A Six-Year Empty Plot on West Ealing’s Broadway Is About to Transform the Neighbourhood

For six years, the corner where Singapore Road meets The Broadway in West Ealing has sat empty. A long-vacant site on one of the busiest stretches of the high street. Walk past it on your way to the Elizabeth Line. Pass it on your morning coffee run. It’s been there so long, it might feel like it belongs that way. But it shouldn’t.

The Plot: A Century-Old Story

In 1926, Woolworths opened its doors on this exact corner. For nearly eighty years, it was West Ealing’s department store, the place where generations of locals came to shop, to meet, to be part of the neighbourhood.

Then, it closed. Woolworths’ nationwide shutdown in 2008 meant the end of an era. The building that had stood since the 1920s was demolished in 2019, leaving behind a vacant lot.

And there it stayed. Through 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, and into 2025. Six years of emptiness on London’s busiest stretches of real estate.

That’s not a gap. It’s a missed opportunity.

Why Now? Why This Corner?

West Ealing is quietly transforming. Not with the noise and fanfare of other areas—no billboards are screaming about it. It’s happening the way the best neighbourhoods change: steadily, genuinely, and from within.

Independent food and coffee arrived. The kind of spots where the owner knows your name. Where breakfast comes from somewhere local. The high street along The Broadway started feeling like somewhere worth spending time, not just passing through.

New homes followed. Young professionals began discovering West Ealing. People relocating to London started finding it on the map. The neighbourhood began attracting residents looking for space, character, and connection, without compromise.

And through all of this, one corner stayed empty. We thought it deserved better.

What We’re Building There

As of this month, the corner is ours.

We’re building 268 all-inclusive studios. It’s a rethinking of what having your own place means when you’re young, ambitious, and living in London. Whether you’re looking for a permanent place or a short-term stay, everything you need is included.

Everything else is already sorted. Bills? Included. Council tax? Included. WiFi? High-speed, included. Cleaning? included. Gym or co-working membership? Included. Your fully equipped kitchenette, your private studio, your keys to a calm, functional space? All yours, all included in one transparent monthly payment.

No hidden fees. No anxiety about separate utilities or maintenance. What you’re left with is the actual living.

Amenities: Built Around How You Actually Live

The ground floor opens directly onto The Broadway. The café faces the street, the kind of place where the neighbourhood walks past and thinks, “I’ll stop in there.”

From there, the building unfolds into carefully designed zones, each one built around how people actually live:

Co-working lounge: For the concentration work that your dining table couldn’t handle. For the client call that needs a professional backdrop. For the meetings where you need a proper room.

Gym: For the morning routine that sets the tone for everything else.

Spa and wellness: Steam room, hot tub, sauna. For the evening that the morning earned.

Shared kitchen and dining area: A proper space for cooking together, hosting, and gathering. Fully equipped for the meals that matter.

Rooftop terrace: The building’s highest point. From here, you look out at West Ealing’s rooflines. Sun lounges for languid afternoons. Barbecue area for evenings with friends. Big screen for shared moments. It’s designed to be sat on, not only photographed for Instagram. Real people, real conversations, real London views.

Studios: Your Calm, Functional Space

Each studio is around 19–25 square metres (201–272 square feet). Fully furnished. Fully equipped with its own kitchenette (hob, sink, dishwasher, microwave). En-suite bathroom. 2.4-metre ceilings. Morphe flying bed system that reclaims your floor.

They’re designed for daily rhythms, not just rooms. Morning. Work. Movement. Rest. The building supports how you actually live, not some fantasy version of it.

Why This Matters for West Ealing

For six years, the most prominent intersection on the high street has been a blank space. A visual break in the streetscape. A reminder of the high street’s decline. Now, it’s becoming a reason for people to come to West Ealing. To walk The Broadway. To discover what’s here.

268 studios means 268 reasons for people to be on this high street. To use the café. To shop nearby. To spend money at the independent businesses that have been quietly holding this neighbourhood together. To prove that this corner, this stretch of The Broadway, is worth investing in.

It’s a vote of confidence in West Ealing. And it’s arriving at exactly the moment when the neighbourhood is ready to hear it.

Connectivity That Actually Matters

From this corner, West Ealing Station is a 10-minute walk. From the station, you can reach:

But more than that: Ealing Town Centre is 15 minutes on foot. Dean Gardens and Drayton Green are 10 minutes away if you need green space on a Sunday. Lidl is a 1-minute walk.

This corner isn’t isolated. It’s genuinely connected to everything, whether that’s the rest of London or the rest of your life.

What Happens Next

Construction starts shortly. Over the next two years, the corner of Singapore Road and The Broadway will transform from an empty plot into a building. We’ll share more as the project moves forward: the design choices, the mistakes we almost made, the decisions that worked. The story of how you build something that matters on a corner where nothing happened for six years.

The resident-facing branding, the final pricing, the opening date. But this is the story we’re telling now: A corner on one of London’s quieter high streets was empty. The neighbourhood was changing. The moment was right. And we decided that corner deserved a second life.

This is the first chapter.