Foster Books: A chapter in Chiswick’s rich history
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Stephen Foster Stephen Foster runs Foster Books, which you’ll find in the oldest shop on Chiswick High Road. Stephen will be writing regular pieces for Chiswick Locals magazine on local history, books, prints and photographs. Here he explains what makes his shop so special. Foster Books has been a familiar…
Oliver Cyriax: Vera Pith-Scottley
Local historian Oliver Cyriax interviews a woman with altitude: an airship-pioneer who braved the heights in the 1930s. A Profile in Courage by local historian Oliver Cyriax. Dateline: Ravenscourt Park 1936 “Of course our flock scattered as the Graf came in,” says Vera Pith-Scottley. “It took three hours to find…
Bradley Cahoon: You are never too old for the naughty step
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(or Seniors can surprise you) Living in Brackenbury Village and working at the Grove Neighbourhood Centre has opened my eyes to previously unrealised antics that some of the septuagenarian and octogenarian residents of Hammersmith and its environs get up to. I have lived in the area for 25 plus years…
Local story: Joe Miller talks about cash under the carpet
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‘We pulled up a customers old carpet and discovered hundreds of pounds in bank notes. The customer kindly split the cash with us’ Find out more about The Carpet Store
Local murderer?: Kate Webster
Contrary to our welcoming promise to introduce you to your neighbours, there’s one you definitely would not want to meet: Kate Webster. Mind you, there’s little chance you will meet her because she died in 1879. That was the year she was executed for murder. Don’t worry. You can sleep…
Local namesake?: Sir Bob Brackenbury
So, who is – or was – our namesake? A Wiki moment later, we can report without fear of litigation that our Brackenbury is the once beknighted Sir Robert Brackenbury, a nobleman and courtier who hailed from near Darlington in the North East and happened to live near Richard, the…
Oliver Cyriax: Murder at the Brackenbury Museum?
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Eminent local historian Oliver Cyriax reveals why there is little chance of the Museum reopening soon. Brackenbury Museum in its 1960s heyday It’s not every day that she comes to Brackenbury. This was a mercy-mission, from the goodness of her heart. She gives a private wave and I nod imperceptibly…
Oliver Cyriax: Brackenbury – the Musical
Eminent historian Oliver Cyriax cracks open Brackenbury Museum’s archive and breaks into song with Diana Dors. This futuristic piece from the 1950s had a glittering first night at the Tabard. My old friend Kathryn (Bigelow) agrees it has promise. Backers for a revival, anyone? Act 1: the villagers gather outside…
Oliver Cyriax: Local comparative therapist – Lydia Sinforth
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Eminent historian Oliver Cyriax walks the ghostly footprints of time to reveal the ancient civilisation of Bracknor Wot. Lydia Sinforth, Hammersmith’s Comparative Therapist “Imagine an affordable 500 kHz pulse rate city-mapping system that measures high-density strata on the urban floodplain,” yells the mustachioed pilot as we make our third helicopter…