Monthly Archives: June 2019

Spotlight on the Archive: St Mary’s Road Campus construction photos

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This collection of photos record the building work undertaken from 1949, replacing Ealing Technical College’s existing premises with a much larger building. Designed by the architect for the County of Middlesex, Mr C. G. Stillman, the new building was finished in 1952. By then Ealing Technical College was the largest in the country and boasted impressive equipment and facilities.

 

The images not only show the development of the College buildings but also show what it was like to work on a construction site 70 years ago – there’s not a helmet in sight!

 

Decades later, the building now forms a central part of UWL’s Ealing Campus on St Mary’s Road, and is still recognisable today.

For more information on this album of construction photos from the 1940’s and 1950’s, visit: https://www.uwl.ac.uk/library/library-services/university-west-london-archive

 

Getting to Heathrow by train………..

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On 23rd June 1998 the Heathrow Express rail link service was launched with four trains per hour taking just 15 minutes from London Paddington to Heathrow Terminals 1,2 and 3. On display within the Heathrow: The Journey Exhibition are pieces of clay recovered from 25 metres below the northern runway. The clay was excavated during tunneling for the Heathrow Express rail link. The clay is dated at 30 million years old.

Clay recovered 25 meters below the northern runway as on display in Heathrow: The Journey Exhibition at UWL

       

A piece of 30 million year old clay

 

Prior to the Heathrow Express rail link the London Underground Piccadilly line was the other main mode of public transport used by passengers to get to Heathrow from Central London (other than by bus and car). The extension of the Piccadilly Line from Hounslow West to Heathrow Central Station was opened in 1977. Journey time is roughly an hour with trains every 10 minutes and this remains the most cost effective way of reaching Heathrow by public transport.

Tom Eckersley mural on display at Heathrow Central Station in 1977, one of 9 murals displayed on the platform

One of two Tom Eckersley murals now housed at UWL Archives

In 2018 TfL Rail took over the running of the Heathrow Connect rail service which was launched in 2005 from Paddington to Heathrow stopping at various West London stations on route, with journey times of between 31 and 49 minutes. The newly anticipated Elizabeth Line (project previously known as Crossrail) will run between Central London and Heathrow Terminal 5 in approximately 34 minutes.