Dates and data

11:00am Friday 5th February 2010

DATES&DATA The Barnes and Mortlake History Society welcomes Mike Smith with Sir Richard Phillips’ A morning walk from London to Kew by Mike Smith. This talk will be held in the Methodist Hall, Station Road, at 2.30pm on Saturday February 7. Secretary Helen Deaton 020 8878 4071. Visitors welcome, £2.

Then and now - Richmond riverside

Tower House 1970

11:20am Thursday 5th February 2009

A very shabby and derelict looking Tower House viewed from the riverfront with steps leading up to Richmond bridge behind.

From our pictures files in L B Richmond upon Thames 1984

From our pictures files in L B Richmond upon Thames 1984

11:17am Thursday 5th February 2009

Twickenham’s Bonnie Langford, the singer and dancer, was at the forefront of a demonstration at Twickenham junction to save St John’s cottage hospital in Amyand Park Road, threatened with closure. Hundreds of people signed a petition. From left to right, Toby Jessel MP for Twickenham, Miss Langford and Dr Alex Hall of St John’s Hospital. A meeting of St John’s health centre users group to be held at the health centre in Oak Lane was to discuss the implications of its closure. Mrs Pamela Rathbone chairman of the League of Friends braved the cold as a patient on a stretcher bed and comedian Roy Hudd did a stint later. Councillor John Waller thought there should be an alternative way of raising funds apart from closing the hospital and pointed out that the decision to close was against what the health minister Kenneth Clark had said about the need for beds. There was also a need for geriatric beds. Closure of the hospital affected the council’s finances as some people should be in hospital who were in council old people’s homes. It also increased the demand for home helps, he said.

Then and now - Chiswick

The scene in around 1900...

11:05am Thursday 5th February 2009

Top, the corner of Fauconberg Road and Sutton Court Road, circa 1900. The house half hidden by trees was Sutton Court, photographed not long before its demolition. Sutton Court was the manor house of one of the two Chiswick manors and one of the large mansions in the south part of Chiswick. It was a late 18th century house built on the site of an earlier house which had been home to Lady Mary Fauconberg, daughter of Oliver Cromwell. It was a boarding school run by Frederick Tappenden for part of the 19th century. Its last use was a temporary council offices while the town hall was being enlarged in 1900. The modern view shows the houses in Sutton Court Road and behind them the blocks of mansion flats called Sutton Court that were built in its grounds. From Then & Now Chiswick by Carolyn and Peter Hammond, published in 2003.

From our files

11:13am Thursday 5th February 2009

Ten years ago February 1999 Ann Keen has been declared MP of the year by readers of a newspaper for homosexuals. The Brentford and Isleworth MP became a hero after pushing to lower the age of consent for gay men. She won admirers during her emotional reunion with the gay son she gave up for adoption as a young woman.

From our picture files - 1984

Hounslow - v - Richmond January 1984

11:08am Thursday 5th February 2009

The splendid run of success of Richmond Lacrosse Club came to an abrupt end at the end of January 1984 when they went down to Hounslow, leaders of the London Premier League. Hounslow always seemed to have the edge and led 1-0 at half time, despite being reduced to ten men, one of their defenders being temporarily suspended. The visitors, niggled by some of the umpiring, were even sharper in the second half and took a 2-0 lead before Richmond were able to pull one back. It came when Ian Simpkins managed to scramble the ball across the line. A beautifully struck short corner by Hounslow closed the door on any Richmond revival and gave the league leaders a fine win on a sticky pitch. Richmond 1, Hounslow 3.

Schoolboy memories of that legendary spaghetti tree man

11:06am Thursday 5th February 2009

Your article (December 19) (Apprentice Richard Dimbleby was full of fun) brought me up with a start.

From our files - this week in 1984

2:10pm Thursday 29th January 2009

Ten years ago Rugby returned to Twickenham Green on Saturday after more than 100 years. An energetic round robin match between old boys Thamesians, Harlequin Gents and Scottish team Mar was cheered on by some 300 spectators.

Dates and data

2:08pm Thursday 29th January 2009

DATES&DATA The Isleworth Society welcomes a talk by Peter and Carolyn Hammond on The changing face of Brentford at the next meeting, 7.30pm on Tuesday February 10 in Isleworth Public Hall, 7.30pm. Refreshments available. Members free, guests £2. All welcome. Chairman Mike Derham 020 8847 0459. The Isleworth Society’s DVD Isleworth Remembered is still available at £3.50.

From our pictures files - 1984

From our pictures files - 1984

2:06pm Thursday 29th January 2009

United British Artists was formed in 1983 by a group of outstanding performers and directors to create new theatre opportunities.

Then and now - Isleworth

Pears Fountain and drinking fountain in 1935

2:05pm Thursday 29th January 2009

This photograph of Pears Fountain and drinking fountain is taken from Andrea Cameron’s pictorial history, Hounslow - Isleworth, Heston & Cranford. The fountain was erected at the junction of London and Spring Grove Road, Isleworth in 1899 as a gift from Andrew Pears, owner of Pears Soap Works on the London Road. The photograph was taken in around 1935 and the fountain was removed in 1937 after Heston Fire Station, right in the modern picture, was built. The older view shows a telephone box in the background, right of the fountain, with two small children waiting outside, although there doesn’t seem to be anyone occupying the kiosk. A sign affixed to the lamp post pointing towards Hounslow, proclaims the electricity showroom.

How your street got its name

3:58pm Tuesday 27th January 2009

This is an extract from Street Names of Chiswick, compiled by Winifred Heard and published in Brentford & Chiswick Local History Journal 2, 1981. Miss Heard was for many years the reference librarian at Chiswick and was a founder member of the B&CLHS. Visit BrentfordandChiswickLHS.org.uk

From our pictures files 1999: Reach for the Sky

From our pictures files 1999: Reach for the Sky

3:51pm Thursday 22nd January 2009

Remember this dramatic image from ten years ago. Plans - which never got off the ground - were unveiled to build one of London’s tallest buildings in the heart of Chiswick. The futuristic office block would be called The Pinnacle and take four years and £75 million to build. The glass and steel structure would soar 141 metres above the Chiswick Roundabout, making it nearly as tall as the Telecom Tower. Developers London and Bath estates hoped to fill it with small and medium sized firms looking for their first base in the UK. Specs were: thirty storeys above ground level; accommodation for more than 1,000 workers; parking for 200 cars and a public viewing gallery and restaurant. Landscaped gardens and a large sculpture would complete the picture.

Pocket Times

Pocket Times

3:47pm Thursday 22nd January 2009

I hope this miniaturised copy of the Brentford and Chiswick Times dated Friday May 2, 1930 is of interest to your readers.

Then and now

Then and now

3:33pm Thursday 22nd January 2009

Brentford Watermans Arts Centre in January 1984 and now. Correspondent Michael Finnis then argued that giving Brentford’s Watermans Arts Centre a £600,000 facelift would be pointless if eyesores were left around the riverside facility. In his opinion, the “ever increasing number of rotting hulks and derelict barges covered in rubbish which are illegally moored along the length of the waterfront would be a much greater deterrent to any potential investor in Brentford than a pre fabricated McDonalds restaurant across the road”.

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