Old Southall Remembered

A Memory of Southall.

I lived in old Southall (Norwood Road - Norwood Green end) during the 1960s to the 1990s and have seen great changes. I went to school at Clifton Road, and the school had a great Headmaster, Mr Hancock, for a while. One Christmas he gave all the juniors a big surprise by bringing in a Dalek! Screaming children were running everywhere! This was shortly after 'Doctor Who' had started screening on television.
There used to be a sweet shop just opposite the school and all the children used to go there after school for treats. I remember King Street and all the good shops that used to be there - Woolworths, Timothy Whites/Boots, Tesco's, Coombes, Hardys Electrical, Hintons, Co-op, the bakers that used to bake fresh bread daily, the Post Office, and the Toy Shop right in the middle! The corner of King Street and Norwood Road opposite the bakers used to have a fishmongers and greengrocers (used to know the greengrocers as Johnny's) next to the Black Dog pub, now a car park, behind the pub and next to the Barn Mission Church. On the corner of Adelaide Road used to be the winter storage for the carnival vehicles and rides, opposite the Swan Pub (corner of Norwood Road and Regina Road) which used to have an off-licience on the end. I made a few purchases of Woodpecker cider from there for the 'teenage party'! The pub was diagonally opposite the Barn Mission Church (which I attended from birth to 17) and diagonally opposite this (on the same side as the Swan) was a small parade of shops with a great cycle shop in the middle.
Old Southall used to have a football ground in Western Road, a dog track in Havelock Road and a timber yard, which was off a side road next to the Norwood Road canal bridge (now a housing estate). I used to go fishing in the canal down this little road as the only things that used to be down there were the RSPCA and the timber yard. Just before the canal bridge in Norwood Road (before Merrick Road was built at the end of the 1970s) used to be a row of houses between Rectory Road and Wren Avenue and a great little sweet shop called the Cosy Corner. Many a time just before 5th November used to be spent outside this shop doing 'penny for the guy'. There used to be a horses' water trough outside this little shop for the horses that used to pull the barges up and down the canal. This trough now resides outside the Wolf public house next to the bus stop.
Being a teenager in the mid to late 1970s in Southall meant weekend evenings spent at 'The Disco'. First there were the little ones held on Saturday nights at the Catholic church hall opposite the 3 Tuns pub in The Green. Then the football club used to hold them on Friday and Saturday nights. Then all the pubs started. The Seagull at the other end of the Lady Margaret Road and the Lady Margaret pub used to hold Rock'n'roll nights, the Red Lion on the Uxbridge Road and The Greenford Arms on the Uxbridge Road next to the railway bridge (now a McDonalds).
It was a great time growing up in Southall, but it's all changed now and is only remembered in pages like this.


Added 06 March 2011

#231439

Comments & Feedback

I lived in Southall ( west ave )until 1967 when the family moved to Oxfordshire.
I went to Tudor road primary and then to the technical Gram School which merged the Southall Gram which was extended to cope with a couple of hundred boys who had until then been denied female company at school. At Tudor road we had one of the first of the Sikh children , Surindar Pal and at the gram Premsingh Mageera who joined us in the 3rd year. We still had Saturday morning pictures at the gaumont ? famous for its mock pagoda architecture. The Odeon was turned into a bowling alley and the Dominion became the headquarters of the IWA, Indian Workers Association.
I spent at least a day a week in the season fishing the canal where the new Marina is or on the lakes at Osterley Park.
The landlord of the plough at Norwood green would turn a blind eye if we stayed in the backroom and kept quiet.
Looking pack Southall was a safe and comfortable place to live, yes there were huge changes going on around us but unemployment was very low and we were very optimistic about life and the future.

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