Neighbours’ Paper Putting the People of Ealing First Issue No 96
Spring 2021
Stories inside: Ealing Council Property Developer Over-Development of Southall History of Hanwell Industrious Ealing
Acton | Ealing | Greenford | Hanwell | Northolt | Perivale | Southall
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E ditorial
Contents Editorial................................................ 2
Lockdown continues but it does not stop Neighbours Paper! We feature some new authors in this issue. We bring ourselves up to date with the achievements of Ealing Transition and also look back at Ealing’s industrial heritage. Ealing Council’s burgeoning activities as a property developer are examined. We have an overview on the history of Hanwell and a future view on the overdevelopment in Southall. On the sport front we cover angling – possibly for the first time. Finally our resident poet Valerie reassures readers with her Covid-19 vaccination day experiences. Let’s hope this is the last issue we put together under full Lockdown. Take care and stay safe.
Inoculation Day for Covid-19............ 2 Over-Development of Southall......... 3 Ealing Notes.................................... 4-5 History of Hanwell............................6-7 Making the Transistion Together....... 8 Ealing Council Property Developer.9 Industrious Ealing........................ 10-11
Eric Leach Editor
Angling in Ealing.............................. 12
Inoculation Day for Covid-19
By Valerie Rudd
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My Jab date for an appointment came in unexpectantly through the post. Once received I phoned 119 (free call) and spoke to a young man based in Devon. Through him I managed to get a local appointment at Temple Pharmacy at Pitshanger Lane. Ealing. The second one in 16 weeks time is in Wembley in Brent. In order to get a booking I have to have both appointments booked. So on the 24 January 2021 I set out for my Jab. After seeing a magnifent sunrise in the morning and hoping to have a nice brisk walk through Pitshanger Park, I then had to take a bus instead because it started to snow quite heavily. The first snowy day in West London and thankfully not too far to go for my appointment. At the bus stop I met a lady who was going to the same place but her appointment was 20 minutes later. Well we both arrived earlier then expected, but were seen earlier. It was a straight forward experience I was in and out very quickly.
Editor: Eric Leach Email: eric.alan.leach@gmail.com
To reward myself I went and bought a take out coffee at “Oscars” café nearby run by Ben who is always very welcoming. No seating of course. By now the snow was coming down quite heavily as I made my way back to the bus stop and met the same lady as before also going home. My Jab day was pleasant and topped up with snow filled views from the bus on the way home. When I arrived, my local park was filled with dogs running around and children building snowmen. All having a great time!
Advert Designer: Sandy Anson
Treasurer: Judy Breens Writers: Will French, Kay Garmeson, Roger Green, Michael Holmes, Eric Leach, Valerie Rudd, Trevor Sharman, Steve Toft, Anthony Warwick-Ching Designer: Jamie Anson
Photography: Dave Randles, Will French, Trevor Sharman Team Digital: Jamie Anson, Sonia Nimley, Ron Nicholls 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 Covid-19 Testing in Dean Gardens, W13 Next copy deadline: 30th April 2021
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Over-Development of Southall By Will French station, but blocks of flats will go up everywhere - along the Broadway, Park Avenue and around Southall Green.
Neighbours Paper frequently features new and unsuitable developments in Central Ealing and Acton. We’ve said far less about what’s in the pipeline for Southall. The numbers there are extraordinary.
You would expect there would be a plan to manage this much growth. Not in Southall, where a series of unconnected studies each contradicts the last. A 2014 GLA ‘planning framework’ foresaw new neighbourhoods designed to ‘complement existing local character’. This promised ‘a balanced and inclusive community’ … ‘regardless of age, economic status, lifestyle and level of independence.’ A mix of unit sizes and tenure types with buildings ‘predominately 4 – 8 storeys with some taller buildings to improve legibility to key locations.’ Progress in achieving this vision would be regularly reviewed.
Work on 3,750 new homes at the giant Gas Works site has already triggered objections from residents concerned about the harm to their health caused by the clean-up of land on which substances like tar and benzole were dumped for over 100 years. But Southall is not under assault just from the Gas Works development. The whole town is a building site in which the Southall community have to live their lives. A walk through the centre soon reveals the horror of it. All five senses are overwhelmed. The noise and disruption of building works never stills, and neither does the traffic congestion, especially over Southall’s only railway bridge. Pneumatic drills and paving stone grinders vibrate your body, blowing up dust and debris that hangs in the air, and gets into your mouth and up your nose. When the wind blows loosely secured demolition debris rattles ominously. You fear it will become dangerously airborne if the wind strengthens even slightly.
