1970's 80's, Around The Arndale Centre

A Memory of Wandsworth.

Moved into a council house near King George's Park in 1978. My grandparents lived in Santos Road. I used to play as a kid around the bandstand in the park. I remember the shire horses making their way through the morning traffic delivering barrels of Young's beer from the brewery. The sound of Concord roaring overhead at 9pm each day. The smell of hops. The big old Oak tree at the top of West Hill. Knickerbockerglories at the local Wimpy, next to Tandy's on the corner of Buckhold Road.

As odd as it sounds, many memories come from a mis-spent youth hanging around in the Arndale Centre. Tiled in endless patterns of oblong brown and orange tiles, as all those shopping centres were. I remember Bejams, Woolworths. I remember the indoor market - an odd, crowded space with low-rent stalls selling everything from ex-rental televisions to hats and coats, hoover spares and ear piercings, behind the Our Price record shop. And upstairs, the cafe; the air thick with cigarette smoke. Later, in the mid 80's, "Gallery Software" selling computer games upstairs. The big toy store selling Star Wars toys in 1977. Bejams selling frozen food and freezers.

I recall the indoor fountain outside Sainsbury's and Tesco's. To me as a kid, this naff feature was a thing of magic and endless fascination. It had multi-coloured lights underneath the surface of the water, which changed in a set pattern. There were always coins at the bottom – 1/2p, 1p and 2p coins, mainly, that people had thrown in for good luck. The water gushed in alternating hues of green, red and yellow, set against some forever-dusty metallic palm trees, and surrounded with plastc yellow seating. The centre was updated in around 1985 to incorpate the new "food court", claiming to have the worlds first revolving glass elevator, but it's heydey had probably already come and gone by then.

I'd love to see some photo's of the inside of that centre in all its 70's glory!