Pinner memories
Here are memories of Pinner and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Pinner or a Pinner photo.
Pinner Sorting Office
The photographer is standing on the road just outside Pinner sorting office. I worked for this post office as a "Christmas Casual" in 1962 and the crafty regular postmen dumped all the unpopular rounds on the young students doing a couple of weeks casual work. Although the sorting office was at the top of Bridge Street in Pinner village itself, my round was in Northwood Hills delivering to Alandale Drive, Lyndhurst Gardens and Avenue, and Dale Close. This was a good two miles away - and uphill too! I rode my ropey old post office bike which in those days had no front pannier so you carried your letters in satchels over your shoulder. At Christmas this needed two satchels! I fell off my bike cycling past the traffic lights in Pinner Green as my load was so heavy it overbalanced me as I turned the corner! Folks rushed from the nearby bus stop to pick me up! Gosh I was tired that week. The day started early with... Read more
183 Bus to The Pinner Red Lion
All buses going to Pinner in the 1950's had the destination "Pinner Red Lion" as there was an old pub of that name on the corner of Love Lane and Bridge Street. The bus in this photo has continued its journey having passed The Red Lion and is lumbering up Bridge Street towards The Langham Cinema at the top of the hill (the photographer is probably standing on the pavement in front of either the cinema or the adjacent post office). Perhaps it was a 183 going to Pinner Green (destination "The Bell") or to Northwood - or maybe a 98 or a 209 going to Hatch End and on to Wealdstone bus garage (209) or North Harrow (98)? The Red Lion is no more, having fallen victim to developers, and the only remaining clue to its existence is that the modern row of shops at the bottom of Bridge Street is named Red Lion Parade. If you now get on a bus and ask for Pinner Red Lion all... Read more
A Traditional English Pub!
The Queen's Head is little changed - maybe a horse trough on the pavement but the front of the building is pure English village pub! It was the starting point for many a village pub crawl and some fun times pushing wheelbarrows of tipsy teenage friends on charity fundraising days in the 1960's. Some of the black and white photographs of these adventures can still be seen hanging on the wall in the gents at the back of the pub to this day! Little did I realise back in 1966 that forty years later I would still be calling at the Queen's Head but instead of pushing a wheelbarrow I would be playing an accordian for the Whitethorn Morris Dancers! It has been a popular venue for morris dancers and mummers - particularly on St George's Day - April 23rd.
Imagine
Imagine the street devoid of (and indeed closed to) motor traffic and crammed from side to side, and as far as the eye could see, with fairground amusements, stalls and masses of people. That was Pinner Fair. I may be wrong, but I fancy that the dogems used to be about where the double decker bus is.
Pinner Village in The 1950's
This is the Pinner village scene as I remember it from my schooldays. The photographer is standing close to the junction of Chapel Lane and Bridge Street looking up the hill towards the Langham Cinema. Chapel Lane on the photographer's left leads under the Metropolitan Railway Line Bridge and to the entrance to Pinner Memorial Park where I fed the ducks by the pond both as a child myself and later taking my own son thirty years later!
In the middle distance is a delightful terrace of "tudor style" shops which is still there at the beginning of the 21st Century. The really big change is the sad loss of the Red Lion pub. We can just see the 183 double decker bus standing on the pub forecourt on the right of the picture as most services on this route terminated here. It was very common to see buses with the destination blind reading "Pinner Red Lion". On the left is a single deck bus or coach:... Read more
Dad's Car And The Youth Club
My maiden name was Wood. We lived at Cuckoo Hill, I just wonder if that was our father's VX. I have spoken to my brother Richard who thinks it's possible as they were so very rare in those days. My brother Richard use to run the youth club down the road from the church. He did it conjuction with his school friends from Johns Lyons School, Martyn Potts, Graham, Johns Coles and some others. He is four years older than me. He was about seventeen in 1964 and would regularly go for a drink at the pub afterwards, a few years later I use to go in there hoping not to be caught, especially by my brother!
Tailors in Pinner
I used live halfway between Eastcote and Pinner and used to pop over to see school friends in Pinner. One of the boys lived in the old High Street and his dad was a tailor. Age catches up with me and I think his name was Stuart (Stewart) Clegg. Anybody remember the tailors shop, it was there back in the early to mid 1960s till I moved oop north.
