Join Talking and Exploring for a special afternoon combining beautiful music, local history and a guided walk in one of Ealing’s most intriguing places.
You can start the afternoon with a free concert at St Mary’s Perivale or join afterwards for the exploration of the church and churchyard and the guided walk.
The concert begins at 2pm and features pianist Shunta Morimoto performing works by Chopin alongside music by Beethoven and Schumann.
St Mary’s has medieval origins and a fascinating story of survival. The building has been altered and repaired over the centuries, including major work in the 19th century and after the chancel wall collapsed in the 1960s. Once the church of a small rural village, it eventually found itself isolated as Perivale was transformed around it.
After the concert, there will be time to explore the church and churchyard, looking at some of their history, people and details – and at how this remarkable place survived to become a much-loved concert venue.
Then take a short guided walk in the surrounding area.
Perivale has a particularly unusual story: its centre of everyday life effectively moved. The old village grew up around St Mary’s, its farms and manor house. From the early 20th century, and particularly from the 1930s, the landscape north of the Western Avenue was transformed by new transport links, factories and housing. The old village became increasingly isolated, while a new Perivale developed on the other side of the A40.
The walk will explore some of the traces and stories of this changing landscape. The exact route will remain flexible, depending on how much time we spend at the church and churchyard, the weather and the pace of the group.