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Acton Town tube station

Acton, LondonArt Deco architecture in LondonCharles Holden railway stationsDistrict line stationsFormer Metropolitan District Railway stations
Grade II listed buildings in the London Borough of EalingGrade II listed railway stationsLondon Underground Night Tube stationsPiccadilly line stationsRail transport stations in London fare zone 3Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1879Tube stations in the London Borough of EalingUse British English from April 2015
ActonTown1
ActonTown1

Acton Town is a London Underground station in the south-west corner of Acton, West London, in the London Borough of Ealing, close to the border with the London Borough of Hounslow. The station is served by the District and Piccadilly lines and is in Travelcard Zone 3. On the District line, it is between Chiswick Park and Ealing Common stations, and on the Piccadilly line it is between Hammersmith (Turnham Green in the early mornings and late evenings) and Ealing Common on the Uxbridge branch & South Ealing on the Heathrow branch. This was one of the oldest-running train stations in the world. Acton Town station was opened as Mill Hill Park on 1 July 1879 by the District Railway (DR, now the District line). It remained as a terminus until on 1 May 1883 and 23 June 1903 the DR opened two branches from Acton Town to Hounslow Town and Park Royal & Twyford Abbey respectively. On 4 July 1932 the Piccadilly line was extended to Acton Town. District line services to both the Hounslow and Uxbridge branches were withdrawn completely on 9 and 10 October 1964 after which operations were provided by the Piccadilly line alone. The original brick-built station was built in 1879 and in February 1910 the station building was reconstructed. On 1 March 1910 the station was given its present name. In 1931 and 1932 the station was rebuilt again in preparation for transferring the Uxbridge branch service from the District line to the Piccadilly line. The new station was designed by Charles Holden in a modern European geometric style using brick, reinforced concrete and glass.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Acton Town tube station (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Acton Town tube station
Gunnersbury Lane, London Acton (London Borough of Ealing)

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N 51.502777777778 ° E -0.28 °
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Acton Town Station

Gunnersbury Lane
W3 8HN London, Acton (London Borough of Ealing)
England, United Kingdom
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Acton Works
Acton Works

Acton Works is a London Underground maintenance facility in West London, England. It is accessed from the District line and Piccadilly line tracks to the east of Acton Town station, and was opened in 1922. It was responsible for the overhaul of rolling stock, and gradually took on this role for more lines, until the formation of the London Passenger Transport Board in 1933, when all major overhauls of underground vehicles were carried out at the works. By 1985, when rolling stock had become more reliable and maintenance intervals had increased, this function was devolved to depots on each line. Subsequently, Acton continued to overhaul major items after they had been removed from trains at the depots, and tendered for work, which included the conversion of the A60 Stock to One Person Operation. It is likely to be reorganised and expanded to house the departments displaced from Lillie Bridge Depot which is being demolished as part of the redevelopment of Earls Court Exhibition Centre. The site housed the engineering design department for London Underground, and under the leadership of charismatic figures like William Sebastian Graff-Baker from 1922 until 1952 and Stan Driver in the 1960s, produced a series of elegant and innovative designs for batches of rolling stock. The department's nadir was the design of the 1983 Stock, which was produced without any input from an outside design agency. The stock was less than successful, and resulted in a decision that design agencies would always be involved in future rolling stock development. Major rolling stock projects carried out at the works have included the refurbishment of 15 of the Metropolitan Railway electric locomotives in 1953, and the conversion of the experimental 1960 Stock for Automatic Train Operation trials on the Woodford to Hainault section of the Central line, in preparation for its use on the Victoria line. The works has also been the home of several works shunters. Two were made from redundant driving motor cars, cut in half and joined back to back. A third consisted of two cars of 1935 Stock, which had been converted at the works in 1969 for articulation trials, and acted as a shunter after the trials were completed. A fourth shunter was built by modifying two driving motor cars of 1938 Stock.

Murder of Jean Bradley
Murder of Jean Bradley

The murder of Jean Bradley was the notorious and apparently motiveless stabbing of a woman in Acton, London on 25 March 1993. The case made headline news at the time due to a dramatic chase of the killer by a witness and since it was the second unexplained stabbing of a woman in west London in the early 1990s following the murder of Penny Bell in 1991. Despite the high profile of the killing and an appeal on the prime-time programme Crimewatch in the same year, the murder remains unsolved. Several people witnessed the murder and a passing carpenter came face-to-face with the killer during a confrontation before pursuing him for over a mile as he ran from the scene, with the attacker being last seen walking up Buckland Walk walking towards Acton High Street. The murderer, described as a strange individual, was noted for wearing a peculiar sou'wester hat and had been carrying the knife he used to repeatedly stab Bradley inside a black bag. With the killer having been seen by several witnesses, including the carpenter who confronted the man, detectives were confident of quickly solving the case, with the lead detective on the case commenting: "when we find the man, we will have no difficulty with identification". A local man with severe mental health problems was charged with the murder later in the year after key witnesses, including the man who had chased him, picked him out in identification parades. However, a magistrate unexpectedly dismissed the case against him at the early stages due to the fact that other witnesses had not identified him. No other suspects have ever been arrested or charged since. In 2008, the case returned to the news when there was speculation linking the murder to Robert Napper, who had just been convicted of the infamous murder of Rachel Nickell. However, no links were found and Napper does not match the descriptions given by the witnesses who saw and confronted the killer. The murder, an apparently random attack by a stranger, continues to receive publicity.

