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A trip down Memory Lane on a glorious December morning

I found myself with half an hour or so to spare in St Johns Wood today. I grew up there and lived in a block of flats on the main road leading from the tube station down to the home of cricket, Lords Cricket Ground

My family lived in the block of flats on the right of the photo and both sets of grandparents lived in one bedroom flats in the block on the left of the photo. They were high rent council flats but all have now been sold off under Mrs Thatcher’s “right to buy” scheme What a pity

Downstairs on the corner was a large Post Office. I discovered that just recently it has become a Japanese restaurant. Fortunately the library is still open.

It doesn’t look very different to when I was a child and read nearly every book on the shelves before sneakily graduating to the adult section (before I was old enough!)

My Victorian primary school is very much in existence and thriving. Gone is the brick partition that divided the boy’s and girl’s playgrounds and the outdoor toilet block (freezing in winter) has been repurposed for art.

I went inside and was greeted by the deputy head. It was “Christmas Lunch” day and the bright entrance hall was nothing like the interior that I remember

I told the school secretary that when we were in the upper two forms of the junior school we were allowed out at lunchtime, unaccompanied, to the local sweet shop and park. We must have heard the bell from across two roads signalling us to come back at the end of lunch break

The sweet shop
The park- which we called “the little park” but was really called….
Outside the park gates is an iconic London structure which has been there since 1875
One of the thirteen green Taxi shelters set up in the 19th century for London cabbies
It was doing a roaring trade today See the link below

https://emea01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.com%2Ftravel%2Farticle%2F20180430-the-secret-green-shelters-that-feed-londons-cabbies&data=05%7C01%7C%7C0c3b5e8ec91e4b99ec3108dad88dc9ff%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C638060400755560518%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=q2cXJ7HxTHaOOLua2CBaZChdFmefKZ6wE%2FCIA4OjQaY%3D&reserved=0

My brother and I spent much of our childhood in the park playing with friends, riding scooters and bikes and most of it unsupervised. Such wonderful freedom. Of course there was usually a park keeper in s small wooden hut who kept an eye out for old and young alike. If my brother had an accident (he was a bit accident prone) it was up the road to the Catholic hospital where the nurses were all nuns, The St John snd St Elizabeth Hospital. It stood opposite the end of Cavendish Avenue where Paul McCartney bought a house in the 1960’s

I think it’s one of these two but I don’t remember which

We sometimes saw Lulu walking along the High Street in the swinging sixties when she also lived in our “village”

The high street used to have a variety of shops, greengrocers, shoe repairers, electrical shop, clothes and restaurants. Now it’s mostly cafes and bars and patisseries

It was a lovely trip down Memory Lane.

2 thoughts on “A trip down Memory Lane on a glorious December morning”

  1. Of course I had that area in common with you when visiting Quint grandparents and in particular the “ Slida park “ as I called it when I was about 5 plus.
    I have fond memories

    Miriam

    Reply

  2. Thank you for this Gill ! On a day when Ellen and I are both down with the awful flu, despite vaccinations and masks, you brought some smiles on our faces !

    Reply

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