Horsenden Lane South connects the Western Avenue with the Grand Union Canal.
Perivale ’village’ was never more than a small complex centred on the church, rectory, and manor-house. By the time of the first detailed map in 1839, the manor-house had been demolished and the only domestic buildings were five widely separated farm-houses. Horsenden Farm, Church Farm, Grange Farm, Manor Farm and Apperton or Alperton Farm. At this time Perivale was said to be ’very secluded’. The only roads in the area were Horsenden Lane and Apperton Lane.
The opening in 1801 of the Paddington branch of the Grand Junction Canal had little effect and in 1876 Perivale was described as ’a curiously lonely-looking little place, lying in the valley of the Brent among broad meadows’. Horsenden Lane was split into Horsenden Lane North and Horsenden Lane South, depending on the particular side of the canal.
In 1821, the population census showed that there were only 25 inhabitants in Perivale and this had only grown to 32 in the 1851 census. Kelly’s Directory records the population as 31 with 4 inhabitated houses for the year 1881.
In 1904 the Great Western Railway’s halt at Perivale opened. This was enlarged and converted into a station in 1908, and continued to serve the parish until 1947, when London Transport’s Central line was extended from North Acton to Greenford alongside the G.W.R. line. Perivale station was then rebuilt on Horsenden Lane South and the local steam train service discontinued.
Following the First World War, Horsenden Farm was acquired by the Sudbury Golf Club thus signalling the end to farming being the predominant activity. In 1929, Sandersons Wallpaper had built a factory on the farmland alongside Horsenden Lane and houses were built. On the opposite side of Horsenden Lane, a housing estate and small factory were built.
Despite the coming of the railway very few virtually no residential or industrial developments occurred before 1930. In that year a section of Western Avenue driven across the parish along the line of Alperton Lane.
Church Farm was bought by Hoovers the manufacturer of vacuum cleaners and in 1931 - 1935 the world famous Hoover Building (now Grade I listed) was constructed. It was also at this time that Manor Farm disappeared to become a factory estate.
Between 1931 and 1939 the area bounded by Western Avenue, Horsenden Lane, and the Paddington Canal was almost entirely covered by factories and houses. Industrial building was concentrated in an area immediately north of the railway line in and around Wadsworth Road and Bideford Avenue. Residential development was concentrated along the north side of Western Avenue and in the central area of the parish between the railway line and the canal. The new Bilton Road was built from Horsenden Lane South through to Manor Farm Road and surrounded by residential housing - typically 1930s semi-detached and terraced houses.
All the pre-1939 housing schemes were speculative. By 1939 the development of the parish was virtually completed.
