Harrow East - Shopping Parades c. 1950

Updated August ’24



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This section comprises lists of the retail traders that occupied our local parades in the middle of the 20th century… and a few associated anecdotes.  The lists have been compiled from the copious collection of Kelly’s - and more latterly, Kemp’s - local street directories that adorn the shelves of the Local History section of the Harrow Civic Centre Library:

The Belmont Circle suite of parades

From the south, heading north-west up Kenton Lane - then going clockwise around the Circle.  In 1962:
 
No. Kenton Lane
 
Next to the farm (opposite Clifton Avenue) by a huge oak tree, was Dirty Dick’s Cafe.  Dozens of rats ran out when it was pulled down.  The adjacent fields were temporarily a cow-field and turned into allotments during the war. - John Collier (John’s evacuation to Staffordshire.)
 
395 Harcliffe Motors {In 1961} I remember having to regularly cycle to a café at Harcliffe Motors to fetch bacon rolls for my boss.  The café was an integral part of the garage and was to the right-hand side.  Having looked at the garage on Google Streetview, I would say that it was the part under the canopy with the windows and glazed door.  It is much as I remember it from 50 years ago.  It was a BP station I believe. - Robert Tayler
397 Glass - butcher  
399 Williams Bros. - grocer  
401 Wiffen Bros - greengrocer  
403 Pollard - fishmonger Open-fronted style premises.
405 Denre - hair stylist; Savá - hair stylist  
   
  Warwick Parade  
3 Ellingtons - newsagents and Post Office (by pedestrian crossing.)  
4 P Ward - fruiterer. Open-fronted premises with steel, collapsible, lattice gates;  had numerous, spinning, sticky fly-strips hanging from the ceiling.
5 Hugh Lloyd - chemist  
6 Spurriers - baker  
6 W P Wenzal Derek Wenzal was the lad I knew who lived in the flat over Spurriers.  His dad was a director of the company.  He worked in Cato’s as his first job and used to have one of those delivery bikes with a carrier on the front.

There were two brothers, John and Derek, and two daughters.  The elder one, about my age, was Eileen, the much younger one I can't remember.  That's old age kicking in.  I am 79 now (2016).
My younger brother Tony lives in Chestnut Avenue Pinner and one day he discovered Derek Wenzel lived at the bottom of his road.  That was strange.
John Wentzel now has a shop (or did anyway) in Pinner which produces the best bread for miles. - Peter Ault
7 Walton, Hassell & Port - provisions From a website about George Walton, the original founder:  "1854 - Charles Port, a draper and Henry Hassell, a manager of one of the Walton stores, marry Jane and Anne Walton, in a joint ceremony.
1855 - Deed of Partnership drawn up between George Walton, Henry Joseph Hassell and Charles Thomas Port."
  Jane and Anne were George’s daughters.
7 W Fox Bro.  
8 Dewhurst - butcher  
9 Catos (on corner) - hardware We used to buy our paraffin, Aladin Pink, here (see "Laings homes - heating" section).  Numerous refilled 1 gallon paraffin containers, with their long spouts, were stood in a line just inside the door.  You needed to be vigilant and check that the container that you were offered for collection was not in worse condition than the one that you had deposited a few days earlier. - E.B.

The man in Catos was a real misery.  When I used to get turps for my Dad, he would take the can in silence and fill it out the back.  His only words were "Nine pence". - John Collier

I had to collect manure from Braziers farm in a builders hand-cart for my Dad’s gardening.  I managed to tip the lot, by accident, at the alley entrance behind Catos.  It seemed like every neighbour came by and saw me shovelling it back on the cart.  The shame of it all. - John Collier
Kenmore Ave. is here  
Station Parade  
1, 2, 3 (Opp. Catos) Circle House - radio and TV Sold records (78s); suffered from a steeply sloping floor (following the slope of the pavement as it climbed over the bridge.)
4 Winifreds - ladies wear  
5 Launderette  
6 Victoria Wine  
7 Scottish Dyers and Cleaners  
8 F W Poole - butcher  
9 A L Payne and Son - grocer  
10 Belmont Building Supplies  
11 Clark’s - toys; then, latterly, stationer and Post Office  
12 Stanley Barton - hair stylist  
13 F & J Hare - photographers; then Belmont Building Supplies  
14 Belmont Building Supplies  
 
Belmont and Kenton Lane - A ‘cow field’ was opposite the end of Beverley Gardens and is now the site of St Joseph’s Children’s Centre.  Thinking of Kenton Lane and ‘cow fields’, I seem to remember there still being a small ‘token herd’ of cows at Kenton Lane Farm, home of J H Braziers dairy around 1960.  I think that I still have one of their milk bottles in the loft.  I worked in my school holiday in 1957 at Preston Road Dairy (R F Brazier) where we put cream from Kenton Lane Farm into cartons and milk from Carpenders Park Farm, Oxhey Lane (S A Brazier) into bottles.  I guess all these small dairies have now been swallowed up.

During my time working in Kenton Lane during 1960-61, I was a trainee surveyor for the building of, what is now, Magnolia Court.  Our site office was the old newsagents (previously an estate agent’s office) that stood on the corner.  I remember taking my air-pistol into work to shoot the rats that sometimes showed themselves in the office during quiet moments when I was there on my own.

Whilst at the same job, I remember that the brewer’s were delivering at 'The Duck in the Pond’ pub opposite.  Whilst their attention was elsewhere, a very large full wooden barrel of beer began to roll away unnoticed.  It gathered speed down the slope of the pub entrance drive and safely sped across the relatively quiet Kenton Lane and came to a halt in the site entrance.  There was a hasty discussion amongst some of the builders as to whether to roll it out of sight but it was soon missed, so was quickly returned.  The outcome was different however when a box of apples fell off a greengrocers lorry as it turned too fast into College Hill Road and disappeared into the distance.  We enjoyed the fruit with our lunch for the rest of the week. - Robert Tayler

To the west of the bridge, were fields either side of the road, with cows grazing - no fences.  During the War there was hardly any traffic and, if they wanted, cows could just stray across the road.  The railway line ran along the eastern edge of the field.  At the far end of the field was a pond where we used to catch newts etc.  We often played in the cow field.  One morning, after an air raid, we found big bundles of chaff.  These comprised paper strips 1 inch wide, black one side, silvered the other.  Chaff was dropped by german bombers to confuse our radar.

There was a large builders’ site-office belonging to Ruddock and Meighan on the verge near the cow field gate.  It was about 25 x 12 feet and had dozens of 12 x 12 inch window panes and was not used in the War.
 
  Kenton Lane - crossing at the bridge:
While Belmont station was being constructed - during 1938/9 - a temporary platform comprising a long concrete strip was built on the south side of the bridge.  It was still there years later…  and indeed may still be there.

Rattler

A "Rattler".  Locomotive No. 41220
(Class-130, 2-6-2T - fitted for ‘Push-Pull’ operation)
approaching the Vernon Drive foot crossing
c. 1950.  © Peter Ault.

Both to the north of the station and also to the south of the temporary platform a few metres from the main track and parallel to it, were ‘sand trap’ brakes - short sidings in which the rails were covered by sand (retained in long, open-top boxes about 18" wide & deep).  If a train didn't stop and give a key to the signalman, it would be diverted into the sand trap (about 100 yards-long… with buffers).  This was to prevent a head-on collision with an oncoming train.  The errant train was to slow down gradually and hopefully stop before the buffers.  As far as I know they were never used.

We used to make sand castles etc., until the porter came under the bridge to shout and shake his fist at us.  We would retreat to my friend's back garden for 10 minutes then carry on playing with the sand.  In the war we couldn't go to the seaside - the beaches were mined.  Playing in these sand traps was the next best thing.

Mr Cotton worked in the ticket office.  The Cottons lived above ‘Bees and Tees’, the grocer, opposite the railway booking office.  When her husband was on late shift, Mrs Cotton would take supper over to him.  One evening she came out of booking hall, looked up, only to see flames coming out of her kitchen window.  Rushing back she found her little boy had thrown lighted matches out of the window.  One must have blown back and set light to the curtains.

We sometimes used to sit on the bottom steps of the level crossing (in a cutting between Belmont and Stanmore).  Since we were precariously close to the track, the engine driver would squirt hot water at us to make us go away.  We also put coins, nails and other small things on the line - unlike today when they put on chunks of concrete, trying to derail the train.

