please empty your brain below

Is that the same Harmondsworth where Penguin Books (until fairly recently) had their head office? Or is there another Harmondsworth? I've always wondered what was there, and why they weren't in London proper like all the other publishers ...

BTW, I'm new to this blog, and as an Australian anglophile I'm enjoying it greatly.

The sad thing is that if they were willing to move 10 minutes down the road, they could build as many runways as they like on the site of what is currently Slough, and we'd thank them for it.

"The last village round here which suffered a similar fate had the rather quaint name of 'Heathrow'". Actually it was "Heath Row" and my father still spells it that way when he writes his luggage labels !

If this link http://www.metadyne.co.uk/AIRPORT2.pdf is to be believed then the government of the day sneakily used wartime powers to get Heathrow "off the ground" knowing that even in the 1940's there would be considerable opposition.

Yes Brett, that's the same Harmondsworth where Penguin Books used to be based (and from where all my Puffin Club badges were sent).

But Harmondsworth stretches from the central village green past a long row of post-war semis down to a row of ugly office blocks beside the A4, and I suspect Penguin's HQ used to be along the latter.

Thanks for the information on Harmondsworth, I love reading about places that are older than my country, the youthful Canada.

Not back as far as your Heath Row cottages link but you might be interested to see how Harmondsworth appeared in the BBC Domesday project 20 years ago...

http://www.domesday1986.com/

The barn also gets a mention along with the soon to open M25.

Penguin Books was behind and slightly to the right of the what is now the Arora hotel on the Bath Road. The bus stop now known as "Compass Centre" used to be "Penguin Books".

The high bay warehouse is the only part that still exists and from what I can see of the Hatch Lane photo, the warehouse is the large block. The foopath shown in the right of the photo meets the Bath Road just west of Penguin.

I used to work across the corridor from the old Puffin Club office. I think it had a sticker left on the door when I started there.

All of the editorial and "arty" staff were in Kensington in the Eighties, Harmonsworth was the warehouse, Accounts, operations, computer dept and sales.

The site is now being developed as "Polar Park" which I guess is a reference to it's old use.











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