White City is a district of

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, England, in the northern part of

Shepherd's Bush Shepherd's Bush is a suburb 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, its ...

in the

London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham The London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham () is a London boroughs, London borough in West London and which also forms part of Inner London. The borough was formed in 1965 as the London Borough of Hammersmith from the merger of the former Metr ...

, 5 miles (8 km) west-northwest of

Charing Cross Charing Cross ( ) is a junction in Westminster, London, England, where six routes meet. Since the early 19th century, Charing Cross has been the notional "centre of London" and became the point from which distances from London are measured. ...

. White City is home to Television Centre,

White City Place White City Place is the name given to the collection of buildings formerly known as BBC Media Village (more commonly simply as White City, London, White City or London W12, W12 within the BBC). White City Place is a collection of six building ...

Westfield London Westfield London is a large shopping centre in White City, west London, England, developed by the Westfield Group at a cost of £1.6bn, on a brownfield site formerly the home of the 1908 Franco-British Exhibition. The site is bounded by the ...

and

Loftus Road Loftus Road, currently known as MATRADE Loftus Road Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is a football stadium in Shepherd's Bush, West London, Greater London, England, which is home to Queens Park Rangers F.C., Queens Park Rangers Football Club, w ...

, the home stadium of

Queens Park Rangers F.C. Queens Park Rangers Football Club, commonly abbreviated to QPR, is a professional association football club based in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England. The team currently compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English fo ...

The district got its name from the white marble cladding used on buildings during several exhibitions when the area was first developed, between 1908 and 1914.

History

The area now called White City was level arable farmland until 1908, when it was used as the site of the

Franco-British Exhibition The Franco-British Exhibition was a large public fair held in London between 14 May and 31 October 1908. It was the first in the series of the White City Exhibitions. The exhibition attracted 8 million visitors and celebrated the Entente Cordial ...

and the

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, from 27 April to 31 October 1908. The 1908 Games were originally schedu ...

. In 1909 the exhibition site hosted the Imperial International Exhibition and in 1910, the

Japan–British Exhibition The took place at White City, London in Great Britain from 14 May 1910 to 29 October 1910. It was the largest international exposition that the Empire of Japan had ever participated in. It was driven by the Japanese government's desire to shake ...

. The final two exhibitions to be held there were the

Latin-British Exhibition The Latin-British Exhibition of 1912 (May 25 to October 19) was the fifth in the series of the White City Exhibitions, after previous exhibitions such as the first Franco-British Exhibition of 1908, and one of the last exhibitions held in Shepher ...

(1912) and the

Anglo-American Exposition The Anglo-American Exposition of 1914 (opened 14 May) was one of the last exhibitions held in Shepherd's Bush, London, in the exhibition space known as the Great White City, and later simply as White City, London, White City. The exhibition site i ...

(1914), which was brought to a premature end by the outbreak of the First World War. During this period it was known as the ''Great White City'' because the

fibrous plaster Plasterwork is construction or ornamentation done with plaster, such as a layer of plaster on an interior or exterior wall structure, or plaster decorative moldings on ceilings or walls. This is also sometimes called pargeting. The process of ...

used to construct the exhibition pavilions had the appearance of white

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock consisting of carbonate minerals (most commonly calcite (CaCO3) or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite (CaMg(CO3)2) that have recrystallized under the influence of heat and pressure. It has a crystalline texture, and is ty ...

, and hence the name given to this part of

. Apartments blocks for lower income residents were constructed in the 1930s.

White City Stadium, BBC White City and White City Place

White City Stadium White City Stadium in London, England, was built for the 1908 Summer Olympics. It hosted the finish of the first modern marathon and swimming, speedway, boxing, show jumping, athletics, stock car racing, concerts and a match at the 1966 FIFA W ...

