Falcon Road
We lived in 'The Queen Victoria' pub on the corner of Falcon Road and Ingrave Street. I attended Falcon Brook School. Very near to the school was a little sweet shop where you could buy penny sweets, penny halfpenny lollies, teddy bear lollies for 3d and 6d could buy a jubbly or jungle juice that were huge! Gartons Glucose Factory let out a very nasty smell and my Mum would buy all her candles from Prices. Does anyone remember Schoolings the bakers on Este Road? I was sent their every Saturday morning (before going to the Granada for Saturday morning pics) to buy bread and buns. The bread was always hot and smelt soo... delicious that it was half eaten by the time I got it home, and I was always sent back to get another! There was the home made sweetshop on Battersea Park Road (next to the butchers with the sawdust on the floor) where we would go with our 6d to buy the broken sweets. The school holidays were spent playing (both girls and boys) in the street, marbles, five jacks,skipping, french skipping and run outs, we were out until dark when our parents would call us in and very rarely did a car come by where we would have to stop to let it pass! It was also safe for us to go to Battersea Park by ourselves and we spent many a day at the funfair, on the Tree Walk and watching the Guiness Clock. My favorite game was Knock Down Ginger!! There were shops extended from Battersea High Street all the way to Northcote Road. Does anyone remember Arding & Hobbs? What about Jill's, Walters and David Thomas', they were all located on Falcon Road? What about Maggie Brown's pie & mash shop and Notorianni's in the High street? We moved to Wimbledon when I started secondary school, Elliott at Putney Heath, and then after getting married I moved back to Battersea and lived in Goulden House on Home Road where I raised my three sons. I live in New York now and was surprised to see the changes when I returned to good 'ol Battersea recently but the fond memories are still with me!
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Comments
RE: RE: Falcon Road
The Victoria pub was my mum and dad's drinking place. I spent many an hour sitting on the window sill sipping lemonade and having my packet of crisps. Later on when I started my drinking age it had its moments of after-hours drinking with friends and if I remember right the owner or landlord used to sing "When iI'm Calling You" with his wife at the other end of the bar, thiu re-enacting the Nelson Eddy and Jeanette Macdonald duet. I am sure they were the Bushells?
Comment from Edward Nicholls on Wednesday, 8th September 2010.
RE: RE: Falcon Road
I lived with my parents at the Queen Victoria pub until the late 1950s. That part of Falcon Road was more like a village, everybody knew one another and became great friends. Many of the shopkeepers came into the pub and my memories are all happy ones. My mother in her younger years sang professionally and I remember customers asking her to sing which she did along with other members of her family who also had good voices. She was compared to Gracie Fields and often sang songs like 'Sally'. I remember nearby Brazil (builder), Lamberts (hardware store), Codgers (newsagent), the dress shop and drapers shop. Doctors surgery (Dr Blonstein, Dr Burnett). Opposite the pub I think was the Labour Club and grocery shop and dairy. David Thomas department store, and further down near Princes Head Walters dress shop, a chemist shop I think was called Barkers. Who remembers the jellied eels pie and mash business ran by Tom and Maggie Brown in the high street? Also Notiriani's delicious ice cream. A great place to live in my formative years.
Comment from Janet Hooper on Thursday, 28th October 2010.
RE: RE: Falcon Road
As a boy in thw 1950s I went to Christ Church School in Este Road, a very happy time for me. I do remember Maggie Brown's pie mash shop and Notiriani's, my mother always met my grandmother there for lunch on a Saturday. I remember the Lord Auckland pub at the end of my street (Lavender Road) and Stewarts the fruit and veg shop. I could go on and on, they were very exciting times which I will always treasure...
Comment from Raymond Oswin on Saturday, 22nd January 2011.
