Uxbridge: History, Bunker and Walking Routes

Uxbridge combines a notable chapter of British wartime history with museums, historic buildings, parks and waterside paths. For your stay in London, the town therefore offers a range of experiences: you can visit a preserved operations room, trace local history through old documents, or walk through parks and open spaces and along the Grand Union Canal.

Battle of Britain Bunker: guided and self-guided visits

The Group Operations Room was built in 1938 and is remarkably well preserved. During the Battle of Britain, it played a fundamental role in air defence and was also significant in several other important operations during the Second World War. A guided tour of the Battle of Britain Bunker includes a 45-minute presentation in the preserved Operations Room. The tour also offers the opportunity to explore the Plotting Room.

Younger visitors can take a family-friendly tour tailored to their age group. Once a month, the bunker can also be experienced as part of a self-guided visit. The nearest station to the Battle of Britain Bunker is Uxbridge; from there, the walk is about 1 mile.

Museums and historic places in Uxbridge

The Hillingdon Museum and Archives Service is located next to Uxbridge Library in the Middlesex Suite Building of the Civic Centre in Uxbridge. Families can experience an interactive exhibition of a Victorian house, which includes an original fireplace from the borough's collection. Further information is available from Hillingdon.

The Church of St Margaret is a preserved medieval parish church. Its nave and north aisle date from the early 15th century, while the north-west tower dates from the 14th century. The large south aisle was built as a guild chapel in the late 15th century. Uxbridge Quaker Meeting House was built in 1817.

The town's political and economic past can also be traced through specific locations. Negotiations for the Treaty of Uxbridge took place in 1644 at the Crown and Treaty public house, formerly Place House. Basset's Grant, a 12th-century document, is the oldest document in the Hillingdon borough collection. It granted the people of Uxbridge the right to sell property freely, as well as exemption from tolls. The essay “Peregrinations of a Kiddy” can be viewed in the Hillingdon reading room without an appointment; a typed transcript of the original text is also available there.

Parks, waterways and walks

Hillingdon Council publishes four Uxbridge walks. The routes pass through parks and open spaces and run along the Grand Union Canal. Uxbridge Walk 4 is a circular route of just under 4 miles. It follows the Grand Union Canal and the River Colne before returning to Uxbridge.

Uxbridge Common is a traditional 5-acre village common with a pond, a network of ditches and a row of trees along the edge. Fassnidge Park is a traditional formal Edwardian park in the heart of Uxbridge; it also has a free-to-use skatepark. Stockley Country Park contains 11 lakes and around 200,000 trees and shrubs.

Free guided walks are offered at Uxbridge Lock on the Grand Union Canal. There, you can learn how trade and transport—roads, rivers, canals and railways—shaped the historic town of Uxbridge. In this way, Uxbridge is not only about individual attractions, but also about the connections between landscape, infrastructure and urban history.

More destinations

More places within the same destination:

Northolt, Walthamstow, Kilburn, Brixton, London, Islington, Southall.