My Early Days In Hackney

A Memory of South Hackney.

Hi , My name is Vic Ballard , I was brought up by my Grandparents from 1942 and lived next door to Cassland Rd school which later became my secondary school , my first school was Orchard Rd at the end of Cassland Rd and Well St , My childhood days still hold fond memories of playing hopscotch and making up what us boys called Carts by searching bomb sites for a set of old pram wheels , once you found those you were on the way , by attaching a plank of wood to both sets of axles and a clever piece of engineering you add an orange box from the local market , and steer your way around Well St common all day long with a willing pusher , the next step up was finding an old bike frame , and making your own bycycle, which I did manage to succeed in my early teens. Anyway my great memories of my beloved South Hackney were Victoria Pk and the swings , the big slide , and the Maypole plus the sand pit many of my early days were spent there , if it rained you could shelter under the big main covered roof area at the end where the sandpit was to save you until the sun reappeared. As I grew older my love of football surfaced and I would be on Well St common every evening with mates from all the local roads around who loved the game , we would all arrive around 6. 00 clock and play non stop until it was too dark to see the ball, the matches got so good men would finish their evening meal and stand around the marked out pitch to watch us play, after the game we go down Well St market and enjoy a massive cornet at Stantons Ice cream parlour , our other meet up shop would be Tommy Rochfords who owned the local tuck shop in Bentham Rd , As I mentioned earlier I spent my later years at Cassland School which I still say was the best school in the area, I made some great friends there and to this day we are all still in touch ,even in our seventies , our nostalgia trips are a joy to hear , we remember our favourite cinemas that we always visited on a Friday night with our girlfriends , The Regal , The Ritz, The Pavillion, and if we're a bit short it would be The Empress or The Kenninghall, In those days to help increase my income , I did a milk round for Williams Dairy in the mornings and sold evening papers from a pitch at King Edward Rd , By the time I left Cassland I worked for W.J. Bush ,in case you don't remember my company it always gave off amazing smells and was located at the top of Victoria Pk Rd. Other memories of South Hackney for me were the great shops of Mare St , for example Spokes of Mare St , Times furniture store , Burtons tailors ,Stones electrical and a big toy shop at the top of Morning Lane whose name I can't remembe, also the school trip to Hackney Baths for swimming lessons , and in our own time the same trip for our weekly bath , you had to call the attendant for Hot or Cold water and then dry off with towels that were like sandpaper, the was even a Brylcream machine and for One Penny you could press a button for a generous helping of hair gel , I also recall the Funfair at the back of Vicky Park , near the Harriers running track , and the Bandstand where you could roller skate , at the back there was a lovely cafeteria, with a grassed area from which you could see lots of goldfish in the lake, I now live at Canvey Island which is very nice but my heart always wanders back to my great days of South Hackney , every now and then me and my old mates revisit and trace our footsteps of years gone by and although things have changed here and there those old memories come flooding back every time, That's all for now folks , I'm sure I will be adding some more at a later date . Bye VB