Thank you guys, what a tribute to our shared past in the good old Bush. Grew up there in 40s, left in 64. Dad owned greyhounds which he kept in the cellar and Mummy and our Nana used to drink Watneys in the Wellington Arms, corner of Wood Lane and Uxbridge Road. In this vid, you see our old home over Cottage Chicken next to Sainsburys. The flat was owned by LCC and the rent was a pound a week! The electricity meter was fed with sixpences, we took mum's beer bottles back to get money for the electricity, which went out regularly. The whole place shuddered when the underground trains rattled and rumbled underneath the place. Nana kept Irish labourers in her three rooms, there was the day lot and the night sleepers, about six of them, plus a Brit called Roger. One of them was IRA and had ammo stashed under his bed, the police raided Nana's and the bloke was arrested. We lived in rooms above Nana, and had to climb five layers of steep steps to get there. The shop below was a called Annettes and was a ladies dress shop. The staff, Nana's lodgers, and our family of four had to use the one loo, right on bottom floor. About 20 people plus customers were using that loo.......... No bathroom in the place , so it was old tin bath on kitchen floor, and Dad playing Neptune with zinc buckets boiled on the gas stove. We dreaded those Sunday baths with steam rising, crimping our hair and scalding water laden with washing soda. The bus stop outside the shop serviced Oxford Street (no.12 Routemaster), 49 to Kensington High Street, which were our stamping ground. Nana shopped for whale and horse meat at the mobile shop in the market, She fed her lodgers stews made with the meat. No wonder I am a vegetarian today. My Aunty Elsie and dad's brother Herbie lived over the fruit shop on the corner, next door to the Goon show writers. Stamp and Michael Caine had a flat nearby. There was a seedy toilet, dating back to Victorian era, on corner of Wood Lane, opposite the Welly, where men cruised for a quick you know what. It was great to see the black angel again opposite the Central Line. Once met a guy here in Cape Town who ran a military and civvies tailor a few doors down ....he had a shop opposite my yoga studio. Small world. As teenagers we were R&B fans, at Eel Pie Island, Marquee, Ealing Tec, and remember Jagger's first gig at the Ealing Club ..... .
Wilfred brambell of steptoe and son fame was caught in those toilets and arrested steptoe had just become a hit then he was thinking of quitting but decided to carry on with the show
How well you write. Love your story... I was born in fulwood lancashire, then we moved around the world and came back to live in Hayes Middlesex. The Uxbridge road bus took us all the way to shepherds Bush. Used to go to the market at least once a month. Still remember the sausage and fried onion smell a bloke used to sell in the market. There was an old lady just standing there reading people's palms for a quid. Once we had a suitcases with us, so she told my mum we would be traveling soon.. 🤣😂. Some kids used to go by her shouting, "she tells everyone the same thing"! Oh those were the days of reggae music, nice people, and vibes.... It's not the same...
Wonderful memories of growing up there. Brought a tear to my eye to see the landmarks I knew slowly disappearing. My family have eaten at Cookes pie and mash since it first opened. When my mother died, family from all over attended. At the gathering after the funeral someone mentioned pie and mash. That set the ripple off through the group. We got up as a whole and set off. I’ll never forget the sight of us striding across Bush Green, all wearing our black funeral garb. When we got there we explained about being at a funeral earlier and they sat us all down in the back, produced a velvet rope (the least likely place I ever thought would have owned a velvet rope with brass ends) and cordoned us off. We laughed and cried and ate pie and mash. Mum would have loved that. She was Eileen McEvoy nee Upfold.
Visited Sheppard's Bush in September 2017 and stayed at the Ibis hotel. England is the best place in the world and has my heart there. My wife is of British origin and she showed me where she was born, lived, and went to school. We toured London and Birmingham as well and I miss everything, the kind people, the beauty of the city. We will return to live for good when we retire in 2022. I believe English people are very smart and articulate when it comes to every day life. I love the smiles of English people and look forward to seeing you here again. CHEERS!!!
John, you are quite welcome my friend. Thank you for your kind words, Sir. I love to dream about our trip to England back in 2017. I have been watching tons of videos on Utube of England and the surrounding cities. We have a wonderful retirement app on our phones. 1090 days til we leave Canada for good.
Wow! Only just seen this and for me a wonderful trip down Memory Lane. I was brought up in nearby North Kensington and later lived in the Bush for 27 years. I saw two episodes of Crackerjack at the BBC Theatre. Eamonn Andrews was the compere and Leslie Crowther was the warm-up man. Thank you John!
Great video of the other end of the 207 bus route! The one match played at White City in '66 is a good pub quiz question (I think it was in England's group (IIRC). QPR also played there briefly in the 60s (maybe?) . I remember going to watch athletics there in the 60s to watch the barefooted runner Bruce Tulloh. Another fun fact about the 1908 Olympics is that the marathon distance was adjusted to 26.2 miles to suit the royal family so that the race started within sight of Windsor Castle and ended opposite the royal box at the stadium.
We went to Bush Hall for the WHO convention day, around 2008 which was brilliant ,felt a cannection with the area had a look around by the QPR football ground, then had a look down Goldhawk road to see the old club were the Legendry Who used to play, it was all like going back in time to the 60s when mods in the area where riding around shepherds Bush, even seen a scooter shop on the way out , happy days
Love this John, I spent a lot of my teenage years in "the Bush" (no pun intended).... one of the pubs there not naming it, used to serve us when we were 15... good times.
I met my first love in the bush some forty years ago. Wonderful memories of the place. I wish I could find that guy again! Living in Austria now! Thank you for taking me down memory lane....
John -- another great video -- highlights were the biscuit now sweet stall in Shepherds Bush Market and the (justified) rail against the development of BBC TV centre. Many moons ago I used to deliver to BBC TV centre and walks its circular corridors -- a truly magical place, so sad to see it destroyed. A great book to read is Bernard Wilkie's documenting of the BBC Special Effects Department which he started and which became a world renowned centre for innovation. The book is called "A Peculiar effect on the BBC".
