On the corner of Stephendale Road and Wandsworth Bridge Road was an Off Licence. You used to get two pence or three pence if you returned the empty soft drinks bottles and sometimes their back yard door would be left open and the kids used to pinch the empty bottles and take them into the Off Licence to get the money!!!! I remember on a Saturday a large open lorry used to come around selling soft drinks called Corona. Also an ice cream van called Leo's which sold the most gorgeous soft ice cream which was a real treat in those days. I also remember a middle aged man on a bicycle with a big tin box on the front and he used to sell toffee apples.

Before the houses were pulled down in De Morgan Road half of one side of the street were houses where we lived and opposite was the Bluebell Factory. I can remember when they dug the roads up you had a night watchman and the kids used to gather in his little hut by the fire to chat with him and keep warm. People were much friendlier in those days because they did not have much. If ever my mum was out when I came home from school which was very rare the key would always be on a piece of string behind the front door for you to pull through the letter box.

There were many children in De Morgan and we used to play outside together. We used to play games such as hopscotch and two balls and with skipping ropes which went right across the road and even the boys would join in!  We would play run outs and 'rin tin tin whose got the tin?'. We also played "Knock Down Ginger" on the moany old ladies in our street just to annoy them. We'd get our skates out and pull each other along on a long piece of rope.  We used to build go-karts out of old fruit boxes and ball bearings. We would play marbles, pick up dirty lolly sticks from the gutter to play chopsticks and we played five stones and jacks.

Next to St. Matthews Church at the bottom of Rosebury Road used to be a sweet shop called Wrigleys and then called Wrights.  I used to love that shop. When Jubblys first came out he had a small freezer and used to freeze them for the kids and we used to keep popping into the shop on a summer's day and asking if they were frozen yet!!

I am not a prejudiced person but I did not see my first black man until I was about seven years old and I just kept staring at him - that memory has stayed with me all my life..