West Ealing Family Day: free opera workshop for children on Saturday

Free Opera workshop for children on Saturday 24th September at St James Church 1-3pm

Opera Viscera return to Ealing for a one-off special event. They are staging a free 2-hour workshop for children aged 7-12 at 1pm followed at 3.15pm by a performance from their specially written opera ‘Narcissus and Echo’

This workshop is aimed at children aged 7-12. You can come along to the OPEN Ealing stall in Melbourne Avenue and reserve a free place.

Afternoon Starts: 1pm (Breaks for juice and biscuits will be taken during the afternoon)

Parents Arrive: 3pm

Performance of Opera: 3.15pm

‘We are creating a musical performance of the story ‘Narcissus and Echo’ and we need your help to make it something special. Dive into a world of sounds and mirrors with us and who knows what your imagination might find……’

Children will discover the story of Narcissus & Echo and learn how an opera is made in an energetic, experimental and fun afternoon of music and drama. The afternoon will finish with a version of our opera ‘Narcissus & Echo’: a mythical tale of music, magic and mirrors. We hope that the children might let you in on some of the day’s discoveries so that you can enjoy the show as much as they will!

Sarah HillSarah HillWorkshop Leader

When not performing as a violinist Sarah is currently teaching the violin and leading Wider Opportunity projects at primary schools around Manchester. With an urge to gain more experience in educating children though the creative arts Sarah has completed the Dalcroze Easter Course, has been a volunteer tutor with Special Virtuosi (a music group for children with learning disabilities) and has attended all sorts of workshops with EarlyArts aiming at nurturing creativity in children.

Yesterday’s fire in West Ealing

View from Chapel Rd looking north at 7pm

Apologies for not having the time to put up a post yesterday. The fire was in a top floor flat in one of the houses in Chapel Road – just off the Uxbridge Road east of the Lido Junction and not very far from St John’s Church. When I passed by at about 5.30pm I asked the police about it and  they did not know if anyone was killed or injured during the blaze. The area was chock full of fire engines and other emergency vehicles still busy putting out the fire and quite a few roads were still cordoned off and buses parked along the Uxbridge Road.

I don’t know exactly when it started but I was at OPEN Ealing just down the road and we first smelt smoke mid-afternoon, went up to the 4th floor and could see smoke pouring from the fire. As OPEN is opposite the fire station we certainly heard the fire engines heading off!

The last serious fire I can remember in central West Ealing was sometime in the early 1980s (?) when a small factory caught fire off Grosvenor Road – at least I think that’s where it was.

 

Book swapping is going London wide

Last May West Ealing Neighbours started a book swap in West Ealing station, and we have given away several thousand books since then. The success of this book swap has inspired Chris Gilson of West Ealing neighbours to start a campaign to get a London-wide book sharing scheme in operation by the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics.

We’re also hoping to tie our West Ealing book swap with the Guardian newspaper’s campaign and the Bookcrossing movement.

If you’re keen to get involved, then check out the new blog: http://londonbookswap.wordpress.com/

Free opera workshop for children at West Ealing Family Day on Saturday 24th September

Saturday 24th September at St James Church from 1pm -3pm

Opera Viscera and OPEN Ealing present a workshop afternoon of music, drama, and design;exploring the process of making an opera (a story with music). Throughout the afternoon the children will help our performers choose how their characters might move on stage, what sounds they might make, and what their costumes could look like. They will even have a go at conducting our professional musicians! The afternoon will finish with highlights of our opera ‘Narcissus and Echo’; a mythical tale of music, magic and mirrors. We hope that the children might let you  on on some of the day’s discoveries so that you can enjoy the show as much as they will! 

Opera Viscera are a team of young professional musicians, composers and designers who came to OPEN Ealing in July to prepare their new opera. They premiered their opera at OPEN to a packed audience and have since performed it at the Secret Garden Festival and other venues.

 
The workshop will be led by violinist Sarah Hill (pictured)- an experienced music teacher and workshop leader. If you’d like to book a place on this workshop please email westealingneighbours@gmail.com

David Highton

Dog Ownership Information Day – today in Dean Gardens 12 noon – 5pm

Ealing Council’s Community Safety team will be in Dean Gardens this afternoon from 12 noon to 5pm to give out information about how to look after your pet’s health and will be offering dog microchipping. The aim of the day is to encourage responsible dog ownership following some recent incidents in our parks where dogs have been out of control.

