Junction of Kingston Road and Fairfax Road?

Click on picture [305] for an enlarged version

From: "Dik Leatherdale" <dik@leatherdale.net>

Good trolleybus pictures! Brings it all back.

Reluctant as I am to take issue with Ken Tuddenham [who was, long ago, a neighbour in Twickenham], I suggest that picture 305 was at least a mile from the left turn towards Teddington [St Alban's church]. To the right of the photograph is some parkland belonging to Normansfield Hospital which specialised in caring for people with Down's syndrome [as it then wasn't called]. Around the time when the 'photo was taken a row of modern terraced houses was built, I think for some of the patients who had reached an age when they could be moderately independent.

As I write, those houses are in the course of being demolished, the hospital having closed some years ago. An estate of very up market apartments [called Langdon Park] is being built in the grounds and, no doubt, one day soon, the hospital building will be converted into flats. I suggest that the picture was taken near the junction of Kingston Road and Fairfax Road.

Keep up the good work.

From: "Martin Hole" <martin@coachhousecommunications.co.uk>

Good trolleybus pictures! Brings it all back.

As a former resident of Kingston Lane, Teddington I would like to agree with Dik Leatherdale with regard to the location of picture 305. It definetely looks like the grounds of Normansfield Hospital on the right of the picture. [Incidentally I believe founded by Dr Langdon Down who first formulated Down’s Syndrome, which also explains the subsequent development of apartments being named Langdon Park]. I would suggest that the trolley is travelling in the direction of Hampton Wick and Kingston as evidenced by the destination blind which reads Tolworth [Red Lion] - still in existence I believe.

Some memories: When I was 8 I started to travel to school and back on the 605 from Teddington to Wimbledon. On the return journey the 605 had an unnerving habit of occasionally changing itself into the 604 at Kingston. If I was lucky the conductor would announce this at Kingston and I would have to get off and get the next 605. If I protested that I had already spent all my money on the fare to Teddington I was told "Just explain to the next conductor, he will undestand". This was a daunting prospect for a not very streetwise 8 year old and on a number of occasions I lost my nerve and ended up walking home from Kingston to Teddington. No fun in the dark in winter. I also developed a pathological fear of inadvertently ending up in Hampton Court. [No disrespect to Ian Allan].

An excellent site with many happy memories. I am not sure I have ever really got over the 8th May 1962!

From: "Paul Hayes" <shufti2@hotmail.co.uk>

Sorry to nit pick but Picture 305, although being in Kingston Road is a long way from the 'left turn into Teddington'. The traffic lights you mention are about a mile behind the bus. The bus is about halfway between the lights and Hampton Wick railway station, just coming up to Normansfield Hospital.

I lived on Kingston Road and went to school in Surbiton on the 601.

Have a real soft spot for the old London Transport trollybuses.