Westward Ho! From Ealing Green to Old Oak Common

For this special edition to coincide with London Festival of Architecture, the focus is on the changing shape of Ealing and West London’s built environment, looking back to Soane’s time and ahead to the arrival of HS2 up the road at Old Oak Common.

Sir John Soane began building Pitzhanger Manor in 1800 at a time when Ealing was a village, and considered a fitting location to have a ‘country retreat’. Things have  moved on since Pitzhanger was completed in 1804 and in 2024 Ealing finds itself subsumed within the sprawl of the capital. The house can be found sitting within the hustle and bustle of the Broadway – featuring shops, restaurants, offices and 200+ years’ worth of speculative residential developments. Soane wouldn’t recognise Ealing of the 21st century, however he did understand how to create a vision and sell ideas about ‘what could be’ to his patrons. It is an interesting context in which to consider what future plans there are for the further development of the local area, and how the powers that be may draw on the past in order to do so, in a manner that the great architect himself would have done.

With the arrival of a HS2 station site and the associated redevelopment planned for Old Oak Common and Park Royal, the London Borough of Ealing is now facing more immediate change than it has done for a long time. How will this work with existing communities and how will it impact on the identity of the area? With the local council recently bidding to be London borough of culture in 2025, questions around what Ealing has been, currently is and can become, seem all the more poignant.

Soane was a master of creating modern mythologies, whilst having a sensitivity toward ideas of loss and rebirth. His domestic architecture is engaged with evocative ideas about space and time, and a sensitive crafting of personal spaces that display grandeur, yet retain a distinct intimacy. In creating a localised world within the world, the manor house and its orchestrated surrounding landscape is also expansive in its outlook, referencing other cultures with an ever-present awareness/sense of ‘the eternal’.

The collaboration between Negroni Talks and Pitzhanger, came out of a feeling that the fates were somewhat aligned, with the recent acquisition at Pitzhanger of a set of prints by Angelo Campanella (1746–1811) depicting the Roman frescos of the Villa Negroni in Rome, which were being excavated when Soane arrived Rome in 1778 and were a huge inspiration to him. To bring the “Negroni Talks…!” to such prestigious architectural surroundings was too good an opportunity to miss and aligned perfectly with a desire for the Negroni Talks series to seek different perspectives away from East London – and what better than to go West.

It seems fitting to host a talk about Ealing’s future development in the timeless atmosphere of an important piece of local, national and international heritage.

About Negroni Talks

The Negroni Talks – hosted by architects Fourthspace and sponsored by Campari – were set up to capture the lively and provocative debates that took place in the European café culture of the early twentieth century – www.fourthspace.co.uk/events. Often located in a bar or restaurant, speakers and audience members are mingled together and no presentations are allowed. This allows for a public conversation on any given topic, without the usual hierarchy between participants.  

About Thursday Lates

Thursday Lates, our monthly evening event series every first Thursday, offers a diverse roster of programs from artist talks to workshops. Open to everyone seeking enriching after-work experiences, these events vary from ticketed to free. Coinciding with our free visiting hours for Ealing residents, Thursday Lates is your chance to explore the manor and its exhibitions without the usual general admission fee.

Categories   Events

Tags   Events Talks Thursday Lates

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