Neighbours’ Paper | Issue 86 | Autumn 2018

Neighbours Paper ’

Issue No 86

Putting the People of Ealing First

Autumn 2018

Noises Off! Third Runway A Step Closer Also featuring: School Governors | Into The Light | Northfields Back in Time | Libraries, Town Halls, Police Stations update | Volunteering

d ishe Publ

e e r F ease

Pl One e Tak rterly Qu a

Acton | Ealing | Greenford | Hanwell | Northolt | Perivale | Southall

Read NP Online at www.neighbourspaper.com

E ditorial

Contents Contents Editorial................................................ 2 MPs Vote in Favour of Third Runway.. 3

This Autumn edition highlights some volunteer options, showing just how useful you could be to our community.

Ealing Notes......................................4-5 Ealing Volunteers' Week..................... 6

NP has also just been given some dates when residents can meet their local police team. These are West Ealing Library: Thurs 6 Sept and Thurs11 Oct, 1-2.00pm, Lammas Park Tennis Centre: Wed 19 Sept and Wed 24 Oct, 4-5.00pm, Questors Theatre Café: Sat 29 Sept and Sat 6 Oct, 1-2.00pm, Walpole Park Rickyard Café: Fri 14 Sept, 12-1.00PM and Creperie Cilla Northfield Ave: Thurs 18 Oct, 121.00pm. Though billed as ‘Cuppa with a Copper’ not every venue can offer the cuppa! E-mail Darren.Loughnane@metpolice.uk for more on this.

Be a School Governer........................ 7 Marketing Without Fear...................... 8 Into The Light........................................ 9 Northfields Back in Time................... 10 John Mayer........................................ 11 Cycling in Ealing............................... 12

As usual we include local news including the proposed new Heathrow runway. Also Indo-Jazz fusion music and more. Lots to think about!

EVENTS AROUND EALING Soundbite Festival: Sat 8 September.

1.00 to 9.00pm Dean Gardens West Ealing W13 9BG. Free entry, music, food, craft market, free children’s activities, free cookery workshops and more. See www.soundbitefestival.org

West London Synfonia 13 October: St Michaels Church, Bedford Park, W4. 7.30pm, ‘Smetana: Ma Vlast’ (My Country) celebrating 100th Anniversary of founding Czechoslovakia in 1918.

More on www.westlondonsynfonia.org

BEAT: Borough of Ealing Art Trail 7-9 and 14-16 September. Free entry to 60 Open Studios,150+ artists showcasing their works in houses, studios or popup exhibitions spaces across Ealing Borough www.ealingbeat.org.uk

Ealing Symphony Orchestra: Concerts on Sat 6 October, Sat 24 November and Sat 15 December. More details at: www.ealingso.org.uk/concerts

London Open House Weekend Sat/Sun 22/23 September. Hundreds of buildings all over central and greater London are open and free on Open House London weekend. Catalogue from libraries or see www.openhouselondon.org.uk Ealing Half Marathon 2018 Sun 30 September. 9.00-2.30pm. 13.1 mile/21.09 kilometre run. Starts and ends in Lammas Park, W5 5JH, where a retail village will be located. Run, volunteer or spectate. www.ealinghalfmarathon.com Beauty the # Pantomime at Church of the Ascension, Beaufort Road, W5 3EB

by Beaufort Players, 29-30 November 8.00pm, 1 December 2.30 & 7.00pm, 2 Dec. 2.30pm. Enquiries: 07730 572389 2

Neighbours’ Paper Subscribe for a year: Just £4. Make a cheque out to Neighbours’ Paper and send to The Publisher, Neighbours Paper, 12 Waldemar Avenue W13 9PY 020 8579 4847.

Twitter.com/NeighboursPaper Facebook.com/NeighboursPaper Email: neighbourspaper@hotmail.co.uk Editor: Tom Whiting (020 8840 5740) Treasurer: Judy Breens

Free Concerts at St Mary’s Church Perivale. Every Tues 2.00pm, Wed 7.30pm and Sun 3.00pm. Enquiries: www.st-marys-perivale.org.uk or 020 8997 7691 Free Concerts at St Barnabas Church Pitshanger Lane: Every Fri at 1.00pm and more.

