Ealing

To me it sounds like someone who has been hurt.  However, according to Wikipedia, it was recorded as 'Gillingas' or 'people of Gilla,' c. 700 AD, and has been referred to as 'Illing,' 'Gilling,' and 'Ylling' before finally settling on 'Ealing.'  It is 8 miles from London center, a fair distance before modern transportation.  A census in 1599 showed only 85 households.

The Great Western Railway was built in the 1830s, but Ealing only got a stop in 1879.  Uxbridge road was paved about the same time, and as a result Ealing became a middle-class suburb and a place for the wealthy to escape from the smoke and smells of the city.

In 1901, Brentham became the first "garden suburb," a pioneering movement that advocated, among other things, "co-partnership" -- that is, housing associations would build and own the homes, and tenants would take a share in the association, so each tenant had a personal interest in the entire development. (Tenants also paid rent and received a share of the assocation's profits.) Brentham started with 9 houses and grew to over 800, and was a model for garden cities throughout the world. (Baldwin Hills in Los Angeles was one.)  However, after the first world war, Brentham faced competition from "council estates," high interest rates, and rent control. By 1936, the association was sold to a property trust, and by 1940 it was run as a commercial business, with houses being sold first to tenants, and then to the general pubic as they became empty. Brentham became a "conservation site" in 1969, preserving much of its "Arts and Crafts" architecture, and today small two-bed townhouses sell for around £575,000 (US $860,000).

Ealing is probably best known for its film studios, which were built in 1902 and are the "oldest continuously working film studios in the world" (according to their website).  In the 1950s, the "Ealing comedies" starring Alec Guinness (yes, he did have a career before Star Wars) included The Ladykillers and The Lavender Hill Mob. In the 60's, BBC took over the studios for Doctor Who and then Monty Python's Flying Circus.  They were refurbished in 2000 and used for Notting Hill.

In August 2001, members of the 'Real IRA' (a splinter group of the Irish Republican Army) exploded a car bomb outside Ealing Broadway station. Amazingly, nobody was killed and only 7 people were hurt.  (The Real IRA chose not to abide by the Good Friday cease-fire accord...obviously.)

So now you know a little bit more about where I've been living the past year...and perhaps understand why I want to move out.