Oscar.

I grew up in Hornchurch from 1953-72 and was married in St Andrew's in 74. As a child I remember that building on the far right of the photo - it was the Green Lantern; which I believe was a restaurant. All the other buildings shown had gone.

I also remember a similar clapperboard building, which was a Cramphorns shop. It was by the bus stop opposite the White Hart. From there we'd get the Eastern National bus to visit my Nan in Laindon.

I remember the weatherboarded buildings on the right being demolished and as a child playing on the site with friends and building a den. I worked as a delivery boy at weekends for a small supermarket that occupied one of the units when the site was developed.

The building on the left had already been replaced with a more modern building that was occupied by Burtons the tailors on the ground floor and by a Temperance Billiard Hall on the first floor. I sometimes used to sneak off school (Abbs Cross Technical School) to play a game of snooker with friends. Next door to the entrance to the billiard hall was the Unemployment Office.

Langtons was known as North Street Primary School when I went there in 1952.

I remember Cramphorns' garden supplies shop opposite the White Hart. We used to buy sulphur and carbon there to grind up to make gunpowder. That was when I was still at primary school! A bit further towards the Bull was another old building that was used as a coffee bar in the 1960s. The well-known camp gay George Hurrell who lived nearby would play piano there. A large Green Shield Stamp shop occupied the building that replaced it.