Lancaster Road.
Henry Waits the butchers, small shops that sold sweets from a jar and fireworks. Penny for the guy, small children waiting at bus stops with the 128, 231 and 144B to try and pry a penny towards fireworks. Girlfriend (Rose Gritty) down Drake Street. Rag and Bone merchant towards 'The Hop Poles' pub. Doing the weekly shopping on my bicycle and taking everything home in a couple of shopping bags hanging on the handlebars. Going down early in the morning to collect the papers from Wilmotts to do my morning paper round when I was only 10 years old. The oil shop at the bottom of Browning Road and next door the 'Seed Shop' for flower pots and garden plants. Gosetts, the haberdashery shop. Garetts the pharmacy close to 'The Hollybush' public house. The doctors' waiting room, Dr. Dalzeil (pronounced DL), Dr Ben Ridge and his brother. Boy, was that waiting room cold, and everyone seemed to be coughing and sneezing, but nobody talked. Collecting old newspapers and taking them to the fish and chip shop in return for 3d of chips. Ladies walking along the road with a 2 volt accumulator to have it charged for the wireless set. Sunday school at the church hall. Jacko roller skates. 1d bus fare from Lancaster Road to the Savoy cinema on a Saturday morning to see 'Flash Gordon'. Grocers shop where you queued to be served one item at a time and bacon sliced whilst you watched. The tobacconist with various shags displayed in bowls. And who remembers Don Don, part of the family that ran the Greengrocers.
Simple days before we all became consumers.
If only I had the chance to go back and relive those wonderful times.
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Comments
RE: RE: Lancaster Road.
Does anyone remember the Finch family? They lived at number 146 Lancaster Road, Enfield from the mid 1940s, Mrs Gladys and Mr Bill/William Finch. He was a dairyman and they had a son called Robert. Any information would be most welcome.
Comment from Pat Griffiths on Monday, 29th November 2010.
RE: RE: Lancaster Road.
I remember all that so well. Does any one remember Margaret Cross Hairdressers? She was a slave driver to a young apprentice. What glorious days. Mostly cold, hungry, patched and few clothes. But at this moment all that is forgotten. Cough syrup, the flavour of you choice mixed by Dr Ridge.
Comment from Dorothy Weedon on Saturday, 16th April 2011.
RE: RE: Lancaster Road.
I remember Don Don from when I was young in the late 50's early 60's - always in a brown shop coat.
There is now a Tattoo parlour in Lancaster Rd near Armfield Rd - oh how times have changed!!
Comment from Robert Pratt on Tuesday, 5th July 2011.
RE: RE: Lancaster Road.
Does anyone remember Culley's grocers shop round the corner from Hop Poles in Baker Street? Her name was Eva Culley and her husband was Syd Culley, had one daughter, Joy. I used to play with the children from Cromwell Terrace, and also knew a boy called Mick Grunzel from Baker Street, does anyone know where he is now? He worked at the bacon factory many years ago and used the then Cock Taven on the Hertford Road. I had fun over Hilly Fields, used to watch the puppet shows and loved going to Southgate swimming, although my auntie banned it, also loved White Webbs, I used to weigh the sugar up for them, and go on deliveries with my uncle to take the groceries, happy memories x
Comment from Patricia Hamilton on Monday, 22nd August 2011.
RE: RE: Lancaster Road.
I remember the 144B bus for bitter-sweet reasons as I used to catch it regularly from its terminus at the "Goat" pub at Forty Hill to visit my divorced dad, who lived at Muswell Hill in North London. Both the 144B and the 144A buses plied the same route between Alexandra Palace and Enfield along the Great Cambridge Road (A10), the 144A terminating in Enfield Town while the 144B continued north to its terminus at Forty Hill. I was only nine and ten years old and I travelled alone on each journey, often in the dark. I always sat on the top deck above the driver. Unimaginable that someone so young would travel alone on an hour-long journey into London. Still, I thought nothing of it. I have happy memories of being in the lst Enfield Life Boys that met in Armfield Road Institute off Lancaster Road. I used to walk over a mile with my nan, Lily Ansell, and cousin, Jill Masters, from our home at 13 St John's Terrace in Clay Hill to shop in Lancaster Road. My task was carrying the heavy bags of potatoes. Our playground was sheer heaven: Hilly Fields, Whitewebbs and the private Bowles' Estates at Forty Hall and Myddelton House, where we were often chased off by the gamekeeper as we carried armfuls of daffodils taken from "Gussie" Bowles' famous botanic garden at Myddelton House. A close friend was Billy Jacques, whose parents ran the "Rose & Crown" pub in at the foot of Clay Hill. I was baptised in l941 in St Luke's Church, overlooking Hilly Fields. Yes . . . I entered heaven at birth!
Comment from David Payne on Tuesday, 8th November 2011.