Random Memories

A Memory of Greenford.

I was born in Runnymede Gardens, near the Bridge Hotel and Greenford roundabout in 1939. I remember Spitfires flying from Northolt and a V1 rocket that (I think) hit part of Glaxo laboratories in 1944. I was in the garden, aged 5, when that flew over. VE night was also memorable, as was the subsequent street party in the back alley behind Runnymede Gardens. I can recall a bonfire with an effigy of Hitler in Cowgate Road, or nearby. After a brief spell at Oldfield Lane Infants School I went to school in Ealing, catching the 'push and pull' steam train from South Greenford Halt. From the 1960s I worked for 35 years at the Imperial War Museum in London, which once displayed a picture of me at the VE street party! I also discovered there that, during the war, the Alladin Lamp and heater factory on the Western Avenue had, for a time, made fuzes for Bomber Command. Saturday morning pictures at the Playhouse ('the fleapit') or the posher Granada also spring to mind. I would be given sixpence or a shilling and remember buying a bag of broken crisps for 1d plus some Fruit Salads or Liquorice Blackjacks (4 for 1d) at a sweetshop or bakers half-way between the Greenford roundabout and the Broadway. I got back numbers of the Rover, Hotspur and Champion from a stall in the market. Does anyone remember Reg's Bar at the top of the Broadway? In my teens I formed my first jazz band and am still active in jazz. Our very first gig was at Perivale Park Free Church, where two of my uncles, Bert and Jim, were regular members of the congregation. My brother Geoff was christened at Holy Cross Church in 1948.

Can anyone please tell me the name of the record and radio shop opposite the Granada, circa 1954 ?