Visit Ealing Places

Welcome to Visit Ealing Places
The Walkfo guide to things to do & explore in Ealing

  

Ealing Places Overview: History, Culture & Facts about Ealing

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Ealing history

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Toponymy

Saxon name for Ealing was recorded c. 700 as ‘Gillingas’, meaning ‘place of the people associated with Gilla’ from personal name Gilla . Over the centuries, the name has changed, and has been known as ‘Illing’, 1130; ‘Gills’, 1243; and ‘Ylling’ until ‘Ealing’ became the standard spelling in the 19th century .

Early history

Archaeology evinces parts of Ealing have been lived in by neanderthal humans – the Lower Palaeolithic Age. The typical stone tool type of neanderthals, the Mousterian, is not found in south-east England, but Levallois type may be consistent with the hand axes found. These primitive hunters span a period of at least 300,000 years in Britain. Of the Iron Age, Milne lists six Carthaginian and pre-Roman bronze coins from Middlesex: Ashford and Ealing (Carthage coins); Edmonton (Seleucid (2), Rhegium, Bithynia coins). These are not so significant as for similar and more plentiful finds from Dorset, and Milne suggests that some represent parts of imported bronze scrap. The Church of St. Mary’s, the parish church’s priest for centuries fell to be appointed by the Bishop of London, earliest known to be so in c. 1127, when he gave the great tithes to Canon Henry for keeping St. Paul’s cathedral school. The church required frequent repair in the 1650s and was so ruinous in about 1675 that services were held elsewhere for several years. Worshippers moved to a wooden tabernacle in 1726 and the steeple fell in 1729, destroying the church, before its rebuilding. In the 12th century Ealing was amid a fields- and villages-punctuated forest covering most of the county from the southwest to the north of the City of London. The earliest surviving English census is that for Ealing in January 1599. This list was a tally of all 85 households in Ealing village giving the names of the inhabitants, together with their ages, relationships and occupations. It survives in manuscript form at The National Archives (piece E 163/24/35), and was transcribed and printed by K J Allison for Ealing Historical Society in 1961. Settlements were scattered throughout the parish. Many of them were along what is now called St. Mary’s Road, near to the church in the centre of the parish. There were also houses at Little Ealing, Ealing Dean, Haven Green, Drayton Green and Castlebar Hill. The parish of Ealing was far from wholly divided among manors, such as those of Ealing, Gunnersbury and Pitshanger. These when used for crops were mostly wheat, but also barley and rye, with considerable pasture for cows, draught animals, sheep and recorded poultry keeping. There were five free tenements on Ealing manor in 1423: Absdons in the north, Baldswells at Drayton, Abyndons and Denys at Ealing village, and Sergeaunts at Old Brentford. It is likely that there had once been 32 copyhold tenements, including at least 19 virgates of 20 rateable acres and 9 half virgates. When created the copyhold land amounted to not more than 540 acres (2.2 km), a total increased before 1423 by land at Castlebar Hill. Ealing had an orchard in 1540 and others in 1577–8 and 1584. Numbers increased, as were orchards often taken out of open fields, by 1616 in Crowchmans field, in 1680–1 in Popes field, and in 1738 in Little North field. Some lay as far north as the centre of the parish. River Long field and adjoining closes at West Ealing contained 1,008 fruit trees in 1767, including 850 apple trees, 63 plum, and 63 cherry. Ealing demesne in 1318 had a windmill, which was rebuilt in 1363–4. This was destroyed in or before 1409 and may have been repaired by 1431, when it was again broken. Great Ealing School was founded in 1698 by the Church of St Mary’s. This became the “finest private school in England” and had many famous pupils in the 19th century such as William S. Gilbert, composer and impresario, and Cardinal Newman – since 2019 recognised as a saint. As the zone became built-up, the school declined and closed in April 1908. The earliest maps of just the parish of Ealing survive from the 18th century; John Speed and others having made maps of Middlesex, more than two centuries before. At Ealing a fair was held on the green in 1822, when William Cobbett chronicled he was diverted by crowds of Cockneys headed there. The fair, of unknown origin, was held from 24 to 26 June until suppressed in 1880. The manor included Old Brentford and its extensive Thames fisheries, and in 1423 tenants of Ealing manor rented three fisheries in the Thames. In 1257 the king ordered the Bishop whoever it may be from time to time (sede vacante) to provide 8,000-10,000 lampreys and other fish for owning the manor, impliedly per year, which shows the extent of the local catch.

Ealing as a suburb of London

The well-to-do of London began to see Ealing as a place to escape from the smoke and smells . The only British prime minister to be assassinated, Spencer Perceval, made his home at Elm House . Up until that point, Ealing was mostly made up of open countryside and fields .

