Grove Park 'Streets & Houses'

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DATE WITH DISASTER’ 1957 Part 2

The criminals have kidnapped Sue (Shirley Eaton) and take refuge in a disused boatyard buildings (we think this is Maynard Boathouse at the end of Riverview Road.

Our hero Harrington (Tom Drake) turns up and a fight ensues on the foreshore as Sue looks on (with some lovely interior and exterior shots of the (sadly now demolished) boatyard.

The hero rescues his girl and they embrace. After which it all gets a bit too Strand-on-the-Green for our liking.

Another in our series ‘When the Movies Came To Grove Park’. This time it’s:

‘DATE WITH DISASTER’ 1957

On 21st February 1901 an LGOC horse-drawn ‘Garden Seat Bus’, on the 'Chiswick and Oxford Circus' route was hit by a L&SW Railway locomotive at the level crossing on Grove Park Terrace.

The London General Omnibus Company (LGOC) had replaced the original joint Anglo-French company - the Compagnie Générale des Omnibus de Londres. They had stables in a mews near the Duchess Pub (then the ‘Queen of England’) in Stamford Brook.

A bit of movie trivia to start us off, courtesy of . In 1967 Grove Park was the scene for parts of a short film called 'Ride of the Valkerie'.

The film starred Zero Mostel, later to play Max Bialystock in Mel Brooks ‘The Producers’, and Frank Thornton of 'Are You Being Served' fame.

In 1965 the local council did a photo survey of the houses in Grove Park. The houses near the railway crossing on Grove Park Terrace were semi-derelict.

Did you know that Chiswick Overground Station was originally called 'Chiswick & Grove Park'. It changed later to 'Chiswick for Grove Park'.

Hogarth Roundabout was known initially as the ‘Cherry Blossom Roundabout’. It was so called because the HQ Of the Chiswick Soap Company (later the ‘Polish’ company) occupied the triangular-shaped site between Hogarth Lane and Burlington Lane fronting the roundabout.

Dan and Charles Mason, who owned Chiswick Polish, were concerned with the welfare of their employees. In 1918, they pioneered a five day 44 hour working week, pension scheme, a "dispensary" with surgery, rest rooms, a dental clinic and chiropody clinic, and a fire brigade.

Why the Polytechnic?

The Polytechnic Sports Ground in Grove Park was know for many years as the 'Quintin Hogg Memorial Sports Ground'. Hogg was an English philanthropist, remembered primarily as a benefactor of the Royal Polytechnic institution at Regent Street, London, now the University of Westminster.

In 1888 Quintin Hogg, had built a boathouse on the Grove Park riverside, now best known as the Boat Race finish. When Hogg died in 1903, an appeal to raise funds for a memorial in his memory took place. A memorial statue was built in Portland Place and a further 40 acres of land at the end of Bolton Road, alongside the L&SW railway, was purchased to create a much larger sports ground.

A bit of movie trivia courtesy of Reelstreets In 1967 Grove Park was the scene for parts of a short film called 'Ride of the Valkerie'.

Zero Mostel, the star of Mel Brooks The Producers, leads as Fricka-Schnapps, a pompous opera star whose seemingly simple transfer from London Heathrow to Covent Garden becomes a trial of epic proportions.

Accompanied by a hapless chauffeur (played by Frank Thornton of 'Are You Being Served' fame) the clock ticks down to his scheduled entrance as Wotan at the Royal Opera House, with him stranded amongst car crashes and other disasters.

This film (Zero) forms part of a trilogy released as a single movie under the title Red White and Zero.