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West Ealing roof-top drama ends safely

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The Uxbridge Road was shut for hours yesterday afternoon as emergency services dealt with a man threatening to jump off the roof on the corner of Leeland Road and the Uxbridge Road. A helicopter clattered overhead for some hours as police tried to talk him down. Some locals say the man had just come from the nearby magistrates court and managed to climb up the fire escape on to the roof above the betting shop and then threatened to jump. Roads were re-opened around 9.30pm and local traders could then clear away and get home.

(Photo by Jay Patel)

 

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Talking about West Ealing – drop in and join us for a coffee on Saturday morning 11.30am at Silva Cafe

Silva Cafe

The WEN committee will be at the Silva Cafe this Saturday from 11.30am until 12.30pm and anyone is welcome to join us. We’ll have the team working on the feasibility study for a community and business hub in West Ealing joining us to explain their ideas and hear what our thoughts are (see post below). We’ll also be planning our next public meeting which will be about what sort of high stret we’d like to see develop in West Ealing over the next few years. I think West Ealing is on the cusp of change but what do you think?

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A new creative space for the community and business in West Ealing

Inspired by the success of co-working spaces in central London, a group of local people now want to bring this concept to the heart of West Ealing. A co-working space, or hub, would allow entrepreneurs, sole traders, freelancers or start-ups to work alongside one another in a collaborative atmosphere. Creative people working flexibly in a modern and stimulating environment where ideas can be shared and enterprise thrive. Working independently should not mean working alone.

The space will include a café, open to all and driven by the needs of the local community. The café will aim to emphasize quality local produce and offer a relaxed meeting place. The group hopes the study will show the potential for this high street hub to make a significant contribution to the exciting new future for West Ealing, as the impact of major developments and Crossrail start to take effect.

 The West Ealing Hub Working Group will be conducting a feasibility study for a hub in West Ealing over the next few months. The study is supported by Ealing Council High Street Innovation Fund.

You can keep up to date with developments by joining our mailing list at www.westealinghub.com 

 

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Music and drama workshops and history of modern art talks coming soon from OPEN Ealing

The paint brushes will soon be put away as OPEN Ealing gets ready for its first set of arts activities in its new home in Drayton Green Road. These first workshops and talks are led by established west London artists:

Music workshops: Keith Waithe

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Flute, djembe drumming and vocal workshops with Keith Waithe, professional musician and composer, flautist and band leader of Keith Waithe and the Macusi Players.

Thursday evenings, between 9 May – 13 June. 7–9pm.

Join Keith at OPENShop 13 Drayton Green Road, W13 0NG, on Thursday 9 May for an introduction to ‘Flute Journey’. We hope this will encourage you to stay on for the entire five-session course of workshops designed for flautists, singers and djembe drummers (please bring your own instrument) and aimed at developing your own musical journey, culminating with a performance of all involved, at the Drayton Park Hotel, Ealing.

Details:

Course introduction evening, 2 May: Entrance, donation to OPEN (suggested donation, £5.00) All welcome, whether you stay on for the course or not.

Course dates Thursdays 9, 16, 30 May, 6 and 13 June. Cost, £10.00 per 2-hour session (pay per session).

‘Workshops and performances will be based on the theme “The Journey”. Musicians will introduce their art form using the theme of journeys as a catalyst for the final performance. Participants will work in groups, rotating between musicians throughout the duration of the sessions in order to fully benefit from the full range of experiences available.’

 

 

OPEN Stage Writers’ Workshop

Join West London’s newest theatre writers’ workshop – a wonderful opportunity for writers, at any stage in their development, to work with and learn from other writers.

From Tues 4th June, OPEN Ealing will be running a 10-week course of 2-hour sessions led by established west London playwright Wally Sewell <http://www.actorsandwriters.org/wally.sewell/index.php>. 

Writers will develop their craft through workshops and exercises, reading and discussing their own and others’ work in a supportive and guided environment,with occasional input from professional actors and directors. At the end of the course participants’ work will be performed in a showcase of rehearsed ten minute plays as part of our OPENStage drama/theatre month. 

Cost, £10.00 per 2-hour session (pay per lecture) or save 20% by enrolling for all 10 workshops in advance.

 

OPEN History of Modern Art

OPENShop, 13 Drayton Green Road, London W13 0NG

 

Monday evenings, from 13th May. 7–9pm

A general introduction to the historical development of modern art in the western world, presented by artist, lecturer and Artistic Director of OPEN, Nick Pearson.

 

The 13-session weekly course will cover the period from Romanticism and Realism in the late 1800s, and take in the major movements of Western 20th-century art up to the ‘Young British Artists’ phenomenon of recent years. In the course of these fully illustrated slide lectures, key works from each movement will be discussed, and will help you to appreciate the art and ideas of the time. The course will also illustrate how other cultures, technology and world events have influenced artists of the twentieth century.

 

Each lecture will be followed by detailed, illustrated tutor’s notes with suggestions for further reading/study – building into your own encyclopedia of modern art!

 

By the end of this course, you should be able to:

·         Recognise key movements of 20th century art: Impressionism; Post-Impressionism; Cubism; Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism; Pop Art; Minimalism, Performance Art, etc.

