Early Years

A Memory of Tulse Hill.

We moved to Heywood House in 1947 and lived there for about 8 years before moving to a larger flat in Purser House.
All children went to Brockwell Primary/Junior School where Miss Brown ruled the little ones and the wonderful Mr Sibley was head of the junior school.
I can remember the open trucks coming on the first day of the summer holidays to collect whole families to go Hop picking in Kent. I always wanted to go because it looked exciting loading everything but the kitchen sink in the back but we never did. Around the corner from Heywood House there was a huge Mulberry Tree - funny what pops up when you start remembering. I remember being stuck in the lift in Purser House and still have a fear of them 50 years later.
Many of the residents had been moved there after bombings or after wartime redevelopment etc;, and there was a definite friends/ family atmosphere - borrowing a cup of sugar or milk was common place.
As kids we played Knock down Ginger, Canon, Tag and literally ran wild until a parent would call out names of their children and we would gradually go indoors. We had full run of the area because there were no or very few car owners, but there were bicycle sheds that got climbed on at every opportunity. Very few had television until after 1953 and even then it as rare. There was a daily delivery of milk and bread - the baker carrying the loaves in a huge rectangular basket. We played in the 'square' or our parents took us to Brockwell Park - the Walled Garden, the Bowling Green , the big pond(we were told a bomb had dropped in this and it was bottomless ! !) My first 'Saturday job' was clearing tables and washing up in the café in the big house. This all came to an end in 1960 when Grandma died and we moved out of London to her house.