Portsmouth firemen went to 1,000 shouts... from a house in North End | Nostalgia

The reason I mention the station is that Dennis Wills, of Havant, tells me that in 1973 the station closed for about nine months.

Three of the appliances went to Southsea while another was put on stand-by at North End. The appliance was located along Stubbington Avenue just down from from North End junction. The firemen had a billet in a nearby house.

This temporary ‘station’ was called an Action Post and in the nine months it was in use more than 1,000 calls were attended by the firemen, as they were then called.

Can anyone tell me more about this Action Post?

•The photograph I published last Tuesday of Portsmouth’s first dust lorry with rubber tyres had an error in the caption. The photograph came from Carol Breedon who tells me I made a mistake in that it was Mr Gotter (pron Goater) who drove the lord mayor’s car not her father Frank Bastable on the left of the photograph. Apologies for the error.

Remember Timothy Whites and Taylors?

You could be forgiven for thinking this photograph was taken in recent years, but in fact it was 1969, 51 years ago.

It’s the junction of Highland Road and Clegg Road, Eastney. On the left of Clegg Road is a branch of Timothy Whites. Boots is on the eastern corner. At first I thought this was the Winter Road junction but a Kelly’s Directory put me straight. Two years later Timothy Whites had gone and the premises taken over by Ivan Veck.