The Knowhere Guide

Local Heroes in Ealing, Greater London*

Ealing, Greater London Famous Residents

Cringing Cult of Celebrity (Famous residents and ex-residents.)

• Apparantly Jay Kay from Jamiraqui used to live/ work in Ealing.
• Apparently Andy Serkis aka Gollum used to go to St Bendydicks.
• Jamiroquai! Ealing is also very famous for the 'Ealing Comedies' on the fifties and sixties.
• Jameriqui (how the hell you 'spose to spell that) was our old resident spending his younger years at the depot on his sidewalk surfer (now kown as skateboards). And the new movie Shaun of the Dead was so i'm told made in ealing studios
• Mike from The Young Ones near Pitshanger. Lisa Rodgers, but haven't found her place yet...
• i once saw elvis walkin down the street with hendrix.....could 'ave been the lsd!
• John Sergeant - former political editor at BBC and ITN.
• ralf little and dominic wood also the black girl of cbbc
• Frank Richards - creator of Billy Bunter, and other school tales. A plaque in Ealing shopping precinct says he lived in a house that stood there. Lionel Bart - songster, famous for 'Oliver', etc.(did you know he introduced Tommy Steele to Larry Parnes - before your time maybe?) He came from the East End, made the big time, then wound up pissed in a flat in Acton. Most of us skip the middle bit. Bill Owen ("Compo"). Born Acton Green, first starred in Acton Co-op Drama Society, then via Unity Theatre to be cockney character in countless black-and-white movies, before donning famous wellies and becoming Yorkshire tyke for Last Of The Summer Wine.
• Ronnie wood, Freddy Mercury and Pete Townshend all went to Ealing arts college
• Chris Searle -ex That's Life Jon Entwhistle -The Who bassist used to live on Corringway Lots of Monty Python filmed in Ealing Rolling Stones very first performance was in a small club underneath the 'Better Half' pub opposite Ealing Broadway station .THe space is still there, but locked and out of use. Alan Jones-the great Australian F1 World Champion lived here, until he earned so much he went to live in Switzerland!
• Neil & Glynnis Kinnock
• Theo (aka neo)the midget with the big nose from Twyford high school year 99, a legend!!!
• Rick Wakeman went to Drayton Manor in Hanwell & Roger Daltrey went to Acton County nee Grammar
• A lot of the old 60's and 70's TV series used to be made in the streets and parks around Ealing studios. Series like 'Sykes' 'The Avenue' and some of the 'Confessions of a' films. Can be quite amusing 'location spotting' (if you have nothing else to do!!)
• John Mc Vie, joint founder of pop group 'Fleetwood Mac' was a former pupil of Walpole Grammar School in Northfields.
• Freddie Mercury lived here.
• I have seen Rula Lenska walking around
• John Sergeant BBC man
• Sid James (of "Carry-On" fame) lived on Gunnersbury Ave; convenient for Ealing Studios, I imagine.
• Jason Kay of Jamiroquai. Brand New Heavies.

Buskers, Street Entertainers

• The walking guitar man who walks about with a backpack with an amp in and he carries a guitar plugged in. go and ask him for a song. also someone often has a guitar at The Green
• who remembers the "one string" guitar palyer?
• Biiiiiig issue big big big big biiiiig ... biiiiiiiiig issue.... bloke standing outside Ealing Broadway Station - if you live there you know what i mean. he's great :)
• Few if any.
• In the summer you will find allsorts of musical activity going on in the Ealing Broadway Centre. Also, the Ealing Summer Festival at Walpole Park has a Comedy Festival, world-famous Jazz Festival, International Food Fayre & Classical concerts too.
• havent see one in Ealing for months
• There are some absolutely PATHETIC 'Buskers' that travel on the Picadilly line tube to Heathrow, who menace money out of people(usually foreigners)They should have their fingers cut off publicly!
• If you go to the entrance of ETC on ealing green opposite Finnegans wake is a great spot for Fashion victim spotting. Some of the kids whoi go there are real freaks...how do I know...I went there.
• non existent big issue sellers

The Knowhere Guide started out as a list of places to skateboard in the UK. It is a compilation of (unedited) information and views supplied by users like yourself. It is not a conventional tourist guide!

In most cases, the information in each section has been submitted by more than one contributor (the credits at the bottom of the page list some, but not all, of the contributors) and some of it dates back to the 1970s.

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Credits

Last updated: 2008-02-15