Life In The Fifties. Part One.

A Memory of Hanwell.

I lived in Studley Grange Road, and at the bottom was the Union Canal. This was a sort of green lung. You could go to Southall or Brentford by bike without touching a road, very pleasant. I went to St Marks school. Opposite the school was St Marks Church, which is now flats. I never went in the church. By the school playground were greenhouses, and in Green Lane was the cottage hospital. Some of the shops in the streets sold iced lollies in the summer. Crossing over the locks you walked along the railway (not allowed today) and came to Bluebell Woods. If you opened the lock gates for the bargemen they sometimes offered you a ride to Brentford. Trolley buses were the order of the day, and the route from Brentford turned right into Jesamin Road (Boston Road was two way then) and went through the garage and came out on to the Uxbridge Road ready to turn left and return to Brentford. Churchfields and the bunny park was another draw, I remember the rabbits mainly, and people in deck charis, and of course St Marys Church. Also the bowling green. I used to watch them playing, but not for the bowling, but for the contentment that they seemed to be enjoying. At the back of the church was the river with a metal bridge over it. I spent many happy hours in rubber boots playing in the river and on the bridge.

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