Norwich Road

A Memory of Forest Gate.

In 1955, just after my brother was born, we moved from West Ham to Forest Gate (Norwich Road). I was 8 years old and starting a new school was traumatic to say the least. My elder sister was at Plaistow Grammar School, so it did not matter too much to her. I went to Earlham Grove School just round the corner from my road, and soon made some good friends. The school was opposite a Synagogue and every lunchtime it seemed that half of the schoolchildren went there.

We lived upstairs in a house on the corner of Norwich Road and Clova Road. I can remember the man, who lived downstairs, would often come home drunk late at night, leaving the front door open, for my dad to get up, go downstairs and shut the door. On Saturdays my sister and I often shopped for Mum, while she was looking after the baby, in Woodgrange Road, usually starting at the `Home & Colonial Store`, situated next to the `Princess Alice Public House`, then working our way towards Forest Gate Station. Just over the road from the Station was a record shop called `Gilberts`, where I bought most of my records, including my first ever LP, `The Roaring 20`s`, after the TV programme. Opposite The `Princess Alice`, on the Romford Road was an Odeon Cinema, near to another busy turning, Upton Lane.

When I was 11, I passed the 11-plus and wanted to go to Stratford Grammar, with all my mates, instead they sent me to Plaistow Grammar, just after my sister left. Her first job was at `Lamson Paragon` in Canning Town. My schooldays there turned out to be the happiest days of my life, much better than my homelife (we all suffered at the hands of a bullying Father!).

In 1959 my youngest brother was born, at home. I remember coming down Clova Road, after school. The 58 bus dropped me off in Woodgrange Road, near to the Bakers. I was met by Dad and my little brother, who informed me, `Mums had ......a baby`, as if she had been expecting something else!

---

---