Greenford, Holy Cross Churches c1955

Growing up in Greenford in the 1960s and 1970s

Here are some random memories:

Lists Bakeries on Greenford Broadway.  Lovely aroma, tasty bread. The paper bags all used to have the slogan 'Good Flavour Always Finds Favour'.

The covered market near the junction with Windmill Lane where I was often sent by my parents to get smoked fish.

The Greenford Fish Buffet catching fire (this was at the corner of Greenford Road and Costons Lane, near the Salvation Army I think).

Various fires, leaks and chemical spillages at the Lyons factory  which was diagonally behind our house. Dad had a VHF radio and we used to tune in to the emergency services and listen in to the action.

The new bridge being built near the Black Horse on Oldfield Lane that replaced the old hump bridge over the canal.

Flooding! The junction of Currey Road and Oldfield Lane North is downhill whichever way you approach it. So it was prone to flood after heavy rain until they sorted out the sewers some time in the mid 1980s. This was too late for some of the houses opposite us -- they effectively became uninhabitable and were pulled down to make way for a multi storey car park for Glaxo employees. The houses were actually very nice ones, good solid 3 bed semis and a few old cottages. Nice houses, wrong place. Our house was set on higher ground so never flooded but it was sometimes a close call.

I often used to walk or cycle alongside the canal which was then heavily polluted. If you fell in your next journey would be to the hospital to get your stomach pumped, or so the urban legend went. Fortunately I never got to find out for myself. But certainly there were often dead fish floating on the surface and some nasty looking scum. The Garners bakery nearby smelt good though (the site is now operated by British Bakeries).

There were no BMX or mountain bikes in the 1970s, so I used to ride my very conventional sit-up-and-beg 3-speed hub-gear bike off road on the waste ground just off the Western Avenue near the Aladdin Factory (now B&Q).

I remember the British Bath Works on Long Drive and the local residents demonstrating about the noise and vibration coming from the factory. It closed soon after that. Nowadays you would never get planning permission to put a factory like that so near a residential area, or vice versa.

The little one coach push'n'pull diesel train that went between Greenford and Ealing Broadway. Frequent mainline trains using the BR line parallel to the Central Line, which still used semaphore signalling. They were often express trains going between Paddington and Banbury or Birmingham. The line is now hardly used. The railway bridge over the canal (visible from the allotments on Carr Road) was referred to as the Cattlebridge, for some reason.

The tunnel at Greenford Station -- now blocked but which I guess would once have led to the decommissioned BR station. I never did get to go down it! And the quaint hand painted sign at the ticket booth stating "All Tickets Must be Shewn Here" which was an archaic spelling even then.

I went to Wood End Junior School. My class teachers were Miss Hiden, Miss Wilder, Mr Day and Miss(or Mrs ?) Lambert. They taught me well, and without a SAT or a government target anywhere in sight. I took my 11 plus without even knowing what it was (and passed!). They were good teachers, I wonder what became of them.

The betting shop on Oldfields Circus, opposite the John Blundell furniture shop. I would pass it as I went home from school and usually there would be a race in progress. The race commentary was played over loudspeakers so there certainly sounded to be something exciting going on in there, but the windows were screened and a notice on the door barred under 18s from entering. The sign on the front said it was a Turf Accountant, which still didn't really tell me much about what they did. I'm sure all the secrecy was well meant, but it just used to make me all the more curious about what went on behind that mysterious door.

Kinmac -- the car dealer on Whitton Avenue near Oldfields Circus. I think they used to sell British Leyland cars but of course that meant their trade would have declined rapidly as better designed and built cars from elsewhere eroded their market share. The garage is no more -- the site is being redeveloped as retirement homes.

Rocky's Pizza opening in the 1970s, at the junction of Berkeley Avenue and Greenford Road. I used to think eating from there was very exotic. At the time, Berkeley Avenue was still open to traffic but later it was closed when the Glaxo site bought it from the council in order to bring the various site entrances into the overall site perimeter.

There were often car crashes at the junction of Currey Road and Oldfield Lane. It was a busy junction with a downhill approach, where drivers were often tempted to cut the corner or approach too fast. We got quite used to the sound of the impacts.

Boston Hair Fashions, the barber on Clare Road. Run by an affable, chatty, overweight man who died suddenly.

My parents lived on Costons Avenue from 1960 until 1969, and then moved to Oldfield Lane near the junction with Currey Road. I was born in 1962 and I had a lot of freedom and independence as a child, much more than today's children get. It did me no harm and a lot of good, and I'm sure overall it's no more dangerous now than it was then.

My parents sold up in the mid 1990s and moved to the south coast where they still live very happily. Their old house (451), and its semi detached neighbour (453), are now converted into bedsits. It is a pity, they were really nice family houses.

