# Hounslow



## mod (Sep 30, 2005)

Is there a more depressing area in London (or England) than horrid, horrid little Hounslow?

Hounslow West more specifically. Flat, grey, run down and depressing. The only positives I can think of are its close to Heathrow and has 3 tubes stations which act as convenient escape routes to civilisation.


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## rennie (Sep 30, 2005)

i've only ever been to hounslow on the way to heathrow. and it seems for a good reason.


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## Barney Bee (Sep 30, 2005)

mod said:
			
		

> Is there a more depressing area in London (or England) than horrid, horrid little Hounslow?
> 
> Hounslow West more specifically. Flat, grey, run down and depressing. The only positives I can think of are its close to Heathrow and has 3 tubes stations which act as convenient escape routes to civilisation.



You're not far from Osterley.
Nice bits there and a good park.
Chin up chicken


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## java1200 (Sep 30, 2005)

Is it really London though? Anyway you're right, it's a horrible little place.


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## Isambard (Sep 30, 2005)

It doesn't even get Heathrow which is in the London Borough of Hillingdon!


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## mod (Sep 30, 2005)

Barney Bee.  Yes Osterley is OK. Isleworth and Richmond are nice areas too but don't let that ever disguise the fact that Hounslow is a hub of social neglect and depravity.

I escaped many years ago!


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## Barney Bee (Sep 30, 2005)

mod said:
			
		

> Barney Bee.  Yes Osterley is OK. Isleworth and Richmond are nice areas too but don't let that ever disguise the fact that Hounslow is a hub of social neglect and depravity.
> 
> I escaped many years ago!


 Okay I know - it's true.
Just trying to inject a bit of positivity I suppose.
Funny thing is no one ever seems to say they are from Hounslow. The Borough is huge but it's always 'i live in Brentford' or 'i live in Heston'. I think that's part of it's problem - it's lacking identity.
But yeah you're right really - it's a bit of a shitehole


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## discplayer (Sep 30, 2005)

I lived in Heston, 15 mins walk from Hounslow West tube. You're right, despite Hounslow really being a town with three tube stations, many buses and a rail station, rather than some boroughs with names taken from older districts, no-one seems to claim they are from there. Maybe no-one gets out alive!

I always though the best thing about it was the ability to leave by road, rail or air!


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## chieftain (Sep 30, 2005)

mod said:
			
		

> Is there a more depressing area in London (or England) than horrid, horrid little Hounslow?
> 
> Hounslow West more specifically. Flat, grey, run down and depressing. The only positives I can think of are its close to Heathrow and has 3 tubes stations which act as convenient escape routes to civilisation.



yes the Pembury Estate in Hackney... its not even near Heathrow


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## mod (Sep 30, 2005)

Done a 10 stretch but some how managed to get out sane and healthy. 

You live there now Barney Bee?


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## Belushi (Sep 30, 2005)

I used to love going to see my Great Gran there when I was little, I used to sit on the balcony with binoculars watching the planes


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## Barney Bee (Sep 30, 2005)

mod said:
			
		

> Done a 10 stretch but some how managed to get out sane and healthy.
> 
> You live there now Barney Bee?


 No I'm an Ealing boy but have a certain love for the grey sprawl that is outer West London. Used to have a loft extension that looked out over it from up high - wicked sun-sets and you see the planes at Heathrow which I liked.


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## Isambard (Sep 30, 2005)

discplayer said:
			
		

> I always though the best thing about it was the ability to leave by road, rail or air!




See post # 5!   

I went to Hounslow for the first time a couple of years ago.
I was SO shocked I rang my mum up and said "I went to Hounslow today and it was shite". She goes, "Son, I could have told you that and saved you the journey!"


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## tim (Sep 30, 2005)

Isambard said:
			
		

> It doesn't even get Heathrow which is in the London Borough of Hillingdon!



It's built on Hounslow Heath though, so that makes it Hounslow for me. Anyway in the borough we have Osterley House, Syon House and Chiswick house and their attached parks, plus a nice strech of the river. Many great artists (well at least four) have also chosen either to live or if they couldn't manage it in life, be buried in our great borough.  Can you name them?


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## wrysmile (Sep 30, 2005)

Went to Hounslow once to get a national insurance number. Only time I've ever been to zone 4. Horrifying!


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## java1200 (Sep 30, 2005)

wrysmile said:
			
		

> Went to Hounslow once to get a national insurance number. Only time I've ever been to zone 4. Horrifying!



