Stanley Road

A Memory of South Harrow.

I lived at number 90 Stanley Road from 1964 until 1985. My dad worked at the Gas Board at the top of the road where the gas holder always seemed to dominate the skyline. Although it was an ugly building it was part of South Harrow and I think a few people were sad to see it taken down. Not many people knew that it was a nesting site for a pair of kestrels and they nested there since I was a kid until they pulled it down.
I can remember when they built Brember Road and knocked three houses down to make the new road and built industrial units round the back. The market was always an exciting place to go as kids and most of the market traders knew us and our parents. At the top of the road was an old antique shop called the Brass Monkey and I think Grahams the sweet shop was opposite. Just further down under the railway bridge was Toy Craft Seventy and we always used to sneak round the back  of the shop and root around the rubbish and sometimes find old broken toys that they threw out .
I remember only once ever going to the cinema in Northolt Road to see Jungle Book, then not long after it closed down as part of the building collapsed. Once, when all us kids were playing in the street a steam engine stopped on the railway bridge at the bottom of the road and we were all waving at the driver, it caused great excitement as we had never seen one before. Another shop I remember well was Macdonalds Fishing Tackle shop which was a short walk under the arches and up the road and it was on the corner. The hedges around the shop were cut into shapes of fish by an elderly man that lived around the corner and he was always tinkering with an old 1950s red Volvo.
I haven't been back for years but the last time I did it was almost unrecognisable, it was a lovely old town full of wonderful memories but sadly as with everything, things change and like they say, you should never go back!