DID YOU KNOW?
Estate boundaries by Margaret NobleIn Ealing, as all over the country, developers who were building on what had been farms, often laid out their estates of houses along pre-existing field boundaries. Sometimes streets were aligned along these boundaries, sometimes the ends of gardens. Where the field boundaries were marked by mature trees, as they often were, the presence of these trees enhanced the appearance of the newly-built estate, while sparing the developer the extra cost of removing them. Many of these boundaries dated from mediaeval times.
Hanger Hill is no exception. The nineteenth century Ordnance Survey Maps of this area show that Hanger Hill House, built in the eighteenth century, stood on the crest of the Hanger Hill, set back a little way from Hanger Lane itself. That whole area was wooded - the name comes from "hangra", meaning a wooded slope in Old English, and presumably much of the woodland was cut down to clear the land for the building of Hanger Hill House. What is now the Haymills estate was in the nineteenth century open fields, which slope down to Masons Green Lane. These fields clearly have trees to demarcate the boundaries, which run at right angles or parallel to Hanger Lane and Masons Green Lane. The only other track in the area at this time was Hanger Vale Lane, which runs from Hanger Lane to meet Masons Green Lane, exactly as it does today.
But how many of the trees on the old field boundaries have survived? From 1901 to 1930 the land on which the Haymills Estate was built was leased as a golf course. Possibly many of the boundary trees would have been cut down when the fairways were created, and so were already gone when building of the Haymills Estate began in the 1920s. Heathcroft, however, seems to follow a boundary, and there is a magnificent oak tree there; it is said to be the largest tree in Ealing. The lower part of The Ridings and Ashbourne Road also roughly follow the lines of old fields. Trees still stand on field boundaries along Hanger Vale Lane and its continuation, Vale Lane. There are also mature oaks growing at the end of the gardens of Corringway and one on the corner of Hanger Vale Lane and Boileau Road.
While there is therefore not much left of the old field boundaries, later plantings still ensure that the area has an attractive appearance and Hanger Hill wood provides a clear indication of the original character of the area before the houses were built.
The Golf Road Vale Lane and Green Vale area by Robert Gurd & Margaret Martin
The flats of Thackeray, Gilbert and Marryatt Courts in Green Vale and Hanger Vale Lane are in the Residents' Association area but lie outside the conservation area. The road names give a clue to the area's history. On old maps this area was originally the site of a tile kiln (from the 17th and 18th centuries) with a house called Tile Kiln House. Evidence of the tile kiln survived for many years in the form of fishponds from which the clay was presumably originally dug.
The house was rebuilt and changed its name in the 19th century to Green Vale and subsequently became the Old Court nursing home. The nursing home was demolished and the fish pond filled to make way for the flats we see today. The only evidence of the building surviving today is the entrance gate posts on to Hanger Lane opposite the former Barclays Bank sports ground.
The Haymills Estate by Robert Gurd
"Situated on the favoured Haymills estate" is a familiar sales pitch by estate agents. But why 'Haymills?' The Hanger Hill estate was one of three built in north-west London by Messrs Haymills in the 1920s and 30s. Others were in Wembley (Barn Hill) and Hendon (Downage). Messrs Haymills were formed in 1911 and built homes for "the man of moderate means." Their houses were never cheap (starting at £1000, a lot of money in those days) but had a reputation for being well designed and sturdily built. They had as consulting architect Herbert Welch from the highly respected practice of Welch and Lander which designed Park Royal Station, garage and public house, and Hanger Court (with Herbert Cachemaille-Day who went on to design many churches including the extension to St Mary's, West Twyford, recently restored and reopened after many years of closure). Haymills bought the land in 1927 when the Hanger Hill golf club was sold by the Wood family, owners of large tracts in Ealing. Their names and home towns were often used in street names, e.g. Boileau Road.
