Wimbledon

A Memory of Wimbledon.

I was born in - 1940 All Saints Road, opposite the church. We moved to Pitt Cresent in 1941 with my gran, in 1942 we moved into South Wimbledon to Balfour Road and use to sleep on the underground station due to the war. In 1944 we spent six months at Duxford Aerodrome as my dad had a reserved trade and worked on the USA air base.
The toilets were we stayed were a communal block at the end of the garden, it was nothing to be sitting there doing your job and several others doing similar at the same time. There was an outbreak of smallpox and we came back to Balfour Road late 1944.
My job on Monday's was to turn the mangle handle for my auntie Eileen. My cousin Kath was about eighteen and worked in a Shoe shop in the Broadway, lots of American soldiers visited after my cousin and would bring powdered egg, candy, gum and nylons.
My uncle kept chickens, so on special occasions we had chicken. If jellies were made they would have muslin placed obver them & put outside on the window sill.
By 1945 the war was over & I was allowed to play in the street, and the 155 buses used to park at the end of the road and the driver & conductor would go to the cafe, so we used to climb onto the bus and get the bus tickets. I started school at Pelham Road and did not like it , and would often run off and come home. In 1946 we were rehoused into a prefab in Haydons Park Road, we had a fridge and a large back garden. The old lady who was an ex teacher now retired was an eccentric and kept chickens in the house. Growing up in the prefab had some wonderful memories. As kids we would go to the local bombed sites, the Gap Road Cemetery, or Wimbledon Common to play. Any waste food used to be put into the pig bins, usually several in each street and colleccted daily. British Road Services & BR delivered parcels and goods to homes and they used to have a guard dog tied up in the back to stop any one pinching things. The milkman, baker & green grocer called round all with horse drawn vehicles. The Paraffin ( Esso Blue ) called weekly and so did the fizzy drink lorry, Neptune. I worked from the age of nine, first helping the green grocer & baker, by eleven I had a paper round at Prices in Effra Road, later at Tuckers in St Georges Road. Then at thirteen I started as a butcher boy in Braggs in The Ridgeway.
I attended Queens Road Primary & Secondary school from 1946 to 1955. My parents insisted I attended Sunday school so I went to Haydons Park Baptist Church, then I joined the choir at St Peter's Church and later went to Holy Trinity as I had joined the Cubs / Scouts. Then at the age of seven I hit my head on a lamp post which started me off having epilepsy fits which lasted till I was fourteen. At thirteen me and my pal, Alec Dewdeny used to cycle down the south coast on Sundays and back. At sixteen I had enough saved up to buy a motor bike. I purchased an AJS 350 and loved every minute of it. I left school at fifteen and worked in the butchers till I was sixteen & half. I then went to United Daries and became a milkman and done a round in Wimbledon Park; no I did not have horse it was all electrical floats. Whilst working in Melrose Avenue I used to see this girl going to work each morning and she would give me a lovely smile as she passed by. Then, whilst I was out with the lads in our Austin seven we met two girls and offered them a lift. One of the girls was the one I used to see in the morning. We have now been together about fifty five years. My wife came from Braemar Avenue went to Wimbledon Park Infants & then on to Queens Road. There was a sweet shop that sold penny drinks near Haydons Road Bridge, it was run & owned by Mrs Iles.
We used to go to the cinemas when courting; the Elite, the Gaumont, the Kings & the Odeon. When I was younger, mothers with prams with babies in would leave them at the front of Woolworths & walk round and not have to worry about them. I worked in West's the butchers in the broadway, Macfisheries was opposite, Tesco's was a small shop opposite the King's picture palace. Sainsbury's was a long shop opposite the theatre.
Up to about 1951 you had the trams which terminated outside the town hall. Three of my old school mates went to Australia back in the seventies, each went without the other knowing and all bumped into each other working on the buses in Adelaide, what a small world!
I would love to hear from anyone who was in Wimbledon in the fifties & early sixties, especially who attended Queens Road School boys or Girls .
john.siggery@sky.com. Wimbledon was a great place to grow up and serving the public like I did I got to know many people . Life has been good but goes far too quick.

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