The 221 Single-Decker Bus From Pinner to Hatch End in The 1950''s
In the early 1950s my mother would put me on a Metropolitan Line train at Baker Street and tell me to get off at Pinner Station and be met by my Auntie Dorrie. Its amazing to think I was only 7 or 8 years old at the time!
This was around 1953, when I was living in Bexleyheath (at that time in Kent although now swallowed up in Greater London). Auntie Dorrie and I would then catch an old pre-war single decker bus on route 221 that struggled up Pinner High Street and then rattled its way along Paines Lane towards the Uxbridge Road and Hatch End. We got off this bus at Woodhall Drive and walked to her home in Woodhall Gate. Do you know the fare was just a penny-ha'penny!!
I would love these trips from my home in Bexleyheath to stay with her in my school holidays. Pinner seemed to be a HUGE place seen through a young boy's eyes!
The Queen's Head Pub
Although the view is intended to show parked cars, I am looking past the VW Beetle and the Austin A35 van and gazing fondly at The Queen's Head!
Many is the pint of beer or cider I have drunk here since the 1960's although I didn't really get interested in beer until after I left Pinner Grammar School in 1963. While I was at school I would cycle to and from my home in Hatch End past the pub!
Pinner Fair
I was born in Ruislip Gardens in 1939, we were moved to Pinner in 1940 due to the war and living next to Northolt Aerodrome. I lived in the area for 20 years before emigrating to Adelaide, South Australia in 1967. On a visit to UK in 1995 I was overjoyed to find that the fair was on on the very day I visited and I had a pint of Benskins best bitter (my old brew) in the Queen's Head to celebrate. My main memory as a child is of going to the annual fair every year. As the road was closed to traffic the buses had to turn round near the Vagabonds Hall. The Helter Skelter was always positioned on the forecourt of the old Red Lion and they had all the side shows with the Siamese twins (pickled piglets) and the bearded lady, two-headed snake etc. in front of the Langham Cinema. The 98 bus to Ruislip and the 98b to Uxbridge terminated at the Red Lion as... Read more
Pinner Connections
"All buses going to Pinner in the 1950's had the destination "Pinner Red Lion" as there was an old pub of that name on the corner of Love Lane and Bridge Street."
That old pub was where my grandmother was raised. Both my great grandfather and great-great grandfather were licensees of the Red Lion.
Pinner in The 1950''s
I remember so many of these shops. Bosworths was - I think - a dress shop managed by relatives of my good friend John Walker. A few doors down near the corner was the Victory pub and around the corner a bike shop where I got my punctures repaired for three shillings! This happened frequently as I rode my bike for six miles every day to and from Pinner Grammar School from my home in Hatch End.
Further up the hill was a gents hairdressers and next to it a lovely antique shop - I remember going in there and buying a set of silver tea spoons as a present for my mother. On the opposite side of the road there is the Queen's Head pub - little changed in centuries I imagine!
The Gents'' Barbers in Pinner High Street
This 1955 view of Pinner High Street brings back my memories of haircuts after school. About half way "up" the High Street on the right is a gents' barbers.
During my schooldays at Pinner Grammar School from 1956 to 1963 I would stop at the barbers' shop every two weeks (!) on my way home. If I cycled furiously I could get to Pinner before the 209 bus and therefore beat the queue. If my distant memory serves me accurately I paid 10d when I began in the first form in 1956. My mother would give me a shilling with very strict instructions that I was to tell the barber to keep the change - this I think was due to her own years as a ladies' hairdresser in the 1930s and 1940s when she relied on tips.
The Pinner barbers obviously did not like cutting childrens' hair as they allowed any adults to go straight to the front of the queue. Sometimes I would... Read more
Smith Family of Boundary rd Pinner Middlesex
Colin (Frank) used to live at 10 Boundary Road, Pinner, Middlesex, his parents were Jessie and Frank Smith, they are deceased. I have lost contact, and have heard he may have moved to Devon. Can anyone help me with contact details please, as he is a long lost friend? It would be good to catch up. You can contact me at jgnic@xtra.co.nz
Graham
Pinner Red Lion
The Red Lion is no more. The name became so well known as the forecourt was the turning circle for London Transport buses on route 183. Passsengers would ask for "Pinner Red Lion" even years after the pub went and the conductors (!) always knew what you meant. I first saw the Red Lion on my bus journeys between home in Hatch End and Pinner Grammar School which I joined in 1956 at the age of 10. I imagine that the drivers and conductors nipped in for "a swift half" when the inspector was not there! I never once went in there myself - by the time I was older and interested in beer the Red Lion was demolished and replaced by shops called Red Lion Parade. That may be their postal address but I can't believe older Pinner villagers use the name. Residents with memories of the 1950's and even further back say "where The Red Lion used to be!".