I often went on the ‘Belmont Ratler’ to go fishing with nets at Stanmore.  The return fare for boys was one-and-a-half old pence.  Often the train was empty both ways apart from my two friends and me - but sometimes it was packed with RAF men {for Bentley Priory - Fighter Command Headquarters}. - John Collier
 
More on the railway and ‘The Ratler’ is in Belmont Circe, page 17, Volume 3
508 Finlays - tobacconist; Pleasure Brews (’70s)  
506 W H Blackler & Co. - estate agents  
504 Dorson Bakeries  
502 F & J Hare - photographers; Sunflower - flower shop  
500 Belmont Fisheries; Pollard’s Fish Bar Open-fronted with steel, collapsible, lattice gates; retained the original, marble slabs.
498 Pearks - grocer; Vivienne-Ellis - gift cards, jewellery During WW II, metal parts of a tank trap (comprising bent railway rail) were normally stacked on the pavement between numbers 500 and 498.  When in use, they were intended to slot into the road, but when not deployed (by the Home Guard) were stacked against the concrete part of the trap (on the pavement).

One poor woman, whilst shopping in Pearks, had to be told that her little boy, who she had left playing outside, had been tragically killed by the metal parts of the tank trap falling on him. - John Collier


Belmont parade

The Circle in 1940-ish - from H/H, Volume 3, page 28.
Continuing round the Circle from "Pearks Corner"… as, barely distinguishable, it's named here.


Belmont parade

The Circle c.1950 taken from the flat above Spurriers.
The bus shelter has attracted a few moist customers.  Copyright Peter Ault.

  Station Parade (continues:)  
15 Sketchley - dyer and cleaner (by zebra crossing)  
16 Walker - fruiterer and florist. My mum preferred Walkers rather than Wiffen Bros (next to Williams Bros opposite the cinema).  Most greengrocers used to boil the beetroots out the back.  They took hours to cook - producing great clouds of steam in the process.  In the winter it looked like the place was on fire.  During the War, huge queues used to form when bananas came in about once a year. - John Collier.
17 Wests - butcher  
18 Nicholls & Co. Ltd. - outfitter  
19 Henry Solomons - greengrocer and fruiterer  
21 Tesco Food Fair  
22 W & E Turner - boots and shoes  
23 Boots - chemist - ideal for chemicals e.g. sodium chlorate (for pipe-bombs) - EB.
As kids, we went into the chemists at Belmont and asked for the ingredients for gun-powder - we were served without question…  and we bought baby-bottle teats - which puzzled the chemist…  we squirted water at each other with them. - John Collier
24 H Wilkins, radio.  During the war, batteries were like gold dust - when they had them. - John Collier
During the '50s a "Radio" sign hung outside.  A young chap in a white dust-coat would test valves. - EB
25 F W Woolworth & Co. Ltd.  Double-frontage.  
26 Crown Wallpaper  
27 Weevit - ladies wear - wools, haberdashery, hosiery; Donaldson and Co. - estate agents (’70s)  
  Off-licence, half-width frontage  
  Belmont Hotel  
  here is Weston Drive  
 
Weston Drive

"Sand bin" corner.  (The weird looking device, bottom left, is the top of a gas street lamp).
- Copyright Peter Ault.

Only two cars? That was our world pre the mid-1950s.

During the war, where the garage is now, there used to be a sand bin.  It was a heavy, iron construction - looking like Brunel made it - about 8 x 3 and 3ft high with a very heavy iron clasp, but no padlock.  It was galvanised, but the salt in the sand had corroded the bottom panels.  The sand was for the circle road when it was icy in winter - but, when it had no sand in it, one of us kids would hide inside with the catch fastened.  You could just see out through a gap.  When people went past, the occupant would call out "Help, Help" while others watched from behind the stinging nettles.  The shocked passer-by would ask "How did you get in there?"  "Some boys put me in here." came the reply, as we all laughed our heads off whilst hidden.  Then it was another's turn in the bin.  Good, harmless fun.

That whole corner was a field from Weston Drive to the cinema and Kenton Lane.  It was full of very high stinging nettles and had a path across it.  After the war, the first ice cream seller came on a tricycle to that edge of the field.  I think he lived in Weston Drive. - John Collier
 
  Belmont Essoldo cinema - earlier 'The Plaza’.  
Long queues formed outside The Plaza, running back down Kenton Lane, when films like Bambi, Snow White and Fantasia were on.

Next to The Plaza cinema (my mum was a cleaner there), during the war, was a big static water tank 40 x 40 x 5 feet for the fire brigade.  When the fire brigade filled it they had hoses across the road from the circle.  A man came from Weston Drive on a bike.  He didn't ride over the ramps put down for cars, but thought he could ride over the hoses, thinking they would squash.  His bike hit the hose, stopped, threw him over the handlebars and he landed on his head with a sickening thud.  I remember he was bald.  After about 30 minutes he recovered and went on his way - knowing a little more about hydraulic pressure.

There were also smaller, round concrete tanks 6 x 5 feet deep which were placed at the flat's entrances by the tank-traps and next to Glasses butchers.  After the war they were emptied and stored in the alley in Kenmore Ave.  A little girl from the first house was playing in one.  She had her fingers under it when it rolled and crushed them - I think they were saved.  Her name was Sylvia Sparkes; her father owned a hire car firm.

Opposite The Plaza was The British Restaurant and Alf's Café.  Alf’s Café, if you remember, had boards by the counter with wide gaps.  If you dropped money you lost it.  We used to say Alf got it later when closed.  One evening we looked through the windows and saw a navvy sleeping on a table.

Once we saw Alf being carried back to the cafe absolutely drunk.  He'd been to a wedding do at the Belmont Hotel.

Out the back of his cafe, Alf got men to dig a hole for his used tea leaves - about three feet deep.  When it was full, he got another one dug.  Grass would grow over and cover it.  One day playing, a small boy ran there and sunk up to his waist in wet tea leaves.  We pulled him out crying - poor kid, he did look a sight. - John Collier



I lived at 119 Bellamy Drive Stanmore, just off Western Road, close to Belmont Circle.  Sidney and Dorothy Winter lived in the same road which was handy for the Essoldo Cinema where they had their studio.  I learned my dancing there fairly well and often entered dance competitions.  There is so much I know of the Belmont Circle area - from dancing in Sid Winter’s dance studio at the Essoldo to the grumpy bloke in Cato’s who you mentioned, John.  I did laugh at that.

There is so much of interest here for me, John, but especially your mention of your mother working at the Plaza Cinema, later the Essoldo.  My mother worked there for years, firstly as a cleaner, then as an usherette too.  She also did relief work in the ticket kiosk with a Mrs Huntley, but I cannot remember when she started there.  Probably just after the war, I think.  I recall she mentioned a fellow cleaning lady a Mrs Hartley (Elgin Avenue) and a Mrs Collier, possibly your mother.  I think I watched every film they ever showed because mum used to have free tickets and let me in anyway, if Mr Duncan (the manager) was not looking.  Mr Duncan was a rather dapper man who spent most of his time in his upstairs office.  The little man tearing tickets was the odd job and boiler man.  His name was Wally something?  He was a big drinker and once fell down the stairs top to bottom when under the influence.

I do not suppose you remember any of the chaps from my road when I was young but I kept in touch for years with a lot of them and still do.  We used to play a lot on the Circle at Belmont because running in and out of the bushes was such fun.  We also played at the level crossing as you did doing the same things.  Pennies on the line etc..  We were not too well off during the war so I didn't flatten too many pennies.  We played roller hockey on the street.  That was super fun but our main interest was football.  We played on a patch of ground close by the railway level crossing near Vernon Drive was it?

You mentioned Dirty Dicks Cafe in Kenton Lane and I well remember the bread pudding he made was incredibly good.

I did work for Ellingtons sometimes delivering papers, but only to help my friend out who’s round it was.  I did a bit of Kenton Lane and then down the side roads off Locket Road like Grasmere Gardens.  There were some nice young ladies, Pam Bolsover and Barbara Grisewood, whom I went out with in that area before I was married. - Peter B R Ault

I only had a tiny Kodak 127 box camera.  That is what most of my 1950s shots were taken on.  I converted it to give me half-size negatives in order that I could cunningly get more pictures out of a roll of 127 film.  Cash was a problem then.  They were almost 35mm size once they were cut down with a mask inside the camera.  I was only about 12 years old when I did it so I had to save my pennies. - Peter B R Ault
Essoldo
This picture, taken opposite the Essoldo, Belmont, demonstrates the limitations of my tiny camera.  I was standing behind my friend sitting in a tree.  The lens flare is so obvious!!
I can't think why I kept such a weird shot, but I suppose it has a certain charm. - Peter Ault



WW II - The V2 rocket

We lived close to the Weston Drive end of Bellamy Drive, so about seven houses away from the V2 rocket which fell on Uppingham Avenue in about March 1945.  My brothers and I were in a 'Morrison’ shelter inside the house.  It was a sturdy thing with cast iron corners, a thick sheet steel top like a big metal table and thick wire mesh around the sides.  We slept in it every night from when the V1s started to fly over.  They were more terrifying than the V2s because you could hear them until the pulse jet cut-out.  Then you just waited…  …  …  … BANG!  We always prayed it wouldn’t land on us, and it didn’t until the rocket in the last few weeks of the war.  There were lots of near misses though.

