229a Worcester Road/20(?) Merton Road

A Memory of Malvern Link.

This picture stirs memories, I stayed in two of the flats above the shops in the 70/80's, & also lived in a house in Merton Road, which is just around the corner from the library - now a betting shop.
First, 229a - the 2 bay windows above the van belonged to the flat, which was above an old fashioned ironmongers & a hairdressers. The latter now a vape shop. The front room was huge, an ideal venue for after pub parties. Once a couple of friends made an unconventional entrance, shinning up scaffolding outside & coming in through the window.
We also had two visits from the Police, one walking into the front room during a party, to tell us the front door was unlocked, & on another occasion to let me know I had forgotten to chain up my Norton, which I parked overnight on the pavement outside - hard to imagine that happening nowadays.
We used to drink in the Fir Tree, now a shopping arcade, but then a really busy pub. My flatmate & I fell out eventually. He moved a mutual acquaintance into the room next to mine, who was a bit strange. He'd had a nasty motorbike accident, & was unpredictable. He'd also spent his compensation on a huge Korg synthesizer & a bass guitar, stayed up all night making weird noises, convinced he was the next Rick Wakeman. Next my flatmate moved his girlfriend (who I'd introduced him to) in. Things got uncomfortable, & I moved on. I heard later that they had got married & moved to Upton, then London while he did a mature students degree. The lodger ended up in a care home, despite his tender years.
A year or two later I met my first wife, & we moved into a terraced house in Merton Road, just around the corner. Think it was 20 or 22. We used the Bakery as our local, which can be seen on the right of the photo. Still a pub nowadays, in 2021.
Later, I stayed in the flat above the library, which was long gone by then. A friend had the lease. Like 229a, it was a higgledy piggledy layout, with rooms all over the place. Unlike 229a, it had a roof 'garden', which was a pleasant place to sit out on a summer afternoon. One sunny day, we noticed a Police helicopter fairly low overhead. He grabbed his binoculars & focussed them on the chopper - only to find the passenger doing the same to him.
There were many independent shops, grocers, butchers, cycle shops, ironmongers, florists, as well as banks - all gone now.