Editing Wembley (section)

===Railways, parish formed and development===
In 1837, the [[London & Birmingham Railway]] (now part of the [[West Coast Main Line]]) was opened from [[Euston railway station|London Euston]] through Wembley to [[Hemel Hempstead railway station|Hemel Hempstead]], and completed to [[Birmingham Curzon Street railway station (1838-1966)|Birmingham Curzon Street]] the following year. The changing names of the local station demonstrated the increasing importance of the 'Wembley' name. 'Sudbury' station opened in 1845, renamed as 'Sudbury and Wembley' in 1882, renamed as 'Wembley for Sudbury' in 1910, renamed as 'Wembley Central' in 1948, at the time of the [[1948 Summer Olympics|Olympic Games]].

[[File:St John the Evangelist, Wembley - geograph.org.uk - 5022706.jpg|thumb|St John the Evangelist church was built in 1846]]
To modernise the service, a new [[Watford DC line]] was built alongside the main lines and [[Bakerloo line]] trains, and electric trains to [[Broad Street railway station (England)|Broad Street]] started in 1917. Electric trains to London Euston began running in 1922. Since 1917, there have been six platforms at what is now [[Wembley Central railway station|Wembley Central station]]. In 1880, the [[Metropolitan Railway]] opened its line from [[Baker Street tube station|Baker Street]] through the eastern side of Wembley, but only built a station, [[Wembley Park tube station|Wembley Park]], in 1894. There are now three physically separate services, the [[London to Aylesbury Line]], the [[Metropolitan line]] and the [[Jubilee line]]. Only the latter two services have platforms at Wembley Park station.

Anne and Frances Copland, who in 1843 inherited Sudbury Lodge and its lands, gave a plot for a church to serve the southern part of Harrow parish.<ref name=vch>Diane K Bolton, H P F King, Gillian Wyld and D C Yaxley, 'Harrow, including Pinner : Modern churches', in [[Victoria County History|A History of the County of Middlesex]]: Volume 4 ed. T F T Baker, J S Cockburn and R B Pugh (London, 1971), pp. 257-260. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol4/pp257-260</ref> In spite of less support from local farmers, who preferred part of Lord Northwick's property on Wembley Hill, the sisters' offer was accepted since they would bear all the cost of building.<ref name=vch/> The church of Saint John the Evangelist, Wembley, designed by [[George Gilbert Scott]] and W. B. Moffatt, was consecrated in 1846, in which year Wembley became a parish.<ref name=vch/> It was built of flint with stone dressings, in the Gothic style, and comprised chancel, nave, northeast chapel, and wooden bell turret.<ref name=vch/> A north aisle was added in 1859 and a south aisle in 1900; extensions were made to the west to designs of G. P. Pratt in 1935.<ref name=vch/> It has one church bell.<ref name=vch/>

[[File:Harrow Road, Sudbury postcard.jpg|thumb|left|Harrow Road, c. 1910, showing Sudbury Park Farm on the left and Crabs House on the right (now buildings of [[Barham Park]])]]
In November 1905, the [[Great Central Railway]] (now, in this section, part of the [[Chiltern Main Line]]) opened a new route for fast expresses that by-passed the congested Metropolitan Railway tracks. It ran between Neasden Junction, south of Wembley, and Northolt Junction, west of London, where a new joint main line with the [[Great Western Railway]] began. Local passenger services from [[Marylebone railway station|London Marylebone]] were added from March 1906, when new stations were opened, including 'Wembley Hill', next to what later became the site of Wembley Stadium – the national stadium of English sport – which opened for the [[1923 FA Cup Final|FA Cup Final]] of April 1923, remaining open for 77 years until it closed for reconstruction in October 2000.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wembleystadium.com/gloriouspast/historyintroduction|title=History Introduction|last=TheFA|access-date=9 October 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101017232053/http://www.wembleystadium.com/GloriousPast/historyIntroduction|archive-date=17 October 2010|url-status=dead}}</ref> After a long planning and redevelopment process dogged by a series of funding problems and construction delays, the new stadium finally opened its doors in March 2007.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6459415.stm | work=BBC News | title=Doors finally open at new Wembley | date=17 March 2007}}</ref> Wembley Hill station was renamed 'Wembley Complex' in May 1978, before getting its present name of '[[Wembley Stadium railway station|Wembley Stadium]]' in May 1987.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Mitchell |first1=Vic |last2=Smith |first2=Keith |title=Marylebone to Rickmansworth |series=Midland Main Lines |date=February 2005 |publisher=Middleton Press |location=Midhurst |isbn=1-904474-49-7 |chapter=Figure 51 }}</ref>

Wembley was also served by [[Trams in London|tram]] (route 62) and later [[Trolleybuses in London|trolleybus]] (route 662) which ran through the [[Harrow Road]] from Sudbury to [[Paddington]] until the abandonment of the networks.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.trolleybus.net/crich3.htm|title=David Bradley Online - Anniversary Parade of London Tram and Trolleybus abandonment|website=www.trolleybus.net}}</ref> The route is now mostly served by [[London Buses route 18|bus route 18]] which is also one of the busiest bus routes in all of London today.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.mylondon.news/news/zone-1-news/11-busiest-london-bus-routes-17210691|title=The 11 busiest bus routes in London where finding a seat is a real challenge|first=Qasim|last=Peracha|date=8 November 2019|website=MyLondon}}</ref>

[[File:Wembley Fire Station - geograph.org.uk - 3845548.jpg|thumb|Wembley Fire Station]]
The 1937-built fire brigade headquarters of [[Middlesex County Council]] on Harrow Road, in Moderne style, is now a fire station of the [[London Fire Brigade]]. It is statutorily recognised and protected in the initial category, Grade II, of [[listed building]].<ref>{{NHLE|num=1247236|desc=Fire Station}}</ref>

Wembley, in common with much of northwest London, had an extensive manufacturing industry, but much of it closed in the 1980s. Its factories included Glacier Metals (bearings), Wolf Power Tools, Sunbeam Electrical Appliances, Griffin & George (laboratory equipment) and GEC (whose research laboratories, opened in 1923, were one of the first of their type in the United Kingdom<ref>{{cite book |last1=Clayton |first1=Robert |last2=Algar |first2=Joan |title=The GEC Research Laboratories 1919–1984 |publisher=Peter Peregrinus | year=1989 |isbn=0-86341-146-0}}</ref>).