Facts about West London

• Wembley Stadium was the site of the British Empire Exhibition in 1924-5, the largest surviving building of which is the Wembley Arena.

• With 90,000 seats the new Wembley will be the largest football stadium in the world with every seat under cover. There are no obstructed views.

• During the First World War, a tank was parked outside Ealing town hall to help promote voluntary contributions towards the war effort. War came closer to Ealing Town Hall in 1940 when a wall was built around it to protect it during the blitz, though unlike some prominent buildings in the borough, it survived relatively unscathed.

• Ealing's claim to fame was the film Studios which produced the Ealing comedies of the 1950s, including The Lavender Hill Mob . The building of the new shopping centre, opened in 1985, however, drastically altered part of the centre of Ealing.

• Brentford is considered to be the site of a battle between Julius Cesar and Cassivellaunus (a local king) in 54BC.

• Pocahontas, the native American Indian, lived in Brentford.

• Greenford is considered to be birthplace of the modern organic chemical industry when William Perkin founded a dye factory on land near to The Black Horse Pub in 1857. This produced a purple dye by artificial means, the first to do so. The site expanded as business boomed, but in 1872 there was an explosion and two men were killed.  The works were finally sold and closed down in 1880.

• The film 'Genevieve' was filmed in and around West Drayton, Uxbridge and surrounding areas.

• Dick Turpin the highwayman used to rob people in the Uxbridge area in the 1700s.

• The Comedy 'Extras' writen by and starring Ricky Gervais had many scenes for the show filmed around Uxbridge.

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