Hounslow memories
Here are memories of Hounslow and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Hounslow or a Hounslow photo.
Further Afield
Osterley Park became within striking distance of my Hounslow home once I had a bike and from about the age of 12 (1960) would cycle there with a school friend with our bottles of pop and jam sandwiches, to roam the grounds and generally explore. As long as we were home by the time the street lights came on we had the freedom I don't think children of today have. I remember on one of these jaunts on a hot summer day a groundsman catching us with our feet dangling in the lake in the attached picture and he bellowed his warning that we were sure to catch polio and to get our feet out pronto and get home and wash with carbolic soap! Well, we never did get polio and I am not sure we were really at risk (having been inoculated in about 1955) but I think he scared us at the time.
Shop on Junc Hanworth Road Joining Crowell Road.
If I am right, this was a confectionary shop on the junction joining of Hanworth Road and Cromwell Road. Can anyone shed more light on this? What happened to it later?
Not The Town Hall
The premises are not actually the town hall but actually the council house of Heston and Isleworth borough council. Note from the editor: On the British Listed Buildings website it says 'Former Town Hall. Built as the 'Council House' for the Heston and Isleworth Urban District Council.' Can anyone shed further light?
Hounslow Welsh Society
Does anyone remember the Hounslow Welsh Society which used to meet in a room in the grounds of Hounslow Hospital? My surname was Richards then & my Dad was a producer of the amateur dramatics & we also had a choir...I lived on the Great West Road where I was born, went to Springwell School & then to Heston Junior & Senior School, but we left in 1953 to move to North Wales....happy memories of shopping in Hounslow West & Hounslow High Street. I still think of it as my" Home Town" although I left so many years ago.
Black Eyes!
I also remember Hounslow Cottage Hospital very well. I had personal experience of it when I was taken there for a check-up after a minor car accident in about 1950/1 when I smashed my face. They checked I didn't have a broken nose - but I did end up with two lovely black eyes! I went there again as an older child of about 6 or 7 circa 1955 with my fellow classmates from Wellington Junior School to take gifts of fruit to the young in-patients - possibly in connection with Harvest Festival. I lived on the Bath Road, a few doors away from the Windsor Castle Public House from 1950 to 1968. My childhood home was demolished in the 1970s, I believe, and much of the area has changed.
Hounslow As It Was
I am a bit younger than the other contributers being 2 when I moved to Hounslow in 1950. I wasn't born there but regard Hounslow as my home town and well remember the Odeon (Saturday morning pictures) and later learning ballroom dancing in the upper rooms. Food shopping was always done at Hounslow West - walking up from the junction of Bath Road and Sutton Lane/Wellington Road North (where I lived), and remember our first "supermarket" opening - MacFisheries! I used to play in Lampton Park with friends (remember the putting green? - a treat once or twice a year) and generally roam the local streets with impunity. We seemed to have so much more freedom then. School swimming lessons took place in the Hounslow Baths in Trinity Road and I remember the children's library and wanting to be "big enough" to join the adult one. As a teenager still at school, I did Saturday work in the "new" Woolworths and got paid the... Read more
THE ODEON
Every Saturday morning my brother Frank and sister Lorna and I were there for the children's matinee so much fun. We were born during WWII and I remember how close our neighborhood was and the Odeon was part of it. When I got a little older I used to go to the dances held in the room on top of the Odeon. What beautiful memories it has for me. We lived on Broad Walk not far from All Saints Church where the bomb shelter was. My mother passed away in 2000 and I travelled from America to England to say my goodbyes to her and saw that now the Odeon was a grocery store. Something clicked in my memory and I thought that it also was once a bowling lanes but maybe I'm wrong. I noticed a memory from a person that lived on Beavers Lane, I think that is were my dear friend and bridesmaid Sandra lives. Jennifer Ponsford Bibb
OSTERLEY 1981 - 1988
We moved to Isleworth/Osterley in 1961. We bought a maisonette just off Northumberland Avenue, Rothbury Gardens. My first son was 2 weeks old. We lived there for 19 years, by then we have 3 sons and then we moved just across the Great West Road to Syon Park Gardens. It was a really nice area. Across the A4 (Great West Road) was a church where my sons were christened. Abut a mile along the road was a little park and library, in the other direction there was Gillettes Corner, a bank and then a number of fctories, really well-kept, Art Deco style. Jersey Park was quite near, and Syon Park and the Duke of Northumberland's stately home was about a mile away to the east. At Christmas time people would walk along the A4 because all the factories had Christmas trees outside, which were covered in lights, all the children loved this as you can imagine. We lived in Syon Park Gardens until 1988, by this time 2 of my... Read more
Hounslow Staines Road
My parents moved to Cranford in 1938, I was 3 years old. My dad was a pastrycook / baker and had got a job with a local firm in Cranford across from ‘The Berkeley Arms Hotel’. To the left of the hotel was a cherry orchard. A bakers shop and a hairdressing salon with a two bedroom flat had been built opposite, this was where we lived. The garden was huge, and had 26 fruit trees in the bottom half. My dad was to work in the bakehouse of the firm’s second shop. This was on the Bath Road as well. on the corner of Wellington Road near Hounslow opposite a pub called ‘The Windsor Castle’ which I think is still there. Years later I was married in the church across the road, St. Pauls.
