SOME MEMORIES OF CASTLE PARADE, EWELL, SURREY
Williams & Son Stationers (No.5), Boots Chemists (No.4) and Sainsbury Grocers (No.3).
Plus on the extreme right the first X in Twentieth Century Cleaners (No.2)
Image courtesy of Bourne Hall Museum
The June 2019 copy of ‘The Resident’ – the newsletter of Stoneleigh & Auriol Residents’ Association (SARA) – has three very interesting old photos under the heading ‘Past Stoneleigh.’ Two of the photos show Castle Parade in years gone by and they very much bring back happy memories to me and I feel sure other local people from the 1950’s, 1960’s and 1970’s. You can see the Castle Parade row of shops, the Ewell Bypass before it was widened and the Organ Inn (now gone), and the Organ Inn roundabout, which was replaced with the present junction and traffic lights. The Ewell bypass was widened in the 1980’s along with Kingston Road passing the Ewell Court shopping parades and where the old Rembrandt cinema stood (now flats). A new wide railway bridge came into use on the Epsom to London Waterloo line, crossing Kingston Road.
The Organ Inn in 1968
Image courtesy of Epsom & Ewell Local & Family History Centre
Getting back to the SARA old photos, in the 1950’s and 1960’s, Castle Parade used to be served by London Transport (red) bus route 93 that ran from Putney Bridge Station to Epsom Station and the London Transport Green Line routes 712 and 713 that ran from Dorking yo Luton and Dunstable. Request stops stood in London Road either side of the Organ Inn roundabout for travel in north and south directions. These stops have now been moved a little distance away. In 1970 route 93 was shortened back to North Cheam and a brand-new route 293 was started, running from Epsom Station to Morden Station and extended to Wimbledon Station in peak hours. Route 93 had been a conductor route but new route 293 was one-man operated (OMO) from the start. At first, route 293 was operated with AEC Merlin (MB-Type) red single-decker buses. In 1974 these were exchanged for Daimler Fleetline (DMS-Type) red double-decker buses – later ones being badged as Leyland Fleetlines. Earlier ones had smart white surrounds to the upper deck windows. By 1989 route 293 was operated by London Country (South West) on behalf of London Transport using green double-decker buses. This must have reminded older residents of pre-war days when the old route 70 had green buses running from Morden to Dorking.
AEC Merlin Type Bus
DMS-type bus 1 July 1981
We are extremely grateful to London Transport Museum and Transport for London
for the use of their copyright images. The London Transport Museum and its
website http://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/ are both well worth a visit.
One of the SARA old photos show a red Daimler Fleetline London Transport bus travelling past the Organ Inn in a North Cheam direction. Using the above dates, perhaps this dates the SARA photo as between 1974 and 1989. The photo shows a Morris Marine/Ital van in the service road in front of the Castle Parade shops.
In the 1980’s older residents could remember when they could buy almost all their day to day shopping over at Castle Parade. Our parents recalled the time when they were able to buy food and groceries and household items there close to our home and lots of other local people of course. Some of the shops we had were a Sainsbury’s (original shop front renewed c.1950/60’s with a new front with glass door), a Boot’s chemists (later became a Shirwell’s), and a Gerrards’s for fruit and vegetables (where all produce were weighed in sturdy scales and put into brown paper bags). We had other shops of course, such as William’s newsagents, (a branch of their High Street shop and I think later became a Menzies). An electrical shop called Berry’s (sold household appliances and I think had another shop at North Cheam, the Castle Parade shop later became a carpet shop then a second-hand shop).
Williams & son Stationers (No.5), T.A. Berry Radio Engineers (Nos.6&7) and Gerrards Fruiters (No.8)
Image courtesy of Bourne Hall Museum
We had Hall’s who were ironmongers selling crockery and household items and also paraffin at (I think) about 1s.9d a gallon. When I got older I would buy it for our greenhouse heater. Hall’s was also a post office and we bought stamps there – I think a stamp for a letter cost 4d at about this time. Just over the service road outside Hall’s there was a bright red pillar box and a bright red ‘traditional’ telephone box which had paper phone books in it for callers to refer to. Attached to the pillar box was a stamp machine where you could buy stamps by putting coins into this machine. Another thing I like to look back to with interest are the bright red Morris Minor Post Office vans that came to Castle Parade Post Office to collect the letters and parcels in large mail bags. I remember buying one or two postal orders here, people used them quite a bit then, a box of them was kept safely behind the post office counter ‘grille.’
