London Borough of Ealing

The London Borough of Ealing is a London Borough in west London, England and forms part of Outer London. Its administrative centre is Ealing Broadway. The local authority is Ealing London Borough Council.

Location
The London Borough of Ealing borders the London Borough of Hillingdon to the west, the London Borough of Harrow and the London Borough of Brent to the north, the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham to the east and the London Borough of Hounslow to the south.

The London borough was formed in 1965 by the merging the area of the Municipal Borough of Ealing, the Municipal Borough of Southall and the Municipal Borough of Acton from Middlesex.

Along with Brentford, the London Borough of Ealing is the setting for much of the action in Robert Rankin's series of comedic novels, The Brentford Trilogy, which currently consists of six volumes. Ealing is also the primary setting for The Sarah Jane Adventures, being the location of Sarah Jane Smith's home.

Within the borough are two garden suburbs, Brentham Garden Suburb and Bedford Park.

330 hectares within the borough are designated as part of the Metropolitan Green Belt.

Districts in the borough

 * Acton
 * Bedford Park
 * Dormers Wells
 * Ealing
 * East Acton ''(also partly in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham)
 * Greenford
 * Hanwell
 * North Acton
 * Northolt
 * Norwood Green
 * Park Royal (also partly in the London Borough of Brent)
 * Perivale
 * South Acton (also partly in the London Borough of Hounslow)
 * Southall
 * West Acton
 * West Ealing
 * West Twyford

Parliamentary constituencies in Ealing

 * Ealing Central and Acton
 * Ealing North
 * Ealing Southall

London Fire Brigade
There are four fire stations within the London Borough of Ealing. Southall and Northolt have similar-sized station grounds and both house two pumping appliances. Southall attended some 700 incidents more than their Northolt counterparts in 2006/07. Ealing, with two pumping appliances, and Acton, one pump and two fire investigation units, are the other two appliances in the area. Interestingly, the ward of Northfield had over forty malicious calls made from it -more than twice as any other ward within Ealing.

Education
Ealing has a total of 91 state-run schools and nurseries. There are 13 high schools under the domain of the local education authority, 12 of which are either comprehensive, foundation or voluntary-aided, and one city academy.

A number of successful independent schools, including Avenue House School (co-ed ages 3 – 11), St Benedict's School (co-ed), St Augstine's Priory (girls) and Notting Hill & Ealing High School (girls), are also located within the borough. The King Fahd Academy is an independent Saudi funded school within the borough.

Demographics
The borough of Ealing is both religiously and ethnically diverse, similar to most of the capital's boroughs. In 2001, those who claimed a non-white ethnic heritage made up 40% of the borough's population, comprising particularly South Asian heritage (about 20%), African and Caribbean ancestry (about 10%), Chinese and other Asian backgrounds (about 5%).

Various religions have substantial devotees, higher than the typical London average. Christianity makes up the largest religious group with 50%, Islam forms 10%, Sikhism 8.5%, Hinduism 7.8%, leaving only 24% in 2001 census who responded that they were either of no religion or on this entirely optional question did not state their faith.

According to the 2011 Census the borough had the highest proportion of Polish speakers at 6% of the population.

Ethnic-based Cultures and Community
The borough  has a long-standing Irish community which is particularly visible through the number of established Irish pubs in the borough and the popularity of Gaelic games in the community. Country flags for example can be seen flown on the outside or hung inside of various pubs in the area, especially on St Patrick's Day.

Ealing and Acton have a large British-Polish community that owes its origins to the World War II refugees and Free Polish Army finding both cheap accommodation and work in the Acton area, which then had a high proportion of London's light engineering companies involved with government war contracts. This community has grown considerably including more shops with authentic Polish food since Poland joined the EU and its migrant workers have been able to come to the UK freely. This has also led to an increase in Polish social centres in the borough. In Southall which lies in the west the borough of Ealing and across to Hayes is one of the largest South Asian communities in the UK often which visitors often describe as "Little India". This community developed in 1950s.

There are also churches and centres for London's Hungarian and Assyrian communities in South Ealing.

Sport and leisure
The borough has four Non-League football clubs Hanwell Town F.C. and Southall F.C. which both play at Reynolds Field in Perivale. the other two clubs are London Tigers F.C., which plays at the Avenue Park Stadium in Greenford and North Greenford United F.C., which plays at Berkeley Fields.

Transport
The numerous National Rail and London Underground stations in the borough are:
 * Acton Central railway station
 * Acton Main Line railway station
 * Acton Town tube station
 * Boston Manor tube station
 * Castle Bar Park railway station
 * Chiswick Park tube station
 * Drayton Green railway station
 * Ealing Broadway station
 * Ealing Common tube station
 * Greenford station
 * Hanger Lane tube station
 * Hanwell railway station
 * North Acton tube station
 * North Ealing tube station
 * Northfields tube station
 * Northolt Park railway station
 * Northolt tube station
 * Park Royal tube station
 * Perivale tube station
 * South Acton railway station
 * South Ealing tube station
 * South Greenford railway station
 * Southall railway station
 * West Acton tube station
 * West Ealing railway station

Buses
London Buses routes 7, 65, 70, 72, 83, 90, 92, 94, 95, 105, 112, 120, 140, 187, 195, 207, 224, 226, 228, 260, 266, 272, 282, 283, 297, 395, 398, 427, 440, 482, 487, 607, E1, E2, E3, E5, E6, E7, E8, E9, E10, E11, H17, H32, other routes 895, Night route N7, N11 and N207.

Transport development
In April 2009 the council voted to support in principle a proposal for a North and West London Light railway.

Town twinning
Ealing is twinned with:
 * 🇵🇱 The district of Bielany, Poland;
 * 🇫🇷 The town of Marcq-en-Barœul, France;
 * 🇩🇪 The district of Steinfurt, Germany