Some very nice areas are in Zone 4: Richmond, Finchley, Mill Hill, Muswell Hill.


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## tim (Sep 30, 2005)

discplayer said:
			
		

> I lived in Heston, 15 mins walk from Hounslow West tube. You're right, despite Hounslow really being a town with three tube stations, many buses and a rail station, rather than some boroughs with names taken from older districts, no-one seems to claim they are from there. Maybe no-one gets out alive!
> QUOTE]
> 
> I'm from an old Hounslow farming family (although we branched of into shopkeeping and tram-building after the landlord sold the old farm to the developers), and am quite please to be so.


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## Barney Bee (Sep 30, 2005)

tim said:
			
		

> It's built on Hounslow Heath though, so that makes it Hounslow for me. Anyway in the borough we have Osterley House, Syon House and Chiswick house and their attached parks, plus a nice strech of the river. Many great artists (well at least four) have also chosen either to live or if they couldn't manage it in life, be buried in our great borough.  Can you name them?


 gonna tell us the answer then?


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## miss giggles (Sep 30, 2005)

Hounslow's not far from me. How many pound shops can you fit on one highstreet? I think their brilliant. But apart from that, er, yes your right. Not exactley scenic is it?


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## discplayer (Sep 30, 2005)

tim said:
			
		

> I'm from an old Hounslow farming family (although we branched of into shopkeeping and tram-building after the landlord sold the old farm to the developers), and am quite please to be so.



I don't say I'm from Heston as whilst I spent most of my teenage years there I went to school where I'd lived before, but I wasn't born there either. I generally say I'm from 'around heathrow'.


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## tim (Sep 30, 2005)

Barney Bee said:
			
		

> gonna tell us the answer then?



I was going to give you a few days to think, but if you insist then: Turner over a pub in Brentford, Van Gogh in what was then a crappy private school in Isleworth, Hogarth in his coutry villa in Chiswick. Whisler and Hogarth are both currently to be found in the bone-yard next to Chiswick parish church.


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## Barney Bee (Sep 30, 2005)

tim said:
			
		

> I was going to give you a few days to think, but if you insist then: Turner over a pub in Brentford, Van Gogh in what was then a crappy private school in Isleworth, Hogarth in his coutry villa in Chiswick. Whisler and Hogarth are both currently to be found in the bone-yard next to Chiswick parish church.


 I'm impressed - I'll admit I thought you didn't know them.
Learned dude


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## Isambard (Sep 30, 2005)

discplayer said:
			
		

> I generally say I'm from 'around heathrow'.



That's what I say too!


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## trabuquera (Sep 30, 2005)

*Leytonstone*

it's f*cking miles from anything. it funnels you down incomprehensible one way systems through which HGVs belt through at unfeasible speed. it's full of crumbling decaying cramped drab victorian terraces which were ugly from the day they finished building them. I HATE the place.


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## mod (Sep 30, 2005)

Housnlow facts:

The Bluetones came from Hounslow West. Good band.

Renee from Allo Allo was injured in the big storm in 1987 near Houslow High Street.

The Gateways in Hounslow West was once a Cinema.

There is an estate called 'Beavers Estate'. No lie.

Errr...thats it I think.


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## Barney Bee (Sep 30, 2005)

Brand New Heavies aswell apparently (...nothing, nothing apparently)
-actually I think that was the Young Disciples.
There's also the mighty Brentford FC


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## miss giggles (Sep 30, 2005)

trabuquera said:
			
		

> it's f*cking miles from anything. it funnels you down incomprehensible one way systems through which HGVs belt through at unfeasible speed. it's full of crumbling decaying cramped drab victorian terraces which were ugly from the day they finished building them. I HATE the place.



Ah, but Leytonstone is home to the mighty 491 gallery. Check it out. I've had some of my best nights ever in there. I was even considering moveing from Richmond to be near it.


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## mod (Sep 30, 2005)

Brentford FC!!  Yes we miss them. What fun those away days down at Griffin Park were. Especially the last one!

Fulham Mod


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## Isambard (Sep 30, 2005)

Was always a toss up Between Brentford FC and Hayes Town when I was a young un. 

Oh yeah, Bend it like Beckham was set in Hounslow although you can see Southall gas tower in the background which is of course in London Borough of Ealing


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## butterfly child (Sep 30, 2005)

The best thing about Hounslow (apart from the buses out of it) is that church at the top of the high street.

I've had many a handy sandwich and cuppa in there.