·         Name key figures associated with each movement in modern art.

·         Understand the evolution of modern art movements, their relation to one another and the culture in which they were created.

 

This is a full module of the kind you would do at an art college, except there are no set essays and the level at which you learn is entirely up to you!

 

Cost, £10.00 per 2-hour session (pay per lecture) or save 20% by enrolling for all 12 lectures in advance. To enrol, simply turn up on the first day – or join us as the course progresses

 

Full details at www.openealing.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Origins of some West Ealing street names – part 2

It should come as no surprise that many of our names have royal connections, partly for patriotic reasons but also reflective of the fact that Duke of of Kent (1767 -1820) Edward Augustus, father of Queen Victoria lived at Castle Hill Lodge from 1801-12. A replacement house was built in 1845 and a small part still exists and is now occupied by St David’s Home. So we have Kent Gardens, Regina Road/Terrace and Victoria Road/ Cumberland Road in W5/W7. 

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An interesting name of agricultural origins is Hessel Road and a member of Steel family told me that the family use to grow the Hessel Pears, hence this name. “Excellently hardy pear. Ready October. Round to conical fruit. Pale yellow with small russeted dots. Quite a sweet fruit. Does well in the north of country. Crops very heavy. Found in Hessle, Yorkshire.” An internet search reveal you can buy a tree for £12.75. Other fruit names which are just in W5 in Little Ealing are named after varieties of cooking apples Bramley, Julian & Wellington roads, which were built on land developed by the Steel family.

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While on the agricultural theme, the names of fields often find themselves being used for street names. The obvious ones Broomfield Road/Place, Churchfield, Courtfield, Glenfield Road/Terrace, Kirkfield, Mayfield, Middlefielde, Northfields, Westfield. A very un-obvious one is Northcroft  Road, which probably takes it name from a field called North Kings Croft. The road itself follows a footpath that linked Windmill road in Little Ealing with West Ealing.

 

Northfield Road

 

Northfield’s school site is bordered on one side by Balfour Road and nearby are Salisbury and Chamberlain Roads, all of these undoubtedly take their name from politicians of the period. Balfour was Prime Minister in 1902 when the Education Act of that year, made education compulsory. The previous 1870 act had allowed local communities if they so decided to offer education and to recoup the cost through the “rates” (now Council Tax), consequently the provision was patchy. The passing of act prompted much school building and Northfield school dated from this period. The building design was used for Little Ealing School as well, which saved on the cost. Balfour had previously served in his Uncle’s – Lord Salisbury cabinet, which is where we get Salisbury Road from. Chamberlain Road is named after Joseph Chamberlain (1836 – 1914) who in his early years was a campaigner for educational reform, serving as Mayor of Birmingham before becoming an MP, rather than his more famous son Neville Chamberlain. It was Neville who signed the Munich Agreement in 1938, which was popular with most people in Britain because it appeared to have prevented a war with Nazi Germany. Charles Steel was a a conservative party supporter and was probably behind the naming of these roads.

 

Whilst in this area Marder road takes its name from the Marder Estates, which was land purchased by the Steel family and for a while they were early estate agents with an office at 2 Plough Terrace called (The South Marder Estates Co ). Ironically, the building is still used today as an estate agents.

David Shailes (to be continued).

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You are now entering – West Ealing Centre Neighbourhood

Congratulations to West Ealing Centre Neighbourhood Forum (WECNF) which was formally designated by the council last month. WECNF will now work on presenting a detailed 15-year spatial plan for the centre of West Ealing which could affect all our lives. It will be a plan that comes from the people who work and live in the centre of West Ealing, that’s unpaid volunteers who care deeply and personally about the space we all share. Consultation about the content of this plan, will include a touring ‘play-let’ written by and starring people of West Ealing and all about West Ealing. It will be about 30mins long – so watch this space for news of venues. Next WECNF meeting is Thurs, April 18th at st John’s church, 6.15pm; then Friday 17 May at the mosque, 6.15pm. All welcome.  http://wecnf.wordpress.com/ .

 

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It’s quackers! Ducks waddling around West Ealing – again!

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It’s very odd but at least once a year I see, what look to me, to be the same three ducks mooching around the same part of West Ealing.  There are always two male and one female mallards and they always come to the same area along Leeland Terrace. They’ll wander round for a few hours and then fly off. It looks like someone’s put some water out for them this time. Sometimes I’ve seen them around by St James Church and other times where I saw them yesterday by the park bench on the corner of Leeland Terrace and Melbourne Ave. There must surely be a reason for them to keep returning but I’ve no idea what it is? Anyone else any ideas?

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What do you think about night flights? Deadline April 22

The Government is consulting on night flight regulation for Heathrow and other large airports. The deadline for response is Monday 22 April.

If you are disturbed by flights late at night or early in the morning, take this opportunity to tell the government and influence the new rules which will come into force from October 2014.

