Ealing
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ealing is a town in the London Borough of Ealing. It is a suburban development situated 7.7 miles (12.4 km) west of Charing Cross. It is one of ten major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan and is often referred to as the "Queen of the Suburbs".
Ealing derives its name from Gillingas, meaning the people of Gilla, who may have been an Anglo-Saxon settler. Over the centuries, the name has changed, and has been known as Yealing, Zelling and Eling, until Ealing became the standard spelling in the nineteenth century.
Ealing has one of the largest Polish communities in London.
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[edit] History
Archaeological evidence shows that some parts of Ealing have been occupied for at least 7,000 years - Iron Age pots have been discovered in the vicinity on Horsenden Hill. The name Ealing comes from the Saxon place-name Gillingas, and a settlement is recorded here in the twelfth century, amid a great forest that carpeted the area to the west of London. The top schools in Ealing Broadway are St Benedicts Ealing Notting Hill and Ealing High School, Durston House and Clifton Lodge.
The earliest surviving English census is that for Ealing in 1599. The list was a census 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 in the Public Record Office (PRO E 163/24/35), and has been transcribed and printed by K J Allison.
Settlements were scattered throughout the parish. Many of them were along what we would now call St. Mary's Road, near to the church, which was in the centre of the parish. There were also houses at Little Ealing, Ealing Dean, Haven Green, Drayton Green and Castlebar Hill.
The Church of St. Mary's, Ealing, the parish church, dates back to at least the early twelfth century. The parish of Ealing was divided into manors, such as those of Gunnersbury and Pitshanger. These were farmed, the crops being mostly rye, but also wheat and maslin. There were also animals, such as cows, sheep and chickens. Standing near Charlbury Grove, Ealing Abbey was founded by a community of Benedictine monks in 1897. Twinned with the convent of St. Augustine's Priory, the giant abbey is a unique example of a traditional, working monastery.
The first maps of Ealing were made in the 18th century and give an impression of what the parish looked like. Mount Castle Tower, an Elizabethan tower which stood at the top of Hanger Hill, was used as a tea-stop in the nineteenth century. It was demolished to make way for Fox's Reservoir in 1881. This reservoir, capable of holding 50 gallons, was reopened in the 1970s and a water tower was built, possibly on the site of the original tower. Ealing was mostly made up of open countryside and fields, where, as in previous centuries, the main occupation was farming. However, there was an important road running from west to east through the centre of the parish. This road, later to be known as the Uxbridge Road, ran eastwards to London and westwards to Oxford. Along this route were many inns, where horses could be changed and travellers refresh themselves, and thus it became an area favoured by the Highwayman. Stops in Ealing were The Feathers, The Bell, The Green Man and The Old Hats.
As London developed, the area became predominantly market gardens. In the 1850s with improved travel (the Great Western Railway (God's Wonderful Railway) and two branches of the Grand Union Canal) villages started to grow into towns, and then merged into unbroken residential areas. At this time it became known as the "Queen of the suburbs".
The most important changes to Ealing happened 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 Ealing Broadway in 1879. In the next few decades, there was a large amount of rebuilding throughout Ealing. These were mostly semi-detached houses, designed for the rising middle class. Better transport links, including horse buses as well as trains, meant that people could more easily travel to work in London but live in what was still considered to be the countryside. Of course, the countryside was rapidly disappearing. Fortunately, parts of it were preserved as public parks, such as Lammas Park and Ealing Common. Walpole Park was named after Robert Walpole and it belonged to Pitzhanger Manor.
It was during the Victorian period that Ealing became a town. This meant that roads had to be built, drainage provided, schools and public buildings erected. The man responsible for much of all this was Charles Jones, Borough Surveyor from 1863-1913. He planted the horse chestnut trees on Ealing Common and designed the Town Hall, both the present one and the older one that is now a bank, on the Mall. Ealing Broadway became a major shopping centre.
Also in 1901 Ealing Urban District was incorporated as a municipal borough. That same year Walpole Park was opened and the first electric trams ran along the Uxbridge Road - a mode of transport due to be reintroduced some 110 years later in the form of the West London Tram scheme. As of 2006, there is great resistance to this and many of the residents have anti tram posters up in their window.
The building of the new shopping centre, opened in 1980, drastically altered part of the centre of Ealing.
At midnight, Thursday, August 2, 2001 a 40 kg bomb hidden in a vehicle exploded near Ealing Broadway railway station, destroying numerous shops in the immediate vicinity. Seven people suffered mild injuries. The bomb was placed by "Irish dissidents" thought to be members of the Real IRA.
[edit] Ealing Studios
Ealing's claim to fame was the film studios which produced a series of well-known comedies in the 1950s – Kind Hearts and Coronets, Passport to Pimlico, The Ladykillers, The Lavender Hill Mob, I Want Candy (film) etc. The studios were taken over by the BBC in 1955, and bits of Ealing started appearing in television programmes ranging from Doctor Who to Monty Python’s Flying Circus. The 2006 film release of Alien Autopsy was also reputed to have been produced at the new Ealing Film studios in St Mary's Road, London W.5.
[edit] Trivia
- Champion athlete Lillian Board MBE (1948-70), a double European gold medallist and an Olympic silver medalist, lived in Ealing from 1956 to 1970. Known as the Golden Girl of British athletics, she died of cancer in 1970. Two streets in the borough of Ealing are named in her honour: Lillian Board Way, in Greenford, and Lillian Avenue (near Acton Town London Underground station).
- In James Hilton's novel Goodbye, Mr Chips (1934), Katherine, the lovely young wife of the shy schoolmaster protagonist Mr Chipping, is said to have been living with an aunt in Ealing following the death of her parents.
- The political couple, former European commissioner and leader of the Labour Party, Neil Kinnock and his wife, Glenys Kinnock, who is a member of the European Parliament, have their London home in Ealing.
- Acclaimed British soul singer Dusty Springfield (1939-99) grew up in Ealing as well as Konnie Huq of Blue Peter and footballer Peter Crouch. Jay Kay of pop band Jamiraquai is also a former resident.
- Nevil Shute (1899-1960) the novelist, remembered for such books as A Town Like Alice and On the Beach, was a past resident.[1]
- Ealing is the cradle of blues-based rock music whose roots can be traced back to the Ealing Jazz Club in 1962.
- Ealing is the setting for the children's television programme Rentaghost.
[edit] Further reading
History:
- Oates, Jonathan [2006-07-31]. Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in Ealing (paperback), Barnsley, South Yorkshire UK: Wharncliffe Books. ISBN 1-84563-012-2. Retrieved on September 13, 2006.
- Hounsell, Peter [1991]. Ealing and Hanwell Past (Hardback), London UK: Historical Publications Ltd. ISBN 0-948667-13-3.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Ealing's local community web site
- Ealing's Farmer's market
- Ealing Cycling Campaign
- Ealing Friends of the Earth
- Ealing-Web guide to Ealing
- Ealing Consortium provides supported housing and community care services for people with special needs
- Ealing Public Library
- Ealing London Farmers' Market
- Ealing Symphony Orchestra
- Ealing Youth Orchestra
- Pitshanger Manor Museum
- The West Ealing Home Zone
- Ealing-Life.co.uk is an online portal for anyone living or working in the Ealing area.
- Ealing Chess Club
- Ealing Cricket Club
- Ealing Rotaract
- Ealing Council
- Brentham Garden Suburb
- Ealing Broadway's Parish Church
- Save Ealing's Streets
- West Ealing Neighbours
- Ealing Amnesty International - volunteers campaigning for human rights
