Forum Topic

Chiswick 40- 60 years ago revisited.

Local history threads are generally quite popular on the Forum..and are certainly informative.Maybe it's just us oldies wanting to upload our memories! Or is it a chance to publish images stored in our collections.There's an interesting 1954 map of Chiswick in an old Chamber of Commerce Directory for that year, which shows the configuration of roads at the bottom of Devonshire Road prior to the building of the Motorway and the Hogarth Flyover.  You'll see Homefields Recreation Ground before it was reduced in size.See next message.

Jim Lawes ● 5384d49 Comments

Jim Lawes ● 5384d

A closer look at the Devonshire Road "Estate"

Jim Lawes ● 5384d

Jim, this is fascinating! I love maps and am fascinated by the area. I moved here 27 years ago and find it hard to remember the changes and when they happened. As a boy I remember living on Cromwell Rd (Earl's Ct area), and seeing rows and rows of terraced houses taken down to make way for the widening of the A4. I used to even have a couple of photos (taken on a box brownie), but fear they are lost now!

Jon Perry ● 5384d

I expect you've seen this website Jim, but in case you haven't.....http://www.oldukphotos.com/middlesex-chiswick.htm......do you reckon the James Street photo is actually the James Road on your map? (It looks like the right sort and era of building to me.)

Dave Jervis ● 5384d

Marvellous Jim - thanks for posting. If only all of those roads could have gone underground and Chiswick kept intact. And those photos - postcards? - are brilliant Dave. Thought I'd seen most historic W4 images but a number of new ones there, at least to me.

Ian Wylie ● 5384d

'A closer look at the Devonshire Road "Estate"'i have been told the 'Estate' moniker came from it being once part of the Estate of the Church or related to the Churchrather then the way we use this word in more 'newfangled' ways

Claudia Jachtmann ● 5384d

Fascinating, thanks very much.I'm interested to see that Wilton Avenue, where I used to live, is named "Wilson" Avenue on your 1954 map.  An error, or has the road been renamed, I wonder.

Lewis Bronze ● 5384d

Greetings Jim.Have you looked at the Pathe News site?  I know it is a bit older than 40 - 60 years ago but there are some lovely pieces of film to view.  Type in Chiswick, and enjoy!http://www.britishpathe.com/search/query/chiswickCheersSarah

Sarah Felstead ● 5384d

This is great cavendish school are looking at the 50's this term as part of our 60th birthday celebrations!

Lucy Dunkerley ● 5384d

Goodo, the  thread has attracted some interest..and thanks for that..Regarding the Cavendish Junior School that opened in 1952…you will see that this extract from the Chiswick Chamber of Commerce document confirms that Mr Gilgallon was the first Headmaster..and his son is aware of the forthcoming event.Other names of local headteachers will be familiar with many readers. Mr PJ Lee’s name was seen on many a local Notice Board outside Schools, Mr Fursland was a fabulous and popular head at SOTG and Mrs Alcock in the 1940’s in the Infants. Mrs Dean was my landlady at a flat in East Twickenham..and there she is at Grove Park School..where the Florence and Nightingale named roads are linked to St Thomas’s Hospital and the old pre-war Sports Ground there.Mr Cooke will be familiar with those who attended the Grammar School in the 1950’s and perhaps he was  pop star Phil Collins HM too in the early 1960s !And opposite Cavendish School would have been a branch of Cann’s the Butcher at 10 Edensor Road. (Interestingly, my family moved into the flat upstairs for 3months in 1944 whilst our bomb damaged house in Wolseley Gardens was being repaired. The shops at that time were just shells and without frontage or fitments. What a small world!)

