Nightingale Road

A Memory of Edmonton.

I was born in 1935. My father, Fred Pritchard, had a couple of shops on the corner of St. Mary's and Nightingale. Our family lived in a flat above them until 1947. Around 1953 he converted one of them to a Launderette and sold both businesses in 1964.

Shopkeepers on Nightingale Parade that I remember were greengrocers Bert and Rose Julian (they were still there when I revisited Edmonton in 1964) the butcher Len Betts, the grocers Cliff and Ivy Allibone, Danny the barber, and the Curtis family who ran the fish shop. Much of our business came from the workers at Doherty’s and the Fleetway factories, now demolished and replaced by residencies. Thanks to the wonder of Google Street View I’m able to look at these places again.

I attended Eldon Road School and have vivid memories of the cane-wielding Headmaster, Mr. Aston, who was well over six feet tall, with a florid complexion and deep booming voice, whose very appearance struck terror into us.

My wife, children and I now live in Westlake Village, California.

Brian Pritchard
brianfpr@roadrunner.com

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