Hounslow

[butterfly child]

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

 

[tim]

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

Chiswick Cathedral.

Wolud be an another ideal venue for a Hounslow wedding.

 

[Streathamite]

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.

 

[butterfly child]

Chiswick Cathedral.

Wolud be an another ideal venue for a Hounslow wedding.

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.

 

[mod]

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)

 

[tim]

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.

 

[Random One]

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!)

 

[Streathamite]

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.

 

[butterfly child]

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

 

[tim]

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.

 

[Random One]

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...

 

[butterfly child]

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.

 

[tim]

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--

MISTRESS FORD
How might we disguise him?

MISTRESS PAGE
Alas the day, I know not! There is no woman's gown
big enough for him otherwise he might put on a hat,
a muffler and a kerchief, and so escape.

FALSTAFF
Good hearts, devise something: any extremity rather
than a mischief.

MISTRESS FORD
My maid's aunt, the fat woman of Brentford, has a
gown above.

MISTRESS PAGE
On my word, it will serve him; she's as big as he
is: and there's her thrummed hat and her muffler
too. Run up, Sir John.

MISTRESS FORD
Go, go, sweet Sir John: Mistress Page and I will
look some linen for your head.

MISTRESS PAGE
Quick, quick! we'll come dress you straight: put
on the gown the while.

Exit FALSTAFF

MISTRESS FORD
I would my husband would meet him in this shape: he
cannot abide the old woman of Brentford; he swears
she's a witch; forbade her my house and hath
threatened to beat her

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
asked the driver with as much civility as he could assume, if he
would give them a lift as far as Isleworth.

'Jump up,' said the man. 'Is that your boy?'

'Yes; he's my boy,' replied Sikes, looking hard at Oliver, and
putting his hand abstractedly into the pocket where the pistol
was.

'Your father walks rather too quick for you, don't he, my man?'
inquired the driver: seeing that Oliver was out of breath.

'Not a bit of it,' replied Sikes, interposing. 'He's used to it.

Here, take hold of my hand, Ned. In with you!'

Thus addressing Oliver, he helped him into the cart; and the
driver, pointing to a heap of sacks, told him to lie down there,
and rest himself.

As they passed the different mile-stones, Oliver wondered, more
and more, where his companion meant to take him. Kensington,
Hammersmith, Chiswick, Kew Bridge, Brentford, were all passed;
and yet they went on as steadily as if they had only just begun
their journey. At length, they came to a public-house called the
Coach and Horses; a little way beyond which, another road
appeared to run off. And here, the cart stopped.

Sikes dismounted with great precipitation, holding Oliver by the
hand all the while; and lifting him down directly, bestowed a
furious look upon him, and rapped the side-pocket with his fist,
in a significant manner.

'Good-bye, boy,' said the man.

 

[Streathamite]

/\/\/\/\
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.

 

[Random One]

/\/\/\/\
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!

 

[mod]

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.

 

[tim]

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

 

[rennie]

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

 

[markfernandes19]

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.