Bowes and Bounds Connected
A Community Network for Bowes Park and Bounds Green
Happy Days
I found your site through my Cousin Terry who was seeking out posters for the Jazz concerts held at the Fishmongers Arms.
I thought some of my memories might jog other peoples’ and they in turn might fill in a few of the gaps for me.
As a young boy I lived in Holloway but my first associations with the Wood Green area were in the 1950's, my aunt & uncle lived in Grainger Road off Lordship Lane.
We didn’t have a car in the early days so we went to see them by getting the 41 bus from Archway to Turnpike Lane and then another bus along Westbury Avenue where you sat upstairs hoping to see if there were any trains going under the bridge.
At the bottom of their little garden was a large pub that stood on The Roundway (name escapes me) but long since gone. Sundays always saw me carted off with my father because he and my uncle had an allotment in Gospatrick Road. Being totally useless as a gardener (some things never change) I was usually sent off to the little sweet shop that was in The Crossway for a bottle of Tizer and a bar of chocolate. I will always remember the aromas emanating from the Wonderloaf Bakery in White Hart lane and the sounds of ‘3 Way Family Favourites’ on the BBC Light Programme coming from the radios of the houses adjoining the allotment site. On completion of allotment duty Dad and Uncle Tom would go into the pub on the corner of Winkfield Road/White Hart Lane (can’t remember its name in those days even though I spent lots of Sunday lunchtimes standing outside with a lemonade). In the 1950’s my aunts Father ‘Pop’ Cannon ran a café that was in (I think) Alexander Rd just off Wood Green High Road where the Shopping City now stands.
Other various recollections:-
- My aunt worked in Morleys the furniture store which was where Paddy Power now is on the corner of Downhills Way.
- My Dad had his Ford Popular repaired by RK Motors a Ford Dealer who had a small workshop in Cranbrook Park where the Fast Fit place now is, they also had a hire car business operating from a shop just around the corner. If he wanted the oil-changed it went to the Express Motors while-you-wait lubrication service in Pinkham Way, where the BP/M&S Services now are.
- The sweet factory at the top of Mayes Road.
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I still have an extensive collection of vinyl albums (LPs as they were known then) purchased in fits and starts from the shop which stood in Mayes Road at the top of Hornsey Park Road, demolished to make way for the Shopping City.
My cousin had his wedding reception in the pub on the corner of White Hart Lane and the High Road (Kings Arms?) in 1964
- I was in the motor-trade from 1967 and often had to go on breakdowns to the Cakebread Robey builder merchants yard next to the bus garage on Jolly Butchers Hill to get vans started (never could find Jolly Butchers Hill in an A-Z).
- Coming home from college one night (1967/8?) through Wood Green and seeing the old Bartons Department Store ablaze.
- Seeing filming going on for ‘On The Buses’ at the old Eastern National Depot in Lordship Lane while waiting for the 251 to go and visit relatives in Southend-on-Sea.
In 1971 my family moved to the then newly built Pickering Court in Lordship Lane. At that time I was an apprentice mechanic so spent hours in the Tuck & Norris tool shop where I spent my hard-earned cash buying more tools than I would ever need.
I could fill my car up for under a tenner in the filling station at the top of Westbury Avenue.
Frank Adams had a butchers shop (remember them?) in the row of shops on Lordship Lane opposite Morley Avenue.
After a spell away from the area I subsequently lived in Tewkesbury Terrace (Bounds Green) and then Beaconsfield Rd (Friern Barnet) before going to Southgate, then Finchley and finally off to Suffolk.
Happy Days!!
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Richard McKeever on
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Hello Keith and welcome to the site - many thanks for your fascinating reminiscences!
We have written on here about the Fishnongers Arms - both when it was a Jazz club and later when it became a blues and rock venue.
You also mentioned the Sweet Factory at Mayes Road - this was part of the comple that is currently the Chocolate Factory - artists studios, and its history is told in this local historian's video: The Story of Barratt's Sweet Factory.
