Fifty years of the Hanwell Carnival
When Hanwell Carnival takes place on Saturday, 19 June, it will be the 50th consecutive year it has been held. The first was held on Saturday, 17 June 1961. Until then, the streets of Hanwell had not witnessed the carnival procession take place for more than two decades. There had been carnivals before the Second […]
Secret diary of a royal observer
With the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton drawing close, it seems timely to take a look at the entries of a local diarist – because the events he recorded almost 80 years ago provide distinct parallels to the current day. Alexander Kay Goodlet was neither Samuel Pepys nor Anne Frank, but his diary […]
Guilty or not guilty?
Sixty years ago, Timothy Evans was hanged at Pentonville Prison for murdering his own daughter, Geraldine. However, just three years later it was uncovered that another man who lodged in the same house, John Christie, was a serial killer. The horrible thought began to dawn on some people that Evans may have been innocent, and […]
The mystery of Perivale Manor
In 1989, an episode of Dr Who on television featured a walled mansion in Perivale and a reptilian lord of the manor, who, in 1883, had plans for world domination. There was not, of course, a manor house in Perivale at that time. But there was one once. Let us unravel the mystery. According to […]
Village life seen through the census
Almost everybody who has looked into their family’s British roots in the 19th Century will be very familiar with using the census returns of 1841-1911. They are easily available online, and searchable by name, too. They give name, age, occupation, birthplace, marital status, disability (if any) and relationship to the head of the household, as […]
Shop local message is nothing new
The theme ‘shop local’ is not a new one. Readers of Ealing Illustrated in 1893 were introduced to the concept. It was argued that ‘the very life of a town lies in its business thoroughfares, and accordingly as these show indications of prosperity or stagnation, so does the town wear a cheerful or depressed air’. […]
Dame marks theatre’s half century
The Questors Theatre celebrated its 50th anniversary with a renaming ceremony, adding a touch of movie glamour. The theatre in Mattock Lane, Ealing, held a gala performance on 18 October to celebrate its golden anniversary and the new name for its main theatre – which is now called The Judi Dench Playhouse. Dame Dench, who […]
A lonely, broken-hearted girl
The lives of ordinary black women who lived and worked in London before the Second World War are not well known. Like many working class women, their lives are not easy to find in the archives, writes Caroline Bressey. Their voices and opinions were not often recorded by reporters, unless exceptional circumstances drew particular attention […]
The vanished world of Victorian South Acton
It is 150 years since construction began of Victorian South Acton, writes Linda Davies. This landscape of terraced housing and small industries, now almost totally vanished, was once a hive of activity packed with laundries, working women and a rapidly growing population who soon needed their own church, school, park and stations. In 1859 the […]
Why we are up in arms
A coat of arms is similar to a badge and it represents, in picture form, an individual, family or organisation display on a triangular shield. Ealing’s current coat of arms was granted by the College of Heralds on 1 September 1965, five months after the new borough began its existence. Prior to 1965, the councils […]
Holy Cross Church
This year (2011) has seen celebrations to mark the 70th anniversary of a Greenford landmark, Holy Cross Church, writes Peter Hounsell. The church became a beacon of hope during the dark days of the Blitz, remaining unscathed as it was built while bombs fell around it. During the 1920s and 30s, between the two world […]
Come Hoff it
Hoff The Record is a new comedy for the Dave channel starring David Hasselhoff, who everyone remembers as an actor driving a talking car… …and as a singer who claimed he helped to bring down the Berlin Wall. David Hasselhoff has built a resoundingly successful career since the talking car, but is pretending that he […]