See: www.barnabites.org/concerts

Writers: Jamie Anson, Judy Breens, Manjinder Chijarh, William Durham, Will French, Michael Holmes, Eric Leach, Rebecca Mitchell, Oliver New, Ron Nicholls, Rosemary Wallis, Designer: Jamie Anson Webmaster: Sonia Nimley

Ealing Choral Society For concerts this autumn: www.ealingchoralsociety.org.uk Ealing Youth Orchestra: For concert and other info see: www.eyo.org.uk Ealing Classic Cinema Club: Weekly films Fri at Ealing Town Hall.

See www.classiccinemaclub.co.uk

Putting the People of Ealing First

Advert Designer: Sandy Anson Printer: Pollyprint Ltd, 263 Northfield Avenue, Ealing W5 4UA, 0208 579 1441, www.pollyprint.co.uk Advertisement rates: Single Box £25, Double Box £45, Triple Box £70 Next copy deadline: 31st October

Read NP Online at www.neighbourspaper.com

MPs Vote in Favour of Third Runway

By Eric Leach

After years of dispute, it finally looks like a third runway will be built at Heathrow Airport – Europe’s busiest airport. The work will commence in 2021 and the runway is scheduled to open in 2026.

The latest go-head was a vote in the House of Commons on 25 June 2018.

Support for it from our local Ealing MPs was mixed. Rupa Huq MP was against it. Steve Pound MP and Virenda Sharma MP voted for it. Ealing Council has not joined other local councils in legal action against the go-ahead.

Judicial Review This legal action was announced on 19 July 2018. The Councils of Hillingdon, Richmond, Windsor and Maidenhead and Hammersmith & Fulham have begun a Judicial Review challenging the Government’s decision. Their challenge is on the grounds of air quality, climate change, the Government’s environmental assessment which includes failure to deal with noise consequences and surface access impacts.

Reasons for the new runway revolve around estimates of new jobs, financial benefits and the need to cater for more flights and passengers. A further factor is that Heathrow would only

retain its ‘Hub’ airport status if capacity was increased by a significant amount.

Flight numbers to increase Supporters of the new runway claim it will create 180,000 new jobs. The Government states that the new runway will provide benefits up to £61 billion over a 60-year period. There will be 54% more flights reaching 740,000 each year. More than 130 million passengers will pass through Heathrow - up from 78 million last year. A sixand-a half-hour ban on scheduled night flights has been promised.

More than 2,100 local residents in Harmondsworth, Longford and Sipson will have to be rehoused; 783 homes will be compulsorily purchased and demolished. The Government estimates that 92,700 more people will be affected by noise which will exceed levels recognised as causing disturbance.

Latest cost estimate for building the runway is £14 billion. Heathrow Airport will fund the work. However, TfL estimates that it will cost £10-£15 billion for new transport infrastructure, which will include burying part of the M25 in a tunnel. The Government

The proposed third runway by M25 and M4 junction .

the

has promised up to £2.6 billion for compensation, noise insulation and community amenities.

‘Heathrow Hub’ Another attempt at a Judicial Review (JR) has appeared on the scene - 'Heathrow Hub' funded by a hedge fund manager. It has an alternative, cheaper scheme which involves extending one of the existing runways. The grounds for the JR include the claim that it’s unlawful for the Department of Transport to effectively give Heathrow Airport a veto over this alternative proposal.

There are future concerns for local residents with regards noise resulting from more flight paths directly over Ealing and the burden on transport. It’s not hard to envision that by 2027 both the Elizabeth and Piccadilly Line trains will often be completely jammed with airline passengers and their suitcases.

There will no doubt be more to report on this in the coming months. In the meantime, on the aircraft noise front, you could join the Ealing Aircraft Noise Action Group, see www.eanag.org.uk.

* Party Bookings * Christmas Day availability * New Year’s Eve Join Us!

Putting the People of Ealing First

3

Read NP Online at www.neighbourspaper.com

Ealing Notes Work starting on a new Borough development plan Council planners are to update the borough development plan which will establish the policies governing new developments in the Borough.

The exercise will take two years and include two rounds of consultation.

