you can shop indoors on rainy days in harrow on the Hill's two covered shopping malls. When the weather brightens up you can walk outside, or eat outdoors outsde the pub, and get your daily does of vitamin D and sunlight and exercise in the pedestrian area.
After I had carefully inserted apostrophes in every mention of St Anns in my previous post, I was amused to read AI's version headed with the apostrophe, with the main text immediately informing me that the mall had no apostrophe. The mall copied the style of the St Anns Road outside, now a pedestrian area.
St Anns Covered Shopping Mall
St Anns shopping mall was the start of a regeneration of Harrow. That involved demolishing two schools, including Heathfield school, where I went to school. I loved it there, and have vivid memories of being taught the twelve times table, which to me was the pinnacle of educational achievement, drilled by our teacher every morning.
Although maths was my weak subject and it was my compensating English which got me to graduate through the eleven plus into a girls' grammar school. To this day I am proud of my attention to apostrophes, as an English teach and tutor. Years later I met Trevor, who outclassed me by knowing the thirteen times table. I married him.
I was shocked to read that my old school, Heathfield, had been demolished, but I concede I cannot remember any distinguishing architectural features. I was interested to read that it moved to Pinner.
To this day I am proud of my attention to apostrophes, as an English teach and tutor. I keep automatically adding the apostrophe in the name St Anns and having to remove it.
About a decade later along came St George's shopping mall, not a rival but an addition to an excursion to Harrow. An altogether superior development, with an apostrophe in the name.
St Anns has two exits, one onto the pedestrian area, the other facing Harrow on the Hill bus and train stations. Buses take you to Heathrow airport, or Northwick Park Hospital and St |Marks hospital. You could take the walk uphill towards the hill whose famous school has statues and memorials, and you can book guided tours. The school is famous for the old days when boys wore straw boater hats in summer, and prime ministers such as Churchill, and the children of prime ministers and kings, such as Jordan, and poets.
St George is the patron saint of England and several other countries and places, and his cross is on the Union Jack. A contrast to Harrow on the Hill is modern St George's mall. Because Harrow has affordable housing attracting immigrants and grand architecture and history it is a first stopping point for visitors and tourists arriving at Heathrow, with a choice of outlets selling ethnic as well as English, British and European, Middle Eastern and Asian food and clothing.
St George's Indoor Shopping Mall
St George's, a few feet away on the end of the pedestrian precinct which has St Anns in the middle of the long side of the oblong.
St George's covered shopping mall has a smart striped exterior, orange and green colours, and curves.
Inside are reliefs of St George around the ceiling, and a glass dome above escalators. Curved black metalwork is another attractive feature. In addition to the shops it added entertainment to attract visitors, a cinema.
The malls are decorated seasonally for festivals such as Christmas and Diwali. The pedestrian has a statue of the designer's daughter, which got vandalised and stolen. Pop-ups in the pedestrian area are food stalls, such as warning food in winter, summer fruit and vegetables and fairground rides in school holidays. Later additions have included seating.
From Harrow-on-the-Hill station you can take buses and trains to and from Heathrow and central London. The metropolitan line allows you to glimpse Harrow on the Hill's spire and Wembley stadium's arch on a fast train to Baker street, Sherlock Holmes, and Tussaud's, stations and attractions which you can read about in my other posts.
Many adults from London and overseas join Toastmasters International which trains in confidence leadership and public speaking. Harrovians speakers' club meets in the Baptist church near the railway station two Monday evenings each month. HOD speakers meets at South Harrow church on two Thursday evenings each month. See Eventbrite or Toastmasters International find a club. A good way to meet people who live and work in Harrow - including me.
Useful Websites
St Anns
St George's
https://www.stgeorgesshopping.co.uk/
Toastmasters International
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