A LOT has changed in Ealing and Acton – not least the area’s property prices. With the help of Winkworth estate agents, we look at what’s changed in the last 28 years.  

It’s July 1994: Tony Blair is PM, four pints of milk cost 84p, Four Weddings and a Funeral is at the top of the box office, Love is All Around will be number one for another 11 weeks – and you can buy your first flat in Ealing for under £76,000.  

Like the rest of the UK, the area’s housing market has been transformed since the 90, with average property prices rising 567%.

In the mid-90s, a semi-detached home in the area would set you back an average £192,834, while a terraced house cost somewhere in the region of £140K.

Fast forward to 2022, and the same properties are fetching £2.4m and £900,000 respectively, while that £76,000 flat would now reach £400,000-plus if sold on today’s market.  

Step inside those properties back in 1994 and you would find more differences than just the price tag.

Conservatories were a way to add space to your property, while carpets were out, replaced by functional, easy-clean laminate and hardwood.

Interior trends were eclectic, including brightly-coloured accessories, fake plants, stainless steel and the occasional lava lamp. Armchairs were either checked or, bizarrely, inflatable, and terracotta was the most popular paint colour for living and dining rooms.

The memory foam mattress had only just been introduced, and IKEA was hitting its heyday – you’d be hard pressed to find a home without a Mammut kids chair or Smog table lamp.  

There have been plenty of changes to the area, too. New developments and conversions have increased the number of properties available in this part of London.

It’s also more connected than it was 30 years ago, thanks to the completion of the Elizabeth Line, bringing Crossrail to Ealing Broadway, West Ealing and Acton stations.  

Housing developments and transport links aren’t the only things that have changed the landscape. The high street has seen tumultuous change, with 90s essentials like Woolworths, HMV and BHS disappearing in favour of Smiggle, Bubble tea stores and Amazon Fresh (the world’s first ‘Just Walk Out’ grocery store).  

Yet there are some things that haven’t changed.

Fashion seems to have come full-circle – hello again to bucket hats and dungarees – and you’ll soon be able to catch a film again in the cinema on New Broadway, which closed in 2008. Now, it is part of a redevelopment that includes 200 homes and a Picturehouse cinema.

You can also still find the same Winkworth Ealing and Acton estate agents, which has stood at the same spot in Uxbridge Road since it opened in the summer of 1994.  

Lettings manager Fiona Lee, part of the team since the beginning, said: “Yes, Ealing and Acton has changed, but its community spirit and personality is as strong as ever.

“It’s made Ealing an in-demand area for those looking for both a London postcode and a neighbourhood with its own identity, and that hasn’t really changed since we opened our branch in 1994.

“We still see the same diverse mix of people attracted to Ealing and Acton for its character as much as the properties on offer – and, although prices have clearly gone up since we started selling here, they are still competitive, especially compared to other parts of West London.”  

Winkworth Ealing and Acton is currently undergoing its own transformation, investing in staff development, a full office refurbishment and new ways to reach the property market, including a new digital marketing initiative.