Things you didn't know about... Ealing

Ealing has that musical feeling
Dusty Springfield, one of Britain's best-loved pop and R&B singers, grew up in Ealing, as did Pete Townsend, the songwriter and guitarist for The Who. Also, the Ealing Jazz Club played host to The Rolling Stones in the early 1960s before they made it to the big time. Jay Kay of Jamiroquai is a local lad, while groove legends the Brand New Heavies also hailed from Ealing.

Ealing suffers fuel gladly
In late 2007, Ealing Council launched a three-month pilot programme to collect used cooking oil from restaurants and recycle it as biodiesel. The scheme is geared to lowering the number of blocked sewers that result directly from cooking fat being thrown out.

Biking through the years in Ealing
London's only motorcycle museum is in Greenford, Ealing, specialising solely in British bikes.

Ealing has the world's oldest film studios
Ealing Studios, which has been on the same site since 1907, lays claim to being the oldest film studio in the world. Under studio head Michael Balcon it really took off, producing a string of much-loved "Ealing comedies" such as The Ladykillers, The Lavender Hill Mob, Passport to Pimlico and Kind Hearts and Coronets.

Football fans have divided loyalties in Ealing
Ealing Borough has historically been home to both Brentford and Queens Park Rangers football clubs, though the latter is now part of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham.

Ealing has one of the largest Polish communities outside Poland
During the Battle of Britain in World War II, many Polish pilots flew RAF planes out of RAF Northolt, and ever since Ealing has been host to one of the largest Polish communities outside Poland. The Polish War Memorial is a local landmark on the A40 near Northolt.

Ealing pet shop goes pop
The Pet Shop Boys, one of the most successful bands of the 1980s and 1990s, named themselves after friends who worked in a pet shop in Ealing.

Young Charlie Chaplin was put into a poorhouse in Ealing
Charlie Chaplin attended the Hanwell School for orphans and destitute children, which would now be part of Ealing Borough, with his brother Sydney from 1896 to January 1898.

Ealing's link to Vietnam
After moving to London in 1914 Ho Chi Minh is said to have worked briefly in the kitchens of the Drayton Court Hotel in West Ealing, before his more famous stint as a kitchen hand at London's Carlton Hotel.