Junction of Beadon Road with Hammersmith Grove

Junction of Beadon Road with Hammersmith Grove, 1961
Photographed by Jim Hawkins in 1961
Click on picture [JH1] for an enlarged version
Junction of Beadon Road with Hammersmith Grove
March 2006
Photographed by Richard Jennings in March 2006
Click on picture [RJ1] for an enlarged version

From: "Jim Lawes" <jimlawes@hotmail.com>

This is on the one-way system and to me it immediately looks like the 667's [and the 660 and 660's] approach to the Hammersmith Broadway destination. Those trolleybuses travelled eastwards [with two sets overhead wires] on the one-way system along Glenthorne Road, bore right into Beaton Road and then turning into Market Place where they halted.

I believe the locaton is at the junction of Hammersmith Grove and Beaton Road and the yellow building may still be there too.

I'm mystified however why the destination blind shows Hampton Court when there was still 100 yards of its journey to the Broadway to be completed. There was a trolleybus Depot on the opposite side of the Broadway, close to the eastern end of the Flyover and where the trolleybus in this picture could have been heading.

From: "Keith H" <keith@studio19.co.uk>

This is Beadon Hill/Glenthorne Road at the Hammersmith end of its junction with Hammersmith Grove. the off licence is still there, next stop Hammersmith Metropolitan station.

Know it well - waited for a 266 just round that corner most of my school life!

From: "Geoff Bannister" <gbannister10@gmail.com>

The picture is taken at Hammersmith inbound on the one-way system where Glenthorne Road meets Hammersmith Grove.

Trolleybuses used the short bottom end of the Grove to stand before returning along King Street.

I have a poor quality slide taken at the same corner in dismal weather - I think the weekend of the 662/664 closure in January 1962.

From: "Richard Jennings"

You're certainly right, Jim. Here is a picture [RJ1] of that same road junction [Beadon Road / Hammersmith Grove] taken this morning [6 March 2006]. You can see that the off-licence building, now Threshers, is the same as in picture JH1, and the chimney above it is also still there.

Just a minor quibble with the [former] title of this page. As far as present-day street names go, this is the junction of Beadon Road with Hammersmith Grove. It is not, as Geoff Bannister suggested, the junction of Glenthorne Road with Hammersmith Grove, which is actually a little way north of this junction.

The District and Piccadilly eastbound lines run directly underneath the off-licence, which is perhaps why it's only a single-storey building.

From: "Colin Vaughan" <niloc99@btinternet.com>

Jim is right as to the location, that 667 is on the correct set of wires for its journey back to Chiswick etc.

From: "Ralph Buckingham" <thebuckingham@ntlworld.com>

This picture brought back memories as when I was a boy of about 8 or nine, my mother would come to the department store behind the trolley bus. I believe it was Rowes.

As for the Office Licence, it was named A.J. Smith and Co. Which, from about 1964 to about 1981, the work place for my father as the manager. The address was 12-14 Beadon Road with the road meeting it, being Hammersmith Grove.

Throughout my father's tenure there, A.J. Smith became Bristol Vintners [part of the Harvey's of Bristol empire of Sherry and Port etc]. It was taken over by Victoria Wine and that is how he left it.

When he was there, I would often bus number spot as there were the routemasters of the 266, the 267 and 260 terminating where the trolleybuses terminated before entering King Street for their return workings. Buses travelling through to Hammersmith Broadway along Beadon Road were, if remember, RTL's.

As for the shop being over the eastbound lines of the Piccadilly and District Lines, this caused all the bottles on the shelves to rattle and clink every time a train passed under the shop. This really became noticeable when engineer's train with London Transport's 0-6-0 pannier tank and wagons went through, everything vibrated then. When I first experienced it, it was frightening. A check on all the shelve contents was made as it was not the first time bottles had moved to the edge and fallen off.

The cellar of the shop has quite large and deep with two smaller cellars, about crawling height leading off the main cellar. They moved out right next to the railway and in parts where walls did not meet right up, they constructed of concrete, gaps allowed you to see the railway and passing trains.

Behind the trolley bus was a small parade of two or three shops one of which was a small kiosk selling sweets, cigarettes and Lyons Maid Ice Cream. The Kiosk was called Tibbs and was ran by Mr s Tibbs. The door was always open but was protected by a magic eye which operated every time anyone entered or left the kiosk.

As for the yellow building behind the Off Licence, that was Glacier House, the home of Lyons Maid. A place where my wife worked for about a year.

Such is the power of a picture the 667 trolley bus in that location and one that has brought back many memories.