Crossroads to roundabout
The photos below show the changes made to the road layout in the area of Victoria House Corner. The photos were taken in the early 1970s before, during and after the installation of the roundabout. Originally, the junction was a crossroads and the A13 London Road was single carriageway.
The shop fronts have changed little over the years, albeit the shops have changed hands many times since the 1970s.
The colonial style property that stood on the corner of Rayleigh Road/London Road on the Hadleigh side was demolished later and today a bus station stands on the site.
Opposite the colonial style property on the corner of Benfleet Road and London Road there used to be a company called Southern Sectionals and they sold garden buildings and fencing. Today Magnet occupies this plot.
All the black and white photos shown in this article are by kind permission of Castle Point Council.
Comments about this page
Add your own comment
I have a news clipping of a photo of The Kennall Club that was destroyed by fire in 1963 on Victoria House Corner. Does anyone know of it? How can I post it on here?
Dear Lee, Yes, you would be very welcome to post it on here. Someone will probably have heard of it. [Pam Bird Gaines, Ed.]
I am pretty sure that the “little shop with the cars out the front” was the original Pharmacy owned and run by my late father W.L.Phelps back in the fifties/sixties. He subsequently moved across the road to the third shop in the parade, and as can be seen in the coloured 2011 ‘photo it was still a Pharmacy then, although not my dad’s. I have been in Australia since 1968, and my dad passed away in 1979. It was nice to see the old shop, as I used to earn a few bob “helping out” on a Saturday morning when I was a kid!
Peter Phelps
Who can remember the order and the names of the shops in the parade at Vic House Corner? I’m struggling! I remember Allens the ironmonger, Rourkes the tv and electrical shop, then there was a wool shop, Selfes ?, then a newsagents Perrys, a chemist, Phelps, and I think a butchers and a greengrocer’s run by a chap called Alf, but I can’t remember the names of these shops. Looking at the older pictures from the early 70’s, there may have been eight shops in the parade and I can only remember seven. Anyone with a better memory than me?
This is not the area of Hadleigh that I am researching but what a fantastic pictorial history of Vic House Corner..
The house mentioned above, that’s divided into flats, still is now as my ex’s Dad still lives in the bottom left hand flat at 90 years old! In the 80’s when I was going out with his son, they had the bottom floor as one flat for the family, Mum, Dad and son. It went back to two flats after the son left home. It’s supposed to have a ghost/poltergeist!
I believe that the imposing house on the corner of Arcadian Gardens was a private school. St Andrew’s 8 Rayleigh Road. I was there until 1965.
Seem to remember that the large house to the West of the Garage had part of an old tram in the garden that was used as a summer house.
The house on the western side of the bus garage was in the 1940s occupied by Mr White, gents hairdresser & Lillian ladies hairdresser. Opposite the bus depot was Ebdons garage & petrol station. Hudson Terraplane & Railton specialists, staffed by Mr Bert Murch & Mr Frank Ebdon.
The house in the last two photos was divided into 4 flats and my wife and I occupied the lower flat, that is nearest in the picture, from about June 1962 to October 1963.
The little shop with the cars out front, by the big house, on the corner of Arcadian Gardens was the Photo/chemist shop.
I believe the house you are referring to was the doctor’s old house and is mentioned in the South Benfleet history book.
Add a comment about this page