East Hill

A Memory of Wandsworth.

Born at 158 East Hill, I remember Claytons with the clock, Wavy Line across the road where I worked when I was 11, Ted and Ellen ran that, Fontaines sweetshop where I bought Jubblies with my sixpence. Went to St. Annes school. Would love some old photos of the houses there but can't seem to find any. Mum and dad moved in after they had widened the road a bit and taken away the steps up to the front door. Originally they rented the top part of the house but as others moved out and mum had more bubbas the GLC let her rent all of it. They bought it in the seventies for 16k. Neighbours were Wouters - Aunti Tiny ruled! We all used to hang out the window in the evening and chat to all the neighbours - can you imagine people actually talking to each other these days! I remember the frying pan on the common, swimming pool in Garratt Lane, freezing! Played in the flats down Fairfield and used to get chased by the keeper there. If I won the lottery I would buy that house all over again. We had open fires - even in the bedrooms, a beautiful stained glass bathroom that jutted out the back of the house, a garden upstairs! and a coal yard where we always climbed to the top of the coal pile! When the Arndale came people started to shop there and that was the end for all the shops along the High St and on East Hill.
Happy days? Yeh.