Living in Ealing: area guide to homes, schools and transport

An exciting makeover for the west London area known as the "Queen of Suburbs" includes a revamped town centre, 1,400 new homes and fast Crossrail links.
Daniel Lynch
Anthea Masey1 August 2018

Walk down tree-lined streets of double-fronted Edwardian houses with gravel drives and it is easy to see why Ealing in west London is known as the “Queen of Suburbs”.

Families come for the schools and the easy commute, which, with the arrival of the Elizabeth line, will get easier still. Now Ealing is getting even better, with the once-shabby town centre in the middle of a radical makeover.

There are three major schemes mixing new homes with shops, cafés and restaurants, plus a planned boutique hotel, while the £12 million restoration of Grade I-listed Pitzhanger Manor House, which was the country home of Bank of England architect Sir John Soane (1753-1837), aims to provide a major cultural landmark for west London.

There have also been improvements to Ealing Broadway shopping centre, while Ealing Broadway station is getting a major facelift ahead of the opening of the Elizabeth line in December next year.

The Dickens Yard, Filmworks and Perceval House development schemes are leading to an explosion of town centre flats with 1,370 newly built or in the pipeline. Dickens Yard, with nearly 700 flats, is now nearing completion.

A new shopping street opens up a vista to the Church of Christ the Saviour where there is a new town square with a sculpture bearing the lyrics of Count Your Blessings and Smile, a song by George Formby who starred in numerous box office hits made at nearby Ealing Studios in the late Thirties and early Forties.

Walpole Park in the town centre is undergoing a restoration alongside Pitzhanger Manor House
Daniel Lynch

New shops and restaurants are opening up, with long-standing Ealing favourite Charlotte’s Place launching an all-day brasserie, Charlotte’s W5, in an old stable block. Branches of Jigsaw, Gail’s, The Skinny Kitchen and Balans Soho Society open soon.

Filmworks will provide Ealing with an eight-screen Picturehouse cinema behind the façade of the Art Deco Empire Cinema and 200 flats arranged around a new piazza with branches of Italian restaurant Vapiano and Planet Organic supermarket already signed up.

On the opposite side of Uxbridge Road, Ealing council plans to pull down its current Perceval House HQ, replacing it with a smaller civic centre, 470 flats and a library.

The council is promising that half the flats will be affordable. Next door the Victorian Gothic town hall is to be converted into a boutique hotel by the group behind the five-star Courthouse Hotel in Shoreditch.

The restoration of Pitzhanger Manor House, which is due to open in March next year, will be the jewel in Ealing’s crown.

Sir John Soane designed it as his dream country retreat. He entertained friends and clients there including painter JMW Turner and King Louis Philippe of France, calling the house and its grounds — now Walpole Park, with its mock Roman ruins — his pleasure grounds.

Alister Sherwood, head of sales at Savills in Ealing, says families from Fulham and Notting Hill are moving in to get more space for their money and also for the commute which, when the Elizabeth line arrives, will take only 11 minutes to Bond Street, 18 minutes to Liverpool Street and 25 minutes to Canary Wharf.

Ealing is eight miles from central London with Wembley to the north; Acton to the east; Brentford to the south and Hanwell and Southall to the west.

The property scene

In Ealing’s roads of fine Victorian and Edwardian double-fronted houses, a typical example is an eight-bedroom 5,300sq ft home with an outdoor swimming pool in Park Hill, on the market priced at £4 million. Streets of more modest Victorian and Edwardian semis are also to be found.

Families with children at The Japanese School in Creffield Road go for Thirties houses and flats in Hanger Hill Garden Estate and Haymills Estate. A three-bedroom Tudor-style house in Princes Gardens on the Hanger Hill Garden Estate is for sale at £865,000.

Brentham Garden Suburb is a little-known enclave south of Pitshanger Park. Built between 1901 and 1915 it predates the more famous Hampstead Garden Suburb. A three-bedroom house in Meadvale Road is currently for sale for £899,950.

