Where to Stay in Southall, England

What is Southall known for?

Southall Railway Centre keeps the engineering side of the town's record, and the London Motor Museum answers it with road vehicles, which between them make an unusual pairing for a suburban town in the London Borough of Ealing. Sports grounds make up the balance. The Indian Gymkhana Cricket Club Ground and Trailfinders Sports Ground sit among the clubs of West London, with Wycombe House Sports and Social Club another of the same kind.

What are the main landmarks in Southall?

The Southall Railway Centre is the local draw. The London Motor Museum answers it on the road side, and Osterley House brings a country house into a suburban list. Parish churches take up the remainder.

St Mary the Virgin at Northolt, the Church of St Thomas the Apostle, the Church of St Dunstan and the Church of St George run through the older parishes of West London, while The Water Tower and Enterprise House are the odder entries on the same list.

What is the history of Southall?

Parishes came before suburbs. The Church of St Mary, St Mary the Virgin at Northolt, the Church of St Mary at Hayes and St Leonard's Church at Heston belong to villages that stood on their own before West London ran together into one built-up spread. Greenford shows the join.

The Parish Church of the Holy Cross (old Church) and the Holy Cross New Church stand for two eras in one parish, the older building outgrown as the suburb arrived. Osterley House belongs to the older order. It survives from the country estates that once occupied this ground, and Stansfield House at Hounslow and Wycombe House point the same way, before Ealing became a borough of seven major towns with Southall among them.

Rail work followed. Southall Railway Centre keeps that industrial thread, the London Motor Museum keeps a later one, and The Water Tower and Enterprise House are the buildings the later town left standing. St Mary's Cathedral at West Ealing, the Church of St Mellitus and the Church of St Thomas the Apostle mark how many parishes the London Borough of Ealing eventually gathered under one name.

Where is Southall?

Southall sits in the outer western suburbs of Greater London, inside the London Borough of Ealing, with Hanwell, Greenford, Northolt and Hayes among the names on the same stretch of the map. The River Thames edges the south. Heathrow Airport and Uxbridge mark the western end of the same suburban ground, and the semi-rural districts between them are where the built-up part finally thins out. Chiswick, Acton and Ealing sit at the dense, tree-lined end of the same range.

What is the climate of Southall?

The Thames valley sets the pattern. West London takes mild, damp weather off the low ground the river crosses, so winters run grey rather than hard and summers warm rather than hot, with rain possible in any month of the year. Umbrellas are standard issue.

When it settles in, the Southall Railway Centre, the London Motor Museum and Osterley House all take an afternoon indoors, and Hanwell Zoo is the one that still asks for a coat.

How do you get to Southall?

Heathrow Airport sits at the western end of the same suburbs, which makes it the usual way in from outside the country. Rail does the rest. Southall lies on West London's key transport links, the ones that gave the outer suburbs their commuter-belt character, and getting into central London is a matter of the line rather than the road.

The Southall Railway Centre is a heritage site rather than a way of arriving. Uxbridge, Greenford and Hayes sit along the same western spread, and Ealing is the borough's own centre.