Recollections Of Childhood..Post War 50's

A Memory of Wealdstone.

Born at Station Rd, close to Bridge School, a small sweet shop called Ecclestones was at the foot of the bridge. We would walk over the bridge, mum to shop in the Popular Stores (Coop I think), I recall her giving a dividend number! The money used to shoot around in containers above our heads! Cerasales Italian ice cream van on a nearby corner! There was a senior school called Whitefriars but I didn't go there so don't know much about it, it may still be there! We would go to the open air swimming pool in Masons Avenue during the summer, there was a big pool with diving boards and a D shaped small pool which had a fountain in it. There was a cafe and maybe a rare treat of a warm crusty roll with jam on! Also, there was a chip shop outside (so good when freezing cold from the swimming). There was a vets on the bridge with an alley nearby which was a cut through to Masons Ave. I went to Bridge School infants and juniors; outside toilets would be frozen in winter! I can still recollect the smell of the school dinners!I I remember the train crash and that you couldn't go upstairs on the bus until after the wreckage was cleared. My grandmother worked in the kitchen of The Railway Hotel, there were steps at the side which took you to the rear entrance of the station. We would peep through the railings when the steam train went through...smelly!! Closer to where I lived were the courts on Rosslyn Crescent. Walking towards Harrow, I remember a chemist shop (Grants I think) and a wallpaper & paint shop where we would get the old wallpaper books to draw on!! There was a builder's yard close to the school and we would have sand to make a sand pit. My grandad had a monkey and people would gather at his fence to see Jacko!!! On one of the streets close by there was a 'bomb site' I had no idea what that meant except that we were never to go anywhere near! I have lived in the North for many years so have no idea how Wealdstone and Harrow looks now.