Why was it named Shepherd's Bush Green? It was, over centuries past, the last camp-ground for droving/herding sheep in from the west country towards Smithfield Market in London. The green was their last nights camp and then the next day they've have done the final walk herding their flocks in to the City.
was looking Sheperds bush images back in the 70s and i actully felt very sad :( despite a lot of improvement over the decads but still an old memories kreeping in made me extreamly sad.
Visited Shepherds Bush in 1983 (from Los Angeles) and met a great group of people! All of us 21 years old. Lifelong friends to this day. Been back to the Bush at least 12 times ❤❤❤
Wow ! Learnt so much about my old hood ! I lived in godolphin road in the house of joe strummers wife's sisters ! Loved living there , learnt so much from this vid ! Thanks guys
I used to go to the Pie & Mash shop every Saturday with my mum , sister , and grandmother , since when I can remember . A walk down down the market afterwards to buy sweets . Fudge , Nugart , pear drops , etc . It’s great shame the pie & Mash shop has gone , another piece of London has disappeared. I’m 64 now , I know we had the good times unlike today’s London .
My mum was born in goldhawk road in 1923 moved to Southall in 1934 married in 1940 aged 17 was married for 50 years we loved spending a day in the bush shopping
A very informative video, many thanks. I worked for 20 years (until 1995) at BBC Television Centre and my great-grandfather owned a brewery which was on the site of the Silver Cinema (now Shepherd's Bush Market) which you also mention in the video. I'd be most keen to glean any more information you may have about the brewery. Thanks again.
Thank you so much for this video! Just to mention one thing among many, I am so happy to know that Crackerjack! , of happy childhood memory, was recorded in that very building which I've walked past many times.
In the early 1960's I went with my dad to sell scrap metal to the traders opposite the White City stadium. Steptoe and Sons address was Oil Drum Lane and watching their outside yard scenes with the corrigated iron fencing was just how it was for real. This area is now under the West Wat A40 flyover and was once all pig farms. Indeed I've seen an old A-Z map name here as "the piggeries"
You were right outside the Odeon Shepherds Bush, presently the Dorsett Hotel( yes two t’s) next to the Pike cinema (I knew it as the Essoldo). The Odeon had a classic history- full size cinema / multiscreen/ bingo hall.
No mention of the largest theatre on the green, next to what was originally the Pykes Cinematograph Theatre (later the Essoldo) now the Walkabout, and that was the Gaumont Theatre, originally the Pavilion Theatre and now the Pavilion Hotel. On Saturday mornings, they had a teenagers show, which had both film and live bands. Also, no mention of the Goldhawk Social Club in Goldhawk Road, which was unofficially the Who's home venue, where other big names such as The Kinks and Rod Stewart have performed. Also worth mentioning was the Lime Grove Baths, opposite the studios, where the BBC would live broadcast professional Wrestling on Saturday afternoons. TRIVIA: I spoke to Terry Thomas, when he came out of the Lime Grove Studios. I spoke to Joe Brown, when he came out of a tailors on the green. My grandmother was an usherette at the Empire Theatre.
Just up the Uxbridge Road from where I hailed in Ealing. Shepherd's Bush Market was one of the best in London. We used to go there a lot as kids. Not far from my great aunt Louise in Holland Patk.
My family lived at 242 Uxbridge Rd my brother was born in the house there I wonder if H Robinson is still on the bricks there visited there in 1978 I live in America
A lot of early cinemas opened in 1910 due to the requirements of the Cinematograph Act 1909. This was basically about protecting the audience from the dangers of nitrate film. Many of the previous venues ib which film had been shown could not meet these requirements, and so a large number of new purpose built cinemas opened at that time. Some of these still survive, including what are now the Electric Portobello Road, the Phoenix East Finchley and the main auditorium of the Ritzy Brixton.
That was wonderful. I was born just off the Uxbridge Road in 1947. I bought my records in WG Stores in the market, ate pie and mash in Goldhawk Road, went to college in Lyme Grove and watched athletics at White City Stadium. Thanks for the memories guys!! John Parker
I was born 100 yards from Wormwood Scrubs prison wall on the East Acton Council Estate. I remember a gang of yobbos from White City looking for an East Acton gang to fight finding me on the Scrubs when I was 14 in 1961 but they left me alone. I went to that Empire Shepherd's Bush Green & the Odeon at the east and about once each but mostly to Gaumont, Granada & Odeon on Acton High Street (the East Acton ABC Savoy cinema had become a bowling alley). Until I was 40 I thought White City original exhibition was just the stadium until I got a Victorian drawing showing the huge White City Exhibition ground that was the whole are with White City stadium at the northeast corner and buildings all white everywhere and gardens and water displays where the streets are named after the British colonies or persons like South Africa way and so on. My dad bought me jellied eels at the Market stand Goldhawk Road end (if memory serves) after Gran's funeral in 1960 when I was 13. I didn't like jellied eels.
Wow, stumbled across this. I was born in Percy road, Shepperd's bush. Its funny but I had forgotten all about the the library on Uxbridge Rd. I walked in there once and they had a community board with all sorts of courses ,English , maths ,I.t. .....I took one , it was the long slow road to me leaving the Bush and for me a much better life. The Bush was great, I was the problem. Thank you for reminding me . Gary Nicols
What a joy to see the bush again, I was born in Stan lake road I knew every were you went to it brought back so many memories, I live in argyle Bute now the next time I travel to London I will go back to the bush thank you for bringing so many memories back, I went to college down lime grove thank you for such an informative video you have started my day with a whoosh🎉 going to create some magic in the garden.
My aunt lives in road behind old lime grove studios and was evacuated during WW2. Her neighbors were blitzed and whole family were killed sadly. I went to see it in 1980's.
