Forum Topic

Southall - thoughts?

ok forumites I wanted your honest opinion, dont worry you wont comments wont be branded any parrticular term.Its simply your own honest opinion on your thoughts of Southall as an area, the people, environment etc.Lets not be PC and try to be careful of what each other saysAre you proud its part of Ealing or rather it went to Hillingdon, be honest!

Ron Gill ● 4139d24 Comments

As Southall it predates 'Illing' (Ealing) by some three hundred years and was mentioned in transfers of land in the early 9th Century.

Nigel Brooks ● 4106d

As we're talking about Southall, how ancient a settlement is Southall?  Is it older than say Ealing?

Gerry Tan ● 4106d

My daughter taught there for three years and loved it. However she did come home with terrible and frequent tales of awful degradation, poverty and child abuse and yes, many mothers who were prostitutes. Southall is not alone in any of this of course and despicable behaviour is not confined to deprived areas but it is certainly prevalent there. Social Services rarely took any action.

Penny Crocker ● 4137d

Obviously one cannot rate an area on celebs who were born or lived there a few decades ago but I am not sure what the benefits would be for all of the current residents of the Boroughs of Hounslow & Ealing by swapping, it seems, Southall for Chiswick. 

Philip Coe ● 4137d

Then there's the 'beds in sheds' fiasco and the turning of the blind eye by the powers that be. I wonder why? Answers on a postcard etc.

Keith Iddon ● 4137d

GerryDon't take this the wrong way my friend but you really need to take off those rose-tinted glasses and take a closer look at Southall.Prostitutes openly ply their trade at night, women are trafficked into Southall for sex, it is filthy in very many areas and that's nothing to do with the council. The housing stock in generally poor quality.Let's deal with some of your plaudits about the place.Cleo Laine was born in Uxbridge but grew up in Southall over seventy years ago.Fulham is the home of Martinware pottery and they traded there for some years before moving to Havelock Road but the pottery there closed almost a century ago Gerry.Hayley Mills lived in the refined Friars Lawn, an eight bed Georgian house on Norwood Green Road about as far away from 'mainstream' Southall as you can get while still having a Southall address.Les Ferdinand grew up in Paddington and played ONCE for Southall FC.It certainly does not have the 'best curries' and more eateries in Southall have zero or one hygiene star than any other area of Ealing.Sorry Gerry, Southall is a 'hole' in the main with a few sparsely sprinkled 'nice bits'.

Nigel Brooks ● 4137d

I don't see how any of that really has any bearing on what people think of the place in the here and now Gerry. Would you up sticks and move there, say near to the broadway?

Keith Iddon ● 4137d

"The MP Virendra Sharma has been appalling, would he still be in power had we had a vote?"Who's 'we' in this context, Ron?Sharma got 41.5% of the vote in 2007 and increased that to 51.5% in 2010, against the national trend.  I'd say he's got a pretty good mandate there, wouldn't you agree?

Thomas Barry ● 4137d

Why do people dislike and are so disparaging of sunny Southall?  It's a pleasant enough place and quite famous really - after all, Cleo Laine was born in Southall, its the home of MartinWare pottery, Les Ferdinand the footballer was brought up there, Hayley Mills used to live in Southall, Nick Knowles the BBC presenter and Michael Ashley the sci-fi author and editor and many oyher "notables" lived in Southall.  The best curries are to be had there - its a great place.

Gerry Tan ● 4137d

I like Southall. Some time ago I went with my 16 years old daughter and it was like being on holiday. Colourful place and great for some shopping. HOWEVER.Borough of Ealing has loads of problems and corruption and mishandling of many issues comes to mind. White British population in the Borough is 44% - one of the lowest in London.Crime in the Borough (source gov.uk and met.police) is amongst one of the highest in London (10,400 in Richmond - 25,400 in Ealing - 28,000 Newham, for example).Expensive houses - over 2m - only 765 in B of Ealing - compared to 1770 in B of Hounslow and 4,200 in B of Richmond.Most of the Borough policies are to waste money and keep officials glued to their chairs/jobs. Ealing Hospital is one of the worst in UK, btw.Is Southall a problem? I don't think so. Honest and targeted investment could make the area really like a tourist venue..............if only!!

Alfredo B Procaccini ● 4138d

I don't know what you mean by saying it doesn't work Penny. I like the fact that there's a Northolt and a Southall area in our Borough.  One of the most interesting Boroughs in London is Kensington - such a very wide variation in a single London borough - from the most expensive and classiest to well the "other end", so to speak.  I love the fairly close proximity of each area.

Gerry Tan ● 4138d

Perfectly fair unless the word offends, but then again, I don't care.

Nigel Brooks ● 4138d

Nice idea Gerry but it doesn't work. You juts end up with sub divisions of boroughs i.e Ealing Broadway vs Northolt for example. People like to live in ghettos.

Penny Crocker ● 4138d

"...more logical pairing of Ealing with Chiswick and Hounslow with Southall."I think it might be more logical, but I can't hepl feeling every borough should have as much mixture and variation as possible - cultural, economic, social, ethnic and the rest.

Gerry Tan ● 4138d

isnt the spread out from SOuthall of people into Hayes & Hounslow?hardly fair to brandish it 'in common'

Ron Gill ● 4138d

Ethnic composition, religious allegiances, housing type, socio-economic make-up.If you look at the core data from the demographic database (which was published here but I am damned if I can find the link) Southall has much more in common with Hounslow that it does with the rest of Ealing.

Nigel Brooks ● 4138d

What in common exactly?  Apart from nearer central London of course.

Philip Coe ● 4138d

As I've probably only passed through Southall a few times in all my years living in Ealing, I'm not in much of position to cast judgement on it as a place, but it does seem to dominate Ealing politically, which is hardly a good thing.I've often wondered why Ealing and Southall, as well as Chiswick and Hounslow, were lumped together, instead of the more logical pairing of Ealing with Chiswick and Hounslow with Southall, where each area has so much more in common with each other.

D Fox ● 4138d

I used to live in Southall 1982-1984. It wasn't so bad then  although the pubs were dire. The Broadway wasn't the tip that it looks now with shops spilling out onto the pavement seemingly without any restraints. The traffic was always pretty bad but nowhere near as bad as now. All in all, Nigel has hit the nail on the head.

Keith Iddon ● 4139d

appreciate the openness rather than the fence sittingThe people well some of them I agree with they are trying their best but its a deprived area which needs help, how much helps I just dont knowAt the moment this plan with Southall is simply painting over the cracks, does it work? long term maybe but the jury is still out.What people fail to see, we are where we are due to Labour.The MP Virendra Sharma has been appalling, would he still be in power had we had a vote?

Ron Gill ● 4139d

If your sympathies are with the Ealing Conservatives it would make sense to divest it to Hillingdon.

Graham Weeks ● 4139d

TBH, I haven't set foot in Southall for some years and don't think about it at all.

Susan Kelly ● 4139d

"...simply your own honest opinion on your thoughts of Southall as an area, the people, environment etc..."Ealing needs and always have had a varied mixture of cultures, residents and environments - what's wrong about a rich and diverse area? Life's rich tapestry as they say - let it thrive I believe.

Gerry Tan ● 4139d

It is a 'hole' which has sucked in resources well beyondits worth.There are surely some lovely people there trying their hardest to live decent lives but it is no coincidence that it is a centre for street drinking, open prostitution and the streets away from the main highways are unkempt and frankly filthy.Would Hillingdon want it?

Nigel Brooks ● 4139d