The Trading Estate is home to the most cutting edge companies from the UK, but has a rich heritage of over 100 years in Slough.

During the First World War, the British Government established a military repair depot in Slough.

After the war, in 1920, Lord Percival Perry, Redmond McGrath and Noel Mobbs founded The Slough Trading Company Ltd and purchased the depot, buildings and vehicles for £7 million.

They rehired the original War Department staff, adapting the military vehicles for civilian use.

The military vehicles were quickly recycled and sold off, thereby making some of the original workshops surplus to requirement, which were then made available for rent and were successfully let to a variety of customers.

Thus was born the modern industrial estate at Slough, a pioneering concept that has since been copied all over the world.

The next step was to set about creating the infrastructure needed for further development – including the estates own Police force and Fire service.

In 1926 the company name was changed to Slough Estates Ltd with a focus on producing world leading spaces for customers.

Workers’ welfare was always considered to be of great importance and in 1936, the Slough Community Centre which featured over 150 bodies and societies offering a very broad range of activities for people on the estate.

In 1947 they launched their own Industrial Health service, a year before the NHS was formed. This featured state of the art mobile diagnostic equipment, such as X-ray machines that could go to the factories to treat people immediately when the need arose.

The welfare of employees, customers and Slough communities was and is still of real importance.

SEGRO has provided Slough Museum with 3,864 square ft of space on the Slough Trading Estate for us to store and exhibit items from our collection and connect local communities with the town’s heritage.

The new space at the heart of the Trading Estate enables Slough Museum to continue developing imaginative, inclusive displays and interacting with local people to collect stories that reflect Slough as a place of pioneers and innovators.

Slough Museum holds a unique collection of more than 6,000 objects and 5,000 photographs, which chronicle the fascinating history of Slough, including the Trading Estate and its century old roots.