Fireworks, face paint and an extra hour 🎆

Welcome back.

The clocks go back an hour on Sunday morning. Darker evenings from then on, but one more hour in bed first, and Sunday is the dry day of the weekend, so it's the one to get out in.

Inside: a fireworks cruise from Chiswick Pier, a small local charity turning bare rooms into proper homes for children, and a pub on Acton Lane that has just changed its menu for autumn. Half-term starts on Monday for many local schools, so the listings lean towards keeping small people busy, from a creepy-crawly trail at Gunnersbury to a Zombie Train aimed at the grown-ups.

Here's the week.

Alina caught this sky by Kew Bridge last Thursday evening. Her verdict, in full: "Insane sunset." We can't argue.

With the evenings drawing in from Sunday, here's this week's challenge: W4 after dark. Lit-up shopfronts, pumpkins on doorsteps, the river at dusk. Hit reply and send it over by Monday, and we'll run the best of them next week, with your name on it.

📍 Healing Homes West | West London

Imagine moving your children into a flat with no beds, no curtains and nothing on the floor. For some families in West London, many of them leaving temporary housing or fleeing danger, that is where a fresh start begins.

Healing Homes West is a small, women-led team that changes that. Families are referred by health, social care and charity partners, and the team delivers a free home makeover: furniture, bedding, decoration, and children's bedrooms that the children help design themselves.

The idea grew out of years of social work with children and families, in homes where the conditions themselves were getting in the way of recovery. Leeanne Sully and Laura Hickman co-founded it in 2024. By its own count, it has since transformed 26 homes, 37 children's bedrooms and four gardens, and refurbished two refuges, much of it with good second-hand furniture that would otherwise have gone to landfill.

Furniture poverty is easy to miss, because families tend to keep it hidden. In Leeanne's words, they are "very new, very much local" and want the community involved.

How you can help: local businesses can sponsor, fundraise or donate paint and old stock furniture. Everyone else can volunteer, give, or buy something off the wish list.

e: [email protected]
ig: @healinghomeswest
🔗 healinghomeswest.org

📍 Evershed Walk, 119 Acton Lane, W4 5HH

Up Acton Lane, at the northern edge of W4, The Swan is one I keep going back to. I've eaten here regularly and recommend it highly. The building dates back to 1871, the current team arrived in 2002, and the food is what the pub calls "seasonal" and "Mediterranean-inspired".

The kitchen has just turned over for autumn. This week's menu, dated Tuesday 20 October, has burrata with black figs, pesto and pomegranate for £12.50, grilled sardines for £12, and gnocchi with pumpkin, walnut and crispy sage for £19.50. The big plate is braised pork cheeks in red wine and sage, with girolles and creamed polenta, at £26.50. Sticky toffee pudding is £9.

In summer the draw is the large lawned garden. From now until spring, it's the fire.

Worth knowing: there's no weekday lunch. The kitchen opens at 5.30pm Monday to Friday and from noon at weekends. And on 19 November, Timothy Taylor takes over the bar, with a raffle.

🔗 theswanchiswick.co.uk · t: 020 8994 8262
ig: @theswanchiswick

Sources: The Swan's menu (20 October) and website

This week

💃 London Tango Quintet by candlelight | Fri 23 Oct | 7.30pm | St Peter's Church, Southfield Road, W4
Live tango in a candlelit church, with room to dance if the mood takes you, plus tables and a bar. Register on the church's site. Details

🎺 Kew Sinfonia Autumn Concert | Sat 24 Oct | 7.30pm | St Michael & All Angels, Bath Road
Beethoven's Coriolan Overture and Seventh Symphony, plus Ruth Gipps's Horn Concerto with soloist Joseph Longstaff. Adults £16, students £6, under-14s free. Tickets

🎨 Free Halloween face painting | Sun 25 Oct | 10am to 1pm | The Food Market, The Pavilion, Market Drive, W4 2RX
Free face painting for children at the Sunday food market, run by the Dukes Meadows Trust. The market itself is on from 10am to 2pm. Details

🕷️ Half-term at Gunnersbury | Sat 24 Oct to Sun 1 Nov | Gunnersbury Park & Museum
The Creepy Creatures trail runs daily from 10am to 4pm (£2, ages 3 and up, no booking). On Mon 26 Oct, 10am to 12pm, there's a free relaxed museum session for neurodivergent and SEND children and young people aged 5 to 25 and their families; book ahead. And on Thu 29 Oct, Spooky Slime Make & Take sessions for ages 6 and up are £8 a child. Details

