The Good Old Days

A Memory of Luton.

I was born in Luton in the 1940s and remember well the shops in Manchester Street with WG Durrants butchers on the corner of Manchester Street and Bridge Street. Next door in Bridge Street was a garage and further along Manchester Street towards the town hall was Wilds sports and toy store, Faiman fashions and a pub called the Horse and Jockey. On the opposite side of the road was a cafe called the Petite which served great prawn rolls. From memory there was also a jewellers and a hardware store but I can't remember the names of the stores. I remember using the side doors to the town hall which rotated and I used to go in and out several times to amuse myself. I moved to Australia in 1974 and have been back several times but each time I return the town seems to get worse. It is dirtier than I remember and George Street doesn't seem as busy. I assume George Street is quiet as the shoppers now congregate in the malls of the Arndale Centre. The shops in George Street also remain in my memory as does the George Hotel and Garage. I have fond memories of the town and its past and recall numerous landmarks long since gone, the mobile grocers and butchers shops of the Co-op, and the pig bin trucks from the council that used to come round and collect all the waste food. Many more memories which I will write about at a later date.