My memories of Greenfordin the 1950s and 1960s

We actually lived in Northolt Grange but our cousins, the Barltetts, lived in Stanhope Road, Greenford (does anyone remember them?). I worked from the age of 8 or 9 for Ron and Stella Valente who owned Toni Milk Bar (very near the police station end). What at fantastic couple they were, they named me 'Corporal', I was like their son (they had not children) and I was there till I left school at Vincent Secondary in Northolt. I used to actually make the ice cream when I was 11 and serve it at the window, as well as serving coffee and sandwiches inside. Ron had, I think, 6 or 7 vans, and he had a white Zephyr car, reg. no 230 XMD, how strange I can remember that! Can anyone remember the coffee bar? There was another one on the Greenford Road called 'Creamery Fare'.
We used to stay with my cousins, me and my brother Andy, their names wer David, Steven, Carole and Brenda, does anyone remember them? We were a right rough lot, that I will say, but we had fun playing at a park called the 'rec which is still there today. We were always in trouble with police but my Auntie Rose was always there to sort things out, she was and still is the best auntie you could wish for. Does anyone remember the Greenford market where the buses park outside? The market no longer there now but buses still park there. And who remembers the fruit stall on the trafic lights, and it's still there! I always remember that stall at Christmas time, there was that certain smell that you don't seem to get any more at Christmas, can anyone understand what I mean? Like the smell of dates and oranges etc. The Red Lion (still there) was our drinking hole, we would all be under age but still go in for pint of red barrel, then after a few of them at a shilling a pint (lol!) we'd then go round the corner to the Wimpey bar, then after that if the bingo was on that night above Burtons the Tailors we would have an ice cream from the Toni van then wait till break time in the bingo hall because then they would all rush down to buy ice cream as it was so hot up there apparently, then we'd make a nuisance of ourselves with them, ha ha. Just us kids growng up, getting clouts around the ears etc but at least we were allowed to grow up and find out our wrongs and rights. How many people bought up in the 1950s and 1960s didn't learn about respect? - more than what today's kids are allowed to do.
Does anyone remember the dump in Greenford Road? We all used to play over there, at times we used to get chased off there depending, which way they chased us we'd sometimes end up at Cuckoo Hill, I can't remember how though. Saturday morning pics was regular as clockwork, Dad used to give us our pocket money of 1 shilling, always in pennies, tuppence for the 90b bus to Greenford from White Hart (I hardly ever paid) and sixpence for the Odeon (but only one ever paid because he would go in and open the side door for us and our cousins and friends),that way all our money that we saved went on sweets and popcorn, we'd always sit up on the balcony so that when the organist used to come up out of a hole in the floor we would then pelt him with wrappings and anything we could find! God, how bad were we? But it was harmless fun and we didn't walk around with knives stabbing everybody and robbing old ladies! It was just teenagers growing up the best way we could, we had no video games, phones etc in those days, you had to make your own entertainment which strangely enough came easily.
Does anyone remember the first supermarket to open in Greenford? I do, it was Tesco's and I remember going with Mum, Dad and brother Andy and my mum being really excited about it, and my dad kept shouting at her in the car, telling her to calm down. When we got there it was so weird, it was on the left in the Broadway about 7 doors down from Woolworths, the size of a normal large shop but it had 4 aisles that you walked up and down and they had large coloured price tickets on the items and you had wire baskets to put the food, my mum bless her heart was so excited. The trouble was, she was buying things she didn't normally have, as my dad pointed out, so she had to keep putting things back. Me and my brother were having a great time stashing sweets in our pockets, ha ha, no CCTV cameras then. Woolworths was always a great shop in them days, I mean, what didn't they sell? And what parent didn't do their Christmas shopping at Woolies?
I have such great memories of Greenford in those days, I really could go on for ever. Does anyone remember the Digbys that lived in Greenford Road near the Red Lion? June and Dennis lost count how many kids they had, they couldn't stop producing them, yet they were always happy kids even though they didn't have much then.
I also remember going to the Odeon to see the Rolling Stones! And I think on the same bill were the
Everly Brothers and the Searchers. Wow! That was some night, you couldn't hear them singing through all that screaming! But it didn't matter, we were there watching the Stones.
I remember Lists the bakers, oh my God, the smell that used to come from the back of that shop was unforgettable! I think they were a couple of doors from the Toni milk bar. I know that the Toni owner Ron Valente died some time in the 1980s and is buried at Greenford Cemetery, I don't know about Stella though.
My email is: john.nicholls@sky.com  I hope you enjoyed reading this.names i remember :the Digbys in greenford rd.the bartletts in stanhope rd and the park called the wreck in same rd

Greenford - home 1956-1971

I loved growing up in Greenford. Iwas born in Chiswick, Middlesex. I lived around Mansell Road, Fermoy Road etc, and spent most of the time in the Rec, Horseden Hill, Perival Park and Church Fields (bunny park). I remember cutting through the allotment in Portland Crescent to get to Windmill Lane to pick me mates up and go onto the bunny park. I also remember wading in the River Brent for tiddlers and using a lighted fag to get the leeches off our legs. And playing footie after school and annoying the neighbours, and scrumping for apples, and riding a go cart, with the string breaking while going down a steep hill with a sharp bend at the bottom - OUCH! And the school holidays, which seemed to go on for ever.
Lesley Solway

lesley solwell greenford

1952 to 1972. bunny park. Portland Crescent. See also southallknowhere site, good.

Bilton Road

I grew up in Perivale my dads bakers shop was on Bilton Road, Geo Ort.
Does anyone remember?