Old inns and public houses

Stops in Ealing included The Feathers, The Bell, The Green Man and The Old Hat . At one point in history there were two pubs either side of one of the many toll gates on the Uxbridge Road in West Ealing .

The expansion of Ealing

As London developed, the area became predominantly market gardens which required a greater proportion of workers as it was more labour-intensive . In the 1850s, with improved travel (the Great Western Railway and two branches of the Grand Union Canal), villages began to grow into towns and merged into unbroken residential areas . At this time Ealing began to be called the “Queen of the Suburbs”

Ealing as a modern Victorian suburb

The most important changes to Ealing occurred in the 19th century . The Great Western Railway in the 1830s led to the opening of a railway station on the Broadway in 1879, originally called Haven Green . During the Victorian period, Ealing became a town . The Board of Health for Ealing commissioned London’s first modern sewage systems .

Queen of the Suburbs

In 1901, Ealing Urban District was incorporated as a municipal borough, Walpole Park was opened and the first electric trams ran along the Uxbridge Road . In the 1930s Ealing Village’s mid-rise, green-setting apartment blocks were built, today Grade II (initial, mainstream) category-listed and having gated grounds . Brentham Garden Suburb is said to be one of the best examples of classic suburbia in mock Tudor style .

Ealing geography / climate

Ealing is less than 2 miles from the Tideway (London’s upper estuary of the Thames) at the local apex of Kew Bridge that links to the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Ealing Common, Walpole, Lammas, Cleveland, Hanger Hill, Montpelier, and Pitshanger Parks.

You can visit Ealing places with Walkfo Ealing to hear history at Ealing’s places whilst walking around using the free digital tour app. Walkfo Ealing has 186 places to visit in our interactive Ealing map, with amazing history, culture & travel facts you can explore the same way you would at a museum or art gallery with information audio headset. With Walkfo, you can travel by foot, bike or bus throughout Ealing, being in the moment, without digital distraction or limits to a specific walking route. Our historic audio walks, National Trust interactive audio experiences, digital tour guides for English Heritage locations are available at Ealing places, with a AI tour guide to help you get the best from a visit to Ealing & the surrounding areas.

“Curated content for millions of locations across the UK, with 186 audio facts unique to Ealing places in an interactive Ealing map you can explore.”

Walkfo: Visit Ealing Places Map
186 tourist, history, culture & geography spots

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Ealing historic spots	Ealing tourist destinations	Ealing plaques	Ealing geographic features
Walkfo Ealing tourism map key: places to see & visit like National Trust sites, Blue Plaques, English Heritage locations & top tourist destinations in Ealing

  

Best Ealing places to visit

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Ealing has places to explore by foot, bike or bus. Below are a selection of the varied Ealing’s destinations you can visit with additional content available at the Walkfo Ealing’s information audio spots:

St Mary’s Church, Acton, London St Mary’s Church is a Church of England parish church in Acton in the London Borough of Ealing . The present church was designed by Horace Francis and constructed 1865–1867 . The church was listed Grade II in 1981 .

Old Pack Horse The Old Pack Horse is a Grade II listed public house in Chiswick, London . It is located on the corner of the High Road and Acton Lane .

Chiswick Empire The Chiswick Empire opened in 1912 and closed and was demolished in 1959 . George Formby, Laurel and Hardy, Chico Marx, Peter Sellers and Liberace performed there .

Compass Box Compass Box Whisky was founded in 2000 by American entrepreneur John Glaser, a former marketing director at Johnnie Walker . Jill Boyd began blending whisky for Compass Box in 2017 and was joined by James Saxon in 2019 .

Ealing Common Ealing Common is a large open space (approx 47 acres) in Ealing, West London . It is the largest open space in the world, with an area of 47 acres .

Hanger Hill Hanger Hill or Haymills Estate is a local area and ward of the London Borough of Ealing . It was developed in the interwar period when affluent Londoners moved out of Central London for more green spaces . The estate features spacious houses and flats designed by architects Douglas Smith and Barley .

Ealing Grove Ealing Grove was a mansion and estate in Ealing, Middlesex, west London . It was adjacent to the Ealing House estate, but distinct from it, and stood amongst trees .

Hanger Hill Wood Hanger Hill Wood is a small remnant of ancient woodland to the east of the Hanger Hill Park and North Circular Road at Hanger Lane in Ealing in the London Borough of Ealing . Named from ‘Hangra’, the Old English word for wooded slope .

St Peter’s Church, Ealing St Peter’s Church is an Anglican parish church in North Ealing, in the Diocese of London . Grade II* Listed building is noted for its combination of Arts & Crafts and late-Victorian Gothic .

Horsenden Hill Horsenden Hill is a hill and open space in West London . It is one of the higher eminences in the local area, rising to 85m (276 ft) above sea level . The summit forms part of an ancient hillfort and is the site of a trig point .

Visit Ealing plaques