Hammersmith, Ravenscourt Park c.1960

Photo ref: H387022

I lived in King St in the 1950s on the right as you go down the road almost opposite the classic cinema which closed in 1959. Dimes place above a shop is where my mother and I lived.

My 3rd great grandparents, Edward and Esther Deed (nee Perry), lived in Kings St, Hammersmith prior to emigrating to Australia in 1838. They had 9 children when they left Hammersmith to board the ship 'Canton' in London in April 1838. They were married at All Saints Church, Fullham on 24 Apr 1821.

A few hundred yards west of Furnivall Gardens is St Peter's Church - the oldest and grandest church in Hammersmith. This is where my great-grandparents married on 27th September 1873: William Henry Howard and Jane Esther (or Hester) Goodwill.

My mother, Phyllis Howard Penn, was born in Kensington and had a brother Jack, his wife Ethel, their son, John Desmond Howard, his wife, Eileen and their son, John, who lived on Claybrook Road. I met them all for the first time in 1958. I was again in Hammersmith in 2001, while on a tour of the British Isles, but there are no members of this Howard family left there.