Next door to the shop in Cranford, was a detached house which was also a bank. Then came several more shops, a grocers, a greengrocers, a newsagents, a wool shop and a butchers. This... Read more
The Odeon, Hounslow West 1940
I remember going to the Odeon every Saturday morning, it cost 6d (about 2 new pence). We used to go to the 'pictures', as it was called then, as a family most weeks, and I well remember coming out at the end of the film in 1940 to find thick fog, you could not see more than a few feet in front of you. As no buses came, my dad said we would walk home. There were no street lights (because it was war time) so we started to walk slowly towards Henley's roundabout. A voice came at us through the thick fog, asking "May I walk home with you?". We all set off when suddenly we all fell into a ditch" We had crossed the road without realising and had fallen into a shallow ditch which was outside a detached house at the junction of the Great West Road and the Bath Road. It is now a service station. Nobody was hurt and we did eventually arrive home, I'm... Read more
Welsh Society
In the late 1940's- late 1950's, the Hounslow Welsh Society used to meet in a hall on the left hand side as you entered the grounds of the Hospital. I have very happy memories of the evenings spent there, we had a choir, & an amateur dramatic group (my Father Abe Richards was the producer of many of the productions). We lived on the Great West Road & used to walk to the Hospital...quite a walk when I think how far it was. I never went in to the actual Hospital as I had more to do with the West Middlesex in Iselworth which I have even more memories about
One of The Boys
On a Sunday a crowd of boys and girls would meet at the Sky High milk bar at the Bell end of the High Street. After a few milk shakes we would then go to the pictures, either the Regal or the Alcaza and sometimes go to the other end of the town to the Dominion. Another cinema was the privately owned one called the Empire, locally known as 'the bug hutch'. There was a clothes shop called Rego's and just after the war they were selling t-shirts, but they were then called 'sloppy Joes', at 2/6d each. I have fond memories of Hounslow as I was born and bred there and lived there for 35 years. I went to Hounslow Town school, infants and juniors then to Bullstrode School until I was 14 then went into the printing trade. I now live in High Wycombe but nothing will ever replace Hounslow, it holds so many good memories before, during and after the war. I would like to get in... Read more
Hounslow Town Hall
I lived in Hounslow and Whitton until I was 18 and went to college. We were here all through the war except for six months when we we were bombed out by a doodlebug which fell about 100 yards from our house in Ark Close. My dad was on duty in the town hall, manning the control post when the country was on the brink of invasion. There was a green light, which would have turned red had the Germans invaded and while dad was on duty, the light briefly turned red before flicking back to green again. When the war was over, he took me down Treaty Road to see the effigy of Hitler hung across the road. I had nightmares for months afterwards
Hounslow Town Hall
I was very saddened to see the old town hall and swimming baths knocked down for that un-inspiring block that now stands there, I can remember as a small boy of 5 walking into the town hall and just staring, it was so impressive.
And the old Victorian swimming baths were where I first learnt to swim and one day I found a ten shilling note stuck behind the small mirror in the wooden changing rooms, two of us made ourselves sick with all the sweets we got with that 10/-, and the new town hall? Just another block.
Climbing to The Top
Climbing to the top.