, in the northern section of the district, also known as the Great Stadium and seating 66,000, was officially opened by

King Edward VII Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria and ...

on 27 April 1908 for the

. The starting point of the

marathon The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of kilometres ( 26 mi 385 yd), usually run as a road race, but the distance can be covered on trail routes. The marathon can be completed by running or with a run/walk strategy. There ...

race at the

was at

Windsor Castle Windsor Castle is a List of British royal residences, royal residence at Windsor, Berkshire, Windsor in the English county of Berkshire, about west of central London. It is strongly associated with the Kingdom of England, English and succee ...

creating a distance of or 26

mile The mile, sometimes the international mile or statute mile to distinguish it from other miles, is a imperial unit, British imperial unit and United States customary unit of length; both are based on the older English unit of Unit of length, le ...

s 385

yard The yard (symbol: yd) is an English units, English unit of length in both the British imperial units, imperial and US United States customary units, customary systems of measurement equalling 3 foot (unit), feet or 36 inches. Sinc ...

s to the finishing line at White City stadium. In 1921, this was adopted as the standard distance for marathon races; previously the distance varied slightly. After the Olympics, the stadium continued to be used for athletics until 1914, and, in 1927, it was turned into a

greyhound racing Greyhound racing is an organized, competitive sport in which greyhounds are raced around an oval track. The sport originates from Hare coursing, coursing. Track racing uses an artificial lure (usually a form of windsock) that travels ahead of th ...

track, although it was also used for short periods by

Queens Park Rangers Queens Park Rangers Football Club, commonly abbreviated to QPR, is a professional association football club based in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England. The team currently compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English f ...

football club, and for other sports. In 1931, a 440-yard running track was installed for the Amateur Athletic Association Championships, held there from 1932 to 1970. It also hosted the match between Uruguay and France during the

1966 FIFA World Cup The 1966 FIFA World Cup was the eighth FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was played in England from 11 to 30 July 1966. England defeated West Germany 4–2 in the 1966 FI ...

. In 1934, the American rodeo promoter

Tex Austin John Van "Tex" Austin (August 26, 1885 – 26 October 1938) was an American rodeo promoter, known as the "King of the Rodeo" or "Daddy of the Rodeo" because of his efforts to popularize the rodeo outside of its core American West demographic.U ...

staged the World's Championship Rodeo at White City Stadium. Champion cowboys and cowgirls from Canada and the United States participated, including Pete Knight, Weldon Bascom, Clark Lund, Ted Elder, and

Vera McGinnis Vera McGinnis (12 November 1892 – 23 October 1990) was a champion American rodeo rider. She was inducted into the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in 1979, and into the Rodeo Hall of Fame of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage M ...

. The world's most famous rodeo bucking horse,

Midnight Midnight is the transition time from one day to the next – the moment when the date changes, on the local official clock time for any particular jurisdiction. By clock time, midnight is the opposite of noon, differing from it by 12 hours. ...

, was brought out of retirement for one last rodeo. The month-long rodeo was held from 9 June to 6 July with ten shows per week.

Pathé News Pathé News was a producer of newsreels and documentaries from 1910 to 1970 in the United Kingdom. Its founder, Charles Pathé, was a pioneer of moving pictures in the silent era. The Pathé News archive is known today as "British Pathé". I ...

filmed some of the events. The Stadium was home to the

White City Rebels The White City Rebels were a motorcycle speedway team who operated from the White City Stadium, Wood Lane in London, England. History In 1928 the new sport known as dirt track arrived from Australia and the White City Stadium brought speedw ...

motorcycle speedway Motorcycle speedway, usually referred to simply as speedway, is a motorcycle sport involving four and sometimes up to six riders competing over four clockwise, anti-clockwise laps of an oval circuit. The motorcycles are specialist machines that ...

team, part of the inaugural

British League The British League was the main motorcycle speedway league in Britain from its formation in 1965 until 1995 when British speedway was restructured. It initially had a single division, with a British League Division Two, second division starting i ...

in 1929 and from 1976 to 1978. Speedway was run first in 1928 and occasional meetings were run from 1953 to 1958, in 1961 and from 1979 to 1983. The stadium was demolished starting in late 1984 to make way for the BBC White City building. The athletes of the

are commemorated with a list inscribed on the side of the BBC Broadcast Centre Building, and the athletics finish line is marked in the paving outside the building. In 1960, BBC Television Centre was built near the former site of the White City Stadium. It was damaged by the

Real IRA The Real Irish Republican Army, or Real IRA (RIRA), was a Dissident republican, dissident Irish republican paramilitary group that aimed to bring about a United Ireland. It was formed in 1997 following a split in the Provisional Irish Republica ...

in the 2001 BBC bombing. The bomb went off on Wood Lane, in front of the Television Centre news building. In October 2007, BBC announced plans to sell Television Centre as part of a cost-cutting programme. In June 2008,

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, a battlefield, medieval castles, Roman forts, historic industrial sites, Lis ...

announced its recommendation to list parts of Television Centre as a grade II listed building. In July 2012,

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

sold Television Centre to a partnership consisting of

Stanhope plc Stanhope plc is a large property development company based in London, England. Its developments have included Broadgate and Television Centre, London, Television Centre at White City, London, White City. History Stanhope was founded by Stuart ...

