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Ealing () is a district in west London, England, west of Charing Cross in the London Borough of Ealing. It is the administrative centre of the borough and is identified as a major metropolitan centre in the London Plan.
Ealing was historically an ancient parish in the county of Middlesex. Until the urban expansion of London in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it was a rural village. Improvement in communications with London, culminating with the opening of the railway station in 1838, shifted the local economy to market garden supply and eventually to suburban development. By 1902 Ealing had become known as the "Queen of the Suburbs" due to its greenery, and because it was halfway between city and country.
As part of the growth of London in the 20th century, Ealing significantly expanded and increased in population. It became a municipal borough in 1901 and part of Greater London in 1965. It is now a significant commercial and retail centre with a developed night-time economy. Ealing has the characteristics of both leafy suburban and inner-city development. The Pitshanger neighbourhood and some others retain the lower density, greenery and architecture of suburban . Ealing's town centre is often referred to as Ealing Broadway, the name of both a railway interchange and a shopping centre.
Most of Ealing, including the commercial district, Ealing Broadway, South Ealing, Ealing Common, Montpelier, Pitshanger and most of Hanger Hill fall under the W5 postcode. Areas to the north-west of the town centre such as Argyle Road and West Ealing fall under W13 instead. West Twyford north-east of the town centre, near Hanger Hill, falls under the NW10 postcode area. The population of Ealing (including Northfields) was 85,014 at the 2011 census.
The Church of St. Mary's, the parish church's priest for centuries fell to be appointed by the Bishop of London, earliest known to be so in , when he gave the great tithes to Canon Henry for keeping St. Paul's cathedral school.Diane K Bolton, Patricia E C Croot and M A Hicks, Ealing and Brentford: Churches, Ealing', in A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 7 ed. T F T Baker and C R Elrington (London, 1982), pp. 150-153. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol7/pp150-153 The church required frequent repair in the 1650s and was so ruinous in about 1675 that services were held elsewhere for several years. Worshippers moved to a wooden tabernacle in 1726 and the steeple fell in 1729, destroying the church, before its rebuilding. In the 12th century Ealing was amid a fields- and villages-punctuated forest covering most of the Middlesex of the City of London.
The earliest surviving English census is that for Ealing in January 1599. This list was a tally of all 85 households in Ealing village giving the names of the inhabitants, together with their ages, relationships and occupations. It survives in manuscript form at The National Archives ( piece E 163/24/35), and was transcribed and printed by K J Allison for Ealing Historical Society in 1961.
Settlements were scattered throughout the parish. Many of them were along what is now called St. Mary's Road, near to the church in the centre of the parish. There were also houses at Little Ealing, Ealing Dean, Haven Green, Drayton Green and Castlebar Hill.
The parish of Ealing was far from wholly divided among manors, such as those of Ealing, Gunnersbury and Pitshanger. These when used for crops were mostly wheat, but also barley and rye, with considerable pasture for cows, draught animals, sheep and recorded poultry keeping. There were five free tenements on Ealing manor in 1423: Absdons in the north, Baldswells at Drayton, Abyndons and Denys at Ealing village, and Sergeaunts at Old Brentford. It is likely that there had once been 32 copyhold tenements, including at least 19 virgates of 20 rateable acres and 9 half virgates. When created the copyhold land amounted to not more than , a total increased before 1423 by land at Castlebar Hill.Diane K Bolton, Patricia E C Croot and M A Hicks, 'Ealing and Brentford: Economic history', in A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 7, ed. T F T Baker and C R Elrington (London, 1982), pp. 131-144. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol7/pp131-144
Ealing had an orchard in 1540 and others in 1577–8 and 1584. Numbers increased, as were orchards often taken out of open fields, by 1616 in Crowchmans field, in 1680–1 in Popes field, and in 1738 in Little North field. Some lay as far north as the centre of the parish. River Long field and adjoining closes at West Ealing contained 1,008 fruit trees in 1767, including 850 apple trees, 63 plum, and 63 cherry.
Ealing demesne in 1318 had a windmill, which was rebuilt in 1363–4. This was destroyed in or before 1409 and may have been repaired by 1431, when it was again broken.
