History of the Common
The early settlement in Ealing is evidenced by finds of Palaeolithic (late Stone Age) articles, chiefly around Ealing Common.
The social and historical significance of Ealing Common is the common itself - a green open space, always resisting encroachment. In the 17th century there were some 70 acres for common grazing and the land could only be enclosed with the consent of both the tenants and the lord of the manor - the Bishop of London. Ealing bought the manorial rights for £500 in 1866, but still compensation was due to the lord and copyright tenants for the use of ‘wastes’ created by new road and rail developments.
Ealing Common was surveyed and recorded under the Metropolitan Commons Act 1866. In 1901 Ealing became the first municipal borough in Middlesex and by then the common had reduced to 47 acres. Road widening and house building continued to infringe and reduce the acreage. In the last century it was registeredunder the Commons Registration Act 1965. The roads that surround the common have comprised the Ealing Common conservation area since 1982.
In the summer of 2008 the New Common was designated as exchange land for the common that was taken to permit the replacement of the adjacent bridge over the GWR and Central Line. For some years the provision of suitable (ie no less in area and equally advantageous to the public) exchange land was one of the factors delaying the renewal of the Hanger Lane bridges.
Hanger Lane Farmhouse
Situated on the eastern perimeter of the common, this is the original farm of The Elms estate. The mansion of the Wegg and subsequently the Round family now forms part of Twyford High School. Miss Wegg had enclosed ‘waste’ up to the railway lines from 1828. Numbers 1 to 8 Hanger Lane were built by the 1870s and later used as rooming houses until they were demolished in 1972 for a new hotel. The farmhouse is locally listed by Ealing Council as of great historic interest. In the 1861 census it was described as Mary Cotching’s ‘model’ dairy farm with a shop in The Mall selling fresh milk delivered twice daily. It was sold to United Dairies in 1928 and finally closed in 1992.
North Common Road
There was open countryside to the north of the common until the 1880s when the Wood family of Hanger Hill House farmed some 900 acres. They built the Mall and the large detached villas we see along North Common Road. These houses with decorated gables, turrets and balconies have an architectural coherence, given the high pitched roof of clay tiles and patterned brickwork. Important features are the recessed front doors behind a moulded portico or elaborate pillared porch and large windows characteristically ornamented and chamfered. This gothic style is repeated in the more modest houses built to the east of the North Common Road eg in Creffield and Inglis Roads, and so it is appropriate that the Ealing Common Conservation Area should have been enlarged in 1993 to cover this larger area.
St Matthew’s Church
Funded by public subscription, the church was built on land donated by the Wood family. It has a north/south orientation as opposed to the more usual east/west orientation of Christian churches. This does not pose a problem for worshipers and is economical in terms of land take. The architect Alfred Jowers designed this “red brick basilica” in 1884; the decorative tracery of the brickwork is repeated in nearby properties. Of particular interest inside the church are the fine oak reredos carved by John Robertson in 1891 and the Arts and Crafts stained glass windows completed later by Reginald Hallward between 1919 and 1924. In the 1980s St Matthews was shared with Ealing’s Polish (Catholic) community before it acquired its own church in nearby Windsor Road.
A blue plaque is on the adjacent vicarage to commemorate Dorothea Chambers. The vicar’s daughter, in the early 1900s she won the Ladies’ Singles at Wimbledon 7 times plus runner up 4 times. This is more times than any other British player.
The Common
A walk towards the centre of the common best reveals the intrinsic quality of this green open space that has dictated the organic growth of the urban environment that now surrounds it. As heath scrub was cleared trees were planted: elms then poplars for drainage. Finally in the 1880s the magnificent avenues of horse chestnuts were laid out by Charles Jones, Ealing’s first architect, engineer and surveyor. The air was said to be the finest in Middlesex and by 1904 Ealing was praised as the Queen of the Suburbs.
As we look west from the centre of the common we can better appreciate the unplanned mix of architectural styles. Numbers 1-16 The Common form a unique terrace: 4 low stuccoed Regency Villas with Corinthian-style decorated pilasters (Grade 2 listed) are flanked by larger Victorian houses built by Robert Colley, the local saddler who was a prominent member of the tenants committee. An interesting building is no 19 Greystoke Court. This was built in 1903 as 5 flats, possibly to accommodate residents retiring from a colonial life. Unusually it is built of artificial bricks made from hard clinker of Ealing’s “fume extractor” – an early experiment in recycling refuse.
The surface of the common tells another story. Cement blocks marked the entrance to underground air raid shelters used in World War ll. During that time there were search lights and anti-aircraft guns in the central section of the common and allotments to the south.