Early Childhood in Romford

The Market Place c1950
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I was born in 1953 and lived for the first 3 years in an old house in Junction Road (Number 8) with my parents and Mum's mum (Granny). The back garden of the house seemed to be a jungle and had its end boundary with Whackets timber yard! I clearly remember turning left out of Junction Road and walking with Granny to the Saturday Market. The stalls at the top of the Market by Laurie Hall were mainly for cattle and pet sales. In the middle section I recall the fruit and vegetable stalls and down by the North/South Street crossroads were the clothing stalls. With no ring road then all the traffic, buses, lorries and vehicles, had to go through the centre of Romford. Does anyone remember the cut through by the church to take you to the Romford Ice company? We subsequently moved to Collier Row and when I was 5 to a brand new council house in Shenstone Gardens (Straight Road, Harold Hill). Mum still took me to Romford and often we walked all the way there and got the 174 bus back laden with shopping. Winter time was the best, especially when the stallholders lit up their tilley lamps. There was a special smell in the air from the paraffin and the yellow glow given out by the polished brass lamps. The jostle of the public walking past the stalls both on the pavement and road and the shouts of the barrow boys and smells of the produce. Some things remain in my memory of later years such as, going to Mawney Road public swimming baths and learning to swim, the public exhibition located on the top floor of Stones (now Debenhams) of the new town plan complete with a huge table top layout. On going to the 'old' Kings Head as a youth to watch rock bands, on the closing of the Market Place to traffic and finally the smell of malt from the Romford Brewery. Happy days..... ah happy days indeed.