Great Ealing School was founded in 1698 by the Church of St Mary's. This became the "finest private school in England" and had many famous pupils in the 19th century such as William S. Gilbert, composer and impresario, and Cardinal Newman – since 2019 recognised as a saint. As the zone became built-up, the school declined and closed in April 1908.
The earliest maps of just the parish of Ealing survive from the 18th century; John Speed and others having made maps of Middlesex, more than two centuries before.
At Ealing a fair was held on the green in 1822, when William Cobbett chronicled he was diverted by crowds of Cockneys headed there. The fair, of unknown origin, was held from 24 to 26 June until suppressed in 1880.
The manor included Old Brentford and its extensive Thames fisheries, and in 1423 tenants of Ealing manor rented three fisheries in the Thames. In 1257 the king ordered the Bishop whoever it may be from time to time (sede vacante) to provide 8,000-10,000 lampreys and other fish for owning the manor, impliedly per year, which shows the extent of the local catch.
Mount Castle Tower, an Elizabethan structure which stood at the top of Hanger Hill, was used as a tea-stop in the 19th century. It was demolished to make way for Fox's Reservoir in 1881. This reservoir, with a capacity of , was erected north of Hill Crest Road, Hanger Hill, in 1888 and a neighbouring reservoir for was constructed . This supply of good water helped to make Ealing more attractive than ever.
Mount Castle Tower was also known as Hanger Hill Tower, and as such it was a vital viewing point for the Anglo-French Survey (1784–1790), which linked the Royal Greenwich Observatory with the Paris Observatory via a chain of trigonometric readings. This survey was led in England by General William Roy. Hanger Hill Tower was its northernmost observation point, and from it sightings were made to places such as St Ann's Hill in Chertsey, Banstead, Upper Norwood, and the Greenwich Observatory itself.
During the Victorian era period, Ealing became a town. This meant that good, well-metalled roads had to be built, and schools and public buildings erected. To protect public health, the newly created Board of Health for Ealing commissioned London's first modern drainage and sewage systems here. Just as importantly, drinking fountains providing wholesome and safe water were erected by public prescription. Ealing Broadway became a major shopping centre. The man responsible for much of all this was Charles Jones, Borough Surveyor from 1863 to 1913. He directed the planting of the Aesculus trees on Ealing Common and designed Ealing Town Hall, both the present one and the older structure which is now a bank (on the Mall). He even oversaw the purchase of the Walpole estate grounds and its conversion into a leisure garden for the general public to enjoy and promenade around on Sundays.
It was of this area centred around Mount Park Road that Nikolaus Pevsner remarks as ”epitomising Ealing's reputation as 'Queen of the Suburbs'..”Pevsner N B L (1991). The buildings of England, London 3: North-West. In a very short time, Ealing had become a modern and fashionable country town, free of the grime, soot and smells of industrialised London, and yet only minutes away from it by modern transport.Peter Hounsell (2005) The Ealing Book. Queen of the suburbs. Page 87. Historical Publications. The Borough Surveyor, Charles Jones, first re-used the term in the preface of his book Ealing from Village to Corporate Town of 1902, already used for Surbiton and Richmond, stressing his view that it was already recognised as of having such an identity. Street Trees in Britain: A History, Mark Johnston and Windgather Press, Oxbow Books (Oxford, UK & Havertown, PA & Melita Press, Malta), 2017 The fairly ornate, many-roomed houses set in "sylvan beauty and floriculture" (civic trees and gardens) stood out to Jones. Mount Park Road and side roads keep much of the original character. Some neighbourhoods have resisted conversions into bed-sits, unlike many of the other original London suburbs.John Foster White (1986) Ealing: Queen of the suburbs walk. Ealing Civic Society (2009 Ed). Accessed 7 November 2010
In the 1900s and 1910s, the Brentham Garden Suburb was built. During the interwar period several garden estates, said to be one of the best examples of classic suburbia in mock Tudor style, were built near Hanger Lane. Hanger Hill Garden Village adjoining is likewise a conservation area. In the 1930s Ealing Village's mid-rise, green-setting apartment blocks were built, today listed building and having gated grounds.