The new plan will provide for a large increase in housing development, with a target set to grow from 890 new homes p.a. in the present plan to the 2,800 p.a. demanded by the Greater London Authority. New developments will include many more small sites of less than 25 new homes and involve the redevelopment or extension of existing buildings.

This new plan will cause the number of Ealing residents to increase significantly. As the rest this edition of Ealing Notes observes, this will be at a time when many of the facilities and services that residents depend on are being withdrawn.

£15 4

and

O liver New

Abolition of Conservation Officer post threatens local heritage The new London Plan emphasises how important it will be for all these new developments to pay heed to good design and enhancing local heritage. How this will happen in Ealing is unclear, as the last of its officers responsible for conservation and heritage is to be made redundant.

Town Hall Disposals Efforts by the Council to dispose of both Southall and Ealing Town Hall are running into serious problems.

While Ealing boasts 29 Conservation Areas, there will be no one left in the Council with expertise to care for them.

Generalist, and mostly temporary planning officers will have to rely instead on ‘heritage assessments’ submitted by applicants as part of their planning applications. These unfailingly praise the development that is proposed, however out of character or destructive of local heritage they really are.

After a judicial review hearing, a High Court judge has quashed the planned sale of Southall Town Hall. The judge said councils across the UK must place the communities they serve at the centre of their decision making.

By accepting the highest offer for Southall Town Hall, without considering the needs of the local communities, the Council had not done this.

In the interim, Central Library users are directed to the facilities at West Ealing Library, but these appear have been recently drastically reduced, with the disappearance of student study books, apparently to make space for the local archives which are to be stored in it. There is also despondency in Pitshanger, where the very popular local library is to close on the expiry of its lease. Pitshanger library was only refurbished in 2014.

In Ealing, the Charity Commission is considering a letter from lawyers acting for Save Ealing Centre that challenges the Council’s right to dispose of the Victoria Hall which is not theirs but an asset of the Victoria Hall Charitable Trust. The letter alleges that the Council has mismanaged the Trust, of which it is the trustee, as for decades it has failed to keep proper accounts and has retained for its own uses the earnings from the hire of the Hall. Had these earnings been used to pay the Hall’s maintenance costs, there would be no reason to dispose of it.

Library Closures Further widespread reductions are in store to the Borough’s library services. Regular users will be aware that Ealing Central Library has been running itself down ever since Carillion, its manager, went bankrupt.

From the beginning of September, the Central Library will close completely for at least six months so that it can be be downsized to one third of its present size.

By Will French

x100 Business Cards Single Sided

Putting the People of Ealing First

Read NP Online at www.neighbourspaper.com

Ealing Notes continueD The Lions led by Donkeys Staff at Ealing Hospital are still doing a fantastic job, despite have to work with constant threats of cuts, closures and reorganisations. So, Ealing Save Our NHS was proud to organise an NHS birthday party on 5 July. It was exactly 70 years to the day since British residents had free public health services. Before the NHS poor people often died.

There was a huge cake, singing and short speeches from campaigners, local politicians and hospital staff. There were lots of people there in the sunshine.

Meanwhile another service has been cut at Ealing Hospital. Urological Services have moved to distant Northwick Park Hospital and to Central Middlesex Hospital, where there’s no A&E. No A&E means no backup for the hundreds of Ealing residents who have emergency admission to Urology. Why not consolidate Urology at Ealing Hospital, we ask?

It can only be because the Donkeys are desperately hanging on to their discredited ‘Shaping a Healthier Future’ plan. Who makes all these

decisions? There’s now a large number of overlapping organisations with new ones added as it gets ever more complicated. There’s Ealing Clinical Commissioning Group, which works under the auspices of the ‘Shaping a Healthier Future’ North West London and under the auspices of the North-West London Collaboration of CCGs and under the auspices of the North West London Sustainability and Transformation Plan and under the auspices of NHS London.

wonderful front-line NHS staff seem to be lions led by donkeys.

More at www.ealingsaveournhs.org.uk

On top of that there are several local Hospital Trusts, which compete with each other for contracts.

They and Virgin Healthcare are currently competing for Ealing NHS community services to win a billionpound ten-year contract (which we believe is likely to fail). Each of these organisations obviously have lots of staff and several of them also employ large numbers of outside management consultants: a cost to Ealing NHS of millions of pounds.

