A wonderful page. This guy always writes beautifully about the Watford of the 1950's and 1960's; there is nobody better to provide an accurate and memory tugging account. More please.

I love this article on Watford , it is nice to read the very same things I remember from my childhood as I was born in Watford in the front bedroom of 75 Liverpool Road and I remember all the places mentioned like Rossie's and going to London from Watford High Street Station. In those days the Bakerloo Trains ran from the Elephant and Castle to Watford Junction, which has been demolished and replaced with a non-descript building.

Every time I read this tale of Watford it makes my day. I also remember the old high street with Cawdells and Clements dept stores and walking up the side of Cawdells to get to the market where we all brought our jeans from Charlies Stall. And as for the Town Hall I used to go often to watch the wrestling that was held there about once a month, Saturday Morning Pictures at the Gaumont Cinema and as we got a bit older we went to the Regal Cinema to listen to pop music in the lunch hour. It is a shame it has been destroyed, even the Lodge and gate to the park has gone.

What a lovely article about Watford - I lived in Hempstead Road two doors from the library and all the comments said I remember as well - the days spent in Cassiobury Park swimming in the lock gates and changing in the toilets next to the paddling pool. I attended Chater School from 1945 - 51 and what a long walk it was. Don't forget grillos ice cream on the parade every Sunday afternoon, they were just magic. When it was rag day at the college in Hempstead Road our front garden was covered in everything to blue ink which the pond colour became and everything you can imagine. The queues outside the Odeon & Gaumont cinemas for the 1/9 seats and waiting for the commissionaire to let you in. The memories of sitting in the Mocha Bar with one cup of chocolate all evening and gazing out of the windows to see who was going by - those were the days.

An excellent trip down memory lane. I was one of the team of DJ'S at the Top Rank and also sometimes at the Clock House if anyone remembers those venues. My mind has been wandering to what supermarkets were in Watford in the early to mid 60's especially the supermarket opposite the cinema [ subsequently Top Rank ] - can anyone help - was it Gateway??

A very interesting and well written article. The mention of Marsh & Russell.
brought back memories. As a young teenager I spent many a saturday working on the bench cutting plywood and glass to size to supplement my pocket money. I would often spend it later on a visit to the Empire cinema.
I have enclosed a photo of Marsh & Russell taken in the early fifties, with manager Mr Harold D'eath and assistant manager Mr Eric Knight.
I enjoyed my younger days in Watford but left nearly 40 years ago to live in New Zealand, but still keep up with the local news, thanks to the internet.

Thanks galore to everyone for their very kind comments about my memories of old Watford. To Eddie O Konnor I must say yes I remember the first Self Serve proper supermarket opposite Top Rank (Odeon then) it was FINE FARE - does that ring a bell? My friend Geoff who lived at Wiggenhall Road down by the River Colne tried to pilfer a packet of Beech Nut Chewing gum and the manager of Fine Fare saw him, as they had columns in the supermarket with mirrors on all four sides. He caught Geoff at the checkout and advised him to put the chewing gum in the basket! He did and went very red! But he let him off with a quiet ticking off. He was a nice guy. The very first self service store was actually the Co-Op just along from Fine Fare who were technically the first to introduce the idea of helping yourself with a wire basket. They were near to a Stove and Fires shop called oddly Cakebread Robey do you remember them. My mum and dad bought an Esse stove from there. Stan Pike was in that parade too with a Newsagents and Tobacconist.

Thanks too to James Russel for that lovely picture of Marsh and Russel store.
The store was the best Ironmongers and Hardware in Greater London in my opinion.

The Gaumont was a superb cinema where I remember seeing "live" concert by the Dave Brubeck Quartet and his band put on a superb show and Dave complained a few times about the very out of tune piano he'd been expected to play on. Typical of the management not bothering to tune it for an important musician like that.
I remember how the audience did a standing ovation for the drummer Joe Morello who gave a 12 minute drum solo towards the end of the concert.

Eldorado Ice Cream and Nelsons was the order of the day in Cinemas. It wasn't as good as Rossi's but it wasn't bad. We used to eat Chinese meals at the Kam Wah in Kings Street. Bucks had a fabulous Bakery and Garners. Sainsbury had a shop in the High Street where they cut and shaped fresh farm butter for you and wrapped it in greaseproof paper all neatly folded. Imagine that today in our plastic and throw away society! Peter Spivey Sports shop was on the Parade and I used to buy Air Gun pellets from there. Radio Rentals I bought my first ever HMV Tape Recorder.

Oh the memories just keep on flooding in the more I think about it. I think I'd better stop before I explode with nostalgia. Greetings and Best Wishes to all you Watford of old fans out there.
Laurie Prior

What was the shop called situated around the middle of the High Street that used to have wonderful-smelling fresh coffee wafting from the doorway, and also sold ice-cream cones? - even as a small child walking past with my mother I used to love the smell of the coffee! Also, fish and chips in Cawdells Restaurant was a real treat, followed by strawberry icecream with lumps of ice in it! Watford Pond was beautiful, with the water-lilies and huge goldfish. As I grew into teenage years, going to the Top Rank on a Tuesday and Saturday was always exciting, also the Trade Union Hall, where we saw the Who and the Pretty Things live, before they were really famous!

Kathleen Bennett (nee Fawkes)

You say "My father used to buy hand-cleaner in tins, called Dirty Paws, and a barrier cream known as Rozalex. I think you can still get both of them today."

My father used Dirty Paws too, but I doubt if you can buy it today, because when I Googled pages from the UK with to see if I could buy some, only there were only 18 hits and none were advertising the product. This article came top of the 18!

