Our Patch july 2015
W
hy does agony aunt
Virginia Ironside
remain such a
staunch fan of
Shepherds Bush
when some pals
have upped sticks and flitted south
to supposedly leafier climes?
Peering over her glasses with a
schoolma’amly look which defies
reproach, she says it’s the rich variety
of shops, the neighbourliness of W12,
and the civility of the population that
appeal. “I’m just so used to Shepherds
Bush being diverse,” she said.
She loves the retail mix, though
she confesses to hankering after the
occasional upmarket boutique.
“You can buy a single banana,
and coriander is 50p a bunch… as
opposed to Waitrose where it’s £1.50
for three leaves,” she said. “You know,
I do like the designer shops in a place
like Dalston, but Shepherds Bush is
resolutely untrendy!”
The principal reason for her
contentment with W12 is that ‘the
people are very, very nice’.
She cited a recent incident to support
the assertion. Arriving back in the
area with a weighty suitcase after a
trip away, a bearded man in a flowing
dishdash gallantly leapt to her aid and
insisted on hefting her luggage all the
way home.
“There’s a civility about Shepherds
Bush that I love,” she said, adding
that one reason is that so many of the
area’s residents don’t drink alcohol for
religious or cultural reasons.
Virginia has lived in the same house
off Uxbridge Road for 40 years, opening
out the original cramped galley kitchen
into a light, airy living space with the
proceeds from her early books.
Now in her eighth decade (she
turned 71 in February), she clearly
I’m the mad old woman
who turns to you on the
bus and says something
relishes her most recent career shift into
semi-autobiographical fiction; detailing
the witty observational thoughts of
a streetwise Shepherds Bush granny
confronting the ageing process.
It, in turn, has spawned a stage
career, with former Young One Nigel
Planer directing her one-woman
8/9
Virginia Ironside
says that li