Cultural mix of historic Acton explored on 25/02/2017

The tour that took place today wouldn't have happened if I hadn't met Anne of The Slow Coaches. If you follow the link above, you will find out that Anne Burniston has been coaching and mentoring Entrepreneurs, Corporate Employees and Individuals for over 20 years.  She is a former Corporate Board Level Director with a Masters in Psychology, a certified Goal Mapping Practitioner and a member of The Coaching Academy.We only met last week chatting after an event with one of the most inspiring men I've recently met: Chairman Kato. 

You should know, Dear Reader, that Chairman Kato 'is is an artist, musician and former Accident and Emergency doctor. He works across painting, photography, installation art and electronic music. He also lectures and teaches. He shares his East London studio with his stuffed mouse Vinnie.'  You will find out much more about Kato following the link above though. I tell you, it's well worth following this man. Mind you, I heard about him from a very trustworthy source: my dear friend, artist, graphic designer, traveller and a soulmate: Danni Emery who can paint an amazingly awesome miniature picture inside a vintage tin for you! Kato told me that Danni was helping him with one of his installations and how did I meet her? Owing to a torrential rain that caught us in White City one summer Sunday evening! We started chatting, didn't need to dash back when the rain finally stopped so we cycled together to Acton and I showed Danni our local pride Carrie Reichardt's house and studio! Danni, I'll never forget your bright yellow duck-shapped dangly earrings matching your equally yellow raincoat, neither the fun we had!

Let me now get back to the tour of today. I didn't know I would do it until last Thursday afternoon when discovered an unread email from Anne offering to meet that very afternoon should I be free. It was too late. Therefore, instead, we talked via social media and decided that we could meet for a couple of hours this Saturday, which is today. My new friend was interested to join one of my tours and so the tour was hatched. I waited till Friday morning to see if we could visit the Library for Iranian Studies in Acton. We had already agreed that Saturday would be the best day to bring my group there. I also thought of taking my friends around South Ealing with the original Ealing Village and its unusual church and a very interesting shop where Angela sells items from Venezuela, made by the young designers of this country. Luckily, I checked with her to find out that she was away on business. Another time, Angela.

Once I knew what we were to visit I could write an event ad - very hard work for me, with not much talent for IT and advertising. It took ages and then the shared event wouldn't open, an ordeal it was. To cut the long story short, this I what I promised:

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Cultural mix of historic Acton

This walk will take us around historic Acton through the streets not visited on our previous walks.

We will meet at 11 am at Acton Town Station and walk through the Mill Hill Estate with its hidden green space, looking out for the unique green plaques on the old, but nicely kept buildings, to learn who 'subjected' us to the summer and winter time, spot the remains of older properties and admire an impressive oak tree, the very symbol of Acton. Some of our group know that the local artist, Carrie Reichardt and her collective, are finishing work on on a huge mosaic oak tree which will soon be displayed.

This time we will be be awaited at The Library for Iranian Studies to explore this place and learn about the people and country of immensely rich past. Nearby is the starting point of the annual Acton Carnival Procession which is great fun. You can go to www.artification.org to find out how to join in.

We will also see more green spaces, historical buidings including an ice-house, churches, a mosgue, but also a street with many Somalian businesses and the one with lots of arty and musical connections, which is full of local shops and businesses.

You may be surprised a few times, for instance finding out that Acton is the birthplace of Waitrose, teddy bears and other soft toys were made here and that in the distant past London people came here for the first class fresh air and supposedly healing waters (now the streams and rivers run underground) and how later ii became 'Soapsuds Island' and what it meant.

Of course, we will have a look what contemporary Acton has to offer and won't miss Polish shops and eateries, a historic pub with free live music on Wednesdays and much more, so just have £10 ready and turn up at 11 am at Acton Town Station this Saturday, 25/02/2017 and be prepared to stay a little bit longer than till 1 pm, because that's what often happens on these tours.

And of course, we never know exactly what may happen and who we are going to meet on these tours! Be very prepared!;-)

And as always, children come free but your responsibility.

We will finish our tour near Acton Central Station (Overground) and near Uxbridge Road with plenty of buses.

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Four people met me at the station this morning and one had to go back home as his Achilles was giving him trouble. However, we managed to get a group picture owing to a kind member of the TFL staff. We followed the itinerary, enjoyed the tour of the library by a kind man of the name Yousif, looked for the Waitrose sign, sampled Lucy's delicious Handmade in Ealing chocolate at the Wonderland Collective and purchased  home-brewed beer at the George & Dragon, saw many shops and businesses from various countries and continents (Somalia, Poland, Bulgaria, Japan, The Middle East, Eritrea, Lebanon, Italy, Portugal and many more), did even more sightseeing looking at the oldest church in Acton, St Mary's, and  at the green domes of The Acton Mosque from the distance when going past the old graveyard in Churchfield Road and talking about the famous people who lived in this Acton Street which is following in the footsteps of Pitshanger Lane further west (if I may say so). 