There have been no reviews and developers have been given free rein to build what they want. Their schemes are massive. The largest is the old Middlesex Business Centre which will cram 2000 homes into 13 blocks up to 27 storeys high.
like the GLA’s vision. Instead, they will mainly be in tower blocks - 51 of them over 10 storeys. EM found 89% of the consented units are two bedrooms or less, so unsuitable even for small families. And there won’t be much Southall residents could afford. Just 13.5% of the new homes will be ‘affordable’ at London Affordable Housing rents. A further 23.5% will be ‘intermediate’ homes at prices up to 80% of market rates. A full 63% of the new homes will be provided at market prices - far higher than most local people could pay. With Covid-19 and the recent downturn in the demand for small flats who are the new homes for? Perhaps they will be purchased by long term investors. A recent Berkley Homes marketing campaign in Hong Kong hints at a possible target market.
51 Tower Blocks
Ealing can do so much better as the nearby Havelock Estate refurbishment proves. This worn out 1960s Council estate was transformed with low rise high density homes clustered around green space for families to enjoy. Who decided to stop building like this?
Figures compiled by Ealing Matters reveal these new homes will be nothing
For more information: www.ealingmatters.org.uk
7,500 New Homes This only pales against what’s to come. During the past 5 years further planning consent for 7,500 homes has been granted or proposed - twice the number destined for the Gas Works site. Most new building is on the old industrial and warehousing land south of the railway and west of the
These 2 images, from
SE corner of Hortus Cemetery Merrick Road (left photo) with what’s planned
similar viewpoints at the
compare recent construction on
(right image) Current building work in the red block image is coloured The new blocks will be built in front of what is built now.
to be added green .
Putting the People of Ealing First
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Ealing Notes
By Will French, Roger Green, Eric Leach and Steve Toft
Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs)
Covid-19
On 11 February 2021, Ealing Council conceded to a Judge that it had made mistakes in its 2020 LTN Experimental Traffic Orders (ETOs). Implementing these ETOs resulted in the construction of 30 road blocks in Ealing, using planters and bollards. As a result of these mistakes the Council revoked the ETOs and had to pay the legal bills of objectors who mounted a legal challenge against the Council’s ETOs.
During the Winter Ealing had consistently high rates of infection – sometimes the highest in London. Since early January rates across Ealing have fallen. The mass vaccination effort in Ealing has been impressive. It’s no coincidence that all four mass vaccination centres are being run by local NHS Trust, Clinical Commissioning Group, GP Surgery and Community Pharmacy staff. Contrast this with the centralised fiasco of PPE equipment sourcing in 2020 and the continuing, poorly performing Test & Trace initiative being run by Serco and management consultants.
Initially in 2020 removable bollards prevented private vehicles from driving through these road blocks. These bollards were regularly ‘illegally’ removed and the Council then removed all the bollards. Enforcement continued using fixed and mobile Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras. In 28 January 2021 the Council removed some nationally unapproved green ‘ROAD OPEN’ signs which had graced the sides of the planters for some weeks. 1,000s of Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs) have been issued to people who have driven through the road block gaps. On 17 February 2021, new LTN ETOs came into force. However most of the complaints by residents apply equally to these new ETOs as applied to the original ones. For more information: www.oneealing.co.uk
In February we had mass asymptomatic testing for the Covid-19 South African variant in Dean Gardens car park and home testing in parts of W7 and W13. Probably few positives will be discovered in a meaningless and very expensive exercise. By mid February over 46,000 Ealing residents had been vaccinated. You can find out on a daily basis the number of new Covid-19 cases in your neighbourhood and the current Covid-19 infection rate at: coronavirus-staging.data.gov.uk
Perceval House Previous Neighbours Papers have described the Council’s controversial plans in partnership with the Vistry group, to demolish its Perceval House offices, and replace them with new offices a new public library and 477 flats in tower blocks up to 26 storeys high. The plans were presented to the 17th February 2021 Planning Committee and fiercely criticised by Rupa Huq MP and Cllr Seema Kumar. To the surprise of all, after two hours of heated debate, members voted to defer proceedings. The scheme will be brought back to a future planning meeting soon. It has been condemned by over 1,700 objectors who think the Council is trying to cram too much onto a very cramped site. They say the resulting development will do serious harm to Ealing’s historic character and several key listed buildings, particularly by setting a precedent for a cluster of 4
