My Favourite Shop

If I remember rightly it was called Stevens then taken over by Mr and Mrs Fergeson

It was a sweet shop in 1966 when I was born. We moved from Hanworth Road when I was 11, and it was still a sweet shop then. I can't remember the name of the owners when I was about 7 years old but I do remember the man who served me once being extremely surprised that I had a veritable fortune (£1) and bought 30 'dummies' - a new sweet that I never saw again... All the children in my class had given me money to buy these sweets and I gave them out when I got to school that morning.
I then recall the shop being taken over by the Patel brothers who seemed to delight in the excitement children expressed at the cornucopia of potential tooth decay. I vividly remember a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory moment when Dilip Patel, upon learning that we were to move away from Hounslow, gave me a large paper bag and allowed me to fill it with ANYTHING I wanted! Hesitant and surprised, I opted for the cheaper sweets.
How I miss Hounslow. I love reading about Inwood and Lampton parks; even though most of the memories are from before I was born, I can attest that the unbridled joy and adventure afforded by those parks and other open spaces continued well into the '70s.
I am so nostalgic for the streets that we would walk, run and cycle down with no hint of danger round the corner, that I often dream at night of just walking down, say, Cromwell Road and, then left into Grove Road and then wherever my feet take me.
To this day, I mourn the destruction of Hounslow's fine libraries on Treaty Road, and the Town Hall - the inner machinations of which I never came to understand, but the grandeur of which left me in awe. Will anybody ever be able to say the same about the shopping centre that was built in its stead?