With the amalgamation of the surrounding municipal boroughs in 1965, Ealing Town Hall became the administrative centre for the new London Borough of Ealing. Today, this also includes its offices at Perceval House just next to it. Later in 1984, the Ealing Broadway Centre was completed which includes a shopping centre and a town square.
It is less than two miles from the Tideway (London's upper estuary of the Thames) at the local apex of Kew Bridge that links to the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Ealing has parks and open spaces, such as Ealing Common, Walpole Park, Lammas, Cleveland, Hanger Hill, Montpelier, and Pitshanger Parks. The River Brent flows through the latter.
Early in the 21st century Transport for London (TFL) planned to reintroduce an electric tram line along the Uxbridge Road (the West London Tram scheme), but this was abandoned in August 2007 in the face of fierce local opposition. Ealing Broadway and West Ealing stations became part of the Elizabeth line in 2022. A total of 18 buses (including night buses) serve Ealing Broadway.
Most recently, Ealing Studios was the set for the famous Downton Abbey historical television series, of which the below stairs and servant's hall were filmed there. On 16 March 2015, the workplace received a visit from the Duchess of Cambridge to observe current productions, as well as meet the cast and crew of the series stated. The Duchess of Cambridge visits the set of Downton Abbey at Ealing Studios. Accessed 7 February 2021
For 14 years, Ealing lacked any cinema houses, after the closure of the Ealing Empire Cinemas in 2008. 2022 saw the opening of the Ealing Project, a multi-functional community space centred around a cinema. Ealing Project - About Us
Renovation began on the New Broadway street cinema in late 2012. Work is underway as of Spring 2021 for 'Filmworks', an Art Deco apartment-and-cinema block featuring a Picturehouse cinema. Local group Pitshanger Pictures shows classic movies in St Barnabas Millennium Hall on Pitshanger Lane. Pitshanger Pictures . Details of movie screenings in St Barnabas Millennium Hall, Pitshanger Lane, W5 1QG. Accessed 29 August 2011
Ealing has a theatre on Mattock Lane, The Questors Theatre.
The Beatles alighted at West Ealing station (the old building) in March 1964 to complete the filming of ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ at Edgehill Road in West Ealing.
Dusty Springfield lived at 2 Kent Gardens, West Ealing as a teenager and attended St. Anne's Convent school in Little Ealing Lane.
Brand New Heavies core members (drummer Jan Kincaid, guitarist Simon Bartholomew and bassist Andrew Levy) all hail from Ealing, where they formed the group in 1985.
An August 2013 article in the Huffington Post claimed that Ealing could claim to be the home of rock music because of the catalyst effect of the Ealing Club on British musicians.
Two members of the punk band Zatopeks grew up in Ealing, and the group frequently makes nostalgic or ironic references to the borough in its lyrics.
Mitch Mitchell of the Jimi Hendrix Experience was born there in 1947.
White Lies are also from Ealing.
Gaelic Games have a prominent role in the Irish community in Ealing with successful clubs such as St. Joseph's GAA and Tir Chonaill GAA in neighbouring Perivale and Greenford.
Ealing has a local running club: Ealing, Southall & Middlesex AC, founded in 1920. It counted double Olympic champion Kelly Holmes among its several club records to her name. members.
ESC D3 Triathlon Club is also based in Ealing. D3 Triathletes compete in both locally and internationally across all distances and formats including Olympic Distance and Ironman. Though an independent club it is supported by the Ealing Swimming Club based at Gurnell Leisure Centre.
After English, the most common languages were (in 2017) Polish (8%), Punjabi (8%), Somali (7%), Arabic (6%), Urdu (5%), and Tamil (4%). The biggest increase over the 5 years to April 2017 was Polish and tapering off – 4,363 Polish-speaking children in 2017 was 41 more than in 2016.
EALING.NEWS is an independent community news website covering all of Ealing’s seven towns and soft-launched in July 2022.
The North Korean Embassy is at 73 Gunnersbury Avenue.
