page_title: Ealing
section_title: Queen of the Suburbs
hierarchical_section_title: Ealing / History / Queen of the Suburbs
caption_attribution_description: English: Ealing Village apartments and clubhouse. Ealing Village was built in 1934-6 as a private estate of 128 rented apartments. There are five art deco blocks in colonial Dutch style. The building on the left of the photo is the clubhouse available to the residents, most of whom now own their apartments. For other photos of the estate, all taken on a London Open House visit, see 251549, 251533 and 251540.
context_page_description: Ealing is a district in West London, England, located 7.5 miles west of Charing Cross. Located within the London Borough of Ealing, it is one of the borough's seven major towns. Ealing, covering the W5 and W13 postal code areas is the administrative centre of the borough, is identified as a major metropolitan centre in the London Plan.
  Ealing is in the historic county of Middlesex. Until the urban expansion of London in the late 19th century and early 20th centuries Ealing was a rural village within Ealing parish. Improvement in communications with London, culminating with the opening of the railway station in 1838, shifted the local economy to market garden supply and eventually to suburban development. By 1902 Ealing had become known as the "Queen of the Suburbs" due to its greenery, and because it was halfway between city and country.
  As part of the growth of London in the 20th century, Ealing significantly expanded and increased in population. It became a municipal borough in 1901 and has formed part of Greater London since 1965. It is now a significant commercial and retail centre with a developed night-time economy.
context_section_description: 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. As part of its permit to operate, the electric tram company was required to incorporate the latest in modern street lighting into its overhead catenary supply, along the Ealing section of the Uxbridge Road. A municipally-built generating station near Clayponds Avenue supplied power to more street lighting that ran northwards, up and along Mount Park Road and the surrounding streets.
  It was of this area centred around Mount Park Road that Nikolaus Pevsner remarks as ”epitomising Ealing's reputation as 'Queen of the Suburbs'..” In a very short time, Ealing had become a modern and fashionable country town, free of the grime, soot and smells of industrialised London, and yet only minutes away from it by modern transport. Who first coined the term Queen of the Suburbs is not known, but the name sticks to the present day. The Mount Park Road area still retains much of its original character and is still dominated by grand family homes. For the most part, it has resisted the conversion into dormitory bed-sitters, an effect which has over taken so many of the other London suburbs.
  In the 1900s and 1910s, the Brentham Garden Suburb was built. During the interwar period several garden estates, said to be one of the best examples of classic suburbia in mock Tudor style, were built near Hanger Lane. Like Brentham Garden Suburb, this area that is called Hanger Hill Garden Village is also a conservation area. During the same time, the Ealing Village apartment blocks were built, which is today a Grade II-listed gated community.
  With the amalgamation of the surrounding municipal boroughs in 1965, Ealing Town Hall became the administrative centre for the new London Borough of Ealing. Today, this also includes its offices at Perceval House just next to it. Later in 1984, the Ealing Broadway Centre was completed which includes a shopping centre and a town square.
caption: Apartments and clubhouse in 1930s-built Ealing Village
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