How Ealing's 'Wasteland' was Cleared to Make Way for the Town Centre
Photographer Ian Cole documents the destruction of The Grove
A building in The Grove being knocked down. Picture: Ian Cole
June 6, 2024
A new exhibition hosted by the Ealing Civic Society is aiming to tell the story of how a close-knit community in Ealing was eradicated in the name of progress.
Photographer Ian Cole, who used to live in the area, has documented the demolition in ‘Ealing’s 1970s Wasteland – The Grove.
The Grove was an area of 200 terraced cottages in the centre of Ealing which housed a very close community. It was bounded by the High Street to the north andThe Grove and Western Road.
From the fifties there were calls to get rid of these homes which were described as unfit. In 1958, Ealing Council proposed a scheme of ‘slum clearance’ in which the houses would be replaced with wider roads, a car park and commercial buildings with residents rehoused in high-rise blocks.
People living in The Grove were annoyed to hear their homes described as slums and said that any issues could be dealt with by modernisation rather than demolition.
The plans continued to be developed to include a new traffic scheme but a campaign by local groups, including the Ealing Civic Society, led to their rejection.
However, in 1980 permission was granted to develop the new town centre with much of The Grove becoming what is now the Ealing Broadway Shopping Centre. Plans for a bypass across Windsor Road, along The Grove and into Matlock Lane blighted yet more of the area until it was eventually rejected. Some houses in Grove Road and Western Road survived.
The exhibition features photographs that were taken in the late seventies, the negatives of which were found only recently.
The exhibition is being held at Open Ealing, Unit 14, School Lane, Dickens Yard, W5 2TD.
It will be open from 1-6pm. On Saturday 15, Sunday 16, Sunday 23, Saturday 29 & Sunday 30 June with an accompanying talk & exhibition viewing on Tuesday 18 June at 7.30pm.
Like Reading Articles Like This? Help Us Produce More This site remains committed to providing local community news and public interest journalism. Articles such as the one above are integral to what we do. We aim to feature as much as possible on local societies, charities based in the area, fundraising efforts by residents, community-based initiatives and even helping people find missing pets. We’ve always done that and won’t be changing, in fact we’d like to do more. However, the readership that these stories generates is often below that needed to cover the cost of producing them. Our financial resources are limited and the local media environment is intensely competitive so there is a constraint on what we can do. We are therefore asking our readers to consider offering financial support to these efforts. Any money given will help support community and public interest news and the expansion of our coverage in this area. A suggested monthly payment is £8 but we would be grateful for any amount for instance if you think this site offers the equivalent value of a subscription to a daily printed newspaper you may wish to consider £20 per month. If neither of these amounts is suitable for you then contact info@neighbournet.com and we can set up an alternative. All payments are made through a secure web site. One-off donations are also appreciated. Choose The Amount You Wish To Contribute. If you do support us in this way we’d be interested to hear what kind of articles you would like to see more of on the site – send your suggestions to the editor. For businesses we offer the chance to be a corporate sponsor of community content on the site. For £30 plus VAT per month you will be the designated sponsor of at least one article a month with your logo appearing if supplied. If there is a specific community group or initiative you’d like to support we can make sure your sponsorship is featured on related content for a one off payment of £50 plus VAT. All payments are made through a secure web site. |