Jim Lawes ● 5384d

This later Map, produced by Barnetts of Chadwell Heath, is probably dated around 1957 and definitely  prior to the construction of the Chiswick Flyover (off-map and to the West) in 1959. (Glad you enjoy maps Jon and Ian..and thanks for all those other suggestions of places to find images. Yes, Dave there was certainly a very heavy snow fall in 1947 and the Devonshire Road area would have been fun!Some roads seem to be missing from this map..probably knocked down since 1954..eg Williams Street,Furze Street and James Street.  Oh look Hunt Street is mentioned,,just off Hogarth Place.Yes Lewis, Wilton Avenue was an error in that 1954 map.. fancy the publisher (CCC)calling it Wilson Avenue!  (Well sawn!) You might thus enjoy this shop advert too ..seen in the St Nicholas Church Newsletter for June 1954.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------I trust you’ve all seen the tromp d’oeil in Pages Yard!And in Burlington Lane WAS  the fine Chiswick Products offices. (Wonder if Paul Allan has seen this picture)

Jim Lawes ● 5384d

Hi Jim, I am thinking the Education Officer would have been hard pressed to find information about Beverley Road Infant School being in Belmont Road.  Oh you are such a tease to throw up all these olden pieces of "gold"  I will never get my dinner ready this evening, thanks Jim once again.

Janet Hennum ● 5384d

Jim, did you notice that all the women headteachers in your post were Misses - not a single Mrs among them....wonder how that compares with now.

Cindy Carloss ● 5384d

Janet: (in NZ still?)No doubt youngsters from Cranbrook Road went to Beverley Road School! No longer there one gathers.Cindy: yes lots of Misses..thank goodness. Perhaps they refrained from whacking children's bottoms or outstretched hands!Sarah: Thanks for the Pathe Newsreel link. One frame caught my eye. That was the Henly (Martini?) Clocktower..with the Smiths Crisps factory in the background.------------------------------------------This was a notable building on Chiswick High Road on the corner of Marlborough Road that many will remember. We visited it on our Vespa or Lambretta scooters to fill up with a cocktail of  Redex additive and petrol… for some reason or other!..and then off we drove without helmets!---------------------------------------------------------

Jim Lawes ● 5383d

Wonder how many names you remember from the lists here.?I knew Mrs Coombe. Didn't someone recallthose Sisters?Enjoy the Newsletter illustration.

Jim Lawes ● 5383d

Jim Lawes ● 5383d

Jim Lawes ● 5383d

I think Durbin & Allwright as a delicatessen was still on Turnham Green Terrace in the 80s.  I have a feeling that the 80s owner bought the lease of my little card & gift shop on the High Road (Pink Ink - next door to Milletts).  He changed the name (& the colour) but wasn't there long and it then became Sara's Stationers.I love the phone numbers (also for telegrams!) and the line about Grandpa buying his toys in Galloways!

Sarah Sharp ● 5382d

Jim do you happen to have any pictures/ images you would be happy to email me?  We are having a 1950's evening  at cavendish next month complete with swing band- and I am hoping to decorate the wall/ put flyers newspapers etc out for people to look at.  ThanksLucy

Lucy Dunkerley ● 5382d

Odd, there are three churches missing on this map. St Nicholas, Christ Church and Our Lady of Grace MUST have been there in 1954?. Yet the baptist church on Annandale road and one on Bennet st (St Mary Magdalen) are shown. I wonder if this is deliberate?

Jonathan Bingham ● 5382d

So Sarah, what do you make of "Mangle Rollers Re-wooded" in this Jones Bros advert!! ?  Thanks also for responding about Durbin and Allwright Ltd..and the history of your shop.

Jim Lawes ● 5382d

Lucy, the big swimming pool across the road (Promenade Approach) from your School would be an ideal image for starters! Then perhaps you could do a few Chiswick Empire posters from the 1950s.Perhaps you could PM me for your suggestions.

Jim Lawes ● 5382d

My friend Hedger was always proud to say that he got his suits from Barkers in TGT...before he went off to work for Barclays Bank! He had once gone to the old Gunnersbury Prep School in Burnaby Gardens..(see next post)

Jim Lawes ● 5382d

ah Jones, indeed the most interesting shop in Chiswickthe lady who run it when i frequented it on a weekly basiswas fearsome on the surface (but really had a marshmallow heart underneath it all)i still miss that place

Claudia Jachtmann ● 5382d

One got the feeling that there was a strict regime here!The front of the School building faces all the way down the famous Wolseley Gardens.. and the playing field occupied the side of Havard Hill where all those (Ugly?) houses have been built

Jim Lawes ● 5382d

Here is the 1997 version of the Redex Garage as taken by my contact "A30yoyo on Flickr"A chum said today that his father "Ted" used to work there driving the tanker!..and that he lived just two doors away.