With regards to the comment that nobody says they come from Hounslow, I think that unless you come from Hounslow proper, it's such a large borough that you're more likely to say the area from which you do come.

I mean, no-one says "I live in Hammersmith & Chelsea" do they? 

We lived in Osterley, so when asked, I would say we lived in Osterley, because we didn't live in Hounslow...


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## marty21 (Sep 30, 2005)

chieftain said:
			
		

> yes the Pembury Estate in Hackney... its not even near Heathrow



tbh, that has improved over the last couple of years, it's still grim, but slightly less grim than before

i haven't been to hounslow in years, i did teacher training at west thames college in 94/5 and spent about 6 months travelling to there from hackney 3 days a week  

didn't find it depressing, but it was pretty forgettable, can't remember much about the place tbh


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## java1200 (Sep 30, 2005)

butterfly child said:
			
		

> I mean, no-one says "I live in Hammersmith & Chelsea" do they?



Well they wouldn't, considering there's no such borough. Hammersmith & Fulham or Kensington & Chelsea.


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## marty21 (Sep 30, 2005)

butterfly child said:
			
		

> I mean, no-one says "I live in Hammersmith & Chelsea" do they?



they would if they had flats in both places


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## William of Walworth (Sep 30, 2005)

mod said:
			
		

> The only positives I can think of are its close to Heathrow



That's a negative, the plane noise is awful out there


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## marty21 (Sep 30, 2005)

William of Walworth said:
			
		

> That's a negative, the plane noise is awful out there



it's every 90 seconds at peak flying time i think


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## Isambard (Oct 1, 2005)

Provides a lot of work like, Heathrow mind. My lezza cousin is "security" for KLM!


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## Barney Bee (Oct 1, 2005)

mod said:
			
		

> Brentford FC!!  Yes we miss them. What fun those away days down at Griffin Park were. Especially the last one!
> 
> Fulham Mod


 ooooo mod you evil bastard.
I've just logged back on - i'm new and had no idea you were Fulham.


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## Random One (Oct 1, 2005)

i live in Hounslow (about 5 mins from H.West Tube), don't have a problem admitting it and i don't think it is THAT depressing. Although i do think it has got worse over the last 10 years. I don't see what makes it so much worse than some other areas.


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## Barney Bee (Oct 2, 2005)

The bloke who independently chose which game machine to use on the Lottery tonight was 'from Hounslow'.


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## Random One (Oct 2, 2005)

lol


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## butterfly child (Oct 3, 2005)

java1200 said:
			
		

> Well they wouldn't, considering there's no such borough. Hammersmith & Fulham or Kensington & Chelsea.



Heh, I knew I'd get picked up on that one.

Still applies though, dunnit, people don't say "I live in the borough of....."


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## butterfly child (Oct 3, 2005)

William of Walworth said:
			
		

> That's a negative, the plane noise is awful out there



You get used to it though, I certainly did.

I used to enjoy lying in bed, and watching the planes come in.

They really are VERY loud over Hounslow high street...


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## butterfly child (Oct 3, 2005)

Random One said:
			
		

> i live in Hounslow (about 5 mins from H.West Tube), don't have a problem admitting it and i don't think it is THAT depressing. Although i do think it has got worse over the last 10 years. I don't see what makes it so much worse than some other areas.



We really ought to organise a Hounslow curry night, but hardly anyone will turn up


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## Random One (Oct 3, 2005)

butterfly child said:
			
		

> We really ought to organise a Hounslow curry night, but hardly anyone will turn up


 i won't be coming why pay for curry in hounslow when mum will cook you something a gazzillion times better!

the plane noise is not that bad-the only time it is irritating is in the summer when u have windows open..


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## rutabowa (Oct 3, 2005)

i had the best curry i've had in London in Hounslow. I think it's alright.


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## butterfly child (Oct 3, 2005)

Random One said:
			
		

> i won't be coming why pay for curry in hounslow when mum will cook you something a gazzillion times better!
> 
> the plane noise is not that bad-the only time it is irritating is in the summer when u have windows open..