My friend Ray and I were going to see 'The Fugitive Kind' at the Odeon Cinema, Hounslow West. This was in 1960 and we were fourteen years old. I told him that my eldest brother had climbed to the top of the Odeon tower some twenty years earlier. Well, I don't know how it came about, but it seemed a good idea at the time to re-enact the feat. We went down the right hand side of the building towards the car park, looking for a way up on to the roof. We must have looked suspicious for it was not long before a policeman turned up and wanted to know what we were doing. I didn't want to tell him we were urban mountaineers. I said I wanted to show my friend the house I used to live at in Rosemary Avenue - having lived in Rosemary Avenue this was true. 'This is not Rosemary Avenue' he said. 'I know, I got lost', I... Read more
Are You Being Served
I believe the Watney’s pub on the left of the picture was The Red Lion. In 1962 I was a lad of sixteen and worked at Blundells Shoe Shop. From the photograph this would have been behind the cameraman. I live in America now and pubic television show a lot of repeats of Are You Being Served, it reminds me of the time I was a shoe salesman in Hounslow. With the senior assistants getting first choice of the customers. The commission was 3d in the pound or one and a quarter percent, this was not very much. When a customer came in Mr Farthing, the manager would call “First forward” and Mrs Mills the first hand would step forward to serve them. I never got a chance until he called fourth forward. Blundell’s was an old fashioned shop even for those days with the entrance winding it’s way between the shop windows until you found the door on your right, some yards in from the pavement. I think... Read more
Christmas
I remember growing up in Hownslow. The winters use to be very cold, ice on the inside of the windows. We lived in a flat in Beavers Lane and I remember playing outside in the snow, it was very cold and the snow was deep. Well, being only 5 years old at the time it was great but it must have been very hard for our parents in those days. I remember getting a book and an orange for Christmas, well, times have changed now - would the children of this age just want a book?
Allan.
Cinema Club
I remember Sat morning club had a great time :-) Allan Stevens
Odeon Cinema
That's the Odeon, taken from outside Hounslow West station. Great fun on Saturday mornings, when they had a childrens' matinee.
The Children's Hospital
Every child from Bedfont to Isleworth by turn spent a few days in the little round building. Variously: The Staines Rd Hospital. Children's Hospital. Cottage Hospital. The Childrens is the one we most used. Why?? Tonsils. Tonsillectomy was the rule for those around 10yrs of age. I can even recall the names of 2 (boy) school mates from the same week. No separation at that time for the age group.
O.R-S
Splish,Splosh,Splash!
Anytime between 1953 to 1959 for me. Who remembers bus rides from all around to then catch the 111, I think, if you didn't have to walk along from the Bus depot. Children with 'hula-hoops' , nets on sticks(for tiddlers which proably weren't there!), bags with towels, cordial and sandwiches. The excitement of 'bubble' swimsuits on, ready to be all the quicker into the pools, for we lucky ones; woollens for some unfortunates. Long busy days splashing around in the Lampton pools.
Very simple, relatively cheap, probably unhygienic but the whole family could go. The gardens were very nice and no doubt a draw for some like dutiful parents or older siblings ;-) No garden stuff for us, though, not then!
Christmas Turkeys
or anytime 1952-1960. Bright and nnippy, frosty in the mid morning, but swirling fog, nearly freezing by the end of the day. Gloomy from 4pm onwards, the gas lamps of the Poulterer was a hubbub of anxious discussion and cheerful sales talk from the attendants. Their best 'Norfolk wares' on display.
Down at that end of the HIgh Street was a big open front Poulterers. Not the general butcher. More a Dickensian type of place. Butcher's men wrapped in their big white aprons, gaffer hooks at the ready to bring down the bird of choice. Black fascia board, big bright Gold 'shadowed' Pickwickian lettering. Gas and electric lamps. I recall that then 'the CHristmas Bird' was purchased along with the Mistletoe and Holly on Christmas eve or the morning of the 24th. The most exciting time was after 12noon on the 24th. Holly, mistletoe, chestnuts for roasting and walnuts lined all the stall portions. Just loose, with brown bags on hooks for the nuts. Bunches or pieces of... Read more
High Street, Hounslow
I think this is a photo of the junction of the High Street (London Road) and Hanworth Road. The shop on the left later became C & A.
I lived in North Drive, Hounslow with my family from 1954 to 1965.
Memories
It was in the 50's and I was only a little girl. My grandparents lived across the road in Vine Place. We had a yard and the fair used to put up there each winter. We were always in the hospital, so clean, so nice you never got turned away. My cousin who is one year older than me was in there with 'yellow fever', she was only 8 years old. I remember standing outside on the grass by the door making her laugh, then one week later I had contracted it myself - many times we were outpatients there. It was so sad when they closed it down. I will never forget that.