The explosion left us dirty and covered in glass but unhurt.  The front of the house was badly damaged and we found the front door at the top of our stairs.  I remember the emergency services used a yellowy oiled canvas type of material to cover where the glass used to be, that was about two days after the bomb.  Weeks later they took out the frames and replaced the windows completely, as well as other essential repairs.


I was very surprised at how much damage was done to houses hundreds of yards away from the point of the explosion by huge lumps of London clay thrown up by the explosion, crashing down through roofs and smashing through thick pavements.  I was not allowed to take a closer look at the site but when I did go out in the morning I was as black as a chimney sweep.  I saw dead chickens up trees and there was a lot of twisted metal, wood and bricks everywhere.  It was chaos.  I don't think Hitler liked us!!!  I couldn't wash until mum got us to school (Stanburn Primary) through all the wreckage.  We were very late that day and jolly hungry because all our food in the house was covered in shards of glass.  Mum had trouble picking it out of her feet.  She had been sleeping in a back bedroom.  The ceiling came down on her bed but she got out, only to face a struggle getting down the stairs, treading on glass everywhere in a bare-footed panic to see if we were still alive.  We were lucky that night. - Peter Ault (in 2016)
 
  Kenton Lane (by Library) - from Hartford Ave  
215 Stowells - wine merchant  
217 Martins - newsagent  
219 Homewares;  Kentons Hardware  
221 Watford Co-op;  LCS Self Service  
223 Express Dairy Co  
225 Jackman & Son - fruiterers  
227 A W Cox - butcher  
229 S H Selby - chemist  
231 Ivy House - ladies and children’s wear;  Domestic Electrical Service  
233 Modern Fish Caterers;  Cleanwhite - launderette  
235 Heather White Bakeries; Glyn - bakers  
237 C J Thomas - veterinary practice;  Zellers - glass merchants (’70s)  
239 vacant  
239a Simmons - shoe repairs  
241 Maison Henri - hairdresser  
243 Pearks - grocer  
245 Conf & tobacconist  
     
  Kenton Lane (by Priestmead)  
279 H Leach - garage  
281 H Roger - woodwork  
283 Louise - ladies stylist  
285 Edgson-Ward - hardware  
287 Mayfair Cleaners;  Regency Cleaner  
289 Mattress Remaker - upholstery  
291 Lydia - drapery  
293 Quality Cakes  
295 G Wood - butcher  
297 Roberts - greengrocer  
299 Galtons (Footware) Ltd (’49); Craigs - shoe repairs  
301 Thorp Ltd. - newspaper and tobacconist  

Canons Park - Station Parade

The centre of the parade - as depicted in a 1934 Laing’s Estates brochure.

 
No.Station Parade
 
Starting from the distant-end from the station - 1938 and 1963:
23 Express Dairy (’38); Broadfields - double-fronted (with no. 22) car-accessories and tuning (e.g. Peco exhausts, alloy wheels) - the entrance to one half of the pair of premises was blanked-off.
22 Jean - ladies outfitters (’38), woolshop; Wendale General Draper
21 Palfrey Dyer; Midland Dyers and Cleaners (’49); Sketchley Cleaners
20 London Leisure Library (Oppenheim & Co Ltd) (’38); G T Calver/t - confectioner and tobacconist
19 Chas. Aldridge - boot repr (’38); Weldun Shoe Repairs - boot repairer; H B Bristow - shoe repairs
18 ’The Elite’ - baker; P Bulmer - delicatessen
17 Boots Cash Chemists (’38); Coop (’49) - "My 'Saturday job' was at Boots.  When customers needed liquids such as vinegar or distilled water they would bring in their empty bottles and I would refill them from barrels out the back of the shop" - Carolyn Barnet née Brooks
14, 15, 16 The London Cooperative - triple frontage - butcher, groceries, baker.  "What’s your ’divi’ luv?".  One’s family’s six-digit ’divi’ can be retained in memory for a lifetime - and, for Gillian Gamblin, née Bailey, her neighbour's - for whom she used to shop - divis remain imprinted too!
13 Evans & Nigel Ltd estate agents (’38); Canons Park Estate Agency
12 Pearks Dairies; Dennis Reed - estate agent
11 Jack Marston - hardware; Dorson - baker
10 Frank Freeman - butcher; Marston - hardware
9 Wiffen Bros. - fruiterer; Edgar Jones - butcher
8 Brills Scotch Bakery; Wilkinson - fruiterer
7 United Dairies
6 Gosdens Ltd - tobacconist and Post Office
5 Jimmy Wilde - junior hairdresser; Maison Baker - hairdresser
4 S Anthony; Brahram - chemist
3 Stanedge Radio - wireless engnrs (’38); Radio Rentals - and radio-repair
2 Pamela Fry - ladies outfitter; Davel - florist (Daval?)
1b Handbags (’38)
1 Raywood - timber (incl. balsa for model-making), hardware, paints and DIY ('63). Advert in Kemp's
1 Highfield Model Laundry and Sketchley Dye Works
  Canons Park Station, Metropolitan Line ('38)
231 W H Smith & Son - newsagts
231 Finlay and Co - tobccnsts



Edgware's suite of parades

Station Road Edgware, 1920s - Image courtesy of Britain From Above via pinimg.com.

Looking south-east to Edgware Station (opened 1924) and, a partially developed, Station Road.

Crossing over the Charing Cross, Euston and Hampstead Railway (CCE&HR) (now Northern Line) at the top right can be seen the LNER/GNR line to the other Edgware station, 300m to the south-west.  In the bottom centre of the photo, excavation work for the 'Northern Heights’ extension has been started.

A section of the station’s frontage (at the south-west end) was eventually demolished for an access road to a bus terminus at the rear of the station.  (A north-east end section of frontage was subsequently demolished - which restored its symmetry.)


Another view, from the air, taken in 1926 - courtesy of The Francis Frith Collection:  Looking east towards the rolling fields of … … eastern Edgware.  Edgware Station (now Northern Line) is bottom-right.

A few advertisements by Edgware’s traders appear in the Whitchurch parish magazine.  See 'Parish Magazines’ at the foot of the page.

In 1959:
No. Station Road
(North side - from the High Street)
more from Anne Broomhead
  Edgware Parish Church (St Margarets)
3 Richman’s - florist
5 Edgware Wallpapers
7 Edgware Electrics
9 Edgware Drapery Store
11 Peggy’s Pet Shop
15 Massey - opticians
17 Urridge - gowns
21 Magill - watch-maker
23 Bernies - delicatessen
25 Jensen’s - florist
27 Sevilles - tobacco
29 West - haberdashery
31 Radio Rentalls
35 Woolcraft
37 Ludlam’s - confectionary
41 Boulton - chemist
43 Sidney Dunn - men’s outfitters
47 Day Stores - leather goods
51-53 Charles Page - furnishing
55-57 Nicolaides - hairdresser
59 Alfred Penny - butcher
61 Forbuoys - tobacco
65 Ford’s - fruiterers
  here is Manor Park Crescent (the home of 'Crestas' in the 1950s.  'Crestas’ was every schoolboy’s dream emporium - train sets, Scalextric cars, balsa boats, model aircraft… and who can forget Jetex’s lethal, rocket-propelled model cars and bright yellow plastic speedboats with their brown fuse wire, circular gauze filter and football-boot stud, solid-fuel propellant pellets.  The 'run’ time seemed about seven or eight seconds.  ["Oops, the red-hot motor seems to have melted the rear of the boat".  "Health & Safety.  What's that?"])
67 The Ritz Cinemamore and more (from Flickr).  A film clip of the opening ceremony.
69Maynard’s - confectioners…  and the cinema frontage (1932).
71 Mordant’s - jewellers, watch specialists: Omega, Rolex, Rotary, Accurist, Avia, Cyma, Ingersoll ('61 advert in Kemp's)
73 The Wool Shop
75 Sherrards - cake shop
77 Hughes - footware
79 Charrington’s - coal merchants
81-83 North Thames Gas Board
85 Derek Clarke - chemist
87 Richardsons - outfitters
99 Mayfair Coffee Lounge
105 G Barnett - solicitor
  In the ’50s I used to have my eyes checked at Claude Lyons, optician, who had his office near to Stanley J Lee’s department store, opposite the tube station.  On Googling his name, I found from Barnet Archives that he was President of Edgware Rotary in 1948. - Brenda Hegan
117 L Raymond - estate agent
119 Broadmead - radio
123 Curry - jeweller
125 Stanley Lee - dept. store.   Advert in Kemps
  Stanley J Lee - Haberdashery, (from whence came most of my hair ribbons) and general department store.  The money taken whizzed round the store to the cashier in little cash carriers, on a wire at ceiling height, and a carrier then brought your change.