Three Wheels Temple

Three Wheels is a Shin Buddhist temple in London, England, founded in 1994. It is the London branch of Shogyōji (正行寺), a temple in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan, which has affiliations with the larger Higashi Hongan-ji (Ōtani-ha) branch of Shin Buddhism.: 286  The temple was founded by Kemmyō Taira Sato, a former pupil of D. T. Suzuki,: 10 : 291  supporting both the local Japanese diaspora and non-Japanese attendees. The temple is spread across three buildings, with a main building holding the primary altar and two separate buildings used for events and hosting guests, alongside a Zen garden. The Zen garden was designed by John White, art historian and professor at University College London,: 15–16  and it opened in 1997.: 290  Three Wheels conducts daily services, meditation sessions, twice-yearly shokai retreats (a term coined from two characters meaning "to flow" and "to open") involving communal meals, dharma talks, and chanting,: 297  and services such as funerals and weddings. The temple also hosts bi-monthly eza gatherings, which feature dharma talks in English.: 289  The term "eza" means "to meet and sit": 296  and is a distinctive practice within the Shogyōji lineage of temples, compared with wider the Shin Buddhist movement.: 289  Since 1997, Three Wheels has conducted a yearly Annual Ceremony to Pray for World Peace and Reconciliation between British and Japanese War Veterans.: 11 

Ealing Common Depot
Ealing Common Depot

Ealing Common Depot is a London Underground railway depot on the District line, located between Acton Town and Ealing Common stations in west London, England. It is the oldest of the main depots on the Underground, having been built in 1905, when the District Railway was upgraded for electric traction. All depot facilities were moved there from Lillie Bridge Depot, and it was known as Mill Hill Park Works. It subsequently became Ealing Common Works, and its status was reduced to that of a depot in 1922, when Acton Works was opened, and took over responsibility for all major overhauls. Most of the functions of Acton Works were devolved back to the depots, including Ealing Common, in 1985. Extensive remodelling of the tracks around the depot took place in the 1930s, when the route from Acton Town to Northfields was quadrupled, and the local eastbound track from South Ealing station tunnels under some of the sidings in the depot. In 1990, a heavy repair shop was built at the southern end of the depot, but this function was transferred back to Acton Works, and the building is now used for storage of artefacts for the London Transport Museum. Access to the depot by rail can be gained from both tracks at Ealing Common station, where the junction is to the south of the platforms. At the southern end of the depot, a steep incline leads down to the two eastbound platforms at Acton Town station. Road access is from the A4020 Uxbridge Road at the north end, and a service road from the A4000 Gunnersbury Lane leads to the museum depot. One of the first uses of the depot in 1905 was the storage of redundant steam locomotives, displaced by the new electric multiple units, pending disposal, and a regular steam service between Lillie Bridge and the depot operated for many years, for the transfer of stores. From 1932 a small number of Piccadilly line trains were also stored at the depot, and a small number of District line trains were stored at Northfields Depot, but this practice ended in 1964. The depot is now used for the storage of trains for the District line, and the number of trains required has steadily increased. It also carries out engineering work, and the final commissioning of the D78 Stock took place at the depot from 1979.

South Acton, London

South Acton is an area in Acton, West London, 6.4 miles (10.3 km) west of Charing Cross. At the 2001 census, Acton, comprising the wards of East Acton, Acton Central, South Acton and Southfield, had a population of 53,689 people.The area is dominated by the South Acton housing estate, a large public housing estate owned by Ealing Council. There are some 2,000 residential dwellings on the estate, covering approximately 25 hectares of land. These are accommodated in a range of principally medium to high rise blocks. The estate also provides shops, a youth club, a community centre, a nursery, school buildings and open space. The area is well served by transport links. Acton Town, a major interchange for the District and Piccadilly lines, with links to Heathrow and the West End is on the western boundary. On the southern boundary is South Acton railway station, a London Overground station running north through to Stratford and south to Richmond. The site is bounded to the north by Acton High Street, to the south by the London Overground railway line, to the east by a Victorian residential neighbourhood and to the west by Bollo Lane and the tube lines. To the south east, on the other side of the railway line, lie the suburban residential areas of Acton Green and Bedford Park. The estate and area is also particularly diverse. Historically, the area has been important for Irish Working Class immigrants, and recently this has been supplemented by Indian, Afro-Caribbean and Somali immigration. Currently the population is 52% white, including 5% of Irish descent, 24% Afro-Caribbean, 16% Asian, with the last 8% being of other ethnic origins. A great range of first languages other than English are spoken at the local school.Historically, the estate and the area has suffered from a poor reputation, in particular because of high levels of crime and drug dealing and use. However, recent efforts by the Council, Ealing Homes (the council's housing management company) and local residents have seen improvements in the area from 2005 onwards.Since 1999, the South Acton estate has been undergoing a regeneration which has resulted in significant improvements in both housing and community.