My Life in Ealing

I was born in 1936 and raised in South Ealing and went to St Anne's Convent School. I married in 1957 and went to live in West Ealing with my husband Tom who also grew up in Ealing so we knew the area very well. As young marrieds we enjoyed going to the three cinemas in Ealing Broadway, The Forum which was the grandest, The Walpole and The Palladium where we saw so many great films which are now classics. We also loved to go dancing at the Town Hall, but our favourite place to dance on a Saturday night was The Park Hotel in Hanwell where we spent many happy hours with our lovely friends who also were all Ealing raised. We spent sunny summer days in Walpole or Gunnersbury Park, picknicking, pitch and putt or having a boat ride on the lake in Gunnersbury. Such wonderful carefree simple days with wonderful friends, most of which we are still in contact with although we are the only ones still in Ealing. Life then was so much simpler and carefree, one could walk late at night home from dancing without any fears, from parties at 3am and not be afraid. The shops in West Ealing and Ealing Broadway were full of lovely clothes for fashion conscious young women and Saturdays were spent buying a new dress for the evening dance. Most of these shops are now gone, as are all the cinemas, although The Forum is being turned into a multiplex. Ealing Studios is once again operating but whether it will ever rise to its former glories with all the comedies it turned out. I loved life in 1950's Ealing and there was no better place to be.