I had a white city address for many years. Hubby worked for Ratp. 94 bus 30 yrs. ln Staffordshire now moved nearly 4 yrs ago. Gosh l remember Limegrove. Art Deco building. Lovely building😍
@26:00 the ladies mentioning the new luxury apartments being built that will knock the SB market down, I heard about that. Good to hear the market won the case (for now).
Thanks for another great video. I live in Leyton now but used to drive ambulances around the Bush many years ago. You've brought back many memories of the the area. There used to be a great Italian cafe in Goldhawk Road near the green, and a Presto supermarket in the shopping centre on the south side.
Was the Cafe called the Ritz? That was a great cafe . All eatery places were great 👍 lived here in the 80s lovely buzzing area & great community spirit 😀
This is one of the most fascinating talks I have ever seen. I am astounded by the butchery of important entertainment heritage. Utterly shameful. One of the things that comes to mind as to why it was possibly allowed is it's association with Saville etc. This time last year I took the train from Cheshire to London for the day with White City on my list of visits. Sadly I ran out of time so this at least makes up for it. I must say I would have been disappointed to see the BBC building so far gone.
So glad you made this of my home town., thank you. I love your videos so informative and relaxing always finding out something new. Keep up the brilliant work. 🙌
One of the first times I was in Shepherds Bush was for the Me First and the Gimme Gimmes gig - at the Empire - advertised on the poster on the boarded up punk rock pie n mash shop!
as a slight aside, from late 1969 for 3 years I was a Royal Mail telegram boy (Young Postman) based at Spring St Paddington delivering to W2 W9 W10 and W11 all on heavy old push bikes with no gears and rod brakes, anyway, several times I delivered to 8 Orme Court, saw Spike once, never Eric, but in the reception area there was mounted on the wall a long narrow glass case with a sign which read "in case of financial difficulty break glass" inside was a cheque made out to Spike from Spike for one million pounds. to the best of my memory 😇
learnt to swim in lime grove swimming baths, spent my pocket money in the market, and went to Saturday morning pictures in the cinema on the green. All so long ago, but around it hasn't changed so much.
I learned to swim at Porchester Hall & Baths in Paddington 1956-58 when I was 9-11 but I went to lime grove sometimes & also "Blue" Bloemfontein in the White City area because I was born/raised 100 yards from Wormwood Scrubs prison wall on the East Acton Council Estate. I got a waffle iron from the market and much later a huge cardboard steamer trunk to emigrate to Canada in 1973 with my wife & daughter. Everything we owned fitted in that cardboard steamer trunk.
same here it wasn't the smartest part of London but it was home, bought my records next to the entrance to the tube, the library a small Sainsburys on Uxbridge road (Engelbert Humperdink used to live up stairs. Some fond memories
A great video again John, haven't been there for a few years, I had family there when I was younger and remember A Cooke's Pie and Mash Shop showing me live eels, I wonder if A Cooke is in any way related to F Cooke who had the pie mash and eel shop in Dalston and still have a shop on Broadway market. So sad to see whats happening to TV Centre, I worked there a few times and there was a certain magic walking through the entrance and past the studios.
Thanks for sharing those memories Ian. I was intrigued by the possible link to the other Pie and Mash Shops - seems part of the tradition with the various Manze's and and Kellys.
The shop in Dalston was a Peking Restaurant the last time I was there. The pie shop in Broadway Market has closed. Also the pie shop in Homerton, Hackney closed and has been converted to a flat. Recently on the market for a high price. I also noticed that one of the Kelly’s shops in Bethnal Green appears to be closed. Not sure about the other one. I used to live in Bethnal Green. I live in Sussex now but I still visit London occasionally. I usually check to see what has changed.
My career in the BBC TV started in 1968 at TV Centre - coor di'narf bring back the memories. It was known as the Cucumber Castle but don't remember why. At the centre of the circle there was a Statue of Arial presiding over a fountain but after the Queen opened the studios the Beeb couldn't turn it on again. The lake (tiny) was in the same position as the one built for the 1908 festival so the ground was sodden which was how come the VT department in the basement flooded. An elder mate told me it was like something out of a cheesy WW2 submarine movie when the water came in (Don't Panic). I worked at Lime Grove Studios for a wee while and was told not to take heavy film cans into the squeeky lift - any weight it didn't so much coast down as plummet. Oh yes I saw '2001 space odocy' in The Electric Cinima - if only I could remember was it was. My grandson got his film degree last year and my job is to pontificate in front of his camera crew. Oh happy days.
The Shepherd s bush. Was the Irish in the 50-60+ 70s play ground I remember butty surgru pulling a bus with his teeth once. He run the Wellington on the green & almost all the pub’ s where Irish . All the kid around the area where punk’s in the 70’s. Great atmostfere.
Bit odd to do a walk of The Bush, mention the film Quadrophenia but not mention The Who, or The Goldhawk Club, now the Shepherd's Bush Club, 205, Goldhawk Rd. A major Mod hangout which The Who often played early on. Anywhere south of Goldhawk Rd is Hammersmith by the way. Otherwise quite interesting.
Great video. I've got some photos of me standing on the finishing line of the old white city stadium. Where the old Royal box used to be was where they originally filmed The One Show.
Thanks. That new development is a real travesty - never really liked that new Media Centre. Shame they couldn't have recorded the legacy of the old White City Stadium with a bit more respect
You learn something every day spike miligan writhing above the shop how very interesting , Should have a Blue Plaque without a doubt what a shame these buildings aren’t there anymore important buildings like that such a shame well done guys on a very informative video
Would love you to have another walk about here it's changed so much in five short years. For one thing, I would say that your first impressions of the Television Centre redevelopment should now be shown to be unfounded. If you ever saw the place before, it was like a prison to outsiders. Now it is open to the public, full of life and lovely. White City Place similarly is now full of life with new buildings up making it far less 'anaemic'. It is a place of great change and should be treated as such, rather than a finished product, which it is far from, though approaching.
