Southall (UK Parliament constituency)

The bus and commercial vehicle manufacturer Associated Equipment Company (AEC) was based in Southall, on a 25 hectares (62 acres) triangular site between Windmill Lane, the main Great Western Railway 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 large letters 'LH' and an arrow to assist pilots toward Heathrow Airport's (closed) runway "23" when making visual approaches.

The letters were painted in the mid-1960s after a fraction of pilots at a glance mistook RAF Northolt (which has a smaller gasholder under its approach at Harrow).

[5] 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).

[6][7] Another demonstrator, Clarence Baker – a singer of the reggae band Misty in Roots, remained in a coma for five months.