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London
London maps
Historic maps of London and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all London maps
London area books
Displaying 1 of 13 books about London and the local area. View all books for this area
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Memories of London
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memories of London.
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London,Piccadilly Circus 1951-1955
I was a young Constable in the year 1951, and fresh from Peel House, Westminster was assigned tio the Savile Row station known as CD. I lived at the Section House on Broadwick Street, Soho named after Lord Trenchard. Many times I was assigned to Piccadilly Circus, on the early turn or at 5pm to 1am for a two week period. There was the box attached to and adjacent to the stairs to the Piccadilly Tube Station and at the corner of Swan and Edgar Store. When the blue light flashed I answered the call from the station to go on details in the vicinity. Most times for street photographers. I was stationed there the day Christie was arrested for the murders at 10 Rillington Place, and for sometime during the Coronation festivities, the lines-up were around the corner from my position and on to Regent Street. After serving on the Met., I emigrated to Canada and served for 34 years from 1955-1989. My memories of the 1952 'Killer Fog'... Read more
The Bank of England
The "Bank" has occupied this site since the late seventeenth century. Although you cannot see from either this view or indeed from the street, there is an exquisite garden and lawn in the centre! The Bank underwent an extensive building programme between the time of this photograph and the second world war. There are now five floors and also three levels of vaults (I do hope that I am not giving away any secrets here!). I started my career in banking with The Bank of England in 1963. It was quite awe inspiring as a teenager to enter the massive front door being held open by a top hatted "Bank Messenger" dressed smartly in a pink coloured morning coat. He would gently tip the brow of his top hat and say "Good Morning Sir!". He only raised his topper when the Governor entered! Relics of the very early 1900's still remained in the Bank when I began work in 1963. Many of the vaults had telephones installed and unbelievably these... Read more
St Peter ad Vincula
Not a memory obviously but a fact discovered when doing family research.
My Great Grandfather's eldest sister was married to a Grenadier Guard in The Chapel Royal at the Tower. Her husband Giles was stationed there at the time. The date was 1860.
Lost in A Field
I remember coming across Temple Bar in a field in Enfield/Cheshunt whilst out for a walk as a child in the 1960s. It seemed such a strange place for it to end up. There were no explanatory signs to say what it was and why it was there. There was tall grass all around it and possibly some sort of fence; so it was impossible to get too close. Every time we walked that way, I used to wonder how on earth this lovely arch came to be lost in the middle of a field, anonymous and unloved: it seemed so strange, almost other worldly. I believe it has now made its way back to the City.
Will it be Open?
My family moved from Bermondsey, where we shared my grandad's house, to Enfield, where Mum and Dad had managed to buy their own house (for £2,000) in 1960. It was some years before Dad could afford driving lessons and then a car. We started with an A35 van, and Mum, Dad and 4 kids would pile in to drive over to Bermondsey or Forest Hill to visit my mum's sisters. The drive was just as complicated as it is now and my father was never really relaxed driving, so, with the end nearly in sight, he would be driven mad by us kids shouting that we hoped the bridge was up! If the traffic light was indeed on red, then that meant at least 20 minutes wait. Us kids used to love it, as the parts of the bridge which did not go up would be completely empty and this was such a novelty - but not for Dad, who was presumably by this time, gasping for a cup of tea... Read more
First Step on The Ladder
My brother and his wife, having met at 14, got married at 20. My brother was an apprentice motor mechanic and his fiance a trainee hotel receptionist, so money was tight and they had no idea where they were going to live and how they would be able to afford their own home. In order to help along their savings, they both worked in a pub in Enfield Lock, just down the road from where we lived. One evening, my brother began talking about their accommodation problems to a customer, who replied that he had just the answer for them. His mother had recently died, so her teeny, completely unmodernised, house nearby was up for sale. What's more, he happened to know that the GLC had just launched a new scheme, offering mortgages to young people who would take on an otherwise uninhabitable house! This was the absolute answer to their prayers, so, as 20 year olds, they made the journey up to County Hall and were completely overawed by its grandeur,... Read more
TV & Film Use
It was built many years before 1965 of course.
The only memory of mine is just some trivia :
It was featured in the opening sequence of Danger Man 1960 and also in Cliff Richard's film The Young Ones in 1961.
Mascot Hotel
I can't help with a photo - but I can confirm that the Mascot Hotel was in York Street.
I stayed there for a couple of nights in June 1958. As I recall, the hotel was about 1/3 way down York Street on the right coming from the direction of Baker street.
John Cavill
