Where Is This? No.99

Published on: 5 Mar, 2014
Updated on: 6 Mar, 2014

By David Rose

Just about all you need to know about Sparrow’s the butcher (last week’s mystery photo) and Somerset House in the Upper High Street (quirky photo) was supplied by readers. Click here to see last week’s post and all the comments at the foot of it.

Many thanks to you all and especially to Chris Townsend, Brian Holt and John Lomas for all their details. Plus my good friend Simon Vine who remembers Stoughton well, and who now lives in Kew.

So, Colin Sparrow who continued the business at Onslow Village, retired a few years ago. The Barrack Road premises as I mentioned became a junk shop / paint strippers from about the 1970s. No one mentioned the guy with the nick name ‘Sprinkle’ who was there then. I have been told the origin of his nick name, but I can’t reveal here as it is too rude. You’ll have to speak to me in person if you want to know!

Doug and Bill Stanniforth, still after that speed boat prize, made mention of the once well known wrestler Mick McManus who owned the Royal Hotel for a few years. I think it was his son who ran it for him. I remember once night walking past and squeezing out of a small taxi was the other wrestling legend Giant Haystacks. All the famous people end up at Stoughton one time or another!

The Royal was, of course, a music venue for some years. Did anyone go to the impromptu gig there in the early 1980s by guitar legend Eric Clapton? News got out he was playing there on a particular Saturday night. I peeped through a gap in the curtains and saw him doing his sound check, but for some reason didn’t go to the actual gig.

I have also heard a story that the world famous Irish rock band U2 did a gig at the Royal before they were famous, but I have never been able to confirm when that was. If anyone knows, please get in contact.

Where is this ‘up the hill’?

Now on to this week’s images. I am still not sure whether I choose pictures that are too hard or easy to identify, so I always give a few clues. This week’s vintage one comes via Bernard Parke (so he can’t enter). It’s not too far away from the Sparrow picture – another part of ‘north Guildford’ – how I dislike that term.

Do you know where this lion is and what it relates to in Guildford’s past?

The quirky photo of a lion is in Guildford town centre. Do you know where this is and can you add any details?

If you think you know the answers, please leave a reply in the box below. The answers, along with the next pair of images, will be published about the same time next week.

Responses to Where Is This? No.99

Carol Norris Reply

March 5, 2014 at 9:41 am

Picture 1 : Woodbridge Hill
Picture 2 : above White Lion Walk – the site used to be the Lion Hotel.

No one mentioned that Somerset House was for some years around the 1950/60s a “madam” type of dress shop called Elaine.
Ray Springer Reply

March 5, 2014 at 10:49 am

For once I’ll beat Bernard with the answer.
The picture is of Woodbridge Hill at the junction of Worplesdon Road. I have spent many hours waiting at the bus stop there on my way home from Woodbridge Hill Club – happy days.
The quirky photo is of the lion above Robert Dyas in North Street adjacent to White Lion Walk. The building was once the Lion Hotel from North Street to High Street
John Lomas Reply

March 5, 2014 at 7:52 pm

This week we have the corner rank of shops at the bottom of Worplesdon Road where it meets Aldershot Raod (the houses visible beyond the shop) and the two then become Woodbridge Hill. There was a service road between the gardens and the shops.

About 50 yards up Worplesdon Road on the same side as the photographer was the works of Victory Industries Guildfords own toy car maker. http://tinyurl.com/nc2mykc

I had one of their Morris Minors and a Vauxhall Velox, they also introduced slot cars before Scalextric.

Warning though, don’t tell Doug and Bill, but they also made a model of the Miss England speedboat.
Max Hurst Reply

March 5, 2014 at 9:43 pm

I think “Up the hill” is the bottom of the Aldershot Road at the junction with the Worplesdon Road.
A great old picture, but as you know (David Rose) the old picture I am looking for is of the bottom end of Worplesdon Road around the junction of Wendy Crescent. So if anyone has one please let me know!
Mrs Pat Hailstone Reply

March 8, 2014 at 11:04 pm

This view is of the corner of Deerbarn Road and Aldershot Road, at top of Woodbridge Hill, and I think the shop was an off licence called Tyler’s.

The lion was sitting on top the Lion Hotel in the High Street, which (probably in the 40s) was turned into a department store called Whites, then it later became Woolworths, before the area finally being developed into the current White Lion Walk.
Chris Townsend Reply

March 9, 2014 at 11:49 am

The vintage photo is of the junction of Aldershot Road and Worplesdon Road, at the top of Woodbridge Hill. The garden has become a car park.

The lion is near the foot of North Street, above Robert Dyas. That part of the building was formerly the Little White Lion, with the Lion Hotel behind it on High Street. White Lion Walk now occupies the site of the Lion and its yard.
Brian Holt Reply

March 10, 2014 at 9:51 pm

The photo was taken from the bottom of the Worplesdon Road, looking across the Aldershot Road, you can see Deerbarn Road on the left of the photo.

The shop in the photo was Tyler’s off licence, next door was Day the chemist, and Button’s the photographers on the end.

The second photo of the lion was above the Little White lion pub in North Street, where Greggs the bakers is now.
Doug and Bill Stanniforth Reply

March 11, 2014 at 4:59 pm

It’s the junction of Worplesdon and the Aldershot Road, the shop is Tyler’s wine merchants, next to it was a chemist (Morgans we think) and next to that was P Norman Button which was a newsagents, sweetshop.

The other photo is above Robert Dyas in North Street, once the Little White Lion pub.