place. It was moved to the Royal Box where King Edward VIIth attended the games. And that is why the marathon is such an odd distance in both imperial and metric measurements.

Pete Townshend, of The Who and former resident of White City, released a solo album entitled White City: A Novel in November 1985 on Atco. The title refers to a story which accompanies the album and which takes place in the London area of White City.