Anti-riot cup cakes, pizza and a mural – OPEN Ealing helps restore a little community spirit

OPEN Ealing’s Jack Jones and friends spent part of Saturday painting a mural on the shutters boarding up the boarded up baby e shop on Ealing Green

baby e mural painted by Jack Jones of OPEN Ealing

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‘ Yesterday we took to the streets to help reconstruct our community that has been rocked by this weeks events. I turned up at Baby e with a bag full of paints and we all set to work.

We were later unexpectedly joined by “bake for a better britain” who had made some amazing anti riot cup cakes and they did a great job of providing a happy atmosphere and conversation to the public while we busied ourselves with pots of paint and composition tweaking.

The pizza place next door even came out with pizza for everyone, which was equally amazing as the cup cakes. We had set up paper for the public to draw on, and who left many encouraging messages of support. thank you to everyone who came out yesterday to support us. For the first time in a while, I’ve been proud to say I am from Ealing.

You can read the full story and see the photos taken during the day at http://openealing.com/wordpress/

 

David Highton

All quiet on the West Ealing front

After the prayer meeting on Ealing Green we had an early dinner in Carluccio’s.  I booked a table knowing my son would be most upset if it was too busy.  For the first time in the 7 years I have lived in Ealing the place was practically empty. And remained so until we left around 8.30pm.  Walking back to West Ealing along Mattock Lane we stopped off to look at the preparations for the   Shri Kanagathurkkai Amman Temple chariot festival tomorrow.  We then carried on along the Uxbridge Road home – West Ealing was like a ghost town, incredibly depressing to see.

Let’s please support Ealing and the local traders however we can, they need us more than ever.

 

Ways to respond to riots in Ealing and West Ealing

1. There’s a vigil tonight at 6pm on Ealing Green organised by Ealing Churches

2. Healing service at St James’s (back of Sainsbury’s) West Ealing Sunday (Aug 14, tomorrow) at 10.30. Come whatever your beliefs or religion to show solidarity with West Ealing community.

3. Special meeting at Council (Ealing Town Hall) to discuss riots plus minute’s silence for Richard Mannington Bowes.

Note, also this page on council website about how people can access support post-riots (well done, Ealing Council).

After the riots – What future for West Ealing Traders?

Walking along West Ealing Broadway this afternoon at the closed, boarded up shops I wonder if they will ever re-open?

Seba Electronics is a small family run business trading in the area for some 40 years; all their stock stolen in one night.  Goldmine is the same. And whilst Blockbuster is no small independent it has a role to play on the corner of St James Avenue, an area well known to the Police for drug dealing. With Blockbuster on one corner and Farah now on the other this area was looking partially revitalised. There are also plans in place for a monthly craft market here starting in the Autumn, specifically placed in St James to help with this problem.

On a brighter note I went into Luckhurts and bought some fine quality meat at great prices – support your local traders in these difficult times.

Seba Electronics - the morning after the riots
Blockbuster West Ealing - The morning after the riots

The Quiet Opening of Cheddar Deli – Northfields Avenue

New cheese shop on Northfields Avenue

Amongst the mayhem and chaos in West Ealing over the past few days a new cheese shop has opened on Northfields Avenue.  A local husband and wife team opened Cheddar Deli on Monday 8th August and seem to be doing a brisk trade.  I went in yesterday and bought some manchego, jarslberg and quince cheese. Brent (the owner) was very helpful and let me taste the jarslberg as I wasn’t familiar with the flavour. My lunch today was delicious – I’ll certainly be going back for more.

They also offer a monthly, quarterly, twice yearly service. I’m not sure if this is delivered so best to go in and ask.

Cheddar Deli - open for business

Apart from cheese they sell meats, home made tarts and a small range of top quality produce such as crackers, oil, jam.

 

West Ealing – bloodied but unbowed

Plainly we need a miracle. One man stood in West Ealing Broadway all night and witnessed what happened. He described a scene of random violence and looting. Police cars sped through, presumably too outnumbered to dare to stop, as 2-300 young people, masked and hooded, went on a frenzied spree hurling paving stones into shop windows. The shop that sells fancy trainers was the first to go. Blockbusters was smashed open and emptied; Play Stations walked out and became currency on the street. Seba Electronics was emptied – one of the few remaining independent electronics shops owned by a gentle man who writes inspiring sayings on the wall outside. What will he do now? The Bargain Store – rugs, mobile phones, luggage – was broken into. Cash Converters put up a brave label, saying they’d be back.

The man who bore witness, Mike Sylvester, who runs Sylvester’s Hair and Beauty, just stood outside his plate glass window all night – and he’s planning to do the same tonight. ‘Weren’t you frightened?’ I asked him. ‘Not really,’ he said. ‘I just kept saying “don’t set fires”. You have to be careful. One young guy tried to stop them trashing Blockbusters and his face ended up covered in blood.’  Mike worries that young people are simply very angry and don’t care what they do.

Mike, and people like him, are a ray of light. One person said that Southall shops remained safe because the families that own them came out in force to stand guard.

We asked the people at the Bargain Store what help they needed, as they rushed to board up their shop – still wide open to the world at 7pm. They said it was enough we thought about them. We asked the Afghani veg and fruit shop, as they brought down the shutters early, what we could do for them. They said prayer was the only answer and gave us free bananas to thank us. All we could do was walk and talk. Mike said that things like Family Day on 24 September (a ‘new’ West Ealing tradition that started last year) are more crucial than ever. Meanwhile, he’s performing his vigil tonight again. I can’t help feeling it would have been worse last night without him standing there, an almost silent witness – a symbol of patient sanity, of adulthood.  I hope he stays safe. I wish I was brave enough to take him a cup of tea.

All we keep asking is ‘What can we do?’

West Ealing and Ealing Riots – WEN gallery link.

Monday night and Tuesday morning saw looters attack a number of shops in the West Ealing shopping centre. The looted shops include Seba Electronics, Blockbusters, Goldmine jewellers (next to Swami newsagent), mobile phone shops and London Joggers. Many shops had their windows smashed including Wilkinson’s, PDSA charity shop, Salvation Army shop, Barclays Bank, Santander and more.

Photos showing the damage in West Ealing and Ealing Broadway can be seen in our album: 2011-08-08-West Ealing and Ealing Riots.