The BBC at Gypsy Corner

Sad to hear of the death of Ronnie Barker – his East Acton connection was that the Two Ronnies was rehearsed at the BBC Rehearsal Rooms in Victoria Road in East Acton ward. This is part of the Gypsy Corner ‘island site' (officially the ‘Park Royal Southern Gateway'), which has been under major redevelopment in the couple of years since the BBC ended most of their operations on the site.

Time was when you could go into the Castle pub next door to the rehearsal rooms, and regularly see the stars of BBC filmed programmes having lengthy liquid lunches. My favourite memory of the Castle in the 1980s is of a very drunk Les Dawson telling never-ending jokes, whilst he and Paul ‘Hi-di-Hi’ Shane bought drinks for most of us in the pub.

BBC memorabilia in the Castle

I cycled up there tonight to have a look at the latest changes. In the Council’s development plans, Gypsy Corner was identified as a preferred location for hotel development, given its excellent public transport links – opposite North Acton tube station, with five bus routes passing by, and an equidistant ten minute or so walk from Willesden Junction and Acton Main Line stations. This policy has drawn in two new hotels – a Ramada Encore (http://www.encorelondonwest.co.uk/) and a Holiday Inn (http://www.encorelondonwest.co.uk/). Sadly no real ale in either, but I had some stout in each and chatted to some of the staff. They seem to be doing reasonably well, and the noodle bar at the Ramada is apparently well recommended. This was followed by some excellent pints of Fullers Discovery in the Castle.

The redevelopment has included building a new Remploy factory. Remploy are the country’s largest employer of people with disabilities, and have had a factory in and around Gypsy Corner for almost all the sixty years since the company was set up, initially to provide employment for people injured in the Second World War. It now employs a significant number of local people, and one of their latest contracts is for the assembly of bikes for the excellent and prize-winning ‘Oybike’ scheme in our neigbouring Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham (http://www.oybike.com/). The Queen opened their new factory last year, in the first official royal visit to East Acton ward since I greeted Princess Anne to open another factory in Park Royal in 1999.

Oh, and my favourite Two Ronnies joke is “And in news just in from the English Channel, a ship carrying red paint collided with a ship carrying purple paint. It is believed that both crews have been marooned”.