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Permalink Reply by Keith Bailey on
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Thanks Richard I will have a look at this.
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Permalink Reply by sally hinckley on -
Hi Keith,
Loved reading your memories of Wood Green. That is where I am from but now live in Hertfordshire. Small world though. You mentioned R K Motors, and that was owned by my family ! My grandad started it up which later my dad took over and carried on until he retired and sold up. I have many photos and great memories and we even lived above the Car Hire premises when I was born. My grandad had many shops and premises and was also the Promoter of Haringey Stadium .
Happy times !
Regards,
Sally
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Hi Sally
Harringay (as it was before the loony left changed its spelling) Stadium, where we went on Saturdays to watch Stock Car Racing, we used to get the train from Crouch Hill to Harringay Park. Other Saturdays we would get the 41 bus to Turnpike Lane and go to the old cinema opposite Ducketts Common.
I remember there being a guy my father used to call ‘Doc’ who was the service/reception manager at RK Motors, I used to have an old bill for some repairs to his Ford Popular but I haven’t seen it since we moved house about 14 years ago but at some point I’ll try and dig it out. Dad worked for Brent Bros a menswear shop in Wood Green High Road about where William Hill Bookmakers is now (according to Google Street View!)
My mother’s family lived in Wightman Road for many years at No 212, she married and moved to Chesterfield Gardens, was widowed on D-Day and moved back to Wightman Rd later marrying my father.
As a youth I used to have to visit J G Medlocks Electrical in Green Lanes as the firm I worked for maintained their vehicle fleet.
God – was all that 50 years ago!!
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Permalink Reply by sally hinckley on
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Thanks for your reply Keith.
It was my grandad Stan Hinckley who ran the racing at Haringey and my dad Bryan Hinckley used to race stock cars !!!! You may remember my grandad, he always had a cigar in his mouth ! As a child I was bought up with the racing and my mum used to sign the drivers in on race nights.' Doc' ...... I remember him well and he was such a lovely man. I was really young then and he used to work at the Station Road Branch.
If I'm right, the mens shop that you mention was the place I brought my first designer jumper ! ......was it close to the cinema(same side) ?
I am 42 Keith but I have lots of pictures and paperwork that my dad gave me as he luckily kept everything. I am so glad that he did as it's lovely to look back on and piece stories together. Good memories & happy ones !
Sally
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Hi Sally
Yes I remember the guy with cigar!!
It’s a sad reflection on society that when I was 12/13/14 I used to go there with a schoolmate. We also went to Spurs for Saturdays and evening games and to Arsenal. These days you would be locked up and certified for allowing a kid of that age to wander North London streets at that time of night. In the 60’s we always felt safe and our parents felt assured because the adults at these things looked after the kids, they felt it was a duty, these days everyone wants to be Pontius Pilate and wash their hands of any responsibility in case they get accused of being perverted!!
I’m nearly 62 so we have few years difference.
When I first knew Doc he worked in the shop on the corner of Cranbrook Park and High Road – I can remember in later years he was in Station Road near Mayes Road.
Interesting because when I started a motor apprenticeship in Holloway in 1967 Dad swapped allegiance to my place as it was only 100 yards from where we lived (I was still late most mornings) so I wouldn’t have been to RK since probably 1966. You were born about 1972 and wouldn’t remember much before 1976 so on that basis he must have worked at RK for a long time
Brent Bros was at the other end (Turnpike Lane) almost opposite Whymark Avenue, There was a Burtons Menswear close by.
Looking on Street View which unfortunately goes out of date at the same rate as shops change ownership and name, the old Burtons is now Tesco Express you can see the upper floors are in that Art Deco style that nearly all the Burtons shops were in with most of them having a Temperance Billiards and Snooker club on the upper floors. Costa Coffee was a pub (can’t remember name)
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