Very well written article - bringing back good memories. For a few years, I walked each Saturday morning to the Music School when near the Market for piano lessons and then, when possible, on to queue for the childrens' cinema. I recall cattle being driven to the Cattle Market and shopping with my mother in Watford's then covered Market. Being then a passionate young gardener, I looked avidly at Wards stall - and remember being invited by the elder Mr. Ward to go with him to Holland when he next went bulb-buying. The joy of a time when this would be seen as OK and fine! I cannot recall the name of the provisions shop off the East side of the High Street, but recall when it first broke the mold and started offering self-service. It all seemed a safer, gentler and less threatening time - a more human and cohesive period.

dont forget caters supermarket by the pond and also one of my favorite haunts of the late 50s early 60s the le-ronde coffee bar opposite high street station

In answer to Eddie O Konnor's contribution and question. The first ever supermarket in Watford on the Parade opposite the Odeon Cinema (which later became Top Rank) was FINE FARE. I think Fine Fare in recent times morphed into Key Markets possibly later on the International Stores got involved in ownership but I'm not sure as here in the West Country Key Markets and International were bought out by Gateway, later to become Somerfield or something like that.
The first actual "self-service" shop that wasn't a Supermarket as such were The Co Op just along from Fine Fare. They were near to Stan Pike Newsagent and Tobacconist and about the last shop before the unusually named Cakebread Robey who were a showroom for Fireplace and Fires. My parents bought an Esse Stove from them.
To Kathleen Bennett; The only shop with Coffee smells I remember were the place that sold coffee beans and roasted them on the premises. It was two doors along from Chef Corner Cafe which was opposite front of Odeon Cinema and I can't remember what it was called. The first shop beyond Chef Corner was Woolcotts a sweet shop and tobacconist. I bought an Italian Coffee machine from the Coffee retailer in 1969 for just £11.0 I still have it to this day and it still works!
Beyond the Coffee shop was a Toy Shop in the corner where my friend noted that you could buy 12 plastic toy pennies for the prices of One Shilling and Sixpence and we wondered what kind of a trick that was when a child could play with 12 real pennies and spend nothing! Anyhow I do remember that lovely coffee roasting smell drifting down past that Tudor fronted building where Radio Rentals were and on the first floor of which was The Cookery Nook - a favourite morning cafe for the more elderly population who loved it's olde worlde charm.

I'm sure I could think of much more but I don't want to dominate this page as it may discourage others from posting up their wonderful memories.
Jeremy

Comment to John Harris. You're right about Dirty Paws product no longer being available (my mistake). It probably lost popularity on account of any product called "Dirty" in the trade name might not have a superb appeal! But on the subject of Rozalex it most certainly is still sold. I found tubs of it online today being sold on a Classic Car Renovation site and they did Dri-Guard and Wet-Guard versions of the Barrier Cream. The price was just over 5 uk pounds per jar that's about $8 at today's Exchange Rate. So Rozalex still lives - Amazing.
Dirty Paws doesn't ! I should add that I am not giving any company free advertising here. I haven't bought barrier cream for a very long time.
I now use surgical gloves to protect my hands from ghastly oily stuff when doing mechanical jobs.
I noticed the other day the AA Roadside Repair and Rescue mechanic uses disposable surgical gloves too. Good for him.
--
Jeremy

Both my parents came from Watford but by the time I was born they had moved out to Pitstone. I remember my many trips to Watford as a child during the 50s, wide eyed with wonder at all the shops. Clements and Cawdells offered visit to see Santa. The covered market was a favourite as I would always buy a small bunch of anemonies for my grandmother who lived in Upper Paddock Road, well I think I chose them and my great uncle who owned the stall probably gave them to me. Gibson sausages were always on my mum's shopping list, just as well there were no domestic freezers at that time otherwise I think she might have bought out the butcher's stock, and of course the wet fish monger where we would buy sprats.
Driving into Watford past the town hall and the pond there used to be the swimming pool and as a child I was alway puzzled by the 'Public Bath' sign, I could never understand why people would have a bath in public, a child's mind is so literal. My engagement and wedding rings were purchased from a jeweller in Watford high street, the name of which escapes me, but it was a beautiful black and white building. The families connected with Watford are Martindale being my father's name and Parkins my mother. I believe my father's maternal grandfather Joseph Smith was the owner/landlord of the Crystal Palace Beer House, 121 High Street Watford.
I now live in East Sussex so have little opportunity to retrace childhood steps, although I intend to go again to my grandparent's grave in the cemetary in Vicarage Road, so if by chance anyone reading this has knowledge of the Martindale/Parkins families I would be delighted to hear from them.

grew up in the area at the time, watford was great. as a teenager Musicland next to the Wimpy was the place on Sat Lunch. Top Rank was the place to be. Wonderful evocative memories and a beautifully written peace. The annual fair at cassiobury park was amazing and of course The Who played the Trade union Hall.

Must comment on a few interesting things two contributors have unearthed for me. To Hilly Buckman, the Jewellers in the High Street may have been Jacksons. They were the oldest in the town and founded in 1876. Their business was sort of opposite Clements Department Store roughly where there's a flyover cutting right through the original store building. Jackson's shop was on a site that dates back to about 1500. I often walked past Jacksons on my way to Choir Practice so never had time to stare in the window and drool over the lovely wrist-watches on sale there.
They were only a few doors down from Elliotts Music Shop who sold pianos records and musical instruments as well as Radios and Radiograms.

To Ross King I wish I could remember the name of the store he says was East off the High Street. The only two roads that were turnings off the High Street were Clarendon Road by Garners Bakery, and which had the Palace Theatre and Carlton Cinema in, but I don't remember a Provisions shop there. Or Queens Road which had Trewins (John Lewis owned store) and Watford School of Music plus a few shops in the first half of Queens Road such as Television Dealers and that kind of thing.