No.9. Sub Post Office and hardware shop c.1970
Image courtesy of Epsom & Ewell Local & Family History Centre
There was a ladies and children’s shop in Castle Parade and at the London Road end there was Hart’s bakers shop where you could buy lovely bread and also cakes. They sold lovely jam tarts, you could see them in wooden trays and on glass shelves. Quite a bit of food was sold ‘loose’ then and put into paper bags for the customer at the counter – the shopkeeper had a set of ‘keys’ to press on the machine, a bell rang and the value of the purchases was shown in a window. I think many of them were made by National Cash Register. Just a few doors away was the XXth Century Cleaners. I used to look in with wonder at the machines spinning round. I think they had the name Spencer on them. When I was young, I thought the ‘XX’ came from alphabet letters, but later found out it meant the 20th century.
Harts Restaurant (No.1)
Image courtesy of Epsom & Ewell Local & Family History Centre
There were other shops in Castle Parade, but the ones mentioned above were the ones we regularly used. One source of wonder was Cole’s car showroom which may have been two shops joined. I think the cars for sale were second-hand, but they were always bright and shiny. We never had, or wanted, a car – none of us could drive – and I still don’t.
Exactly opposite Castle Parade stood a big garage with petrol pumps and workshops. This garage was called Dawniers and it was situated in London Road opposite the Organ Inn and carried on into Ewell By pass up to Beaufort Way. It was a Shell-BP garage and I can remember the big yellow and white Scammell ‘Highwayman’ articulated petrol tankers delivering their petrol to Dawniers. The driver would ‘dip’ their lorry tank with a long pole to find out the amount of petrol in it – they had to climb a ladder on the tank and then walk along a catwalk on top of the tank. We lived in London Road close to Dawniers and on a warm day you could smell petrol fumes in the air on delivery days, but they soon cleared. Dawniers bought and sold commercial vehicles and sometimes you could see the previous owners’ names painted out and auction lot numbers on the windscreens. Behind Dawniers a footpath led to Eagles Nest which was a lake that was filled in when it had to be drained at the turn of the 1950/60’s. This is where the present Bluegates estate stands now. This name comes from the old Bluegates which was a big old house that I think was once a school and it later became a Civil Defence building until, years later, it was demolished. We lived opposite it and the old Bluegates stood next to Ivy Cottage which still remains.
Ivy Cottage used to be home to Mr. and Mrs. Dent. Mr. Dent was Borough Librarian to Epsom & Ewell and there is a plate remembering him on the wall in Bourne Hall Library. These used to be run by Epsom & Ewell until, I think, 1974 when they passed to Surrey. The old Ewell Library used to be in Pit House (Staneway House) in Cheam Road before the present one opened in the new Bourne Hall. As the name suggests, Ivy Cottage was actually covered with ivy on its front, but the ivy has now gone. In earlier times, Ivy Cottage used to be home to Mr. & Mrs. Laird and I think Mrs. Laird used to work with schools.
Ivy Cottage, London Road, from north west in 1967
Image courtesy of Epsom & Ewell Local & Family History Centre
A little further along London Road stood an old farmhouse (now gone) and it was Cherry Orchard Farm and Mr. & Mrs. Lavender kept cows and delivered milk to Ewell. This was before London Road was built up, of course, during the 1930’s more homes were needed and house building spread further out from London. I remember mum telling me when mum and dad moved to London Road in 1937, they remembered the old ‘General’ bus route 70 – Morden to Dorking – and that Mrs. Lavender could remember when an independent bus called ‘St. George’ ran this route alongside the ‘General’ buses.
