Dina the donkey is coming to town! – ‘Nativity in the Market’ this Saturday from 12.30. Come along and enjoy the moment.

Come along with your family this Saturday (15th December) to meet Dina, a real live donkey, in the Nativity in the Market, organised by St James Church. Dina and the nativity players will start off their tour of West Ealing in Dean Gardens at around 12.15pm, make their way to visit the farmers’ market in Leeland Road for 12.30, then donkey willing, a walk around the streets and on to Melbourne Ave for around 1.45pm. In Melbourne Ave the players will perform the first part  of the nativity play before their final stop in St James Ave and the craft market for 2.15pm where they will complete their performance. Everyone can join in and take part in this family event, sing carols and take part to celebrate and enjoy being part of our local community.

 

Also this week at the craft market in St James Avenue will be a local opera singer who will start off in Sylvester’s barbershop just round the corner, the Westside performers from the nearby youth club and ancient carols with local voices and instruments. More details on this blog.

 

 

 

 

 

Great session by local band Jacob and Goliath at last Saturday’s West Ealing craft market

Cover photo

I managed to catch some of Jacob and Goliath’s session at Saturday’s craft market and was mighty impressed with this young local band.  A great new addition to West London’s alternative/indie folk music scene.  Three of the  band members braved the cold, blew on their icy guitar picking fingers and really put their hearts in to their music. Lead singer Jacob Simpson has got a very striking voice and already has an impressive stage presence. You can see a recording of a part of their session at the market on a later post on this blog. Watch out for them and find out where they’re playing next on their Facebook page

Next Saturday we have carols, local folk band Oddfellas and the dynamic gospel choir Singology- more information on the next post down on this blog.

Talking West Ealing: join us for a coffee tomorrow morning, visit our Christmas craft market and enjoy some live music

If there’s anything in West Ealing you want to talk to us about or ask us you’re very welcome to come and have a coffee with some of the commitee members this Saturday morning at Silva Cafe on the Uxbridge Road opposite Kwik Fit. We’ll be there from 11.30-12.30. There’s a lot of ideas buzzing about on how to make the high street better and many of us are very worried about plans to shut the A&E dept at Ealing Hospital and what that means for us all. We’d love to hear your views and ideas on these and anything else about what’s happening in West Ealing.

And don’t forget, you can get your Christmas shopping off to a great start at the first of our Christmas craft markets in St James Ave on Saturday morning accompanied by some top class live music from 12 noon. See here for the details of the music.

Woolies needs some TLC

The old Woolworths building is a great local example of art deco but it’s getting in a sorry state. There appears to be a tree growing out of its roof and some of the façade is beginning to look unsafe. Is anyone interested in joining us to try to get this building looked after properly? If so, email us at westealingneighbours@gmail.com or join us at our next Saturday morning coffee at Silva Café (opposite Kwik Fit) from 11.30 – 12.30 on Saturday 1st December. 

More photos of this lovely building are in the gallery on our website.

The less desirable W13 or an undervalued pocket?

It’s always interesting to read about how others view the area you live in and that’s the case with this week’s Evening Standard review of property in Ealing. The article is mostly about the W5 postcode but W13 gets a mention or two. It is seen as less desirable than W13 though I might be living in an ‘undervalued pocket’ on the Hanwell borders – not sure about that!

Anyway, worth 5 minutes if you’re interested in property prices and how Ealing is seen by others.

 

 

 

Annual West Ealing Arts & Crafts Fair on Saturday 10am-4pm at St James Church

Come and start your Christmas shopping at our annual Arts & Crafts Fair. More stalls than ever this year, there will be a wide range of original art, crafts amd specialist goods from local arists and craftspeople including:

  • African art
  • Christmas decorations
  • Cushions, blankets and quilts
  • Glasswork
  • Greetings cards
  • Handbags and purses
  • Jams, chutneys, honey and olive oils
  • Scarves
  • Watercolours and acrylics
  • Wood-turning

Admission is free. Hot & cold food and drinks served including a wide variety of home-made cakes.

St James Church, St James Ave (by entrance to Sainsbury’s car park). 10am – 4pm.

 

West Ealing project wins national food award

Cultivate London

 

Congratulations to Cultivate London for winning the Producer of the Year award in the 2012 Observer Food Monthly Awards. In the company of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall,  Nigel Slater and Sir Terence Conran as prizewinners, Cultivate London was set up and is funded by West Ealing based charity Pathways.

Cultivate London converts derelict land in to urban farms to grow herbs and plants. It has two sites in Brentford and you can find its produce at the weekly farmers’ market in West Ealing in Leeland Road.

The Ealing Today website has a fuller version of this story.

Help West Ealing greetings card business win a UK business competition

The Ealing Today website has got a great story about The London Studio, a greetings card company from West Ealing founded by local resident Soula Zavacopoulos,  being named as one of the UK’s top 100 businesses in the Smarta Awards.  The winner will win £10,000 and it’s all down to the number of votes she gets.  You can read the full story here and you can visit The London Studio’s site to vote.

Something a bit special at Saturday’s craft market in West Ealing – a chance to get yourself drawn by an expert caricaturist

Get yourself something to remember this Saturday -come along to Saturday’s craft market in St James Avenue (10am – 3pm) and get your very own caricature drawn by Pixel Monkey (Karl) – a specialist in drawing caricatures with experience of working at Thorpe Park and Chessington World of Adventures – see his website

As well as Karl, there will be a wide range of locally made crafts for sale – jewellery, cards, gifts and more.

More information on our regular stallholders can be found here