London

George Inn

I was general manager of the George Inn from 1984 to 1998. I made many friends in the Borough, it was like a small village.
Contributed by John Hall

The Bank of England

The "Bank" has occupied this site since the late seventeenth century. Although you cannot see from either this view or indeed from the street, there is an exquisite garden and lawn in the centre! The Bank underwent an extensive building programme between the time of this photograph and the second world war. There are now five floors and also three levels of vaults (I do hope that I am not giving away any secrets here!). I started my career in banking with The Bank of England in 1963. It was quite awe inspiring as a teenager to enter the massive front door being held open by a top hatted "Bank Messenger" dressed smartly in a pink coloured morning coat. He would ...read more here
Contributed by John Howard Norfolk

A Spectacular Entrance to Central London.

Before my time, of course, but this is still a very familiar view to me . Not only did I intern (from Westminster Technical College Hotel School) at the Charing Cross Hotel on the right but also passed through the station 5 days a week for two years.

On occasion I'd stay too late at a party on a Friday night and have to get the 'milk train' in the dawn hours. I loved walking the streets of London in the middle of the night.

I also loved coming in across the Thames into Charing Cross station on the Southern Railways from Woolwich Arsenal. To me it is a spectacular station and continues to be so even with the ...read more here
Contributed by DYLAN RIVIS

Prodigal Son Returned

I think it ought to be mandatory, for every person of English heritage, to pass through Westminster Abbey at least once!

Returning from Canada and, later, the USA , for only the second time in 35 years I took my late teenage son and daughter to tour Westminster Abbey. There we joined the throng as it somehow wound its way through the crowded abbey.

As much as I have become a North American, it surprised me that I was brought to tears as I touched and saw the incredible depth of history that this magnificent historic treasure holds within its walls. A very moving and self-establishing experience.

I should point out that I was well familiar with ...read more here
Contributed by DYLAN RIVIS

1960's

The George Inn in Southwark was one of the favourite watering holes and eating houses for the young men of the accounts department of Borax Consolidated Ltd. in Victoria. In those days the serving wenches were all dressed in Dickensian costume and we would order a steak and kidney pudding. I don't mean individual puddings but a large one set in the middle of the table which were of scrubbed pine. It was terrific food and the atmosphere was great. Sadly the atmosphere is no longer the same. Such is life.
Contributed by Peter Wiles

Painful memories of Paulton Square.

As a frightened 7 year old, in 1950, I was plunged into an unfamiliar London life when my meddling and self righteous aunt unfortunately reminded my stepfather of fulfill his promise to my dying mother to 'take care of Jimmy'. He had since remarried and brought my sister and I together again after we had spent three years apart,my sister with his parents in Chester and I, happily in Kirkbymoorside, my mother's home in the North Yorkshire Moors with my wonderful, loving, foster family, and

We lived in Paulton's Square , just off the King's Road in an elegant , Georgian, three storey row house with wrought iron railings. In the centre of the square was a ...read more here
Contributed by DYLAN RIVIS

London,Piccadilly Circus 1951-1955

I was a young Constable in the year 1951, and fresh from Peel House, Westminster was assigned tio the Savile Row station known as CD. I lived at the Section House on Broadwick Street, Soho named after Lord Trenchard. Many times I was assigned to Piccadilly Circus, on the early turn or at 5pm to 1am for a two week period. There was the box attached to and adjacent to the stairs to the Piccadilly Tube Station and at the corner of Swan and Edgar Store. When the blue light flashed I answered the call from the station to go on details in the vicinity. Most times for street photographers. I was stationed there the day Christie was arrested for the ...read more here
Contributed by Nelson Jones

A day around London

The day rock 'n' roll singer Eddie Cochran was killed, I went around London and had my picture taken on Eros, then in the evening I went with my friend to see Adam Faith on stage.  It was a sad day because of the death of Eddie C. but we did enjoy Adam F.
I also took a picture of a young 'bobby' which I still have to this very day.
I was a teenager at the time.
Great memories!
Contributed by deborah rowsell

Early career memories at Piccadilly Circus.

I started my career in January 1959 as a young bobby at West End Central Police Station Savile Row.  The trestles positioned to the east of 'Eros' which cordon off the road suggest the photograph was taken when the Piccadilly one-way system was being introduced.  I remember the elegant stonework of the County Fire Office benefited from the recently enacted 'Clean Air Act'.  Much of the grimey architecture in the area was scrubbed by a water process from scaffolding usually by a firm called 'Szezelmy' (or a very similar spelling).  Just right of the 'Skol' advert the low hoarding hides a wartime bomb site.  Just around that corner was the Windmill Theatre in Great Windmill Street where many stars of radio ...read more here
Contributed by Mr WR Payne

The Hub of My Young Universe

London's main railway stations truly are wonderful and Charing Cross was the one that I frequented the most as I travelled every weekday from Woolwich Arsenal in SE London to Green Park Underground, near the great Victoria Station.

The sounds of the whistles, doors slamming, the hum of the electric trains...the overhead announcements reverberating in the cavernous domed roof... "last call for Waterloo, London Bridge, Deptford, Greenwich, Maze Hill, Westcombe Park, Charlton, Woolwich Dockyard , Woolwich Arsenal, Plumstead, Abbey Wood, Belvedere, Slade Green, Erith and Deptford"...and that recalled after 46 years !! (Says a lot for the theory of conditioning doesn't it !!)

And then the train pulls out across the old iron bridge high above the Thames, looking ...read more here
Contributed by DYLAN RIVIS

Anyone recall the Mascot Hotel, 6 York Street ANY PHOTOS

Does anyone recall the Mascot Hotel which used to be in York Street, near  Baker Street? It was owned by relations of my wife for a time, I believe it is no more but do any photos exist of it from the 60s and 70s? When was it demolished and was it always called the Mascot?

Thankyou

John
Contributed by John Teddyfoot

Under the Arches

I remember visiting this spot when I first moved to work in London. It is described in Nairn's London, as follows:-
" A very fine passage called The Arches runs underneath Charing Cross station from Villiers Street to Craven Street. The steps at the western end announce a different world. Hungerford Lane; and this is like meeting a person five hundred years old. It starts by the Wimpy Bar in Villiers Street, and ends opposite the Strand Corner House. In between there are Piranesian brick vaults tunneled into the foundations of the station, and a crevasse running uphill to the Strand, embroidered with wine vaults and tiers of fire escapes. Where it passes under The Arches, there is just one ...read more here
Contributed by C Thomas