I’ve heard it said that West Ealing lacks a ‘night-time economy’. In other words, there’s nothing going on in the evenings to make you want to come out to West Ealing after dark. Is that fair and what would attract you to come to West Ealing at night?
In terms of entertainment, our cinema days have long gone (not just in West Ealing but also in Ealing Broadway). The Drayton Court puts on some excellent comedy and magic shows. OPEN Ealing has some sporadic events such as plays and exhibitions but these are one-off events. This may change if they can secure funding for their ambition to take on the cafe on the new Green Man Estate and turn this in to a cafe-cum-performance/exhibition space. We should know quite soon if this ambition can be realised. A number of our pubs have some excellent live music – The Grosvenor, The Plough and so on.
If it’s food you’re looking for then West Ealing has an ever-increasing number of fast food/take-away restaurants. Papa John’s pizza will soon open and Peri Peri Original chicken restaurant is about to open next to the Best Western Maitrise Hotel. We have very few ‘sit-down’ restaurants in West Ealing except in the strip running from the Lido Junction to Culmington Road. These seem to be very popular, especially the Persian ones, and they probably benefit the nearby pubs and bars such as The Castlebar and Star and Anchor.
What we seem to lack is a strong ‘destination’ venue. Whether it be an entertainment venue with something on every night or a restaurant whose reputation attracts people from miles around.
This is just my personal view. What would make you want to come to West Ealing at night?
Well everyone would need to feel safe for a start. The opening of the Holiday Inn Express in 2014 \will hopefully provide the centre of West Ealing with a safe, bright, clean night time presence.
What West Ealing Centre Neighbourhood Forum members say they want in the centre of West Ealing includes:
+ better parking facilities
+ better quality shops and independent shops
+ a massive clean up/facelift
+ a more diverse range of clothing, fashion shops and boutiques
+ more planned social and outdoor event, fairs.pop-ups and festivals
+ more good bistros, restaurants and cafes
+ better arts/culture provision, cinema or arts centre
+ cultural/community centre or hub
+ better architecture with open spaces, focal points, meeting places, plazas and piazzas
A good independent pizza/Italian, that looks nice and clean and bright like a Pizza Express. And a (similar) Wagamama type place. Hopefully neither of the chains but the names are reassuring. A pub on the Broadway that is more open and inviting to a variety of patrons – a place that not only does coffee and non-alcoholic drinks but also looks as though it does. A good deli. A stylish vintage clothes/ctrafts shop (we’ve got enough superb crafts people to staff it I’d have thought). A breakfast/brunch place that’s very clean and modern – similar to Jack’s Diner in Queen’s Park.
I would like to keep all the Turkish/Afghan shops that keep everything bright and occupied late at night and sell good-value fruit and veg. Also the fish shops are brilliant.
I’d like a sit-down proper coffee area outside the flower stall, and another one outside Sainsbury’s with nice café chairs and tables so the festival spirit persists in Melbourne Avenue.
I’d like the area outside the new Morrisons to be permanently semi-covered, landscaped and used for art projects, entertainers, bouncy castles, etc, and cultural activities for kids during Saturdays – and mobile exhibitions and demonstrations during other days (eg, fostering fortnight could hook up with, say, Gunnersbury Museum and give rests for parents and safe runabout areas for toddlers). This would need lots of signposting from Melbourne Ave and the Uxbridge Rd.
I’d like a Speakers’ Corner, too, not sure where. Oh, and a chess-playing corner and a table tennis table and a street-hockey area (supervised). Oh and could we have a Victorian Day once a year, and all dress up and do rustic Morris-dancing in Dean Gardens?
Must be more…