Sunday, July 31, 2011

Memories of a West London suburban childhood: The Parade of Shops



At the main Uxbridge Road end of Brookside Road is a parade of shops frequented by the Cranborne Waye brat pack.

A nasty angle was required to take this picture, hence the lamp post being right in the way. The alternative would have been to stand amidst the dual carriageway and much as this is a labour of love, I'm not prepared to get whacked by a lorry for the sake of it.

The second picture was taken from the marginally safer top deck of a 427 bus – sadly the “real” 207 moved on from being a Routemaster to a single deckered bendybus. The parade used to contain, from left to right: a Spar (preceded by a Co-Op complete with lovely clanking Sweda tills with spinning numbers a la fruit machine). Next door a shop no-one knew what was inside because it was never open, a greasy café (called I think, Hayes Gate Café), a Martins newsagent, a chemists, a sub post office, a shop called Ajay's which we simply referred to as “The Indian Shop”. This shop had the distinction of being open until 10pm – whoopee. Next door was a shop whose purpose in life was to act as some kind of money magnet for kids. There was usually a couple of games (Space Invaders, Galaxians, Quasar, being the ones I remember) but it also seemed to specialise in dodgy deals of the insurance or loan shark variety. To be honest, I haven't a clue. Finally, there was an Indian restaurant of the flock wallpaper school of décor.

No comments: