[2] It is generally divided in three parts: the mostly residential area around Lady Margaret Road (Dormers Wells); the main commercial centre at High Street and Southall Broadway (part of the greater Uxbridge Road); and Old Southall/Southall Green to the south consisting of Southall railway station, industries and Norwood Green bounded by the M4.

From the 1950s the town's local factories and proximity to Heathrow Airport attracted large numbers of Asian immigrants;[3] the town eventually became home to the largest Punjabi community outside the Indian subcontinent[4] and is today a major centre of South Asian culture,[5] having gained the nickname Little India.

Southall formed part of the chapelry of Norwood in the ancient parish of Hayes, in the Elthorne hundred of the historic county of Middlesex.

[14] The opening of the Grand Junction Canal (later renamed Grand Union Canal) as the major freight transport route between London and Birmingham in 1796 began a commercial boom, intensified by the arrival of Brunel's Great Western Railway in 1839, leading to the establishment and growth of brick factories, flour mills and chemical plants which formed the town's commercial base.

The factory was called the Maypole Dairy, and eventually grew to become one of the largest margarine manufacturing plants in the world, occupying a 28 ha (69 acres) site at its peak.

St. Bernard's still operates a large facility on part of the site under the West London Mental Health (NHS) Trust.

[17] Bomb shelters and bunkers were built during the war, close to or under most schools and public buildings, and in gardens of numerous private homes.

[18] In 1950, the first group of South Asians arrived in Southall, reputedly recruited to work in a local factory owned by a former British Indian Army officer.

This South Asian population grew, due to the closeness of expanding employment opportunities such as Heathrow Airport.

[citation needed] On 2 September 1958 at 7:10 am, a pilot of a Vickers VC.1 Viking V624 (G-AIJE), which had just taken off from Heathrow Airport, reported that he had engine trouble.

[26] On 23 April 1979, Blair Peach, a teacher and anti-racist activist, was killed after being knocked unconscious during a protest against the National Front (NF).

[33] More than 200 skinheads had travelled by bus from East London, and a few of them smashed shop windows,[34][page needed] wrote NF slogans around the area,[35] and shouted neo-Nazi slogans[citation needed] while using bricks and clubs to attack Asian youths who had gathered in opposition to the gig.

[36] Some of the approximately 400 Asians threw petrol bombs and other objects, and five hours of rioting left 120 people injured – including 60 police officers – and the tavern burnt down.

[31][37] The Southall rail crash occurred on 19 September 1997 when a First Great Western mainline high speed express train from Swansea to London Paddington ran a red signal, when the driver's attention was distracted, and it collided with a goods train just outside Southall railway station.

Bus and commercial vehicle manufacturer Associated Equipment Company (AEC) was based in Southall, on a 25 ha (62 acres) triangular site between Windmill Lane, the Great Western Main Line and the branch to Brentford Dock.

The company moved there from Walthamstow in 1926 and closed in 1979 after losing market share whilst part of the giant but inefficient British Leyland group.

The site was noticeable to railway passengers and to motorists on Uxbridge Road due to large signs proclaiming "AEC – Builders of London's Buses for 50 years".

Painted on the north east side of the gasholder are the large letters 'LH' and an arrow to assist pilots locate Heathrow Airport's (now closed) runway 23 when making visual approaches.

The letters were painted in the mid-1960s after a number of pilots became confused between Heathrow and the nearby RAF Northolt (which has a similar, though smaller, gasholder under its approach at Harrow).

Since the end of World War II, Southall has become largely a South Asian residential district, sometimes known as "Little India".

[40][41][42][43][44] In addition, the signs on the main railway station are bilingual in English and Gurmukhi, which is one of the written scripts of Punjabi.

Southall contains one of the largest South Asian shopping areas in the region, comparable to Green Street, East London or Ealing Road, Wembley.

[49][50] Southall was also the location of a Glassy Junction public house, which was the first pub in the UK to accept Indian Rupees as payment.

Sunrise Radio, broadcasting for the wider Asian community nationally, was until recently based in Southall now having moved to nearby Hounslow.

[54] Gordon also mentioned he'd visited multiple times prior working with staff, aiming to obtain top knowledge on how to prepare and serve Indian food.

The nearest London Underground to the town centre is Osterley station, on the Piccadilly line, which is located approximately 2 mi (3.2 km) to the south.

There is an express coach service between Southall, Leicester and Birmingham which specialises in serving the many family connections in both areas' South Asian populations.