*Social interaction????*


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## BEARBOT (Oct 4, 2005)

i havent been to hounslow in years...this thread has got me curious about the place.i loved in brentford for 6 months(nice quirky musical museum there which is all about mechanical music makers,wish i had gone in,has anyone???) and remember going specially to hounslow for the pound shops a few times  

of course who can forget the lovely 5:30 am wake up call on most summer  summer mornings of the thundering jet engines.nice.wish the plane would have airlifted me out of green dragon lane  

on the other hand,i dont think hounslow is as bad as woolwich/plumstead(hell on earth) say or certinaly not as bad as stonebridge park,near harlsden  

.hounslow is not nice to look at really and is quite far out(zone 4),with little alternative cultural stuff goin on.PARTS of hackney arent nice(my bit is ok tho,near the canal) and have a bad atmosphere and teen gangs just like hounslow/woolwich/stonebridge or any urban working class area but they are at least in zone 2 and there are at least some social outlets for creative people/experimental/leftfield music here who for folks who arent ultra monied "shoreditch twats" .

there is plenty of scenic stuff to see in the general area of hounslow, canal walks in brentford, chiswisk house,hogarth house.no gigs or gallery parties or experimental films tho


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## Barney Bee (Oct 4, 2005)

BEARBOT said:
			
		

> no gigs or gallery parties or experimental films tho


Is Watermans not open anymore? They used to show 'arty' films if not experimental ones.
BTW I have been to the little music museum many moons ago. I remember it being quite cool but ,erm, little.
Also check out Kew Bridge Steam Museum just up the road.


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## boing! (Oct 4, 2005)

Hounslow is great for pound shops. Very useful when you need to do your christmas shopping on a very tight budget.


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## tim (Oct 4, 2005)

Barney Bee said:
			
		

> BTW I have been to the little music museum many moons ago. I remember it being quite cool but ,erm, little.



The Music mnuseum is currently moving to a new home, in one of the new blocks of yuppy flats, which will give them more space to fully expose all their organs. It will iclude a concert hall for their flashing Wurlitzer. Sounds good but will probably lack some of the atmosphere of the decaying old church they were in before. The steam museum is also really fun, particularly, when they get the 150 year old dinosauric pumping engine going.


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## BEARBOT (Oct 4, 2005)

im sorry the musical museum is now moving...looked a very special place QUIRKY is cool 

watermans art centre seemed cool too, never made it there sadly,was not in the area all that long.


xmess shopping at pound shops is the ONLY way..esp if you have grab bag £1 pressie party..i got naked fella playing cards


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## tim (Oct 4, 2005)

BEARBOT said:
			
		

> im sorry the musical museum is now moving...looked a very special place QUIRKY is cool
> 
> watermans art centre seemed cool too, never made it there sadly,was not in the area all that long.
> 
> ...



The new building is very bland looking, but at least it will give them more exhibition space.


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## Random One (Oct 4, 2005)

butterfly child said:
			
		

> *Social interaction????*


 i don't remember what that is...i spend far too much time on here avoiding it!!!


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## Sir Belchalot (Oct 4, 2005)

Hounslow West may be a bland dump but does have a mega-cheap South Indian Deli opposite the tube.  Lovely food, worth stopping off if you're going to/from the airport.


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## butterfly child (Oct 6, 2005)

boing! said:
			
		

> Hounslow is great for pound shops. Very useful when you need to do your christmas shopping on a very tight budget.



I'd rather go without that receive something from a pound shop!

[/snob]


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## changingman (Oct 7, 2005)

mod said:
			
		

> Is there a more depressing area in London (or England) than horrid, horrid little Hounslow?


Northolt. And Gant's Hill. And Feltham , and New Addington, and bits of Carshalton, and Silvertown.  In fact London is surrounded by a suburban belt (I should know, I live in it) of grey, dismal, squat, gloomy, rain-stained  pebbledashed and fake-yorkstone-clad houses and tatty high streets full of charity and pound shops with litter blowing up the pavements and KFC boxes in the paved-over front gardens.  
This was impressed upon me most vividly when, a few years ago, during a period of un-and under-employment I took a driving job to get me out of the house and keep me from using the heating at home. I spent most of every day driving around in it - about 80 percent of the outer London area is grim beyond description.  God only knows what it must be like oop north..


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## changingman (Oct 7, 2005)

mod said:
			
		

> Housnlow facts:
> 
> The Bluetones came from Hounslow West. Good band.
> 
> ...


It was also where Hendrix played his first gig in the UK, the very night he arrived. In the Duke of Cambridge pub, near the bus garage.


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## changingman (Oct 7, 2005)

Barney Bee said:
			
		

> Is Watermans not open anymore? They used to show 'arty' films if not experimental ones.


Watermans is still there, but sadly a pale shadow of its former self. Still good for films, although hardly anybody ever goes any more. They closed it down a while ago for "refurbishment". Nearly 3 years later, once all its audience had drifted off elsewhere,  it reopened almost exactly the same except they no longer put on live music, which killed it for me. I've seen some of the best gigs ever in that place .. Junior Wells and his 9-piece American band for one, amazing. 

