Working In Southall

A Memory of Southall.

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 was H. G. Sanders and Son Ltd, I believe that it originally started trading in the 1820’s as I can remember being there only a couple of years, when the company celebrated its 150th anniversary. Its unusual colloquial name came from the products it used to manufacture – toothpaste tubes. The core business was impact extrusions in aluminium for the packaging industry, which included cans for electronic components, flares for the M.O.D. as well as all shapes and sizes of tubes for food, pharmaceutical, glue as well as toothpaste. I spent the next 16 years there and made many lasting friendships which still survive today.
One of our lunchtime haunts, as in those days no canteen facilities other than rolls tea and coffee existed, we used to use a local pub, the Old Oak Tree situated on the Common fronting the Grand Union Canal, close to the junction with Regina Road, where we used to get a home made steak & kidney pie, chips and peas all washed down with a pint of Courage Directors bitter, (Cannot remember the price, probably would expire of apoplexy if I could!) Next to this pub was the recreation ground, with the open-air swimming pool and a bowling green. The sports and social club of the ‘Tube’ used to hold a bowling tournament every season, and we used to spend many a heady evening, during the summer, bowling and taking refreshment after in the Old Oak Tree. Sadly most of what I relate has long gone, the site of the ‘Tube’ is now, I have been informed, a housing estate, the swimming pool and the bowling green no longer exist, but I think the green open space of the 'rec' does remain, I cannot vouch for the pub, but writing this has made me want to re-visit the area to see if it has survived.