General Chat

Lord Mayor's Show on Saturday. Unfortunately no fireworks this year.

I haven't been for about 7 year now but used to go quite often and lucky enough to have a seat in the stands. After watching the Show we used to have lunch at The Butcher's Hall then walk (or stagger) to Blackfriar's Bridge and watch the fireworks display.

There was a fairground in St.Paul's Churchyard during the evening and the youngster's used to have a great time there.

Happy days !

:-D Jo

Ooooh Karen do try and come to the London Meet. It would be fab to meet new people.

We have had two meets so far, and the originals returned and some newbies joined us. So any more for any more as far as we are all concerned.

Aahhh, Carnaby Street, I used to shop there. Also Biba and Bus Stop in Kensington Church Street. Also Camden Lock when it was new and exciting. The Old Roundhouse, and Finsbury Park Astoria for concerts, and the Tottenham Royal for bopping!!!!

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Hi Wend,
Well, I know I'm going to be in the UK next March cos it's Mother-in-Law's 90th birthday....big family do for that on the day, and at the wk/end me & hubby planning on taking her to the Sunday Jazz brunch at the Savoy :-)
oooh I do love me food :-) :-)

K x

Karen - maybe the London Meet in March - now, that would be good :-D

GREAT thread ;-)

Dad's side of the family moved to Marylebone in 1855 and stayed in the area until 1939/40 when descendants moved out to Harlesden/Willesden and the new 'metro-land' suburbs of Wembley, Ruislip etc so I think I have a wee bit of the Londoner in me.

I have fond memories of London. My brother and I would get 'farmed out' to our grandparents during school holidays, and they would take us to all the tourist sights and museums.
I even used to love going down Harlesden High St with grandma to do the shopping - it was quite a different place 50 years ago!! I was always fascinated by the Jubilee Clock, and then, walking back we would stop at the ABC to get a 'split tin' loaf. At the greengrocer's grandma would just hand her shopping bag over and read through her list. Potatoes and cabbage always went in first, loose in those days, no plastic bags, and so on.
Other times we would get the bus into the West End, Grandma's favourite shop was Selfridges, which was fab but I even loved the bus journey in!!
We always went to see the Regent Street lights at Christmas.
Oh yes, I remember Petticoat Lane too, especially the pets section, because I always always wanted one of those darling puppies!

I remember Carnaby Street and Kings Road in the 60's - very colourful places - and later, the wonderful Biba Emporium in Kensington <3 .
I lived and worked in London in the late 70's and at times during the 80's so I remember the Glam Rock and New Romantics years in London - wild and wonderful times were had!
I remember the opening of the newly re-vamped Covent Garden as I walked through every day on my way to Strand/Waterloo Bridge where I worked.


I still visit London - sometimes on my family history trail and sometimes for the restaurants and shopping :-) . It's the price of accommodation which I find very offputting, God only knows how visitors manage!

On my next visit to London my "things to do" include:-
Alan Turing Exhibition at the Science Museum.
Mill Hill Cemetery in search of 'missing' ancestors' graves .
East Finchley/Marylebone cemetery on annual visit (16 ancestors there, including my lovely grandparents).
And MAYBE maybejust maybe the London Meet in March ;-)

Karen x

RE the Underground...yes MotownGal the writer pulls no punches about how ruthless the engineers and speculators were. It surprised me to learn that most of the system was built with American money. A good read with plenty of scandal thrown in!

These are some of the places I remember when I lived in east London.
Clinton Street which had some beautiful houses with small front gardens but the back Garden was long and wide.
Morgan Street
Straham Road
Coborn Street
Antil Road
Tredgar Square which had some wonderful houses around the four sides of a garden and somewhere for children to play in. My grandparents lived in the aground floor and my grandmother died there.
Bancroft Hospital and

Does anyone remember The Troxy a 1930s Art Deco Design and is now a Grade 2 Listed?

Does it mention that they did the cut and cover system through a cemetery, and cut straight through the interrments? In St Pancras, the corpses were rising to the surface!

No Health and Safety then.

:-0

Great Memories...thanks for sharing.

I love visiting "The Smoke" and hope to do som many times in future. So much to do and the city just has great feel to it.

Just reading "The Subterranean Railway" by Christian Wolmar. A brilliant account of how the underground was built and how it shaped London.
ISBN 1-84354-023-1

Jones Brothers in Holloway Road, is now a Waitrose, so still part of the John Lewis Partnership.

