Harrow On The Hill memories
Here are memories of Harrow On The Hill and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Harrow On The Hill or a Harrow On The Hill photo.
Childhood
I was only a few months old when this pic was taken. I lived at 44 Station Road till I was about 7 (I think), the last time I went there it was a Samaritans. There was a sweet shop across the road from where I lived, I think the shop owner's name was Dave and I always got free sweets when I went in there with my mum or nan. I also remember the cinema because it was a massive blue corragated iron building, I may have to take a trip on google street map and see what it looks like now.
The Open Air Swimming Baths in Charles Crescent
I was never a keen swimmer and my school's compulsory trips to the open air pool in Charles Crescent did nothing to encourage me! Every week in Summer Terms an ancient double decker bus would arrive at Pinner Grammar School to take groups of us to the pool. This began in the First Form (1956/57) and continued for years. This was timetabled as a "double period" of P.E. and allowed an hour and ten minutes for the short drive down Village Way through Rayners Lane towards North Harrow and 15 minutes later the bus would pull up by the pool.
I remember there was a chalked notice board by the turnstile advertising the water temperature. We peered through the grimy bus windows and groaned when we caught sight of the notice - no matter what it might say a great chorus would go up "its freezing today!".
A bit of research reminds me that the pool was opened in 1923 on some "left over land"... Read more
The Japanese Gardens
I remember the Japanese Gardens on Mount Park Road on the hill. I have pictures of what was till 1967 Ingleby Court, today it is Ingleby Drive, Harrow on the Hill. Pauline Coles I think would be interested in this once great old place, I have some images. You can't post images onto this website, but they can be seen on my face book: King R E West Sussex along with many more, on album called Assos.
Childhood
St Marys Church was my special place. I would go there whenever I needed to think or just find inner peace. It helped me through a sometimes difficult transition to adulthood. Although I now live 56 miles away, it is still my place of hope, and I go back there every chance I get. It's so beautiful, my very own stairway to heaven.
Memories of Greater London
Happy Days
Having grown up in Harrow during the 1950s and 60s, how well I remember my trips to Universal Stationers, seen here at the top of Station Road close to its junction with College Road. As a child I was always fascinated with stationery items and this shop stocked everything you needed. Upon entering you would be greeted by an assistant who would gladly climb a ladder to bring down reams of typing paper from the shelves above which reached to ceiling level. On leaving the shop we would form an orderly queue at the nearby bus stop where the 114 and 158 called to take us home to Harrow Weald. Contrast this with the unruly scrum that occurs at Harrow Bus Station in today's society. Note too the absence of parked cars and yellow lines. Happy days indeed.
Universal Stationers
The person who climbed the ladder may well have been me or perhaps my father who owned the shop. I used to help at Christmas to earn some pocket money and loved the book department, where I would fit plastic sleeves to the books. The whole place had a wonderful atmosphere and seemed vast to me (it was later enlarged) and I liked talking to the staff, many of whom had been there for years and who all had such diverse personalities and stories to tell. People were polite to each other in those days. It was rather nice to say "Can I help you Sir or Madam?". Nowadays it's more likely to be "Are you all right there?".
Born Here in 1947
I was born around the corner from the photo, at 15 Eastcote Lane, just off the Northolt Road, in 1947 (born at home, too, not in a hospital!) Remember going to school on Northolt Road, maybe a quarter mile west of the intersection of Eastcote Lane. A school still appears to be there, when I look at the images on Google Earth. Still remember buying a Beano comic book at the corner of Northolt and Eastcote. I also dimly remember seeing the last of the killer smogs in 1954. My family emigrated to Canada in 1954, when I was seven, and I have only been back to South Harrow once since then.
455 Northolt Road South Harrow
I was born at 455 Northolt Road during the 2nd World War where I lived with mum, grandad, granma and young uncle. My father was killed in Normandy Landings on June 6 1944 and was called Arthur Blerkom. My mum was Lil Blerkom and worked in munitions factory and later as usherette at the Odeon in South Harrow. After the war we had to move to Hayes as the house was only rented to us for the duration of the war, having been moved there during the Blitz from the East End. If there is anybody out there who remember my family of Arthur and Florence Hubbard, Les Hubbard and Arthur and Lillian Blerkom I should love to hear from you.
Doreen Walton nee blerkom doreen.w@tiscali.co.uk
Stanley Road, South Harrow
I lived with my foster family in Stanley Road South Harrow, during the war. Our house backed on to the gas works and I always wanted to climb the gasometer which I did eventually with a friend from across the road.
At the top of Stanley Road were all the usual local shops. Peacheys the grocer where we collected our rations and where I would take back empty jam jars and collect a farthing for a small one and a ha'penny for a big one. The fish and chip shop near by would sell a haporth of chips and give away batter bits to any hungry child that asked for them. I would get my hair cut in the barbers at the back of Hatherly's paper shop where I would also pick up a comic each week. At first it was Micky mouse and then either the Dandy or the Beano until I started to get the Hotspur. We children would carry comics to our friends and ask if... Read more
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