I do remember a small corner shop down the end of Queens Road almost by the Horse-Trough opposite Fyffes Bananas depot. This was a little provisions shop which my Father used to go to and purchase items that were against the Sunday Trading laws which I think then forbade selling anything other than cigarettes tobacco and sweets - and people used to go and buy the things in the food line which they'd forgotten to get on Saturday and customers would leave the shop with a cardboard box covered in a cloth to prevent anyone seeing them breaking the law.
It was all very clandestine illegal trading that mostly the law turned a blind eye to. The law now seems archaic but we all know how Sunday trading laws only recently changed to allow food and anything to be purchased on the Christian Sabbath. Funny old world eh?

Cawdells dept store was always amusing when they ran the Santa's Grotto and we as kids were put into a fake sleigh ride that was a kind of box that groddled about on a motorized simulated waves like a kiddies boat. While it was slowly grinding up and down they would wind the scenery past the windows by rolling them past on a canvas painted roll that made very young kids think they were going forwards on a journey.
It didn't fool my brother and I and we were under strict instructions not to make comments that would spoil anything about Santa. They'd then ferry us out of a different door than the one we entered on. We'd walk down a tunnel to meet Santa and be given some sop of a present and asked what we wanted for Christmas. Santa would make some encouraging remark and we'd all file out and go home with whatever bunch of disappointment we'd been given as a token.

My friend Geoff got a good prize from Clements the other store though, he entered a competition in-store to race Scalectrix cars against other members of the public and he won so many times that they gave him first prize - a new Scalectrix set.

Does anyone remember The Maypole a kind of dairy orientated delicatessen opposite the end of Market Street. Or Findlaters the posh Off Licence. I also remember Mac Fisheries in that same row of shops and Perrings Furniture store which had a fire gutting the place. Before it burned out they had a Foot Massage machine in the entrance that was in use even after the shop was closed at 5.30pm and you could stand on the platform like weighing scales and put Sixpence in (6d as it was abbreviated) and it would vibro massage your feet and you could feel it right up your legs. After it finished it was like walking on air.

Finally on today's contribution does anyone remember the machine on Watford High Street Station that you could put tuppence in and it would stamp an alluminium label or nameplate for your briefcase like some mighty Dymo Tape machine and you had to wind a big clockface arm around a circle to choose the Letter or Figure you wanted stamped on the label. Then you'd press a big lever and CLANGK it would stamp it on the label which came spewing out of the front letter by letter on an ever lengthening strip. Then you pulled it out to discover you'd made a spelling mistake or not put a full stop on it. All very disappointing but nevertheless fun for kids who were not easily bored and very easily entertained.

To Jeremy Prior, thank you, that is the name of the jewellers. also, MacFisheries would have been where mum bought the sprats.

Watford, my home, lovely memories of my past. I'm talking about 1970 until 1980 , i'll never forget my first film seen at the cinema " Grease" and the saturday shopping at high street with my friends , fantastic memory of chater school where i used to go when i was only 9 years old and endly with our bikes riding through the park and seeing the squirells running away as we rushed down the lanes, can't wait to return to my native home with all my wonderfull memories since i left to go to live in Italy.

I read the comments about Rozalex with great interest. I actually bought the brand 18 months ago from a former Unilever company where it had been lying almost dormant for 20 years. I can assure all readers of this thread that the brand is very much alive and going from strength to strength. Please visit www.rozalex.co.uk for more info.

1966 at The Trade lives on vividly. I missed The Who (1965?) but my first ever live band was here - The Action, explosive all-mod Tamla act renowned for Reggie King's seven minute Land of a Thousand Dances. This was followed by The Birds, with Ron Wood - a night of sublime r 'n' b and Tamla, where I lifted off to another planet without the aid of drugs. And The Creation - arty live paintermen with guitar bow bursts courtesy of Eddie Phillips. No alcohol as I recall at The Trade but other substances available in the toilets. Exciting Saturday nights with sound system in between the live acts. I first heard Mustang Sally here about three foot from the speakers. All three bands I mention have been playing live recently in different forms with the exception of The Action who had the original line up on stage about 8 years ago. Those of you who fondly recall that amazing 1966 Birds night - the lead singer's (Ali MacKenzie) version of the band plays their complete set at The Sportsman, Croxley Green on 7th August 2010. Circle back in time - I'll be taking my Trade membership card...

Just like Jeremy Prior I too love nostalgia and am so pleased I stumbled across this website. I was born in Bushey (Bushey Hall Road in a house next to Watford Technical High School) in the 1960s and moved several times in Watford. My childhood was mainly spent at 99 Queens Road, Watford and I remember walking with my mum up Queens Road to the High Street. In Queens Road, right at the start of the shops, you had the Corner Shop which was run by Bert and his assistant Nancy. Bert also ran a dolls hospital here and I often took my dolls to him to be repaired though was rather upset when he changed the colour of one of my dolls eyes from blue to brown because he didn't have any brown eyes in stock! I must have been around 5 then. Just across the road you had Clarks, run by Mr and Mrs Clark. This was a Tobacconists/sweet shop and you could buy loose tobacco that Mr Clark would weigh on his scales. The Victoria Tavern was just before Clarks. There was a launderette next to what must have been the first Indian general stores. I hated the smell of the spices as a child going past that shop and would run past it holding my nose and breath! There was a coblers opposite run by Mr Malone who walked with a very pronounced limp - his wife Mary worked in the launderette. The there was Carrs second hand shop, Symbols, Dunns Wallpaper and my very favourite shop of all, Ivor Newman's pet shop. He moved his shop from one side of the road to the other. He always had puppies for sale in the front window and I loved going in there and picking them up for a cuddle! He also had a talking parrot that I had the most extraordinary conversations with. I can just about remember the Congregational Church on the corner being knocked down, where Allied Carpets were sited. Grevilles Photographers were on the opposite corner and a Dairy Shop opposite that with a lady serving with white hair in a bun and always wearing a pinafore. Trewins, a charity shop, a toy shop and then, turning left into Lower High Street was my favourite, Fantos. I loved this old shop with wooden floors and would make a bee-line for the toy department upstairs. I'm pretty sure that Boots was on the corner. At the top end of town I loved the chips from Sea Pride fish and chip shop, next to Peter Spiveys. Clements was a favourite especially at Christmas when they had a fake train ride for the children to see Father Christmas. I really felt we were on a long journey and then saw Father Christmas in his own 'home', wow! I'd sit on Father Christmas's lap and tell him everything I wanted for Christmas and go home with my present and a competion entry form which was a picture you had to colour in and put your age on. Loved Cawdells, which had two entrances, one at the front and one in the side opposite the market. A little tobacconists opposite was where my dad used to buy his pipes. Christmas pantos at the Palace Theatre where I went with the school and the sweet shop opposite that sold lovely sherbet lemons. The Palace Theatre used to have wooden phone boxes inside the foyer with sliding doors exactly the same as they had at Watford Junction. Watford Junction, mmmmm, the smell that used to waft across the front from the cafe was luvverly, I can still remember it now. Opposite the Junction in Woodford Road, you could get the 142 and the 258 to London and the small single decker green bus to Two Waters Garage in Hemel Hempstead. Does anybody remember a firm in Woodford Road called Technical Designs? Know as TD, my mum used to work there and I'd walk down Queens Road with my toys to meet her from work. Completely unaccompanied, you couldn't do that now, could you?