high buildings in central Ealing, and depriving surrounding homes of their natural light. Critics also criticise the inadequate provision of affordable housing, an insufficiency of family homes and the lack of play space Even if the Council approves the proposals, as it was expected to do on the 17th February, the plans have to go to the GLA for the London Mayor to approve. The delay threatens to complicate things seriously as the row will be caught up in campaigning for the May Putting the People of Ealing First
2021 Mayoral elections. Parties from all sides of the political divide look like being inundated with objections to the plans from critics. For more information: www.ealingmatters.org.uk www.stopthetowers.org
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Ealing Notes continueD Victoria Hall Ealing Council is struggling to meet the 2 April 2021 deadline that it hopes will clear the way to selling off Ealing Town Hall to a boutique hotel developer. In April 2020 the Charity Commission gave the Council 12 months to make significant changes to its plan to take control of the Victoria Hall Trust which owns more than 20% of the Ealing Town Hall site. The Council has spent £2m trying to bring the 2016 deal to fruition. A significant amount of this has been spent on legal and other fees because
The Future Beckons For Warren Farm Nature Reserve
it had overlooked the significance of the Trust until it was pointed out by a member of the public. In a series of meetings since April 2020, the Council’s General Purposes Committee (GPC) has met in its guise as Trustees of the charity to agree how they should respond to the Commission. The GPC has continued to ignore some key Charity Commission requirements. At the 16 February 2021 GPC meeting, the Friends of the Victoria Hall (FoVH) called for a board of trustees genuinely able to act only in the interests of the Trust, independent of the Council. FoVH also condemned the reduced lettable
space from which the community would be barred from use over the weekend, and which could not be used for large scale events, such as concerts and religious festivals. If the Commission does not approve the Council’s plans then the Victoria Hall Trust changes will need to be consulted upon again - a process that would add a further six-month delay and add yet more cost to the ill-fated Town Hall sell-off. For more information: www.savethevictoriahall.weebly.com
Map of the proposed nature reserve
The decision by QPR to abandon its plans for a training facility at Warren Farm left the obvious question: What should be the future of this large green space in the middle of our borough? In these times of Covid-19 lockdowns and climate emergency, Brent River & Canal Society (BRCS) put forward a significant proposal. The BRCS, which campaigned successfully to create the Brent River Park in the 1970s, published its vision for Warren Farm becoming a statutory Local Nature Reserve in October 2020. Long Wood, south of Warren Farm, already has this designation. If implemented, the plan would create a vast urban nature reserve in the heart of West London consisting of meadow habitats. BRCS trustees Phil Belman and Katie Boyles launched a campaign in support of the plan in January 2021. They have already signed up some prominent backers such as Lord Randall of Uxbridge, forensic botanist Mark A Spencer, the Barn Owl Trust, the Ramblers and National Park City. The petition had reached 6,000 signatures by mid-February.
Since Ealing Council stopped using Warren Farm as a sports facility, the meadow has rewilded, forming a unique urban grassland. Species of birds, mammals, plants, reptiles and insects which are rare in London have been recorded thriving on the land. Mr Belman remarked: “It is not by chance that great wildlife sightings keep coming in from Warren Farm. Its precious acid and neutral grassland habitats, its scarce birds, reptiles, amphibians and plants make this a fantastic asset for the people of Ealing. Our expert surveys have Putting the People of Ealing First
provided overwhelming evidence to justify the Statutory Local Nature Reserve designation.” BRCS says it is ready to offer its support and expertise to work with Ealing Council to achieve this vision. The Warren Farm Nature Reserve campaigners aim to see this on the agenda for the Mayoral election this year and the May 2022 Council elections. To learn more and sign the petition, visit the campaign’s website: www. warrenfarmnaturereserve.co.uk 5
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History of Hanwell by
Eric Leach
Modern day Hanwell shares a western and northern boundary with the River Brent and the Grand Union Canal. To the east is West Ealing and the southern extremity is Boston Manor Station. The first known evidence of human occupation in Hanwell is Paleaolithic flints being discovered in gravel pits opposite Elthorne Avenue in 1910. Bronze Age pottery was found in Seward’s Pit and Iron Age pottery was unearthed in land between Greenford Avenue and Copley Close. When the houses on Townholm Crescent were being built in the 1900s a relic of Glaciation was discovered. Called the Sarson Stone, it can be viewed at the main entrance of Elthorne Park. Remains of sixth century Saxon warriors have been found on the site of what is now Oaklands Primary School.
