The Original Slum

A Memory of Byker.

In order to accommodate an addition to the family, my parents decided to move into an upstairs flat in Parker Street, Byker.

The flat consisted of 3 bedrooms, a sitting room and a small room with a sink and gas cooker which served as the kitchen.

From the kitchen was an open wooden stair case, leading into the backyard which contained the outside toilet.

Bath night for me and my sisters was Sunday night, taking turns in a zinc bath in front of the fire, I always seemed to be the last, because being a boy I was deemed to be the dirtiest.

To overcome this bathing problem I soon found that for 4 old pence I could enjoy a night swimming at the local baths just off Brinkburn St, which was one way of staying clean, but for hours after you always stank of chlorine.

If I thought that life was hard, then some of our neighbours where much worse off, across the road a family of seven lived in a two roomed house and the smell was terrible.

My chance to get out came when I was old enough to join the Royal Navy and I have never turned back.

I am now nearing retirement and have my own home in Northamptonshire, but I often wonder what life would have held for me if I had remained in Byker

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