Someday maybe, I'll go back again to Watford, That's if I can find somewhere to park my car. But I might as well go try to catch a moonbeam, Or to light a penny candle from a star! I lived in Watford for 28 years before emigrating to Australia. I came back after almost 10 years and Boy! had it changed! It's even worse now and that's what prompted me to write the above parody of "Galway Bay"...

What was the wonderful shop (near the One Bell) which sold fresh ground coffee and you couldn't miss the aroma as you walked past? I think it was Importers?

I am trying to identify some film footage which could be Watford in the late '60's. Could anyone who knew the town centre during this period please visit: http://www.britmovie.co.uk/forums/topic/26447-unused-footage-of-the-saints-volvo/ Building include a theatre/cinema and a Woolworths. Feedback would be appreciated.

Jayne - do you have any memories of the junk/bric a brac shop to the right of the dolls hospital ? It was called Vera's Dresses i think. Jim Rogers

I well remember, as a child my mother taking us shopping to Watford. At the time we lived in Elstree and this wouls have been in late 60s - very early 70s. We used to get the 'green bus' either 306 (?) and we knew when we were in Watford as soon as we smelt that delicous aroma of coffee..I also remember buying presents from Clements and the market.

What an interesting page, thank you. I was born in King Street maternity hospital in 1950 and have fond memories of Watford n the 50's and 60's. I remember draughty Watford market, and in particular the fish stall which stood on a really cold corner. Mum would buy winkles, muscles, cockles or shrimps and we would take them home for Saturday night tea. And of course, we couldn't leave the market without our Gibsons sausages! I remember Cawdells too, which seemed like a somewhat poor relation of Clements then. In those days British Home Stores used to sell wonderful cheese from their food counter near the front of the shop and Marks and Spencer had assistants behind every counter. Can anybody remember the name of the bakery opposite Fine Fair at the then 'posh' top end of the town? I used to work opposite in shop in an insurance office. The first time I went into Top Rank (fibbing about my age) I was absolutely gobsmacked how luxurious it was - and that was only the ladies powder room (honest). We had never seen anything like it because up till then the only dances we had been to had been in somewhat grotty halls - the Trade, Kingham Hall, Hillside, Woodside etc. But they were great nights out with real bands, something we lost with the advent of discos. I was a mod in the sixties and every Saturday (via the 318 or 347 bus) it was important to get the very latest clothes (seen on Ready Steady Go the night before), to go out in. Martin Fords was my favourite, as it was the only shop I could afford to buy clothes in! Then of course, you had to stand about in the High Street, trying to look cool but hoping desperately everybody was looking at you! Once your boyfriend had a car, it was off to Old Redding for a snog and steamy windows! I think the rot set in when they knocked down the Park Gates, it was like a disease really, they just kept pulling things down until they had ripped out any semblance of character in Watford, now most of the shops are the same as can be seen in any other town, except good old Jacksons the jewellers. Happy days.

If anyone out there played in Cassiobury Park in the mid to late 60's could they please visit this page...and let me know if the photographs featured here are indeed Cassiobury Park - it would be much appreciated.

I moved to Watford in 1966 and lived there until 1988. I have lots of fond memories of it. Unfortunately it is now not a patch on what it was. However, Cassiobury Park and the canal are always worth a visit. I spent most of my youth in those areas and it always stirs up memories whenever I visit.

Thanks for you memories, Mike - are the photos on this webpage anything like the playground at Cassiobury as you remember it, or is it not Cassiobury at all? 

Well, yes, Queens Road Music. There was a guy there, a drummer, who had worked the cruise ships and told us younger musicians all sorts about the music scene. He must have acted as a DJ at some point and gave me a whole box of pre-release singles which I still have! As a member of an average band, we used these to fill our repetoire, although most of our gigs were in the youth clubs of Hemel. As far as the Trade was concerned, we used to have a couple of shandies at a pub on the corner of St, Johns Road and head off to the music. It was usually 2/6 to see a decent band like Cliff Bennet or Spencer Davis. Otherwise, they dropped it to two bob and we got the Who, Friday, Saturday and Sunday as I remember. What I do remember is having to sit very close to the front of class on a Monday morning, as I couldn't hear much at all!

No one has mentioned Joe Lyons Coffee House. The waitresses wore white, frilly caps. Mum would meet me and my sister from school and have a lovely tea there every Friday before heading off to "The Flicks". Also ABC restaurant on the corner of Kings St. It was a good place to see Watford F.C. footballers. And the Black and White Coffe Bar next to the Midland Bank.

