Ww2 British Restaurant

A Memory of Hendon.

Towards the end of the war a 'British Restaurant' was built in Brent Street, immediately to the left of this photograph viewpoint and directly opposite the Brampton Grove junction (Barclays Bank as shown in this photograph stood on one corner of Brampton Grove and the Post Office on the other). It was a fairly large restaurant that served basic, wholesome meals at reasonable cost and 'off the ration'. With my mother working during the war, we had the occasional meal at this restaurant, as I recall more for the convenience in saving her cooking than the 'stretching' of our rations. The building was of a utility, temporary structure and disappeared shortly after the end of the war.
Another recollection of Brampton Grove, joining Brent Street and The Burroughs, is that it was used for parking buses from Hendon Bus Garage, which was then opposite Hendon Technical College. This was a precaution to minimise air-raid losses, no doubt considered most prudent given mention of the adjacent Hendon Technical College and its prominent clock tower in a 'Lord Haw-Haw' English-language propaganda radio programme 'Germany Calling', broadcast by Nazi Germany. This parking of buses was a delight to small boys who could not resist clambering onto the open platform at the rear of the bus to use the conductor's bell push to signal the bus could start on its journey!