Growing up in West London

I also went to Southall Grammar NotTooOld! Was there when the "tech" joined and we had the new buildings. They were fun days. Do you remember Miss Brook? Boy was she scary, but there was another half a dozen equally frightening teachers.
Unfortunately many Southallites have moved from the area. I am still fairly near, are you? I went back to teach at North School, it was great.

All you West London girls are in esteemed company - the grandmother of the future king, Carole Middleton, grew up in Southall!

Stop you? No, carry on Nanasam! How did your date with Keef go? Was he the perfect gent?

aquagran - I left in 1960, before the tech joined on, so I must have been ahead of you. I'll PM you with some memories.

We used to walk to Isleworth baths ( not pool) from The Green and back. It was a very sociable time and took most of the dinner hour, going past the chippy. Was the bus the 367?
Remember when they filmed The Grass is Greener in Osterley Park with Cary Grant. He was grumpy and wouldn't sign my autograph book.

Wow Nanasam all those names! Do you remember The Muleskinners who were based at Twickenham Tech? Ian McClagan was one of them and of course went on to join The Small Faces. I missed out on the Crawdaddy but a lot of people at college talked about it because they were all big Stones fans.

Anyone remember the Chiswick Empire? They used to have talent shows there and one week our school skiffle band played in one of these - guitars etc and a tea chest as a double bass! Needless to say we all went along to support them.

I think it was Ian McGlagan who was at Spring Grove Grammar school. We used to go to the panto at the Chiswick Empire. Does anyone remember the theatre on Kew Bridge . It has been replace with a huge office block.

The Chiswick Empire was replaced with an office block in the sixties.
When you think about it that area was a good place to live then

Haha, NotTooOld Keef bought me a drink at the bar, then we went to the dressing room above the stage. He spent the rest of the break with his arm round me, reading the New Musical Express which had done a piece on them. It was the night before they started their very first UK tour, so who knows what might have been?
deedaa I seem to recall the name Muleskinners. There were so many local bands around at the time.
I remember going to see The Who at De Brome school in Feltham. My husband had a pee with Rod Stewart in The Airman! I knew a guy who worked for a magazine and he took me to see Ready, Steady, Go at the BBC. We got in for the rehearsals and there I was leaning on Dave Davies shoulder watching the other acts - Dusty Springfield, The Kinks and The Stones. I was even in the opening shot when the show started. My mum watched TV from home and had the shock of her life to see me on TV! My friend and I went to Kingston Odeon to see Billy Fury and again when the Stones were playing, backed by The Nashville Teens and Lulu. I got a nosebleed so we knocked on the stage door and were shown into Mickey Most's dressing room so I could clean myself up. My nosebleeds got us into some pretty good places!

aquagran - thanks for the pm. Fancy your mum working at Meesons, perhaps she sold me a Crunchie bar - my favourites in those days.

nanasam - I did a sharp intake of breath when you wrote that Keef took you to his dressing room but then I was -disappointed- relieved when you said he only put his arm around you. Mind you, I'm still wildly jealous!

Wasn't it wonderful to live so near to London in those days? Every day I walked past the coffee shop in Ealing Broadway where the Stones hung out and wrote some of their early songs on my way to my first job in Acton Vale. Unfortunately I didn't know that until I read it recently in a book or I would have dropped in for a coffee.

I'm also a West London girl, Chiswick until my late teens, then moved Hampton near Hampton Court.

I went to school in Hammersmith so I got the 267 from one end of the route to the terminal in Hammersmith. Allthrough Twickenham, Iselworth and Brentford. Along the river at Brentford was heavy industry, not the luxury flats that are there now.

I had a Saturday job in the jewellers, called Sanders, in Twickenham.

I remember shopping with my Gran in Chiswick when the Empire was still standing and her pointing it out. I thought it was now the Antique Emporium called The Old Cinema?

Does anyone remember Goodbans department store, on the High Road? Most of my nights out to see bands were focussed on student union gigs at Imperial College, Royal College etc..In the 6th form, we used to get Time Out and MME on a Friday and plan our Saturday nights. We sometimes went to the RoundHouse in Camden, when it was just a done up engine shed!
Happy days!

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Yes J52 we went to student gigs. I remember endless drum solos to give the rest of the band a "break". We saw Cream for half a crown at The London School of Fashion.

.I remember Goodbands. We used to go to Ealing for more posh shopping with my Mum as a youngster. I loved the money shooting around on a high wire system in Bentalls. My granny lived in Gunnersbury ave so used to get the 267 from Isleworth. Then used to walk through a transport caf called Jock's Box path against all advice.

Happy days indeed when you turn from a child to an open world of live music. and a bit of freedom to explore the world. We used the NME. If nothing better was on we went to the gods at the Royal Albert Hall

LullyDully - oh, yes, those endless drum solos - I loved 'em. I wonder when the drummer got a break? Ealing Bentalls, too, those high wire systems were clever, weren't they? Clifford Evans in Southall had one as well. I went to what used to be Clifford Evans in Southall High Street only a few years ago. Of course, it now sells a different type of clothing but the semi raised floor as you walk out of the shop is still there and brought back memories of hopping up and down it as a small child.

Trebles in Hounslow High Stree had one of those high wire systems.
The original Chiswick Empire was pulled down and very modern office block erected - my husband worked there in the early sixties - called Chiswick House. When they built the M4 section that went to Hammersmith Broadway they knocked down the house one of my uncles lived in - the end wall was inside his house and my aunt lived in a house which would have been in the centre of the carriageway.
I remember Goodbans and there was a supermarket along there somewhere too - I shopped in there when I was first married - we lived in a flat near the Chiswick Flyover. My Aunt had the newsagent shop opposite Turnhams Green station for many years.
Remember the dreadful smell going past Brentford Gas Works?

Yes I remember the flyover going up. It dwarfed everything around it. Including the large Odeon, now the Hammersmith Appollo music venue.

I used to go to ballet down a lane called British Grove at Youngs Corner, where Chiswick High Road met Hammersmith.
There used to be lots of individual shops along Turnham Green, I seem to remember liking going shopping there. My Granny lived on the High Road, nearby.

I saw Herman's Hermits at the big Cinema near Hammersmith town Hall.

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