And the most unforgivable thing they did was cancel Dominic Gray's _wonderful_  Christmas pantomime. It was an annual family treat, never have I heard entendres so double. Absolutely filthy. And the kids loved it just as much on their own level too.  He even put on an adult version in the last two years it was on there. Gone now to the hideous Treaty Centre in Hounslow central. Terrible shame. Local lore is the council want to run it down so they can close it and sell the land for even _more_ luxury flats.

But this is groovy, bohemian Brentford, home to stars of the magnitude of Nick Lowe, Robert Rankin, and Anna Ford, not dismal Hounslow.


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## Cotch (Oct 8, 2005)

mod said:
			
		

> Is there a more depressing area in London (or England) than horrid, horrid little Hounslow?



Try looking in East or South London.


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## 1svana (Oct 8, 2005)

yeah, but (at least closer to) better nightlife, cultures...etc down SE


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## mod (Oct 14, 2005)

"It was also where Hendrix played his first gig in the UK, the very night he arrived. In the Duke of Cambridge pub, near the bus garage."


Is that true!????

Can't see anything on the net.


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## tim (Oct 14, 2005)

mod said:
			
		

> "It was also where Hendrix played his first gig in the UK, the very night he arrived. In the Duke of Cambridge pub, near the bus garage."
> 
> 
> Is that true!????
> ...




I think it's true, it's so improbable it's unlikely to have been made up.


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## mod (Nov 17, 2005)

?


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## pianistenvy (Nov 17, 2005)

Heston's particularly grim...

I grew up in Ealing. Everyone from Hounslow, Slough, Hayes etc used to come to Ealing for a night out. Carnage on the weekend!


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## adsr (Nov 22, 2005)

I'm originally from next door in Feltham and that is far worse than Hounslow. It's full of whitetrash, BNP supporting racist scally kids throwing stones at each other. Thank fuck I don't have to walk through the high street late at night anymore.


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## bluestreak (Nov 22, 2005)

trabuquera said:
			
		

> it's f*cking miles from anything. it funnels you down incomprehensible one way systems through which HGVs belt through at unfeasible speed. it's full of crumbling decaying cramped drab victorian terraces which were ugly from the day they finished building them. I HATE the place.



it's funny but i find leytonstone a lovely place to live.  gorgeous old victorian houses gone to seed, the forest and the flats, a handful of interesting pubs, a short hop into the east for playtime.  a little closer to essex than i might like, and sadly chopped in half by that fucking road, but nevertheless a charming, character-filled place.


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## bluestreak (Nov 22, 2005)

changingman said:
			
		

> And Gant's Hill.




ye gods yes.  gants hill was where i grew up.  i watched it turn from aspirant community into hopeless recession-hit drabness throughout my childhood, and it never recovered.  i get sick to my stomach just driving through it.  it's just horrible.  poor gants hill, you could have been a contender if it wasn't for the iron claw of the tories crushing the dreams of a generation of small-business running owner-occupiers.


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## mod (Nov 22, 2005)

Poor adsr I feel for you. Feltham is indeed the bastard offspring of Hounslow. Mind you.....you've got cineworld now!!


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## Streathamite (Nov 22, 2005)

I am working in the most unaesthetic unappealing location - right by the M4 flyovver, brentford railway station just over the road (and the bridge) only things to see are other soulless corporate towers and a truly awful block of flats.
if it weren't for the fuller's pub I'd go postal.
and, yup - London borough of Hounslow


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## 41132n (Nov 22, 2005)

changingman said:
			
		

> Northolt. And Gant's Hill. And Feltham , and New Addington, and bits of Carshalton, and Silvertown. ......



Northolt ?    

That's where people from Hayes want to move to..... [ I should know coz I did - in a roundabout way ]


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## butterfly child (Nov 29, 2005)

mod said:
			
		

> Poor adsr I feel for you. Feltham is indeed the bastard offspring of Hounslow. Mind you.....you've got cineworld now!!



They're regenerating Feltham at the moment.. well, building loads of flats that no-one in their right minds would want to buy (who'd want to live in Feltham?) and doing up the shops in the "shopping centre".