Haymills' sales literature noted that the main part of the estate is 'on the southerly slope of Hanger Hill, which rises to 200 feet, bounded to the west and south by a magnificent belt of stately trees, which form a fine setting to the estate.' They noted that the two Piccadilly line stations gave a 5½ minute service to Piccadilly Circus and North London! There was also a tennis club with five all-weather courts and "close proximity to Ealing which has always been noted for its excellent shopping facilities." The brochure included plans for houses ranging from £1000-£2000 depending upon size and location - probably one thousandth of their value today!
Hanger Hill by Margaret Martin
Hanger Hill only rises to 200 feet but is a prominent landmark to the west of London. In the years before Ealing was built up by the coming of the railway it stood out on the horizon for miles around and was the location for one of the first triangulation points set up to map the country in the late 18th century. The tower (pictured below) was demolished at the end of the 19th century to make way for Fox's Reservoir. This was later filled in and replaced by a playing field; an underground reservoir remains at the summit of Hanger Hill. There is now a water tower standing to one side of the reservoir which provides extra height for water supplied to properties near the brow of the hill.
Opposite Hillcrest Road stood the entrance lodge to Hanger Hill House, built for the Wood family c.1790. Sir Edward Montague Nelson, chairman of Ealing Local Board and later of the District Council, leased the house from 1874. From 1901 it was used as the headquarters of Hanger Hill Golf Club but was demolished after the golf course was purchased in the late 1920s by Haymills and the site is now covered by the Hanger Hill (Haymills) Estate. Cherry & Pevsner's "The Buildings of England: London NW" (1991) describes the estate as a flagship for progressive modern design and Park Royal station, rebuilt at the same time, as the focus for one of the few 1930s suburban centres which sought to escape the cosy garden city image. The estate was declared a Conservation Area in 1996.
The Church of the Ascension By Simon Reed
In 2009 the Anglican Parish Church of the Ascension in Beaufort Road will be seventy years old. Designed by Seeley and Paget, a different firm of architects from those who were responsible for the Haymills Estate, the foundation stone was laid on Sunday 19th March 1939, and the building consecrated as a place of worship for the new parish on Sunday 23rd July 1939.
Designed in a modern style in keeping with the rest of the estate, the plain brick exterior with its unusual curved east end conceals a light and airy interior whose clear glass windows allow the full brightness of the sun to illuminate the building. The eye is drawn immediately to the large wooden statue of Jesus, Mary and John which tops the central arch. Christ is depicted in kingly robes, standing in front of the cross, symbolising his free choice to undergo suffering in order to overcome evil and death. The statue was added in 1946 as a war memorial.
The church community hopes to mark this anniversary with a project to create a hospitality area in the rear of the church that will make the building more versatile (for example when it hosts the HHERA AGM!) and to re-roof the church hall, which is used by many local people and groups
Ritz Parade by Robert Gurd
Ritz Parade is named after the former Ritz Cinema which stood on the site from 1938 until 1983. The cinema was designed by Major William King for London & District Cinemas but became an Odeon cinema after the war. It ended its days as the Paradise Cinema showing Asian films. In between, it operated as a part-time bingo hall and a cinema club showing risqué movies. The entrance was in the centre of a parade of shops and was dominated by a large brick tower that had inlaid glass tiles which were lit from within and topped by a glass lantern light.
The cinema was demolished following a period of dereliction after it closed in 1980. No pictures of the interior are known but local residents plucked the old projectors and a few light fittings from the derelict building during the demolition process. It was replaced by Orbit House office block -- a rather featureless red brick affair which does no favours to the area. This building has now received planning permission to be converted into an hotel.
