Old Oak & Wormwood

Wormwood Scrubs is the borough’s main open space, a broad plain of playing fields, scrubland and a network of paths used by walkers and runners. The prison, HMP Wormwood Scrubs, sits on the edge of the common and its wrought-iron boundary is a long-standing part of the local townscape. Pitches and marked routes occupy much of the green, and the space still carries traces of past uses, from military drills in the 19th century to allotments and informal sports that continue today.

Old Oak grew up around rail yards and maintenance sheds, and the area still shows that industrial DNA in a patchwork of depots, sidings and warehouse plots. A surviving cluster of rail infrastructure and former locomotive facilities marks where engineers once worked on Great Western services. The neighbourhood combines pockets of housing, small workshops and community amenities, and has been the focus of long-term change linked to transport corridors and redevelopment proposals. Local streets and lanes give direct access to the Scrubs and to the rail lands, so movement and maintenance remain central to how the area works.