Wood Lane (

A219 A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes'' ...

, formerly A40) is a street in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. It runs north from

Shepherd's Bush Shepherd's Bush is a district of West London, England, within the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham west of Charing Cross, and identified as a major metropolitan centre in the London Plan. Although primarily residential in character ...

, under the Westway (A40) past

Wormwood Scrubs Wormwood Scrubs, known locally as The Scrubs (or simply Scrubs), is an open space in Old Oak Common located in the north-eastern corner of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in west London. It is the largest open space in the borou ...

where it meets Scrubs Lane. The road is wholly in the

London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham The London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham () is a London borough in West London and which also forms part of Inner London. The borough was formed in 1965 from the merger of the former Metropolitan Boroughs of Hammersmith and Fulham. The borou ...

( W12 postal district). It is probably best known as the former home of the

BBC Television Centre Television Centre (TVC) is a building complex in White City, West London, that was the headquarters of BBC Television between 1960 and 2013. After a refurbishment, the complex reopened in 2017 with three studios in use for TV production, opera ...

, also BBC White City and formerly BBC Woodlands the offices of

BBC Worldwide BBC Worldwide Ltd. was the wholly owned commercial subsidiary of the BBC, formed out of a restructuring of its predecessor BBC Enterprises in January 1995. The company monetises BBC brands, selling BBC and other British programming for broadca ...

History

In the 1780s, the road was known as Turvens Lane after Turvens House located a short distance north of Shepherd's Bush Green. By the 1830s it had received its current name. In the 1860s the railway arrived with a line running parallel with Wood Lane but the area was still rural in character with the buildings of Wood Lane Farm, Eynam Farm and Hoof's Farm to the east of the road and a plant nursery to the west covering the land east of present-day Frithville Gardens and south of the BBC Television centre. Even into the 20th century the land either side of Wood Lane remained undeveloped until the area was chosen for the site of the 1908 Franco-British exhibition and

1908 Summer Olympics The 1908 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the IV Olympiad and also known as London 1908) were an international multi-sport event held in London, England, United Kingdom, from 27 April to 31 October 1908. The 1908 Games were o ...

. The area to the west of Wood Lane, north of

Loftus Road Loftus Road is a football stadium in White City, London, England, which is home to Queens Park Rangers. In 1981, it became the first stadium in British professional football to have an artificial pitch of Omniturf installed. This remained in ...

stadium, south of Du Cane Road and east of Bloemfontein Road was laid out as the exhibition site. The numerous pavilions faced with white stone earned the exhibition the nickname " the White City" which subsequently remained with the area, even after the exhibition closed and its pavilions were demolished.

White City Stadium White City Stadium was a stadium located in White City, London, England. Built for the 1908 Summer Olympics, it hosted the finish of the first modern marathon and other sports like swimming, speedway, boxing, show jumping, athletics, stock ca ...

built to host the Olympics was located on the site of BBC White City.

Wood Lane Underground stations

The

Central London Railway The Central London Railway (CLR), also known as the Twopenny Tube, was a deep-level, underground "tube" railwayA "tube" railway is an underground railway constructed in a cylindrical tunnel by the use of a tunnelling shield, usually deep below g ...

(CLR, now the Central line) opened Wood Lane station in 1908 on the north side of its Wood Lane depot to serve the exhibition. Originally intended to be a temporary service it survived until 1947 when it was replaced by

White City White City may refer to: Places Australia * White City, Perth, an amusement park on the Perth foreshore * White City railway station, a former railway station * White City Stadium (Sydney), a tennis centre in Sydney * White City FC, a football c ...

station a short distance to the north. The

Metropolitan Railway The Metropolitan Railway (also known as the Met) was a passenger and goods railway that served London from 1863 to 1933, its main line heading north-west from the capital's financial heart in the City to what were to become the Middlesex su ...

also opened a station on its line between

Paddington Paddington is an area within the City of Westminster, in Central London. First a medieval parish then a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Three important landmarks of the district are Padd ...

and

Hammersmith Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London ...

(now the

Hammersmith & City line The Hammersmith & City line is a London Underground line that runs between Hammersmith in west London and in east London. Printed in pink on the Tube map, it serves 29 stations over . Between and it skirts the City of London, the capital's fi ...

). The station, also called Wood Lane although separate from the CLR's station, was adjacent to the railway bridge over Wood Lane. This station survived until it was destroyed by fire in 1959. To serve the new White City shopping centre development, a new station on the Hammersmith & City line, also called Wood Lane opened on 12 October 2008 to the east of Wood Lane.

External links

Maps
Motco.com
Extract of ''Fifteen Miles Round London'', J. Cary, 1786, showing Turvens Lane

Extract of ''The Environs of London'', H Waters, 1832, showing Shepherd's Bush and Woodlane Farm

Extract of ''Library Map of London & Its Suburbs'', Edward Standford, 1862, showing Shepherd's Bush * Extract of Ordnance Survey First Edition Map, 1874, showing Wood Lane {{coord, 51.5105, N, 0.2246, W, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Streets in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham