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Burnt Oak
Burnt Oak maps
Historic maps of Burnt Oak and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Burnt Oak maps
Burnt Oak area books
Displaying 1 of 13 books about Burnt Oak and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Burnt Oak
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memories of Burnt Oak.
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Growing up British
Since my birth coincided exactly with the outbreak of World War II in the September of 1939, my mum must have felt that childbirth was synonymous with calamity; I was Mum's 'war effort'.
Home was a semi-detached two-storey house in Melrose Gardens, a cul-de-sac of thirty-two identical semis in Edgware, Middlesex. Dad was a printer by trade, and during the war years Mum worked at de Havilland's aircraft factory. My earliest recollections of those years was alternately being hoisted on Dad's shoulders to "watch the fireworks" (bombing) over London from our front door, or being hurriedly shoved into the pillow-lined steel cage Dad had rigged under the living-room table. Sometimes we joined the other families in the street-shelter 'til the 'all clear' sounded.
Every child received a bottle of cod liver oil and another of orange juice (the former definitely to be taken before the latter). Powdered milk and eggs were the only kind we knew and I thought delicious. Dad managed to get me an apple on... Read more
Burnt Oak in The Second World War And After
I moved to Burnt Oak in May 1940, to 84 Fortescue Road. I was 4. My memories are like a batch of video clips, as follows:
Moving in. Removal men trying to get a wardrobe into the front bedroom by hauling it up from the outside.
Workmen deposited a load of bricks and planks on the green outside our house, to build a blast shelter. We kids built a den out of these materials, with loose brick walls and planks for a roof.
Sleeping for a short while on Hampstead tube station platform.
Lying in bed after the sirens went off. First the thud of anti-aircraft guns, then the crump of bombs and the pulsating drone of enemy aircraft.
The German bomber on the patch of waste ground where the library now stands. A notice said "See the Heinkel, 6d". I wanted to see it but Mum said "I'm not paying a tanner for that!".
Coming out of the Savoy cinema one evening during an air raid (we didn't... Read more
Burnt Oak ( A Lasting Memory )
The late 40's through the mid 50's.
Some 50 plus years have now passed, since I was a " kid " on the streets of Burnt Oak. How life has changed.
I now sit at my computer ( here in Tennessee, USA ), and have instant access to Burnt Oak and Edgware online, a place where I spent my younger years.
Having read the first three accounts of life in Burnt Oak in the 40's and 50's, many memories came to my mind, of the place I grew up in. Some bad, but mostly good memories.
The bad memories include having to sleep in a steel shelter in our back bedroom on Vancouver Road during the war. Sweet rationing. Other than that, life was great for a kid.
Some of the things that come to mind, but not in order:
My Saturday morning bread round with the old geezer from Avery's Bread.
Delivering newspapers around the Deansbrook Rd area.
Saturday morning... Read more
Goldbeaters School
I am 86 years old, I remember my first day at Goldbeaters school, I was 4 years old! I walked to school every day from Littlefield Road until we moved to Gervase Road. Many times it was so foggy you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. I loved school and enjoyed making many friends there, some of those friendships last over 70 years but now many have passed away. I often wonder if there could be anyone still around at my age? I recall having a crush on a boy named Keneth Haggerston, and a girl in my class who died before her 12th birthday, her name was Pat Law. At my age I was devastated. I eventually won the scholarship which entitled me to go to Copthall County School. Unfortunately my memory is slowly fading. I would love to see a picure of the school ! Sincerely, Dorothy Youst, nee Pulham
Burnt Oak 1930/1940
I can recall belonging to the Colchester Road Gang, we consisted of boys and girls keen on adventures. We used to travel miles with a bicycle wheel rim and a stick and roamed miles around the area, we also had adventures in Moat Mount and Scratch Woods. We camped and tracked each other. We also had Willow Wars with the Fortisque Road gang with willow sticks and mud balls, very enjoyable but a bit messy. I can recall the concerts held in Watling Park with song and dancing and comic performances. I also recall the marches from Goldbeaters School to Watling Park Shelters Air Raid Practice. I can recall the long walk to Rex Judd's to get accumulators charged up for wireless use. I also remember my family knitting Balaclavas and socks for the troops, I must admit my socks were not very comfortable. My sisters were keen on buying music sheets and dance set feet from Woolworths on the way home from work and we would practice the... Read more
Watling Avenue Market
I was born in 1938 in London. My parents moved to Burnt Oak when I was 3. The Second World War made a big impression on me. I remember having to sleep in an indoor steel cage. Other times we had to dash over to the air raid shelters in Watling Park, carrying our bedding with us. The shelters were long, like submarines, half in the ground and half out. There seemed to be a lot of people in one shelter, which was always damp and humid. We did eventually get an air raid shelter put in the garden but I don't think we ever used it as it always had water in it. After a night of bombing my brother and I found a piece of shrapnel in the front door. Later my brother and I were sent off to Cardiff to get away from the heavy bombing in London. VE day was a big celebration with a bonfire on the lawn in front of our house. I remember... Read more
1948
Edgware Middlesex, the cradle of my childhood,and Burnt Oak is where I went with Mummy as a special treat , we used to go into Lyons corner house for a nice cup of tea and a small treat, and it seems like only yesterday the whole family went into the coop shop to purchase an ironing board, I recall how we all stood around it in admiration.Wasn't much money about in those days , but all the love we had in our home made up for the lack of funds. That ironing board came home with us and oh how we all wanted to do the ironing just to try it out, and no more ironing on the dining room table, with the old towels underneath the hot iron.
Also clearly recall a year or two earlier going to see Santa Claus, he was also at the Coop store, how badly I wanted a dolly,Big sister Sheila told me to put my arm... Read more
The Busses
The busses we used to go anywhere we couldn't walk. This part of the broadway looks like where the barbers was and cheap jacks where we all bought hoola hoops in the craze.
