Margaret Dovaston Plaque to Be 'Unveiled' in Mill Hill Park

Ceremony honouring local artist delayed by pandemic


The house in Roman Close and the plaque. Picture: Mill Hill Park Residents' Association

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May 15, 2025

A belated ceremony unveiling a plaque commemorating an internationally renowned Acton artist is to take place this Sunday (18 May).

The plaque has to Margaret Dovaston was put up with the support of the Acton History Group and the Mill Hill Park Residents’ Association in 2020, but the Covid-19 pandemic meant a formal unveiling was not possible.

This will be rectified at 2:30pm on Roman Close (W3 8HE), the site of the artist’s former home, when the outgoing Mayor of Ealing, Councillor Yvonne Johnson will do the honours.

Roman Close is in the Mill Hill Park Conservation Area, at the corner where Avenue Gardens turns from an East-West direction to a North-South direction. The Mayor will give a short speech, and copies of Margaret Dovaston's very colourful pictures will be on display.

There will also be the chance to obtain copies of "Celebrating the Light", a full-colour history of Mill Hill Park, published by the Acton History Group.

The delay has allowed the ceremony to take place on the centenary of Ms Dovaston moving into the house at what was then 51 Avenue Gardens in 1925. As a young woman, she helped establish the Ealing Art Guild, whose successor, Ealing Arts Club still exists today.

During the Second World War she served as an air raid warden at a post in her garden. She lived there until her death in 1954 producing much of her distinctive work in a specially built studio.

The painting below shows the Mayor of Ealing meeting Mr Willoughby with the King and Queen to see the aftermath of a Luftwaffe raid on the borough.

“George VI and Queen Elizabeth Inspecting Air Raid Damage at Perivale, 27th September 1940” by Margaret Dovaston. Picture: Ealing Central Library“George VI and Queen Elizabeth Inspecting Air Raid Damage at Perivale, 27th September 1940” by Margaret Dovaston. Picture: Ealing Central Library

Margaret Dovaston was particularly well known for her oil paintings of historical interior English genre scenes, often depicting groups of figures in Eighteenth Century dress which she render accurately having studied the clothes in London’s museums and art galleries.

 

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