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...