Posts

Posted on

OPEN Ealing – sale of limited edition artworks 18th -23rd October

Limited Edition Letterpress and Screen-prints by Danny Flynn

DANNY

OPENShop, OPEN Ealing’s current performance and exhibition space in West Ealing, is turning into a.. er.. shop, of all things, for just five days.  

From  Saturday 19th to Wednesday 23rd October OPEN is hosting a sale of limited edition printed artworks by acclaimed designer Danny Flynn.  Flynn has previously exhibited at Tate Modern and the Whitechapel Gallery.   On sale will be a range of prints from £250 to £2.50, including limited edition large prints of Keith Richards, Kylie Minogue, John Lee Hooker, Nick Cave and more.  Also on sale will be bags, T-shirts, beer mats, greetings cards and bookmarks. 

Come along for the chance to buy an early Christmas present or two, or just to view. OPENShop is at 13, Drayton Green Road, W13, and will be open from 11am to 6pm each day.  Cash or cheques only please

 

Posted on

Leave our flowers alone! Flowers stolen from Melbourne Ave flowerbed

We managed to find some money from the SoundBite Festival budget to re-plant this flowerbed in Melbourne Ave to brighten up the area. All was well for a few weeks but one plant was stolen last week and then more plants have been stolen two nights in a row this week. Lots of people have said how much they enjoy the splash of colour and sit down for a few minutes to enjoy the flowers.

To try to deter further plants thefts I’ve put up this notice in the flowerbed:

Photo0407

 We hope you like these flowers but please leave them here for others to enjoy as well

The plants in this flowerbed have been paid for by local residents and we hope you enjoy this splash of colour that brightens up the street. Our thanks to Jeff’s Flowers for doing the planting and looking after the flowerbed for all of us to enjoy. Lots of people have told us how much better the street looks with this colourful flowerbed.

Sadly, we have had some plants stolen over the last few days. These plants don’t belong to Ealing Council but to the local residents. If many more get stolen all that will be left to look at will be a bare patch of earth.

And be aware that there is a CCTV camera right next to this flowerbed!

 

Posted on

Visit the West Ealing craft market tomorrow for some locally made treats

Craft Market Family Day 2012

Next to the newly opened Morrisons on the corner of the Uxbridge Road and St James Ave, the West Ealing craft market is open for business tomorrow from 10am – 3pm.  If you’re doing your Saturday morning shopping just take a walk up to St James Ave and come and see what we have to tempt you with:

  • Knitted kids clothes
  • Sock Monkey
  • Cushions
  • Cards
  • Scarves
  • Abundance apple juice
  • Vegan cakes and sweets
  • Jewellery and gemstones
  • Sweets
  • Relishes

 

 

 

 

Posted on

New season West Ealing Abundance apple juice available from Saturday’s craft market

WEN apple juice 2

It’s juicylicious!  It’s this season’s first consignment of local apple juice (with a pinch of pear).  It’s on sale at our Abundance stall at Saturday’s craft fair in St James Ave 10am – 3pm. All the fruit is local with some from our Walmer Gardens orchard and others from trees in local back gardens. It’s pure juice with no added sugar or preservatives. It’s £2.80 a bottle (75cl) or three for £7.50.  Also available will be the last few bottles of our elderflower cordial.  So come along on Saturday and stock up whilst you can.

Posted on

Work starts again on new hotel in West Ealing

After weeks of inactivity work has started again on the new hotel at the corner of Melbourne Ave and the Uxbridge Road. Scaffolding is starting to go up. The delay has been down to the developers needing to carry out a detailed structural survey for Holiday Inn Express who are going to operate this hotel.  There will also be some changes to the plans with two more storeys at the front (Uxbridge Road) end to increase the number of rooms. I don’t know what the likely completion date will be but I can’t see Tony Luckhurst being back before Christmas.

Posted on

The new Morrisons Local in West Ealing opens on Thursday

Photo0413

The old Blockbusters stood empty and forelorn for some months and then work on the new Morrisons Local started and  it’s progressed very quickly and will open at 9am on Thursday.  On the corner of St James Ave and the Uxbridge Road this supermarket should bring some much-needed footfall down this end of the high street and, hopefully, benefit the nearby shops.

