Walthamstow In The 1940s

A Memory of Walthamstow.

I was born in Thorpe Coombe Hospital in 1943, and lived in Corbett Road until I was seven - until I was 4, at number 37, with my mum, nan and grandpa, two aunts and one cousin; then at number 45, just me and my mum. My father was killed in the war, before I was born, and the neighbours down our street gave me a bible and prayer book, in sympathy. My earliest memories are of being put in the laundry basket under the table, when the bombers flew over (our air-raid shelter, just outside the back door, was always flooded). Somebody writes here about 'the Wood Street landmine'. Is that what caused the bomb site on the corner by Wood Street school? When the war ended, there was a party in our street, with a fancy-dress competition. I went, as a little Dutch girl, complete with clogs brought back from Belgium by an uncle, and won joint first prize. I can remember standing on some kind of a platform, and looking down, not really knowing what was going on. Wood Street always seemed very busy, though I suppose, in fact, there must have been much less traffic in those days. You still frequently saw horses on the road. My Aunt Nina would shout to grandpa, "Quick, Dad - a horse!" so that he could grab his spade and rush off to shovel up some manure for his roses. We used to go to the High Street market every Saturday morning. Most of my aunts made their own dresses, and they used to hunt around for bargains on the fabric stalls. I was fascinated by the live eels (which we always had for our mid-day dinner on a Saturday - in the evening, it was shrimps and winkles and whelks, or perhaps roes or scallops, and a strong smell of vinegar) but hated seeing them hacked up, with a series of grisly thuds, before being sold to customers. The things I liked best were the weighing machine, that you sat in, and the pet stall, where there were two bright green lovebirds which never seemed to get sold. My mum worked in Bethnal Green, so I went to nursery full-time - first to one on the other side of Wood Street, then, when that closed down, after the war, to the one in Handsworth Avenue, Highams Park. We got the bus there. (Can I be right in remembering a short subway, when we got off at Highams Park Station? And a big carthorse that used to live just nearby, in a little yard?) When my mum collected me in the evenings she sometimes took me for an ice-cream soda at a cafe opposite the level crossing, as a treat; and a couple of times we went to a cinema near the nursery, to see 'Snow White' and 'Bambi' (both pretty frightening to me, at that age - and the supporting film, news, trailers and ads were interminably boring). When I was four, I started dancing lessons at the Walthamstow School of Dancing, in Rectory Road - though later on some classes were also held at Dick Williams' school in Orford Road. We used to have yearly concerts in Lloyds Park pavilion, where the dancing competitions for the Walthamstow Musical Festival were also held. On the way to rehearsals, or competitions, we used to run to look at the goldfish in the little round pond with railings near the entrance to the park. I took the trolley bus (which was always coming unhitched) from Wood Street past the Technical College and the Assembly Rooms to Bell Corner on dancing nights. After the lesson, several of us would walk with our mothers back to Bell Corner, and sometimes go for tea at a cafe at the bottom of the hill, near the cinema. When we went home from the classes in Orford Road, we walked through St Mary's churchyard to get the bus, and got told off by our mums for dodging in and out of the crumbling monuments. After the Christmas before my fifth birthday I started going to Wood Street Infant School, where I quickly learned to read, and was allowed to join the library on the corner of Wood Street and the main road as a reward. I found the library a bit overpowering, as you had to be very quiet, and there was no colourful children's section, with big picture books, in those days. I finally chose "Little Grey Rabbit" from among the very limited selection available for my age-group - but I don't remember ever visiting that library again. I used to love visits to Epping Forest. My aunt sometimes took me to the pond by the Rising Sun on Sunday mornings, to feed the swans. There was a little hut there, where you could buy drinks and snacks. I remember once the pond was frozen, and bigger children than me were breaking the ice with sticks, so that the poor swans could swim about a bit. Highams Park lake was another favourite place, especially one wonderful time when I caught hundreds of little wriggly black tadpoles. I kept them in a big basin, and watched them grow into frogs, in the lean-to at the back of number 37, where my Nan cultivated monster tomato plants. We used often to find big frogs in our back garden, after that. Best of all, though, were the times I went out with my grandpa, to the pantomime or to Southend. I often used to be sick travelling downstairs on buses, but he always took me "upstairs, with all the nice smoke", where I felt fine.