Food Outlets

A Memory of Thornton Heath.

I can remember the suppliers of food and the taxi rank on the island at the Clock Tower - their pies were particularly nice and the taxi drivers very friendly. At the same place the freshly loaded coal wagons used to park whilst there drivers bought a pie - their horses were enormous - at least to me as a little boy. Thinking about it I think there was also a drinking fountain for us kids etc and a trough for the horses. They were loaded up in the coaling department of Thornton Heath Station Goods department. In my day - as a child - I used to go to the bridge a little way down the line and sit on the wall overlooking the rail-lines and watch the steam trains shunting the wagons. The wall was about six feet high and made of blue bricks - it was scary fun to walk on the top - especially over the bridge. I have checked Google Maps - and the wall is still there - though there is a fence to stop adventurous kids like me climbing. I was also sent - as a child - to a faggot and mash shop that was - if I remember correctly - in the High Street - you had to supply your own basin.