Jim Lawes ● 5382d

Interesting post Claudia.  Were you a modeller?!Is that where people bought balsa wood to make model aircraft to fly up on Epsom Downs?                         

Jim Lawes ● 5382d

Wow! it was my favourite shop... stickers galore, coloured paper and envelopes and 'sticker of the month' of course!

Rebecca Hobson ● 5382d

I remember Jones Bros too but suspect they were no longer rewooding mangle rollers in the 80s!!  Talking of model railways what was the name of the train shop on the high road?  Was it Ernie's?  A magnet for little boys but the owner (Ernie?) was not keen on children in case they damaged his trains!!Also talking of trains I have fond memories of long summer Friday nights in the 90s when lots of local kids and their parents used to go down to the Polytechnic Sports Ground for free rides on the model railway.  My son liked to help turn the turntable at each end of the line so that the engine could face the other way and he used to end up covered in black oil and soot but very happy!

Sarah Sharp ● 5382d

Thanks Rebecca.  The Pink Ink sticker club was a great success!!  I got to know all the local children that joined it!  I think it cost £1 a year to join and you got a special dated sticker each month!!My regular shop assistant was my shaggy mongrel dog Jazzie who had a bed behind the counter and her own fan club, mostly members of the sticker club!!

Sarah Sharp ● 5382d

Ahh, Redex - I remember it well.  I was driving down Marlborough Road towards the High Road when a lady reversed, at great speed, out of the driveway of the  Labour Party Building opposite Redex, and hit the side of my car and between us we managed to hit another four cars. Nobody hurt.  I went into Redex repair shop and asked them to ring the police, to be told they already had as we had hit one their cars that had just been repaired and was now a write off!  They were trying to contact the owner, who was on his way to pick it up!  It took ages to sort out the insurance claims as her insurance company wanted to apportion the blame 50/50.  Moral of this story.... always have that extra policy with your car insurance that fights the claim for you. It proved invaluable for me.

Cindy Carloss ● 5381d

'Interesting post Claudia.  Were you a modeller?!'nope but i have alway made all kinds of thingsand Jones satisfied all my knob'n'screw needs:o)

Claudia Jachtmann ● 5381d

Am I not right in thinking there were two Jones Bros. shops, the model shop on the corner (which is now Snapdragon) and the hardware shop which was a few doors down towards the station?

Dave Jervis ● 5381d

Great comments and stories. Sorry Dave..I haven't an answer to your query about Jones Bros in TGT.------------------------------------------Next picture shows Greys the Electrical Goods Shop, and upstairs via that small entrance was a Billiard Hall called Lucania Temperance I believe. Then you can see the North Thames Gasboard showroom..and then the white facia of J Lyons the caterers. Tomato soup and bread roll was always a favourite in todays weather. There weren't many casual eating spots down the High Road in those days..unless you count a penny bag of broken biscuits from nearby Woolworths!The next shop appears to be Burtons the Taylors (Montagu Burtons) followed by good ole Goodbans..and you know about that haberdashery and clothing store.

Jim Lawes ● 5381d

Wasn't this one of Tommy Cooper's favourite locals...he only lived around the corner in Barrowgate Road? All I can remember here in the early 1950's is taking the empty beer bottles back from my Dad's purchases from the "off licence" counter..which most pubs had in those days.

Jim Lawes ● 5381d

Quite a few changes have taken place in this area over the years..and back in the 50s and 60's we had the United Dairies Milk Depot on one side of the road..and this Ford garage on the other. (Remember the Zodiacs and Zephers...or just the poor man's Anglia!).It seems crazy that in the early 50's, when we didn't have Electricity in our home, the only way to power the Bush Radio was to attach it to an Accumulator (battery). This heavy item had to be carried to the Ford Garage here who kindly charged up the accumulators as a local service.Up till recently the Porsche Garage used the redundant United Dairies Depot to store it's cars...a location where once horses and carts departed to deliver milk to homes all around the Town. Sadly horses were killed in February 1944 when a WW2 attack aircraft dropped a bomb on the site.The "Cromwell Road Extention" had only been semi built in the 40s and 50s and indeed ended westwards at Wellesley Road..until work...started before the War... resumed.