Residents up in arms about new 24-hour gym in West Ealing

The Daniels Family persuaded Ealing Council in 2003 to allow them to knock down their 100 year old department store on the Uxbridge Road in West Ealing and build a new one on the same site. Oh, and they were allowed to build 137 new flats on top of it. The flats got built in 2007 but Daniels declined to occupy the store space, as did everyone else for over four years. The space was boarded up until a few weeks ago. 

A gym is planning to open in the space in November 2011. On the face of it, it seemed better have some use of the space than to have the space unused. However we’ve just discovered that Ealing Council is to allow the gym to be open for 24 hours every day. Also the owners of the gym expect 6,000 gym members (paying £15 per month), and 600 of them using the gym after 10:00pm. However there are no plans to employ any gym staff after 8:00pm every evening. 

Clearly some of these gym users will drive to the area. But where would they park? There are CPZs to the immediate north and south and a very small nearby Council car park in Arden Road. 

Apart from the flat dwellers above the gym and five day time opening shops across the road no-one locally was consulted about the 24 hour opening of the gym. Local residents are livid about this. Not only have they had to put up with riots, looting, shootings, stabbings, violence, urinatings, late night noisy drunken revellers – now they have to put up with the comings and goings of 100s of gym attendees all through the night. 

A campaigning group objecting to the plans and the lack of consultation has been set up by local residents. Contact them at www.ResidentsUnite.co.uk

 Eric Leach

14 September 2011

West Ealing Folk class restarts at Drayton Court, Mon Sept 12

If you’re a late bloomer, returner, beginner or just curious – and you have some kind of musical instrument (guitars, ukes, whistles, harmonicas, fiddles, accordions, flutes, and anything else you can think of, all welcome) – consider coming to learn some lovely simple old trad tunes at your local pub/hotel on Monday nights. You don’t need to be able to read music. These term-time classes restart on Mon Sept 12, 7-9pm but you can join any time. We learn new tunes every week. More here: http://ealingsessions.wordpress.com/about/

The Big West Ealing Event – West Ealing Family Day 24th September 10am -4pm

This will be our second Family Day and it will be even bigger and better than last year!  We have managed to secure Opera Viscera who will be at St James Church running a children’s workshop at 1pm and later on that day at 3.15pm there will be a performance by this exciting collection of young artists.

The Family day will stretch from St John’s Church on Mattock Lane to St James Avenue. There will be food, live music across several locations, an extended farmers market, children’s activities, WEN Abundance will be selling our popular jams and chutneys and for the first time our very own apple juice!

This is a great way to celebrate life and the community in West Ealing after the shock and destruction of the recent riots.

What Does Ealing Council Have Against Felix Road Residents?

Felix Road runs east /west to the immediate north of Green Man Lane Estate (GMLE) and with the Paddington to Bristol railway line to the north. For years and years traffic congestion, rat running, residents’ parking problems and road rage have all been common along the road.

Famously in 2009 Ealing Council built two new portacabin classrooms stacked on top of each other overlooking houses and flats at the road’s eastern end without going through any public consultation. Now, again without any consultation or notice a huge amount of the road has been yellow lined, making residents’ parking impossible.

Four Controlled Parking Zone (CPZ) Public Consultations have been held in the area in recent years. The latest one, completed months ago, voted 61% in favour of a CPZ. However no timescale for implementation has been given to residents.

Finally Ealing Council granted planning permission in 2010 for the 700+ new homes development of GMLE along with increased access to Felix Road. Over the next eight years another 1,200 GMLE residents will attract even more traffic along Felix Road.

Just why isit that Ealing Council consistently wants to pour grief down on Felix Road residents?

 

Eric Leach

 

OPEN Ealing launches its autumn season of classes and courses for adults

OPEN Ealing has launched its autumn season of activities for adults. Coming up soon are:

5-week course on introduction to photography

12-week course in creative writing

12-week series of talks on the history of 20th century design

6-week course on printmaking

Alongside these are all sorts of dance and exercise classes for all ages from zumba and pilates to Glee Club, breakdance and ballet.

Visit our new website at www.openealing.com for full details.

David Highton