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Celebrating Ealing’s Music and Film heritage 12-16th February

Whether it’s ballet, blues music, classical music, the genius of Alec Guinness or curiousity about what happens at Ealing Studios, you’ll find something to intrigue and entice you at this year’s Ealing Music & Film Valentine Festival. Highlights include:

  • Opening with a concert at Ealing Abbey with the English Chamber Orchestra playing music from Haydn, Holst and Vaughan Williams – Wednesday 12th February
  • Dame Gillian Lynne in discussion with acclaimed film maker Tony Palmer about her career as a dancer and choreographer – Thursday 13th February
  • Blues music at the Ealing Club on Thursday,Friday and Saturday evenings
  • Showing of The Man in The White Suit starring Sir Alec Guinness – Ealing Town Hall on Friday 14th February
  • Tour of Ealing Studios – Saturday 15th February
  • Rock’n’Roll legend Pete Townshend talking to Tony Palmer about his career and worldwide fame with The Who – Questors Theatre Sunday 16th February
  • Raga Jam – blues musicians from across the world playing together at Questors Theatre on Sunday 16th February

Full details of all the events at www.ealingmusicand filmfestival.org

 

 

 

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Your chance to help get a better station at Ealing Broadway

Ealing Broadway station is used by many West Ealing residents so its design for Crossrail is an important matter for us – as will be the design of the new ticket office at West Ealing when the plans are made public.

There’s a lot of people who are unhappy that Crossrail’s plans for the new Ealing Broadway station do not address the real problems of an ever-busier station. The Council has appointed architects to try to improve the design – see the story on the Ealing Today website

At the same time, Save Ealing’s Centre has set up an online petition asking Crossrail, the London Mayor and Ealing Council to come up with some better plans for Ealing Broadway station.

 

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Work starts (yet) again on new hotel in West Ealing

After weeks of inactivity the new scaffolders are on site this morning. The site has had a stop-start history and let’s hope this time the work continues. Work stopped a few weeks ago when the scaffolding had to be taken down as , presumably, it was not put up properly. Let’s hope this time work on the new hotel on the corner of Melbourne Ave and the Uxbridge Road cracks on and we actually see signs of a building going up.

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‘Six Short Plays 2’ at OPEN Ealing on Friday 7.30pm

Six Short Plays 2


Another in OPEN’s occasional series of performed readings, SIX short plays 2, is on this Friday 20th, 7.30pm at OPENShop, 13 Drayton Green Road, W13 0NG.

Six plays by writers: Danny Flynn, Liam O’Grady and Wally Sewell will be performed by actors: Ben Owora, Peter Saracen and Richard Ward.

Don’t miss this Christmas treat!

£5 on the door.

 

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Another new shop to open in West Ealing

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Last week it was Papa John’s and this week it’s Peri Peri Original that’s soon to open in West Ealing. I think that also makes the third such Peri Peri chicken shop on the high street. I own up to not tried this style of cooking so I had to look up what Peri Peri (or Piri Piri) chicken is all about. If I’ve got it right it’s a Portuguese style dish from Africa with a hot chilli sauce made from the peri peri chilli.

I’ve read that the high street average for vacant shops is around 14%. I’m going to have to count how many empty shops we have in West Ealing as I don’t think we have that many. I have written many times about the future of our high street and how I think it is unbalanced by being dominated by budget shopping. However, if my guess is right then we have fewer empty shops than the average and that’s good going in these times.

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Some signs of action on the new hotel site in West Ealing

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After some 10 days of silence and no sign of any builders, a crew was on site today (Saturday) dismantling the scaffolding that appears to one cause of the delay. You can see from my photo (apologies for the poor quality) that they have taken down all the metal sheeting that was across the top of the site. It looks like health and safety concerns are the reason for the scaffolding problems.

Another cause of the delay seems to be the revised planning application for a taller building which is needed to up the number of bedrooms to meet the requirements of Holiday Inn Express.

The one who suffers most from all this delay is our local butcher Tony Luckhurst who is quoted in this week’s Ealing Gazette as hoping he will be back in February or March. Tony is currently working for another butcher to pay his bills. The work will really have to get going if there’s any chance of Tony being back in March but I hope he is as plenty of us are missing him.

 

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West Ealing Christmas Festival Thursday 12th December 4-8pm

We’re almost there!  Watch out for the marquee and carousels tomorrow in Dean Gardens.

We have carols from St John’s Primary School at 4pm and then more carols from the New Testament Choir at 7.30pm. Here’s the full running order:

4.00 – 4.20 St John’s Primary School choir

4.20 – 4.30 magician

4.30 – 5.15 Gypsy Dynamite (quartet)

5.30 – 6.00 Robert Brookfield

6.00 – 6.10 magician

6.15 – 6.55 The Onironauts

7.00 – 7.20 Piers Hogg

7.30 – 8.00 New Testament Gospel Choir

For your Christmas gifts we have stalls selling:

  • Handmade fragrances, lip gloss, lavender bags
  • Bags made from recycled juice cartons
  • Animal nighlights, metal signs
  • A wide variety of jewellery
  • Cushion covers, baby bibs
  • Greetings cards
  • Terracotta tiles, picture frames, bags
  • Mulled apple juice, quince cheese, jams, chutneys, marmalade

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What would attract you to West Ealing at night?

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?

 

 

 

 

 

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Something different as the Ealing Pop Up Shop comes to West Ealing

Ealing Pop Up Shop

I seem to be taking photos of a lot of shop fronts recently. Here’s another one.  This time it’s the shop next to the new Morrisons, near the corner with St James Ave, which will be a pop up shop for the next few months.  The plan is to offer the shop at low cost to a range of people or groups to sell their products for a trial period. A competition has been run and decisions will be made next week. I believe the first group to take it on will be the winners of a Dragon’s Den type event at the nearby Westside Youth Centre. They will be selling urban clothes.  Watch this blog for more news on this shop as we get it.

I think it’s a great idea to give local people and businesses a chance to try out their ideas at a low risk and bring something new and different to our high street.