Nostalgic memories of Southall's local history
Share your own memories of Southall and read what others have said
For many years now, we've been inviting visitors to our web site to add their own memories to share their experiences of life as it was when the photographs in our archive were taken. From brief one-liners explaining a little bit more about the image depicted, to great, in-depth accounts of a childhood when things were rather different than today (and everything inbetween!). We've had many contributors recognising themselves or loved ones in our photographs.
Why not add your memory today and become part of our Memories Community to help others in the future delve back into their past.
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Displaying Memories 121 - 130 of 130 in total
My dad was a lorry driver working for a firm called E Day & Sons, it was a green flatback rigid lorry and his main job was working out of a company called Wolfe Rubber Co. They used to make things for the car trade, most of my dad's deliveries were to the car makers up in the Midlands. The reason why I mention this is because I wonder how many people remember how Southall turned into a Indian community, well ...see more
King Street and its area was known as 'over the other side' to everyone on the Broadway side of the railway bridge - a mysterious place that adults would talk of to each other concerning pubs or the cemetery or the tax office. "Oh, he used to live over the other side didn't he?". It was also known as 'Old Southall', 'down King Street', 'Havelock Way' and 'over the bridge'. I never found out what people who lived 'over the ...see more
I was born in the house on South Avenue that my mum lived her entire life in until her death in 2006, I vividly remember a few shops on the Broadway from this period, including Safeway (now a small arcade. A short way along heading east was a tiny butchers with sawdust on the floor, then the post office, Air India travel agents, Paul Tregessers the bakers (the best in town), then crossing over the zebra ...see more
These are a few of the shops I remember from my childhood: Platts store where you could buy 2oz butter or half a loaf of bread, Greens the open veg shop, the Co op store which my mum worked in when she left school, the Candy Box sweet shop where only two customers at a time could get in there, but oh, so many lovely sweets, the Hatter's shop where you could buy everthing you needed from hats to buttons and ...see more
I was born in Hammond Road in 1948. We lived next door to my grandparents who kept chickens in the garden, next to the air raid shelter we used as a play house. My grandad used to have a large allotment at the rear of the old Barn Mission, we spent many an hour planting veg & flowers. Then when I was eight we woke to the sound of diggers, only to find our beloved veg dug up and flowers trampled, all without ...see more
Although I had known Southall from a very young age, I was born and grew up in Greenford, but my grandmother and an aunt lived in Southall, in Woodlands Road, so my earliest recollections occurred around 1950, when I was 5 years old. Sunday afternoon visits for “tea”. It was, however, in 1970 when I found myself working for a long established firm in Gordon Road, known locally as “The Tube”. Its official title ...see more
I don't reside in UK, but we used to visit London almost every summer. One day I remember we were going on a picnic with a large number of family friends in a bus. I was crazy about Hindi movies and did not know anything about Southall then. Suddenly we are in Southall and all those cinemas Dominion...Century...Liberty with larger than life blockbuster film posters like "Prem Nagar", "Bobby", "Aa Gale Lag Ja" ... plus those ...see more
We used to go to saturday morning pictues at the Dominion Cinema which was opposite the Manor House. Oh the joy of seeing Roy Rogers, Old Mother Riley, The Cisco kid, The keystone cops etc.... I think it was 9 old pence to get in and we had a few pence for sweets.
My sister, parents and I lived in Florence Road with my Aunts. We had the recreation ground at the bottom of the road and in those days we used to play for hours there with other neighbours children. I used to go to the bowling green there and watch with my Dad the bowlers playing on the immaculate hedge enclosed green in the rec. There was an outdoor swimming pool where we learnt to swim, it got very crowded on hot ...see more
My earliest memory of a Film I saw in Southall is a Hindi film called Love in Tokyo! 3 Great Cinemas, 2 Great parks (that's what I recall) and 1 Great Town - SOUTHALL when there was litttle or no car parking problems (not that I was a driver, I was too young) and respect for LAW was high.