Sadly, all this reorganisation is undermining the NHS and it’s hugely expensive. That’s why we say our

Latest on Police Station closures Over recent months both Ealing and Southall Police Station have both closed to the public. While the police themselves still use the Ealing Police Station building, the only police station for the public to visit is in Acton at the Steyne Road Roundabout opposite

Putting the People of Ealing First

Morrisons. Otherwise incidents should be reported on the 101 service which the police say is to be improved.

You can also sign up to their new Neighbourhood Watch site, OWL (Online watch website) at www.owl.co.uk, for news about crime in your area.

5

Read NP Online at www.neighbourspaper.com

Ealing Volunteers’ Week

By Ron Nicholls This year's international Week of the Volunteer event, hosted by Ealing Community and Voluntary Service (ECVS) at The Rickyard in Walpole Park, on Saturday 9 June, attracted a wide range of interested local residents.

Volunteers’ Week functions as an annual recruitment drive and celebrates the diversity of the not-forprofit sector. Only a select number of the 450 members of the Ealing Community Network could participate although the list included our own under-resourced and endangered library system which is not a registered charity nor a member of the ECN. Value of volunteer sector Several major charities estimated the monetary value of the unpaid work in their own sectors when costed at the National Living Wage. The Trussell Trust – the backbone of the UK's Foodbank industry – found that foodbank volunteers contribute over £30 million, while a joint study by Carers UK and the University of Sheffield revealed that unpaid carers save the Treasury at least £132 billion, an amount almost equal to that of a second NHS! The growing value of volunteer work is at long last being recognised widely and Unite the Union, now offers a community membership rate for those in the Not-for-Profit sector and can provide ‘basic legal advice and access to personal injury claims, financial health checks, back to work services, hardship grants, and other retail benefits.’

Stop FLU going viral

6

One of the advantages in securing a volunteer role through the ECVS is that they offer a degree of protection and specialist advice when it comes to the thorny issue of ‘Volunteer Rights’ – or rather the deplorable lack of them in British law.

Fair treatment in workplace In these days of Third Sector media scandals, sound legal advice for volunteers is essential and that is precisely why the ECVS is prepared to act as an advocate when their clients are being unjustly treated in the workplace since volunteers were specifically excluded by legislation that covers management conduct and the Public Interest Disclosure Act. This is much needed when you consider the sad fact that millions of volunteer workers in the UK have not been ‘allowed’ an Independent Volunteer Complaints Commissioner nor an Ombudsman. In May 2018 an edition of Civil Society Media reported that ‘Charities have “no appetite” to protect volunteers’ (www.civilsociety.co.uk/ news/charities-have-no-appetite-toprotect-volunteers-mps-told.html).

self-serving corporation by unethical empire-building careerists on sixfigure salaries while they wind down the vital work of their charity and try to hide behind a glossy façade of unachievable and perhaps fraudulent claims in their fundraising campaigns.

Such extremes are thankfully rare.

The voluntary sector continues to provide major public benefits to our communities and to the UK economy and to give many individuals who make a gift of their talents and their time a far greater sense of wellbeing than is usually possible in the world of paid work.

ECVS offer one-to-one brokerage sessions for would-be volunteers on an appointment only basis. For more details please see www.ealingcvs.org.uk or call 0208 280 2230.

Beware the opportunists With an over-worked and under-funded Charity Commission as sole regulator, opportunities arise for smoke-and-mirrors management rogues to mount hostile takeovers of reputable and established charities. Even the most noble cause can be converted into a cynical,

8 St Johns Parade Mattock Lane Ealing W13 9LL

Putting the People of Ealing First

Flu Vaccinations ● Walk-in service ● No appointment needed ● Free, if eligible

Read NP Online at www.neighbourspaper.com

Would you like to become a School Governor?

By William Durham, London Team Leader, Governors

for

Schools

charity

B eing a school governor

is a rewarding role to help

pupils achieve and maximise their potential .

School governors are the largest and most important volunteer group within education, bringing their skills and experience to overseeing schools.