Suburb of London
With the exception of driving animals into London on foot, the transport of heavy goods tended be restricted to those times when the non-metalled roads were passable due to dry weather. With the passing of the Toll Road Act, this highway was gravelled and so the old Oxfordshire became an increasingly busy and important thoroughfare running from east to west through the centre of the parish. This road was later renamed as Uxbridge Road. The well-to-do of London began to see Ealing as a place to escape from the smoke and smells. In 1800 the architect John Soane bought Payton Place and renamed it Pitzhanger Manor, not to live but just for somewhere green and pleasant, where he could entertain his friends and guests. Soon afterward, in 1801, the Duke of Kent bought a house at Castlebar. Soon, more affluent Londoners followed but with the intention of taking up a permanent residence which was conveniently close to London. The only British prime minister to be assassinated, Spencer Perceval, made his home at Elm House. Up until that point, Ealing was mostly made up of open countryside and fields where, as in previous centuries, the main occupation was farming.
Old inns and public houses
As London grew in size, more food and materials went in and more finished goods came out. Since dray horses can only haul loads a few miles per day, frequent overnight stops were needed. To satisfy this demand a large number of inns were situated along the Uxbridge Road, where horses could be changed and travellers refresh themselves, prompting its favour by Highwayman. Stops in Ealing included The Feathers, The Bell, The Green Man and The Old Hats.
At one point in history there were two pubs called the Old Hat(s) either side of one of the many toll gates on the Uxbridge Road in West Ealing. Following the removal of the toll house gate the more Westernmost pub was renamed The Halfway House.
Expansion
As London developed, the area became predominantly which required a greater proportion of workers as it was more labour-intensive. Ealing Grove School was established in 1834, integrating both academic and agricultural education. In the 1850s, with improved travel (the Great Western Railway and two branches of the Grand Union Canal), villages began to grow into towns and merged into unbroken residential areas. At this time Ealing began to be called the "Queen of the Suburbs".
Modern Victorian suburb
The most important changes to Ealing occurred in the 19th century. The building of the Great Western Railway in the 1830s, part of which passed through the centre of Ealing, led to the opening of a railway station on the Broadway in 1879, originally called Haven Green. In the next few decades, much of Ealing was rebuilt, predominantly semi-detached housing designed for the rising middle-class. Gas mains were laid and an electricity generating station was built. Better transport links, including horse buses as well as trains, enabled people to more easily travel to work in London. All this, whilst living in what was still considered to be the countryside. Although much of the countryside was rapidly disappearing during this period of rapid expansion, parts of it were preserved as public parks, such as Lammas Park and Ealing Common. Pitzhanger Manor and the extensive grounds on which it stands, was sold to the council in 1901 by Sir Spencer Walpole, which had been bought by his father the Rt. Hon. Spencer Horatio Walpole and thus became Walpole Park.
Queen of the Suburbs
In 1901, Ealing Urban District was incorporated as a municipal borough, Walpole Park was opened and the first electric trams ran along the Uxbridge Road. As part of its permit to operate, the electric tram company was required to incorporate the latest in modern street lighting into its overhead catenary supply, along the Ealing section of the Uxbridge Road. A municipally-built generating station near Clayponds Avenue supplied power to more street lighting that ran northward, up and along Mount Park Road and the surrounding streets.
Geography
Ealing is in the heart of west London. A relatively narrow section of the A406 North Circular Road, London bisects the east of it. The nascent M4 motorway also runs almost adjacent to the south.
Demographics
The largest ethnic group in the 2011 census for the Ealing Broadway ward was White British, at 45%. The second largest was Other White, at 21%. The most spoken foreign language was Polish language, followed by French language and Japanese. The nearby Hanger Hill ward has the city's largest Japanese people community.
Transport
Ealing is served by Ealing Broadway station on the Great Western Main Line and the London Underground in London fare zone 3. It is also served by five other tube stations at North Ealing, South Ealing, Hanger Lane, Northfields, Park Royal and Ealing Common. The Piccadilly line operates at Park Royal, North Ealing, Ealing Common, South Ealing and Northfields; the Central line at Ealing Broadway and Hanger Lane; and the District line at Ealing Broadway and Ealing Common. The stations at Ealing Broadway and West Ealing are served by National Rail operators Great Western Railway and TfL Rail.
