Memories Of Good And Bad Days In Tottenham

A Memory of Tottenham.

My Name is Alan Pearce. I was born in October 1939 at 75 Park View Road and I have many memories of going to the bottom of the road and walking under the very low tunnel which carried the railway line. Adults would stoop even lower than us kids. It was quicker than walking over the footbridge just a few yards away. The tunnel led to the Tottenham Marshes. I started school in 1935 at Parkhurst Road infants. After a few years my family moved to 56 Burbridge Way, we lived there until WW2 broke out. It was very exciting to us kids at first, we all went up to the roof of the maisonettes which we lived in to see the sky filled with Barrage Baloons. During the quiet period before the Blitz we moved again to 112 Lansdowne Road and that is when the Blitz really started. I was going to Coleraine school then and nearly all the kids were evacuated but I wanted to stay and "look after my mother". My father had gone off to war and my sister, who was born deaf, went off to stay somewhere else for the duration of war. The Blitz started with a vengenance and until the council built an Anderson shelter in the back garden we sat under the stairs which was considered to the be safest place available than anywhere else in the house. We would cower with fright at the noise of bombs exploding along with screams and shouts coming from outside in the blackness. Being Catholics my mother made me keep making the sign of the cross very often.
One day a unexploded bomb landed outside the front gate. The ARP (Air Raid Precautions) put a small barrier around the hole which was quite deep. It stayed there for two weeks and then a policeman knocked on the door and told us to walk around very quietly and not to slam the front door. It was eventually taken over the marshes and exploded by Royal Engineers. The whole of the Marshes was dug up so that German Paratroopers could not land there. One day a landmine came down on a parachute and fell in between Manor Road and Asplins Road. there were many deaths. My mum and I went round the next day to see all the rescuers digging people and bodies out. After the Blitz subsided a lot of the kids played in the ruins all over London and I remember other parents telling us that it was dangerous. It was true as many were killed this way.
Carbuncle Alley was a favourite place to go roller skating as the surface was very smooth, it was situated (I think) between Thackery Avenue and Roseberry Avenue. After the war we moved to Tottenham Hale to 26 Brograve Road and I have wonderful memories of playing cricket and football on the green area outside Tottenham station. A lot of people would sit and watch us until they heard their steam train arriving and then they would run and catch it.
Many years later I went back to The Hale. I went by underground and on coming out of the new underground station I was shocked to see how much it had changed. It was very sad. But I have many happy memories which I have written in my Autobiography intended for my family. I will be 83 this month and I look back on a wonderful life and my lovely Tottenham. It will always be in my heart.

Date today is 6th October 2015 and I am updating this entry because I have read a entry by Peter Mackin who also lived at the Tottenham Hale and lived he lived 14 Brograve Road. I used to go around with his sister Kitty. We were kind of childhood sweethearts. We were around 13 when we used to attend to St Francis Catholic school which was situated right opposite the Tottenham Football club ground. I would love to get in touch with Peter who now lives in Florida. USA. If he sees this entry my email address is alan@cosybabys.co.uk