However, as of June 2018, there are many governor positions vacant across Ealing schools leaving a shortage of skilled volunteers working towards the betterment of local schools.

A role not just for parents Governing boards play a crucial part in raising school standards in three key capacities; setting strategic direction, monitoring school performance and ensuring the school’s budget is well spent. Anyone 18 or over and living in the UK can be a governor; it is by no means a role for just parents. Meetings are usually held in the evenings and you should expect to commit on average 15-20 hours per term to the role. Free training and support is provided and you do not need to have any experience of education, just drive, enthusiasm and the desire to use your skills in a positive and constructive way.

Diversity is vital For governing boards to be at their most effective they need governors with a wide range of skills and perspectives

to enable them to understand the unique challenges and opportunities that each school faces. Common skills looked for by schools in governors are Finance, HR, Law, Education, Premises and Procurement amongst others. Having an understanding of the community a school serves is another important element to effective school governance, and having diversity among those on a governing board is an integral part of this. Each school is individual and serves its own unique community and so the ability to understand this, and to take into account, is imperative to good governance.

‘Being a school governor is a very rewarding role, you can share your expertise for the good of the school and local community. At the same time you are working in partnership with teachers and parents to help pupils achieve. Governors that are proactive, committed and happy to share their skills and knowledge for the benefit of the school really do make a difference. Ensuring our Governor roles are filled is a priority to help ensure schools are well led and offer the best possible life chances to all, that is why we really need committed citizens to go on

Putting the People of Ealing First

governing boards.’ Councillor Yvonne Johnson, Ealing cabinet member for schools and children’s services.

Governors for Schools Governors for Schools is an independent charity that works across England to recruit skilled volunteers and help them to become school governors at a school local to their home or work.

They work closely with Ealing Local Authority on governor recruitment and have placed 40 Ealing residents as school governors since the start of this academic year alone.

To apply: www.governorsforschools.org.uk or contact William Durham via william.durham@ governorsforschools.org.uk or on 020 7288 9535.

7

MARKETING Read NP Online at www.neighbourspaper.com

without the fear of losing money

By Jamie Anson @__captivating_ Marketing should be the easiest thing to splash out on because it brings in more business than it costs.

Unfortunately, with the fast pace of change in consumer behaviour, it’s harder to predict if an advertising activity is going to work. The fear of losing money to ideas that turn out bad leads to indecision and inaction.

Indecision and inaction does not lose new business. It loses this week's/ month's/year's potential revenues.

As soon as you decide you want the extra revenue, you can have it, the economy in Ealing has it for you. The scary part is finding ways to get in front of the right people.

Copy don't innovate Bigger companies than yours have spent time and money working out what works. Copy what they do and where they advertise.

Allocate an ongoing marketing budget Medium to large companies know that marketing activities have a cumulative gain. To sustain growth, they earmark ~5% of their turnover to constant marketing efforts.

Know your metrics Know your Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC), Average Order Value (AOV), Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), conversion rates, customer churn and customer acquisition funnel in order to predict and realise what marketing works.

8

Find people’s pain points & squeeze hard Your service is valuable because it saves people from a pain of some kind. Stress people’s pain points, then offer your service as the paracetamol to fix their pain. The Mattock Lane Pharamcy advert on page 6 is an example of this in action.

Prioritise execution speed ‘A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week’ - General Patton. Marketing is a lot of trial and error. The faster you experiment, the more time you have to triple-down on what works.

Find mentors who have done what you do Running a small business is a lonely and frustrating job. Find people who have done what you are doing, so you have a few experienced people to shoot ideas back and forth with.

Dominate Shockingly, our brains are wired to register a fraction of what is in front of the eyes. The rest is assumed from memory. Make sure your marketing dominates the space it’s in.

Be captivating!

Act like the big guys with captivating copy and gorgeous photography.

Use unsplash.com for free high quality photography that doesn't look staged.

Garner trust Our brains seek out people’s faces when they are looking for something to trust. Use photos of yourselves and your customers on your website.

Utilise Google or review sites for reviews and advertise your awesome rating loud and proud. Hanwell pest controllers APSL do this well on their website - apslonline.com.

Resources:

Hire top-quality talent Make sure that every hire has the potential to bring in more business.