Economy and culture
Ealing has a developed night-time economy backed by numerous pubs and restaurants on The Mall, The Broadway and New Broadway (forming part of the greater Uxbridge Road).
Studios
Ealing is best known for its film studios at Ealing Green, which are the oldest in the world and are known especially for the Ealing comedies, including Kind Hearts and Coronets, Passport to Pimlico, The Ladykillers and The Lavender Hill Mob. The studios were taken over by the BBC in 1955, with one consequence being that Ealing locations appeared in television programmes including Doctor Who (notably within an iconic 1970 sequence in which deadly shop mannequins menaced local residents) to Monty Python's Flying Circus. Most recently, these studios have again been used for making films, including Notting Hill and The Importance of Being Earnest. St Trinian's, a remake of the classic film, was produced by Ealing Studios; some locations in Ealing can be seen in this film.
Religion
Regarded by many as Ealing's premier architectural work, St Peter's Church, Ealing is on Mount Park Road north of central Ealing.Cherry, B. and Pevsner, N. 'The Buildings of England London 3: North West', Yale, 2002 The ancient parish church of Ealing is St Mary's, in St Mary's Road. Standing near Charlbury Grove, Ealing Abbey was founded by a community of Roman Catholic Benedictine in 1897. Twinned with the convent of St. Augustine's Priory, the large abbey is an example of a traditional, working monastery. There are over fifteen churches in the suburb of Ealing, including Our Lady Mother of the Church, a Polish people Roman Catholic church in the Mall, near Ealing Broadway. There are two well-established synagogues, the Ealing United Synagogue (Orthodox), which celebrated its centenary in November 2019, and the Ealing Liberal Synagogue, which was founded in 1943. In surrounding suburbs, there are two mosques in Acton, one in West Ealing, and two in Southall.
Music
Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones first met Brian Jones in 1962 at the Ealing Jazz Club, opposite Ealing Broadway station. Other artists who performed at the club include Rod Stewart and Manfred Mann. The Jazz Club is now a nightclub called the Red Room.
Sport
Ealing is home to Ealing Trailfinders Rugby Club. Due to the nearby football teams, Brentford Football Club and Queens Park Rangers, it long lacked its own. Since late 2008, Ealing Town Football Club has been registered with the Football Association and competes. Other football clubs such Old Actonians youth FC, Pitshanger youth FC and Non-League football club Hanwell Town F.C. play in local leagues.
Cricket
Ealing Cricket Club was founded in 1870 and their main ground is on Corfton Road. Ealing CC has a significant success record, with 11 Middlesex County Cricket League championship titles to their name. Ealing field six senior teams that compete in the Middlesex County Cricket League (a designated ECB Premier League) and a Woman's team in the Middlesex Cricket Women's League. They also have an established junior training section that play competitive cricket in the Middlesex Junior Cricket Association.
Festivals
Ealing is the host to several annual festivals. The first festival to be regularly staged was the Jazz Festival which is held in Walpole Park. An annual Beer Festival was then started and organised by the Campaign for Real Ale and originally held in the Ealing Town Hall. Due to its popularity, it had outgrown the space available at the Town Hall after a few years, so it too then transferred to the park, where they now have room to offer over 200 real ales. Each cask is supplied with individual cooling jackets to maintain the beer at exactly the right temperature. This event is run by keen volunteers. The success of these events encouraged the local council to licence a broader range of festivals.
In fiction
Language
Ealing has been described by The Guardian as "the nation's hotspot for Polish speaking".
Media
Westside 89.6FM is a community station mainly for the borough from studios based in neighbouring Hanwell. Blast Radio is the student station for the University of West London based at Ealing Studios who broadcast across the area on (RSL) in May. A digital local newspaper exists for the borough.
Politics
President Ho Chi Minh worked as either a chef or dish washer (reports vary) at the Drayton Court Hotel in West Ealing.
See also
Notes
Further reading
External links
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