History
The name Park Royal derives from the short-lived showgrounds opened in 1903 by the Royal Agricultural Society as a permanent exhibition site for the society's annual show. After only three years the society sold the site, and returned to a touring format for its shows. With its road, rail and canal links, Park Royal was subsequently developed for industrial use, mainly during the 1930s.
For many years it was a centre of engineering, with firms including Park Royal Vehicles, GKN and Landis and Gyr.
Queens Park Rangers F.C. played on two grounds in Park Royal. The first was the Horse Ring, later the site of the Guinness brewery, which had a capacity of 40,000. When the Royal Agricultural Society sold the grounds in 1907, QPR moved to the Park Royal Ground, 400 yards (370 m) south, an almost exact replica of Ayresome Park, with a capacity of 60,000. The club was forced to move out in February 1915 as the ground was taken over by the Army.
The Guinness Sports Club hosted some of the field hockey events for the 1948 Summer Olympics.
In recent years, Park Royal has been a site for illegal squat parties, due to the presence of disused industrial buildings and remoteness from domestic housing.
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