The Story Behind St Anns Shopping Centre in Harrow

St Anns

St Anns was the first of the two big shopping malls in Harrow. St Anns is centrally located facing the Harrow-on-the-hill railway station, which is a few paces from the bus garage where bus converge and ran out across the region to as far away as Heathrow airport. The new shopping centre was opened in 197 by Princess Diana. The centre is named after pedestrianized St Anns Road. Its features included major stores, and the novelty of a food court.

After I carefully inserted apostrophes in St Anns, I discovered it was named without the apostrophe, following the style of the name of the street. I was amused to see that AI headed its information with the apostrophe, followed by the information that the name did not have an apostrophe.

Before the building of St Anns shopping centre, the site contained two schools, one of which was Heathfield School, where I went to school before I graduated to a girls' Grammar school. The Heathfield school had excellent teachers, but the building and empty playground were not memorable, no great loss, and Harrow gained a central site for the new shopping centre. The school did not disappear. It moved to Pinner.

After the success of St Anns, along came another covered shopping mall, St George's, with added decoration, inside and out.

St George's

A decade later along came St George's shopping mall, not a rival but an addition to an excursion to Harrow, a few feet away on the end of the pedestrian precinct which has St Ann's 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 matalwork 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 stall, such as warning food in winter, summer fruit and vegetables and fairground rides in school holidays. Later additions have included seating. 

Useful Websites

https://www.stgeorgesshopping.co.uk/

 The complete history of St Anns Shopping Centre in Harrow - Harrow Online

What To See and Do In Holland Village, Singapore

If you want some traditional furniture or knick-knacks. Lim's Arts and Living.

 

When I first went to Singapore I thought that Holland village had been a Dutch area. A friend of ours was the PR lady for the Dutch club. However, apparently this is not so. 

Three Windmills

The windmill is a good reminder of the name of the area. A large one was placed overhead, hardly visible from below, on the roof of the shopping mall. Alas no longer there in 2022 April. A second small one is at the entrance to the Holland village Market and Food Centre. A third is depicted on the mural on the station platform of the yellow Circle line. There was another on the indoor walk towards and from exits B and C.

But the name Holland Village comes from a Mr Holland, an architect and actor.  The windmills appeared later to match, to echo,  the place name. You certainly don't see much now related to Holland. Though you do see a lot of ex-pats mingling with the locals, because the area is full of restaurants.

In the centre is the open sided Holland Village Market and Food Centre. This will have the cheapest food and simple seating.

On the street level of the oldest mall, the Holland Road Shopping Centre, is a supermarket. 

Upstairs are interesting shops. I like the two big shops which are nearby each other, one selling clothes, the other selling household decor, furniture, ornaments. For even more bargains, a small shop opposite the clothes shop has competitive prices. Dresses under 20 dollars. 

Ciabatta in coffee shop.

Furniture shop.

Dress I bought from clothes shop, Lim's, Holland Road Shopping Centre, in Holland village. The cost was about 15 dollars. Just a plain shirt dress with two thin pieces of matching belt to tight it at the back and tighten it. But such a jolly colour. I bought another dress of the same style and price and pattern in a more muted blue.

Angela Lansbury wearing a tropical hibiscus pattern dress, bought in Holland Village, Singapore. Photo by Trevor Sharot.

A second shopping mall has been built the other side of the road by the other MRT exit.

The station has three exits, A is nearest to the ticket office and on the same side as the Raffles mall, open in 2022. At the end of the walkway, far end from the ticket office, exits B and C take you under the road and to the other side of the road .

If planning lunch with friends, have a backup plan of where to go if the lunch time queue (Americans say line-up) is too long. If you are two couples, and one couple arrives early, they can secure a place in the queue. But you don't want to claim a table too early in this situation because you might find that you are expected to choose your food, or are tempted to start, if the food is on a conveyor belt as in Sushi Tei (Sushi Thai).

More information on Sushi Thai is in the previous post. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Useful Websites

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holland_Village,_Singapore

https://holland-village-singapore.com/holland-road-shopping-centre-directory/

More photos

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Holland_Village,_Singapore

https://landtransportguru.net/holland-village-station/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hibiscus_rosa-sinensis

Simple Signs to read in China, Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan

I thought I would take a few words I wanted to recognize, such as big and central which I often saw on signs. Big is like the curved A shape without the central bar which is like a simplified walking or running person. the wide oblong with  the vertical (upright) sign means centre. 

The Sign For Person

First I tried China and Chinese and  Singapore and Singaporean to see what was the difference. If you add the sign for person on the end you get Chinese or Singaporean. 

So now I can understand the signs at an airport and the road signs. The road sign (signpost) without the person sign means the country. 

At the airport a sign with the person sign on the end is telling nationals of that country that here is where to queue. (For the British word queue, Americans say line up).

1

one

Singapore

Singaporean

1

一

新加坡

新加坡人

..............................................................

2

two

lion

city

狮子

城市

The sign which looks like a seven with a large line across the middle is son or offspring or thing or animal or creature. It appears after the name of an animal.

...........................................................

3

three

central

city

中央

城市

...............................................................

4

four

in

heart

在

心

I had learned heart from my Chineasy flashcards.

.......................................................................

5

five

buy

thing

....................................................

6

six

shopping

shopping center

...................................

7

seven

pedestrian

pedestrians

When you translate pedestrian and pedestrians you get the same word. No wonder I used to see signs in Singapore saying Pedestrian this way. When they looked up pedestrian or pedestrians in Chinese they always got singular pedestrians in English. 