Current rules
Under the current regime, the night period extends from 11pm – 7am but the night quota period, where most flying restrictions apply, is shorter: from 11.30pm – 6am. About 25 flights are scheduled to take-off from Heathrow between 6 – 7am. No flights should take-off after 11.30pm but delays during the day result in planes often flying over Ealing later than this, sometimes much later. Heathrow operates at 99% capacity, so there is little contingency.

Consultation process
This is the first stage of a two part consultation. The government is gathering evidence at this stage in order to develop proposals which will be issued for consultation towards the end of the year.

Key points to make

  • Question 2 of the consultation asks ‘Do you have any comments on our assessment of the extent to which the current objectives [to minimise noise disturbance during the night] have been met?’ This is an opportunity to write about your personal experience of being disturbed by planes at night (eg how frequently you are disturbed by night flights, whether this has worsened over time, any other patterns you have noted).
  • Question 4 asks ‘Do you have any views on whether noise quotas and movement limits should apply only to the existing night quota period or to a different time period?’ Many groups representing overflown communities believe that there should be a ban on night flights between 11pm – 6am and the phasing out of flights between 6-7am. This would give residents the 8 hour respite from flights recommended by the World Health Organisation.
You can submit your response in one of three ways: 
  • by using the response form on the Department for Transport’s website. 
  • by emailing night.noise@dft.gsi.gov.uk
  • by post to Department for Transport, Great Minster House (1/26), 33 Horseferry Road, London SW1P 4DR.
For more information, the ‘HACAN Clearskies’ group has produced a short guide to the consultation and an assessment of the economic cost of night flights. The Ealing Aircraft Noise Action Group website has links to the consultation and reports on the health effects of noise disturbed sleep.

You may also be interested in a rally against Heathrow expansion on Saturday 27th April, 9.30 – 10.30am at Barn Elms Playing Fields, Queen Elizabeth Walk, SW13 9SA. This has been arranged by the Richmond MP Zac Goldsmith, and speakers will include Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, and Justine Greening, who was Secretary of State for Transport until last year’s re-shuffle.

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Origins of some West Ealing street names – part 1

A couple of weeks ago I said I’d post some of our local history pieces from past newsletters. Here is the first of three articles by David Shailes on the origins of some of our local street names:

Origins of some local street names – part 1

 

When the streets of Ealing were originally laid out the landowners and property developer got to choose the names, so the reasons for their choices are generally not recorded and are lost in the mist of time. Researching street names is interesting for lots of reasons as some have names of local historical interest, others have no local connections and some are linked to events in history.

 

The length of this article means that we can only scratch the surface of the 200 odd roads that have a W13 post code.

 

Brisbane Road sign

 

 A set of my personal favourites are the Australian named roads: Adelaide Road, Brisbane Road, Sydney Road and Melbourne Avenue and these were all on land developed by the Steel family and it is known that Charles Steel whose market garden at one stage made him the largest rate payer in Ealing, went to Australia to see how they did things down under. So this may be the reason they have such names.

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 Loveday Road takes it name from William Lockyer Loveday, who owned land in Ealing, but lived in Devon, which he left in 1860 to start a new life in the State of Illinos in the USA. His son eventually became the owner of what was called the Loveday Estates and these were sold in 1896 for £60,000, a considerable sum of money. The St Kilda and Marder Estates, have also given their names to two roads.

 

St Kilda Road sign

 

 Horticulture gave us Leeland Road andTerrace, as these stand on part of the land that once was part of Charles Lee & son’s Ealing nursery, they had other nurseries in Hammersmith (The Olympia Exhibition hall stands on the site), Feltham, Isleworth and Hounslow. They used the site to grow fruit trees, roses and shrubs.  

 

 As a child I lived in Green Avenue and never gave the street name a second thought as there are no other streets named after colours nearby. It appears that the name relates to a H.C. Green who was the very first mayor of the Borough of Ealing in 1901/2. Next to this road is Cranmer Avenue that runs up to St Paul’s Church and on the opposite side is Ridley Avenue, which take their names from two Protestant Martyrs burnt at the stake by Mary Tudor (Queen 1553 to 1558).

 

The 1777 parish map reveals that North Field Lane (now Northfield Avenue) and Mattock Lane have been with us for over 200 years. My mother who lived in Ealing right up until her death in 1983 always referred to going shopping as up the “lane” meaning Northfield Avenue. Drayton Green existed as a small community on this map, which gave its names to several nearby roads.

 

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Green Man Lane took its name from a old coaching inn on the Uxbridge Road, the second world war damaged pub being rebuilt in the 1950’s (photo above) was demolished in 1981 and replaced by the block which Iceland is now in. The inn existed on the 1777 map and was an important stabling facility for over 100 horses on the London to Oxford road and on further west to Fishguard  (No A40 in those days!).

 

(to be continued)

 

David Shailes

 

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Watch this space – OPEN Ealing arts project on its way back to West Ealing

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After a few months without a home, OPEN Ealing is on its way back to West Ealing. The arts project has a temporary home in a pop-up shop in Drayton Green Road near the junction with the Uxbridge Road.  The shop needs a bit of work both outside and inside and it’s then ready to open – so not long now until it’s back and busy. I’ll post news of its opening date as soon as I have it. In the meantime keep an eye on their website for what events and activities will going on.