Growing-up With Southall From 1904 (Memories of R.J. Meads)

 

Over the Bridge, Left Hand Side 

                         Coming over the station bridge from the South Road on the left-hand side, just in Bridge Road on the left-hand side, is what appears to be a house; but in fact it was built by Otto Monsted’s as a water pumping station. They required thousands of gallons a day. It eventually fell out of use when the company had their own artesian wells sunk and lay empty for years. Much later it was used by the local St John Ambulance Brigade as a first-aid station, and an A.R.P. post in World War II. The bank and Watson’s offices were built 1904. A little further along the Green were two old cottages with flat top shopfronts. This was Alexander’s ( papers, sweets, tobacco ). Down an alleyway at the side was Godbolt’s slaughter house and 8 one-storey cottages, Woodlands Place. Godbolt’s ( later Anstis ) butcher’s shop with a canopy front came next, and a very old double-fronted house with a garden brought one up to Kingston Road. All this was redeveloped between 1925 and 1928. 

Public Houses. 

                        The town was served by three breweries, the Royal Brewery, Isleworth, Harman’s, Uxbridge and Fuller Smith and Turner. Some pubs were beer houses only. They had to obtain a full licence to sell wines and spirits. I am not to know who sold what. There are several very old pubs in the town. The “Plough”, Norwood Green ( 15th century ) is the oldest. Then there are the “White Hart” and the “Hambrough Tavern” ( 16th century ); the “Red Lion”, Wolf Inn”, “George and Dragon”, and the “Prince of Wales” ( 17th century ), and the “Three Horse Shoes”, the Bricklayers Arms”, the “Lamb”, and the “Three Tuns” ( 18th century ). There are several more. Most have been altered and some have been replaced by others. The “Prince Arthur”, which used to be on the railway side of The Crescent, was pulled down and the licence transferred to the “Railway Hotel” ( nicknamed the Glass House because of its large glass frontage ). The “Black Horse” closed and its licence was transferred to the “Northcote Arms”. The old “White Swan”, which used to be at the end of Pluckington Place, was replaced by the new “White Swan” at the corner of Norwood Road. One name changed due to the First World War, from the “Duke of Prussia” to the “The Victory”. On the sign depicting a crest outside the “Bricklayers Arms” are the words “In God is all our Trust”. It was not unusual for the landlord’s name to identify the pub. For example, “Franky Newell’s” would be the “Hambrough Tavern”.