Hornchurch, High Street c.1955

Photo ref: H115033

I have quite vivid memories from the late 1950's of Woodhall Parade or "The End of the Road" as those in Woodhall Crescent called it. Harry Skeeles the cockney greengrocer, always with his hat on and mostly with a fag in the corner of his mouth as well! His wife and later on their two daughters (?) ... and his very old mother, who used to perch on a stool by the till. Burgess the butcher next ...see more

Lived at 387 Elm Park Avenue. Benhurst Primary, then Suttons. I too studied under Miss/Mrs Syrett, Mr Walsh (great guy) / Mr Crew/ and the formidable Mr Pike for the last two years! Was he a stern bully or just trying to toughen us up for life? I was in the first extended course and left at 16 as Head Boy. Other names ; Mr D’Arcy (Head), I then did an apprenticeship at a plastics factory in Wingletye Lane. In a ...see more

Opposite where the bus is located is a row of shops at the end of Glanville Drive. For the first part of my life from 1947 I lived at the far end of Glanville Drive. The large house in the background with the light-coloured flank wall is 'Dury Falls' a Grade II Listed Building. That is at the junction of Upminster Road and Wingletye Lane.

The Kings Head on the left of the photograph was one of the pubs I would regularly drink in when I was in my twenties. I remember it being 'tarted up' at one time with fake beams made of chicken wire covered in textured plaster painted dark brown. It was truly awful! On the opposite side of the road from the pub in those days was a row of modern shops but as a child I remember there being a vacant site where a brewery had once stood and which was once used by a circus.