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Hatch End
Hatch End maps
Historic maps of Hatch End and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Hatch End maps
Hatch End area books
Displaying 1 of 13 books about Hatch End and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Hatch End
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memories of Hatch End.
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My Favourite Car Was A Triumph Spitfire From The Cornwall Garage
I bought my favourite car in Hatch End from the Cornwall Garage in 1970. It is on the right of this view beyond the row of shops and the crossroads of Uxbridge Road and Cornwall Road. It was a 1966 Triumph Spitfire, pale blue with two black "racing stripes" up the long bonnet over the hard top and down the boot! It cost me all of £465 in April 1970. I rather think that the car is no more as I drove it for four years until selling it in my new home town of Sevenoaks to a local fireman who thought he may have mechanical and welding skills to strengthen the rusty body! Although these cars did not have large engines they were blessed with excellent acceleration thanks to a low body weight. Sadly the cornering was not great and it was possible to hang out the tail in spectacular skids!
The Cornwall Garage was run by decent and honest people and they looked after me... Read more
Hatch End Shops in The 1960''s
I lived in Hatch End from 1956 until I went up to Manchester in 1966, so I got to know my local shops both as a helpful schoolboy running errands for my mum to MacPhails the greengrocer and later as a teenager buying my records in Giles and my half pints of Benskins in "The Railway".
This view on the left side shows Payantake Supermarket, Signal Service radio shop, Woolworths and Spurlings Vauxhall Garage. On the right Budgens grocers at the corner of Grimsdyke Road, MacPhails, Boots (the manager Mr Thomas had two lovely daughters!), Whitworths sweet shop, the telephone exchange, an alleyway leading to the 1st Hatch End Scout Hut, Halls Chemist and Geoffrey Irvine Estate Agent.
I recall happy Friday evenings with the Scout Troop which was run for so many years by Jack Walters - he would dismiss us at 9 o'clock with announcements and prayers and tell us to behave as we went home past the shops in Uxbridge Road. Little... Read more
1960s Shopping in Uxbridge Road, Hatch End
On the left of this view is the pub sign for the "Railway Hotel" - a popular drinking venue for older members of St Anselm's Youth Club and the Hatch End Young Conservatives! Next door is a garage forecourt sign - this was the Cornwall Garage where I bought a lovely blue Triumph Spitfire two-seater in 1970. I returned there in the 1980s when they had a Fiat franchise and bought a couple of new cars from them.
On the opposite side was a branch of Barclays Bank, managed by Mr Alf Woolley, and further down towards the corner of Grimsdyke Road a branch of the National Provincial Bank where I had a savings account.
On the extreme right of the picture (really just out of view) is Hatch End Post Office. I worked there as a Christmas "casual" in 1965 while I was a sixth former at Pinner Grammar School. I had a lovely time on the parcels counter - the permanent staff would weigh parcels... Read more
Dicing With Death
In my day there was a triangular grass island where Old Redding met the Oxhey Lane; that possibly saved my life. What is not apparent from the photo is that Old Redding is a 1 in 9 incline. One day, whilst seeking more exciting places to use my go-kart (that is an unpowered vehicle comprising four pram wheels on a wooden plank with rudimentary steering and no brakes) my chums and I decided to try our luck at Old Redding.
On the first run, gaining on the Morris going down ahead of me should have been a clue; an impact was avoided by running onto a convenient piece of verge to slow down.
On the second run, my brake linings (i.e. my shoes running on the road surface) gave out; there was no more verge; only the grass island; that was just enough.
There was no third run.
Women at Work
On the right, between the first and second trees there was AJC Motors, apart from Cornwall Garage, the local garage and filling station. The premises comprised an office on the street with an arch at the side leading to the workshop. Standing on the pavement, but hard against the office wall, was the petrol pump. It had a huge boom which was swung out across the pavement so as to serve petrol to cars drawn up on the road outside. I only ever saw this manned, or staffed I should say, by a woman. She wore dungarees and had a scarf round her hair. When petrol was needed she would don a pair of heavy gloves, swing out the boom and start to work the pump. And work she did. This was not a modern electric pump; this was manual!! At the top of the pump was a glass measure, like a pub optic, which held half a gallon; she would turn the pumping handle in one direction... Read more
The SS Motor Company "Jaguar"
While my father was having his house built in Thornton Grove he rented rooms from Mrs Parry who lived at "Marden", a vast rambling Victorian pile at the end of Westfield Park, not far from the church. She had a gardner called Mr Hedges; how appropriate!
Next door there was a family with a son a similar age to myself. One day I was invited to join the family on an outing. I recall nothing of the ocassion save that the father had a very smart car. Cars tended to be pre-war in those days; production had restarted after the war (sorry, the war of 1939-45) but new cars were not available in large numbers; driving a prewar car was not considered odd.
The SS Motor Company found fame with its "Jaguar" model and our neighbour had one of those. It even had a wireless. Apart from police cars I had never seen a car with a wireless before. The one... Read more
The Hatch End Bus Stop
In the middle of this picture is a bus stop where the London Transport red double-deckers on routes 98B and 209 stop. Both routes ran to Pinner in a westerly direction and I would stand at this stop many hundreds of times between 1956 and 1963 to catch the 209 bus to Pinner Grammar School - often with my schoolfriend Roger Gilbert.
The trees shown in this photo are still there, but now fully grown!
Memories of The Church
My best friends father used to be Vicar here back in 1960's (Rev J Gaunt). Sabrina and I would hang around Hatch End at various places getting up to all sorts of mischief. I had my confirmation at this Church under the guidance of Rev Gaunt but carried out by the Bishop of Singapore who was visiting at the time. When Rev Gaunt moved on the fabulous Rev CLive Pearce took up residence. Clive carried out my wedding service in this church on 31/12/1977, and also the wedding of my sister Lorna just two weeks after me. Subsequently my two children and my two nephews were christened also here. Clive was affectionately known to all my family as "Father Up". He was named this as he lived farther up the road than us!!!
