Hatch End Shops In The 1960''s

A Memory of Hatch End.

I lived in Hatch End from 1956 until I went up to Manchester in 1966, so I got to know my local shops both as a helpful schoolboy running errands for my mum to MacPhails the greengrocer and later as a teenager buying my records in Giles and my half pints of Benskins in "The Railway".
This view on the left side shows Payantake Supermarket, Signal Service radio shop, Woolworths and Spurlings Vauxhall Garage. On the right Budgens grocers at the corner of Grimsdyke Road, MacPhails, Boots (the manager Mr Thomas had two lovely daughters!), Whitworths sweet shop, the telephone exchange, an alleyway leading to the 1st Hatch End Scout Hut, Halls Chemist and Geoffrey Irvine Estate Agent.
I recall happy Friday evenings with the Scout Troop which was run for so many years by Jack Walters - he would dismiss us at 9 o'clock with announcements and prayers and tell us to behave as we went home past the shops in Uxbridge Road. Little did he know what mischief we got up to with our scout staves in the dark! In those days there was little traffic so I can only guess that this view showing so many parked cars must be a busy Saturday morning. I was a Hatch End resident from 1956 to 1966 and later when I came down from Manchester between 1969 and 1971).