The Polish Community in Ealing

With a population of 305,300 (and growing), Ealing has the third largest population of the thirty-two London boroughs, (behind Croydon and Barnet). Recently the numbers have been bolstered by an influx from Eastern Europe, but in particular from Poland. Since Poland’s accession to the EU in 2004, some 21,000 Polish nationals, newly resident in Ealing, were issued with national insurance numbers. This means Ealing has received more Polish folk, than any other local authority in the UK.

It’s no coincidence of course – Poles have been coming to Ealing for decades. Prior to EU accession, the most significant periods of migration occurred as a consequence of the two world wars, and especially the second. Fleeing the ravages of Nazism and to support the Allied war effort, thousands of Poles made their way to Britain’s shores. When eventually the Nazis were defeated, Poland fell captive to a new Soviet empire and a new era of occupation. So it was that thousands of displaced Polish servicemen (and in some cases their families too) were unable or indeed unwilling to return home. Of those, a great many settled in West London, and in particular in Hammersmith and Ealing.

Not surprisingly then we can find plenty of signs of Polish life dotted around the borough – like the Polish (and very busy) Catholic Church near the Broadway, (“Our Lady Mother of the Church”), the restaurants, cafes, and many delicatessens, the Polish Centre in West Ealing, the group “Zywiec” (a local folk song and dance group), and of course, last but not least: the people themselves.

There’s no doubt that for a long time the Polish have contributed much to life in Ealing, as they do today. In celebration of this, a lottery grant was recently provided to support the “Polish Lives in Ealing” project:

“This project will underline the important role that Polish residents have played in the local community for nearly 70 years. It will preserve the memories of the earliest settlers as well as spanning the generations between those who arrived in the 1930s, those who were born here, and the most recent arrivals.”

The project is headed up by local historian and writer Jonathan Oates, a very knowledgeable fellow based at Ealing Central Library.

And finally, my absolute favourite Polish connection in Ealing, and a gem in the blogosphere, is Michael Dembinski’s beautifully written blog account of growing up here in the sixties – “Grey Jumper'd Childhood”. Michael, who returned with his family to Warsaw in the late nineties, records with striking clarity, recollections and details from his childhood that will resonate with anyone of his generation. If he’s reading this now, I just wish he would write more!