Borehamwood, Leeming Road Shopping Parade c.1965

A Memory of Borehamwood.

I moved to Boreham Wood when I was six weeks old in 1952 and lived there until 1977, spending my whole childhood there and my teens and early 20s. My parents moved from there in 1984 along with other family members so I have not been back there since.
My memories of Leeming Road shops are quite clear as we lived in Theobald Street near Aycliffe Road and my mum used to send me often to the shops which actually spilled out into Aycliffe Road. Firstly there was a Post Office in Aycliffe Road on the corner of Baldock Way, next to that a clothes shop, then Eros the jellewellers (owned by Mr Rosenberg) the Bidmeads the pet shop. Round the corner in Leeming Road was Lamberts the shoe shop, then Gands hardware shop, then a dry cleaners, then Mansbridge's toy shop (Mr Mansbridge walked with a limp as I recall), then was a ladies hairdressers, next to that Kershaw & Creaseys off licence, then the Redifusion Television hire shop, then a bookmakers, Gearge Wilkie (this opened about 1970), there was a small supermarked called the Home & Colonial there before that, next came a Butchers called George's (which prior was called Atwell's), then a Greengrocers and then finally a sweet shop called Mayfair.
Crossing onto the other side by the Green Dragon was first a Dentist called Fasht & Rabin, then a chemist, I can't remember the name but it was run by a Mr Ghan, then a Barbers/Ladies hairdressers called My Fair Lady, next to that was another hardware shop called Holt's, then came a Baker's, then another sweet shop called Josephine's. Next to that was a clothes shop called Macy's, then came a small supermarket called Pearks and next to them was a double side supermarket owned by the Co-op and next to that was another chemist, this also being owned by the Co-op. Then if you turned the corner into Aycliffe Road first came a Baker's called Emery's then a Greengrocers called E Baggs, next to them was a Butchers called Gaskells followed by another small supermarked called "Centra" that was run by the Blanchard family and finally at the end a Fish and Chip shop.

All in all quite a large shopping area (I make it 31 shops) we also had some other smaller shopping area s in walking distance in Rossington Avenue and Croxdale Road where we went on early closing day (Wednesday in Leeming Road Thursday in the others.