Hire for qualities in this order: • Attitude - an employee with a fantastic attitude will work harder for your customers than an average employee.

• Secret Sauce Book www.secretsaucenow.com • 'Start With Why' book by Simon Sinek • Gary Vaynerchuk on YouTube

• Aptitude - customers pay more for brain power than products. If you sell food, an employee who can teach customers new ways to use your food is going to bring in more business than someone who can’t.

• Experience - linked to competence but not quality

Putting the People of Ealing First

Freddy 's in Northfields

dominates

with their signage by the bus stop.

Read NP Online at www.neighbourspaper.com

Into The Light: Healing In Ealing

By Rebecca Mitchell I am sure that you have been aware of many celebrities and famous people being named in sexual abuse and harassment cases throughout the world, and in many different industries and communities this has led to the rise of movements such as #Time’sUp and #MeToo.

• Offer support and resources to the partners, carers and mental health professionals working with or in relationship with survivors including workshops and training

Yet despite the recent attention of high profile cases in the media, survivors of sexual abuse are often left without support which means they can be left to suffer in silence and isolation, leading to emotional problems such as anxiety, depression and low selfesteem. They may also experience anti-social and self-harming behaviours including domestic violence and alcohol and drugs misuse. Statistics surrounding child sexual abuse are very high. Nearly a quarter of young adults (24.1%) experienced sexual abuse (including contact and noncontact), by an adult or by a peer during childhood (NSPCC 2011).

One organization which offers support to survivors of sexual abuse is Into The Light Counselling and Support For Survivors CIC.

Into The Light was founded in 1993

by Rebecca Mitchell, a survivor of sexual violence herself, as a small support group for women who had experienced child sexual abuse. It has have now grown to offer a variety of services including counselling, psycho-educational courses, and workshops and training for both women and men. The women’s groups and counselling sessions are held in a safe supportive space in Ealing.

Into The Light’s guiding philosophy is that change and healing come through:

The aims of Into The Light are to: • Provide counselling, groups and workshops to women and men survivors who have been sexually abused as children

• Increase public awareness on issues relating to sexual abuse

• Giving Information • Breaking Isolation • Sharing Experience

One of the unique aspects of Into The Light is the psycho-educational approach that runs through all the services it offers. This approach gives the information as well as emotional support. Experts working with trauma and sexual abuse have

Putting the People of Ealing First

Rebecca teaching the anger module on the 10-week course. found that psycho-education is extremely effective in helping survivors reach stability and wellbeing.

One woman who attended the ten-week psycho-educational women’s group said afterwards: ‘For anyone considering this course, I could not recommend it enough, even if you have other counselling or have tried other therapies…I feel like it has given me the combination code to unlock the mess inside that I have been unable to understand.’

Our next women’s group starts in September 2018. We also offer workshops that both men and women survivors can attend and they can bring their partners and friends to. Our next workshop is in November 2018.

If you are interested in any of the services above or would like information about recovery from sexual abuse, please write to Into The Light, PO Box 64427, London W5 9HA or see www.intothelight.org.uk

9

Read NP Online at www.neighbourspaper.com

Northfields Back in Time:

Williams Brothers, Luckings, Ration Books…

By Rosemary Wallis In the 1930s and 40s, more than 50% of the corner houses in Northfields streets were grocery stores or sweet shops.

However, the main food shops were the two Williams Brothers’ shops, close to Kingsdown Methodist church. They occupied most of the block except for Luckings, an interesting haberdashery, and a small wireless shop.

Their butcher's shop had two skilled assistants, competent in filleting the whole carcasses of cows, sheep, pigs and rabbits, hung on hooks, blood still dripping onto the sawdust strewn tiled floor.

White trays displayed chops, tripe, hearts, kidneys, lights and suet lumps.

Of course, during World War II trays were empty and hooks gone. The goodies were hidden in a cold room, appearing at the whim of the butchers.

Tripe and onions, anyone?

Black pudding and liver sausage were men's favourites for Sunday breakfast and marrow bones could be bought, cooked in the oven and a welcome present for the family dog.

