Shopkeepers 1912 To 1976

A Memory of Kilburn.

Born Dec. 1924 Dollis Hill Ave, son of E.H.Carter who lived at Crown Terrace. In 1912 he opened his half-shop as a newsagent and tobacconist, joined-up in 1915 and left the running to his sister Florence who eventually lived in Gladstone Park Gardens. I took over in 1950 and became more of a stationer with one eye on the American scene and the new popularity for greeting cards. My memories are of the thousands of local customers and the warm feeling of being part of the community (Daphne Hillman was one of my assistants). I was at Mora Rd. school from 1930 to '36 and Pound Lane 'till '39. I knew the young Fowlers at school, the young Silman and his bicycle shop, some of their successors are still about, including the staff at Calloways.
All those changes! Cricklewood was rather select in my younger days; Hulls, top class drapers on the Burton's corner, Wheatlands furniture opposite with its novel neon sign of "Dancing Pianos", Peters fish next to the Crown - kept up to superb standards by the very particular demands of the Jewish housewife. Then came the Irish; strong men for the re-building of our shattered country, and their charming ladies to staff the shops (including mine). And so the caravan continued with Caribbean, mid European, Indian and a dozen more. Anson Road School recorded 37 different languages!
Sold the shop in '76 and moved to the IOW where we've had many great years. Mr, and Mrs. Patel took it over and their family are still there. SO, Carters is still going strong after a century!!!
Thanks to Alan Coren for his astounding comic invention involving Cricklewood - really put it on the map.
There were two cinemas; the Queens and the Palace. Underage ragamuffins like me would ask an adult to "take me in" if the film was age rated - quite unthinkable today!! Entrance price 5p in today's money.
Not quite the "Good old days". Dollis Hill Ave. was near the LMS marshalling yards and the engine repair sheds so our curtains would rot with sulphur in no time. Smog was often so thick and opaque that you could get lost coming home from school. That meant passing Stoll Studios in Temple Rd. where film extras, faces covered in orange make-up, lounged in the doorways waiting for the next "shoot".
As a short cut to school we would trespass over the allotments and the railway embankment. Cabbages and beans have given way to more and more building.
Pound Lane School was the destiny of those of us who failed the 11 + exam. But the standard was high and we received a decent education. Severe beatings were not uncommon but I'm not sure they damaged us particularly; a "thick ear" did not amount to actionable abuse in those days.
As a lad, I would get on a tram and with a "shilling all day" ticket go anywhere in London that the rails could take me. From Cricklewood to Tally- Ho corner and then down to the Kingsway subway where the tram suddenly dived down into a tunnel to come out on the embankment and the river. Trams gave way to trolleybuses but the adventure was not, somehow, the same.