What a wonderful website! I have best remembering of Watford. In the years 1963, 1964 and 1965 I have play football with my youth team VfB 08 Lünen. We was guest of the players from the North Watford Football Club. The manager was Charlie Pinnington. My english friends are in this time are Kevin Stratford, Mick Harman, Dave Charlwood, Paul Saviner, George Gaiscoigne, Long John and many other players. Wonderful friends. Now, 47 years later (I am now 63 years of age) I remember this very nice time. We was every day in the town. From the Town Hall to the Pond. Watching the wonderful Watford-girls... Have a coffee in the shop right from the Top Rank. .. And the Top Rank. We never saw a Dance pub like the Top Rank. Music we never heard in Germany. We have much fun there and have contact with many young Watford boys and girls. The wonderful shops in the town. Clements, Marks & Spencer, Woolworth - and the Market. A fooballer from the Watford team was there and sell fruits. Later on he was milkman. And the pub Green Man. We come with perhaps 8 boys in the pub for a drink. We have a nice morning. We was hungry and the Barkeeper give us sandwiches - free!! Watford High Street was for us young peoples like a film, watching watching watching. I remember the little clubhouse from the football club in Garston. 1963. I stay in a family home in Garston, The Brouw. A nice family, Jones, live in 105 Newhouse Crescent. Some nice hours we have there. After my football time I was some times in Watford. The last time was 2008. My good old friend Kevin Stratford died. But it is not the Watford I know from the sixtees.The big roads in the town center. All nice shops are gone. The Harlequin.... I live in The Harebreaks and in Bushy in the house of Mick Harmans parents. If somebody remember us and me from the VfB 08 Lünen please give me a message.

My mum and dad had Clarks newsagents in Queens Road. I got married in 1964 at St Mary's Church on 30th march, one of my bridesmaids was Mary who was a daughter from a catholic family. I married Rodney Parkinson and went to Australia. Would be good to catch up with old friends. Bob and Hillary had a dog called Kennedy I think, Bob died early from cancer. Best wishes to catch up.

WOW!! Such wonderful memories. I was born in Watford and went to Chater School. I worked in the fashion dept of Cawdells on leaving school. And during school holidays worked in the Chef corner which was opposite Fine Fare, near the Pond at the top end of the High Street. And can anyone the remember Jax fashions just opposite the St Mary's church yard and the fresh ground coffee shop opposite M&S. I also remember a family by the name of Martindale who lived in a road off Harwoods Road. Lots of memories of Vicarage Road and the Hospital and shops especially Westons fish and chip shop, Betty's wool shop, Clarks butchers, Yorkshire bakery.

The coffee shop was Importers, they had two shops on the High Street, one near St Mary's church, near where Mobile Solutions is on Google Street View and the other on The Parade, near Chef's Corner. Both shops produced wonderful roasting coffee aromas. I can still remember going in with my Dad for a quarter of Dark Continental, medium ground on Saturday mornings after music lessons at Watford School of Music when it was in Red Lion Yard. That was before it moved to Nascot Wood Road.

Thank you for bringing back so many wonderful memories of times gone by in Watford. I can recall everything you have all said and wish those days had never passed. Like many, I was born in King Street Maternity Hospital in 1944. My Grandfather owned and ran the Gents Barbers, G. H. Sharman & Son, at 99, Vicarage Road, near the Cemetery. This was in the family for over 150 years. His first premises was on the corner of King Street. The family originated from Long Buckby in Kettering. Mr. & Mrs. Percy Wells owned the newsagents nearby where my mother did cleaning. Mrs. Beckett had a lovely bakers shop on the corner of Farraline Road and as a child I used to venture in with caution and stand at the top of some steep steps leading to where the bread was baked, but I was always warned never to go down there. A Gibson's butchers was on the other corner. Although trained as a barber, my father decided, at the age of 14 to take a job at W. H. Lavers, Timber Merchants in Merton Road where he worked until he retired. We lived on the Harebreaks Estate in Middle Way. I remember the immediate families from the Halward's, Butcher, Jefferies, Violet, Culverhouse, Wright, Needle, Bunnage, Frost, Atkins, Holbrow. I went to Alexandra Infants School, Parkgate Junior and Leggatts Way Secondary Modern. On leaving I was told by the school I would have to work at Yeatmans sweet factory in Cherry Tree Road, later owned by Mothercare, but my mother hoped for more, sending me to the Commercial College in St. Albans Road, North Watford near Haynes Pram Shop and close to Bushey Mill Lane, where I learnt shorthand/typing. Mr. Haynes also had a cycle shop on the opposite side of the road near Longspring. The council offices were at the bottom of Beechwood Rise with Dodds hardware shop, an alladins cave nearby. I used to take my sledge with wheels on to get a gallon can of paraffin filled then drag it home. Underhills was the newsagent where I'd buy a packet of Smiths crisps with the little blue bag of salt for tuppence and take it to the Odeon Cinema nearby for Saturday morning 'flicks' costing sixpence to get in. I'd crush my crisps to tiny pieces to make them go further. Threshers off-licence was further up the road with a bank on the corner. On leaving school I worked as a junior for the Hertford Handbag Company in Sutton Road. Blowers Ink Company were located on the ground floor. I then joined the Watford Observer working at the offices in the High Street and took a Saturday job at Finlays tobacconists opposite. I didn't last long there, I was useless at figures. Does anyone recall the legend of The Fig Tree in St. Mary' Churchyard, I remember that well. It was then on to Odhams the printing giant in North Watford until it closed in 1983. North Watford holds a lot of memories for me as my maternal family originated in Parker Street, off Leavesden Road. Callowland Girls School at the bottom of Leavesden Road and the boys school further up on the left. Redrups butchers, Girlings Bakers, Mrs. Finch's grocery shop where mum would buy a quarter of butter a week with her rashion coupons and the broken biscuits were a joy. Froomes, another grocers, Mr. Christie's chemist where he made up all sorts of potions, a real chemist. I still have a bottle of his made up linament which is just a keepsake. Mrs. Rumsby's hairdressers with the gents downstairs and ladies upstairs. Gregoes fish and chip shop and greengrocers and Albans greengrocers and a cycle shop nearby where I bought my racing bike. So many memories. There was a pet shop near Christ Church in St. Albans Road, the Co-op shoe shop one side and general homeware store on the other where customers paid for their goods and the assistant would put the money into a circular canister, push it into a fitment above her and it whizzed off the what appeared to me as a child, a box suspended in the sky. Someone up there used to take the money, then send the change winging down. I was fascinated. The Co-op also had a dentist, and foodshop and naturally a Gibsons where we'd buy a pound of eights sausages, a Kinghams further up and not forgetting Spurriers bakers, Timothy, Whites and Taylors and Woolworths. I could go on.

