A walk from Ealing Broadway to Acton Central

Last Tuesday I met my friend Sue for a wander in West London. We met outside Ealing Broadway station and, before we set off along the Uxbridge Rd towards central London, I wanted to show her a lovely shop I had discovered a while ago when I was out on one of my 'where does this bus go to' mystery routes. Just north of the station, facing Haven Green, passing a sign for squash courts that sits above an earlier hand-painted sign for squash courts, there is a beautiful old chemist's shop: 

36 The Broadway still bears the name of D. L. Lewis set in metal across the granite front and within a panel in the entrance way. There is also a more recent neon sign within the window.

The sinuous letterbox is also lovely, as are the flourishy figures used for the door numbers at either side of the entrance. It all screams fin-de-siecle Art Nouveau.

When I had been there last year, the shop had been closed and I could only peer in through the plate glass, but this time it was possible to go inside – and what a treat!

Much of the front part of the shop is original as regards the shelving, storage and display areas. The floor has been cleverly covered in a herringbone wood effect lino and this continues to the rear section where a faux panelled ceiling is also in place, no doubt evoking what used to be there in the 1900s. The shelves showcase many old bottles that once contained all sorts of poisons and potions no longer available to us, and I particularly like the huge blue and green droplet-shaped bottles.

We walked back past the station and found another shop of particular note – Paddy Power's betting shop at 7 The Mall is absolutely gorgeous and clearly dates from the same era as the chemist's shop:

It's sublime – the central threshold contains a terrazzo 5-pointed star motif flanked by carved and bent wood and curved glass, with a mirror'd ceiling in six sections that I have tried my best to photograph without being the star attraction myself. 

However, many of the other shops further along the terrace are empty and in a poor state of repair such as these four here and I am concerned about their future. Many of the coal hole cover plates along this stretch bear the name of White & Son of Oxford Street which dates them to the late 1880s – read more within here.

We crossed the road walked towards Ealing Common where, on the northern edge, there is a marker telling us we are 6 miles from London (Charing Cross) and 9 miles from Uxbridge.

I wrote about a similar metal mile marker here. This Ealing one dating from 1832 appears to have lost a motif in the top section.

We continued across the common, admired the handsome trees, had a half of ale in the garden of The Grange public house, investigated the exterior of the nearby church and pondered at the relevance of this gateway to Warwick Dene:

We wondered if Fraser's Patent Disinfecting Apparatus was something to do with farming and sheep dips. But I now think it's more likely linked to laundry, this being a hanging mechanism to suspend large items in a large vat underneath it. I've spent ten mins looking for decent info and I give up, though I have found this about a similar manufacturer.

The residential properties that abut the common on the south side, along and around Elm Avenue, remind me of similar estates in Gidea Park, indeed many of the street names are similar. Man hole cover plates in the roads show the name of pre-LCC 'Corporation of Ealing'.

 

At Ealing Common tube station we stopped to admire the gorgeous octagonal Art Deco interior (detail, above left) and, opposite the station, we found a green plaque for computer-whizz and poet's daughter Ada Lovelace, this being near to a house she lived in, since demolished. 

Approaching Acton Central's shopping zone Sue peeled off to catch the tube. I continued along to The Vale and then back again to see if much had changed since I last visited. The ghostsign for Dadd's boots store has gone, the space now cleverly filled in with a building of the same Victorian design. 

I then made my way to the overground line via Churchfield Road, a street that still retains hints of its middle class Victorian past including another large slab of York stone outside No 35 and the carved and gilded, yet faded, sign for C. Wright, ladies' and children's outfitter at No. 31:

Another nice day!

You might also like this piece about another ghostsign in Acton.