My Memories of Southall  Broadway

We were the first Indian family on Northcote Avenue in Southall, living in a reasonably large corner house. Often when we walked up to Mr Mahi‘s corner shop we would get a funny stare or people would start whispering. I loved Mr Mahi and his quirky, tiny shop which sold a few groceries, general stuff and lots of half penny sweets.

I remember our neighbours well. On one side lived an elderly couple, Mr & Mrs Mayo. On the other side, Pat & John with their 3 kids, Gillian, Kevin and Gary. Opposite us lived a lady called Ellena.

When we moved to Southall in the 70’s there were hardly any Asian shops, just Gifto & Siras which I can remember. We had a Safeway store with shopping trolleys, which we would freely take to carry home anything we bought from Southall market. At the weekend the market was bursting with fruits, vegetables and cheap clothes. Opposite was Dave the fruit and veg man, who I am still friends with to this day. His stall was next to Lloyd’s Bank. We had a school uniform shop called Taplins which we got our free school uniform from. Dad received a grant from the education department as there were 8 of us in a family without too much money!

I remember a large Woolworths store which sold an array of all kinds of sweets through their pick and mix offering. It’s where we always shopped for Christmas decorations and fireworks. A small Co-op, Evans the bike and pram shop where Dad bought us a purple chopper which we had to share between eight of us! Tony’s the newsagent where Mum would get free glass jars to store her pickles. We’d have rows and rows of all kinds of pickles fermenting in the little larder we had in our kitchen.

Mum would sometimes let me buy a packet of Smith crisps, the ones that had a small sachet of salt in! There was also a bakery and before Mum and I did the shopping, we’d buy a sausage roll for me and a cheese & onion pasty for Mum.

We had a book shop called Atlas books, run by a father and son team. The son, Jason, is someone who I still speak with. There was another bakery called Coombes which was right next to the 207 bus stop where I’d meet Mum when she came off the bus from work. Mum worked at St Bernards Hospital in Hanwell and often we’d go into Coombes, because by the late afternoon all the cakes and loaves would be reduced to half-price!

Who would have thought that over 40 years later, I would launch my own brand named after the 207 bus, which ran from Southall to Shepherds Bush Market!

I loved riding the routemaster buses, the old ones which you could jump onto even if they had started moving. Our dog, a German shepherd called Tiger, loved the buses too. He wasn’t allowed on them, so he’d just follow us at a distance and jump on at the very last minute. The conductor would then stop the bus whilst we removed our loyal hound! Tiger once made Mum very late for work when he refused to get off the bus. Mum told us afterwards that she swore at him in Punjabi as she took him back home.

We had a Moss Chemist and a couple of shoe shops, one of which was where we bought our school shoes from. The Singer sewing shop was opposite the Town Hall, and there was also a large fabric shop. Mum would often visit these two shops on pay day, buying material and needles. I remember that she used to pay the owner a little at a time for a new sewing machine. There was a working men’s club behind Woolworths and a little toy shop too.

Things got worse before they got better whilst living in Southall. Mr & Mrs Mayo complained to the council about the smell of our Indian food. An inspector visited and asked if we’d consider making curry on less days of the week! Dad told the inspector to leave it to him. The next day Dad popped over to Mr & Mrs Mayo’s house with a lightly spiced beetroot curry, fluffy light rotis and some raita. He returned later with Mr Mayo and they sat chatting for hours in the back garden. From then on Mr & Mrs Mayo became our friends and I would often go to the corner shop on a Saturday to buy them a tin of Fray Bentos steak & kidney pie, one swede, two potatoes and two carrots. Mrs Mayo used to give me 2p for my troubles, which I usually bought gobstoppers with.

The Queen’s silver jubilee was when things really changed for us. We were not invited to be part of the team of neighbours which was arranging the street party. But Dad decided that we were going to make aloo parathas for anyone that wanted them – in our front garden! I really wanted to be part of the celebrations as we were already struggling to fit in, but I wanted to make cheese and cucumber sandwiches, with Hula Hoops and Iced Gems.

We made the parathas and on the day of the Queen’s silver jubilee celebrations, we had people queuing up to taste our aloo parathas. Everyone loved them and it was my Dad’s food that united us with the rest of the street!