Stagecoaches, Barges, Trains, Trams, Trolleybuses and Buses In 1714 the Uxbridge Turnpike Trust was founded which managed the Oxford Road (at some point renamed the Uxbridge Road). A toll gate was set up in Hanwell and the ‘Coach and Horses’ Inn was built to service stage coach passengers travelling to and from London and Oxford. As part of the new canal to link Birmingham with the River Thames at Brentford, built between 1799 and 1801, the Hanwell flight of six locks was installed. They raised the Grand Union Canal by over 53 feet. Isambard Kingdom Brunel of the Great Western Railway (GWR) constructed the railway line from Paddington to Maidenhead which opened in May 1838. This included the spectacular Wharncliffe Viaduct which spans the Brent River valley in Hanwell
Domesday Book Entry The Manor of Hanwell or Hannewelle is first definitively mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086. It was measured as covering some 120 acres. It’s thought that Hanwell’s oldest church is St Mary’s Church built in the 12th century. William Hobbayne owned land in Hanwell and upon his death in 1484 he donated a house and 24 acres of land for ’godly uses’ to a charity. His charity survives and still flourishes today. In 1547 Hanwell’s population has been estimated as numbering 265 people. For many centuries the Manor of Hanwell was combined with the Manor of Greenford. It was only in the 17th century that local government in Hanwell was controlled by the Hanwell Parish vestry. Wharncliffe Viaduct 6
Putting the People of Ealing First
– 65 ft high and 900 ft long. Lord Wharncliffe was the GWR Chairman. The ‘Coach and Horses’ Inn, close to the viaduct, was renamed ‘The Viaduct’. In December of that year Hanwell Railway Station was opened. In 1847 the viaduct was widened. The original viaduct accommodated two tracks of Brunel’s wide gauge railway. New regulation Stephenson narrower tracks were mandated in 1846 and the widening subsequently allowed four track running. Hanwell Station is largely unchanged except for a lift added in 2020. In 1901 the Hanwell Tram Shed opened in central Hanwell, with tramcars running between Shepherd’s Bush and Uxbridge. Trolleybuses took over the route in 1936 and were themselves replaced by buses in 1960. The tram shed/
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bus garage was demolished in recent years and replaced by a Lidl supermarket and free public car park. Victorian Centre of Innovative Mental Health Treatment In 1829-31 the Middlesex County Asylum at Hanwell was built, initially housing 300 patients. By 1839 there were 791 patients. The first superintendent was Dr William Ellis. He believed in the humane treatment of patients. After he resigned in 1838 he was replaced by psychiatrist Dr John Conolly, an innovator in the treatment of mental illness, who introduced the principle of non-restraint into the treatment of the insane. This led to non-restraint becoming an accepted practice throughout England. By 1919 the facility was expanded and the number of patients had risen to 2,750. Since then changes in the approach to mental health care have resulted in the drastic reduction of patients over time on the site. The name was changed to St Bernard’s Hospital and in 1979 Ealing Hospital was built on part of the site. Conolly’s name – and fame - lives on captured in Conolly Road and Conolly Dell. Parks and Open Spaces Residents in Hanwell are justifiably proud of their parks and open spaces. In 1816 St George’s Fields were set aside ‘for the poor’. Churchfields, surrounding St Mary’s Church and overlooking the River Brent, was bought in 1898 for the public. The 7.5 acres of Elthorne Park were acquired from the Earl of Jersey in 1910. Between Elthorne Park and the River Brent is Elthorne Waterside which was designated in 1970 and is managed for nature conservancy. The Brent River & Canal Society was set up in 1973. By 1985 its aim of creating a continuous and integrated Brent River Park (BRP) was largely achieved. The Hanwell components of the BRP include Brent Lodge Park, Brent Meadow, a large part of Brent Valley Golf Club, Elthorne Park and Elthorne Waterside. Educating The Poor The building of the Central London
Hanwell Locks District School in Hanwell in 1857 was a major event. Its construction cost £35,000. The establishment was a closed, self-supporting community. It was designated to educate those whose families had ended up in the workhouse. The Poor Law Union and others paid £12,000 to Mr Millard, the owner of Hanwell Park Estate, for some 140 acres of the eastern part of the estate. There were often over 1,000 pupils at the school, the most famous of whom was film legend Charlie Chaplin. The building was extended and by 1900 there were classrooms, residential blocks, an infirmary, and a sewage and gas works. Much of the remainder of the land was farmed by a tenant at Cuckoo Farm. The school closed in 1933 and much of the building was demolished in 1935. The remaining block is now the Hanwell Community Centre.
