NEXT TIME you are stuck in traffic on the A40 on your way into or out of London, look up and admire the Diageo building. It might seem like an ordinary office block in an out-of-town business park, but it is the linchpin of a huge redevelopment programme that could change the face of this carbon monoxide-choked part of West London otherwise known as Park Royal.

Stranded between Wembley and Harlesden to the north, Ealing to the west and Hammersmith to the east, Park Royal is being transformed from an unloved industrial wasteland into a “bustling new community in West London”. It is a massive undertaking focusing on four main “gateways” in the four corners of Park Royal and including the site of the demolished Guinness factory.

The £350 million-plus redevelopment, spearheaded by Diageo, owners of Guinness, will include the building of nine vast office blocks, a 150-bed business-class hotel and a new Underground stop linking the Piccadilly and Central Lines. All this will come with lakes, waterfalls and a 20-acre nature reserve. Apart from the offices, there are also proposals for a GPs’ surgery, a day nursery and a community centre. To complete the vision, the residential developer Bellway is building 150 new flats.

The scheme, which will be finished later this year, is already three quarters sold, and new residents moved in last summer, marking a new chapter in the history of Park Royal.

Although Park Royal was part of the Middlesex oak forest and the feeding ground for the Bishop of London’s herd of swine during the Middle Ages, it did not get its name until 1901, when the Royal Agricultural Society opened a permanent showground there. Despite the failure of the exhibition site, Park Royal retained its title, and because of good road, rail and canal links the area developed into an industrial hub, conveniently located between London and Heathrow.

McVitie’s, Heinz and Guinness all operated here before advances in technology and production prompted many companies to leave in search of bigger sites in the 1970s and 1980s. The area went into decline until the turn of the century, when a consortium of business and public bodies embarked on an ambitious regeneration plan.

Sprucing up the infrastructure, creating new jobs and attracting more business cannot fail to have an impact on the neighbourhood.

Although there are still few homes in the core of Park Royal, save for the Bellway development and some 1930s and 1950s terraces along Twyford Abbey road, the area around it is pure suburbia. Across the A40 lies a whole different world of well-kept homes with trimmed privet hedges. The closer you get to Hanger Lane (and therefore Ealing), the larger the houses: three-bedroom 1930s homes give way to mock-Tudor mini-mansions and Art Deco villas.

The American feel of the place is compounded by what’s on offer at Royale Leisure Park: cinema, bowling and Pizza Hut. Apart from the sprawling complex, there is no high-street hub or centre to Park Royal, but the Boden shop by Park Royal Tube station seems to be doing a roaring trade with local mums filling their spring wardrobes with well-cut classics while builders in white vans stock up at the Polish deli next door.

So full of aspiration is this small pocket of Park Royal, a conservation area, that local people and estate agents call it the Haymills estate. “Agents don’t describe it as Park Royal, as it would devalue the area,” says Jason Godfray, of Townends in Ealing. “Park Royal conjures up a really industrial image.”

Industrial or not, house prices are high on both sides of the Western Avenue. Even in the less salubrious parts, a three-bedroom house costs between £350,000 and £400,000 and you are unlikely to find a one-bedroom flat for much under £200,000. The Bellway homes are even more expensive. A one-bedroom flat costs between £242,995 and £249,995.

Once all the building work is done, glossy Park Royal will have shed its industrial past. But the key to its success remains exactly what made it great in its heyday — location. Bellway Homes, 0845 6760250 or www.bellway.co.uk; First Central, www.firstcentral.co.uk

LOCAL FLAVOUR

What is it? Neither green nor regal, Park Royal is in industrial northwest London.

Transport? Piccadilly Line to Park Royal or Central to Hanger Lane. A slow barge will also get you there along the Union Canal.

Why live there? Location. It lies between London, Heathrow and Oxford.

Anything else? There are some quite big detached houses with large gardens. There are three golf courses within five miles.

Good for children? Maybe. But expect to become a family taxi. You don’t walk here. This area is not child-friendly.

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