After the birth of her child, our neighbour wheeled him to Edgware in the pram.  She left him outside Stanley J Lee’s whilst she shopped.  She then went home.  It was only as she began to prepare her husband's evening meal that she remembered she'd left her son behind (outside the shop).  She returned to fetch him - he was fine! - Lesley de Meza
143 Gainsborough Library
145 Elliot’s - shoes
  Elliot’s - The posh shoe shop - Where my mother used to take me and we had furious rows about the 'high heels’ that I wanted to wear.  The shop had two floors.  It was very modern with a galleried landing and a mezzanine on which there was a foot X-ray machine! - Lesley de Meza
147 Dorothy Perkins - lingerie
149 Lavells - confectioners
151 Stanley Lee - gowns
155 Mence Smith - hardware
157 Henry’s - handbags
161 Sylvester - man’s shop
163 Jaques - gowns
  here is Rectory Lane
167 Edgware Times
171 Dunn - hatmakers
173 Wisepart - builder’s merchants
175 Jaques - sports-wear
179 Radio Services (Hendon) Ltd, - Marconi, Murphy, Pye (’38);  Singer
181 Nurseryland
183 Edwards Gowns
185 Dixons - cameras
187 Crown Wallpapers
189 Bateson - chemist
   
  Station Road (South side - from the High Street)
6 Gilroy - cleaners
8 Clements - hardware
12 Mence Smith - hardware
14 Spurriers - baker
16 W J Mackay - butcher
26 S Frost - grocers
30 Greys - television dealers
38-40 The Railway Hotel
42-46 Edgware Post Office
 
Set back from the road was the LNER station (looking east) - c.1905 and sidings.  Adjacent to the station and sidings, were arrayed coal yards - one of which belonged to 'Herbert Clarke & Co.’.

1926 LNER station complex from the air, looking east towards Mill Hill.  This fascinating, detailed image from 'Britain From Above’ shows the rail tracks from Mill Hill splitting into six sidings in addition to the platform.  Freight handling, on the five right-hand sidings, appears quite significant.  The newly-constructed underground line crosses under the LNER line.  In the distance are the several arches of the bridge carrying Dean’s Lane over the railway - it looks as if there may, at one time, have been a plan to extend the sidings adjacent to Banstock Road.  Station Road runs at the bottom of the image.  The Tudor-style 'Railway’ Hotel emerged a few years after this picture was taken (ie. in the early ’30s).  The Ritz cinema would eventually be erected where Manor Park Crescent meets Station Road - at the very left-hand bottom corner of the image.

The station and its environs, also from 'Britain From Above’, looking west to the wiggles in Whitchurch Lane leading to the Canons Park-land and a bare Whitchurch Gardens preparing to encircle Edgware Tennis Club.  Hey, look at that… straight down Canons Drive - leading to the North London Collegiate.  The crane (adjacent to the engine shed), being relatively substantial, was still intact in Nick Catford’s photo of the goods yard taken in March 1975.

In the ’50s, behind a long picket fence, a large shed in the freight yard, housed ex-WD premises, Mullards.  The yard used to sell motor cycles, clothing, tools and other ex-WW II, military, bric-a-brac.  In the ’60s, a timber yard was housed in an adjacent large shed.

126 Times Furnishing Co
128 Woolworths
134 Wilde - tailors
136 Lawley’s - china
  Edgware Station, originally Charing Cross, Euston and Hampstead Railway.  Photo (1927) and more …
  Station House
138 Meakers - tailors
140 Myers - furs and gowns
146 Burtons - tailors
148 Hillwoods - jewellers
152 John Collier - tailors
158 Premier Supermarket
162 Kenyons - fashions
  Express Mansions
190 McDermotts - shoes
190a Waltons - fruiterers
192 Electricity Service Centre
196 Harleys Drug Stores
200 Freeman, Hardy and Willis - shoes
202 Home & Colonial Stores - provisions
204 Stead & Simpson - shoes
206 Brill’s Bakeries
208 J Sainsbury - provisions
210 Mac Fisheries; with a restaurant upstairs - Anne Broomhead
212 Walton, Hassell & Port - provisions
214 Reeves - wine merchant
216 Boots - chemist
218 Lilley & Skinner - shoes
222 W H Smith - booksellers
224 Roma - gowns
226 James Walker - jewellers
228 Dewhurst - butcher
234 Eastmans - dyers and cleaners
236 Stratford - tailors
238 Barratts - shoes
240-242 London Co-operative Society Photo of Station Road (lower), 1954 - E126025 and Pat Cryer's web site of Station Road (and the abandoned Northern Line extension)
244Lewis - tobacconist
246 United Dairies
 
No. Edgware High Street
 
  (West side - from Burnt Oak Broadway) in 1959
See also Harrow Highways
  Wm Morris and Son Sports Ground
  here is Albany Crescent
  White Lion Off-licence
  White Lion Hotel
  Crystal Palace Public House
17a Hy. Albt Barker - undertaker
19a Blake Spencer and Son - (White Heart yard)
19 & 21 White Heart Public House
23 Mrs Barbara Fennel - refrshment rms
29 Harry Miall - cycle engnr
33 R A Cheshire - butcher
35 A W Morley - fruiterer
47 A Keen - grocer
51 A Keen - butcher
59 PDSA
63 Lavender & Son - butchers
  I worked there from 1958 to 1961 as a Butcher’s boy, used to deliver to Max Bygraves and other celebrities all around the Canons Drive and Edgware area.  One photo shows me on the left, and the Shopman Cutter Sid Cross, in the Cutting Room, 1959.  The other shows a view in the shop, with Phil Vincett (one of the owners) on the far left, and I am on the far right. - Jim Rea
65 Benjamin N Taylor - motor engineer (’38)
67 Frank Shoobridge - tobacc (’38)
75 Mason's Arms Public House (’38)
  here is Whitchurch Lane
Edgware High Street at the junction with Station Road and Whitchurch Lane, looking north along the tramway up towards Stonegrove, 1924.
79 Chas Hy. Hoding - confectur (’38)
81 Edward Wilkinson - fishmngr (’38)
83 P Price - butcher
85 L A Cheeld - grocer
87 Seabrooks - fruiterer
89 Superior Repairing Tailors
91 Edgware Hardware Store
93 H W Kent - builder’s merchant
99 Jensen Bros - florist
117 Jimmies Café
123 Rae - confectioner and tobacco
125 Miss Louisa Davies - dressmaker (’38)
127 Alfred Dimmock - chimney sweeper
Lyndhurst Shirt Renovation Service (’38)
  here is Canons Drive
   
  High Street (East side - from Deansbrook Rd.) - 1959
2 Fred Hodge Ltd. - builder’s mer
8 Danforth Electrics
12 A C Nunnery - radio dealer
14 The Spot - general stores
  here is Edgware Junior School
  here is Thornbank
60 Henry Crowden and Co. - decorators suppliers
62 Richards - gents hairdresser
64 Henry Conway - gents outfitters
70 L Collins - dyers and cleaners
72 Forum Café
74 Stowells - off licence
76 Cook and Shutler - grocers
78 Walkeven - shoes
  here is Station Road
  ('The Blackboot' Public House - a photo taken around 1900 - located by Brenda Hegan from The Edgware Appreciation Society site on Facebook.)
84-86 Norths Shoe Repairs
90 Adelmans - delicatessen
92 S Hirsh - outfitters
94 Maurice Goodman - furniture
96 Leon of Mayfair - hairdresser
98 Horace Wright - chemist
100 A Feldman - tobacconist
102 J Coblentz - butcher
104 Kay - hairdresser
106 La Patisserie - cake shop
108 John Trapp Radio
110 W Pollard and Son - scales
  here is Manor Park Crescent
118 Grosvenor Tyre Works
120 Edgware Motor Accessories
126 Bowers of Edgware - garage
130 Jessra - boutique
132 Stonegrove Fruiterers
134 Studio Dixon
136 Paul Norton - hair studio
138 Brahams - gents hairdressers
140 Pedlars - stationers
  here is Grove Rd and Fernhurst Gdns
 
Whitchurch Lane
 
  Handel Parade 1938
1 Edgware and Stanmore Electrical Co.
2 Miss Lillian Hart - ladies’ outfitter
3 Vincent and Paice - estate agts
  here is Handel Way
5 Hy. Reginald Swadling - confctnr
6 Pulhams & Sons Ltd - butchers
7 Christphr Nutter - café
8 Sam Isaacs - fish restaurant
10 Frank Woodward - chemist
13 Fire Brigade Station (Harrow UDC)
   
  Whitchurch Parade 1938
1 Household Repairs - upholsterers
2 George Flower - boot repr
3 Peter Goulding - hairdrssr
Yourston & Martin - estate agts
4 Jas. Lovett - chemist
5 Stead Edwin Hartley - tobccnst
9 Irish Bros - butchers
10a Miss J Repp - children’s outfitters
11 F Scarisbrick - timber mer
12 Mabs - ladies hairdrssrs
13 Radio Traders’ Repair Service
   


