Esmond Road Kilburn

A Memory of Kilburn.

I was born at 31 Esmond Road, Kilburn in 1938. We were evacuated to Bletchley and Leighton Buzzard on and off throughout the Second World War. In 1945 we had a VE day party, of which the photo was put on the cover of Max Bygraves "Sing along a Warsong", it is right outside our house, my dad had got some pictures of the King and Queen (God knows where he got them from), my mum is holding a large white enamel ewer of orange juice, and me and my elder sister are in front of her.
I went to Salusbury Road School, used to go to Saturday morning pictures at the State cinema, and sing "We come along on Saturday morning, greeting everybody with a smile". We visited the State and Grange cinemas a few times a week. I started at the age of 10 going to Madame Flavia's dance school in Quex Road, she used to have shows at the Metropolitan Theatre a couple of times a year in aid of St Dunstan's blind school that was also in Salusbury Road. We had quite a few stars in the shows, one being Petula Clark. They were lovely times.
We moved out in 1948 but continued going to Kilburn as my aunts and uncles still lived in Esmond Road up until the 1970s. We used the Prince of Wales pub in Willesdon Road where my auntie played the piano, we had good old fashioned sing-songs. Those were the days!

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