What's new?

Homes at Vista Apartments, the last phase of the Dickens Yard development by St George, overlooking the Church of Christ the Saviour, are ready to move into, with prices ranging from £900,000 to £1.5 million. Call 020 8108 3514.

St George is also the developer of Filmworks, where one-bedroom flats start at £644,950; two-bedroom flats at £849,950 and three-bedroom flats at £1,375,000. These homes will be ready at the beginning of 2021. Call 020 8108 1645.

Affordable homes

There are 98 shared-ownership apartments at housing association Catalyst’s St Bernard’s Gate development in nearby Hanwell.

The site was originally part of a Victorian asylum, St Bernard’s Hospital, and includes three listed buildings: a monumental 18th-century gatehouse that was the original entrance to the asylum; North House, original 18th-century doctors’ accommodation, and St Bernard’s Chapel.

All three are being restored and will be put to use as community assets. One-bedroom flats start at £119,875 for a 35 per cent share of a home with a market value of £342,500. Two-bedroom flats start at £149,625 for a similar share in a home with a market value of £427,500. Call 020 3369 0138.

Housing association Peabody has one- and two-bedroom shared-ownership flats at Beatty Court at its Ternary Place development in Hanger Lane close to North Ealing Tube station.

One-bedroom homes start at £130,500 for a 30 per cent share of a flat with a market value of £435,000, with two-bedroom flats at £170,250 for a similar share in a flat with a market value of £567,500.

There are viewings being held this Saturday. Call 020 7921 4842.

Renting

Paul Leslie, the lettings manager at Savills, says Ealing is one of the group’s busiest lettings offices with many corporate rentals to companies such as GSK based in the Great West Road. The area is also popular with City professionals and now tech workers from the likes of Google and Facebook.

Overseas landlords predominate at Dickens Yard where one-bedroom rental flats range in price from £1,500 to £2,300 a month, and two-bedroom flats rent from £1,750 to £3,000 a month.

Staying power

Ealing is a family area and many of Alister Sherwood of Savills’ buyers are trading up to larger houses, so this is an area where people put down roots.

Postcode

W5 is the main Ealing postcode but the Hanger Hill Garden Estate is in W3, the Acton postcode, and West Ealing has its own postcode, W13.

Best roads

North of Ealing Broadway, these include Park Hill, Eaton Rise, Woodville Gardens which is close to the cricket club, and Castlebar Road, even though it is a busy bus route. Mattock Lane overlooking Walpole Park also has some grand mansions.

Up and coming

Alister Sherwood suggests that the “Crossrail effect” still has some way to go in West Ealing and Hanwell.

Travel

The Elizabeth line will stop at Ealing Broadway, West Ealing and Hanwell, slashing commuting times. Ealing Broadway is on the Central and District lines; Ealing Common is on the District and Piccadilly lines; North Ealing, Park Royal, South Ealing and Northfields are on the Piccadilly line; Hanger Lane and West Acton are on the Central line.

Ealing Broadway to Paddington trains take about 10 minutes; a few minutes more from West Ealing, Drayton Green and Castle Bar Park. All stations are in Zone 3 except for Drayton Green and Castle Bar Park in Zone 4. A Zone 3 travelcard

Council

Ealing council is Labour controlled. Band D council tax for 2018/2019 is £1,440.12.

Lifestyle

Shops and restaurants

Ealing Broadway shopping centre has recently undergone a £14 million refurbishment and the central town square at its heart is now a much more attractive place to sit and watch the world go by. During Wimbledon fortnight there was a giant screen.

Shops include Oliver Bonas, River Island, New Look, JD Sports, Tesco, H&M, Primark, Argos, Cath Kidston and Superdry. Neon Sheep is a new variety store with a terrible line in puns — for example, a quirky gift that “stands out from the flock” and “something that’s perfect for ewe”.

