Geoff Fletcher
BBC TV Centre from Lime Grove Studio D fire escape – 20th August 1964 08:20
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Graeme Wall
The view from Studio D in 1971, taken with my trusty Praktika TL.
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Roger Bunce
My primary memory is of crew competitions launching paper aeroplanes (folded scripts) from that fire escape, trying to get them across the railway line. I never succeeded. Did anyone?
David Denness
I well remember sitting on this staircase with Dave Heddon eating our sandwiches with a fx disc of a cricket match playing through the control room loudspeakers on many a summer lunchtime.
Pat Heigham
I can’t help thinking that the ‘sandwiches’ says one of two things: Either the LG canteen was lousy or too expensive!
On Crew 3 in the early 1960s, we virtually lived in the TVT and walked round to the LG canteen for lunch/supper with our 4/3d allowance. To avoid the extra walk, though, it was into either of the two caffs across Goldhawk Road (one had golden sponge pudding to die for!). Or if we were feeling particularly flush at the start of the month, there was Bertorelli’s on the South side of the green. And many’s the time I frequented their other establishments in Queensway and Charlotte Street, if entertaining a dolly for the evening!
Oddi’s over the road used to welcome camera crews from the TVT of an evening, in the downstairs (members) bar – we enjoyed complimentary membership with no paperwork, I recall!
Ian Hillson
"…Either the LG canteen was lousy or too expensive!…" That would be the LG canteen with birds nesting above the hot food trays…
Vernon Dyer
A good alternative to LG canteen was the Club; they did a lovely "Shepherds Bush Pie!"
Graeme Wall
Lunchtimes at TVT we often went to Sulgrave House rather than LG canteen.
Dave Mundy
Starting at the traffic lights near ‘The Grampians’ (Mother’s home!) on the south side of Goldhawk Road was the ‘Swiss’, Oddies, The Ritz, and the Cafe-Rest. On the north side was the Chinese, where you could get a cheap business lunch, and the Bush Hotel pub (known as the ‘Irish Embassy’ – lock-ins daily, but don’t mention the Sunday lunch strippers!). 2016: The Swiss is now a very good Polish restaurant, The Ritz was closed the last time I went past it, Cafe-Rest is still there.
On the other side of the bridge was the ‘Goldhawk Fisheries’ (a ‘must’ after a long night in Smith’s bar, Lime Grove, when playing the closing music on 24 Hours – the odour drove production mad as they walked through D’s sound gallery!) and over the road was the Venus Grill, where the TOTP crew always dined before the show, with Dickie.
Roger Bunce
The "Venus Grill" on the North side of the Goldhawk Road, near the entrance to the market. The sign said "Specialising in Greek and Continental Dishes". The menu said "Greek Dishes – Kebab (of some sort), Continental Dishes – Spaghetti Bolognese." The rest of the menu was Sausage Egg and Chips type stuff (and nothing wrong with that). But they did a very cheap mini steak.
Nick Ware
The Swiss did a short-crust apple pie with vanilla icecream. As a bit of a connoisseur of apple pie (as I have two prolific Bramley apple trees in the garden), I have to say I never found anything better than theirs!
Dave Plowman
Tommy’s – the Chinese restaurant on the South side of the Green. I think they may have done a set lunch for an LV, this was before the days when everyone was familiar with Chinese food, and takeaways everywhere. If you ate the lot, you were full up and then some – and hungry by tea time.
I’m fairly certain that was the first time I’d had ‘Chinese’ food.
This got me thinking that the Ritz type of restaurant which served basically cheap ‘English’ food has all but disappeared. Probably no bad thing.
I’m rare that I’m still living in central London, with restaurants of all nationalities within easy walking distance – as well as the usual burger and pizza bars. But the one most used for a night out with friends is an Indian one. Excellent food and value for money.
Vernon Dyer
Oh yes, I remember that! It was tiny – the door opened outwards. My first experience of Chinese food too.
Martin Dilly
There was also an Indian restaurant near Bertorelli’s (remember their menus, hand-written and done on that violet-coloured jelly-based copying system?) where Crew 3 occasionally ate in the late 1950s. On one occasion someone spotted what they thought was a cockroach in a prawn biriani, which the proprietor pointed out was actually a black cardamom pod.
In the 1980s, with a reasonable break before “Newsnight” and before the plethora of metered parking arrived, it was possible to drive to Queensway in time to go to Yung’s, have an excellent wan tun cha siu lo mein and be back in time for rehearsal.
Ian Hillson
And in King Street, Hammersmith (after work)… Bissell’s Fish Bar and Restaurant. Mmmmm,
Dave Mundy
Further afield, there was an Oddies cafe on Hammersmith Broadway, opposite the Odeon, which did a mean sausage, egg and chips, beloved of Riverside crews, plus, of course, the riverside pubs such as ‘The Blue Anchor’, which featured in the movie ‘Sliding Doors’, and the famous ‘Chancellors’ pub (R3, to all who worked down by the riverside – now sadly bulldozed – Riverside Studios!).
Graeme Wall
…there was an Oddies café…
Also The Dove slightly further west.
Bill Jenkin
Not that it was ever my cup of tea (I did try – honest) but Cooke’s ‘Pie and Mash’ shop on Goldhawk closed in 2015, one of the last. They had been there since 1934 although the business, run by the same family, started in 1899.
It was a compulsory purchase for yet another development, the same one I think which did for the market.
There’s a report headlined "Asshole Developers Want to Bulldoze London’s Most Famous Pie and Mash Shop"!
Bernie Newnham
In much, much later years there was a booth in the entrance to the market opposite Frithville Gardens called Mr Falafel. He would freshly cook your falafels and pack them into a large wrap with all kinds of other goodies for a very reasonable price. He was always there, never a substitute, for years.
And did anyone go to the Patio-that-was-the-Swiss. After the main course at lunch they’d say "and which type of vodka would you like?"
……and the Hat Shop on Goldhawk Road near the Patio./ Swiss. It looked like it really was a shop that sold hats from outside, but actually was a very good pizza restaurant. Streetview now shows Mr Sushi. How the world moves on.
David Denness
In the 1960s there was a dentist near the bottom of Goldhawk Rd, just at the end of King St, with his name proudly displayed in large letters on the window, Dr Phang.
Shepherds Bush Market
John Vincent
Who remembers the sweaty guy who sold old capacitors with a bit of wire attached as wonder aerials who demonstrated on an old telly by just stuffing the wire into the aerial socket. One of his pitch points was you don’t need a fancy plug!
Dave Mundy
I certainly remember the magic aerial! I also remember the colour TV adapter which was a plastic sheet, blue at the top and green at the bottom (great for static outdoor sports shots!) and also the large screen adapter which was like half of a goldfish bowl and stood in front of your 9" tube, then filled with water, made the picture look a lot bigger! Wonderful thing, science!
Peter Fox, Nick Ware
And the bloke who would dump a load of fluff on a random punter’s jacket and sweep it off with a miracle roller brush. And the guy who sold glass cutters.
