A New Illustrated Book Brings Ealing's Past to Life
Jonathan Oates teams up with Paul Howard Lang for a 'potted history'
The Broadway in Ealing before it was tarmacked
May 7, 2026
Ealing’s long and varied story — from rural Middlesex village to the “Queen of the Suburbs” — is the focus of a new book by two of the borough’s most respected historians. Ealing: A Potted History, by Dr Jonathan Oates and Paul Howard Lang, offers an engaging, richly illustrated journey through the district’s evolution and the people and places that shaped it.
For centuries Ealing was a quiet agricultural settlement, supplying London with fruit, vegetables and flowers. The arrival of improved transport links in the nineteenth century transformed it into one of West London’s most desirable suburbs, marked by elegant villas, new churches and chapels, and the steady growth of shopping parades that still define the area today. Oates and Lang trace these developments with clarity and warmth, showing how Ealing’s character was forged through waves of change.
The book also celebrates the borough’s cultural life — from its famous open spaces to its internationally recognised film studios — and highlights the many notable figures who lived here, now commemorated by blue plaques. Throughout, the authors point readers to the traces of history still visible on today’s streets, making the book as much a guide to exploring modern Ealing as a portrait of its past.
The wrecked interior of St. John's Church after a major fire in the 1920s
Part of Amberley’s popular Potted History series, the volume is designed to be accessible to all readers, whether lifelong residents, newcomers or anyone with a connection to the area. Archival images, postcards and photographs bring the narrative to life, offering glimpses of Ealing as it once was.
Ealing Broadway station platform in 1907
Both authors bring decades of expertise. Dr Jonathan Oates has served as Ealing’s Borough Archivist since 1999 and has published widely on London’s local and criminal history. Paul Howard Lang, a long-standing member of Ealing Library Service and hospital librarian at St Bernard’s Hospital, has spent years researching local history and sharing it through talks and publications.
A Feltham-type tram progressing along New Broadway past the Car Mart Ltd. building in 1935
Available in print and in digital formats including Kindle, Kobo and iBooks, Ealing: A Potted History promises to become a go-to introduction to the borough’s heritage — a concise, lively and affectionate portrait of a place that has continually reinvented itself while retaining a strong sense of identity.
The images in this article were reproduced with the kind permission of the book's publisher
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