25 years ago

November 3, 1977

Tentative council plans to sell rundown houses in Green Dragon Lane, Brentford, to a housing association have angered an existing tenant. He has learned that provisional plans are being made to sell many of the properties to the Hounslow Self Help Housing Association - including his own. It's not fair. Why should we move out and not get the first option to buy? When the association come in, they choose who lives here - they might not be in dire need of housing.

Murder squad detectives are shortly to stage a major reconstruction of the last hour in the life of Elizabeth Parravicini. And they revealed at a Press conference in Brentford yesterday morning that she may have broken the habit of a lifetime - and taken a different route home for some reason. Mrs Parravicini was battered to death on September 9th, yards from her parents' home in The Grove, Isleworth.

More than one third of the 500 homes at the GLC's £14m Brentford Dock estate may be offered for sale exclusively to the people of Hounslow borough. This unexpected move was decided at Monday's meeting of the housing policy committee at County Hall. And it is the GLD's first response to Hounslow council's threat of a High Court injunction to stop the sale until 190 homes are reserved for local tenants.

50 years ago

October 31, 1952

A block of 16 Brentford and Chiswick council flats in Ealing-road, Brentford, was struck by lightning during Friday's freak storm. The roof was set ablaze, and a ceiling in one flat collapsed. Mr Charles Thomas, 46, was sitting in the living room of his upstairs flat at Burford House with his four-years-old son Geoffrey. I heard a terrific bang,'' he told the Brentford and Chiswick Times'' afterwards.

At a meeting of the Soroptimist Club Mr MacIntyre, superintendent of the parks and open spaces, gave a brief outline of the scope of his work, the extent of which came as a surprise to many of his listeners. In addition to the parks and open spaces, he is ultimately responsible, under the borough surveyor, for the upkeep of playing fields, allotments, school grounds, 3,000 street trees, and the front gardens of the housing estates.

On Thursday last week Chiswick old age pensioners received a visit from Mr and Mrs Andrews, of the Battersea branch of the federation. Mr Andrews related some interesting reminiscences of his youth, and told of one period when there was so much poverty and unemployment that he and others led marches of hungry people to the workhouse to force the authorities to give them food. Conditions were now, he said, much improved.

100 years ago

October 31, 1902

On Sunday morning, about nine o'clock, a fire was discovered to be in progress at a house in Algar-road, occupied by Mr Laker. An alarm was at once given to the Fire Station, and the escape contingent, with the telescope escape, was sent off in about five minutes time, arriving on the scene, less than two hundred yards away, a few minutes later, having nearly fouled a tradesman's shop en route.

At a meeting of the Chiswick Piscatorial Society, held at the Roebuck Hotel on Thursday of last week, Mr JG Filleul, FJ Harris, and the hon secretary Mr Glass being present, it was reported that the bottom competition resulted in Mr Filleul gaining a first for six fish weighing 6lbs 2 oz, and Mr J Clapp second with six fish weighing 5lbs 5oz.

A correspondent writes: On enquiring of a conductor of the bus which goes from Kew to Ealing, I find that the fare to South Ealing Station is 2d. This fare is ridiculous, because anyone can go from Kew to Isleworth for 1d. This bus company requires tram opposition before they come to their proper senses. It is about time they reduced their fare to 1d from Kew to South Ealing Station.

November 12, 2002 15:00