Town Hall
My first job when I left school was in the town hall. I moved to Australia in 1972 so found the photos of Hounslow interesting. I was upset to see these buildings knocked down and replaced by a shopping centre when I returned in 2006.
Hounslow Hospital, Staines Road 1985
This was the Hounslow cottage hospital on the Staines Road, Hounslow at the top of Hibernia Road. It was demolished in about 1985-1990 after being left empty for a number of years. On the site today stands a Halfords car spares (2006).
The only time I ever went inside the hospital was to visit a friend who had just had a boil on his backside lanced!
Beavers Lane Camp, Hounslow - Home to 10 Signals Regiment
I was seconded to 10 Signals Regiment in November 1971 from my Territorial Army engagement with 39 Signals and spent the best part of a foggy, cold and hard working long month training with their NCO's on the Regular Army "Junior Detachment Commander Course". 10 Signals were based in the Beavers Lane Camp which by amazing coincidence was just a hundred yards or so from the old Cavalry Barracks where my father enlisted with the Royal Fusiliers in the Second World War. I remember the Beaver Lane Camp as being a strange mix of quality Victorian architecture and very modern accommodation units for junior ranks. Fortunately a great deal of my time there was spent away on field exercises! I never had the chance to return there after 1971 as 10 Signals moved away and the MOD have since sold it for development as an industiral estate. I have no regrets about this! Memories are interesting as some seem to invite you to revisit - but not this one... Read more
1960s
I lived in Connaught Avenue, and went to Grove Road school (up to 1963). I had 3 local friends. One lived on Hounslow Heath in a prefab (now Frampton Road). We weren't allowed to go to the fairs there. I did see grass snakes though! Near there on Staines Road, opposite the Hussar pub, was a dairy and also a haberdashers in the same parade of shops. On Staines Road on the other Munster Avenue junction was another parade of shops. Another friend's family had a butcher's shop. Their name was Powell. In the same parade was a newsagents run by the Cooper family (yes we met Henry and his twin George). Another claim to fame was knowing the Wild brothers who lived in Munster Avenue near us. Arthur was in my class and Jack in the class below me. Mum used to use local shops, such as the greengrocer in Martindale Road, and the other butcher was in Barrack Road. Sometimes we'd get shrimps from a tradesman in Tivoli Road as a treat at weekends. Many memories and... Read more
Summer 1960
Does anybody out there remember the infamous gang murder near Inwood Park? I don't know about you, but it brought the Hounslow we all knew to an end. No more Joachims coffee bar, no more Ricki Tik Club, Hounslow became a ghost town! I think we all grew up a little bit when it happened. Driving through Hounslow today, I can't believe it was my home town. It was a fun time in those days. Hounslow high street on a Saturday morning, Rainbows fish and chips, Rossis ice cream, Memorydisc, the Regal and Granada cinemas - WHERE'D IT ALL GO!!!
Inwood Park
Who remembers Inwood Park paddling pool and boating lake? The lake was more of a circular water course around a central island but you could use the little paddle boats - operated by handles that turned the paddles, if I remember rightly. The pool had a toddler and baby end but the section for older children was barely 12 or 15 ins deep at most so warmed up beautifully on hot summer days. I think it was eventually closed down for health & safety reasons - now why doesn't that surprise me!
Whitton Road Hounslow
My Nan and Grandad owned the grocers shop on the corner of Argyle Avenue and Whitton Road which was called Betts Stores. (Betts was our family name.) Mr Hill was the delivery man who used to go out on his bike to make the deliveries. My Grandad used to cook his own hams and people used to come from all over London to buy it. It was very good. I can't remember the dates when they lived there but I was probably about 8 or 9 when they moved in, which would make it the late 1960s. I used to help out in the shop during school holidays. I am sure that a lady called phyllis owned the hairdressers and I used to play with a girl called Ivy who lived along the road. Does anyone remember my Nan and Grandad? Their names were Sid and Violet. I see that the shop is now a King Pizza. I have been back to the area a few times over the years... Read more
Born 1942, Left in Late 1950's!
