When you think of American presidents you assume they’ve always lived across the pond. George W Bush is from Connecticut, Barack Obama is from Chicago, and Bill Clinton grew up in Arkansas. And it makes perfect sense, having the president born and living in the land of the free.

Getty John Quincy Adams was the sixth president of the USA serving from 1825 to 1829

But what if you were told that a former president once lived in West London? You probably wouldn’t believe it. John Quincy Adams was the sixth president of the USA who served from 1825 to 1829, but better yet - he used to live in Ealing!

He and his wife Louisa, and three sons George, John and Charles called the leafy west London zone home from 1815 to 1817 when he was a young diplomat, despite his office being in the centre of the capital.

They set up shop at Little Boston House, in Windmill Road (which is now in the W5 postcode). It was art of the Boston Manor estate, on what is now the border between Ealing and Brentford. Sadly you can’t visit where President Adams lived as his pad was demolished in the 1930s.

During his time in Ealing he was the United States ambassador to the United Kingdom – which was known formally as ambassador to the court of St James’s. Although we don’t know loads about his life, he kept a diary which gave us an insight into what he got up to.

It turns out that he very much had a social conscience and would regularly comment on poverty in the area. He and his family also visited and partook in local events such as pony races on Ealing Dean. A poster for a fair in Ealing from 1813 spoke of such attractions as ‘grinning through a horse collar’ to win the prize of ‘a large leg of mutton’.

Sadly life in West London wasn’t meant to be and he was recalled back to the states in 1817, which saddened Mr Adams as his time here had been a happy one.