Born in Ilford
Ilford Town Hall is on the corner of Oakfield Road where I lived throughout WW2. The public Air Raid Shelter we used to sleep in was opposite the Town Hall in Oakfield Road. A very large department store called Moultons was opposite, in the High Street. T remember when Moultons was on fire one night & flames were pouring from its windows, the firemen looked so small on their ladders as they fought (successfully) to save the building. I remember there was a pantomine on at the Ilford Hippodrome but the night we were going there we had to canceI, that night it got a direct hit from a bomb. Ilford was badly bombed during WW2 but even as a child I remember the incredibly brave spirit of the people, I always felt safe with them, though I realise now that I'm lucky to be alive, so many were killed. I live in NSW Australia now, but Ilford will always be so special in my memory.
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RE: RE: Born in Ilford
Though born in Stockwell, south London, I lived in Ilford for sixteen years from the age of ten months. The site of the house we lived in, at number 17 Oakfield Road, is now part of the car park of the Kenneth More Theatre. Regarding the bombing of the Hippodrome: on January 12th, 1945 a V2 rocket landed behind the theatre, destroying a row of cottages and killing fifteen people (including a girl classmate of mine - Cleveland Road Juniors) and one person in the Hippodrome. The pantomime that night was Lew Grade's production of Robinson Crusoe, starring Renee Houston and her husband Donald Stewart.
Comment from Frank Sentinella on Monday, 9th February 2009.
RE: RE: Born in Ilford
I was born in Barkingside, 144 Springfield Drive to be exact, on the 25th June 1967. My mum had lived in this house from the age of 2 years, moving out for a brief time with my dad when they married in 1957. They moved to a very smelly and damp flat in Hainault near the station. When my Grandad died in 1958 they moved into the house in Springfield Drive to live and take care of my Grandmother. She lived downstairs and we occupied the rest of the house, this is where I was born in the upstairs front bedroom. My brother who had been born 7 years earlier and sadly had started his life in the smelly damp flat and suffered with bronchitas and athsma. His health improved overnight when they moved, thank God. He is now 50 and has even fonder memories than me of Barkingside, Valentines Park and Gearies school. Like the other people on this webiste, my memories of Grants Hill Library, Ilford shopping with mum and nan plus my Dads' old factory off Barkingside High Road, it was behind the shops which is near where Choice is now, you had a alley way which you could access the factory but only on foot. I remember parking in the High Road in our old Zeffa 6 waiting for my Dad to come out of work. I learnt to swim in Barkingside swimming pool and have fond memories of the outside pool in Valentines Park. My uncle too grew up in the same house and can remember so much of his childhood, some good some bad. The war was a major factor of their upbringing and I am sure could tell a story or two of his own.
Comment from Tina Salter on Thursday, 13th January 2011.