page_title: Hayes, Hillingdon
section_title: Culture
hierarchical_section_title: Hayes, Hillingdon / Culture
caption_attribution_description: English: Barra Hall, Hayes Recently restored Barra Hall taken from within Barra Hall Park
context_page_description: Hayes is a town in west London, situated 13 miles west of Charing Cross and part of the London Borough of Hillingdon. The town's population, including its localities Hayes End, Harlington and Yeading, was recorded as 83,564 in the 2011 census.
  Hayes has a long history. The area appears in the Domesday Book. Landmarks in the area include the Grade II* listed Parish Church, St Mary's – the central portion of the church survives from the twelfth century and it remains in use – and Barra Hall, a Grade II listed manor house. The town's oldest public house – the Adam and Eve, on the Uxbridge Road – though not the original seventeenth-century structure, has remained on the same site since 1665.
  Hayes is best known as the erstwhile home of EMI. The words "Hayes, Middlesex" appear on the reverse of The Beatles' albums, which were manufactured at the town's Old Vinyl Factory. The town centre's "gold disc" installation marks the fiftieth anniversary on 1 June 2017 of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album, manufactured in Hayes in 1967. The town is the location of the U.K. headquarters of companies including: Heinz, United Biscuits, Fujitsu, and Rackspace U.K.
context_section_description: Hayes's Beck Theatre opened in 1977, and offers a wide range of touring shows in a welcoming modern building. "The Beck" is very much a community theatre, offering one-night concerts, comedy, drama, films, opera, and pantomime.
  The Open Air Theatre, Barra Hall Park originated in 1951 as a community venue for music, theatre and dance. The local community raised funds for a 2005 rebuild.
  Hayes has several parks and public gardens, including: Barra Hall Park, Minet Country Park, the Norman Leddy Memorial Gardens, and Lake Farm Country Park.
  Hayes's Green Library is situated in the Botwell Green Leisure Centre (address: East Avenue, UB3 2HW), which in 2010 replaced both the old Hayes Library (opened 1933 on Golden Crescent) and the old swimming baths (opened 1967 on the opposite side of Central Avenue). The old swimming baths building remained derelict following its 2010 closure, until Hillingdon Council demolished it in late 2012 having first given itself planning permission for a housing scheme on the site. In 2017, a branch of Lidl opened on the former baths site.
  The Adam and Eve is the town's earliest recorded inn: though not the original seventeenth-century structure, it has remained on the same site since 1665.) Other public houses in Hayes include: The Botwell Inn, The Old Crown (Station Road), Ye Olde Crowne (Uxbridge Road), The Grapes, The Carpenter's Arms, and The Wishing Well. The Hayes branch of The Royal British Legion is on the Uxbridge Road. The Hayes Working Men's Club (CIU) – founded 1918; originally in a large house called Sandgate on Station Road, where Argos and Iceland now stand – is on Pump Lane.
  A photograph survives from World War I of internationally famous opera star Luisa Tetrazzini entertaining munition workers at HMV Hayes factory during their lunchtime.
  Hayes's Gramophone Company contributed a detailed miniature gramophone of mahogany and brass to Queen Mary's Dolls' House; it remains part of the Royal Collection.
  Much-loved entertainer Dame Gracie Fields visited Hayes's His Master's Voice factory in 1933; Pathé News footage shows Gracie pressing her four millionth record alongside factory employees and singing the title song of her 1932 film Looking on the Bright Side to huge cheers. Fields's contemporary George Formby visited Hayes's His Master's Voice studios in February 1924. Earlier, several noted music hall performers came to record at Hayes's HMV studios: Formby's father, George Formby Sr, recorded Grandfather's Clock on 12 April 1916; G. H. Elliott recorded Mississippi Honeymoon on 17 November 1922; and Harry Lauder recorded titles including Roamin' In The Gloamin' and I Love a Lassie on 3 March 1926, as well as visiting Hayes on other occasions in the 1910s and '20s.
  Botwell House hosted early performances by The Rolling Stones (5 August 1963) and The Who (19 April 1965). Accounts of an open-air pop festival organised at Botwell House in 1963 and 1964  – where performers included Dusty Springfield and Screaming Lord Sutch – suggest these may arguably have been the first examples of an open-air pop festival in the UK (excluding jazz festivals). The Blue Moon club on Church Road – next to Hayes F.C., 1964–1966 – hosted performances by bands including: The Yardbirds (10 June 1964), The Who (20 June 1965), and Eric Clapton's Cream (18 September 1966).
  Hayes has had six cinemas in its history. (1.) The town's first cinema, in the silent era, opened in 1913, and was named simply The Hayes Cinema. It was situated at 53–55 Station Road, Hayes – now the site of a branch of Poundland (formerly Woolworths). The Hayes Cinema was renamed Gem Cinema before its closure in the middle of World War I, in 1916. (2.) The Regent Cinema stood between 1924 and 1938 at 16 Station Road, Hayes – now the site of a branch of NatWest bank. The Regent Cinema subsequently became The Regent Theatre (1948–54). Playwright John Osborne performed at the theatre as a young actor, and stars including Kenneth Williams, Diana Dors and John Le Mesurier performed there also early in their careers. Sylvia Rayman's groundbreakin
caption: Barra Hall, Hayes
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