No point in complaining 'things ain't wot they used to be' cos things are changing as we live and breath.. it's part of the cycle of life. Just make sure you made an impression to be remembered by in a time and place, maybe you will get a Blue Plaque lol The lady on Shepherds Bush Market was gagging to speak about the 'good ol' days' and I understand her sentiment but as someone who's seen London change in my lifetime, and born 1st generation of immigrants myself I've seen the whole cycle of it: watching old communities leave, being the 'new' community, then seeing new peoples come in. Then you realise it's all part of the human ebb and flow, and has been the nature of London since Saxon times. I welcome it, the moment you turn your nose up at diversity is the moment you should be put to grass IMO. Shepherds Bush has held many great memories from my teenage years and there were a couple of things you guys overlooked, like the fact that part of the Market was owned by Michael Winner and his family for close to a century until his death. And there's a cafe on the corner of Wood Lane and Uxbridge Road, close to where Spite Milligan wrote scripts for the Goon Show, where the original concept for them BBC TV centre was drawn up in 1948. Legend has it the guy who was given the remit for the building had a mental block while sitting in the cafe and had doodled a question mark on an envelope - from the question mark came the design: if you look at the shape of the building it's literally formed like a question mark (?) with the (.) in the middle! Great video as always, John!
Hi John Love your videos. But Shepherds Bush has lots of landmarks & history 🤔 that was missed out , lived in Shepherds Bush in the 80s loved it 😉 & great community 👍 also very arty lots of different nationality 's that blended in with each other in language & culture. Good 👍 Memories & great characters around the place .
absolutely fascinating! I wonder now, seeing that old BBC television centre turned into luxury flats, what the other bbc building houses, the one on Regent Street, behind the church... were them contemporary offices or one replaced the other?
@@Frank-om4fc Ladbroke grove is not Kensal town Ladbroke grove is actually a place in W10 I know cos I've lived here about 10 years Kensal town is near the Kensal rise cemetery area which is further up Ladbroke grove was so called before the road was there
Lived at 128 Uxbridge Road and when to St. Stephens school. Learnt to swim at Lime Grove Swimming baths, played Football on the Green, jumped Buses, ran at the White City Stadium and spent many a happy time at the Odeon cinema...........such joyful and innocent days !😂 And yes......I am a QPR fan !
Loads of of odd stories about Lime Grove available if needed. The Film Vaults full of Nitrate Cellulose stock were on the roof and, potentially a very big bang. Also nearly opposite was Uranus House, an establishment set up by Dickens to care for young women.
could tell that’s exactly why she wanted to say. i don’t see a problem with it though i live here and love shepard’s bush’s range of diversity and culture
Its strange when exploring an area such as this one shepherds bush, that certain things don't get mentioned, The who's connection to shepherds bush, the early doctor who episodes where done at Limegrove also z cars, and Dixon of Dock Green there also, it seems that johns guest is rather timid and avoiding mentioning some interesting fact conceming the area bieng explored in this case SB, i went to school there in the early sixties!
The news came at the exact moment I clicked to watch this video, quite poignant. I lived next to Scrubbs Lane as a student and was an avid Steptoe fan.While the history of British TV is synonymous with that corner of West London, and the flats at Television Centre are a travesty, I don't think it's a bad thing that broadcasting has devolved to the regions. An old girlfriend used to work at Lime Grove and I visited a couple of times. A real rabbit warren inside and hardly changed since Hitchcock's time.
Thank you guys, what a tribute to our shared past in the good old Bush. Grew up there in 40s, left in 64. Dad owned greyhounds which he kept in the cellar and Mummy and our Nana used to drink Watneys in the Wellington Arms, corner of Wood Lane and Uxbridge Road. In this vid, you see our old home over Cottage Chicken next to Sainsburys. The flat was owned by LCC and the rent was a pound a week! The electricity meter was fed with sixpences, we took mum's beer bottles back to get money for the electricity, which went out regularly. The whole place shuddered when the underground trains rattled and rumbled underneath the place.
Nana kept Irish labourers in her three rooms, there was the day lot and the night sleepers, about six of them, plus a Brit called Roger. One of them was IRA and had ammo stashed under his bed, the police raided Nana's and the bloke was arrested.
We lived in rooms above Nana, and had to climb five layers of steep steps to get there. The shop below was a called Annettes and was a ladies dress shop. The staff, Nana's lodgers, and our family of four had to use the one loo, right on bottom floor. About 20 people plus customers were using that loo..........
No bathroom in the place , so it was old tin bath on kitchen floor, and Dad playing Neptune with zinc buckets boiled on the gas stove. We dreaded those Sunday baths with steam rising, crimping our hair and scalding water laden with washing soda. The bus stop outside the shop serviced Oxford Street (no.12 Routemaster), 49 to Kensington High Street, which were our stamping ground. Nana shopped for whale and horse meat at the mobile shop in the market, She fed her lodgers stews made with the meat. No wonder I am a vegetarian today. My Aunty Elsie and dad's brother Herbie lived over the fruit shop on the corner, next door to the Goon show writers. Stamp and Michael Caine had a flat nearby. There was a seedy toilet, dating back to Victorian era, on corner of Wood Lane, opposite the Welly, where men cruised for a quick you know what. It was great to see the black angel again opposite the Central Line. Once met a guy here in Cape Town who ran a military and civvies tailor a few doors down ....he had a shop opposite my yoga studio. Small world. As teenagers we were R&B fans, at Eel Pie Island, Marquee, Ealing Tec, and remember Jagger's first gig at the Ealing Club ..... .
Wilfred brambell of steptoe and son fame was caught in those toilets and arrested steptoe had just become a hit then he was thinking of quitting but decided to carry on with the show
the pub on the corner was the beaumont arms, the wellington was further up the street by the green
What a fantastic picture you paint of 50s/60s London.. it's all going on haha
How well you write. Love your story... I was born in fulwood lancashire, then we moved around the world and came back to live in Hayes Middlesex. The Uxbridge road bus took us all the way to shepherds Bush. Used to go to the market at least once a month. Still remember the sausage and fried onion smell a bloke used to sell in the market. There was an old lady just standing there reading people's palms for a quid. Once we had a suitcases with us, so she told my mum we would be traveling soon.. 🤣😂. Some kids used to go by her shouting, "she tells everyone the same thing"! Oh those were the days of reggae music, nice people, and vibes.... It's not the same...
