Local history » West Ealing Neighbours Blog

This week’s gigs at Ealing’s historic blues club

David Highton, Local history, West Ealing 1 Response »

Nov 202011

This week's gigs at Ealing's historic blues club

I have a bit of a personal interest in this post. My taste in music was heavily influenced by my brother who is five years older than me. He was a teenager living in London from mid-1964 onwards and he was an avid fan of blues music so was always going to the Marquee Club , Eel Pie Island and many other clubs and venues, though not The Ealing Club as he told me its heyday was over by 1964. So, Ealing’s central role in the development of British blues music in the early 1960s was indirectly crucial to my musical education. Alistair who is raising funds for a blue plaque to mark the role of The Ealing Club has dropped in to OPEN a couple of times to promote his special fund-raising blues nights at the club and I hope he succeeds with his efforts to get greater recognition of the role played by Alexis [...]

It’s about the apples and pears: more history of West Ealing street names

Local history No Responses »

Jul 232011

It's about the apples and pears: more history of West Ealing street names

Local historian David Shailes continues his look at the history of West Ealing’s street names. It should come as no surprise that many of our names have royal connections, partly for patriotic reasons but also reflective of the fact that Duke of of Kent (1767 -1820) Edward Augustus, father of Queen Victoria lived at Castle Hill Lodge from 1801-12. A replacement house was built in 1845 and a small part still exists and is now occupied by St David’s Home. So we have Kent Gardens, Regina Road/Terrace and Victoria Road/ Cumberland Road in W5/W7.

The Grim Reaper could soon be in charge of Ealing’s heritage

Eric Leach, Local Development Framework, Local history, Public services No Responses »

Jul 222011

Last night I attended the first Ealing Council LDF Advisory Committee Meeting. The Local Development Framework is our National Government’s ‘vehicle’ for Local Authorities to define their preferred use of land within their borders for the next 15 years. Attendees attending the meeting who were allowed to speak were seven Councillors and a handful of Council Officers. I was one of a precious, small group of residents who were invited to attend as observers. It reminded me of attending a lap dancing club where you could watch the girls ‘dance’, but you were not allowed to touch them. Chairing the meeting was Leader of the Council Councillor Julian Bell. He was on his first day of holiday from his day job at The Houses of Parliament.

Local listing can help save West Ealing’s heritage

Community, Eric Leach, Local history 1 Response »

Jul 052011

Local listing can help save West Ealing’s heritage

As part of conceiving Ealing’s Local Development Framework (LDF), Ealing Council has the opportunity to review its designated Local Listed buildings and open spaces. Local listing status does not guarantee protection from demolition or new development but it affords the lowest level of protection against it. (Much greater protection is provided by Conservation Area status and National Listing status). If St Helena’s Home at 51 Drayton Green, for example, had been Locally Listed it would have been much more difficult for Notting Hill Housing Trust to demolish it. These local buildings and open spaces we want preserved need to be identified and reasons given as to why we like them and if there is a relevant historical associations to state what these are. Ealing Civic Society has taken on the role of collecting what they call ‘Local Gems’. WEN has agreed to collect details on West Ealing local gems and [...]

The history of Northfields station

Local history 3 Responses »

Jun 062011

Northfield Avenue in 1903 with a cart going south towards the bridge over the railway line In his second post on local history David Shailes gives a brief history of Northfields station. The stretch of line from Acton Town (then called Mill Hill Park) to Hounslow was opened in 1883 by the Hounslow and Metropolitan Railway. The motivation behind its opening was property speculation in the Spring Grove area of Isleworth and the line passed through open countryside. At the time what we know as Northfields was farm land, so no station was provided and the nearest being at South Ealing and Boston Road (Boston Manor). The line was a sleepy steam-hauled branch line, which was electrified in June 1905 as part of the modernisation of the Metropolitan District Railway (MDR). By the time a station was provided in April 1908 housing development in Northfields had been underway for [...]

Origins of some West Ealing street names

Local Development Framework, Local history 1 Response »

May 192011

Origins of some West Ealing street names

Local historian David Shailes writes that when the streets of Ealing were originally laid out the landowners and property developer got to choose the names, so the reasons for their choices are generally not recorded and are lost in the mist of time. Researching street names is interesting for lots of reasons as some have names of local historical interest, others have no local connections and some are linked to events in history. The length of this article (published in our May newsletter) means that we can only scratch the surface of the 200 odd roads that have a W13 post code. A set of my personal favourites are the Australian named roads: Adelaide Road, Brisbane Road, Sydney Road and Melbourne Avenue and these were all on land developed by the Steel family and it is known that Charles Steel whose market garden at one stage made him the largest rate [...]

Cinema comes back to Ealing but not as we know it…

Community, Gill Adams, Local history, West Ealing Events No Responses »

May 072011

Cinema comes back to Ealing but not as we know it...

Charlie Chaplin? Metropolis? Ivan the Terrible? They’re classic films and deservedly great -best of all you see them locally at Ealing town hall on a Friday night. Put City Lghts in your diary for Friday May 13th, Metropolis for May 20th and Ivan the Terrible for May 27th – 7pm Ealing Town Hall, £7.50. You need to be a member so for membership and information : classiccinemaclub@hotmail.co.uk 020 8579 4925

Wanton destruction of a piece of West Ealing’s social history

Eric Leach, Local history No Responses »

Apr 212011

Wanton destruction of a piece of West Ealing's social history

Eric Leach reports on the demolition of a local landmark. Here you can view the on-going demolition of St Helena’s Home, which overlooks Drayton Green. Built in 1896 the home was a refuge for fallen women, run by Protestant nuns, for over 50 years. The women, many of them single mothers and prostitutes, worked hard in the home’s laundry and were effectively incarcerated. However the home must clearly have saved and extended the lives of many women who for one reason or another were excluded from society. Ironically the organisation which is demolishing the building was founded by a Protestant vicar – Rev Bruce Kendrick – in 1963. He founded Notting Hill Housing (NHH) to help squatters find places to live with improved security of tenure. NHH is now a property development company whose Chief Executive according to ‘Private Eye’ earns £146,000 a year. NHH refused to re-use the building [...]

What’s the story of the murals on the front of Sainsbury’s?

David Highton, Local history 2 Responses »

Apr 132011

What’s the story of the murals on the front of Sainsbury’s?

Chair of WEN, David Highton examines the history of some interesting artwork in the centre of West Ealing When we first moved here in 1978 there was a small Sainsbury’s in the Uxbridge Road not far from the current one. And I well remember this Sainsbury’s being built on the site of what used to be the library but I can’t for the life of me remember or find out anything about the five panels on the front of the shop. I’ve been to the Central Library and looked through back copies of the Ealing Gazette. I’ve even tried ploughing through pages of Council meeting minutes of the early 1980s but nowhere can I find any reference to these panels and who the artist was. Sadly, it’s all too easy to forget these panels even exist as they seem poorly maintained. They all show children playing but much of the [...]