Whatever Happened To The High Street?

A Memory of Golders Green.

We were sent as children occasionally, from Child's Hill to Sainsbury's on Golders Green Road. Ladies in uniforms, behind glass fronted counters, cut cheese and sliced ham to order. Everything else also behind counter and had to be requested - no self service then (and this was probably early 70's). Seven Brides for Seven Brothers at the Ionic, every day during one particularly special half term - 6d to get in, and we stayed there all day. Used to be a proper Bloom's (or similar) kosher deli and restaurant. And a Macfisheries (what happened to them) where many of my friends had Saturday jobs. There was also a record shop way back when which still had booths where we could idle away a Saturday morning listening to records we had no intention of buying. A hip 'boutique' - Snob or Bus Stop was a shop-lifting haven for broke teenagers. We were gutted when security tagging was invented. And let's not forget the Hippodrome - pantos, as small kids, Old Grey Whistle Test, as teenagers - which in my era meant early Queen and much heavy rock. As a kid from a Child's Hill council estate, Golders Green was exotic and 'posh'. Not so much now, it seems. Just coffee chains, internet cafes, mobile phone outlets and a generally shabby purview. The only constant, happily, is Bar Linda in the station - a lovely reminder of when an expresso was considered quite a racy beverage! (And might, if one was luckily, be followed by a snog in the phone boxes next door......). Happy days......