Join us for coffee on Saturday morning – 11.30am at Silva Cafe – and find out what’s happening in West Ealing

Silva Cafe

Come and join us for coffee on Saturday morning 11.30 am at the Silva Cafe in West Ealing (opposite Kwik Fit). We’ve had our winter break and are starting up our coffee mornings on the first Saturday of the month again. The idea is for anyone to join us and contribute to our efforts for West Ealing or come and see if we can help you with any particular problem you have. On Saturday I know we’ll be talking about local policing and community safety, ideas to improve our high street, how to improve our monthly craft market, perhaps even the plans for the new mosque and more.
If you care about what happens to West Ealing you’re very welcome to join us.

What goes on inside our head? – free event at Drayton Court Hotel with leading science communicator on Thursday 7th February 3pm

 

 

This sounds interesting and a little challenging!  ‘A journey of recovery to the heart of his grey matter following a traumatic head injury’. It’s a free event because the people involved in staging this would like your feedback so they can fine-tune it before it goes on tour.

a4londonflyer

In 2011, leading science communicator James Piercy suffered a traumatic head injury that made this question more pertinent than ever before. Join him as he shares his at times emotional journey. Find out just what we know about what is in our heads and the effect of brain damage via tales of the brain’s structure, MRI, monitoring and the effects of trauma.

It’s downstairs at the Drayton Court Hotel on Thursday 7th February starting at 3pm.
website www.sciencemadesimple.co.uk  or blog  http://whatsgoingoninhishead.wordpress.com/

 

David gets the T-shirt

david and tshirtIt’s not smart, it’s not clever – but it is BIG and also unique and imbued with  a huge thank you from local members of the West Ealing community.

WEN’s chair David Highton was cited in this year’s New Year Honours for his contribution to our community in West Ealing which, as most of us know, is considerable.

So local neighbours and tradespeople signed a logo’d T-shirt and thanked him and toasted him in a small local celebration. No royalty were present and he maintains he’ll wear a smart suit and shirt when he receives his well-deserved British Empire Medal later in the year.

 

Tough times on the high street as Blockbuster goes in to administration

Craft Market Family Day 2012

Craft market in St James Ave with Blockbuster on the right corner

Hot on the heels of Jessops and HMV the next high street chain to go in to administration is Blockbuster UK, though it appears it will keep trading whilst a buyer is sought. Blockbuster has a shop in West Ealing on the corner of the Uxbridge Road and St James Ave. This spot is a key one for WEN and others who are working on ideas to reclaim the dead space at the top end of St James Avenue. WEN has run a monthly craft market here since April and OPEN Ealing may move its arts centre to the building above Blockbuster. In addition, there may be TfL money to improve this pedestrianised area at the top of St James Avenue and the Council is putting in a bid for ‘pocket park’ funds to add to the Tfl ones. What happens to Blockbuster on this corner could have an impact on these plans.  So we’ll be watching events carefully to see what happens.

Traders and residents invited to hear about plans for West Ealing centre

On Tuesday 22 January 2013 at 5:30pm at SiLVA Cafe, 148 Broadway, West Ealing local traders are being invited to hear about plans to re-invigorate our High Street.

Anyone can attend – just turn up. The more the merrier. We all need to hear and discuss everyone’s views.

David Highton, Chair of WEN, will be discussing current and future WEN initiatives as well as outlining some London Borough of Ealing (LBE) proposals, which WEN and other local stakeholders have been working on. These include vacant shop initiatives, a business hub, pop up businesses, events and markets.

Eric Leach, Chair of West Ealing Centre Neighbourhood Forum (WECNF), will be discussing the forum’s programme to create a detailed, 15 year spatial plan for the centre of West Ealing. These include policies for social provision, movement, Crossrail, housing and of course the High Street. LBE has a set of movement proposals; WECNF has its own plans; and local businesses have their own ideas too! Initiatives to be discussed include increased car parking, pedestrian improvements, accommodating cyclists, improved bus services, taking full advantage of the arrival of West Ealing Crossrail and better traffic flows.

Matthew McMillan Chief Executive of Ealing Broadway Business Improvement District (EBBID) will explain what a BID is all about. West Ealing Traders’  Association (WETA), WEN. WECNF and LBE are all keen for local traders to form a West Ealing Centre BID organisation.

‘Under her skin’ – great show at the Drayton in January

singingLaurel Swift (the one with the double bass) teaches her long-running folk workshop to local folkies at the Drayton on Monday nights, and now offers to West Ealing:

‘Under Her Skin’

Directed by John Wright

The Drayton Court, The Avenue, West Ealing  **   15-17 January 2013  **  7:45pm  **  £5

An epic tale, a modern twist, two voices, four feet and eight strings.

Debs Newbold and Laurel Swift bring a rich and innovative collision of forms to their first full-length collaboration – a story of loss and regret that is also funny, irreverent, moving and dripping with streetwise credibility. Combining dynamic performance storytelling with the effusive energy of traditional dance and music, Under Her Skin sweeps audiences into a rich imaginative landscape.

 “…a glorious, raucous, joyful show which manages seamlessly to combine the raw energy of dance, the earthiness of social realism and the magic and wonder of myth into an entirely integrated, expertly realised evening’s entertainment.”

GILES ABBOTT

This is storytelling crafted especially for adults. Based on an ancient British Selkie (seal people) folktale and set firmly in the here and now, it is an integrated show, inventive and theatrical yet with no fourth wall to get in the way of any mischief!  Debs Newbold’s highly acclaimed and charismatic storytelling voice joins the double bass, fiddle and clog dynamism of Laurel Swift to create an explosion of joy.  Under Her Skin plays freely with the conventions of storytelling and gives an ancient British folktale a strong contemporary retelling.

 

Laurel Swift is an Associate Artist of the English Folk Dance and Song Society

www.debsandlaurel.co.uk

www.morrisoffspring.co.uk

www.gadarenemusic.com

www.gloworms.org.uk