Now I know what the Chinese find hard to get right in English and why. It is not that they are half-witted or forgetful. Their language works differently. Think of the word man in English. We would add a man to mean one man. In Chinese you would add one to specify only one.  That is how English and French probably started years, centuries ago.

8

eight

China

Chinese people

...........................................

9

nine

new

year

..........................................

10

ten

Quickly

pleasure

of

grand

exhibition

A kind

          in

买

事物

购物

购物中心

购物中心

行人

行人

中国

中国人

新的

年

迅速地

乐趣

的

盛大

展览

一种

           zhēn

           在

Useful Websites

duolingo.com

Chineasy.com

thamesandhudson.com (Produced my Chineasy cards)

translate goggle

About the Author

Angela Lansbury teacher of English (advanced and English as a Second Language or English as a Foreign Language), French and other languages, aspiring polyglot.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Member of many Toastmasters  International speaker training clubs and speaking contest judge. Vice President Public Relations of Braddell Heights Advanced speakers' club. BHA in 2021 has members whose first languages are British English, American English, Chinese Mandarin from China, and Cantonese from Hong Kong. Contact us through

toastmasters international find a club

Angela Lansbury, the author of 20 books including Wedding Speeches & Toasts, and Quick Quotations, has lived in the USA, Spain and Singapore. 

She has several blogs and writes daily on at least two of the following:

travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com

dressofthedayangela.blogspot.com

translateforfun.blogspot.com

 Please share links to your favourite posts.

Xmas Tree quiz with answers

Here's a Christmas Tree quiz for Christmas Day for adults or children or both. It's entertaining, informative, educational and fun.




I Where is this artificial palm tree?

1 Lakeside shopping centre, Essex, England
2 Brent Cross Shopping Centre, Hendon, England
3 Intu shopping mall, Watford, England
4 Edmonton Shopping Mall, Alberta, Canada
5 Outside the White House, USA
6 Gardens by the Bay, Singapore
7 Outside 10 Downing Street, London
8 St George's, Harrow, England
(Hint. Answer in my previous posts.)
.............................

II The Christmas Tree in Trafalgar Square London, England, is given in thanks since the end of WWII by
1 Germany
2 The USA
3 Finland
4 Norway
5 Denmark
6 Canada
7 Sweden
8 Scotland
.......................................

III The Christmas tree is Trafalgar Square is a
1 Norway Spruce from Norway
2 Scottish Pine from Scotland
3 Monkey Puzzle from China
4 Dutch Elm from Holland
5 Douglas Fir from Canada
6 Pine Tree from Germany
7 Banyan tree from Florida
8 Sequoia from the USA
.........................................

IV This tree is raising cash for:
1 Cancer Research
2 RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds)
3 Ali's Dream (research into preventing brain tumours)
4 RSPCA Royal Society For the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
5 The Salvation Army
6 Save the Whale
7 RNLA Royal National Lifeboat Association
8 YMCA
...................
(Hint. See one of my recent previous posts.)

V The Spring cherry blossom trees in Washington DC were given as a peace offering after WWII by
1 Germany
2 Japan
3 China
4 Italy
5 Taiwan
6 Russia
7 Canada
8 Italy
.........................
Hint. If you can't guess, you'll find the answer on the internet.

VI The star on top of the Christmas tree is usually
1 The four point star representing the Southern Cross of New Zealand and Australia
2 An eight point star sacred to Hindus
3 The five point star symbolising the star over Bethlehem where Jesus was born
4 The five point star revered by Moslems, reprinting the five pillars of Islam
5 The six point Star of David revered by Jews
6 The six point Star of Solomon revered by Moslems
7 The symbol of Peter Pan
8 The Moscow Kremlin symbol
..............................

Easy one for the little ones / anybody who speaks English as a foreign language. If you can't answer question one, do the others and come back to question one.

VII What do we get/eat/make from these trees:
1 Norway spruce
2 Coconut palm
3 Rubber palm tree
4 Oil palm tree
5 Horse Chestnut tree (hint, not chestnuts)
6 Plum tree
7 Apple tree
8 Pear tree
9 Cherry tree
10 Oak tree
...................................

I suggest you print off copies.Write your name on your question paper.  Swap papers to mark them. Mark them and debate them yourselves. Dad or Mum had the casting vote.

****
Answers:
1 Intu
II Norway.
III Norway Spruce from Norway.
IV Ali's Dream.
V Japan.
VI The star over Bethlehem.
VII Xmas trees! Coconuts. Rubber/latex. Oil (for coking and many other uses.) Conkers for a children's game. Plums. Apples. Pears. Cherries. Acorns, oak wood for floors and furniture and boats. Acorn flour.

More information from:
http://www.cupcakeproject.com/2012/11/how-to-make-acorn-flour-pre-thanksving.html

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Singapore - an Expensive City? Rent yes. Food no.

Singapore is expensive if you want to buy or rent an apartment. However, the bargains are abundant. For example, you can buy lunch in the hawker centre, at one of many food stalls, in the basement or upper floor or an shopping centre and most large public buildings and blocks of flats, especially in the market areas around stations along the railway line.
   Right in the centre, you've a choice of high end restaurants on the top floors with great views, or the bargain basement. Plus of course food halls and supermarkets.
   Cheapest departments stores include the Mustafa complex in Little India. If you want local knowledge, just ask the taxi driver or a shop assistant to suggest a couple of the nearest cheap and good value places to eat.