EALING
'Queen of the suburbs'
Ealing is located in West London and twinned with Marcq-en-Baroeul
in France, and Kreis Steinfurt in Germany.
Archaeological evidence shows that some parts of Ealing
have been occupied for at least 7,000 years - iron age pots have been
discovered on Horsenden Hill.
The name Ealing comes from the Saxon place-name Gillingas,
and a settlement is recorded here in the twelfth century, amid a great
forest that carpeted the area to the west of London.
Ealing is divided into seven districts - Ealing, Southall,
Hanwell, Acton,Northolt, Perivale and Greenford.
As London developed, the area that makes up modern-day
Ealing became predominantly market gardens, but in the 1850s (with the
Great Western Railway making travel much faster) villages started to
grow into towns, and now the towns are merging into unbroken residential
areas.
Two
branches of the Grand Union Canal cross Ealing, and these brought industry
to the area. Later, God's Wonderful Railway did the same, and in the
20th century so too did the major arterial roads, the A4 Great West
Road and A40 Western Avenue. Land prices in London, and the relatively
low cost of freight transport, have caused most large industry to move
elsewhere. The predominant occupations in Ealing today are in retail
and offices.
Ealing
Studios put the place on the map, culturally, with a series of well-known
comedies - Kind Hearts & Coronets, Passport to Pimlico, The Ladykillers,
etc. The studios were taken over by the BBC in 1955, and bits of Ealing
started appearing in television programmes ranging from Doctor Who to
Monty Python's Flying Circus.
TRANSPORT
Tube: Central London, District and Piccadilly line.
Rail: links to Paddington, Reading and Slough.
Airport: Closest (8 miles)
Motorway: M40, M4, A40, M3, M1 and M25.
LOCAL SPORTS TEAMS
Football:
Queens Park Rangers,
Brentford,
Old Actonians,
Hanwell F.C,
North Greenford Utd,
Viking F.C
Rugby:
Ealing Rugby Club
Basketball:
London
United
ATTRACTIONS:
Pitzhanger Manor House:
Southall Park
Gunnersbury Park
Hanwell Park
Park Royal Leisure
Ealing Golf Club
Walpole Park
For more Ealing links and information
visit the Community
Centre
