Nostalgia For Kingsbury

Looking through these old images of Kingsbury brought many memories as a kid in the 60,s lived in Dorchester way, Remember the Saturday morning pictures & the garden centre next to the old fire station back then. Used to play with a girl in Dorchester way who had an older Sister, If you read this which I hope you do remember Andrew who you played with leave a comment for me.

I was born in 1942 in a flat above Brighter Homes wallpaper & paint shop immediately opposite the Gaumont cinema. Mr Neighbour's hardware shop was next door to us. As a little boy I spent many hours sitting looking out of our window watching all the comings and goings in the street below. The 183 bus stopped right outside. I often watched the banners above the Gaumont being changed each week. I remember being taken there to see "Genevieve" and "Doctor in the House", among many others, in the 1950s and went to Saturday morning pictures of course. Can still sing "We come along on a Saturday morning greeting everybody with a smile"! I used to buy sweets at Bunce's sweet shop on the same side as the cinema but a bit further along towards the Prince of Wales pub where my mother & father used to drink. I think there was a fish & chip shop next to Swan's. My parents also used to frequent the "Green Man" in Slough Lane. I wonder if it's still there? I seem to recall there were thatched cottages on the corner. I never went to school in Kingsbury because when my father died in 1946 I was sent away, first to a residential nursery in Totteridge and then to a boarding school in Wanstead, E11. The man in the flat next to us was a milkman with the Express Dairy in Berkeley Road. The milk floats were horse drawn in those days.I liked going across to see the horses. My father had an office in a house in Berkeley Road, no.2, I think, and our GP had his surgery in the house next door. I stayed there sometimes because my mother was friendly with the doctor's housekeeper, Mrs Burrows, who lived there. The doctor was Dr Barwell. As a little boy I was quite frightened of him! Mrs B's son John and I sometimes went swimming in the Kingsbury pool. I left Kingsbury in 1958. I went back a couple of years ago and was astounded at the changes, especially the access to our old flat which is totally different to what it was when I lived there. I have to say I was not impressed with modern-day Kingsbury. Lawrence Nicholls.
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