Editing Ealing (section)

===Modern Victorian suburb===
[[File:Ealing streetlamp 1905.JPG|thumb|150px|right|1895 lamp standard. Mount Park Road]]
The most important changes to Ealing occurred in the 19th century. The building of the [[Great Western Railway]] in the 1830s, part of which passed through the centre of Ealing, led to the opening of a railway station on the Broadway in 1879, originally called Haven Green. In the next few decades, much of Ealing was rebuilt, predominantly semi-detached housing designed for the rising middle-class. Gas mains were laid and an electricity generating station was built. Better transport links, including horse buses as well as trains, enabled people to more easily travel to work in London. All this, whilst living in what was still considered to be the countryside. Although much of the countryside was rapidly disappearing during this period of rapid expansion, parts of it were preserved as public parks, such as Lammas Park and [[Ealing Common]]. [[Pitzhanger Manor]] and the extensive {{convert|28|acre|m2}} grounds on which it stands, was sold to the council in 1901 by [[Sir Spencer Walpole]], which had been bought by his father the Rt. Hon. [[Spencer Horatio Walpole]] and thus became [[Walpole Park]].<ref>{{cite book
 | last = Neaves
 | first = Cyrill
 | title = A history of Greater Ealing
 | publisher = S. R. Publishers
 | year = 1971
 | location = United Kingdom
 | pages = 65, 66
 | isbn = 978-0-85409-679-4 }}</ref>

During the [[Victorian era|Victorian]] period, Ealing became a town. This meant that good, well-metalled roads had to be built, and schools and public buildings erected. To protect public health, the newly created [[Local board of health|Board of Health for Ealing]] commissioned London's first modern drainage and sewage systems here. Just as importantly, [[drinking fountain]]s providing wholesome and safe water were erected by public prescription. Ealing Broadway became a major shopping centre. The man responsible for much of all this was [[Charles Jones (architect)|Charles Jones]], Borough Surveyor from 1863 to 1913. He directed the planting of the [[Aesculus|horse chestnut]] trees on [[Ealing Common]] and designed [[Ealing Town Hall]], both the present one and the older structure which is now a bank (on the Mall). He even oversaw the purchase of the Walpole estate grounds and its conversion into a leisure garden for the general public to enjoy and promenade around on Sundays.