First Step on The Ladder

The County Hall c1955
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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, which convinced them that they wouldn't have a chance of being accepted for this scheme. How wrong they were! The GLC agreed the loan, so the tiny,1 up,1 down house, which looked as if it had been built to fill an alleyway, was theirs for, I think £66,000. There is no doubt in my brother's mind, that, without that scheme, he and his wife would never have been able to get onto the first rung of the housing ladder. Thank You Horace Cutler (I think!).