Honeypot Lane (northern end) parade

Image courtesy of Harrow Civic Centre Library
 
No.Honeypot Lane
 
The 1960s.  Starting from the southern (library/clinic) end:
 East side 
 The Green ManAnother name that rings a bell from Merrion Avenue was ‘Watkins’.  Two daughters, one called Jane, and a son, John.  I remember my mother being most amused at one of the two daughters telling her: "I’m a lady, and Jane’s a hooligan!"  John went to Aylward when I was there, and our paths crossed years later when, as teenagers, we both worked part-time for Stan & Anne Cunliffe at The Green Man in Honeypot Lane. - Alex Howe
 West side 
845 Scottish Fisheries, John Dory’s Ltd. Fish and chip shop with a large neon sign hanging outside… boy scouts used to buy a thrup’ny bag of chips and a pickled onion after scout evenings (held in the wooden huts 300m further along Honeypot Lane).  Then, in the early ’60s, the property was taken-over by ‘Grey’s’ for a double-fronted bathroom-fitting showroom and plumbing and tools. 
847 Grey’s - builders merchants 
849 Lord - ladies and children’s wear;  Purl and Plain - ladies and children’s wear  
851 Tesco - grocers  
853 Maison Alan - hairdresser (’49);  Marjorie - hair fashions  
855 The Buttercup - cafe;  Ellis and Co. - wine and spirits  
857 Smith and Weston Ltd - ironmonger a traditional ironmonger - with plenty of delights to fascinate kids.
859 Co-op Society  
861 Edgar F Jones Ltd - greengrocer  
863 Elizabeth Grant - ladies fashions. Mrs Goodban (lived in Howberry Road) was enlisted to hire local schoolboys to deliver, along with her sons, flyers for the shop’s ‘Spring Sale’ - usually held in May.  Remuneration? - about 1d per flyer (one flyer per letter-box).
865 Coop - butcher  
     
895 Watford Co-op - butchers  
897 Spurriers - bakers  
899 Gerrards - fruiterers and florist In the ’50s women had to be properly dressed for shopping.  My mother, Louie Brooks, must have worn rather regal-looking hats because the proprietor of this shop, impressed by her headwear, used to address her as “Queen” - Carolyn Brooks
901 J Sainsbury Double-fronted.  Three marble-topped counters ran along either side, with a raised cashier’s booth at the far end.
903 J Armour - chemist; Davbro - chemist  
905 Williams Bros. - grocers;
Obertelli - ice cream parlour.
Ice cream was produced in a small dairy at the rear of the shop.
907 Gosdens - tobacconist with a sub-Post Office at the far end.… the newsagents/tobacconists in Honeypot Lane where I had a paper round and later a part-time job behind the counter … more … - Malcolm Hall
909 Honeypot Dyers and Cleaners; Flying Cleaners;
Excel Launderette
 
  Junction of Marsh Lane and Old Church Lane
  Courten's Nursery Frederick Courten attended Chandos Secondary from about ’55 - Alan Bond
 
 

Dalston Gardens Industrial Estate

WW II

We lived in Honeypot Lane.  Opposite the playing fields, where the houses are only one side of the road, one of the houses had an oil bomb drop on it.  One could see it from the pavement - the garage door was all stained black.  It was very lucky there was no fire.

One night, opposite our house in Honeypot Lane, the whole playing field was covered in flares from incendiary bombs.  That was the night they bombed Polyfotos in Dalston Gardens - there was pieces of film floating about and burning paper etc.


The night they bombed Polyfotos

Polyfoto's Head Office was located at 11-12 Dalston Gardens.

One evening, when it was dark, the air aid warnings went and shortly the familiar sound of a German aircraft was heard… and I think searchlights were sweeping the sky.  German aircraft were identifiable by their twin engines not being synchronised - this produced a distinctive beat sound.  Then there were explosions as bombs hit the area.  Shortly after a glow was present in the factory area which was Dalston Gardens not far from my house.  Very soon further explosions were heard and the glow turned into an inferno.

They'd hit the Polyfoto factory, which at that time was the only one in Dalston Gardens, and the contents, which were highly inflammable, went up like tinder.  By now the sound of fire engines and rescue vehicles could be heard.  The fire raged and lit-up the entire area.  This went on till the early hours of the morning, when us kids went up there, and amid the lingering smell of burnt film, picked up loads of charred pictures which littered the area.


The V1 flying bomb

We lived in Honeypot Lane.  The sirens had sounded and things were quiet.  I went upstairs to look out of the back bedroom window which faced down the gardens of Wigton Gardens toward the Bakerloo Line railway embankment and saw a flickering light in the sky approaching low over the railway embankment.  By now there was a deep rumbling sound which was getting louder.

The next thing I can remember the thing came into view just over roof-top height making its characteristic rumbling sound and continuing over Wigton Gardens... then silence.  I rushed out onto the landing and grabbed hold of the two uprights between the bedrooms.  My mother, who was also upstairs at the time, dived under the bed.  The deathly suspense was the scariest thing.  Where will it come down?  The next thing I knew was a terrific explosion, the house shook and, when we recovered and ventured downstairs, there was glass and what was left of ornaments everywhere.  The curtains were shreaded and blowing outside…  and the sound of rescue vehicles… and people rushing about.

A V1 flying bomb had come down on Pearswood Crescent.  It claimed many lives.  All the victims were placed in a mass grave and listed on a memorial in the cemetery at Harrow Weald near The Leefe Robinson public house.  The only boy I knew in Pearswood was a Peter Dossel.  When we subsequently visited the cemetery, one of the graves bears that name. - Roy Young.



Kingsbury

In 2013, Robert Tayler kindly produced and forwarded this spreadsheet of retailers in Kingsbury during the last century.  Details of 1930’s properties can be accessed using the tabs in the top and left left hand margins respectively.


Queensbury’s suite of parades

No.Honeypot Lane
 
(West side) going north-west from the southern (Kingsbury) end:
381 Kays - dyers and cleaners (’49);
Cruickshank Bros. Ltd - coal merchants
383 Croxley - cleaners and dyers
385 J A Davison - opticians
387 M Cload - ladies wear
391 Queens Radio and Electrical Co.
393 R J Reach (Bros. - ’52) - fishmongers
397 Civic Restaurant (’49);
Bishops Stores
401-413 Empire Furnishings
415 G C Calver;
A E Calver -
417 H & G Jay - tobacconist;
Dees (’75) - ?
421 Maison Frank - hairdresser (’49);
Bartons - ladies hairdresser
425 Marshall Bros - ironmongers
429 A.B.C. Bakeries
433 Janice - ladies wear
437 Winnifred - ladies wear
441 Winefred
445 Post Office I lived and grew-up above the Post Office on Honeypot Lane across from the Queen of Hearts pub … more … - Steve Field
449 J Miller and Sons - butchers

 

No.Honeypot Lane
 
  East side - going north-west from the southern end:
    I left the area in 1946 … I recall Churchill tanks visiting the Zenith factory to show the workers what they were part of - and Honeypot lane all torn-up where they turned into the factory. - Denis Nelson, re: ‘Route 79’

… my Dad worked at the Zenith and made carburettors for Sherman tanks in the war.  The factory was next to the Brylcream one and De Haviland … I used to get “The Eagle” (a great magazine/comic) from the paper shop at the top of the road near the Honeypot Pub.  That was in a little shopping centre.  On the extreme far end was “The Beehive”.  I think it was a restaurant.  As you walked east from there you passed Zenith etc. and after the war there was a garage called Lex’s.  They had three life-sized cut-outs of scantily clad girls each holding a part of the sign that read “We are pleased to see you!” - Barbara Buiel née Bush, re: ‘Route 79’

‘The Honeypot’...there's a hive/dive!.  I remember my parents taking me there often on warm summer days & playing in the beer garden, while they were with friends.  I would drink 'whatever’ - usually some fizzy sort of thing (Corona probably,) & have a packet of crisps, with the blue paper twist of salt! - Marion Hughes, re: the ’50s

The tobacconists shop next to the Honeypot was “Calverts”.  I used to do a paper round from there right through the war - only two pages per paper but the bag was still heavy, and with the blackout it was a bit tricky in the early winter mornings. - Denis Nelson

I have many fond memories of the Dansette factory in Honeypot Lane as I worked there as a tester/alignment engineer on various production lines.  I remember one chap was wrecking every autochanger on the line because he forced the overarms instead of pushing them down to take them out of the transit position.  They were crap though.
I remember we started to make a Prinzsound stereo for Dixons that smoked when it was played very loudly!!  The transistors used just weren’t up to the job and went short-circuit.  Some of the Perdio radios were also made there.
I was made redundant when the factory closed in 1969. - Trevor Cozens
  Injection Moulders Ltd
  Kayes Rotaprint Agency Ltd
Cumberland Rd is here
  Lex Garages Ltd
Zenith Carburettor Ltd
  County Perfumery Co; Dansette Products Ltd (’68)
  The Honeypot Public House
180 H T Calvet - news and tobac.
180 Michael - ladies hairdresser
   
190 Max - hairdresser (’49)
192 G M Baldwin - wallpapers
192 Launderette
192 The Bee-Hive Milk Bar - (’38); cafe
 
  then Everton Drive … then Taunton Way
  Queensbury Service Station  
  The Queen of Hearts Hotel The Queen of Hearts Public House was a bit of a Gin Palace, in that it attracted lots of American servicemen because it had a ballroom at the back.  Every week-end a band would play, and myself, and a few other children, would sneak around the back in the summer to watch the Yanks and their girlfriends jitterbugging (an early form of jiving) through the large glass windows.