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## twilighteyez (Nov 29, 2005)

changingman said:
			
		

> Northolt. And Gant's Hill. And Feltham , and New Addington, and bits of Carshalton, and Silvertown.  In fact London is surrounded by a suburban belt (I should know, I live in it) of grey, dismal, squat, gloomy, rain-stained  pebbledashed and fake-yorkstone-clad houses and tatty high streets full of charity and pound shops with litter blowing up the pavements and KFC boxes in the paved-over front gardens.
> This was impressed upon me most vividly when, a few years ago, during a period of un-and under-employment I took a driving job to get me out of the house and keep me from using the heating at home. I spent most of every day driving around in it - about 80 percent of the outer London area is grim beyond description.  God only knows what it must be like oop north..



I'd add Hayes to that list - just pure grimey!....And not even the edgyness of being able to say its 'the ghetto'!lol..........Just pure grimey.

Thing is, grimey areas aint bad if they have a bit of edge or character......like Southall for example.........But with places like we've been talking about, the problem is there just vast expanses of concrete nothingness!


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## Streathamite (Nov 29, 2005)

changingman said:
			
		

> Northolt. And Gant's Hill. And Feltham , and New Addington, and bits of Carshalton, and Silvertown.  In fact London is surrounded by a suburban belt (I should know, I live in it) of grey, dismal, squat, gloomy, rain-stained  pebbledashed and fake-yorkstone-clad houses and tatty high streets full of charity and pound shops with litter blowing up the pavements and KFC boxes in the paved-over front gardens.
> This was impressed upon me most vividly when, a few years ago, during a period of un-and under-employment I took a driving job to get me out of the house and keep me from using the heating at home. I spent most of every day driving around in it - about 80 percent of the outer London area is grim beyond description.  God only knows what it must be like oop north..


top post!


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## MsDayglo (Dec 5, 2005)

To add to the Hounslow facts:

Elvis Costello went to school in Bath Road, Hounslow, to what is now St Mark's, but was then Archbishop Myers.

And Charles Hawtrey used to live down Cromwell Road.

I have a soft spot for Hounslow, having been born in Lampton (a relatively posh part, near to Osterley) but yes, it is a dreary shithole.


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## tim (Dec 6, 2005)

MsDayglo said:
			
		

> To add to the Hounslow facts:
> 
> Elvis Costello went to school in Bath Road, Hounslow, to what is now St Mark's, but was then Archbishop Myers.
> 
> And Charles Hawtrey used to live down Cromwell Road.



He had the same elocution teacher as my father. She was  my grandmother's best friend.


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## mod (Dec 16, 2005)

Some other famous people that come from Hounslow...

Patsy Kensit (Hmmmm lovely), Jimmy Page and Phil collins

thought I'd share that with you all


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## mod (Dec 16, 2005)

Just found this too but please don't ask why.

http://www.swingers2.com/swingers/Hounslow/genuine-swingers-Osterley.htm


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## mod (Dec 16, 2005)

Fuck me!  Check this one out!!

FUN IN HOUNSLOW

http://homepage.mac.com/davidclifford/


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## pianistenvy (Dec 16, 2005)

mod said:
			
		

> Fuck me!  Check this one out!!
> 
> FUN IN HOUNSLOW
> 
> http://homepage.mac.com/davidclifford/



christ! that web site is well scary! who the fuck are all those loons on it??!


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## Sir Belchalot (Dec 17, 2005)

mod said:
			
		

> Some other famous people that come from Hounslow...
> 
> Jimmy Page



Heston iirc.


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## miss giggles (Dec 17, 2005)

mod said:
			
		

> Fuck me!  Check this one out!!
> 
> FUN IN HOUNSLOW
> 
> http://homepage.mac.com/davidclifford/



Good Lord  

So that's why there's always Hendrix tribute bands at the Duke of Cambridge. 

I'm heading down to Hounslows finest pound shops this week to do a bit of Christmas shopping, ssshhhhh!!!!


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## upsidedownwalrus (Dec 17, 2005)

mod said:
			
		

> Is there a more depressing area in London (or England) than horrid, horrid little Hounslow?
> 
> Hounslow West more specifically. Flat, grey, run down and depressing. The only positives I can think of are its close to Heathrow and has 3 tubes stations which act as convenient escape routes to civilisation.



You obviously haven't had the, um, pleasure of visiting Dagenham...


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## butterfly child (Dec 17, 2005)

RenegadeDog said:
			
		

> You obviously haven't had the, um, pleasure of visiting Dagenham...



Yeah, Dagenham/Hounslow - close call.


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## mod (Dec 20, 2005)

Peckham (Rye Lane) is probably even scummier but at least you've got decent areas around you.


