please empty your brain below
Down the rabbit hole here.

Comments about South Greenford below.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 09.02.18 - 7:00 a.m. | #

Greenfield looks a nice place, but it's nice to have you back.

Rob | 09.02.18 - 7:06 a.m. | #

Thank you for today's post,but I don't think that you made South Greenford sound like a 'go to' place,with the exception of that old sweet shop. 🍬🍫🍭

Jo W | 09.02.18 - 7:21 a.m. | #

I’m amazed the electricity is still on. I wonder who’s paying the bills?

Theo | 09.02.18 - 7:31 a.m. | #

If the post is nearly piled up and the lights are on, presumedly someone is at least occasionally going into Mays. But why? How gloriously enigmatic a place.

Andrew Bowden | Homepage | 09.02.18 - 7:39 a.m. | #

Sunday is even more forlorn at the station than you suggest. Few freight services run on Sundays. This weekend only one scheduled to pass through South Greenford - next Sunday nothing at all.
(PS Thank goodness you're back!)

IslandDweller | 09.02.18 - 7:39 a.m. | #

Love the Senior Service fascia to May’s. A real relic. Someone must pay the electricity bill for the shop. An enigma. It would have to get planning permission to become a hot food shop and perhaps local policy dictates there are sufficient of these.

Round the bend cashiers sound delightfully crazy. How could you tell?

David | 09.02.18 - 7:43 a.m. | #

Welcome Back. Loved this post on South Greenford. 60 years ago I had an uncle who lived nearby and your description brought back memories of bread pudding, cooked by my aunt. This is what your posts bring to many people, memories. Thank you.

Peter Watmore | 09.02.18 - 8:08 a.m. | #

We used to use South Greenford after Games at school as the playing fields were nearby. That probably added 60-90 passengers a day. If it was a hot day we'd eschew the train and go by bus via Greenford Broadway to buy a Jubbly!

Dave | Homepage | 09.02.18 - 8:23 a.m. | #

I remember Mrs May.
Grumpy in a pair of ‘Olive from on the buses’ type glasses and wrap around house coat.
This was back in the 1980s and I was part of a swarm of kids from the local Catholic High school looking for penny chews and a blue Slush Puppie.
She barked at us from behind her high counter as we waved 10ps for packets of Discos. (The one on the left in your picture)

She must be long long gone.

I was at a funeral in a nearby church recently and marvelled that the shop was still there, a real time capsule.
The 1950s curtains upstairs are tightly closed but I did feel as if Mrs May was watching me, rolling her eyes at the thought of a final order of a sherbet dib dab.

Paul | 09.02.18 - 8:29 a.m. | #

A good read, but that last sentence is superb - it sticks in the mind.

Waterhouse | 09.02.18 - 8:30 a.m. | #

Relieved that you're back again DG.

This runty branch line could become even more of an orphan if the suggestion made in DfT's consultation on the Great Western franchise is adopted. They suggest transferring the branch to Chiltern Railway, who don't serve either of the stations at its outer extremities.

Petras409 | 09.02.18 - 8:34 a.m. | #

Really enjoying this series. Great stuff as always.

Jon Combe | 09.02.18 - 8:41 a.m. | #

I lived on the Medway Estate - as it was known then - back in the 80's. I never knew about the Doctor Who episode that was filmed there.
It was close to "affordable" housing back then - I fear that it is not now!
Used to use the South Greenford halt a lot to get to Ealing. Single DMU I recall.

Mike | 09.02.18 - 8:59 a.m. | #

I think it was the southbound platform that collapsed down the embankment in the mid-90s, and it took about 5 years for Railtrack (or whoever) to get round to reinstating it; such is the lack of love and attention for this branch line.

Many an hour was spent driving those streets in preparation for my driving test taken at that very centre... worst bit was the big roundabout under the A40. (Passed with only two minor faults, since you asked).

andy c | 09.02.18 - 9:13 a.m. | #

Also interesting to see (from the linked photos) that, at some stage after May's shop closed Coca-Cola came and took their branded fascia board back.

David | 09.02.18 - 9:24 a.m. | #

I wonder if Hale and Pace still run a shop there and there's still a portal to the Planet of the Cheetah People...

daveid76 | 09.02.18 - 9:48 a.m. | #

Looking at the poster in the window May's probably closed 1994 or 2005.
Love the sign 'closed until further notice'
Corgi toys as well..... an upmarket sweetie shop.
It reminds me of the wonderful shops at Black Country Living Museum, especially the one with all the proper fags lined up in the window and on the back shelf.

scrumpy | 09.02.18 - 10:00 a.m. | #

Oh, thank goodness!

Will the mystery of the sweet shop ever be explained?

Leuconoe | 09.02.18 - 10:28 a.m. | #

That shop is fascinating. Reminds me of one I drive past on Hornsey Road, I must stop one day and have a closer look.

Caz | 09.02.18 - 10:35 a.m. | #

Candidate for the least used railway station in London?

dg writes: See first sentence.

Adrian | 09.02.18 - 10:53 a.m. | #

scrumpy: the statutory No Smoking sign in the door dates the closure at post-2007, unless (why?) it was added later.