design was not liked by everyone. It was renovated in 2002 and although breaking down occasionally, its design has stood the test of time. From 1960 Jim Marshall owned a music store on Hanwell Broadway. Local Rock guitarists spoke to him about wanting louder amplification of their efforts. In 1962 Marshall formed Marshall Amplification and in creating the Marshall JTM 45 he hit the jackpot. Customers included Rock guitar icons Pete Townsend, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page. Marshall Amps were a worldwide success. Jim Marshall died in 2012. In 2013 a tribute music festival was held in Hanwell and a commemorative plaque unveiled in Hanwell Broadway. Out of this grew an annual music festival called the ‘Hanwell Hootie’. Virtual in 2020, it is now London’s largest one day music festival.
Celebrations The Hanwell Carnival, founded in 1898, is London’s oldest carnival. It was created to fund raise for the Cottage Hospital (now Ealing Hospital). The carnival floundered during World War II, but was resurrected with the help of circus showman Billy Smart. Hanwell Clock Tower was unveiled on Hanwell Broadway in May 1937 as part of Ealing’s celebrations of the Coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. The modern Putting the People of Ealing First
Much of the source for this article is extracted from two excellent books: ‘Southall and Hanwell: History Guide’ by Dr. Jonathan Oates, published in 2003 by Tempus Publishing Ltd. ISBN 0 7524 2638 9. ‘Ealing and Hanwell Past’ by Peter Hounsell, published in 1991 by Historical Publications Ltd. ISBN 0 948667 13 3.
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Making the Transition Together by
Trevor Sharman
The first question might be, why do we need a transition? From what to where? For the Transition Towns movement, of which Ealing Transition Initiative is a part, it means the journey from our currently unsustainable economic and social system to one which is sustainable and healthy for ourselves and for the wider community of life. Currently we are consuming the Earth’s resources at a rate requiring 3 planets to sustain it. Clearly this cannot continue. If we do not take conscious and realistic charge of our future direction, we allow disaster. The Transition movement is principally an organisation for local action in response to this crisis. In Ealing over the past 11 years, Ealing Transition Initiative (ETI) has run a programme of education and awareness raising through film events, talks and meetings and harnessed the energy of the community into creating their own local projects to contribute to addressing the big problems, although within our local area. Food and Renewable Energy Concern about the wasteful and unhealthy food system led, through self-managed Open Space events, to the creation of projects to model local solutions. Our Edible Ealing organic produce box scheme pioneered this approach, sourcing and distributing locally produced and organic fresh food at affordable cost. Another group established Village Park community allotment project in South Ealing where people could learn to grow together. Our Bee Project has taught bee keeping and supports itself by paying a honey dividend to shareholders. We have planted community orchards and public edible gardens to show how and where real food comes from. Our concern about CO2 emissions led a local group to help with simple home 8
insulations steps, while our Ealing Solar Schools Project has helped facilitate the largest number of solar school installations in London. Sustainability These examples of small groups of local people taking initiative and action may seem modest, but by acting together we have grown in confidence, in ambition and in power. Drawing on this confidence, we have been facilitating community meetings over the past 2 years to create wider plans for a sustainable Ealing. We’ve done this through ‘time-travelling’ to imagine the kind of sustainable future we want to see and then ‘backcasting’ the steps necessary between where we are now and where we want and need to be in 10 years’ time. The fruits of these community events and the energy behind them have been used to engage with the Council, as our most significant local organisation, to develop an action plan for Ealing. On 19th January 2021, the Council Cabinet formally adopted their Climate and Ecological Emergency Strategy which will now set the direction and targets for all Council actions going forward. We are now building on this, with other local community groups by launching ‘Act for Ealing’, as an online hub and network through which existing and emerging community groups can come together and work towards effective climate action and nature restoration across the borough.
