Willesden memories
Here are memories of Willesden and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Willesden or a Willesden photo.
I Remember...
I remember Canterbury market, the pie and mash shop, with crates of eels on ice outside. I remember going on my own for mash and liquor, it was 3 pence and a real treat. There was also a chip shop there and as kids we used to go and ask for the crackling and we used to get it for free. Also the rag and bone man used to be there and we would take old clothes and get a goldfish. I also remember taking the jug to the dairy for fresh milk, and going to off licence with a jug for beer for my mum.
Trying to Find Old Friends
My name is John Power, Waterford City. I lived on Harlesden Road, Willesden from 1965 to 1968 and then returned to Ireland. In that space of time I made some great friends and one family in particular who were named Roche from Kerry. There were at least 6 men and 2 girls in the family. One girl was married and had a family in Willesden and the youngest girl came to Willesden in 1966/7 after finishing school in Ireland. One of the names who was a good friend was named Eddie. We did our socialising in The Rising Sun Pub where we had good times. I am visiting London in September 2011 and would like to contact any of the family. I know it is not much to go on as I do not know how to go about this I would appreciate any help with the matter.
Trying to Find Old Friends
My email address is john98718@gmail.com
Mobile No. 0879615663
The Irish Bacon Shop
Stuck in the middle of this parade of shops is the cream coloured frontage Irish Bacon Shop & my mother worked there.We lived at 41a Willesden High Road, just a short hop to the shop, and I have found memories of the Standard Indian curry house which my mother some times popped into and bought a curry home from as it was bang in the middle between the shop and our house.
Cookery Demonstrations at Electricity House
Do you remember Electricity House, just to the right of the picture? In the late 50s when I was about 8ish I guess, Mum used to take me to the cookery demonstrations held there. They were in the afternoon and they were free. There was a special room with a stage and a cooker on it and table and that is where the demonstrator worked. The audience were seated in front of her and we watched the latest modern equipment on display as the food was prepared. Afterwards, Mum and I would walk around the showroom displaying all the latest electric cookers. Nice memories
I Lived in Cricklewood in 1945
Willesden High Road leads past Willesden Green tube station and on towards St Gabriels Church. It was opposite this church that I lived for the first few months of my life in 1945 with my mother and my grandmother, Florence Norfolk, in a rented flat on the third floor of Melrose Mansions on the junction of Walm Lane and Melrose Avenue. The area had suffered bombing during the war with much damage to property - I remember as I grew older visiting my grandmother and being told not to lean against the window in case it fell out! I loved watching from this high window looking over the road junction to the church. There was a large road island where trolley buses turned round. If the window was open I could hear the trolley wires "singing" so I would know that one was approaching but still out of sight.
Waldo Road
1944 -1949 I lived in Waldo Road, well all the family lived in Waldo Road my Mum Dad and sisters Phil Ted Pat Val & me,1900 - 1970s My Aunt And Uncle Collis and cousins Ron & Alan Aunt & Uncle Begley, and Aunt & Uncle Stadden & Cousin Evelyne. And grandmother Collins
at the age of 4 and my sister 5 we got lost we had crossed the Harrow Road and was found and taken to Willesden Green we were missing for about 5 hours.
LIVING IN WILLESDEN
I lived in Willesden until I was 17. I went to St Mary's C of E school which is no longer there. One day a week we would all walk to St Mary's church for a lesson. I was also baptisted at the church. We used to play in Gladstone Park, and Roundwood park, lots of happy memories. Shame it's changed so much.
Memories of Greater London
My Memories of Kilburn
I was born in early 1967 and lived on malvern road kilburn till around 1975
then my parents moved to kilburn square, where we lived in rathbone house till 1980 and moved to kensal green.
my memory of growing up in kilburn was a mixture of tears and joys...tears because as common for most children i bunked school and got many a hiding for my neglect...my joys came in the form of long summer holidays spent playing with my friends around the estate.
also i fell in love for the first time in about 1978 which i remember was a wonderful feeling i will never forget.
i rarely visit kilburn these days but i remain fond of it.
Cricklewood And Kilburn Area
I was born in this area in 1939 and lived in Cricklewood until 1955 when we moved to Dollis hill (Hamilton Road). We were in Olive Road throughout the war and would shelter in the street shelter and sometimes in Smiths (near what was Rolls Razor on the Broadway near the Bus Garage).I remember the Queen's cinema on the Broadway and the Crown(which is still there. The 16 bus ran to Kilburn where I went to school from 11yrs-16 yrs. In those years the cinemas were the Ionic,the Grange the Essoldo and the State. My parents were both born in Kilburn and never moved far from their roots. When I married,I moved away to South London but I was never happy there and in 1976,I came back to North London and here I have stayed! I have returned to Mora road school and to St Michaels church,it hasn't changed much.I remember the bomb that dropped in Ivy road,killing several people.I remember the artillery battery in Gladstone Park,the collection of... Read more
Born But Not Bred
Born to Kathleen Leniston, and Ned Leniston July 1951 in Torbay Road, to the glorious rolling green fields (joke) of Kilburn. There were still bloody big holes where buildings used to be, thanks to Mr Hitler's town planning arrangments for London. The family loved Kilburn so much, we promptly moved to Colindale, then to Dartmouth Road, West Hendon; see the connection, from Torbay, to Dartmouth. If you think that's a coincidence, I now live in the West Country. However, we were not completely finished with Kilburn quite yet. My mother, with me in tow, seemed to haunt the Kilburn high road in those far off days of the late 50s and early 60s, almost every Saturday. And on some Sundays, I was forced to visit mother's friends and relatives all scrubbed up, in a white starched shirt and tie with elastic round the collar (no knots to worry about), polished shoes, and grey flannel shorts. All mum's friends seemed to be Irish, but then so was my now deceased father... Read more
Teenager in Kilburn
I lived in Kilburn from 1936 to 1969.
The Gaumont State cinema was part of my life as a teenager. It was one of a number of cinemas in the area at that time and every Saturday evening I would go to the 'pictures' at one of them with a group of friends. Often we would have to queue to get in and maybe stand for some time once we got in. We sat in the 1/6d seats. Films ran continuously in those days and we often saw the end of the film before we saw the beginning.
We would walk home after the cinema and probably buy a bag of chips plus a pickled onion if we were flush. Of course we also (the boys that is) smoked a fag or two - Turf, Weights or Woodbine.
All cinemas at that time had only one screen. The State was the biggest cinema in Europe and if you sat at the back it was a long way to the... Read more
Wonderful Days
Do you remember the organ that came up from the pit under the stage and had all the different coloured spotlights shone on it? I thought it was sheer magic! The front seats were chaeaper than the back ones - I think they were 1/9 a the back. I also used to go the Grange cinema and the Essoldo, all in Kilburn. The Queens was another one in Cricklewood Broadway. There was also a small independent cinema near the station called the Ionic. I saw 'The Ascent of Everest' there with my school (Brondesbury and Kilburn in Dyne Road).
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