Looking for photos of United Dairies Wood Lane site

[Karhedron]

Does anyone know of any sites or books with good photos of the milk bottling plant at Wood Lane while it was in operation? The best I have managed to find are some aerial shots from the 30s and 50s which give a decent impression of the overall site but are tantalisingly short on details.

 

http://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/image/epw053791

 

http://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/image/eaw028469

 

Like many of these facilities that were not close to passenger stations, it does not tend to crop up much in photographs. A few dairy companies produced promotional shots of some facilities but I have not seen any for Wood Lane. Any help or suggestions welcome.

[chrisf]

The area is now barely recognisable compared with those 1937 shots.  They show no A40(M) nor the motorway alongside the West London line.  White City stadium is long gone as are the non-electrified tracks alongside the Central Line which diverge from it to serve the milk depot, also a thing of the past since the 1960s.  In the second pic is a spur from the [then] Metropolitan Line which connected to the West London line and enabled a Met shuttle service between Kensington Addison Road [as it then was, now Olympia] .  This was redeveloped by the Luftwaffe in October 1940 and I suspect that other damage was caused at the same time, leading to the instant closure of the LMS electric passenger service between Willesden Junction HL and Earls Court.   Other landmarks missing from the photos include the BBC TV Centre, aka the concrete doughnut, and the sprawling shopping complex called Westfield that now extends from Shepherds Bush Green to White City.  Just out of both shots is the greengrocers' shop kept, when I knew it in 1958, by a Mr Broom who bred budgies in the back room.

 

So, where to find aerial photographs?  Aerofilms would be a good start.  There used to be something in the Department of the Environment when it was located in Marsham Street SW1 in the mid 80s called the Central Registry of Air Photography.  For some strange reason it was never known by its initials.

 

Chris 

 

Edited for typos - those new glasses have made my typing worse, I swear

[keefer]

geo-referenced 1940s/60s OS map (older ones available) show the track layouts well, but don't really give you any more detail.

 

http://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=17&lat=51.5136&lon=-0.2239&layers=173

 

(the scrap yard to the south of it looks interesting as a shunting layout!)

[Karhedron]

So, where to find aerial photographs?  Aerofilms would be a good start.  There used to be something in the Department of the Environment when it was located in Marsham Street SW1 in the mid 80s called the Central Registry of Air Photography.

Sorry, I should have made myself clearer. I have only been able to find aerial shots but I would really like some shots from the ground showing the details of the buildings, rather than just their general layout.

[roythebus]

Have a look at the George Warner film "The Blue Lamp" (1948) ISTR that has some film of Central Line trains passing the dairy area.  Evenin' all.

[keefer]

some screengrabs from 'the blue lamp' on flickr:

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/25347284@N04/5224655927/in/photostream/ 

 

click through the next 6 or so pics, stills show the main building in the background

 

(there are a lot more, mainly to identify actual locations used)

[roythebus]

Some of the very early Doctor Who series were filmed in the area; whether the tapes still exist is a different matter. Remember when the Daleks first appeared when william Hartnell was The Doctor? That showed Wood Lane Central Line station and further up Wood Lane towards where the Westway now is.