Memories of Middlesex
Church Fete at St Lawrence Parish Church Eastcote
Morris dancers were often asked to provide entertainment at church fetes in the Harrow area in the 1980's. On one occasion the Whitethorn Morris dancers and their Whitethorn Band were booked to entertain at a fete run by St Lawrence Church in Eastcote. I remember this occasion well as at that time I was the band leader and our noisy drumming spooked the pony and trap rides at their fete.
Every summer we would have half a dozen or so village or church fete bookings but this particular event at St Lawrence Church was one of the best attended. Usually fete organisers made a donation to cover our expenses but on this occasion the lovely people at the church also provided our dancers and musicians with a strawberry and cream tea!
I remember playing my 48 button red Hohner piano accordian and really enjoyed performing lively dance tunes including jigs and polkas for the Whitethorn Morris dancers.
Back in the 1950's I went... Read more
Caretaker..
My name is Rachel Page and my grandmother was known as Betty Tapping. She was caretaker at Haydon Hall for many years.I remember her looking after me while she would do her job. I used to watch her wax the floors. I remember the green cups that were in the kitchen. I remember the W.I. meetings. I remeber the art group. I rememer the storeroom tht had a ventriloquist dummy in that gave me the creeps! I was in the ballet classes there with Mrs Reece. There was a prefab bungalow that my Grandma used to live in which was in the right hand side of the Hall. I remember staying there on Saturdays. I remember playing with plastic soldiers in the rose bushes surrounding the Hall. These are just memories I have right this moment..
Whitethorn Morris Return to The Case is Altered in 2007
On March 3rd 2007 Whitethorn Morris danced at The Case is Altered at Eastcote again. Although my wife Elizabeth and I had retired from the morris "side" to live in Devon in 2006, the dancers invited us both to come out of retirement and join them for a day of dancing in both Harrow and then this nice pub.
The sun shone, the sky was blue, the pub served good beer and hot food and we gathered a small (very small) group of onlookers to watch and listen to our dancing and music. One of our dancers - Mary - performed in her Whitethorn red, white and blue kit for the very first time.
For me, having been the bandleader for more than 25 years, it was a strange experience to play my piano accordian for the dancers once again. Not having attended any of the weekly practice evenings for almost a year I thought I would have trouble with the tunes but it is... Read more
Whitethorn Morris Dance at The Case is Altered Pub in 1980
In the 1980's and 1990's morris dancers and their musicians often entertained at weekends in the pub garden at the front of "The Case is Altered". The Whitethorn Morris dancers and their Whitethorn Band performed at this popular venue on summer Saturdays many times. Passers-by would stop and join the pub regulars to form a large crowd to stand and watch.
It was great fun and I can remember much of this quite clearly as I was the band leader at the time with my Hohner piano accordian. One Saturday lunchtime, an old gent - probably in his eighties - persuaded his family to carry his double bass from his home nearby so that he could join in with our band in the pub garden!
I sometimes wonder what my music teacher Mr Stoupe at nearby Pinner Grammar School would have made of it as he didn't want me to do music O Level in school back in 1959! Whilst playing my accordian (and drinking... Read more
Northwood Hills in The 1970's
I moved to Northwood in 1978 when my work transferred from Glasgow to London. Although most of my local shopping was done in Northwood itself, sometimes my wife and I would come down to Northwood Hills as there were a few things we couldn't get locally.
This view is taken from the pavement outside Northwood Metropolitan LIne station looking towards the roundabout at the north end of the parade. Just round the corner to the left on the roundabout was a branch of "MacFisheries". Remember them? Whatever became of their shopping chain?
On the right just before the roundabout was lovely lighting shop. My wife bought two attractive lamps here which I still use more than 30 years later to read music when I play my piano.
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