Ealing folk clearly like to eat out; restaurants are concentrated along The Green, High Street and Bond Street where the following chain restaurants can be found: Hare & Tortoise, Gourmet Burger Kitchen, Rosa’s Thai Café, Five Guys, Patisserie Valerie, Chicken Shop, Côte, Wagamama, Carluccio’s, Wasabi, Turtle Bay, Limeyard; Pizza Express; Honest Burger, Siirgista Bros, the last two for burgers; Nando’s and Franco Manca.

Others include WA Japanese Patisserie, for exquisitely crafted cakes; Steak on the Green; Coda di Volpe for wine and pizza; Osteria del Portico for Italian food; Crispins Wine Bar; Piccola Italia, another Italian restaurant and Beehive, a popular café with a North African twist.

Ealing’s favourite restaurant, Charlotte’s Place, is currently closed but its sister brasserie Charlotte’s W5 is open in Dickens Yard.

This week a new restaurant Soane’s Kitchen opens in a building designed by Jestico + Whiles in the grounds of Pitzhanger Manor House; the same operator — Battersea’s Social Pantry — is running the Pitzhanger Pantry in Walpole Park.

Munson’s Coffee and Burnt Norton are independent coffee shops in St Mary’s Road. There are local shops along The Avenue in West Ealing, along Pitshanger Lane – look out for the Pitshanger Village Bakery; along Northfield Avenue – The Mill is good for gifts; and along South Ealing Road.

Open space

Walpole Park in the town centre is undergoing a restoration alongside Pitzhanger Manor House. Nearby Lammas Park has tennis courts, a bowling green, croquet pitch and playground. Pitshanger Park in north Ealing has the River Brent running through it and the Ealing Golf Club.

Leisure and the arts

The Questors Theatre in Mattock Lane is London’s most successful amateur theatre. There is swimming at Virgin Active in the Ealing Broadway shopping centre. The nearest council-owned swimming pool is the Gurnell Leisure Centre in Ruislip Road East in Greenford.

Schools

Ealing has a choice of private and state schools.

Primary schools

All but one of Ealing’s state primary schools are judged to be “good” or better by the Government’s education watchdog Ofsted.

Those that get the “outstanding” rating are Christ the Saviour CofE in Springbridge Road; the very popular Montpelier in Montpelier Road; Fielding in Wyndham Road; Holy Family RC in in Vale Lane and Castlebar in Hathaway Gardens.

Comprehensive

When it comes to choosing a state secondary school the choice is more challenging as one of the local comprehensives Acton High (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in Gunnersbury Lane is in “special measures”.

The “outstanding” comprehensive schools in Ealing and nearby are: Twyford CofE (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in Twyford Crescent; Drayton Manor (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in Drayton Bridge Road and Gunnersbury RC (boys, ages 11 to 18) in The Ride, Brentford.

The Ellen Wilkinson School for Girls (ages, 11 to 18) in Queen’s Drive and Elthorne Park (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in Westlea Road are both judged to be “good”. Ealing Fields High CofE (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) is a new Free School which has not yet been inspected by Ofsted.

It opened in 2016 and is now part of the Twyford CofE Academies Trust; it will move into its permanent site in the former St Anne’s Convent in Little Ealing Lane in 2020.

Private

The private primary and preparatory schools are: Clifton Lodge (co-ed, ages three to 13) in Mattock Lane; La Chouette (co-ed, ages two to six), a French/English bilingual nursery and pre-preparatory school in The Mall; Harvington Preparatory (girls, ages three to 11) in Castlebar Road; Durston House (boys, ages four to 13) also in Castlebar Road; and Avenue House (co-ed, ages four to 11) in The Avenue.

The all-through private schools are: St Benedict’s RC (co-ed, ages three to 18) in The Avenue; Notting Hill and Ealing High (girls, ages four to 18) in Cleveland Road; St Augustine’s Priory RC (girls, ages two to 18) in Hillcrest Road; and The Japanese School (co-ed, ages six to 15) in Creffield Road. Ealing Independent College (co-ed, ages 14 to 18) in New Broadway is a private GCSE and A-level college.