The Maypole and Southall Green

                        To the left-hand side of South Road which, incidentally, was Southall Green Lane until the railway came – then became Southall Station Lane, is a small section of Avenue Road which now leads to Park Avenue. Until this was made, past the entrance to the park was Dodds Field and a small orchard – Southall Football team played there for a short time. As kids, a very good attraction for us was an iron construction which turned at the top like a round-about, so you can guess what we got up to. Then on to the Devil’s Tunnel which takes the footpath under the railway to Glade Lane.

                        Leading off on the left-hand side of the Bridge was the road to the Railway Goods Depot and coal wharves. On the way you would pass Belsher and Gibbons, Cornwalls, Whitehouse Coal Offices on the left-hand side, and on the right, the weighbridge and the siding used by the Post Office.

                        Coal trucks came into the siding for the various agents. Sometimes it was weighed straight into sacks and loaded for delivery, otherwise it was stacked because, if the trucks were held too long, demurrage had to be paid.

                        The Goods Depot used to be kept fairly busy, and three of the staff were well known – Mr. J. Turner and Mr. R. Elines both became officers in the local St John Ambulance, and Mr. Pilkington who used to deliver the goods by horse and van.

                        Behind the Goods Depot was a field which was the football field of the Southall G.W.R. team. This is about all there was of the area of Southall Green on the North side, after the railway came.

                        A horse -drawn cab service used to ply for hire at the Station. Mr. Holland and Mr. Marwood were the cabbies. Also, nightly, a coffee or refreshment stall had its pitch outside the Station, run by Mr. Nelms. How well I remember the large cheese cakes with plenty of shredded coconut on top which, on request, would be put on top of the tea urn to be served up hot: also the flat trays of Nelson and Tottenham. I was never sure which was which, but one was like baked bread pudding, about 4″ by 2″ by 1 ½” thick, with plenty of sugar on top, and the other more like a sponge with pink icing on top, cut into triangles, which I think must have been Nelson. Either of these could be had for a penny ( ½p ). Tea, coffee, oxo – a large cup for 1 ½p ( 1p ).