@@sooz7256 yes you are right, memory slip, apolgies. The welly was our drinking spot. Many a fight broke out after hours.
Wonderful memories of growing up there. Brought a tear to my eye to see the landmarks I knew slowly disappearing. My family have eaten at Cookes pie and mash since it first opened. When my mother died, family from all over attended. At the gathering after the funeral someone mentioned pie and mash. That set the ripple off through the group. We got up as a whole and set off. I’ll never forget the sight of us striding across Bush Green, all wearing our black funeral garb. When we got there we explained about being at a funeral earlier and they sat us all down in the back, produced a velvet rope (the least likely place I ever thought would have owned a velvet rope with brass ends) and cordoned us off. We laughed and cried and ate pie and mash. Mum would have loved that. She was Eileen McEvoy nee Upfold.
What a beautiful story... All those bakeries are gone. How I loved a chicken pie waiting at the bus stop...
Does anyone remember the woman who used do palm reading? She was still there when I came back twenty years later in the 90s!
Visited Sheppard's Bush in September 2017 and stayed at the Ibis hotel. England is the best place in the world and has my heart there. My wife is of British origin and she showed me where she was born, lived, and went to school. We toured London and Birmingham as well and I miss everything, the kind people, the beauty of the city. We will return to live for good when we retire in 2022. I believe English people are very smart and articulate when it comes to every day life. I love the smiles of English people and look forward to seeing you here again. CHEERS!!!
Thanks for that lovely comment Steve
John, you are quite welcome my friend. Thank you for your kind words, Sir. I love to dream about our trip to England back in 2017. I have been watching tons of videos on Utube of England and the surrounding cities. We have a wonderful retirement app on our phones. 1090 days til we leave Canada for good.
@@steve8785 have you moved yet Steve?
No English in the Bush buddy.
@@silverfox8801 Indians?
Born and bred here in Shepherd’s Bush west London 😊
I grew up there in the 70’s. Happiest times of my life.
Would love a return to this John. I keep re-watching every now and again.
Wow! Only just seen this and for me a wonderful trip down Memory Lane. I was brought up in nearby North Kensington and later lived in the Bush for 27 years.
I saw two episodes of Crackerjack at the BBC Theatre. Eamonn Andrews was the compere and Leslie Crowther was the warm-up man.
Thank you John!
Oh man, this video is a film/TV/music buff's dream!
Great video of the other end of the 207 bus route! The one match played at White City in '66 is a good pub quiz question (I think it was in England's group (IIRC). QPR also played there briefly in the 60s (maybe?) . I remember going to watch athletics there in the 60s to watch the barefooted runner Bruce Tulloh. Another fun fact about the 1908 Olympics is that the marathon distance was adjusted to 26.2 miles to suit the royal family so that the race started within sight of Windsor Castle and ended opposite the royal box at the stadium.
Adrian is a real mind of knowledge. Enthralling. Such history in that part of London.
We went to Bush Hall for the WHO convention day, around 2008 which was brilliant ,felt a cannection with the area had a look around by the QPR football ground, then had a look down Goldhawk road to see the old club were the Legendry Who used to play, it was all like going back in time to the 60s when mods in the area where riding around shepherds Bush, even seen a scooter shop on the way out , happy days
Loved your video. Many happy memories of the Bush, TV Centre and White City.
Love this John, I spent a lot of my teenage years in "the Bush" (no pun intended).... one of the pubs there not naming it, used to serve us when we were 15... good times.
Thanks Paul - so much pop culture heritage in the area
Lovely video. I lived in Romney Court until I moved to Oregon in 1989. Memories...life moves on. Thank you xoxo
Enjoyed that I visited the Bush for the first time last month on a trip from Liverpool for 4 days went the pub The Green.
I met my first love in the bush some forty years ago. Wonderful memories of the place. I wish I could find that guy again! Living in Austria now! Thank you for taking me down memory lane....
Loved the Bush. Met my husband who used to live thier. Had wonderful memories and a few drinks in the pubs.
John -- another great video -- highlights were the biscuit now sweet stall in Shepherds Bush Market and the (justified) rail against the development of BBC TV centre. Many moons ago I used to deliver to BBC TV centre and walks its circular corridors -- a truly magical place, so sad to see it destroyed. A great book to read is Bernard Wilkie's documenting of the BBC Special Effects Department which he started and which became a world renowned centre for innovation. The book is called "A Peculiar effect on the BBC".
Why was it named Shepherd's Bush Green? It was, over centuries past, the last camp-ground for droving/herding sheep in from the west country towards Smithfield Market in London. The green was their last nights camp and then the next day they've have done the final walk herding their flocks in to the City.
was looking Sheperds bush images back in the 70s and i actully felt very sad :( despite a lot of improvement over the decads but still an old memories kreeping in made me extreamly sad.
Visited Shepherds Bush in 1983 (from Los Angeles) and met a great group of people! All of us 21 years old. Lifelong friends to this day. Been back to the Bush at least 12 times ❤❤❤
Thanks for the video!!! Really cool seeing my old home. Loving the old, hating the new.
Excellent little cameo of the importance of the bush to the entertainment world. Thank you
Lived in Shepherds Bush in my very early childhood (early 60s). Born Hammersmith hospital. A lot has changed.
My cousin lived there Tim Montgomery do you now him by chance .
Same as moi
Me too identical pasts
My old manor. Such interesting stories here.
Wow ! Learnt so much about my old hood ! I lived in godolphin road in the house of joe strummers wife's sisters ! Loved living there , learnt so much from this vid ! Thanks guys
A pleasure - great Clash link in your old place in Godolphin Rd.
bush hall deserves a vid maybe? thanks john !