I loved Jones Brothers, and spent a great deal of money in the Cosmetics Department on Saturday afternoons. Just loved walking around sniffing the gorgeous perfumes. The schools department where we got our school uniforms, and then the hairdressers upstairs next to Ladies Wear.

That funny old lift in the China Department that was operated by a turnhandle. The lift man used it make it go up and then it shuddered down again.

A regular Emporium!!!!!

The boutique was called Chelsea Girl.

Yep the pet shop was next to the Marlborough Cinema. An art deco cinema with steps up the front. I saw Calamity Jane there.

I soo wanted to be Calamity Jane!!!!!

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Of course the pet shop, it had a real fascination didn't it?

8? Yeah right :-D :-D

We used to be taken to Nags Head to buy clothes from M&S - that was when their logo was St.Michael.!

Also remember the pet shop, we used to gaze in the window with wonderment at all the animals they had there.

Jones Brothers was great too, a niece of mine worked there for many years.

Can't beat you on finding a husband there Lynda ! Mind you I was only about 8 at the time.. :-D

My Nan had her flower shop just under the FERODO Bridge, now what was that advertising, am I right in thinking it tyres?

The Nags Head was one of my Saturday morning shopping jaunts, There was Selbys, think that is still there? and of course the wonderful Jones Bros, I still have stuff in my kitchen that I got from there. There was a boutique just over the road from the pictures, can't think of the name now, but it will come to me. Nags head was a hive of activity, you'd meet your mates, wander about and have the time of your life, and I even got a husband from the Nags Head, beat that :-D :-D

OK Lynda, now I have stirred a few memories here is anothe two.

The HMV shop at the Nags Head. Where I spent many a Saturday morning listening to the lastest 45 in the space bubble listening booth. The going over to Richard Shops to get my latest mini skirt.

The Sainsbury just up the road, oppostite the Scout Hut, before you get to the bridge at Holloway Road underground, advertising FERODO, where they had a huge mound of butter, that used to be patted with wooden paddles into half pound slices, wrapped in greaseproof paper!!!!!

I was tiny at the time!!!!!


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Now there's a blast from the past North London Drapery stores, and the the cylinder for the money :-D They used to have nstore demonstrations, and would go there just to watch them, I can remember a demonstration of a frying pan, that needed no fat to fry an egg, amazing at the time :-D

I used to travel around at the weekends with my friends, going to all the touristy places, Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square etc, etc, still get the same pleasures now, and often when going to London, will go early, just to go to sit in a coffee shop opposite St Pauls cathedral, just to look at it, then, across the wobbly bridge, just so I can turn round and look at St Pauls from the other side, one of the favourite views in London, wonderful :-D

Pentonville Nick has been painted a delightful shade of Cream. It still looks the same from the outside, with the big brick wall at the back.

My lot came from St James Road, Wellington Road, Ellington Street and Dorinda Street, Georges Road and Bride Street. St James' is now Mackenzie Road, and some of the rest have been flattened to make the City Farm.

That part of Islington is now very posh. All the locals have moved out and the professionals have moved in.

Now........................for those who come from Islington, and I think there are three of us at least.

The North London Drapery Stores in Seven Sisters Road. Remember the assistants could not take the money for the goods? They took the money and put it into a little cylinder, twisted it closed, and put it into a 'wind tunnel' it rattles along the tube, and then up to the Cash Office which overlooked the Store. I used to love watching it go along the pipe to the upper floor.

Little things..................................


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One of my memories of London.

I remember the front of my elder brothers trousers being ripped off after being caught in a car door handle mum, dad, me and my brother were waiting to cross the road when the car came around a bend to close to the pavement or was my brother to close to the curb :-S

Thank goodness car door handles face the opposite way now and no running boards either :-D

I haven't been there for yonks Lynda so don't know if it is the same. I can only remember vaguely a protest outside the walls when I was a very young kid on my way to school that was something to do with a hanging that was due to take place at the prison.

If you mean by the inside of the wall which was the other side to the road i do remember as we used walk through there to go to the streets at the back of our 'estate' to reach other streets such as Thornhill Crescent etc.

Happy memories :-D

Jo

Jo, I had a cousin who worked in the "Ville" and he got me a pair of budgies from a prisoner who bred them there, the bird man of Alcatraz had nothing on him :-D

I used to love walking on the inside of the wall, instead of the on the outside.

It still looks the same today doesn't it?