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Stephendale Road was named after Stephen Dale Taylor, the son of the original landowner. The name of the road was approved in 1878 and the houses were finally completed by the late 1890s. The road was affected by serious flooding before the Second World War. Stephendale was well served by shops after the War and only Wandsworth Bridge Road in this part of Sands End could boast a larger number. The black and white photographs below, kindly supplied by Hammersmith & Fulham Archives Department, show a number of the businesses which existed around fifty years ago. Sadly, few shops remain today as the colour photo taken by Francis Czucha in 2007 shows. The 1960 Post office Directory listed the following businesses between Hazlebury and Broughton roads: Harry Wright, Newsagents; Horace Johnston confectioner; Thomas Bailey Hairdresser; Ockendon & Turner Butchers; Alfred Hambrook Fried Fish; Owen Jones Dairy; Barry Elliot confectioner; Evelyn Grace Corn Chandler; Smith draper's; Norris Hardware; Loud and Western laundry (Sunlight); Wise Greengrocers; Harold Davey Butchers and Ethel Franklin grocer. The 1970 Post office Directory for the buisnesses between Hazelbury and Broughton showed R.D Cashman grocer's next to Harry Wright's Newsagents. Ockendon & Turner had been replaced by another butcher's shop run by W Pawsey and P. Moore grocers had replaced Ethel Frankin. Derek Sayers grew up in Stephendale Road during the 1950s and well remembers many of the shops of the day. "Frank Wright took over the newsagents on the corner of Hazlebury Road from his mother in the 1940s. Behind Wright's was Mrs Levin's shop - she carried on after her husband died, probably in the late 1930s. It was a grocers but did not sell very much. Her claim to fame was that when a German plane crashed in Hazlebury road in the early 1940s, the dead pilot landed in her back garden!" " On the other corner of Hazlebury Road was Hopgood's the grocers. Old Mr Hopgood retired in the early 1950s.He had owned the shop since my parents' childhood in the 1920s." David Billett, who lived in Althea Street between 1936 and 1953, also remembers Hopgood's. "Old Bill Hopgood only had one leg which fascinated me.There was also a big sign in the shop advertising 'Mazawattee Teas poured out all over the world'. I can still recall the smells of the sides of bacon he used to slice on the bacon slicer, smells which complimented those of disinfectant and Sunlight soap. Mum used to send me round on Sunday mornings to knock him up for two ounces of anything she had run out of and he never refused to serve me." Whitton's grocery shop was on the corner of Althea Street and Stephendale Road. Former Althea resident Jimmy Hayes says Bill and Olive Whitton sold everything needed for the weekly shop (not quite Arkwright's but close)." Ex-Stephendale resident Linda Buckingham nee White lived opposite the shop. "It was a grocery shop for many years but is now a flat. I used to be friendly with the Whittons daughter Elaine." Derek Sayers says the shop was called O'Keefe's before Whitton's. He adds: " There was also a grocerery shop called Dell's on the corner of Hamble Street and Stephendale Road and another on the corner of De Morgan Street up towards Wandsworth Bridge Road. On the opposite corner of De Morgan was a shop that was rarely used but from which the Cheesman family sold ice cream during the 1940s." Derek Sayers also remembers the shops between Hazlebury Road and Broughton Road. "There was a hairdressers which I was not allowed to go to because my mother thought he used dirty combs. I can remember Grace's haberdashery as well. Mrs Grace's husband died in the late 1940s. Also remember a butcher's shop called Bunn's. There was a hardware shop too which my parents always called the "Oil Shop. They used this expression long before we used paraffin for heating - I just wonder if this was an expression dating back before gas was installed in the houses. Certainly the ones where I lived (built in 1897 I think) had gas installed from new. Some still had gas for lighting after the World War 2." Francis Czucha who lived in Broughton Road, remembers buying paraffin from Norris hardware store. "We had no coal fires or central heating in our upstairs flat, just a two bar electric fire in the living room and a single oil heater to keep the three bedrooms warm." Linda Buckingham also remembers when The Glen public house on the corner of Stephendale Road and Broughton Road, opened in 1960. "It was an off licence at first and run by a chap called Bill Cody." The pub (photographed by Francis Czucha in 2007) has gone a bit more up market and is now known as The Sands End Public House and Dining Room. The Glen is now known as The Sands End
There were also quite a few shops further down Stephendale Road between Lindrop Street and Elswick Street. Former Lindrop Street resident Philip Turner tells us that his family were in the area for approximately 60 years and ran the newsagents Ockendon's. Ann Kennedy well remembers it. "The man in the paper shop was called Charlie. In the morning on our way to school my sister and I used to get a throupenny single bet. If you don't know what that was it was a cigarette. We had to be very careful in case someone saw us. Charlie never told on us."
Philip says that his brother ran the greengrocer's shop next door to Ockendon's called Turner's. He also recalls a rag and bone shop on the corner of Elswick street called Gerts which sold clothes. "They once had a shop full of second hand levi jeans which were all sold in a day for around 25 pence a pair." The 1960 Post office Directory lists the shops between Lindrop and Tynmouth streets as F. Hine Grocer's; Owen Jones Dairy; Charles Ockendon Newsagents and S. Ferris Greengrocer's. Between Tynmouth and Elswick streets were Powell Greengrocer's; Joan Herne Ladies Hairdresser and Richardson Grocer's. By 1970 Hine's Grocer's had been replaced by Watson's and Ferris Greengrocer's by Turner's. There are now no shops at this end of Stephendale Road. Now read more memories of former Stephendale residents.
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Where We Lived 
