The Maypole and Southall Green

                        On the right-hand by the side of the railway there were for years several huts which eventually gave way to a very nice railwayman’s hostel. This was fitted out with all comforts for long distance drivers and single employees. Not long after the railways became “British Rail”, the hostel was closed down. Despite the fact that Southall Technical College have at all times been short of student accommodation, and being only about 400 yards away, it was allowed to stand empty for several years, in which time it was so vandalised as to make the building almost unsafe. Eventually in 1976 someone took matters in hand and, at a cost of more than it was built for ( due to inflation, of course ), “Martin Court” with 18 flats came to be. What bad waste by the powers that be.

                        There is another example of bad planning in that area. Running parallel with the railway on the right-hand side is Queens Road, the end houses of which are in sight of the station – or were before the present development. It was originally planned that Queens Road should come to the Green, but the people who owned the land with frontage to the Green had different ideas and, of course, in those days there was no such thing as compulsory purchase. So, instead of a few minutes, it takes at least twenty to get to the Station. With the present development it surely could have been possible for a path to be made to the Station.

                         It used to be a joke when the old type Ford cars made their way over the Station Bridge. They would start their effort, chugging away, and we used to interpret their noise thus:-

“I’m going to get up,
I’m going to get up.
I am, I am, I am, I am;
Breathe a sigh of relief,
I’m over, I am, I am, I am, ooo.”

                         Hortus Road had the Co-Op Bakery at the far end, with a footpath leading to the Church Path. On the right-hand side was builders yard of Watsons, the Estate Agent. Now there is a Spiritualist Church. Just a little further along were two cottages which had flat shopfronts added. This was Alexanders, Stationers, Tobacco and Sweets.

                         At the side was a small road which lead to Golbolts Slaughter House and the twelve Woodland Cottages. These were one example of brickmakers cottages, with a long garden in the front.

                        Next came a canopied-front butcher shop, Golbolts – later Anstis; and on the corner of Kingston Road a very old house with a garden in front.

                        All this area was cleared around 1935-36 and re-developed; shops up to Kingston Road and a nice old Peoples’ Bungalow complex where once was Woodlands Place. Kingston Road is one of the oldest on the Green. On the right-hand side all the houses are built in pairs, all of local stockbricks and, except for the first eight, all are alike – bay fronted with round arched porches. The left-hand side is a more modern terraced type  – a vast contrast. On the left hand side is the Ebenezer Hall, opened in 1972.

                        The “Three Tuns”, built early 1800, has hardly altered over the years. It has no cellars and the barrels used to be stored in a low slated extention at the side. There was for years a men’s convenience attached to the front, but this has now gone.

                        Next came two cottages turned into shops. The two pineapple-topped pillars at the entrance gate to the rear are still there. One shop was Reeves, the clockmakers, and the other Salters, the Chemists. The next block of shops built about 1900 housed Fleximans, Upholsterers, Charlesworth ( later Taylors ), W.H. Smith & Sons, Sweetshop and, on the corner, Pooles Dairy.