Days Gone By

A Memory of Barking.

Stumbled across this site and have enjoyed the memories of old barking and the shops it had, thought that I should add my recollections and fill in a few blanks from the sixties and seventies, so starting from the Bull Pub and Heading towards the White Horse along North Street ( now the new Asda site )you had a selection of shops which I will try to place in order, first you had an Indian Restaurant then next door a Car spares shop run by a cheerful chap named Den, then I recall a large electrical shop on the corner later to become a record store, next we had in possibly not the right order, Samuel Sniedermans shoe shop,Litvins the Dentist, Lacey`s Travel & Coach Company, Hills Model & Toy Shop, A Dry Cleaners And the Hong Kong Chinese Restaurant. Now opposite in front of the school on the other side of the road you had a parade of around ten shops including a small supermarket and Tom`s sweet shop, and a old barbers come gents hairdressers where Stan originally worked,but we will come back to him in a moment ,behind these shops was what was known as `Back Lane`,this parade of shops and the original Barge Aground Pub which stood slightly to the left of the St. Margarets Churchyard & Tower along with the row of houses around the corner in London road were demolished in 1967 along with the old Church Of England School and the grounds were subject to an archaeological `dig` where many Roman coins and artifacts were found, I remember watching the wrecking Ball knocking them and the School down as if it was yesterday as I was a pupil there at the time and had to relocated to Eastbury School whilst the new ( present ) School was erected, all this area is now open grass/park land so you can calculate how old the tree are now... if your still with me I can continue back on the other side past the Hong Kong Chinese, Right you had a Fruit & Veg shop on the corner ran by an Irish fella who always had bags of coal stacked up outside and Xmas trees in December, I forget the shop next door but the next one was Rainer`s hair salon where the blue rinse brigade had their hair styled and dried in those large plastic bowl type driers, then a Jewellers, then Tollaini`s cafe who used to entertain the customers by constantly berating his wife all day, next a T.V. shop called TerryVision ( run by Terry of course ) then a Bicycle shop and finally Stanley Morris Unisex Hair Salon, you could tell when Stan was in as his E-Type Jag was outside blocking the side road,on the opposite side you had a newsagents called Blinkthorns ? then a dress shop a couple of others and a Pet stores and yet another Chinese on the end called the Slowboat Restaurant which sold tasty food..I will briefly talk about Abbey Road. entering from London Road you had a huge company called Delaney Galleys ( Later Delenair ) which made car heating systems then you had a small company named Gilbey Engineering then the caretakers house on the corner with the large garden to the front ( Later a Petrol station ) going across the road further ( where flats are now ) you had a breakers yard run by a great guy named Pete Howard then Abbey Cafe owned by Roy and assisted by Betty and Connie( who later sold up and bought an arcade on the Isle of Sheppey ) then a fairly large freight company named Howard Enterprises ( yes Petes family, by the way Pete later retired out to Noaks Hill ) who used to unload and load pallets all day long then you had the another few firms then came the Fishing Smack Pub run by Tom & Elsie ( heard last year that Toms still alive and living in Suffolk must well be in his late eighties ) past this all I recall was a firm involved with boats or shipping ? Finally... between Abbey Road and the Council offices on the now grassland next to the Catholic School you had a large chemical factory and possibly a Match company ? not forgetting the R-Wrights drinks plant behind the Captain Cooke Pub which almost ran up to the Stag Pub in Ripple Road, All we need now is Nicholson`s Coal Horse & Cart to come along to complete the picture, I am now 55 but can picture it all as I lived close by and attended the School mentioned above, I could go on all night but better stop here,