please empty your brain below
Hear alot about Burnt Oak on Radio London as presenter Robert Elms was brought up here. Sounds like there used to be a proper community there but maybe pre mass tv ownership and cars all areas had communities based around church halls, pubs and activities . Beautiful garden competitions used to be popular, something my Nan who lived on a similar estate loved.

chicker | 29.07.17 - 7:16 a.m. | #

Good post DG. I lived in Colindale to age 26 so I knew Burnt Oak very well. It was a great place. Loads of great shops and real characters. Unfortunately, it has sadly gone downhill and DG's post is very accurate. I still like going there but it's just not the same.

Bernie | 29.07.17 - 7:48 a.m. | #

No films or Bingo at the Savoy.
What is there to enjoy!
Odeons ground now in a supermarket cloak,
In Burnt Oak

John | 29.07.17 - 7:54 a.m. | #

I was one year ahead of Robert Elms in school. Burnt Oak was rated as one of England's 'worst' High Streets this week.
There was a major fire a few days ago but I think it's a great place! Have returned after a lengthy absence.

Helen D Vecht | 29.07.17 - 10:27 a.m. | #

Burnt Oak does still have a traditional shopping parade, it's just that the butcher sells goat and broilers, and the greengrocers sells vegetables I've never heard of.

Before too long it'll be the next area to be socially cleansed, and the people that give the shopping its current vibrancy will be gone.

Still anon | 29.07.17 - 11:25 a.m. | #

What does it mean to say that an area has "gone downhill". The phrase, to me, evokes unkempt gardens and uncleared rubbish, more so than in the "olden days" that one is remembering.

Of course, this could be objectively true. But it could also be coloured by the sort of nostalgia in which it was always sunny on holiday (when, if I think about it, I know full well that it wasn't). Anyway, is it really so much more virtuous to mow the lawn every week?

Malcolm | 29.07.17 - 3:55 p.m. | #

Poetry is so difficult to get right. But when, as a teenager, I was editing a school magazine, DG's poem here is exactly the sort of contribution I would have put in unhesitatingly.

From what I can remember, though, nothing as good as this one was ever offered.

Malcolm | 29.07.17 - 3:58 p.m. | #

I was born just across the invisible line, on the Mill Hill side of Burnt Oak in the Municipal Borough of Hendon. My brother, born in the same house, made it (by one day!!) to be born in the London Borough of Barnet!

My brother and parents all still live there, so I am often passing through.
Sadly, passing through is probably the best thing to do with the area these days. Even in the 1970s/1980s it was not the most salubrious of places!

Cornish Cockney | 29.07.17 - 5:40 p.m. | #

Town centre ranked as one of the worst retail destinations in UK

Helen D Vecht | 30.07.17 - 12:32 a.m. | #

There's a big old former co-op in Burnt Oak - see link

Richard | 31.07.17 - 9:41 a.m. | #

My Nan, who lived just round the corner from it, worked on the glove counter of that Co-op in the 1960s & 1970s.
Very much like "Are You Being Served", but she was no Mrs Slocam!!

Cornish Cockney | 31.07.17 - 11:14 a.m. | #

I really think that Burnt Oak gets more than its fair share of disdain.
Burnt Oak town centre ranked as one of the worst retail destinations in UK in Vitality Index is a good example. The shops represent the changed identity of the area and would appear to cater for this.Most of the shops are independents although you do get Tesco (first store opened around the corner) and the usual suspects. You can buy anything from a brand new Bentley to fruits and fish of the most exotic nature.
The days of three packed pubs are never going to come back-the last time I went to The Stag our group of 3,on a Tuesday night, were the only cusotmers and the curtains were drawn to hide the reality. This in a pub that once had 14 full time staff and legions pf part timers.But you can go into The Paragon and drink Turkish ale or head down to The New Inn or Blarneys.
The area has been woefully neglected by the borough of Barnet whose Tories have always had doubts about "red" Burnt Oak.
I spent many happy years living on Silkstream Road and i doubt that any council estate being planned today would feature so many parks.

Jimbo | 01.08.17 - 7:27 p.m. | #











TridentScan v2.10.0 | Privacy Policy