The Transition has begun. The more people come together to contribute to it the better it will be and the faster it will be achieved. We can all look forward to being much richer as a result, since what we will have earned through its achievement is the satisfaction of creating and living in a healthy and vibrant community and the mutual recognition and support of our neighbours with whom we will have achieved it. Trevor Sharman is a member of the Ealing Transition Initiative Steering Group. Links Ealing Transition Initiative www.ealingtransition.org.uk ActForEaling www.facebook.com/ActforEaling/ L.B. Ealing Climate Action Plan information info www.ealing.gov.uk/info/201033/ council_and_local_decisions/2691/ climate_action/1
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Ealing Council: Property Developer by
K ay Garmeson
Gurnell Leisure Centre – a B roadway Living site
Council to Borrow £400 Million to Finance Its Development Vehicle, Broadway Living: What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
yet has planning permission and both of which seriously contravene planning policy at all levels and are facing strong local opposition.
Broadway Living
The aim is to deliver these schemes by 2028. This timing is partly determined by GLA grant funding of more than £102 million, responsibility for which will transfer to BLRP. This grant requires that 1,138 affordable homes are started on site by March 2023. However, it is the Council (that’s you and me!) which will have the largest financial exposure during this period through its provision of a borrowing facility of up to £400 million (over 60% more than the Council’s budget for 2019/20 and described as ‘unprecedented’) while BLRP waits for the first income from the developments to come on stream.
Broadway Living (BL) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Ealing Council set up in 2014 with an initial budget from the Council of £19 million ‘to purchase homes over a range of tenures including affordable and private rent, to assist in meeting the housing demand in the borough.’ Since then Ealing Council’s ambitions for Broadway Living have grown, and its purpose now is to ‘maximise the provision of affordable housing on council owned land, retaining these assets in a wholly owned subsidiary, Broadway Living Registered Provider (BLRP), which was itself governed by the requirements of the Regulator of Social Housing and did not seek to make a developers profit’. 1,471 New Homes by 2028 BLRP’s recently published business plan involves the delivery of 1,471 new homes on 18 sites across the borough, almost two-thirds of which are to be offered at London Affordable Rent (63.6%). That said, the programme will rely on cross-subsidy from the sales of homes (both shared ownership (12.2%) and private sale (8.8%) currently) to enable the affordable homes to be built. The two largest named sites in this plan are Perceval House and Gurnell Leisure Centre, neither of which
After 2028: 6,000 More New Homes Thereafter the business plan requires that BL ‘develop a sustainable and long-term pipeline of genuinely affordable homes’ and ‘re-establish housing development as part of the Council’s core business.’ It further states that BL is working on proposals for the redevelopment of a number of unspecified school sites across the borough, and that the Council has additionally identified land with potential for up to a further 6,000 new homes. Local Partnerships – a joint venture between the Local Government Association, HM Treasury and the Welsh Government - assessed the business model adopted by Broadway Living as ‘high risk’. It certainly raises a number of questions for Ealing residents: Putting the People of Ealing First
• While Broadway Living is wholly owned by the Council, its arm’slength business structure hides key data from public view, evident already in the suppression of the detailed figures underpinning the BLRP business plan. Yet we, the public, will be on the hook if things go wrong. • As shareholder, landowner and lender to Broadway Living, the Council’s responsibilities as the planning authority will be seriously compromised. The Cabinet report actually cites ‘close working with the planning department’ as a means of mitigating risk. • The cost of resourcing the two companies is not revealed, but they will be substantial. For reference, more than 10% of the original loan to Broadway Living was to pay for set-up. • The whole life cycle of the plan (i.e. the time needed to repay borrowing and produce a cash surplus) is 50 years – ironically longer than the lifespan of Perceval House and Gurnell Leisure Centre which are to be demolished and redeveloped under the plans. The track record of council-owned housing companies is poor. They have bankrupted Croydon Council; they have lost money in Bexley and been wound down as unviable in Merton, with the loss of Council land to private developers. What could possibly go wrong in Ealing? To keep updated on this issue see: www.ealingmatters.org.uk
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Industrious Ealing by
Anthony Warwick-Ching
Queen of the suburbs or city of a thousand trades? Ealing’s crown may have slipped just a bit, but it has remained surprisingly industrious. Recent figures show that in 2019 almost nine per cent of its workforce was in manufacturing. True, the headcount of 12,000 is a fraction of the numbers once involved in industry, but as a share of total employment it’s nearly four times the average for London (2.3%) and even higher than the figure (8%) for the country as a whole. More remarkably, the past decade has actually seen growth. Between 2010 and 2015 manufacturing jobs rose by a third in Ealing at a time when they were falling or stagnating in the rest of London. And since then – at least till Coronavirus hit - it has held on to those gains. The Factory Mile Ealing is fortunate to have a strong industrial heritage. Though the roots go back to Edwardian times the mainspring was the growth of the
Gillette on 10
the
London economy in the 1920s and 30s. Import protection fostered engineering, a new National Grid fuelled demand for electrical goods and convenience foods had caught on. West London flourished, with dozens of US firms setting up operations. Ealing and its neighbours got the Factory Mile on the Great West Road and new developments along the A40, with newcomers such as Firestone, Pyrene, Hoover, Gillette, Guinness and Heinz commissioning distinguished architects to design their factories. The picture remained buoyant through the war and well beyond. True, the trend faltered in the 1970s, when there were one or two notable closures. AEC, maker of the Routemaster for London Transport, closed in Southall in 1979, with the loss of several thousand jobs, and Park Royal Vehicles followed soon after. Yet at 3.5% Ealing’s unemployment rate stayed below the UK national average.