Just an amendment to my previous article. I think Mrs. Beckett's bakery shop was on the corner of Fearnely Street, not Farraline Road as stated, which was further down Vicarage Road. Time plays games with memories but it's so nice to recall such happy times. Wish we could say that about today. Keep the memories flooding it. Wonderful.

Fantastic memories! My wife and I -35 years this month-walked upfrom the 'Junction' passed Seapride fish bar towards the church with bells ringing when we went to the 'Rank' with our free Tuesday tickets from the Echo newspaper. passed Barrington's tailors and the new boutiques towards Timothy Whites, then to the Tonibell coffee shop Bricks Mans shop, where I had a Saturday job, Freeman Hardy and Willis , where my wife worked Saturdays..towards Ashby's boutique, Ronald Coles mans shop, Gerald Clive mans shop...then to the Rank. In Queens Road we left behing 'My Place' but stopped after the Odeon to check out Motown's latest at the Harlequin record store, mamaged by Paul who is now in Spalding as a local churchman. Geno Washington, Them with Van Morrison, McCoys, etc all at the Rank....Those were the days....In Beechen Grove was Kingham Hall whwre I used to run dances with FA BONE and BITTERSWEET with light shows. Bill was the drummer in the latter-a colleague from Bricks -where is he now?! One Way Club was futher down near Gladstone Road and was for the 'Bikers'!

What a great site, my memories of Watford are during the years 1971-9182 when I was working at Waltham Electronics in Queens Road, in the old banana warehouse - I note this building is now flats! (we had relocated to Watford from Edgware) We were opposite the horse trough and I remember one day a member of staff called the fire brigade as the house opposite was on fire - the firefighter had to take the woman out of the bedroom window and she had been in bed with no clothes on! We did laught but she did get out safe and sound. I remember a sandwich shop just up the road going toward the station where we would often get bacon butties. All the memories came back, going to Top Rank or Baileys as it had become, shopping in the market and Clements and also Tewins of course. Watford is a very different place these days but these posts bring back happy memories.

Rambling reminiscences (in no particular order) of a fifty-something... I was searching for anything to do with the “Importers” shop in lower High Street and up popped this site. What a treasure! I was born in ’58 at Stanborough Park and lived in Bushey and Watford until 1996. Although it took a ride on the 301 to get into town it seemed closer than Bushey high street as that was walking only. As soon as I was old enough to ride the bus alone, Watford was the place to go. As a child, shopping in the town was a Saturday affair and was as regular and guaranteed as going to church the following morning. “One and two halves to high street station” was the invocation –forever in my mind’s ear- that bore us to a fascinating sprawl of shops and stalls providing everything for everyone. The exhaust from the coffee shop was at head height to a little ‘un and issued from the vent at quite a rate. I used to take a deep breath as we approached and brace myself for the hot blast to come whilst mum would comment on how pleasant the aroma was. Mac fisheries, opposite the co-op. Two shop fronts; one for fish and I think the other was the delicatessen. Brightly lit but always cold and damp, black and white ceramic tiles everywhere and a fascinating knockout between the two premises that continued the tiling through from one side to the fishy side where the odours were just too much for a little pair of nostrils. Fantos had a mention somewhere. Needless to say, the only section that existed for me was the toy department. Restrained within an alcove for eleven months of the year, it burst out on to the entire width of the front end of the first floor during December in a time when Christmas didn’t start until the twelfth month. Cawdell’s: I remember the Santa ride with great fondness. Jeremy, the term “groddled about” to describe its motion is absolutely brilliant, although at the time it was far too magical an experience for such harsh terms! It certainly transported me. I guess it must have been constructed by the shop’s handymen –when such labour existed. Watford junction, twelve platforms, was it? Hissing of the hydraulic lifts; mysterious things to a young ‘un. The Bridle Path, many memories there. At the top end there was a semi detached house, the right hand one was a cafe for as long as I had known it. The left hand one, from C1972 until C1985 was my dad’s plastic moulding factory! Many hours spent watching the trains from the upstairs bay window. All gone now. Remember the Orange Hand shop at the high street end of Queens Road in the early seventies? A kind of post-hippie cool clothing store. I picked up some really wacky stuff there. Flares and 4” platforms; what was I thinking?? Timothy Whites (I said in no particular order) was the first shop in town to have an escalator. My favourite escalator was the one in Clement’s. If I’d been good, I was allowed to travel up it three times during Saturday shopping, returning via the back stairs. Three times was the limit I was told, lest my activity attract the attention of the comissionaire, an upright, pinstriped-suited gentleman with swept-back grey hair and a prominent moustach, who as far as I could tell was never seen without a white carnation in his lapel. There was a quaint shop on Queens Road, more or less opposite the Radlett Road junction, called Avondales. A tiny but somehow vastly stocked emporium of electrical junk. Perfect for a pocket-money based self education into all things electrical. Mickey Mouse’s Bungalow, anyone? Demolished in C1973, it was a low, concrete shelter-like building next to the library, behind where the bandstand is now sited. It was a sub station from a time when Watford had its own electricity supply (Cardiff Road power station) for street lighting and municipal buildings. My friend’s mum worked at Clement’s and passed there on her way home for lunch. Knowing our passion for electrical junk, she enquired about the equipment being discarded and subsequently ferried loads of it on her shopping trolley (I have no idea how) to their house on Hempstead Road for us to play with. Some really antique –and huge- stuff! Carey Place, now a strange pastiche of its former self. When I first saw the blocked up version I wanted to close my eyes and keep on walking through the wall at the end. Where the old covered market started, outside the side entrance to Cawdell’s, and again at the back end of the arcade by the cafe on the corner (cheese sandwiches and orange juice; yum), there were two beautiful semi-circular mosaics set into the vaulted ceiling, with the words “Market Arcade” set out around the radius. Sometime in the eighties I was taking photographs from the top of Charter Place car park and happened to look down into a walled-off dead space at the rear of the spiral ramp. Although barely visible through the wooden slats that bound them (someone must have received an order to set them aside) there were the two mosaics, still mounted on a foot or more of semi-circular masonry; one propped against the wall, the other fallen onto its face. By that time they were in a poor way. I made many calls to the town hall and museum in an attempt to have them rescued but as far as I know they never saw the light of day again. So sad. Dad worked at the Town Hall in the early sixties. He and his mates mounted the coat of arms that adorns the balustrade. Idyllic childhood vignette: Early Saturday morning, a little boy in shorts riding high atop a bouncing pile of deckchairs as dad pulls them along on a four wheeled handcart from the town hall stores, along Rickmansworth Road, through the archway and down to the bandstand to set them out for the afternoon’s performance. Yes, so many things have gone, but never the memories and mysteries that accompany a child growing up with access to such a place.

