Borough in London, England
Hillingdon
London's second-largest borough has a seaside-style beach in Ruislip, a Churchill-visited wartime bunker and the world's busiest runway queue: welcome to Hillingdon.
Key information
- County
- Greater London (historically Middlesex)
- Nation
- England
- Population
- about 306,000 (2021 Census)
- Area
- about 116 square km, second-largest of London's boroughs
- Known for
- Heathrow Airport, the Battle of Britain Bunker, Ruislip Lido, EMI's Hayes factory
- What locals are called
- No special name; people say they are from Uxbridge, Ruislip, Hayes or Northwood
- Famous people
- Henry Paget (Earl of Uxbridge), Sir Magdi Yacoub, Boris Johnson (as MP for Uxbridge)
- Football clubs
- Uxbridge, Hayes & Yeading United, Northwood, Harefield United
About Hillingdon
The village that was swallowed by a runway
Heathrow takes its name from a tiny hamlet called Heath Row, which stood on the edge of the heath here until the airfield swallowed it. The site began life before the Second World War as a private aerodrome beside Fairey Aviation's works, then was developed as a huge military airfield. In 1946 it became a civil airport, opening on 31 May with little more than tents for terminals. Today it is one of the busiest international airports in the world, and Terminal 5, opened in 2008, is one of the biggest buildings in the country. Heathrow has also had its share of drama. In 1983 the Brink's-Mat warehouse by the airport was raided and about £26 million of gold bullion, diamonds and cash was stolen, one of Britain's most notorious robberies.
The bunker where the Battle of Britain was juggled
Underground at Uxbridge lies the operations room of RAF No. 11 Group, which directed the fighter squadrons defending London and the south-east in 1940. Plotters moved markers across a giant map table as raids came in, and controllers scrambled the squadrons. Winston Churchill visited on 16 August 1940, at the height of the battle. Four days later he told the Commons, "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few." The bunker, now a museum, is still known as the Battle of Britain Bunker. Uxbridge's story reaches back further. In 1645, during the Civil War, Royalist and Parliamentarian commissioners met in the town for peace talks, known as the Treaty of Uxbridge. They failed, and the war ground on.
A beach in Ruislip, miles from the sea
Ruislip Lido is a reservoir built in the 1800s to feed the Grand Junction Canal. In the 1930s it was turned into a leisure spot, with sand piled along one shore to create a proper beach. Londoners have been paddling there ever since. A miniature railway runs around the lake, and the surrounding Ruislip Woods form a National Nature Reserve. It is ancient woodland, which is rare enough this close to the capital. Nearby, Northwood is quietly important in another way. It is home to a major military headquarters, and from Northwood operations around the world are directed.
Records, hearts and Australian graves
Hayes was where the Gramophone Company, later EMI, opened its huge factory in 1907. Records by some of the biggest names in music history were pressed here over the decades. The works also gave the world technical advances in sound recording, and the site remains a part of Hayes's identity. In Harefield, a hospital began in 1915 as a place to treat wounded Australian soldiers. Those who died were buried in the village churchyard, and Anzac Day is still marked there each year. The hospital later became world-famous for heart and lung work, and Sir Magdi Yacoub's pioneering transplant surgery put Harefield on the medical map.
A barn called the Cathedral of Middlesex
Harmondsworth Great Barn, built in the 1420s, is about 58 metres long, which makes it one of the largest surviving medieval timber-framed buildings in Britain. John Betjeman is said to have called it the Cathedral of Middlesex, and the huge oak frame inside makes the nickname easy to understand. It sits on the edge of Heathrow, with jets passing overhead. Uxbridge also gave the language a famous title. Henry Paget, Earl of Uxbridge, was Wellington's cavalry commander at Waterloo, where he lost a leg to a cannonball. The story goes that he exclaimed, "By God, sir, I've lost my leg!" and Wellington replied, "By God, sir, so you have!" In modern times, Boris Johnson was MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip from 2015 to 2023, which added another headline to a borough with plenty already.
Football, and a green edge to London
Hillingdon is the part of London where the Underground leaves the city behind. The Metropolitan and Piccadilly lines both end at Uxbridge, and the Metropolitan line helped create the suburban estates of Ruislip, Eastcote and Northwood. Non-league football is the local game. Uxbridge, Hayes & Yeading United, Northwood and Harefield United all play in the borough, drawing loyal crowds for matches on winter afternoons. Beyond the suburbs lies a surprising amount of countryside, including canal towpaths, farmland and woods. Harefield and the Colne Valley feel a long way from central London.