Jim Lawes ● 5381d

Jim, you mention Goodbans in the High Road.  Was I correct in recalling a terrible accident that happened to one of our teachers from Hogarth?  One of the letters from the "Goodbans" sign fell and hit the lady on the neck. This would probably be middle '50s to early '60s.  I really hope this was a bad dream.  Yes, I am still living in paradise in New Zealand.

Janet Hennum ● 5381d

Superb Jim, as ever. Thanks for digging all these gems out. It's very likely that Tommy Cooper was a local at The Queen's Head / Hole In The Wall. I only saw him once - in The Emperor (now long gone) on Chiswick High Road, as discussed before. Legend has it that Bob Marley (and no doubt The Wailers) frequented what is now The Hole In The Wall when recording Exodus between Jan and April 1977 at what was then Island Records' HQ and recording studio at 22 St Peter's Square, just across the border in Hammersmith.

Ian Wylie ● 5381d

Sadly I've lost the knack of scanning images and uploading onto Forums via Flickr..especially with my iffy computer etc...but some of the images on this thread should be "saved"

Jim Lawes ● 2383d

Hi Jim, I agree about saving images. I am a member of a Memories of (town /village) facebook page for the place I was born and brought up. Members of that group post photos and memories. This had led to many online chats with people who were neighbors, friends and even people I first met in the first year of infant school.This seems a great idea should someone be good enough to both start and administrate a Memories of Chiswick group. This could easily hold the images you refer to plus others and by generate memories from members.There is already a Chiswick and Brentford Appreciation and Memories Group that of course may be a suitable place, but doesn't seem to be as close knit as the group I am already a member of.

Bob Guyett ● 2382d

Dave, you're right, both shops existed. As a kid I bought my model plane kits from the corner shop (c1958) and later wood and ironmongery for DIY from the other. What I can't be sure of was whether both shops operated concurrently.(Lived in Stamford Brook from 1947 and Chiswick from 1967, so have some knowledge of the area)

Jeffrey Cope ● 2382d

Why are postings supposedly dating from 2012 appearing now?

Jeffrey Cope ● 2382d

Because thread resurrected by new posting earlier today

Philip Coe ● 2382d

Just wanted to thank Jim for stimulating this brilliant thread, absolutely fascinating - maps, photos and reminiscences. Jim, if you have images of Fauconberg Parade, or Elmwood Road, I'd love to see them.

Richard Laux ● 2381d

Well said Richard...

Stuart Kerr ● 2381d

My elder brother and I went to Gunnesbury.Mr Pincott(?) was headmaster a portly gentleman as I recall not unlike Jimmy Edwards. A lasting memory was in the dining room at lunchtime when a bulge started to appear in the ceiling.Mr Richards decided to poke it with his cane only for it to bust covering him in water!Nobody dared to laugh out loud but there was a lot of muffled snigers.

Adrian Irving ● 2381d

Yes Adrian...Mr Pincott was the Head's name. Some years back I posted an image of the School's 1953 football team on Flickr (just Google Images it). The boys were called by their surnames (hurry along Irvine!) and the sports field adjacent to Harvard Hill... sadly?...has long been built on.

Jim Lawes ● 2381d

The listing in the 1975 Kellys. 56/58 Jones G.W. Bros & Co Ltd, Toy Shop. 62 Jones G.W. Bros & Co Ltd, do-it-yourself supplies.I am sure they had a small wood yard at the back of the shop as well.

Colin Potter ● 2381d

As to Bob GuyettDate/Time: 27/04/20 14:12:00I can set up a Flikr account under Chiswick's memories or something similar if people want to contribute images and possibly videos.I can set up an email where people can send images, tag them, and add a comment for upload. If one had enough images they could be put up and viewed by year  Even at some point possibly make a video of the images that can be shared. It is entirely up to the number of people willing to contribute to making it worthwhile. Don't forget that photos can be duplicated quite well with a camera phone these days to send via email for upload. Anyway, I'm just putting it out in case people would like the idea and contribute and of-course share. And of course, it does not have to be 60 years ago, it can be 6 months. All photos and text would be backed up in case of Flikr going down in the future, and photos will always be the property of the contributor but can't guarantee 3rd party usage. I can't be done with running a Facebook group as it can get a bit messy. Just a Chiswick image bank for all to contribute and view. Something easy for me to do that may just benefit others more.

Julian Pavey ● 2381d