Post War Harlesden.

A Memory of Harlesden.

I was born in Tredegar, South Wales in April 1941. My mother had been evacuated to that small welsh town when she fell pregnant with me in 1940. We lived with her parents. My dad was away doing War things. We moved back to London when I was 5 years old in 1946. We had a basement flat in Rucklidge Avenue. It had concrete floors and no carpets - bloody freezing!

One of my most vivid memories of that time was climbing about in bombed out buildings. At the top of our road were the broken and blackened remains of the Willesden/Harlesden Hippodrome. One time, I could have not been more than 6, I remember climbing way up over rafters and high broken walls and then getting into a real panic because the brickwork seems to be moving. I'm not sure how I got down but get down I did and all us street kids started messing around and heard one of them say a word I hadn't heard before. I eventually went home and asked my mum what C**t meant. Now my mother was quite strait laced and I had never heard her swear, even though she did have a bit of an 'Irish' temper. I could not remember ever having smacked me. That all changed in an instant of searing pain as she nearly slapped my head off my shoulders! I was always in trouble after that.

We moved to a much nicer place in Dudley Court(as was), Curzon Crescent in about 1950. I've lots of tales from that time until 1961 when I got married. Another time maybe.

E John Howley

ps now, 3 partners, 5 children and 5 grandchildren later, I live in Porthcawl, a sleepy small town on the South Wales coast.

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