I used to go to the Pie & Mash shop every Saturday with my mum , sister , and grandmother , since when I can remember . A walk down down the market afterwards to buy sweets . Fudge , Nugart , pear drops , etc . It’s great shame the pie & Mash shop has gone , another piece of London has disappeared. I’m 64 now , I know we had the good times unlike today’s London .
My mum was born in goldhawk road in 1923 moved to Southall in 1934 married in 1940 aged 17 was married for 50 years we loved spending a day in the bush shopping
A very informative video, many thanks. I worked for 20 years (until 1995) at BBC Television Centre and my great-grandfather owned a brewery which was on the site of the Silver Cinema (now Shepherd's Bush Market) which you also mention in the video. I'd be most keen to glean any more information you may have about the brewery. Thanks again.
Thank you so much for this video! Just to mention one thing among many, I am so happy to know that Crackerjack! , of happy childhood memory, was recorded in that very building which I've walked past many times.
In the early 1960's I went with my dad to sell scrap metal to the traders opposite the White City stadium. Steptoe and Sons address was Oil Drum Lane and watching their outside yard scenes with the corrigated iron fencing was just how it was for real. This area is now under the West Wat A40 flyover and was once all pig farms. Indeed I've seen an old A-Z map name here as "the piggeries"
Was that George Cohen's 600 Group place across Wood Lane ?
You were right outside the Odeon Shepherds Bush, presently the Dorsett Hotel( yes two t’s) next to the Pike cinema (I knew it as the Essoldo). The Odeon had a classic history- full size cinema / multiscreen/ bingo hall.
Bush market cafe rest Greensleeves Cooke's pie n mash ,loved bush in the 70s 80s 90s jump on the bus from Hammersmith, great video 🍀🇬🇧👍🏼
I lived there as a child , miss it 😢
I am surprised you didn't feature Loftus Road and QPR Football Stadium.
No mention of the largest theatre on the green, next to what was originally the Pykes Cinematograph Theatre (later the Essoldo) now the Walkabout, and that was the Gaumont Theatre, originally the Pavilion Theatre and now the Pavilion Hotel. On Saturday mornings, they had a teenagers show, which had both film and live bands. Also, no mention of the Goldhawk Social Club in Goldhawk Road, which was unofficially the Who's home venue, where other big names such as The Kinks and Rod Stewart have performed. Also worth mentioning was the Lime Grove Baths, opposite the studios, where the BBC would live broadcast professional Wrestling on Saturday afternoons.
TRIVIA: I spoke to Terry Thomas, when he came out of the Lime Grove Studios. I spoke to Joe Brown, when he came out of a tailors on the green. My grandmother was an usherette at the Empire Theatre.
thanks John this is fascinating xx
Glad you enjoyed it Norma - it was a great walk
I’m just discovering your videos, this one is an absolute gem.
Just up the Uxbridge Road from where I hailed in Ealing. Shepherd's Bush Market was one of the best in London. We used to go there a lot as kids. Not far from my great aunt Louise in Holland Patk.
My family lived at 242 Uxbridge Rd my brother was born in the house there I wonder if H Robinson is still on the bricks there visited there in 1978 I live in America
very well done guys
I like Shepards bush was there twice years ago, touring all the sites in London, nice area interesting places.
What a great stroll that was, really enjoyed the video John, thanks.
Thanks Jag - hope all is good with you - about to watch your Glasgow vid
A lot of early cinemas opened in 1910 due to the requirements of the Cinematograph Act 1909. This was basically about protecting the audience from the dangers of nitrate film. Many of the previous venues ib which film had been shown could not meet these requirements, and so a large number of new purpose built cinemas opened at that time. Some of these still survive, including what are now the Electric Portobello Road, the Phoenix East Finchley and the main auditorium of the Ritzy Brixton.
Splendid as usual
That was wonderful. I was born just off the Uxbridge Road in 1947.
I bought my records in WG Stores in the market, ate pie and mash in Goldhawk Road, went to college in Lyme Grove and watched athletics at White City Stadium.
Thanks for the memories guys!!
John Parker
I was born 100 yards from Wormwood Scrubs prison wall on the East Acton Council Estate. I remember a gang of yobbos from White City looking for an East Acton gang to fight finding me on the Scrubs when I was 14 in 1961 but they left me alone. I went to that Empire Shepherd's Bush Green & the Odeon at the east and about once each but mostly to Gaumont, Granada & Odeon on Acton High Street (the East Acton ABC Savoy cinema had become a bowling alley). Until I was 40 I thought White City original exhibition was just the stadium until I got a Victorian drawing showing the huge White City Exhibition ground that was the whole are with White City stadium at the northeast corner and buildings all white everywhere and gardens and water displays where the streets are named after the British colonies or persons like South Africa way and so on. My dad bought me jellied eels at the Market stand Goldhawk Road end (if memory serves) after Gran's funeral in 1960 when I was 13. I didn't like jellied eels.
Wow, stumbled across this. I was born in Percy road, Shepperd's bush. Its funny but I had forgotten all about the the library on Uxbridge Rd. I walked in there once and they had a community board with all sorts of courses ,English , maths ,I.t. .....I took one , it was the long slow road to me leaving the Bush and for me a much better life. The Bush was great, I was the problem. Thank you for reminding me . Gary Nicols
Yes that library was basis of my education too
Great stuff, shame the Goldhawk Club, Townhouse Studios and Bush Hall not covered.
What a joy to see the bush again, I was born in Stan lake road I knew every were you went to it brought back so many memories, I live in argyle Bute now the next time I travel to London I will go back to the bush thank you for bringing so many memories back, I went to college down lime grove thank you for such an informative video you have started my day with a whoosh🎉 going to create some magic in the garden.
This was lovely, one of your best vids, truly enjoyed it, thank you so much
thanks - was a real pleasure to make this video
Fascinating...!
