Facts about Gunnersbury
History of Gunnersbury
In August 1921, London General Omnibus Company established a bus overhaul facility off Chiswick High Road. It incorporated a Training School with a bus Skid-Pan. During 1989, London Transport closed the works. In 2001 the site was redeveloped as the Chiswick Business Park with 12 medium density office buildings.
In 1886, Gunnersbury was given its own parish church, dedicated to Saint James. The church stood on Chiswick High Road, near Chiswick Roundabout. The church was decommissioned just over a century later, in 1987, and demolished soon afterward. The parish was united with that of St Paul’s, Brentford.
Gemeral Info
The name “Gunnersbury” means “Manor house of a woman called Gunnhildr”, and is from an Old Scandinavian personal name + Middle English -bury, manor or manor house. Gunnersbury consists mainly of pre-war housing of a variety of types, including flats, terraces, semi-detached, and detached houses, some of which are ex-local authority built.
The defining symbol of Gunnersbury is the 18-story high BSI (British Standards Institution) building on Chiswick High Road. Between 1966 and 1992 the block housed a divisional headquarters of IBM UK. Below this building, Gunnersbury station serves the Richmond branch of the District line and the London Overground to Stratford.
