Roxeth Green Avenue

A Memory of South Harrow.

I was born in 1960 at home at 151 Roxeth Green Avenue.
Growing up in South Harrow was great, the 'local shops' were down at Shaftesbury Circle where there was a really old-fashioned sweet shop, all dark wood and high counters and the most miserable owners. There was also a C&Q (Cut and Quality) mini market, a proper butchers and greengrocers complete with artificial grass covering the counters. Contim Motors were also on the roundabout, my father in law bought a brand new Beetle there in 1962 and had it right up until 1987 when he gave it to us, it's gone now unfortunately. My teenage years were spent in The Birds Nest Disco (later Circles), also on the roundabout, I was a soul boy back in the 1070s and fortunately they ran a really good soul night there. That was when I wasn't tearing up the neighbourhood on my moped.
We used to go up to the old farm at the top of Dudley Road to play (I think it was called Bruntons Farm), before they built the white prefab flats on the site. We also used to climb over the fence to play in the grounds of the gas works, there was an old building in the grounds all broken down and we used to run or ride around on the half collapsed roof playing 'wall of death'. We used to find lots of interesting relics from the war in the ruins, like old munitions boxes, medals and ration books. Once we found an old Luger gun, it must have been some old soldier's souvenir; we gave it in at the Police Station round the corner hoping for a reward, but got nothing, just a telling off for being in there in the first place! I bet the copper kept it or sold it on.

Going to South Harrow meant walking along the footpath next to the railway line, across Sheridan Road (I think), then up through the market to the high street, usually stopping at the sweet shop for supplies, I remember it was divided from the shop next door with corrugated plastic.
I remember Sellanby Records (originally left out of the market), the chip shop next door owned by a school friend's dad, and on the other side of the bridge was the very old Sainsbury's with glass cabinets and marble mosaic floor, they even had rails to slide your shopping baskets round instead of having to carry them. Wormolds the Stationers, the bike shop next to them and farther a field was Woolworths and the Odeon where I used to go to Saturday morning 'flicks'.
Further down between South Harrow and Northolt Parade was a parade of shops where I started work at a company called NSR (National Sound Reproducers) in 1977.

I met my wife Angela in 1980 at a disco in a place called The Shack, the rugby club social club behind the library. Our first house was in Northolt, we then moved to Drake Road in Rayners Lane and in 1988, like David Lowe moved down to Bournemouth to bring our sons up in a nicer place, because like everyone says, the place had changed! I'm not going to be so PC about it, the place is a complete dump now!

It was great growing up there though, right up until the late 1970s.

Pete Sullivan