IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
East Acton Lane, LONDON, W3 7EN

In the background is the spire of St Dunstan's church Image

A large public house at the junction of Friar's Place Lane (ahead to the left) and East Acton Lane.

Barbara Speake first opened a dancing school here, in St Dunstan's Hall in East Acton Lane, in 1945, so she currently has had a presence on the site for 65 years! For full information about the school please refer to its website here http://www.barbaraspeake.com/index.html . In 2007 Barbara Speake was awarded the MBE for services to drama in London. A look at old Victorian Ordnance Survey maps shows that the site of the hall was once the terminus of a very short lived branch line railway line that curved away south-eastwards from the Great Western Railway main line from somewhere near where the A40 Western Avenue crosses it now. From maps that are currently available on line the railway was not there in 1874, but by 1896 it was, but was already described as "abandoned". Not a trace of the railway seems to exist today.

Given the local connection with goldsmiths it is not surprising that the local church should be dedicated to their patron saint, St Dunstan. This is the tower of the church which was built between 1878 and 1879. The church is built in the Decorated style of red brick with white Doulting stone dressings. The tower is at the south-west corner of the church and its broach spire rises to about 140 feet about ground level. It houses a single bell which, after hanging silent for many years, was repaired and returned to operation in the 1990s. This is the view from Vyner Road.

In the Parish of St Dunstan with St Thomas in East Acton.

The church is St Dunstan's.