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## Random One (Dec 27, 2005)

heh hounslow may be crap...but YAY we have snow!


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## adsr (Dec 27, 2005)

Thank Christ, I just got back from spending Xmas with my father who lives in Feltham/Hounslow. Back to the warm smoggy, yet reassuring vapours of zone 1. mmmmmmmmmm


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## rennie (Dec 27, 2005)

mod said:
			
		

> Peckham (Rye Lane) is probably even scummier but at least you've got decent areas around you.



peckham is very close to civilization. housnlow is miles away from everything. except heathrow. for a reason.


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## tim (Jan 3, 2006)

reNnIe said:
			
		

> peckham is very close to civilization. housnlow is miles away from everything. except heathrow. for a reason.




Yes, to keep philistine yobs like you away from all our beautiful parks and stately homes.


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## rennie (Jan 3, 2006)

i aint no yob!


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## tim (Jan 3, 2006)

reNnIe said:
			
		

> i aint no yob!




Odd that someone so keen to promote unfair stereotypes about London's finest suburb, should be so sensitive about the judgements that others make about you.


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## butterfly child (Jan 3, 2006)

I toyed with the idea of getting married in Osterley Park...


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## tim (Jan 5, 2006)

butterfly child said:
			
		

> I toyed with the idea of getting married in Osterley Park...



Chiswick Cathedral.






Wolud be an another ideal venue for a Hounslow wedding.


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## Streathamite (Jan 5, 2006)

tim said:
			
		

> Odd that someone so keen to promote unfair stereotypes about London's finest suburb, should be so sensitive about the judgements that others make about you.


errm.....let's be objective here. The ONE part of LB Hounslow that belongs in the same sentence as the phrase 'gracious living' is chiswick, which is nearer to Hammersmith town hall than the hounslow one. 
As for the rest, three words. hounslow. high. street.
brentford, isleworth, osterley and bedfont aren't innacity badlands, but I would describe them as _nondescript_, any time
And you and me - as ordinary mortals - don't actually get to live in those stately homes, do we?
(and fwiw, I work in the LB Hounslow area, 2 mins from brentford train station)

and yes, I'd say insulting someone as a person is worse than insulting their locale. certainly more hurtful.


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## butterfly child (Jan 5, 2006)

tim said:
			
		

> Chiswick Cathedral.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Shame that picture wouldn't open for me   

*googles it*

Oh god, that's what it is!! I love that dome.. always driving past, wondering about it.


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## mod (Jan 6, 2006)

Its actually a Russian Orthodox Church and come on we are talking Houslow Proper here son. The McDonalds on th round-a-bout in Houslow West to the Bus Garage past the highstreet (East)


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## tim (Jan 6, 2006)

mod said:
			
		

> Its actually a Russian Orthodox Church and come on we are talking Houslow Proper here son. The McDonalds on th round-a-bout in Houslow West to the Bus Garage past the highstreet (East)



It's still in the borough. If you wish however to so specific, then consider the rustic charm of Hounslow Heath.


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## Random One (Jan 8, 2006)

Red Jezza said:
			
		

> As for the rest, three words. hounslow. high. street.



seriously what is wrong with hounslow high street?(apart from a million and ten school kids occupying at all times of day and night!)


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## Streathamite (Jan 9, 2006)

errmmm....I found it pretty grim, tbh. at its' best, it has no unique charm to differentiate it from any other suburban high st. 
at it's worst - dowdy, tatty and ugly.


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## butterfly child (Jan 9, 2006)

Yeah, the high street is shite. All the nice places have closed down, to be replaced with yet more shite.


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## tim (Jan 12, 2006)

Random One said:
			
		

> seriously what is wrong with hounslow high street?(apart from a million and ten school kids occupying at all times of day and night!)



Well it's less dominated by the national chains than most places, indeed the gaggle of local food shops at the broadway (opposite the bus station) managed to put the admitedly crap local Tesco's out of business last year, so if your into large capitalist companies it's possibly not the place for you. It's cheap. You can find almost anything you would want, with the exception of decent books along it's length somewhere. It is very multicultural. I find it a much better place to shop, at least for ordinary things, than posher surounding suburbs such as: Richmond, Kingston, Twickenham,Putney, Ealing.


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## Random One (Jan 12, 2006)

butterfly child said:
			
		

> Yeah, the high street is shite. All the nice places have closed down, to be replaced with yet more shite.


 what is shite about it? it's a high street...what makes a good high street?

Camden/Staines high street isn't any more exciting/prettier/better imo...


