Childhood

A Memory of Balham.

I lived in Balham from the year I was born until 1963 when my family moved. I went to Henry Cavendish School and remember the swimming pool being built after a lot of fund raising. Mr Bassett was the music teacher and wrote many musicals performed by pupils. I lived in Rossiter Road, my maternal grandparents lived in Cavendish Road and my paternal grandparents in Kate Street. I used to go to the swings on Tooting Bec common from where we'd wave to train drivers. There used to be a TV repair shop called Roberts in Bedford Hill and the repair man would often be needed to repair our tv set. Our doctors had a surgery in Boundaries Road: Dr Jocelyn and Dr Fleischer. They were lovely doctors. I saw Bambi at the cinema and remember sobbing when Bambi's mother died. I used to visit the markets with my grandmother and go to Sainsbury's in the high street where we had to go from counter to counter to buy things. A treat was being taken to the tea shop on the corner under the dancing school. Happy memories.