Pitshanger Village is a small but busy local centre, centred around the shops in Pitshanger Lane, located about 1 mile north of Ealing Broadway in West London. It contains numerous small shops, several cafes, two pubs, two churches, a school, and a park (Pitshanger Park), and is often taken to also include parts of the nearby Brentham Garden Suburb. It is served by buses E2 and E9 and night bus N7.
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Today, Pitshanger Lane is one of the busiest roads in Ealing, and provides a wide range of shops. The Pitshanger Village Library has recently been improved and is now very popular in the area, and the Lane is also furnished with touch-screen computers, which are free to use. A Methodist Church and Anglican Church are both located at the end of the Lane. St.Barnabas' (Church of England), besides the usual services, is the venue for a series of classical music concerts given by local musicians and others. These include regular recitals every Friday lunchtime which attract a sizeable audience. Attendance is free with a retiring collection. Highlights in 2009 included all 32 of Beethoven's Piano Sonatas played by 32 different soloists in the space of a single weekend. Away from Pitshanger Lane, the Pitshanger area features Pitshanger Park, a popular park in Ealing. Featuring two children's playground areas, football goalposts, a bowling green and several tennis courts, Pitshanger Park caters for both children and adults.
Schooling also exists in Pitshanger Lane, with North Ealing Primary School located at one end of the Lane. The school is a comprehensive, co-education school for pupils up to the age of eleven. St. Gregory's R.C. School is located just off Pitshanger Lane and offers a co-educational, Catholic education
There is some debate as to whether the area is more accurately called just "Pitshanger", as some assert that the name "Pitshanger Village" is simply dreamt up by estate agents and tradespeople to describe the area attractively. However the absence of the main retail chains, coupled with the small frontages of most of the shop buildings (which are all concentrated along the one thoroughfare), does give Pitshanger Lane a distinctive identity.
The area was indeed a village historically and shows on old maps, before west London sprawl swallowed it up, and the model Brentham Estate was developed in the early 20th century. The area was known as 'Pitshanger', 'Pitshanger Lane' and 'the Lane' by residents of the area during the 1960s and 70s. The name Pitshanger Village was never used until after the 1980s.
Pitshanger Lane was featured in an episode of Only Fools and Horses in 1981, where at the end of the episode characters Del and Rodney are driving home from a nightclub.[1]
The Lane was also used in a 2008 commercial for Churchill Insurers, where a car is seen driving down the Lane with the well-known Churchill Dog.
Pitshanger Lane was the setting of Travis's music video for Walking Along in the Sun