1980s Cutbacks All this changed in the 1980s. Hammered by record interest rates, an overvalued pound and crippling recession dozens of firms made sweeping cutbacks. From an average 10,000 a year in the late 1970s, redundancies in the GLC area jumped to five times that level in 1981 and higher still in succeeding years. West London bore the brunt. Unemployment shot up to 11.6% for Ealing as a whole and approached 20% in Southall. Economic recovery brought some relief, only for renewed recession to bring a surge in unemployment at the end of the decade. Where were those jobs lost? One of the biggest sources was Park Royal. Shared by Ealing and Brent and similar in area to the City of London, Park Royal opened as an agricultural showground in the 1900s but soon converted to manufacturing. Early activities included iron-making, munitions and rubber processing, but after the First World War more salubrious operations predominated and Park Royal became a legend as one of the largest industrial estates in the country. The 1920s saw Park Royal Vehicles, Heinz Foods, Rank, Landis & Gyr and British Can established, and they were followed in the 1930s by Guinness, Waterlow, Elizabeth Arden and dozens of smaller ventures. Automobile and aircraft engineering, electrical engineering and food processing predominated, and the picture remained much the same after the war. By 1952 Park Royal had five operations with more than 1,000 employees, with Heinz the largest at over 1,500. The sunny years of never had it so good brought further expansion and by the mid60s employment had reached an astonishing 45,000, including no fewer than 3,500 at Heinz. Even after the
Great West Road Putting the People of Ealing First
Read NP Online at www.neighbourspaper.com rationalisations of the 1970s there were still 30,000 working on the estate. All this changed in the 1980s, when casualties multiplied. One of the first was Hoover, in neighbouring Perivale, which shut in 1982. By middecade alarm bells were ringing, but Ealing Acton MP George Young angrily rejected fears that even Heinz and Guinness might go. His wiser constituents, perhaps mindful of the advice never to believe a report until there is an official denial, were unsurprised when Heinz did eventually close. The bicycling baronet (no, it wasn’t an early conversion to healthier living, but a drink-drive ban) went off to take his place among the unelected members of the mother of parliaments. Park Royal Revival in the 2000s Park Royal revived in the 2000s and despite residential encroachment it has largely retained its commercial character. The big factories have been replaced by smaller factories, warehouses and workshops. Unfortunately an initiative to promote the area, the Park Royal Partnership, was foolishly killed off by public spending cuts in 2014. Parts of the estate are a ghost of what was. Park Royal Leisure Park, just south of the A40, is now just tumbleweed. Closely linked to the development of Park Royal was central Acton, which attracted new industries from the early 1900s. Again electrical engineering and motor manufacture predominated. One of the most famous operations was that of Napier, established in 1903. Celebrated for high speed cars Napier built the world’s first factory for six cylinder engines at its premises just off Acton Vale and chased land speed records between the wars. Firms like Napier were nothing if not versatile and like their Park Royal peers turned to aircraft during the Second World War. After it closed in 1963 the Napier site became Acton Park industrial estate. Rivalling Napier in fame was CAV, founded by Charles Vandervell in Warple Way in 1904. Near neighbours in the early years included Panhard & Lavasseur, Talbot, W&G du Cros
and Renault. Originally specialising in vehicle lighting, CAV was taken over by Lucas and concentrated on diesel technology and aircraft fuelling. The 1950s brought diversion into motor racing and victories in six out of ten championship races in 1958. The Acton operation finally succumbed to the recession of the early 1980s. Other former residents of Acton included Wall’s in foods, Bronnley toiletries in Warple Way and the last redoubt of Broadwood, once a world leader in pianos. Ealing’s earliest brush with modern industry was in Greenford, where the world’s first artificial dye works was established by William Henry Perkin in the 1850s. But it was not until the 1900s that significant manufacturing arrived in the form of the WA Bailey glassworks, forerunner of Rockware Glass. The inter-war years brought a very big Lyons tea-blending operation and Glaxo baby foods and pharmaceuticals. Both have now gone, leaving Brompton Bicycles to carry Greenford’s flag for manufacturing. Southall for Food Southall perhaps has the longest attachment to food of all Ealing’s neighbourhoods. 1893 set the pace with a huge new margarine works. This evolved into a large Walls/Birds Eye factory and the charmingly named Margarine Road became Bridge
