This neighbourhood is situated in the London borough of Hillingdon, which is located slap-bang in the middle of northwest London. More generally, this neighbourhood area is known as Ruislip, and comprises the locality between Ruislip Manor and South Ruislip. The area itself is predominantly residential, and has a typical genealogy in terms of its development as a residential suburb (specifically, a lot of houses were built around railway stations in the early 20th century!) To the southwest of the neighbourhood area is the RAF Northolt – a Royal Airforce station – a still much-used base, which also handles a number of private civilian flights too. The neighbourhood is served by three nearby rail stations – one national rail, South Ruislip, and two London Underground stations – Ruislip Gardens and Ruislip Manor. The south of the neighbourhood is where most of the commercial offerings for South Ruislip are situated, with a number of large supermarkets and other essential local amenities are provided here for residents.

As mentioned previously, South Ruislip’s history can mostly be attributed to its growth in the early 20th century. Perhaps less commonly, a large amount of the residential stock in the area was actually developed as part of the ‘Ruislip Manor’ housing estate, created by George Ball between 1933 and 1939. This estate was named ‘Manor Homes’ and was primarily created for working-class men and families who had relocated from other parts of the UK – such as Tyneside and other northern locations following the loss of employment due to the financial crash. The influx of new residents was met with a new railway station in 1938, along with other essential amenities such as schools, public houses and a church. Incredibly, it took only around 6 years for this once-quiet, rural area to become a key hub of London suburbia.

Interestingly, during the Second World War, the famous music hall stars Elsie and Doris Waters visited Ruislip to boost morale through their popular form of entertainment. Their comedy act, ‘Gert and Daisy’ was one of the most popular wartime sketches, and the pair were two of the highest paid comedians of their day.

The Manor House housing estate has effectively established much of South Ruislip’s residential offerings, but did you know that at one point it was considered to make the area another garden suburb, similar to Hampstead? This idea obviously never materialised, but would have been a lovely, leafy option!

Unfortunately, there have been a number of robberies and muggings recently in the Ruislip area. This has even prompted some local residents to engage in their own patrols. This has been met by police action with neighbourhood and CID teams in Hillingdon now working together to investigate the robberies. Despite these recent problems, there has been an incredibly strong wave of community action which reflects very positively on the area, and seems to be having strong support from police.

The area itself has seen a number of minor changes in recent years, but the opening of RAF Northolt to commercial flights in 2019 has been the biggest in terms of its impact on noise and traffic. Many locals have complained since, arguing that they were unaware of these changes even though the council promised in 2017 to “ensure that no changes occur at RAF Northolt without the consent of local communities”. Elsewhere, the The Quadrate development at 106 Pembroke Road was recently completed, comprising 23 affordable homes with outdoor space as well as a large ground floor commercial unit.