I've not been able to look at this page for a while and so I may be coming back, a bit late with some answers - not that they are very reliable. I don't remember any coffee place near The One Bell (Front of St Mary's Church) But the coffee roasting place Kathleen Bennett mentioned August 09 may have been KKK or the Three Kays Cafe as we used to call it. Though this could be one I'm muddling up with a cafe of that name near Harrow Railway Bridge at the Hill side of the town. Someone here said it was called Importers, but I don't remember that at all. To Anthony McKay I want to say that I tried going to his link on the BritFilm forum but it didn't lead to any movie about Roger Moore's "The Saint's" Volvo. I couldn't search for the movie without joining and registering. So I'd be glad of a bit of clarity on that so I would willingly go and look at the movie. Roger Moore I think lived in Stanmore or Edgware and we used to see him driving in that Ivory coloured Volvo sports car around Watford and also occasionally came up alongside him in Park Lane on the way to Hyde Park Corner usually with a female Celebrity in the passenger seat. All very suave and showing considerable street-cred long before anyone invented such a term! Looking at the park photos that Anthony McKay posted a link to, I don't think they are Cassiobury Park as the trees don't look right and there was no recreation ground there during my time apart from one down by the Paddling Pool which looked very different from those in the photo. So it could be another North London park. Certainly cars were not allowed in the park other than in a small special car park still there today at Gade Avenue. We used to practice skidding our cars on snow in that car park but back then in the early 1960s you could drive onto the grass and do untold damage; Now it's all cordoned off with bollards to prevent vandals like me (or today's equivalent of them!) from ruining the place for everyone else. Lovely extra comments made here since 2009 - it's always good to come back and read the newly posted old memories. Jeremy Prior (also known as Lawrence/Laurie Prior)

Have become very engrossed in reading all the memories of Watford and it's now very late but feel I must add to the comments. I moved to Oxhey from London Colney at the age of 3 in 1957 and lived there until I moved to the Bedford area aged 20. As I still have family in Watford I visit regularly and sadly have seen, in my opinion the heart ripped out of the town across the years. I also have many fond memories of Watford. I too have very vivid memories of visiting Cawdells at Christmastime and riding in a huge white swan whilst scenery past by, eventually arriving to visit Father Christmas - magical! I remember eating cockles with my Dad at the market stall and being given a tiny hand of bananas by a Market Trader. Running up and down the grand staircase and sliding down the banisters in Gade House! The little house on the pond at Christmas that was all lit up. Mum queing for bread at the Chef Corner house during the shortage. The shop that sold roasted coffee was "Importers Coffee Shop" Mum always used to buy Blue Mountain. Wonderful memories of Cassiobury Park where my Mum and Dad met during the War, Mum being a Nanny who had come to Watford from Holland just before the War. Dad was sitting on a park bench in Cassiobury Park and Mum asked him the time whilst out pushing her charges in the pram - needless to say this was the start of a beautiful relationship and Mum made her home here in England with Dad their first home together being in Bricket Wood. I worked at the Nat West Bank also the Leicester Permanent Building Society as it was then. My Saturday job when still at school was at Freeman Hardy and Willis the shoe shop. I loved the Carnival and would always stand up by the pond with a "waver" of shredded tissue paper I would also always get a black ballon with a zulu type face on it and a coloured feather. I have wonderful memories of Cassiobury Park, taking my dog Toby on the 346/347 bus and walking through the wonderful old Park Gates to the river Gade and throwing sticks into the water for him. Also fishing with my net and swimming with my lilo. I am pleased to say that my children have also enjoyed similar pleasures in Cassiobury Park including the wonderful train ride which I intend taking my Grandchildren on hopefully next Spring/Summer as well as paddling in the pools. I could go on forever but must finish now - it's good to share happy memories with those who have experienced similar. Viv Hawkey 28/11/2011