Cherry Orchard Farm in 1968
Image courtesy of Epsom & Ewell Local & Family History Centre
Behind where we lived there used to be Ewell Park Hospital (now gone) and houses now stand there. It was approached from Ewell Park Way, a road off London Road, and there was a sign pointing to it on the fence. Behind this fence stood an old house which I think used to be the lodge leading to the hospital. I think Ewell Park Hospital was for elderly people and we used to see ambulances come and go. These were run by the Surrey Ambulance Service – as it used to be called – and we used to see the older cream-painted Daimler ambulances and then the new cream painted Commer ambulances built on the ‘Walk-thru’chassis. Sometimes we would see the white painted London County Council – later Greater London Council – ambulances passing our front gate in London Road, perhaps these were on patient transport between hospitals. The Surrey Ambulance Service used to have an ambulance station on the corner of Epsom Road and Langton Avenue, it closed when a new larger ambulance station was built in Church Street, Epsom, near the fire station in 1960’s/70’s.
Ewell Park Hospital, Ewell Park Way in 1967
Image courtesy of Epsom & Ewell Local & Family History Centre
Walking the other way from our home in London Road, across Elmwood Drive, you passed some wooden cottages and then another old building which, years ago, was the Brick Kiln pub. It was taken over as a church called Kingdom Hall. Then, a short walk away past a plant nursery (now gone) was the Organ Inn next to the roundabout – now crossroads and filter lanes. The Organ Inn was a 1930’s style pub – which has now also gone – people have applied to build different things there. In the plasterwork you used to be able to see an ‘ICA’ inscription which perhaps stood for Ind Coope as once I saw a big yellow Morris dray parked outside fitted with poster for ‘Double Diamond’ beer. Also outside stood two wooden boards advertising local cinemas – the ‘Rembrandt’ and the ‘Granada’, North Cheam, I think. Also outside for some time was a yellow stand where you could buy the ‘Evening News’ or ‘Evening Standard,’ you put money into a sealed box.
Things changed a great deal for the ‘Organ’ roundabout in the late 1960s into the 1970’s. Road traffic increased hugely over the years which led to pavement barriers having to be fitted and later the original grass roundabout had to be made quite a bit smaller as the big one was getting damaged by traffic. Prior to this a big new motor showrooms had been built on one corner of the ‘Organ’ roundabout next to the United Reform church in Welbeck Close which used to be called Drill Hall Road because of the army establishment there. The new motor showrooms looked so modern to us youngsters and looked like something space-age or out of ‘Dr. Who’ and I can remember when they sold British Leyland vehicles, then Fiat, then Honda (I think).
Dawnier Motors in 1969
Image courtesy of Epsom & Ewell Local & Family History Centre
Over these years, the road traffic was getting busier and busier and people were finding it difficult to cross over to the Castle Parade shops. We did have white bollards to make it ‘safer’ to get across but older people and mums with prams and buggies found it hard. It was scary to stand on those bollards with traffic whizzing past near you. In the end, it was decided to widen the Ewell Bypass and Kingston Road and replace the roundabout with traffic lights for pedestrians and filter lanes for motorists. This was good of course, but the Ewell Bypass and Kingston Road still remain extremely busy roads.
A good thing that came out of this redevelopment was the fact that the big Shell garage at the ‘Organ’ junction has been made bigger and has a shop built into it and I think, a cafe. While aimed at motorists, local people also use it, a great help to older and infirm residents. The trade of the original Castle Parade shops had suffered over recent years because of the busy traffic problem, but at least some groceries, etc. can be bought like years ago. In a way, ‘the wheel has come full circle’.
These are some of my memories of Castle Parade. I do hope so much that they interest people, and that they may help a little. I really enjoyed putting them together.
Peter Lemon, July, 2019.
P.S. An extremely interesting point is that during the 1930s, a plan was proposed to extend the Underground Northern Line beyond Morden to Ewell and building an underground station at Castle Parade, but the war came and the plan did not take place – (local public transport notes dated July, 2017 refer). However, when we lived at our old home in London Road, Ewell, once or twice we saw an underground tube car fixed to a big articulated low-loader lorry pass our home. This splendid sight made you look in awe, being out of the ordinary and I felt very lucky to have been in the right place at the right time! I would think they were travelling to/from the Underground depot at Morden.
P.S.S. In 1967, a new type of Green Line started to serve Luton, Heathrow and Gatwick Airports – the 727 Express and I remember them at the Organ Inn roundabout.
Transcribed by H. Marogna July 2019