Hoover B uilding
on
Road. Other big food operations have included Quaker Oats, Nestle and, more recently, Noon Products and TRS Foods, which are still thriving. Serving these and other food and beverage makers was Crown Cork, which closed in the 1980s. The rest of Ealing was not entirely outdone. Wolf Electric Tools opened on Hanger Lane in 1935 and survived until the 1980s. Ottway made military instruments on New Broadway until the late 1960s. And in 1916 West Ealing actually produced a tank at a workshop on Talbot Road. It was not adopted by the War Office, however, and ended its days as a rusting hulk in Dean Gardens. Somehow the Allies managed to win the war without it.
Editor’s Note: Anthony Warwick-Ching is a local economist. His book: Stolen Heritage: The Strange Death of Industrial England, published 2020 by Matador ISBN 978 1838593 988 is available from bookshops and online retailers.
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Angling in Ealing By Michael Holmes You may have heard the phrase: hook, line & sinker indicating a person is being tricked or trapped. This a fishing tackle term. Each time a fish is caught it is tricked by the angler’s bait on line and hook! On the cusp of Ealing borough the Barnes and Mortlake Angling and Preservation Society was started over 70 years ago and is still going strong today. The Club is entirely run by volunteers who make up the Management Committee. Also the club focuses on being a social environment for everyone to enjoy fishing and develop their angling skills. We have a range of both Carp and Coarse fishing available and are always welcoming to well behaved members. What is Angling? Angling is the principal method of sport fishing, but commercial fisheries also use angling methods such as longlining or trolling. Catch and release fishing is increasingly practiced by recreational fishermen. In many parts of the world, size limits apply to certain species, meaning fish below and/or above a certain size must, by law, be released.
The species of fish pursued by anglers vary with geography. What are the benefits of Angling? Angling provides therapeutic benefits to those people with long term illness or during recovery, for those with mental illness or behavioral issues. It incorporates a range of physical activity levels and encourages activity amongst the inactive, those with ill health and older age groups who may not participate in other sports. Angling incorporates proven therapeutic engagement and contact with 'blue-green space' and as a consequence helps maintain positive mental health, provides stress relief and can support programmes for people with mental issues. It provides a rich social world that facilities the relationship building, connection and participation in social life essential to securing health and wellbeing. The role that environmental conditions and chance can play in catching a fish or not, can effectively 'level the playing field' making angling one of the few sports where individuals with very different characteristics and abilities can complete on similar terms with each other.
Ealing benefits from Angling and those who participate will reap many rewards as above. Not to mention the Club is delighted have raised £300 in aid of Gunnersbury Park by hosting a charity match on the Potomac lake! Interested? Get involved! For more information on membership options and how to join BMAPS, please visit: https://www.bmaps.org Membership shall be at the discretion of the Committee and all members must be in possession of a current Environment Agency Rod Licence when fishing club waters. See: www.gov.uk/get-a-fishinglicence for information on how to buy a fishing licence. As a member of BMAPS you will be able to gain access to 3 excellent waters in South West London. • Thames Young Marines • Shadwell’s Pool, Barnes • Potomac Lake, Gunnersbury Fishing Tackle Shops These shops don’t only sell tackle and bait, but are also a fountain of knowledge about what tackle to use, local clubs you can join and where to fish (often for free) The nearest shops are: Isleworth Angling and Tackle Tel: 020 8061 9205 Ron’s Fishing Tackle, Sheen. Tel: 020 8876 4897 Fisherman’s Cabin, Ruislip. Tel: 020 8248 8100
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