I lived in Lime Tree Road and I was called Rita Simmonds at that time. My gran and granddad lived in Lampton Road, at the Great West Road End. They lived in a terrace of cottages next to a large house which I think was called The Highlands, where my granddad had an allotment in the grounds. I went to the Isleworth Green School for Girls and my dad worked at the Gillette factory at Isleworth. I remember Lampton Park very well. Used to spend hours there. Also my gran and I went to the official opening of the, then new. scout hut! I went to Heston Infants and Junior Schools as did my brother Roy. I also have a brother called Eric who, when we moved to Devon, stayed with our gran. We used to walk to Hounslow High Street up Lampton Road and then come back via Kingsley Road, stopping on the way for some chips! Cost... Read more
Hounslow Born 1946,L Eft Approx 1965
I have many memories from Hounslow and I have enjoyed reading the ones here on this Frith website. My name was Rita Pilbrow and I lived with my mum and dad and 2 older sisters, Claudette and June, in Lampton Road. My dad had a building business and was an electrician, plumber and had a radio shop in Staines before having his own business. He had about 4 or 5 employees I think.One was BURNIE. My family moved around 1965 to Dorset Way. My friends at Bulstrode School were Pauline Clayton and Mavis Bowdon, does anyone remember them? We used to go out together sometimes. Pauline was a daughter to a photographer I think. I played with Peter Evans as a small child, he lived on the corner of Lampton Road opposite the Bulstrode pub. Peter Evans lived where the dairy was built later on, it had a milk machine outside it. Peter had an older brother or father who was blind and who made cane baskets and other items. My friends were... Read more
Memories of Middlesex
I REMEMBER, I REMEMBER THE PLACE WHERE I WAS BORN
Parish Church Heston where I was married in 1962. My son David was baptized there. I loved Heston. I remember where they had places to tie your horse and also a horse trough. My dad William Francis Ponsford worked on Heston aerodrome during WWII and yes I remember the bombs and the doodlebugs. Even today I do not like sudden loud noises. Spent a lot of time at Heston Swimming pool and the beautiful park where you could go and watch the bowling and cricket. The bowling took place in front of the beautiful house that was in the middle of the park. We used to go to the fairs there and also once when I was 15 I entered the competition to be Heston Queen or princess (can't remember which). I also remember a dog competition, we entered our beautiful black lab Darkie. I remember walking up Vicarage Farm Road with my dad to go Swimming at Heston Baths... Read more
Heston in my Youth 1954 Onwards...
My parents moved to Heston in 1954, I was one. My uncle owned Heston Garage, his name was Bill Biggs, he lived above the garage for a while before building and living in the Bungalow next door.
My sister and I went to Norwood Green Infants & Junior School. We went swimming at Heston Baths, played in Heston Park on the swings and putting green. I went to Heston Secondary Modern School, my sister went to Spring Grove Grammar. I went to 3rd Heston Cubs & Scouts. I went to Sunday School at Heston Church. We went to the White Fathers Fete, took part in the Heston Carnivals, went to the Fair Ground in New Heston Road opposite the Elm Tree pub.
When I was older I drank in the Rose & Crown, The George, the Hope & Anchor, the Elm Tree & Queens Head, they were great days, shared with great people.
There were all types of shops, Purkiss Ironmongers, Farrants Mens Hairdressers, the Wet Fish... Read more
An American Granddaughter Remembers...
My grandparents, Fred and Rose Organ, lived at 67 West Way. My mother, Betty Eileen, and I came from the United States to visit on holiday in 1955. I was 6 years old at the time. I went to Heston School for a short time. Pop worked for the London Transport as a bus driver. I would ride my bike to Hounslow to meet him at the bus garage. I had a friend across the street whose name was Janet. Her back garden was full of wonderful strawberries which we would eat until our cheeks bulged. My mother was a bus conductor on Pop's bus. Nan would take in foster children and there was a boy named Lawrence who lived with my grandparents while I was there. Pop had a shed, which he built, in the back garden, he called the 'Wendy house'. I would spend many memorable happy hours playing in that shed. Pop was very special to me and he would take me to the garden to water... Read more
My Birth Place
1940-1953 I was born on Great West Road...my first memories are of all the bombs dropping during the war & I can remember most of the shops there & on Vicarage Farm Rd. I went to Springwell School, after coming back from evacuation 1944-1946, I remember Empire Day marching around the playground & saluting the flag! I went on to Heston Junior & Secondary School but left in 1953 to move to North Wales. My Family also belonged to "The Hounslow Welsh Society" which has very happy memories for me...my Father used to produce plays for the society & I used to appear in them. I have not been back to the area for about 35 yrs. no doubt it has all changed a great deal. Can anyone tell me where the 4th photo on the Heston series was taken...I can't visualise it?
Heston Pre-War
I remember Betty Organ, mentioned by one of your contacts. She was in my class at Heston Junior School before the War.
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