Then we sat down at the Kasia Bar & Restaurant in the High Street near the Trade Union Club and opposite the big oak tree mural, a symbol of Acton by John Aldus. I may have already blogged about meeting the artist in person soon after the tree appeared  next to the Windmill Pub!  Sipping the tasty beverage we discussed further plans and decided to head back to Acton Town Station as it was more convenient for all participants. This enabled us to see more of Acton south of Uxbridge Road, take a picture of Peter in Petersfield Road, see the spectacular mosaic bench by The Treatment Rooms Collective, ATM's owl, the remaining murals and graffiti including The Big Mother by STIK and his smaller piece which is to be saved when more demolition takes place of the South Acton Estate. You may not know, Dear Reader, that it is currently being replaced by the Acton Gardens estate and the works are progressing really fast. It is good to know that The Oaktree Community Centre is going to be spared as it is a very important local hub. 

Walking down Osborne Road towards Bollo Lane I could show the tourists the local youth club where one of the recent Artification projects, Citizen 2020, took place over the last month, The results of it are soon to be seen at three local venues later this year and you can find all the details on the organisation website here. Going past the Victorian red brick schools we had a little chat about the use of this material and I wouldn't be myself if I didn't mention the awkward building material used to build the Kensington & Chelsea Town Hall and Library and what difficulties it has been causing. Mind you, this brought about a thought of a new encounter at the Iranian Library earlier on. While our host was telling us about the place, he couldn't be serving a client at the same time. Meanwhile I was chatting to the young lady and found out that she comes to the library quite regularly all the way from Holland Park (where, in the park of the same name as the area, dear reader, you will find a more elaborate example of an ice house than the one in Acton; it is now used as an art gallery and there was a day in the previous decade that I had the pleasure of looking after the exhibition for a renowned Japanese artist - painter and ceramist Sharon Yamamoto.)

We only got to the station before 2 pm having had a really enjoyable time together. You know, Dear Reader, how much I like taking people places and showing them around, giving them opportunity to connect and have a quality time in the fresh air, Lucky me, I got a lift home as on this rare occasion I had left my bike at home having planned the tour to end at Acton Central. Is it better to plan a circular walk? What do you think?

Which place would you like to see with me on one of the next Walking, Talking and Exploring Group walks?

From a conscientious objector to Red Lion Square

This morning, like every Thursday, I met a group of women from different countries to practise English and share our experiences of living in London. As always I cycled there and it was very hard in the strong wind which seemed to be blowing from all directions, almost all the time against me. This is what we talked about first: how we get to classes. Some ladies walk, some come by bus,  the more lucky ones come by car. However, if they didn't have a car, they would have to come on foot. One of them would walk , but her son would come by bike. Yes, most of us are mothers of small children and sometimes they accompany them. That's life. Anyway, I could go on telling you in great detail how come a 'conscientious objector' came about, but that's not the point. The thing is that was a new expression for everyone in our group so I needed to explain it to the ladies. It took us a good while as you can imagine. They knew 'brain' and 'mind', but not'conscience'. They knew 'an object' but 'to object' was new to some of them. You would like to witness our brainstorming over this linguistic puzzle, Dear Reader. And two noisy (at times) toddlers didn't make it easy to focus. Of course, mothers kept an eye on them all the time, but you know what it's like with children. The kids are lovely, but they are just kids. If you are a mother, you understand.
Anyway, later on I was looking for some listening material for a keen learner of English and came across a suitable podcast featuring Red Lion Square in London. Dear Wiki will tell you about many famous people who left their footsteps there. One of them was Fenner Brockway, a conscientious objector. You can read about him if you click here, hear the podcast here and read about the square here.
Tell me if you enjoyed reading this post and if you know of any conscientious objectors, please write about them in the comment section.

Best Monday morning in a long time!

What a great start of the week it was for me! So many people hate Mondays. There is an old Polish movie: 'I hate Monday', a very good old comedy. Wish I had the time to tell you more, but I need to dash to The Polish Hearth in South Ken! Have a nice evening!:-)

Medicine, health and sickness for tourists in London

I've been meaning to write a post about worth a visit places to do with medicine for a long time. However, there are so many of them in London: The Wellcome Collection, Hunterian Museum, Bethlem Museum of the Mind and so many others. The third of the above is still on my 'to visit' list. I'd really like to make it this coming Saturday, but it's a whole expedition: two hours one way from where I live. Planning a visit to the Museum of the Order of St John recently, I looked at the the map of London and then googled some interesting information about more museums. You may like to read this, Dear Reader:

'Bartholomew Hospital Museum

The Barts Museum tells the historical narrative of the hospital and its work in caring for the sick and injured. The museum collections include historic surgical instruments, sculptures, medieval archives, and works of art, including paintings by William Hogarth. (more to read about the subject of one Hogarth's painting here) The museum is part of the London Museums of Health & Medicine group, and has been described as one of the world's "10 weirdest medical museums."

