FunkyAnorak
Middlesex Feature
Greenford Red Lion and Flower Stall
Greenford
Leafy Suburbia
Greenford was once a suburb famed for it's industry and at its vibrant town centre boasting two cinemas. The Granada (now a Tesco Metro) hosted The Rolling Stones in their early days. Greenford's residential areas of tree lined avenues are now sliced by the thunderous A40 joining London to the motorway network.
Aladdin Tower from Western Avenue
In the 60's the A40, then aptly named the Western Avenue, had a grassed centre reservation with crossing gaps, and roundabouts again with grass and trees. This rapidly gave way to concrete flyovers and underpasses to effectively allow commuting traffic to travel 24 hours a day over ever increasing distances. Because of this Greenford is now a split community gradually merging into the Greater London's anonymous urban sprawl.
This page takes a selective look at Greenford's bygone era and will be of interest to Baby Boomers of the area and maybe even those who hale from over the border in Perivale not to mention those who may have been born in the Perivale Maternity hospital!
Perivale Hospital
Greenford's industry has been replaced by warehousing, logistics, medicine and, as with most of Britain, the service sector. It's famous landmarks are also disappearing. For example Rockware Glass gave way to the WestWay retail park and ...
Lyons 2003
Click fPhoto for Memories
... who would have thought that all would be left of J Lyons, once one of the areas biggest employers, are the pair of rusty old entrance gates.
Oldfield Tavern - Pub and Disco
One such lost landmark is the 'Oldfield' ...
Responsible for many a matrimonial, or otherwise, event! This was in the days of girls dancing round their handbags whilst the blokes returned from the bar to stand with their backs to the walls exercising their elbows, so as to speak!
These were also the days when the majority of drivers seemed to be male and kerb-crawling was genuinely to give girls lifts home, with or without that good-night kiss! So for those blokes who didn't score, or brave the 'last waltz' at 11-00pm, this was the only hope of romance before going home!
Unfortunately the blokes little realised that the girls had caught the last buses home which left at a quarter-to-eleven!!!
The Oldfield was the
venue for gigs by local and new bands, including
Hawkwind, Genesis, Detours (later became The
Who), and Sutherland Brothers
& Quiver.
Happenings at the 'Oldfield' must the subject of many a 60's and 70's tale!
Later the disco became known as the club 'Oscars' before the Oldfield made way
to a block of flats.
British Bath Works, Greenford
Greenfords foundry lost too - Good or bad?
Travelling by London Transport Underground tube during the 60's on the Central Line from Northolt to Greenford.
LT Tube passing the foundry site (site now part of the Aladdin Business Park)
If you were awake enough in the morning and looking to the right, you may have spotted
two squat chimneys
belching smoke.
These were above the smelting furnace of the
British Bath Works in Long Drive, Greenford. The foundry belonged
to the Bilston Foundries/Allied Ironfounders Group manufacturing cast iron
enamelled baths the most well know design of the era being the ' Vogue ' .
British Bath Works operated 24 hours a day producing cast iron baths for domestic and world markets.
Having worked there in for a short time, I can remember walking down Long Drive
where the houses were covered in soot and the ground vibrated to the constant
thump of the factory's castings shop.
When the molten iron had set and the rough castings released from the moulds,
the baths entered the chasing shop for de-burring. It was deafening and the air thick
with metal dust glistening in the light. Health and Safety standards were not as
high as today. The men, known as Fetlers, were using angle grinders to smooth off the
enamelling surface, most of whom neither had ear-defenders, nor respiratory
masks.
The smoothed castings, now coated with flux, then entered the enamelling shop. I remember the row of white-hot furnaces and the line of men dressed in 'asbestos' suits and hoods. These were the highly skilled enameller operatives who were just a few feet from the gaping furnace doors taking the red-hot baths out of the intense heat using a large 'forked leaver' and manually sprinkling the enamel powder coating using a sieve. The operatives work was very hot, dangerous and dusty, not to think of the health hazards to themselves and, indeed, to all who lived in the area local to the works.
This was at the height of British Manufacturing. Quality control was stringent. A slight blemish in the final product, a pit or bump in the enamel, and the bath was smashed and recycled into the smelting furnace. If the consignment of baths was destined abroad Crown Agents would normally carry out a secondary quality check before shipping could take place.
During the late 70's cast iron bath production retreated to the main works in the Bilston and the foundry at Greenford closed.
Push
& Pull
p.p. k.brockway
Picture at South Greenford
Transport that survived the Beeching axe
GWR Branch line from West Ealing serving Greenford. Push & Pull was the name given to the train which was made up of a single observation carriage hauled by a steam tank engine. There was no run-around siding at either terminus hence the name.
p.p. Greenfordbox.co
Eventually as with all st1eam, the train gave way to diesel.
Click Photo for Memories
The service is now operated with one or at peak times two DMU cars, but for how long?