RE: RE: Falcon Road
Does anyone remember Joseph (Joe) Ward who ran a few different London pubs over a number of years? The Lord Aukland (not sure exactly when), and The Grosvenor Arms (1944) down on Garratt Lane? I would love to hear from anyone who remembered them? They had 3 children, Pat, Richard (my father) and Rosemary. They also ran the World Turned Upside Down on the Old Kent Road at one point but that may have been prior to moving over towards Battersea/Wandsworth Way. Lovely to see these old memories on here! Thanks for sharing.
Comment from Paula Anderton on Wednesday, 9th February 2011.
RE: RE: Falcon Road
I went to Christ Church School in 1935. Then I lived in my grandfather's sweet shop in Wayford Street oppisite the school. It was called W. CANTY. I then moved to Este Road next to the Fire station. During the war me and my two brothers used to sit on our garden wall and see the firemen pratice on the tower out the back. I remember the ice cream, it was lovely, and the pie and mash shop, that was our Saturday dinner. I remember when the bomb dropped in Batten Street, one of my school mates got killed and we got blown out of our house. The 1950s was the time I became a Teddy Boy with my mates from Christ Church. Happy days. Will never be repeated.
Comment from John Percival Canty on Wednesday, 2nd March 2011.
RE: RE: Falcon Road
I used to live in Wayford Street in Battersea in the 1950s and 1960s. I used to ge to school at the Sacred Heart School in Trott Street. Gosh, I can remember, Walters, Mum buying me clothes in that shop and Jills, and what about Jonjax just along from the pie and mash shop? Battersea is just changed so much now. So many good memories of growing up around that time. So good to be able to relate to people who share the same memories. Just loved them.
Comment from Giovanna Aquilina on Tuesday, 18th October 2011.
RE: RE: Falcon Road
l remember all this as l lived in Benfield Street next to the Church and survived the German's dropping bombs on us in the 1940s when l was a baby, and my mother would be running from shelter to shelter or we would go to the basement of our house in the Anderson shelter, those were tough times for our parents. In the 1960s l was a Mod, I had a green Lambretta and sang in a group called 'The Scorpions' which to this day the old ones still play! l was born in Meryck Road but lived in Benfield most of my teens. l earned £2.50 in the 1950s and still had money to spend, not like today and we paid cash for everything as there were no c/cards then thank God, and today l still pay cash and do not have a c/card as such. Maggie's pie and mash, l miss that now, especially the liquor, l guess made of parsley? l had some good times every weekend, off to Chelsea to drink scrumpy with my mates and come home worse for wear and just sleep it off. Now l am retired and live in Sunny Turkey. Strange how life changes eh? Michael.
Comment from Michael LeDieu on Friday, 4th November 2011.
RE: RE: Falcon Road
Reading all these comments has brought back some of my childhood memories. My dad was brought up in Battersea in Royden Street to be exact. He lived in a big house there and I always remember that my nan and grandad lived downstairs and when one of the kids got married they lived upstairs until they got married. My granddad was called George Cooke and my nan Nelly, my dad was called Vic, his brothers and sisters were George, Rosie, Bobby, Maureen, Ronnie and Iris. George and Ronnie ending up marrying 2 sisters and moved up to Sunderland, Rosie married Wally Bicknell and moved to Tulse Hill, Bobby married an Italian called Rita and he moved to Clapham Common and as far as I know still lives there, Maureen married a Michael Kirby whose parents also lived in Royden Street, Iris married Martin who drove a black cab and still does and my dad married Patricia Stern and we moved to Worcester Park in Surrey. I remember going to the pie and mash shop on a Saturday and Maureen and Mick lived in the flats near the shop. My dad worked at the Tate and Lyle sugar place and got a job somewhere in Nine Elms. The park used to be my favourite place when I was a kid. My mother's mum use to cook the meals in the Lord Westbury pub. I used to have a friend that I would see when I went to grandad's ,she was called Lesley and I often wonder what happened to her. Granddad's house was in the middle of the street, it was like a triangle, and near enough under the railway bridge.
Comment from Lorraine Cooke on Tuesday, 7th February 2012.