Mitsui Fudosan is a major Japanese real estate developer with properties located globally. Mitsui Fudosan is one of the core companies of Mitsui Group. Corporate structure The company is organized into four divisions. *Office Building Division *Real Estate ...

and

AIMCo Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCo) is a Canadian crown corporation and institutional investor owned by the Government of Alberta, established to manage several public funds and pensions headquartered in Edmonton, Alberta. AIMCo was ...

for £200 million. It was redeveloped but original features of the buildings including the "doughnut", atomic dot wall and Helios statue were retained. The redeveloped Television Centre was opened to the public and will offer entertainment and leisure facilities, including a new branch of members' club Soho House, offices aimed at the creative sector and approximately 1,000 new homes, together with pedestrian access through the site providing connectivity with the local area, including Hammersmith Park. BBC Studioworks (formerly BBC S&PP) moved back to Television Centre in 2017 to operate Studios 1, 2 and 3. BBC Worldwide moved into office space in the Stage 6 building following extensive refurbishment in 2015. Landowners in the area, including White City Living by St James, Westfield London, Stanhope and Imperial College London are in the process of redeveloping the site into

, which will provide 5,000+ new homes, 2 million square feet of commercial office space, 30 acres of public space, and 19,000 jobs.

White City Estate

To house the growing population of Shepherd's Bush, a five-storey

housing estate A housing estate (or sometimes housing complex, housing development, subdivision (land), subdivision or community) is a group of homes and other buildings built together as a single development. The exact form may vary from country to count ...

was built in the late 1930s and after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, which also took the name of the White City. Streets were named after countries that had featured in the exhibitions. The estate is served by an Anglican church, St Michael and St George (1955) on Commonwealth Avenue.

Westfield London

On 30 October 2008,

opened. In July 2015, terrorists tried to blow up the

but they were stopped by police. They wanted the bombing to be around the same day as the 10th anniversary of the

7 July 2005 London bombings The 7 July 2005 London bombings, also referred to as 7/7, were a series of four co-ordinated suicide attacks carried out by Islamist terrorists that targeted commuters travelling on Transport in London, London's public transport during the ...

Transport

Two stations were built to serve the centre close to the sites of closed former London Underground stations: *

Wood Lane Wood Lane ( A219; formerly A40) is a street in London. It runs north from Shepherd's Bush, under the Westway (A40) past Wormwood Scrubs where it meets Scrubs Lane. The road is wholly in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham ( W12 posta ...

on the Circle line and the

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

, located to provide a walking distance connection with the Central line station at White City. *

on the West London line, to the east of the site adjacent to the Holland Park roundabout and served by

London Overground London Overground (also known simply as the Overground) is a Urban rail in the United Kingdom, suburban rail network serving London and its environs. Established in 2007 to take over Silverlink Metro routes, it now serves a large part of Greate ...

trains. It is also a short walking distance from

Shepherd's Bush tube station Shepherd's Bush is a London Underground station. It is located in the district of Shepherd's Bush in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. The station is on the Central line between White City and Holland Park stations, and is in Tr ...

served by the Central line.

Education

Imperial College London Imperial College London, also known as Imperial, is a Public university, public research university in London, England. Its history began with Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, who envisioned a Al ...

purchased the BBC Woodlands site for 28 million pounds in 2009 and demolished it the following year. Sections of this second major campus started opening in most notably an "innovation hub" for the college, including research facilities and commercialisation space, as well as postgraduate accommodation. The chemistry department moved much of its research to the new Molecular Sciences Research Hub on the campus in 2018, with further departments and industry partners moving to the campus and surrounding area over the coming years. The campus is also home to the Invention Rooms, a college

hackerspace A hackerspace (also referred to as a hacklab, hackspace, or makerspace) is a community-operated, often "not for profit" (501(c)(3) in the United States), workspace where people with common interests, such as computers, machining, technology, sci ...

and community outreach centre. Schools in the area include Ark Burlington Danes Academy and Phoenix Academy

Nearest places

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 borough ...

Notting Hill Notting Hill is a district of West London, England, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Notting Hill is known for being a wikt:cosmopolitan, cosmopolitan and multiculturalism, multicultural neighbourhood, hosting the annual Notting ...

