Post by Oracle on Aug 23, 2010 10:37:08 GMT
My late grandfather worked in The Admiralty from around 1914 to 1955. He moved to Heston in 1928 when new houses were being built, and walked, not bused, to and from Hounslow Central. I suggest that he went by Picc to Hammersmith or took a District direct to Westminster and then walked up Whitehall. During he war this meant travelling on Sundays as well. Indeed he was blown-away by the blast from a V1 on Sunday morning 18th July 1944 at around 11.00; the missile landed on the Guards' Chapel.
Anyhow, he wrote four books from his amazing recollections, and in the second he mentions repeatedly that he had horrible attacks which he later put down to Meniere's Disease:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A9ni%C3%A8re's_disease
In his case this meant dizziness and vomiting, and he said that one side-effect of being so disabled was that he came to know the lay-out of every station on the Picc-District between Hounslow Central and Westminster: there are or were 20 he commented! His horror of being ill on a train 'induced' him to explore every station so that he could find a 'retreat in an emergency'. The gradual closing of lavatories ('once general') had rendered this precaution a wise one. It was surprising he added how many 'dark, infrequented retreats' even open stations as Hammersmith could afford at the time.
This raises the query as to how many stations did have lavatories in the past that were then closed? I know Hounslow West did until rebuilding.
Anyhow, he wrote four books from his amazing recollections, and in the second he mentions repeatedly that he had horrible attacks which he later put down to Meniere's Disease:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A9ni%C3%A8re's_disease
In his case this meant dizziness and vomiting, and he said that one side-effect of being so disabled was that he came to know the lay-out of every station on the Picc-District between Hounslow Central and Westminster: there are or were 20 he commented! His horror of being ill on a train 'induced' him to explore every station so that he could find a 'retreat in an emergency'. The gradual closing of lavatories ('once general') had rendered this precaution a wise one. It was surprising he added how many 'dark, infrequented retreats' even open stations as Hammersmith could afford at the time.
This raises the query as to how many stations did have lavatories in the past that were then closed? I know Hounslow West did until rebuilding.