I also meant to add to my memoirs that I believe Roger Moore lived for a period of time in one of the large houses in Nancy Downs, Oxhey. I also remember him opening a TV/electrical shop at South Oxhey. I joined many others to get his autograph and was one away in the queue from having my photo taken with him and published in the Watford Observer - alas the only part of me that was captured was my red bag! I and my family still enjoy Gibsons sausages today when either I buy them when I go down to Watford or when my sons Nan visits us - she always brings us the afore said which are the best sausages in the world! It is late again - I must finish! By Vivien Hawkey on 29/11/11

Hey Eddie O'Connor, how could l forget many a great night spinning records with this great DJ when l lived in Watford playing the clubs and pubs as Mikky Dean spinnin' records at the New Penny, Top Rank, My Place, Bailey's, City Hall, and many more gigs. Now singing in a rock'n'roll band in France but still fond memories of Watford in the 60s.

This a brilliant page for any Watfordian to browse and reminice. Now 62, having so many vivid memories of our family town but unable to converse with the family now as most passed on, I get a 'well being' feeling reading all the comments. I thank all the contributers for their fascinating memories. Born in Essex Road, was a former pupil of Chater, Callowland,Bushey Meads and Langleybury schools and a choir boy at St. Michaels before the voice breaking. I moved to Bedford where houses were SO cheap in the late sixties but commuted to Watford by rail for the next few years before eventually moving to Cornwall for good in 1987. So pleased to note Viviens comment about Gibson's pork sausages still available, never tasted anything like them since, must go back for more one day. Mrs Tucker on her little market stall just selling mushrooms, putting them in your bag after weighing with her saucer (that's all she sold). Top rank with Caters underneath was my second home, loved that place. The Trade union Hall around 1965/6 was the place to be on a Sat night, whizzing around outside on my Vespa, fox tails flapping behind, The Who's music causing temporary deafness for the next few hours, some decibels they belted out. My Grandparents were the publicans of 'The Cricketers Arms' on Watford Fields only selling Benskins ales, no spirit licence, while my Great great grandad on my fathers side was the head park keeper in Cassiobury and planted the long (Beech?) aisle alongside the main path from the entrance to the cafe. So many hours I spent in that park and in the woods with their watercress beds being of great interest to a young lad. Probably where I got my lifelong interest in horticulture from that man and now run the second biggest allotment site in Cornwall on the NT property called Lanhydrock. I am proud to call myself a Watfordian and isn't the internet a marvellous tool when I can still read the Watford Observer without leaving my allotment shed? Keep posting your highly interesting thoughts and memories good people, they are so enjoyed by many.

I would like to hear from anyone who remembers the music venues in Watford in the 60s, my first bands were at the Holywell Comunity Centre local bands playing rock n roll, Kingham Hall used to have a lot of local bands one l remember was a ryth'm & blues band called the Cops & Robbers the lead singer named Smudge sang great Howlin' Wolf blues like Smokestack Lightnin'. l saw the Small Faces on one xmas eve, ten shillings to get in they came very late played for half an hour and left but they were great especially Steve Marriot. Another small hall hosting local and some out of town bands was the Oddfellows hall l saw the Pretty Things there but they didn't go down too well, too heavy for the local mods. The Trade Union Hall was our biggest venue run by Joe Seabrook who became a very good friend of mine in later years and became personal bodyguard to Keith Richards in the late 70s until he died in March 2000. The Trade was host to many great names including The Birds, Ronnie Wood, The Herd, Peter Frampton, The Move, Roy Wood, John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, Eric Clapton, The Who, The Yardbirds,  Jimmy Page, The Creation, The Action, Four plus One, Long John Baldry, Rod 'the mod' Stewart, Brian Auger Trinity, Julie Driscoll, Graham Bond Organisation, The Artwoods lead by Artie Wood Ron's brother, and many more including some of the old Chicago Bluesmen who came over to tour Europe. There were also many pubs who had live music from local bands but the Top Rank opened, end of all the local venues R.I.P.

Hi, everyone. Just a reminder that it's really easy to add your own pages, including any old photos you might have, to the Watford Junction site. For example, R W Evans has just added a great page about Cassiobury Park over the weekend. There's some more info on how to do that here.

THis is the link to unused footage of THE SAINT filmed in Watford mentioned earlier: http://youtu.be/Zzq39WS4-Ts This is a link to footage that was actually used in the episode, location unknown: http://youtu.be/WcPKJs2Hvjs

Here is the link to the park seen in THE AVENGERS which I thought could be Cassiobury (mainly because Watford Central Baths and The Grove are featured in the eposide). http://youtu.be/DxaYmnjUUVo

Christine Partridge - How wonderful to read your posting! You triggered so many flashbacks... I'm Julia Holbrow (now in Vancouver B.C.) I lived between the Smith family and the Davis family and I remember the fair haired Halwards and all the Butcher boys who had nicknames beginning with "B". I remember the horse and cart salesman slowly making his way along the street selling his produce and the avid gardeners racing to collect the horse's droppings .. the street games , the box-carts..the prolonged snow battles with the "Thrums" kids.. The 346 bus travelling along the Harebreaks road was as welcome a sight as a favourite family member.

I was 17 years old in 1947 & met a lovely boy from Watford who took me dancing at the Watford Town Hall one Saturday night. I lived on the Headstone Lane Council Estate in Harrow. So much looked down upon in those days as most tenants were bombed out Londoners. Anyway, I loved to go shopping in Watford with my Mum on Saturdays, we especially loved to go to the market where one could buy almost anything fresh & lovely to eat. I even brought my wedding dress at one of the dress shops along the high street. Unfortunately, not for Bernard Watts, the smashing boy from Watford but to an American. Thanks so much for your wonderful site. Such pleasant memories, however, I can't believe I am that old. Thanks again! Audrey-Anne