One day a very drunk Yank pulled up in the car park in a jeep.  When I asked him if he had "got any gum, chum?", he produced a gun, waved it at me, and told me to "F... Off".  Later that evening he was arrested for firing at, and missing, a fellow soldier.  I never told my parents as I quite liked to listen to the music.  We kids were allowed quite a lot of freedom during the war.  Exciting times! - Neon Harrison.
 
    Before suburbia arrived, the nearby Mollison Way was the runway for the nearby De Havilland factory at Stag Lane, named after Jim Mollison, sometime husband of Amy Johnson.  I ended my working life as a local government highway engineer in this area, trying to control the activities of water, gas, electricity companies and the like, and they hated digging this as it was 1 metre-thick solid concrete.  (Runways in Britain were usually built using a matrix of isolated, unreinforced [no steel ‘rebar'], cubic, concrete, slabs, so that any future damage - say, due to bombing - could be more easily repaired.  So they inevitably needed to be surprisingly thick. - CP) - Keith Salmon

No.Queensbury Station Parade
 
  West side - 1962 and 1968
Credit drapers were merchants who apparently sold curtains and ladies’ & gentleman’s clothing to low-salaried families on credit terms - periodically collecting re-payments.  Sometimes known as ‘tallymen’, credit drapers ostensibly sold clothing etc. but their true income was from the credit business - a forerunner of the ‘catalogue shopping’ industry.

The need for credit drapers declined in the late ’60s as most retailers were able to offer credit schemes… also, credit cards were introduced.

1 Alfred Parkes - watchmakers
2 Maynards Ltd - conf
3 Victoria Wine Co Ltd - wine and spirit retailers
4 Maison Harrison - gents hairdresser
  Queensbury Metropolitan (from 1932 to 1937) Railway Station
W H Smith and Son Ltd
5 J Leon and Co Ltd - tobac
6 Alan’s - ladies hairdresser
7 Darryl’s - fruiterers
8 Brendons - surveyors
   
  South side  
  On Honeypot Lane going south you pass some small factories.  After a petrol station turn left towards the station.  At the end of the war, just on the right there was a shop, I cannot recall the name, that sold the first ice cream we had seen.  The word went round and soon a long queue formed.  When I got to the front it was chocolate flavour and not too good - but it was ice cream. - Roy Young
9 Freeman Bros
10 Sylvia’s - drprs
11 Wood Bros Ltd - agents for Ekco, Ferranti, HMV, Philips, Ultra, Decca, Peto Scott;  Mill Hill Television (in ’68)
12 Jan’s - cafe
13 Ruth Helen - nursery equipment
14 Modern Fish Caterers
15 A.B.C. Ltd - bakers
16 H T Norton - ger
17 Dorice (’49);
Duval - ladies hairdressers
18 E A Mayhead and Son, Ltd;  J F Harris Ltd (’68) - conf tobac and Post Office
19 Express Dairy Co. Ltd.;
Harvey’s pattisserie (’68)
20 Jensi Fashions - estmrs;
Green and Indick - shoe repairs (’68)
21 Slappers Stores - gers;
Dan and Co. - grocers
22 E G Parry - butcher;
Grigson and son - butchers (’68)
23 MacDonald and Son - fruiterers;
Darryl’s - fruiterers
24 W Cato and Sons - domestic stores
25 Queensbury Chemists Ltd;
J M P S Badvan Chemist (’68)
26 Godfrey Wilson Ltd - credit dprs;  D Freed - dprs (’68)
   
  North side
  A E Lewis & Son Ltd
35 Midland Bank
36-37 London Co-operative Society
37 Marron Machines Ltd
38 Maurice (Colindale) Ltd - frshngs;
Spirotex Ltd - car factors (’68)
39 Pritchards - dyers and cleaners;
O’Brien - turf accountants
40 Stanley Kassell Ltd
41 Johnson Evans, Horne and Co. - estate agents
42 Wembley Laundry Ltd
43 D and A Laundromat
44 Cumberland Restaurant;
Cumberland Caterers (’68)
45-46 Hamiltons News - conf and tobac
  Essoldo Cinema … more
 
  Queensbury Circle Parade (up to ’75)
1 Edward Alfred Brookes - draper (’38);
Queensbury Car Parts
2 Osborne & Son Ltd - wine and spirit mers. (’38); Peter Dominic - wine merchant
3 Clarkes - garden supplies
4 L H Owen - shoe repairs (’49)
5 W Dorrell Ltd - butchers (’37);
Cross & Evans - butchers (’38);
G W Biggs - butcher
6 Pearks Dairies - provsn. mers (’38);
Lanes Ltd. Radio & TV
7 Stanley’s - ironmongers (’38);
W Fennell Ltd - fruitrs (’49);
Lanes Ltd. Radio & TV
8 Chas. Wm. Phillips - fruitr (’38);
Meadows - greengrocers
9 Holliday & Clarke Ltd - chemists (’38);
Collins - chemist
10 Ellingtons Ltd - newsagents (’38);
11 Geo. Bommattre - cycle dlr (’38);
Bamarre - toys (’49); Cowdrey, Phipps & Hollis - estate agents
11 Meadowsweet Creameries Ltd - dairymen (’49);
Prentice Kirkwood - solicitors
 
No.Streatfield Road
 
North side - 1961
179 R P Herring - tob, conf
181 Cut & Quality Stores - grocers An Encounter with a V1 - In the summer of 1944, as a 10 year old boy, I lived at 181a, Streatfield Road, above Cut and Quality Grocery Store.  One day I was standing just inside Posner’s Gown Shop doorway when I witnessed a dog-fight between an English ’plane and a German V1.  I must explain that Posners had a deep doorway with wedding gown and dresses on models each side; with strips of tape on the glass to prevent splintering in the event of a blast.  The glass was beautifully rounded as it curved to the doorway.  The doodlebug phut-phutted quite slowly along in a westerly direction when suddenly an English aeroplane who had been shooting at it, appeared alongside the rocket and tilted the wing of the ’plane to the wing of the V1 sending it into a steep dive.  The pilot had intended to force the weapon to crash into Centenary Park, near Chandos Secondary School, but it crashed into some houses causing some deaths.  The blast of the V1 was such, that the windows I was in front of convulsed, but didn't break, although several shop windows in the parade did break.  I understand that the pilot of the ’plane came to the area later to apologise and explain what he had tried to do.

At the end of the war, we kids had a street party in the service road in front of Woolworths, with a bonfire that caused the tarmac to melt.  Exciting times!

- Neon (Nick) Harrison.
183 Posners - linen
185 W Putnam - funeral furnishers
187 Roses Stores - ironmongers;
Homeflair - DIY
189 Pristons Ltd - bakers
191 Finlays;
Budgen
193 Williams Bros - grocers
195 Trueform - shoes (’49)
197 Victor Value Co. - grocer
199 Boots - chemist
201-
203
F W Woolworth & Co. Ltd I remember there was a British Restaurant opposite the pub and a Woolworth’s among the shops and a tiny hardware shop called Rose's.  My dad was a DIY type and often got me to get stuff from there after school - and I would also get one of those tiny one penny Hovis loaves from the next door bakery. - Peter Brittain (c. 1940)
205 Toni Cream Ices Ltd;
Terry & Palmina Tuck Shoppe
Toni's was very small and is said to be the first shop they ever had - so small that the ice cream could only be served directly onto the pavement. - Roy Young

I used to belong to The Kenton Road Cycle Racing Club.  We used to congregate outside that tiny little shop - no front door.  The girl who used to serve the ice cream there used to have to enter the shop using the back door.