Cows and sheep were allowed to live to adulthood then. Mutton and mature beef, which included brisket, was tough enough to require steaming with vegetables for three hours. Sausages were made in-house, using intestine linings for skins.

Tripe was popular for the unimaginative, a white cellular stomach lining, showing no signs of being meat, usually served with onions. Rabbit stew was welcomed by the poor. Poultry was seen at Christmas time, with very, very few turkeys for the affluent. Chickens, with 10

offal in bags, tied to their legs were expensive then, These were for the employed and those not in the armed forces. For most, war-time Christmas dinner was a tin of spam, dotted with whole cloves and warmed up!

The adjacent shop was a grocery store which had three counters - Dairy, Grocery, and Household Goods. There were many assistants to ensure it was only they who touched the food. Men wore grey overalls with white aprons buttoned in front.

The women wore white overalls.

Six pence a knuckle – a bargain!

The dairy counter sold ham and bacon, sliced from joints, ending with a knuckle.

These could be bought for 6d, good for broth with added vegetables.

Long & Pocock Dairy Farmers, on corner of Northfield and G raham Avenues . red floor tiles, lead polish for cast iron fireplaces and soda crystals for washing up. Red and brown matches, nightlights and candles were also sold.

Customers paid their bills at a large counter, as big as that of a bank. They received tin tokens, a penny in the pound loyalty scheme. These were counted up at Christmas time and spent, this welcome additional income to guarantee some kind of festive cheer.

During the war, soya flour and almond essence were used as fake marzipan and dried milk and water paste a fake icing.

Eggs when bought, were hoped to be fresh. The odds were that one of six eggs would be bad. Cracked eggs could be bought cheaply and were value for money. Butter, margarine and lard, was sliced, weighed and wrapped.

Ration books Because there were no fridges or freezers, shopping was done daily, to try to avoid the fly and bluebottle attacks. Ration books governed the amount of food bought. For example, one adult and one child received 2 ounces of butter per week.

The general grocery counter served goods which included loose tea, sugar, dried fruit and biscuits. Biscuits were Garibaldi, petit buerre and rich tea. No chocolate biscuits!

There were also jams, marmalade, black treacle and golden syrup.

Once your basket was full, there was gossip outside the shops, mainly to catch up if any local man had been captured, killed, or was wounded and now home from the terrible war.

Liquid camp coffee, cocoa, Bournvita and Horlicks were the hot beverages of the day, with Tizer, cream soda and barley water the cold drinks.

The washing and dry goods counter sold blue bags for linen rinses to enhance whiteness, lux soap flakes, Persil powder, Vim, hearthstone blocks for front door steps, Ronuk polish for Putting the People of Ealing First

Read NP Online at www.neighbourspaper.com

John Mayer: The Godfather of Jazz Fusion

By Manjinder Chijarh For a few months, I have been volunteering for an upcoming Ealing-based Arts and Culture exhibition – a Heritage Lottery funded project at the Watermans in Brentford. Prepare yourselves as we shall finally ‘Meet John Mayer’.

Born in the slums of 1930s Calcutta, John Henry Basil Mayer, an impoverished Anglo-Indian had an innate musical drive to succeed. He was fortunate enough to learn violin for free at the Calcutta School of Music with Phillipe Sandre and quickly realised ‘the only way to get out of that damned slum was to use the violin to get out’.

Performing in cinemas, nightclubs and hotels, he eventually learnt Indian Classical Music from Sanathan Mukerjee who taught him to consider knowledge of Eastern and Western music on an equal footing, and studied Western music in Bombay under Mehdi Mehta.

Mayer’s UK arrival In August 1952, John Mayer arrived in London, winning a scholarship to study at the Royal Academy of Music. His funds were soon depleted, however, and he ‘work[ed] his guts out to become a violinist for the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. John’s EMI record filler for independent producer Denis Preston impressed Atlantic Records president Ahmet Ertegun who proposed that John compose music for a Double Quintet Indian & Jazz Fusion album beside the Jamaicanborn Jazz musician, Jo Harriott. In 1966, Indo-Jazz Fusions was released – the unanticipated avant-garde classic.