A memorial tablet on Barts (as the place is called) north wall stating that 5,406 soldiers passed through its wards during World War I.

The museum is located under the North Wing archway and is open from Tuesday to Friday from 10 am to 4 pm. Admission is free, but donations are welcome. The collections are searchable on the Barts Health NHS Trust online catalogue, which contains information on over 50,000 entries and covering an 800-year span.'

Will you allow me another bit from Ms Wiki?

'Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson

A chemical laboratory at Barts was the location of the initial meeting of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson in Arthur Conan Doyle's 1887 novel A Study in Scarlet.^[18] Barts was Watson's alma mater. This fictional connection led to a donation by the Tokyo "Sherlock Holmes Appreciation Society" to the Save Barts Campaign in the 1990s.^[19]

In 2012, the final episode of the second series of the BBC drama Sherlock, "The Reichenbach Fall", had Holmes appearing to have deliberately leapt to his death from the roof of St Bartholomew's as a surrogate for the waterfall of the original story "The Final Problem". The hospital was again used as the location for the resolution to Holmes' faked suicide, in the first series three episode "The Empty Hearse".' I haven't known that. Have you?

Ms Wiki will tell you much more of course, just ask her.:-)

You may like to visit Barts Pathology Museum and, should you come from Ealing, you may discover a skull of the famous Ealing resident's assasin. Yes' I'm referring to John Bellingham who shot dead Sir Perceval, the only British Prime Minister to meet his death this way. The Prime Minister lived in a house near Ealing Common. The house was pulled down long ago, but there is a church commemorating the unfortunate PM in its place. It's All Saints Church. We went to see it with a few of Ealing Walkers and Talkers last Saturday, 11 February. You can read about our walk in one of the previous posts, Dear Reader.

Mind you, I must add this: British Dental Museum as I have been telling my dear Polish dentist about it for years!

Arty Wednesday in West Ealing and Acton

I only meant to pop in for a moment to hear Matt sing and play at The Orchard Cafe in West Ealing. However, you know what it's like, you meet one friend, then the next one, they introduce you to someone else and there is always something to talk about. I run into Laurie who was volunteering at a tile making and decorating class taught by Corinne. Maybe one day we will visit this young artist and craftswoman at her West Ealing studio! I could tell, the young people who attended the workshop were really enjoying it. It was nice to see their works.
While at the cafe, I was looking through a big and heavy coffee table book of objects displayed at the Great Exhibition in Crystal Palace, Hyde Park. Do you know that Exhibition Road which leads from Cromwell Road towards Hyde Park between the three famous museums is called so because it led to the exhibition venue?
Apart from the familiar Islamic geometry works, I noticed some new items on display. They were poems and illustrations by a talented Hanwell lady: Helen Trevisiol Duff, all to do with the extinct dodo bird!

The evening has settled for good and soon it will be time to go to the George & Dragon pub in Acton High Street if you don't want to miss your chance to listen to Anne-Marie Sanderson.
This is what the publican, Ricardo, has to say about tonight's gig:

'Performing at the George & Dragon this Wednesday is Anne-Marie Sanderson, a British singer-songwriter, recently returned to the UK after five years in America, where she released two EPs and toured up and down the West Coast. Her most recent EP (2015). explores twin-opposite themes of light-dark, mystery-certainty, love-loss, with songs arranged for a luscious chamber-folk ensemble comprised of Sanderson on guitar and vocals, Mirabai Peart (Joanna Newsom) on violin, Anna Fritz (Portland Cello Project) on cello.

Following in the tradition of timeless singer-songwriters, her music is often compared to that of Joni Mitchell and Nick Drake, but fans and critics alike recognize that Anne-Marie Sanderson is all her own.

Here is her website: 

 https://www.annemariesanderson.com/ '

I like this idea of live music at the local pubs and cafes, at different times of the day! Never enough of a good thing! :-)

Nocturnal walk in the Creffield Area

 Going back home one evening and not in a hurry, I took pictures to share with you, Dear Reader, the sights on my way.

Creffield Road leads east  from Ealing Common, parallel to the main through-fare: Uxbridge Road. Along with the residents of a few other Edwardian roads in the area, people in Creffield Road can join a local residents association called

Creffield Area Residents Association 

or CARA for short. I promised myself to join them after a very interesting meeting I attended at CARA last year.

Where did this shopping trolley come from?;-)

I don't think I'd noticed this fence before. That night it looked really special.

Then I looked ahead and saw this wall. Don't these two pictures make a nice pair?