The Life and Times of Boileau Road by Michael Black
Go back more than 100 years, to August 13, 1904, and stand outside North Ealing Station. The station, built on the site of Hanger Lane Farm, is just over a year old and was opened last June by the Metropolitan District Railway for its line to South Harrow. Around you are fields, though you can make out the newish houses in Madeley Road and a few at the southern part of Hanger Lane - but this is mostly a country lane leading up to the Hanger Hill woodlands. A motorcar chugs up the hill towards the wood, watched by a solitary stroller taking a short rest under the trees, on the wooden fence edging the road. About 50 yards right ahead of you is another line of trees - could they be oaks? - and a few grazing cows, and beyond, the boundary of the golf course. You have brought along that day's Middlesex County Times and you open it at page 5, where the death of Edward Wood in Shropshire is reported. The Wood family, since the late 1700s, has owned a great amount of land in Ealing and Acton, more than 700 acres, and with Edward's death the estate will fall to the surviving, younger son, Charles Peevor Boileau Wood: Charles' mother was Isabella Annie Boileau, of Ealing, hence this part of his name. The Boileau family in England and Ireland were prominent Huguenot refugees of the 17th century.
Go forward now to 1906. Charles has sold the land that you looked over in 1904 making way for its development for residential purposes. The first road is soon planned and to mark the original landowner it is registered as Boileau Road, continuing the practice of naming roads in Ealing after the Wood family. The line of trees that was there in 1904 will have to be sacrificed, as they lie almost on the route of Boileau Road, which will run parallel to the railway track.
Boileau Road first enters the records in the street directory for 1912, but it is likely that it existed in 1911 when data were collected. The builders did most of their early work on the western side of the road (the odd numbers): so by 1912 numbers 1-27 were inhabited, and only the solitary number 2 on the other side. Numbers 2-18 were occupied by 1913 but there had been no further construction on the 'odd' side. Houses were gradually added and occupied - except in the last years of the Great War and immediately afterwards when there was a break for two years - until all houses were built and with residents in 1923/24.
At the Hanger Vale Lane end, the road departed from the line of the railway to leave a plot of land on which lock-up garages were erected in 1924/25. Attention shifted back to the station end of the road when a large building was put up, listed in 1927 as The Ealing Car Agency (on the site of the present Balcon Court).
A firm of builders, Kendalls, erected the garages, and possibly also was responsible for the whole of the road. Several features of the Edwardian houses, many of which survive, indicate that the homes were intended for gentlemen and gentlewomen of the middle classes. The halls of most houses had ceramic tiles, and in the larger, older houses, rather impressive columns. Pattern books or catalogues were in vogue in 1910 from which prospective house buyers could choose tiles, stained glass and fireplaces. Indeed, some existing fireplaces in the houses are very similar to ones shown in the books: so it is possible that house fittings were at least partly customised to the owner's choice. Each living room had a bell-push by the fireplace, which, with the one for tradesmen by the back gate, was linked with a cabinet of bells mounted on the kitchen wall. Here worked the servant, ready to be summoned by bells, to attend to the requirements of the master or mistress, and to take delivery from the coalman at the back door. Residents were predominantly professionals - engineers, teachers, musicians, and at least one writer.
In its history, Boileau Road has had its adrenalin boosted by danger and excitement. At about 2.30 am on September 26, 1942, a bomb fell on number 94 but fortunately it failed to explode: there was some damage but no casualties. Later in that year, in early morning of November 14, a land mine exploded in mid-air over the station end of Boileau Road, slightly damaging several houses and blowing out the windows in Queens Parade shops. Almost exactly forty-five years on, in October 1987, Boileau Road was struck again, this time by the storm which tore along the road, uprooting almost all the lime trees that had stood for 60 years and more. Many houses and cars were damaged but one positive outcome was that residents were united in their horror of the disaster and exchanged words for the first time, even though they had been neighbours in the road for many years. Thus adversity makes brothers and sisters of us all!
The building of Boileau Road therefore initiated residential development in the area. Shortly after it was finished, in 1926 the freeholder Charles Wood sold the remainder of his Hanger Hill estate to Haymills Limited who started building (at the Hanger Lane end of Corringway) in 1928. The old golf clubhouse was pulled down in 1930, the club was wound up, and the Haymills Estate burgeoned. And just as Boileau Road was there at the birth of the Estate, it now sustains it, its bloodstream as it were, as its major point of entry and exit to the rest of Ealing.