Remember this

Tale of a London track: RIP White City Stadium

When I was a youngster, we would occasionally head to White City Stadium near Shepherd's Bush for a family outing. Family members liked gambling and children were welcome at dog tracks, which was what White City was.

Electric hare

There were other greyhound racing venues in London - Haringey Stadium in Green Lanes, now a McDonald's and Sainsbury's was one - but we always went to White City, which to my mind was the biggest and best. We'd have a meal and I'd watch as my chosen dogs limped haplessly around the track in luke-warm pursuit of the electric hare (I'm not much of a gambler).

Dog days

'Going to the dogs' is a pejorative expression, but actually, it was exciting and even had a touch of neon-lit glamour, at least for a kid. Along with dog racing, White City Stadium was also used for athletics, I think, and for other purposes - I saw David Cassidy there in the 70s, so I suppose you could say these were musical purposes. Broadly speaking. White City no longer exists and BBC buildings now stand on the former site. Following the pattern of removing entertainment centres from suburbs, it was demolished in 1985, and a major London landmark, and my personal west London lodestone was gone. But if you like the dogs, you can still watch them run at Walthamstow. Take plenty of money with you.

Update: London is about to lose another dog track with the closure of Walthamstow

Read about memories of another dog track in our Tales of the City section.

London landmarks RIP: Kitchen confidential

When I finished university, like many a young, leftward leaning student I made a conscious decision to work in the public sector. After trawling through every town hall in London, under a scheme to assist disabled people in the labour market I was given an admin job in the Kitchens at Theberton Street, off Upper Street, run by the London Borough of Islington. It was a strange building hidden behind metal gates and looking from the outside like a miniaturised Victorian workhouse. Up steep metal stairs you would get to the food preparation area where all Islington�s meals-on-wheels were prepared. There was a perennial comforting smell of cooking stews permeating the building. Next to this was my office which was a large room seemingly unchanged since, I imagine, the �fifties, all linoleum and sensible wooden chairs. The staff were a good bunch and I learnt the realities of diversity within the workplace.

I left and moved on to more local government employment but I would often pass the building with its rows of bottle green Islington vans parked outside. Then a couple of years ago I saw that the building had been vacated and was being disposed of. It looked forlorn and the van park was deserted. I felt oddly bereft as if an important aspect of my past was being obliterated. I suppose the economies of scale mean that the food can be purchased in bulk cheaply from a major catering supplier. In the process a quirky little facet of local government providing jobs and services for the community had been lost.

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Messages

Message:	2/2
Date and time:	04/04/2007 at 21:47:00
Sender:	Remember This :: Peter Park

I think the little yellow "go-karts" referred to in "Remember This" were actually Sinclair C5 electric cars.I guess Nautilus used them as signboards because they were so dire no-one would dream of stealing them!

Message:	1/2
Date and time:	15/07/2006 at 16:02:23
Sender:	Remember This :: Chris

The yellow Nautilus Gym "Go Karts" were actually grey Sinclair C5 thingies. Remember they were going to revolutionise road transport as we half peddled, half battery powered our way to nowhere? I think the ones abandoned by the roadside were sort of fly-posted by Nautilus Gym.