📖 Midnight launch: A Court of Splintered Harmony | Mon 26 Oct | 9.30pm | Waterstones, Chiswick High Road
For the teenagers (and not only them) waiting for the sixth ACOTAR book. £12, or £30 with the book. Book

🚂 Halloween Train, and a Zombie Train | Mon 26 to Fri 30 Oct | London Museum of Water & Steam, Green Dragon Lane, TW8 0EN
By day, a gentle steam-hauled ride by Kew Bridge, £1 on top of admission and free if you come in costume. On Thu 29 and Fri 30 Oct, 6.30pm to 9.30pm, the Zombie Train takes over, with scare actors and a bar. That one is £18 and aimed at adults. Halloween Train · Zombie Train

🌱 Half-term at Chiswick House & Gardens | Tue 27 to Thu 29 Oct
Cygnets Art School's Magic and Mischief workshops run 10.30am to 2pm for ages 5 and up: half day £30, full day £55, all three £150. On Wed 28 Oct, 1.30pm to 3.30pm, Gardening Together is a free family volunteering afternoon in the grounds for children over seven; registration required. Workshops · Gardening Together

Further ahead

🦇 The Addams Family: Spooky Cinema | Fri 30 Oct | 2pm to 4pm | Gunnersbury Park Museum
A family Halloween screening, rated PG. £8 children, £10 adults. Book

🎹 The Bat, with the Wurlitzer | Sat 31 Oct | bar 7.15pm, film 8pm | Musical Museum, 399 High Street, Brentford, TW8 0DU
The 1926 silent mystery, with Donald MacKenzie on the museum's Wurlitzer. £20 including a welcome drink, and a prize for the best-dressed bat. Online sales close at 3pm on the day. Book

💐 Chiswick Flower Market | Sun 1 Nov | until 3.30pm | Old Market Place, W4 2DR
First Sunday of the month, with around 35 nurseries and British flower growers. Details

🔥 Chiswick Rugby Community Fireworks | Sat 7 Nov | doors 5.30pm, fireworks 7.30pm | Chiswick Rugby Club, Dan Mason Drive, W4 2SH
Bonfire at 6.30pm, fireworks at 7.30pm and live music after, with a donation to Maggie's in every ticket. Adults £12, children £8, family £30. It sold out last year, so book early. Book

🐟 Schubert's Trout Quintet | Sat 7 Nov | 4pm | St Michael & All Angels, Bath Road
The Gustav Holst Ensemble, joined by double bassist and broadcaster Sandy Burnett, plays the much-loved quintet Schubert wrote at 22. Free, with donations welcome; reserve a place. Reserve

🌺 Remembrance Sunday Requiem Mass | Sun 8 Nov | 9.55am | St Michael & All Angels, Bath Road
A choral Requiem Mass, then a procession to the Bedford Park War Memorial outside the Parish Hall for the Last Post, wreaths and two minutes' silence. Details

Good news for Sutton Lane North. The Hole in the Wall, closed since the summer, looks to be on its way back. ChiswickW4 reports that the clearing work going on there is understood to be on behalf of The Morgan Pub Collective, an independent group of more than 40 pubs founded by Dick Morgan, which also runs the Express Tavern in Brentford. A staff member on the project said the aim is to reopen, at a date yet to be confirmed.

There has been a pub on the site since 1722. It was The Queen's Head until May 2024, and the current Brewers Tudor building is by Nowell Parr, from 1925. We'll raise a glass when it reopens.

Source: ChiswickW4

About 35 Abundance London volunteers turned out at Emanuel Hollow, the new green space at Dukes Meadows that opened in July. Alongside Lampton Greenspace, Wild Chiswick, Hounslow Parks and a few local councillors, they planted 300 shrubs.

They also sowed wildflower seed on the raised bank that shelters the area from the boat club, built a log pile for insects, and heard a talk on bees from Mick Massie of the London Natural History Society. Want to join the next one? Sign up at abundancelondon.com/volunteers.

Sources: The Chiswick Calendar, Hounslow Council

Hounslow Council has opened a £150,000 Community Energy Fund, with grants of up to £40,000 for community organisations, charities, faith groups and community venues to make their buildings greener and cheaper to run. Past projects have included air source heat pumps, LED lighting, insulation and solar panels.

Closer to home, Age Concern Chiswick used £11,000 from an earlier round to put in solar panels, and says the savings will free up more for its members' activities and services. Applications close on Friday 22 January 2027. If you sit on the committee of a church hall, club or charity, it's worth a look.

Source: Hounslow Council

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