One Saturday morning we were outside there and the cycling lads bet me that I couldn't ride down to Southend and back by the time the shop closed.  This was about 10.30am.  Off I went, had my photo taken in the fairground booth as proof of going there (I still have the photo).  I arrived back at Toni’s 6.30pm.  All the time while riding back I was wondering if I would be back in time - as the shop closed at 7pm.  Some of the lads were there when I got back, to say the least.  I got a mention in the club's magazine saying I must have been mad. - Harold Dummer (c.1950)
207 J Ritchie - butcher
209 F Westlake - fishmonger;
Queensbury Shoe Store
211 Scottish Cleaners and Dyers Ltd
213 Barclays Bank;
Dennis Selman & Co - estate agents
215 United Daires
217-
219
Timothy Whites
   
  South side (1968)
242 Steven Paul - butcher
244 London Co-op Soc.
246 Ernest Holsgrove - hairdresser (’38);
Chris-Stell - hairdressers
248 Lillian Carr Ltd (’38);
Canterbury Travel
250 Sketchley Dye Works (’38);
Crusty Roll - bakers
252 Thomas T Clement - chemist (’38);
Inglis Launderette
254 English Meat stores (’38); vac.
256 Broadways Ltd - newsagents (’38);
Terry & Palmina Tuck Shoppe
Across the road was a newsagent where I got a morning paper round - I apparently annoyed the living tripe out of the customers by roller skating down their footpath at some ungodly hour waking everyone up.  After that I had to use my bike. - Peter Brittain (c. 1940)
258 Bata Shoe Company (’38); DIY stores
260 Henry’s Ltd - fruitrs (’38);
Starr - fruiterers
262 Tesco Stores Ltd (’38)
264 Spurriers - bakers (’38)
266 J H Dewhurst Ltd - butchers (’38)
268 Green & Ismay Ltd - radio dlrs (’38);
Bessell - fishmongers
270 Ray’s - fried fish dlrs (’38);
Bessell’s Fish Bar
272 Wilson and Whelan - estate agents

 

Stanmore's suite of parades


The Broadway

The Broadway in the early ’60s - looking East towards the Marsh Lane junction.
Images via Brenda K. Kock née Hegan


Abercorn Arms

1910 Stanmore Hill - looking north, up the hill - and south, down the hill past the junction with Green Lane and, 100 yds on the left, The Abercorn Arms Royal Hotel.
Image via Keith Salmon.


  Several advertisements by Stanmore’s traders appear in the parish magazines.  See foot of section.
Michael Pierce’s blog has several references to Stanmore Village in the 30s and 40s.


Stanmore changed for ever when it became the location of choice for the AA’s head office in the late ’50s - a new "tower block".  My Dad used to pop-in there for routes when we went on our holidays.  Now it's gone and is replaced by a huge Sainsbury’s which has the most ludicrous aisle layout because of the building's strange shape. - Jonny Richardson, 2010.
 
No. The Broadway
 
South side - 1938
1 Barclays Bank My father, E T Pierce, managed the Bank from 1932 to 1951 - Michael Pierce
3 Sidney Channell - butcher 
5 Miss Hilda Sparham - draper 
7 Frank & Reynolds - chemist 
9Westminster Bank 
11 Minter’s Stores - grocers 
13 Stanley Jn Pearce - electcl engnr 
15Mrs Martha Bell - dining rooms 
23Geo. Smith - baker 
25 Stanmore Institute Club 
25 Bernays Memorial Institute 
45 W J Nash and Son - groceries and provisions - "The Distinctive Shop of Stanmore" - coffee roasted daily, Empire teas, China teas;
W H Cullen - groceries
In the ’50s, this was, to me, because it retained its traditional interior, Stanmore’s most memorable emporium.  The pervasive aroma from the slowly rotating, coffee roaster positioned in the right-hand window wafted through a vent into the street… and the animated, butter-patting antics - rolling and flipping with grooved, wooden ‘hands’ - on one of the counters behind the roaster, were mesmerising. - Colin Poyton.
47C G Oliver & Sons - upholsterers;
Brown - upholsterers (’50s)
49 Frank Snell & Co Ltd - off licence 
51 The Silver Shuttle - art needlework 
53 Jas. Wm. Patterson - confctnr 
55 & 67 Unett & Platts Ltd - motor engnrs This photo from, what may have been, the late 1930s, has been unearthed by Jo Hooke in her late uncle’s, Harold Barns, photograph album.  National Benzole, Shell and Esso Ethyl pumps feature.
69 L C Wilson & Co - estate agents  
     
No. The Broadway
 
North side - 1938
  Buckingham Cottage The Duke of Chandos’s hunting lodge … more … - Susan Johns (now ‘Rundles’)
4 F Creamer & Co - builders 
 - 
18 Phillips & Cooper - bldg. contrctrs. 
18 Bannerman & Co - tobaccnsts. 
18 Fredk Baker - hairdrssr. 
22 Miss Constance L Saunders - ladies’ outfitter - drapers, hosiery, baby linen, art needlework  
24 Geo R Stewart - ironmonger 
26 & 28 Hunters Horn Ltd - cafe 
30 United Dairies Ltd 
32 National Provincial Bank Ltd 
34 G C Wood & Co - estate agents & surveyors 
36 J & W Wright - boot and shoe stores 
38Express DairyStanmore had an Express Dairy which went sort of supermarket.  You queued at different counters for different things.  Biscuits in tins, rashers of bacon cut. - Catharine Horne
40Dick’s - fruitrs
(40a - Mrs G Doctor, the piano teacher at St. Brendan's)
 
42Wilson & Standen - newsagts 
44 Eugéne Floutier - ladies hairdresser 
46 Davis & Son Ltd - dyers 
50a Direct Sales (T W Bray propr.) - wireless dlrs 
50 Liverpool and Victoria Insurance Office 
     
No. Church Road
 
 North Side, from Stanmore Broadway - 1959
3 The Jersey Shop  
5 Pullens (Children’s Wear)  
7 Van Hooke (Wine Stores)  
9 The Stanmore Clinic  
9 The Prudential Assurance Co.  
9 K Joseph - dental surgeon  
     
  J W Adams - Optician  
     
  Regent House - Dr H B Woodhouse 
15Daval - florist  
17 The Wool Shop  
19 The Recorderie  
23 A P Bicknell - funeral director  
25 Practical Watchmaker  
27 F P Holme - estate agents  
29 The Gift Shop  
33 A S Breckenridge  
35 Post Office  
37, 39 Neil - conf and tob.  
41 Sydney Ward Ltd - estate agents  
  Estate Office:  
41a Post Office Chambers  
41a Prentice Kirkwood and Co. - Solicitors  
41a Glen Creston Ltd  
41a Jon Wood FRIBA  
43 Crown Hotel  
     
No. Church Road
 
South side, from Stanmore Broadway - 1959
2 Franklins Coals; upstairs: Lawrence Roth - dentist The spartan ground-floor shop front only offered a poster promoting smokeless fuel.
4 City Tailors  
6 Stanmore Electrics  
10 Fish and Chip Saloon The serving counter ran the depth of the shop on the right hand side - Jonny Richardson
  Rossi(e)'s Cafe … although I am sure it wasn't quite spelt that way.
They had pinball machines at the bottom of the shop.  It was also frequented by some of the girls from the Collegiate School. - Dick Flood (Downer ’60-’64)
12 & 14 The Village Pantry … owned by my godmother - had the best rabbit pie and mashed potato that could be found. - Susan Johns (now Rundles)
16 Mrs Curtis  
18 Thomson Bros. Run by the two brothers, I got my first model plane kit from there - it was a Frog Venom. - Jonny Richardson
20 C F Hailey - fruit  
22 S West  
24 Kingston's - butcher  
26 Wymans
My father, G C Johns, used to be manager of this shop.  We lived in a flat above the shop. - Susan Johns (now Rundles, attended St Brendan’s ’48-’54 and Stanburn ’54-’55)
28 F J Eastoe - hardware  
30 Stanmore Filling Station My father was David (Dave) Smith and was the ‘Smith’ in ‘Sawford & Smith’.  The garage was actually down a lane at the side of Stanmore Filling Station and situated in what, I think, were the stables of Regent House, belonging to Dr Woodhouse.  I think my father and Arthur Sawford started the business in about 1947, and it closed after Arthur's death in about 1962 or 3.  The place had a distinctive smell of engine oil and I can never remember going there without getting some black grease stain on my dress.

As to the Filling Station, it had pumps that were set into the wall of the front of the shop and an arm swung out across the pavement with the hose to fill the awaiting car at the kerbside.  There was an attendant there called Wally who always seemed to have a joke and was larger than life. - Marion George née Smith
30 Sawford & Smith Motors Ltd
32 R Hicks - boots and shoes  
34 The Scotch House  
34 The Fountain  
36 The Stanmore Grill  
  Two Strokes - car showroom Triple-fronted - with their selections of bubble cars and East European Imports - Wartburg comes to mind. - Dick Flood (Downer ’60-’64)
 
here is Elm Park
 
  A low resolution photo of a "Rattler" at Stanmore Village Station in 1934.  Image via Brenda Kock.

 
No. Stanmore Hill
   
  East side
2 Ceramics and Crafts

A '142' omnibus steams past The Abercorn Arms Royal Hotel c. 1918.


