Lavender Hill

As a family we moved to 10 Lavender Hill in 1948, dad managed the butcher shop, Dewhursts, before that it was Chalks. One side was the fish shop Hitchcocks and the other side Maplesden the funeral parlour. Our back 'yard' opened on to Beaufoy Road, it had the chip shop to our right and on the left garages where the hardware shop people in Queenstown Road stored vehicles (Fordson truck and BSA combination). When I became a teenager (1951ish) I discovered girls! One in particular was Jeannie Partridge, she lived in a prefab at the end of Beaufoy Road, we cycled many miles. I left the nest in Lavender Hill in 1957, moved to Littleport in Cambridgeshire for 6 months, did not get on with the rural life and moved back to 6 Wixes Lane across the road from the butcher shop but nearer to the common and stayed there until 1963. The GL council requisitioned the property and I was forced into deciding whether to live in a multi-story block of misery or move on. I drove to India and eventually boarded a boat that slid in to Wellington, New Zealand. I visited Lavender Hill- Beaufoy Road- Wixes Lane in 1987 and 1997, I was saddened to see what had happened.
Richard alias (Mosmo)