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## butterfly child (Jan 13, 2006)

Random One said:
			
		

> what is shite about it? it's a high street...what makes a good high street?
> 
> Camden/Staines high street isn't any more exciting/prettier/better imo...



It's full of cheapy shops selling stuff I don't like... and it's always packed, unless you go in the middle of the night... and all the shops I used to go in have closed to be replaced by "pound shop" type shops.. and there's nowhere decent to buy music or books. 

But as always, I have just voiced my opinion. Everyone else is entitled to theirs.


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## tim (Mar 2, 2006)

*Our glorious Borough in literature*

As well as providing a home to some great artists, the Borough of Hounslow and its people have featured in the work of some of our great writers.An extract from Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor shows the garments of a substantial Brentford lady helping Sir John Falstaff



> MISTRESS PAGE
> If you go out in your own semblance, you die, Sir
> John. Unless you go out disguised--
> 
> ...



and in Great Expectations we read about the probable adventures of Estella's mother near Hounslow Heath.



> "Mr. Jaggers was for her," pursued Wemmick, with a look full of meaning, "and worked the case in a way quite astonishing. It was a desperate case, and it was comparatively early days with him then, and he worked it to general admiration; in fact, it may almost be said to have made him. He worked it himself at the police-office, day after day for many days, contending against even a committal; and at the trial where he couldn't work it himself, sat under Counsel, and - every one knew - put in all the salt and pepper. The murdered person was a woman; a woman, a good ten years older, very much larger, and very much stronger. It was a case of jealousy. They both led tramping lives, and this woman in Gerrard-street here had been married very young, over the broomstick (as we say), to a tramping man, and was a perfect fury in point of jealousy. The murdered woman - more a match for the man, certainly, in point of years - was found dead in a barn near *Hounslow Heath*. There had been a violent struggle, perhaps a fight. She was bruised and scratched and torn, and had been held by the throat at last and choked. Now, there was no reasonable evidence to implicate any person but this woman, and, on the improbabilities of her having been able to do it, Mr. Jaggers principally rested his case. You may be sure," said Wemmick, touching me on the sleeve, "that he never dwelt upon the strength of her hands then, though he sometimes does now."



The Death today of Jack Wilde, bought up above the Duke of Wellington Pub in Hounslow also brings to mind the passage from Oliver Twist where Bill Sikes and Oliver on the way to Burgle someone in Sunbury, cag a lift in a Hounslow bound cart. Alighting outside another local pub - the Coach and Horses in Isleworth - a nice 18 century coaching in on the London Road.



> They held their course at this rate, until they had passed Hyde
> Park corner, and were on their way to Kensington: when Sikes
> relaxed his pace, until an empty cart which was at some little
> distance behind, came up. Seeing 'Hounslow' written on it, he
> ...


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## Streathamite (Mar 2, 2006)

/\/\/\/\
none of which alters the fact that hounslow is a drab,  soulless toilet of a place with all the charm and radiance of genital warts.


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## Random One (Mar 5, 2006)

Red Jezza said:
			
		

> /\/\/\/\
> none of which alters the fact that hounslow is a drab,  soulless toilet of a place with all the charm and radiance of genital warts.


 when im around it has a little bit more soul though dammit!


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## mod (Mar 8, 2006)

Was back there 2 weeks ago and Hounslow West is now a little dodgy too. Groups of youths milling around looking well suss late into the night. Never used to be like that and would not fancy walking around there on my tod.

The Earl Haig is still a very weird experience though.


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## tim (May 11, 2006)

Anybody read "_Londonistani_" yet, the latest addition to Hounslow's literary tradition.


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## rennie (May 11, 2006)

it sounds good tim... i'm gonna buy it come payday!


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## markfernandes19 (Jan 11, 2020)

Yes, there is: try visiting other London suburbs like West Croydon and the area just to the north and West of. Ditto Loughborough Junction. Also Northolt, Hayes and further east down the A40- parts of NW10. Some parts of Enfield, Tottenham etc too, All depressing and run down areas since the 80's or early 90's. I used to live in Heston in the 70’s up to the end of the 80’s, which is still ok, though not as affluent as it was in the 1970's and early 1980's. Neighbouring central Hounslow is really not very nice at all.  It hasn't been since the mid 1990's, up to then the high street had an M and S, Debenhams, and decent furniture and retail shops, hi-fi shops, solicitors, travel agents etc.,  as well as being a generally nice place to go shopping on a Saturday for instance.  It also depends on what your definition of horrible is though. I know what mine is.


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