142 omnnibus

A number 142 omnibus outside The Vine

An LGOC B-type omnibus at the top of a bleak-looking Stanmore Hill.  Time: midday, summer (high sun, open windows).  Date: undeclared - but, since 'B-types’ were not introduced until about 1912, the image probably dates from the period of WW1 (before official ‘bus stops’ were designated).  Route: High Street Watford - Bushey - Stanmore - Edgware - Kenton - Cricklewood Bdy - High Road Kilburn - Cambridge ?  and Kilburn Park.

If you don't recognise the acronym ‘LGOC’, London General Omnibus Company, that was because it became defunct in about 1912 when the company was subsumed into AEC (of Aldenham Bus Works fame).

'B-types’ carried 16 passengers inside and had seats for 18 on the 'open' top deck.  Outside seats were fitted with wet-weather canvas covers." - Wikipedia.  Pneumatic tyres would have been replacing these solid ones by the end of that decade.  The driver’s waterproof sheet looks as if it could become a bit unruly at speed…

The plethora of horizontal slats in front of the rear wheels may have been an early ‘health & safety’ feature to minimise the risk of hapless individuals falling foul of the rear wheels (similar to those longitudinal side-rails deployed on articulated trailers today).  Bus body shapes evolved, so there was only need for a single slat on ‘RT’s of the mid-20th Century.

The ad. on the side?  ‘Photoshop’ allows one to discern "BUCHANANS" (a Scottish confectioners established in 1856 apparently)… .

Could that be a diminutive human peering-out from the pub door-way?  "TEAS"? - How very civilised.

Ah yeah, in those days, every telephone was connected back to the local exchange by its own, individual, pair of wires.  The development and deployment of ‘multiplexing’ (frequency division) technology eventually addressed that issue - allowing multiple conversations to be passed down a single pair of wires - minimising the depletion of the planet’s reserves of copper - and avoiding the need for an unsightly ‘tree’ atop telegraph poles.

A thoroughly ignominious fate befell the public house - The Vine is now an Indian Restaurant.

The iconic clock tower of Thomas Clutterbuck’s Stanmore Brewery lurks on the left.

The image (originally on a ‘half-tone’ postcard) was forwarded by Keith Salmon - thanks Keith - you're a champion!
 
   
No. Stanmore Hill
   
  West side
Stanmore Hill, October 1919 - looking north from the junction with The Broadway at the foot of the hill.  "I shouldn't loiter in the road, if I were you, chaps".  After its three quarter mile descent, one hopes that the B-type omnibus, has reliable brakes.

Yet another image forwarded by history fanatic, Brenda K. Kock née Hegan.
 
3 Adams - optician  
9 O Woodman - corn mcht - supplier of split peas for pea-shooters. - Dick Flood (’60-’64)
11 Abercorn - bookshop  
     
  Minters One bus-stop up the hill, an old-fashion grocers - not as posh as Cullen’s.  I used to go shopping there with my Mum when I was very small. - Jonny Richardson
  Vine Stores  
  Grimes and Bowden In the late '50s I used to go with my father to the storage facility he had for his business at the yard of builders and decorators Grimes and Bowden.  If Holiday’s Newsagents was also a sweet shop, which it probably was, then the yard was almost certainly located behind there and Vine Stores.  The access driveway was very narrow with a sweetshop on the right and another shop on the left.  My father inevitably approached from the south and had to signal a left turn.  In those days cars had semaphore/trafficator direction indicators that swung out from the door pillars.  They regularly got broken off as he made this tight turn, which resulted in him having to wind down the window and use the, even then old-fashioned, hand signal of waving his right arm out of the window and rotating it in anticlockwise circles.  Such hand-signals seemed to die away in the sixties as new cars had flashing indicators. - Robert Tayler
  Holidays - Newsagents  

 

Wealdstone and Harrow Weald

I'm afraid that I haven't produced transcribed tables for this area as it wasn't one that I'd originally intended to research.  However, as a sop, I offer photographs of three pages of typical, raw, street directory data that, amongst other streets in Harrow, cover some of the retailers in Wealdstone & Harrow Weald High Road/Street during the 1950s.

In common with several other shopping parades in the area, Harrow Weald’s were mostly developed in the inter-war years and usually comprise three storey brick blocks housing a couple of dozen retail premises.  Each outlet usually has/had two flats above it.  Access to the flats was via two, exterior, covered walkways at the rear that ran the length of the development.  Shop owners would often occupy one of the flats above their outlet.

When trying to interpret the street directories, the entries for parades usually consist of retail outlets separated by flats - so only every third entry relates to a retail premise.





Parish Magazines

Stanmore Church and Village Magazine - January 1935 - kindly contributed by Susan Johns
pages: 5, 6 featuring the announcement of Susans parent’s marriage.

Stanmore Church and Village Magazine - October 1944 - contributed by Susan Johns
pages: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 announcements (featuring Susan’s baptism), 7 local advertisements for retailers and services, 8 local ads

Whitchurch (St Lawrence) - August 1946 - contributed by Chris Cartwright
Front cover, local ads, "Births, Deaths" etc. featuring Chris’s baptism, back page local ads.




The Church of St Lawrence

{For a more easily digested discourse, see Harrow Highways, Vol 5, page 35}
The following is an extract from the Introduction to Kelly’s Directory for Harrow for 1938.  (I'm afraid that, since this scholarly article is presented without the benefit of conventional punctuation - presumably as a consequence of the reviled rationing of full-stops and ‘new sentences’ that presaged the annexation of the Sudetenland - it's rather congealed into an indigestible ‘fact/twaddle-fest’):


LITTLE STANMORE parish in modern documents is always alluded to as Little Stanmore, alias Whitchurch.  Under the Middlesex Review Order, 1934, this parish was included in the Urban District of Harrow.  The church rectory and adjacent houses are popularly known as Whitchurch.  The church of St. Lawrence is an edifice of brick in the Italian style, and consists of a nave, south porch and western tower, erected about 1550, containing one bell.  On the north side is a mortuary chapel (built by James, Duke of Chandos, and now belonging to Earl Temple as heir of the last Duke of Buckingham and Chandos); the present nave was built about 1715, in the same style as the Palace of Canons: the decorators and artists employed on the work were the celebrated wood carver, Grinling Gibbons, Pupils of the Verrio School and Belluci and Laguerre: the ceiling of the church is divided into compartments, each containing an illustration of one of Our Lord’s chief miracles: the walls are covered with figures of the Evangelists, also of St. Peter and St. Paul and the three Christian graces, and on either side of the altar are representations of "the Adoration by the Shepherds," and "the Descent from the Cross," by Belluci; these paintings were restored in 1935: the organ, built by Bernard Schmidt, was rebuilt and enlarged in 1878: in 1913 it was again rebuilt; the original keys upon which Handel played, consisting of only three octaves, with black ebony materials and inlaid sharps, were reinstated in their original position in the organ case: the case is adorned with two groups of cherub heads by Gibbons’ own hand; on either side of the organ are paintings of "Moses receiving the Law" and of "Our Lord delivering the Sermon on the Mount," by Antonio Verrio: Handel was for three years (1718-21) chapel master at the Palace of Canons, and organist of Whitchurch, and his Aeis and Galatea, the Chandos Anthems, the oratorio of Esther, were performed on the organ here for the first time, and two Te Deums were produced during this period: the mortuary chapel constructed over the family vault is also decorated with wall paintings by Verrio and contains the remains of more than 60 members of the Brydges and Grenville families; the memorials include a fine monument to the Duke of Chandos, who died at Canons, 9th Aug. 1744, with his statue in Roman costume, between kneeling effigies of Mary (Lake), his first wife, and Cassandra (Willoughby), his first duchess and second wife: here also was buried his second duchess Lydia Catherine (Vanhattem), who died in 1750: the monument room was restored by the Duke of Buckingham and Chandos in 1865; no burial, however, has taken place in this chapel for many years: at the west end of the church is a gallery, the ceiling of which is adorned with a copy of Raphael’s Transfiguration, by Belluci: there are some stained windows illustrative of the works of Handel: the gravestone of William Powell, the Harmonious Blacksmith, in the churchyard, is carved with representations of an anvil and hammer and the musical notes which form the running bass of the melody called “the Harmonious Blacksmith”: the edifice was restored in 1865, and was again restored by a former rector, the Rev. H. E. Robinson M.A.: there are some stained windows illustrative of the works of Handel; it has 150 sittings.  The register dates from the year 1558.  The living is a rectory, net yearly value £402, with residence, in the gift of the Bishop of London, and held since 1932 by the Rev. Frank Cooper.

St. Lawrence’s Hall, Whitchurch,_built in 1901 by the Rev. H. E. Robinson M.A. as a parish Mission room, has since been transferred to the Trustees of the …