The Nell Gwynne

A Memory of Epsom.

In our early teens we used to go to the Nell Gwynne, upstairs in the 'coffee bar' where we had what I believe was the worlds first Nickelodeon (manual version). We paid the lady 3d, I think it was, and she put our favourite record on the record player on the counter and we listened while we chatted.
Anybody out there remember the Lecture Hall School in Upper High Street (circa 1943/44)? Headmistress was a Miss Gray. I fell in love with Ann Bridson (I was 7).
Waterloo Rd had a DIY shop in those days, going under the name of 'Useful Bros'.
I went to the Infants School down the bottom end of White Horse Drive, where we filed into the air-raid shelters complete with gas masks when the sirens went!
My mate John Evans and I went to the Methodist Youth Club, to meet the girls I guess. Marilyn ?, Janet Mansbridge, Jeanette Scott, to name the memorable ones! We learnt to square dance.
I lived along Woodcote Side and 'our gang' used to play all the time on the common. We spent some nights in the basement of the Woodcote Side Laundry when the bombing was at its heaviest.