Posted on

What next for The Grosvenor – pub or housing?

Photo0411

The agent’s board is up on The Grosvenor pub. Tucked away in the dense pattern of residential streets, this pub is in need of some serious tlc if it to have any chance of surviving. Can it be revived and become a key part of the local community? The Forester has been transformed under new ownership. It was absolutely jam-packed a couple of weekends ago for the YUMW13 event, so it can be done with passion and imagination.

I know the monthly w7edge music nights bring plenty of people in to The Grosvenor and there is a big catchment area for it with very few other pubs in easy walking distance. If you have about £850,00 to spare it can be all yours then comes the cost of completely revamping it. I guess the question is whether someone sees it has potential as a business or whether its true value lies in its potential as a site for new homes.

 

 

 

Posted on

Do we need so many betting shops in West Ealing? Time to say no.

I asked this exact same question the last time there was an application for a new betting shop – Betfred on the ground floor of where the new hotel is supposed to be going. Yet, here we are again with William Hill wanting to open a new betting shop at 70 Broadway:

 

I missed this licence application and the closing date for objections has passed but just how many betting shops do we need in West Ealing?  Can we keep leaving it to market forces to determine what happens in our high street or should local residents have a say?

There is an opportunity to have your say about betting shops and other forms of gambling by completing the Council’s online survey as part of its consultation on its gambling policy. Some of the questions are about clustering of betting shops so directly relevant to West Ealing. The online survey closes on September 27th so not much time left to complete it. You can find it here.

I don’t know how much effect these surveys have but if we don’t say anything then silence will be taken as consent to what’s happening. I for one think we should restrict betting shops and other similar establishments, especially those with ‘fruit machines’ and fixed odds betting terminals which are a major route in to problem gambling.  You can find out more about all the issues around gambling at the GamCare website.

 

Posted on

From fag-butt filled to flower-filled: a Melbourne Ave flowerbed transformed

We set ourselves the challenge of transforming the fag-butt filled empty flowerbed at the top of Melbourne Ave for the SoundBite Festival. Here’s the before:

 

and here’s the after:

Photo0407

Particular thanks to Dean at the nearby flowerstall for all his hard work and let’s hope we can keep it looking this lovely from now on as it really does cheer up everyone who sees it.

 

 

Posted on

My three music highlights from the West Ealing SoundBite Festival

We’ll put up more photos and feedback from SoundBite shortly. On a totally personal note, as I was helping organise the event on Saturday, I didn’t get to see many of the acts but of those few I did see three stand out for very different reasons:

 

Maria at SoundBite

Her father Romeo sang for us last year and this year his daughter Maria sang at the craft market in St James Ave. She stopped everyone in their tracks with her smooth, jazzy singing. Hers is the sort of voice and style of singing that I’d love to listen to late night in a small, intimate venue. A venue like Ronnie Scott’s or perhaps, locally, the Bush Hall in Shepherd’s Bush could work well for her.  Catch her  here on the video of clips from the music at St James Ave and remember this is where you first saw and heard her. She starts 6 minutes in to the video.

I’d been looking forward to the Bollywood Brass Band all day and was beginning to give up hope that I’d manage to get to Dean Gardens for them but i finally caught their last set at 6pm.

Bollywood Brass band

I really enjoy their combination of drumming and brass and their engagement with their audience. You can’t help but feel the energy and joy in their music and that got through to a group of children who got up and danced right in front of the band.

T J 'Holboy" Johnson

Photo copyright Vivien Boyes

My third highlight was TJ ‘Holyboy’ Johnson who I’d been told about so I made sure I got to Melbourne Ave to catch him closing the music there. I wasn’t disappointed and nor was the crowd who were drawn to his Hendrix-style blues guitar playing and driving voice.  I was struck by the cross section of people who, like me, just felt compelled to stand there, soak it up and not miss a minute of his set.