The Odeon, Hounslow West 1940

A Memory of Hounslow.

I remember going to the Odeon every Saturday morning, it cost 6d (about 2 new pence). We used to go to the 'pictures', as it was called then, as a family most weeks, and I well remember coming out at the end of the film in 1940 to find thick fog, you could not see more than a few feet in front of you. As no buses came, my dad said we would walk home. There were no street lights (because it was war time) so we started to walk slowly towards Henley's roundabout. A voice came at us through the thick fog, asking "May I walk home with you?". We all set off when suddenly we all fell into a ditch" We had crossed the road without realising and had fallen into a shallow ditch which was outside a detached house at the junction of the Great West Road and the Bath Road. It is now a service station. Nobody was hurt and we did eventually arrive home, I'm not sure about the lady who had joined us!