Us Poles are everywhere!

When was the last time you posted a letter?

One of my favourite streets, mostly because I really like birch trees with their elegant white bark.

Stained glass, no better time than an evening to see its full glory! I happen to know three fantastic stained glass artists here, in Acton! We are so lucky here!

I can tell you the names of Maya Stanic and Zoe Ann's offhand, but I cannot recall the third one. Maybe Zoe will prompt me. I must remember to ask her.:-)

One day I will take a really good picture of this tree!

When I go past a house like this, I wonder who originally lived there, what  they did and if they were happy.

 Many people in Ealing have heard or read about a house which had such tragic history that after a number of suicides there nobody wanted to live there and it had to be pulled down. The men working there would talk about some disturbing experiences and nasty smells at the time. There is a multi-family dwelling in its place. Do I want to know how it feels living there now? No! Would you, Dear Reader?

Nice colour combination?

Shame my pictures are such poor quality indeed, but still, I enjoy taking them.

From Ealing Common to Ealing Broadway

There were four of us who braved the weather and met at Ealing Common Station for another 'walk and talk'.
How do these walks and talks work?
 We meet in a given place and walk through the area talking only in English because many people who join us need more practice to gain confidence in speaking English. However, the walks are also an opportunity to get to know different parts of London, its history, culture and things it has to offer nowadays.

Here are a few pictures from our walk in the snow that melted before it fell to the ground:

When you come out of the station and look to the right, imagine going along this road for a long time and eventually you will find yourself in... Oxford Street. Yes, you are right if you are guessing that if you kept going left, you would eventually arrive in Oxford, but that's a much longer way. Now, if you could travel back in time and stopped in the 18th century, you could have visited Henry Fielding, a famous novelist whose 'Tom Jones' gained immense popularity and is still a jolly good read, I'd say. If you'd like to read an interesting biography of Henry Fielding, please go to this link, and should you wish for more reading, click here.

It was necessary to wait for Tomek who was coming from far away.

As usual, I had fun taking a picture of someone else taking a picture. Nobody took a picture of me at that moment though. It was too cold.

One day I will arrange a visit to this place...

A view across Ealing Common gives you an idea of how bleak the day was.

 What a great suggestion it was to have something hot at The Gryf, Polish restaurant, by the Polish (of course) church in Windsor Road.

These musicians in the restaurant window, where do they come from?

My barley soup was excellent!

 Tomek was impressed to see our Ealing 'Percheron', a popular meeting place, according to Beata, who started her London adventure with English at Edward's School of English here, in Ealing Broadway, many years ago.

 Having walked through the Ealing Shopping Centre, we climbed the stairs and entered the library which is soon to be moved to smaller premises above PRIMARK.  'Use it or you will lose it' was a slogan heard a number of times during the event held at the library this afternoon. If people don't come to libraries, they will get closed down, as simple as that...

Beata and Tomek want to make sure they will remember the dates of the local history lectures 

Near the entrance there was a small but informative display on the subject of recycling.


Nearby is an exhibition showing photographs of LGBT community members holding their childhood portraits.

 Soon I met Rachel who urged us to make our way to The Green Room so we didn't miss the music performance. It was nice to see many familiar faces there.

The previous time I saw Robbie, he was in a different role:

Cllr Dr Patricia Walker, the Mayor of Ealing, spoke at the event as well.

 We listened to a poet from the Kurdish part of Syria. It was very moving.

There were many hands-on activities for children. I met Judith who runs art projects at Bunny Park in Hanwell. That's yet another destination for the Ealing Walking, Talking and Exploring Group.

This lady I had a pleasure to meet at the Acton Carnival last summer. You can learn a lot about Afghanistan and its culture from her.

That was a feast for the ears: music and singing.

 Richard, the storyteller I first heard at a Greenford festival, was brilliant as always. Pity my friends had to leave early and missed his performance. We chatted afterwards and he told me he had started studying anthropology and is really interested in the history of storytelling and its popularity within educational systems in other countries. Well, I could tell him instantly about a school in the outskirts of Skarzysko-Kamienna which invites storytellers to work with the students.

Colourful headgear and fabric from Afghanistan

Children's works photographed!

The last person I spoke to at the event was a lady from the library. She got really interested in my walking and talking tours and introduced me to a man called Jonathan who is in charge of the local history centre. We had a nice chat. He showed me a book about the Polish church in Ealing which was written by a Polish man, Juliusz Englert.

Looking through the book, I couldn't help noticing a familiar name: Alicja Poloczek. She died last year...

I met her through mutual friends at the Polish Cultural Centre. She was involved in so many activities. RIP, Ms Poloczek.

Life goes on and here are some events you may like to put in your diary, Dear Reader:

Thank you for reading this lengthy post. I would be happy to hear from you in the comment section!:-)