Where Is This? No.170

Published on: 23 Jul, 2015
Updated on: 23 Jul, 2015

By David Rose

The bus experts were among those quick to identify the vehicle and its location in last week’s mystery pictures.

It was indeed pictured at the junction of Woodbridge Road and Onslow Street.

Plenty of detail about the Aldershot & District vehicle, more buses in the landscape to come in future weeks!

The quirky picture featuring a ring and square of metal embedded in the pavement becomes a pop-up urinal at night! Well dome to all who knew that.

And for reader Andrew Backhurst and his daughter who call the ring ‘Guildford’s Teleportation Ring’, and for anyone else who has never seen it in its full glory, here’s what it looks like when ready for use.

The pop-up loo in North Street when ready for use. Will anyone admit to giving it a go?

Click here to see last week’s post and all the replies at the foot of it.

Moving on to this week’s pictures…

Shops on a housing estate. Which one?

The vintage one shows a row of shops on a Guildford council housing estate. Do you know which one and the road they are in?

What building is this a part of? Sorry it’s not straight – I took the picture rather quickly on my iPhone.

The quirky picture should be fairly easy. All I can say is, it’s on a building that has recently become redundant with a replacement next door.

If you know the answers and can perhaps add some extra facts, please leave a reply in the box below. They will be published at about this time next week along with two more mystery images.

Responses to Where Is This? No.170

Alan Cooper Reply

July 23, 2015 at 1:20 am

I believe that is Bellfields
Bernard Parke Reply

July 23, 2015 at 2:28 am

1) Bellfields.

2) The fire station.
Vic Moseley Reply

July 23, 2015 at 9:04 am

This photo has been taken from the corner of Maple Grove and Stoughton Road, Bellfields, and near the Woking Road entrance to the estate.
Linda Jackson Reply

July 23, 2015 at 3:36 pm

1. The row of shops in Stoughton Road and the estate is Bellfields.

I remember whilst staying with my aunt in Cyress Road during my summer holidays that a daily trip to the shops and a natter was the norm.

Mind you, many families there still grew fruit and veg in their gardens and also kept a chicken run.

I can also remember the women gathering around a open lorry which came down the road selling fruit and veg and there was also a rag and bone man who also sharpened knives.

2. Could this be the old fire station?
John Lomas Reply

July 23, 2015 at 7:29 pm

The older picture shows the shops at the bottom of Stoughton Road in the Bellfields estate.

Looking at the Google Street view it is interesting to see that the main structure is still evident including the tiled facings and even some of the original Crittall metal frame windows.
Angela Gunning Reply

July 23, 2015 at 9:58 pm

That’s the shops in Stoughton Road, Bellfields.
Dave Middleton Reply

July 25, 2015 at 12:16 pm

The shops are the parade of shops on Stoughton Road at Bellfields opposite Maple Grove and the balcony is on the now defunct Guildford old fire station building.
Chris Townsend Reply

July 26, 2015 at 6:38 pm

The shops are on Stoughton Road, between Hornbeam Road and Cedar Way on Bellfields Estate, built shortly after the Second World War.

The quirky picture shows what looks like the borough arms, and the word FIRE, above the doors of the old fire station on Ladymead.
- Christopher Fairs Reply
  
  September 17, 2015 at 10:21 pm
  
  I can remember a Mr Hodder, the proprietor of Hodder’s The Chemist, dispensing medicines and giving advice in his shop on the extreme left of the picture.
  
  Out of the photograph, to the right of confectioner, J T Hills, was a shop converted to a doctor’s surgery (probably during the 1960s). Dr Addis-Jones and his wife were two of the GPs working there.
Brian Holt Reply

July 27, 2015 at 8:56 pm

(1) The parade of shops on Stoughton Road, Bellfields in the late 1940s when the estate was being built. Today one of them is a doctor’s surgery.

(2) This is the recently closed old fire station in Ladymead. You can see the word “Fire” under the balcony.
Doug and Bill Staniforth Reply

July 28, 2015 at 2:29 pm

The shops are on Stoughton Road, Bellfields. The crooked picture is of the old fire station helped with the word “FIRE” at the bottom of the picture.

How many more weeks can we endure without anymore pictures of old buses? Perhaps we could have a train or maybe some other forms of transport.

Perhaps a speedboat? Ed
Margaret Cole Reply

July 28, 2015 at 10:41 pm

These shops are in Stoughton Road, Bellfields, first shown in 2012.

They’ve not changed much just the names.

Hills is now McColl’s Stores where my sons bought their sweet ration en route to Bishop Reindorp School.

Now the balcony picture was easy with the clue – it’s the old fire station in Ladymead, all boarded up probably built early 20th century.

What’s going to be there next, not another nursing home, surely not?
Brian Holt Reply

July 30, 2015 at 11:46 am

Yes I remember the old blue grocery bus operated by the Holtby family. It used to come around Shepherds Hill on Tuesdays and Saturdays every week.

Sometimes one of the two sons used to help. One son was Reg who was a Aldershot & District bus driver. He left for a while to work at the Guildford Laundry in Laundry Road, cleaning carpets I was a van driver there at the time but later returned back driving buses at the Traco.

The other son was, I think, Maurice. I remember some items like packets of sugar got damp during wet weather but at least the delivery service saved having to carry potatoes up Shepherds Hill.
Sue Foreman Reply

August 3, 2015 at 10:01 pm

I do remember the van that sold the fruit and veg. The driver’s name was Cliff.
- Christopher Fairs Reply
  
  September 17, 2015 at 10:05 pm
  
  One of the fruit and vegetable lorries that came around Bellfields (usually on a Saturday) was operated by Cliff Brice (or Bryce), who was also the driver. He had a small, green Commer lorry with a roof canopy and open sides, where the produce was displayed. His colleague, Ernie Dawkins, lived on Ballfields Estate.
  
  About this time, there were also two small tanker lorries doing the rounds selling paraffin for household heaters. A hose on the tanker dispensed the fuel into 1 or 5-gallon drums. One operator sold Esso Blue and the other, Aladdin Pink Paraffin.