Incredible
My aunt lives in road behind old lime grove studios and was evacuated during WW2. Her neighbors were blitzed and whole family were killed sadly. I went to see it in 1980's.
I had a white city address for many years. Hubby worked for Ratp. 94 bus 30 yrs. ln Staffordshire now moved nearly 4 yrs ago. Gosh l remember Limegrove. Art Deco building. Lovely building😍
@26:00 the ladies mentioning the new luxury apartments being built that will knock the SB market down, I heard about that. Good to hear the market won the case (for now).
Thanks for another great video.
I live in Leyton now but used to drive ambulances around the Bush many years ago.
You've brought back many memories of the the area.
There used to be a great Italian cafe in Goldhawk Road near the green, and a Presto supermarket in the shopping centre on the south side.
Thanks for that Ian
Hi Ian I think the Italian restaurant was Bertorellis.
Was the Cafe called the Ritz?
That was a great cafe . All eatery places were great 👍 lived here in the 80s lovely buzzing area & great community spirit 😀
This is one of the most fascinating talks I have ever seen. I am astounded by the butchery of important entertainment heritage. Utterly shameful. One of the things that comes to mind as to why it was possibly allowed is it's association with Saville etc. This time last year I took the train from Cheshire to London for the day with White City on my list of visits. Sadly I ran out of time so this at least makes up for it. I must say I would have been disappointed to see the BBC building so far gone.
So glad you made this of my home town., thank you. I love your videos so informative and relaxing always finding out something new. Keep up the brilliant work. 🙌
Born and bread 70s bush child 🥰 white city . ❤️ nothing but love for the ole skool W12 ✊🏽
Woodland and bush have changed. Left there in 2008 when I was 16 and I don't wanna come back because it's unfamiliar now.
One of the first times I was in Shepherds Bush was for the Me First and the Gimme Gimmes gig - at the Empire - advertised on the poster on the boarded up punk rock pie n mash shop!
Fantastic, highly informative video John.
Thanks Voxley
as a slight aside, from late 1969 for 3 years I was a Royal Mail telegram boy (Young Postman) based at Spring St Paddington delivering to W2 W9 W10 and W11 all on heavy old push bikes with no gears and rod brakes, anyway, several times I delivered to 8 Orme Court, saw Spike once, never Eric, but in the reception area there was mounted on the wall a long narrow glass case with a sign which read "in case of financial difficulty break glass" inside was a cheque made out to Spike from Spike for one million pounds. to the best of my memory 😇
learnt to swim in lime grove swimming baths, spent my pocket money in the market, and went to Saturday morning pictures in the cinema on the green. All so long ago, but around it hasn't changed so much.
I learned to swim at Porchester Hall & Baths in Paddington 1956-58 when I was 9-11 but I went to lime grove sometimes & also "Blue" Bloemfontein in the White City area because I was born/raised 100 yards from Wormwood Scrubs prison wall on the East Acton Council Estate. I got a waffle iron from the market and much later a huge cardboard steamer trunk to emigrate to Canada in 1973 with my wife & daughter. Everything we owned fitted in that cardboard steamer trunk.
same here it wasn't the smartest part of London but it was home, bought my records next to the entrance to the tube, the library a small Sainsburys on Uxbridge road (Engelbert Humperdink used to live up stairs. Some fond memories
A great video again John, haven't been there for a few years, I had family there when I was younger and remember A Cooke's Pie and Mash Shop showing me live eels, I wonder if A Cooke is in any way related to F Cooke who had the pie mash and eel shop in Dalston and still have a shop on Broadway market. So sad to see whats happening to TV Centre, I worked there a few times and there was a certain magic walking through the entrance and past the studios.
Thanks for sharing those memories Ian. I was intrigued by the possible link to the other Pie and Mash Shops - seems part of the tradition with the various Manze's and and Kellys.
The shop in Dalston was a Peking Restaurant the last time I was there. The pie shop in Broadway Market has closed. Also the pie shop in Homerton, Hackney closed and has been converted to a flat. Recently on the market for a high price. I also noticed that one of the Kelly’s shops in Bethnal Green appears to be closed. Not sure about the other one. I used to live in Bethnal Green. I live in Sussex now but I still visit London occasionally. I usually check to see what has changed.
@@stevev3664 Duchess of Sussex should be a British lady!
@@adolflenin4973 in my opinion that marriage won’t last. We might get a British Duchess then.
@@stevev3664 Amen!
My career in the BBC TV started in 1968 at TV Centre - coor di'narf bring back the memories. It was known as the Cucumber Castle but don't remember why. At the centre of the circle there was a Statue of Arial presiding over a fountain but after the Queen opened the studios the Beeb couldn't turn it on again. The lake (tiny) was in the same position as the one built for the 1908 festival so the ground was sodden which was how come the VT department in the basement flooded. An elder mate told me it was like something out of a cheesy WW2 submarine movie when the water came in (Don't Panic). I worked at Lime Grove Studios for a wee while and was told not to take heavy film cans into the squeeky lift - any weight it didn't so much coast down as plummet. Oh yes I saw '2001 space odocy' in The Electric Cinima - if only I could remember was it was.
My grandson got his film degree last year and my job is to pontificate in front of his camera crew. Oh happy days.
Very interesting video.
Lovely!
The Shepherd s bush. Was the Irish in the 50-60+ 70s play ground
I remember butty surgru pulling a bus with his teeth once. He run the Wellington on the green & almost all the pub’ s where Irish .
All the kid around the area where punk’s in the 70’s. Great atmostfere.
Astonishing episode.. thankyou x
Bit odd to do a walk of The Bush, mention the film Quadrophenia but not mention The Who, or The Goldhawk Club, now the Shepherd's Bush Club, 205, Goldhawk Rd. A major Mod hangout which The Who often played early on. Anywhere south of Goldhawk Rd is Hammersmith by the way. Otherwise quite interesting.
thank you again
Great video. I've got some photos of me standing on the finishing line of the old white city stadium. Where the old Royal box used to be was where they originally filmed The One Show.