Kensal Green Kensal Green, also known as Kensal Rise, is an area in north-west London, and along with Kensal Town, it forms part of the northern section of North Kensington, London, North Kensington. It lies north of the canal in the London Borough of Brent ...

Bayswater Bayswater is an area in the City of Westminster in West London. It is a built-up district with a population density of 17,500 per square kilometre, and is located between Kensington Gardens to the south, Paddington to the north-east, and ...

Harlesden Harlesden is a district in the London Borough of Brent, north-west London. Located north of the Grand Union Canal and Wormwood Scrubs, the Harrow Road flows through the centre of the area which goes eastwards to Central London and west towar ...

North Kensington North Kensington is an area of west and northwest London. It is north of Notting Hill and south of Kensal Green predominately in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and partly in the London Borough of Brent and City of Westminster. The ...

* Acton *

West Kensington West Kensington, formerly North End, is an area in the ancient parish of Fulham, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, England, 3.4 miles (5.5 km) west of Charing Cross. It covers most of the London postal area of W14, includ ...

Nearest tube stations

East Acton East Acton is an area in Acton in London, England, west of Charing Cross. It is partly in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham and partly in the London Borough of Ealing. It is served by East Acton Underground station, on the Central ...

Goldhawk Road Goldhawk Road is a road in west London, England, which starts at Shepherd's Bush and travels west. There are numerous shops, restaurants and businesses lining the road, which forms the southern boundary of Shepherd's Bush Green. It is designate ...

* Latimer Road *

Shepherd's Bush Market Shepherd's Bush Market is a street market in Shepherd's Bush, London. The market is located on the east side of the railway viaduct for the Hammersmith and City Tube line, and is bordered on the north side by the Uxbridge Road, and on the south ...

* White City *

Nearest railway stations

People

Daisy Waugh Daisy Louisa Dominica Waugh (born 19 February 1967) is an English novelist and journalist. Early life A member of a literary dynasty, Waugh is the second daughter of the writer and journalist Auberon Waugh, by his marriage in 1961 to the novel ...

In art and literature

Pete Townshend Peter Dennis Blandford Townshend (; born 19 May 1945) is an English musician. He is the co-founder, guitarist, keyboardist, second lead vocalist, principal songwriter and leader of the Who, one of the most influential rock bands of the 1960s an ...

, a former resident of Shepherd's Bush, 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. A related film was also produced. * North of the Westfield shopping centre itself, the grade II listed Dimco Buildings (1898), now refurbished as a bus depot were used as the location for the 'Acme Factory' in the 1988 film ''

Who Framed Roger Rabbit ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit'' is a 1988 American fantasy comedy film directed by Robert Zemeckis from a screenplay written by Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman. It is loosely based on the 1981 novel ''Who Censored Roger Rabbit?'' by Gary K. Wol ...

''. * The Bill Slider Novels of

Cynthia Harrod-Eagles Cynthia Harrod-Eagles (born 13 August 1948) is a British writer of historical, romance and mystery novels. She normally writes under her own name, but has also used the pseudonyms Emma Woodhouse and Elizabeth Bennett. Cynthia was born on 13 Aug ...

are set in Shepherd's Bush and the first title, Orchestrated Death, begins with a body found in a White City flat. * Some parts of

Nuns on the Run ''Nuns on the Run'' is a 1990 British comedy film starring Eric Idle and Robbie Coltrane, also featuring Camille Coduri and Janet Suzman. The film was written and directed by Jonathan Lynn and produced by HandMade Films. Many of the outdoor sc ...

are filmed here; the BBC White City building, Wood Lane and the Central Line.

Gallery

Image:BBC Television Centre.JPG, BBC Television Centre Image:BBC New Media Village04.jpg, The BBC Media Village, on the site of the Olympic Stadium Image:Shepherdsbushbbc.jpg, BBC TV centre, seen from Shepherd's Bush Market tube station Image:White city tube station.jpg, White City tube station Image:White City Stadium 1908.jpg, The White City Stadium in 1908 Image:Dorando Pietri 1908.jpg, The 1908 Olympic marathon Image:Japan-British-Exhibition-1910-Guidebook.png, The Japan-British Exhibition of 1910 Image:Entrance place and passage, White City North Campus.jpg, Imperial College London campus

References

External links

Official Site of Westfield London

Details of new transport infrastructure
{{Authority control Areas of London Buildings and structures in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham Districts of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham History of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham World's fair sites in England