My Colindale

A Memory of Colindale.

I came to live in Colindale in 1967 aged 1.5 years, first in Lynton Avenue, then in 1968 the family moved to The Loning where I still am to this day. I have very special memories of the area, White Bridge, Rushgrove Park and 'the pipe', hanging around 'the barriers' with my Mod mates in the 1980s, etc etc. The area has changed over the years, but there is still some of the charm left. I remember as a 10-12 year old taking polystyrene rafts down the Silkstream from the allotments, past White Bridge, all the way to the welsh harp, and catching stickle backs on the way. Many of the old businesses went and new ones have taken their place, with a series of massive developments in progress at the moment. Slowly but surely the old area is fading like a dream. Half remembered as if in sleep.

My father, Graham, was an avid photographer and in his effects I found some old black and white pictures of various places, the family home, The shops on the Edgware Road, and White Bridge when it was still a weir. White Bridge has very special memories for me, as it is where we used to play on rope swings attached to a huge elm tree overhanging the stream, doing 'Round-the-Worlds', and getting 'Booties'. The wooded area along the railway was where we made camps and fought off imaginary armies, and each other! We used to have stone fights, which H & S would take a very dim view of these days, and the slope behind the Schweppes bottling plant (now Toyotas and a trading estate) which was a 1in4 incline of broken glass!

Many of my old friends from childhood and adolescence have moved away, but some remain and I try to keep in touch. Every now and then a name from the past pops up, and I'm back to my youth again! Colindale still has enough of its old charm to be a good place to live. But big changes are in progress, and the future is still to reveal itself.

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