NatWest bank site in West Ealing for sale for £1m

It’s been there for many years but the now closed NatWest bank site at the Lido Junction is now for sale for £1,050,000. Whilst it’s not a listed building it’s one of West Ealing’s few architectural landmarks. We can only hope whoever buys it keeps retains the building or will it too be demolished and replaced by yet another tower block?

Public consultation about plans for hotel in town hall

Mastcraft  – which is looking to take over the Town Hall and turn it into a “Boutique Hotel” with the loss of The VIctoria Hall from much public access, has announced that there is to be a public consultation on its plans from  Thursday 21st June to Saturday 23rd June in the Walpole Room in the Town Hall. It is expected that their plans will be based on this scheme which, if they were to proceed, would involve the demolition of property that is in the Victoria Hall trusts ownership.
The consultation is open on
Thursday 21st June 09:30 – 12:30
Friday 22nd June 14:30 – 17:30
Saturday 23rd June 10:30 – 15:00

There is more information about these plans on Save Ealing’s Centre website.

New St John’s Primary School officially opens

It almost didn’t happen. The original plans for the redevelopment of the Green Man Lane Estate did not include a new school for St John’s even though the school was built as part of the original estate in the 1970s which was deemed no longer fit for purpose. At the time, WEN commented on this and proposed that this was the ideal opportunity to build a new school as there was already great pressure on primary school places.

Luckily, good sense won the day and the plans were amended to include a new school and to build houses along Felix Road on the original site of the school.

The new school which officially opens today (19th June) can take over 600 pupils along with some 100 in its new nursery. All in all, a welcome addition to the primary schools in West Ealing.

Is this the end for West Ealing’s Poundworld?

Poundworld has appointed receivers for its nationwide chain of discount stores. The chain is just one of a number of high street retailers which have suffered over recent months – House of Fraser, Maplin and Toys ‘R’ Us being just a few. Its collapse puts at risk over 5,000 jobs nationwide.

The West Ealing branch is in the old Woolworth’s store and would probably have had to move with the site’s likely redevelopment(see story below).

The receivers Deloitte’s seem hopeful that some or all of the Poundworld stores will be bought.