Across his life, John Mayer drafted legislation against discrimination for the Musicians’ Union; pitched a Violin Sonata for Yehudi Menuhin in 1955; performed at the Newport Jazz Festival, Bologna Jazz Festival and the Isle of Wight Festival 1969; wrote a Flute Concerto for James Galway in 1981 and worked as Composer-in-Residence and Professor of Composition at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.

You can listen to Indo-Jazz Fusions or various other selections on Apple Music, iTunes, YouTube and Amazon Music. Phone PRSSV on 020 8574 1202 or email info@prssv.org to learn more.

Official launch ‘Meet John Mayer’ is from Thursday 4 October until Friday 2 November with the official launch on Saturday 20 October. John Mayer’s 1976 EMI album ‘Dhammapada’ will have its first ever live rendition, and his son Jonathan Mayer will be performing it.

The exhibition will travel to Dominion Centre and Library in Southall for November and December 2018.

World music and dance ‘Pandit Ram Sahai Sangeet Vidyalaya’ (PRSSV) is a non-profit UK charitable trust established in 1987 by ethnomusicologist Dr Frances Shepherd and late tabla virtuoso Pandit Sharda Sahai. It provides accredited courses in World Music and Dance by OCN Credit4Learning, a nationally recognised organisation, and encourages, serves and promotes Indian Classical music and the prosperity of education to wider communities. ‘The Benares Baaj Story’, PRSSV’s previous 2015 exhibition charted three centuries of progression in the Benares Gharana, the sixth ‘house’ of Tabla in India from 18th Century Benares to 21st Century Britain. You can view these panels on the first floor of the Dominion Centre; right outside their office.

Putting the People of Ealing First

Photo

courtesy of

PRSSV John Mayer

archive.

11

Read NP Online at www.neighbourspaper.com

Cycling in Ealing

By Michael Holmes Tour de France! Tour de Yorkshire!

Tour de Ealing! Perhaps! Let's take a look at Westerley Cycling, a professional cycling club based in West London providing opportunities from a daily cycle to competing in professional events.

Since being founded in 1924, the club has played an important role in advancement of time trialling in the UK. What is time trialling?

An athlete (or sometimes a team of athletes) will compete in a race against the clock to secure the quickest time.

A time trial (TT) can be a single track cycling event, or an individual or team time trial on the road, and either or both may form components of multi-day stage races. In contrast to other types of races, athletes race alone since they are sent out in intervals (interval starts), as opposed to a mass start.

Westerley Cycling, as it is known today, was initially formed as a racing subset of the Western Section of the CTC (Cyclists' Touring Club), now the Ealing section of the West London DA. In 2003, the name "Westerley Road Club" was updated to the "Westerley Cycling Club". This change designated a response to the dwindling profile of traditional time trialling clubs in the UK. The Westerley now promotes a set of

12

spring criterium races at the Hillingdon Cycle Circuit in West London, in addition to a reduced time trial programme.

The Westerley Cycling Club is affiliated to British Cycling and Cycling Time Trials. People from all backgrounds are welcome to attend the fortnightly meeting at Hillingdon Cycle track. Cyclists would have a briefing before starting off on a circuit and trailing exercise. The club keeps its members informed via the Club Record, the Westerley magazine the comes out quarterly.

How does one become a member?

To become a member you would need to apply online. There are three types of membership.

Adult, Junior and Social. Current membership is around 150 active.

Members can represent the club in races and compete for their magnificent collection of trophies and awards. Other membership benefits include: Reduced entry fee for, and guaranteed entry to, our Hillingdon Circuit Time Trial series, Free entry to coaching sessions, Subsidised club kit, Access to a programme of club

Putting the People of Ealing First

Now you can channel inner G eraint Thomas !

your

rides, outings and social events and free entry to all club and West London Combine time trials on the road.

While most active racing members live in West London (Chiswick, Acton and Ealing), some may have moved away – nationally and internationally – but remain an important part of the club.

Where exactly is the club based?

There is no fixed address for the club however members and non-members meet on most Wednesday evenings for social evenings at the Duke of Kent pub, Scotch Common, Ealing, generally from around 9pm onwards.

In addition to a mixture of events at the Hillingdon Cycle Circuit, the club holds social events such as quiz nights and barbecues. For further information see: www.westerley.cc