David | 09.02.18 - 11:05 a.m. | #

@Petras409
The line will be an orphan whether or not it transfers to Chiltern, as no other Great Western services will serve West Ealing after May 19th. It will be Central Line at one end and TfL Rail at the other

The line has a very close counterpart in East London (shuttle service connected to the Underground at one end and Crossrail/TfL Rail, Elizabeth Line at the other, but isolated from the rest of the Overground, and entirely within the GLA area. That line has been Overgroundised, and at first glance, the Greenford branch does indeed look like another candidate for Overgroundisation. However, unlike the Emerson Line, the Greenford branch is not electrified. The Overground is busy eliminating its only existing diesel line, and would not want to have to retain (or hire in) an odd diesel unit specially for the shuttle.

timbo again | Homepage | 09.02.18 - 11:09 a.m. | #

@david
The sign can be seen on the old Google Street view images all the way back to 2008 (when the shop was already closed).

Interesting to note the neighbours in 2008 too - "plus ca change, mais plus la meme chose"

timbo again again | Homepage | 09.02.18 - 11:19 a.m. | #

Maybe the diesel/electric thing is part of the reason for potentially moving the branch to Chiltern rather than GWR.

With GWR's service in London moving to being electric, many of its diesels will be moving elsewhere. Although it will still have some, Chiltern will have a bigger fleet available.

Maybe.

Andrew Bowden | Homepage | 09.02.18 - 11:19 a.m. | #

Wonderful stuff, thank you.

Sarah | Homepage | 09.02.18 - 11:24 a.m. | #

It is not just Medway Parade that has been 'rebranded' as Medway Village, but the whole of what used to be called the Medway Estate, which is the dozen or so streets accessible by car through the parade. I believe this was built in the 1930s to house workers from the nearby Hoover factory, which in 1992 became the local supermarket for those of us who lived in the area. All the streets on the estate/village seem to be named after rivers or other UK water features. The 'village' rebranding, and the addition of 'West Perivale' the the station signs happened at some point since 2003.

Former Perivaler | 09.02.18 - 11:27 a.m. | #

Janet Street Porter used to live in Bleasdale avenue on the Medway Estate. She moved there from Fulham when she was 14. What a shock that must've been!

Mike | 09.02.18 - 11:52 a.m. | #

@Adrian
Given the plummeting ridership on the Greenford branch now that it no longer has direct trains to Ealing Broadway (let alone Paddington), it is certainly going to be a contender for least-used status in the future. A 30% drop in usage would be enough to drop it below the currently-second-lowest station. That would only leave one station, Angel Road, below it. But Angel Road is going to close next year.

timbo again again again | Homepage | 09.02.18 - 12:07 p.m. | #

There's a similar frozen-in-time newsagent on Chatsworth Rd in Clapton, complete with faded tobacco ad in the window.

It was open for an art exhibition a few years ago and unsurprisingly everyone was far more interesting in poking around the shop and looking at adverts for long-extinct sweets than the (perfectly good) art on show.

Steve | 09.02.18 - 12:15 p.m. | #

@ Paul
Thanks for the memories of Mrs May. I can just picture her behind her counter now!

You do indeed take us to all the best places DG.

Cornish Cockney | 09.02.18 - 12:37 p.m. | #

I've been to the Medway estate! Didn't go to the shops though.

We have friends who live in Tees Avenue backing on to the school. Very strange to sit in their garden and see trains on the branch line or on the chord.

DG didn't drive there, so he wouldn't have had the weird experience of driving the wrong way round a "roundabout" (really a large traffic island) to get onto the estate via Welland Gardens!

John Simmons | 09.02.18 - 1:35 p.m. | #

'Mays' may be the least used sweet shop in the country.

MikeH | 09.02.18 - 1:49 p.m. | #

From memory, both the Greenford Branch and the Emerson line were offered to TfL at the same time. TfL probably did not want either, for the reasons stated, but got just one of them in a Great British Compromise.

Malcolm | 09.02.18 - 2:19 p.m. | #

I had to look up 'liminal'.

As Ken Dodd (nearly) says, this blog is an education - well it certainly taught me a lesson!

MCG | 09.02.18 - 10:13 p.m. | #

"signs saying A Yorkshire Terrier Lives Here, but in Polish"

Does that mean DG can read Polish?

timbo again | 10.02.18 - 10:20 a.m. | #

Great piece on Greenford, was treasurer of the Lord Allenby FC, once my local now a bathroom shop.. the church is C of E by the way... Mays is a fascinating place... never been to the station... I have been to Hanwell Town, but a fan of arch rivals North Greenford...

Mark | 10.02.18 - 10:59 a.m. | #

Appearances can be deceptive: the alleged Roman Catholic church cum driving lesson venue is Christ the Redeemer, Church of England. It's a remarkably intact piece of architecture from the early 1960's complete with original fixtures and fittings inside, including an unusual gently sloping floor in the nave.

The stained glass in the rooftop lantern was done by the same artist who did some at Coventry Cathedral. The interior strongly evokes the post-Festival of Britain era and is in my view worthy of listing. Pictures here:

https://londonchurchbuildings.com/2014/10/21/christ-the-redeemer-allenby-road-southall/

The glass wall on the side of the sanctuary was originally designed to open up so that open air services could be held on the forecourt. Another facet of the architectural idealism from that era, many buildings from which are being demolished without much ado.

NickW | Homepage | 10.02.18 - 11:45 a.m. | #

That 'Cinema-like building' opposite Boots was originally a Burton's store - look up and you can see their past logo and 'The tailor of taste' branding.

Having grown up in the area before it became a haven of pound shops, charity shops, and takeaways, it still amazes me that some of the smaller shops which don't fit into these categories are still trading. I certainly never remember seeing anyone buying anything in them!

Tom | 10.02.18 - 1:20 p.m. | #

I should have added - Greenford did have a cinema (before my time), which now houses a Tesco.

Tom | 10.02.18 - 1:21 p.m. | #











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