Thanks. That new development is a real travesty - never really liked that new Media Centre. Shame they couldn't have recorded the legacy of the old White City Stadium with a bit more respect
You learn something every day spike miligan writhing above the shop how very interesting , Should have a Blue Plaque without a doubt what a shame these buildings aren’t there anymore important buildings like that such a shame well done guys on a very informative video
Will deffo be going to the Shepherd’s Bush Market next time I’m in London, it looks great
Fascinating. Lived in Richford Street
Would love you to have another walk about here it's changed so much in five short years. For one thing, I would say that your first impressions of the Television Centre redevelopment should now be shown to be unfounded. If you ever saw the place before, it was like a prison to outsiders. Now it is open to the public, full of life and lovely. White City Place similarly is now full of life with new buildings up making it far less 'anaemic'. It is a place of great change and should be treated as such, rather than a finished product, which it is far from, though approaching.
No point in complaining 'things ain't wot they used to be' cos things are changing as we live and breath.. it's part of the cycle of life. Just make sure you made an impression to be remembered by in a time and place, maybe you will get a Blue Plaque lol
The lady on Shepherds Bush Market was gagging to speak about the 'good ol' days' and I understand her sentiment but as someone who's seen London change in my lifetime, and born 1st generation of immigrants myself I've seen the whole cycle of it: watching old communities leave, being the 'new' community, then seeing new peoples come in. Then you realise it's all part of the human ebb and flow, and has been the nature of London since Saxon times. I welcome it, the moment you turn your nose up at diversity is the moment you should be put to grass IMO.
Shepherds Bush has held many great memories from my teenage years and there were a couple of things you guys overlooked, like the fact that part of the Market was owned by Michael Winner and his family for close to a century until his death. And there's a cafe on the corner of Wood Lane and Uxbridge Road, close to where Spite Milligan wrote scripts for the Goon Show, where the original concept for them BBC TV centre was drawn up in 1948.
Legend has it the guy who was given the remit for the building had a mental block while sitting in the cafe and had doodled a question mark on an envelope - from the question mark came the design: if you look at the shape of the building it's literally formed like a question mark (?) with the (.) in the middle!
Great video as always, John!
Hi John
Love your videos. But Shepherds Bush has lots of landmarks & history 🤔 that was missed out , lived in Shepherds Bush in the 80s loved it 😉 & great community 👍 also very arty lots of different nationality 's that blended in with each other in language & culture. Good 👍 Memories & great characters around the place .
Spent most of my childhood in Hammersmith park back in the 80s.
absolutely fascinating! I wonder now, seeing that old BBC television centre turned into luxury flats, what the other bbc building houses, the one on Regent Street, behind the church... were them contemporary offices or one replaced the other?
the "one behind the church" is broadcasting house and is BBC radio and is older than the television centre
Can’t believe they didn’t mention the bath house next to UAL university which was in Quadrophenia too
I’m often there to catch a bus please upload more about West London
Don’ Forget ,, That Limegrove college. Was ALSO. A Building College..
I should know I was there from 1976- 1980..
Steptoe and son set in the bush filmed mostly in nearby Ladbroke grove
Kensal Town actually....Ladbroke Grove is a street that stradles North Kensington, and Notting Hill..
@@Frank-om4fc Ladbroke grove is not Kensal town Ladbroke grove is actually a place in W10 I know cos I've lived here about 10 years Kensal town is near the Kensal rise cemetery area which is further up Ladbroke grove was so called before the road was there
Lived at 128 Uxbridge Road and when to St. Stephens school.
Learnt to swim at Lime Grove Swimming baths, played Football on the Green, jumped Buses, ran at the White City Stadium and spent many a happy time at the Odeon cinema...........such joyful and innocent days !😂
And yes......I am a QPR fan !
ksp flashbacks intensify :P
Shame we didn't see Oil Drum Lane.
Back in the days, called shit old sheperds bush 😅 but i still loved the memories of shit old sheperds bush where i grew up .
Loads of of odd stories about Lime Grove available if needed. The Film Vaults full of Nitrate Cellulose stock were on the roof and, potentially a very big bang. Also nearly opposite was Uranus House, an establishment set up by Dickens to care for young women.
are the artistic but fairly infamous Public Convenience still there ?
wondering that too
I was born on the White City Estate, 66 years ago 👴
I sold newspapers at Whitecity dog track in the late 70's, it put me off betting as I waded through all the betting slips that had been chucked away.
That. Old lady who’s been there from the thirties,
SHE Is Spot ON . Diversity they call it .
could tell that’s exactly why she wanted to say. i don’t see a problem with it though i live here and love shepard’s bush’s range of diversity and culture
@@ip5799 You live there but can`t spell it hahahaha
@@mjh5437 oh no!
Its strange when exploring an area such as this one shepherds bush, that certain things don't get mentioned, The who's connection to shepherds bush, the early doctor who episodes where done at Limegrove also z cars, and Dixon of Dock Green there also, it seems that johns guest is rather timid and avoiding mentioning some interesting fact conceming the area bieng explored in this case SB, i went to school there in the early sixties!
No mention of the Island Records building on Goldhawk........
Or Townhouse studios. So much great music was recorded there.
Interesting clip all the same!
Times keep changing .if you can't change with times .
BBC park not hammersmith park lads
RIP Alan Simpson
Saw the news after your comment Borderlands - what a career that man had, fantastic legacy
The news came at the exact moment I clicked to watch this video, quite poignant. I lived next to Scrubbs Lane as a student and was an avid Steptoe fan.While the history of British TV is synonymous with that corner of West London, and the flats at Television Centre are a travesty, I don't think it's a bad thing that broadcasting has devolved to the regions. An old girlfriend used to work at Lime Grove and I visited a couple of times. A real rabbit warren inside and hardly changed since Hitchcock's time.
I'm shocked to hear that 'Crackerjack' wasn't live !
Good story about mick Jones. And the pistols