I can remember the first car in our road and the first black and white television. Both were owned by the local spiv who resided a few doors away on the same side of the road as us. I also had a friend in Oakbury Road  which was opposite my home whose father was the manager of the United Dairies Milk depot in Parsons Green Lane. He had a Wolesley car which  was a status symbol in our area. I was with them one Sunday on the Kingston By-Pass when he put his foot down and managed to reach the earth-shattering speed of 60mph.

Frankie Witten or Whitten lived on the other side of Hazlebury Road about ten houses down towards Wansdworth bridge Road. He had a big motor bike in the days when crash helmets were not compulsory and there was no limit on cubic capacity for learners or young riders.

I learned to ride a friend's bike when I was about 13 but was unable to afford a bicycle until my grandmother who lived in Filmer Road between Dawes Road and Munster Road bought me a second-hand bike from Smallwoods in Dawes Road. This opened up new horizons with trips further afield to places like Richmond Park and Hampton Court. 

Another friend was Allan Oldall who lived in the first or second house on the left hand side. His father was a milkman who used to deliver from a horse and wagon. The horse knew at which part of the round he got his nose-bag and refused to move further until he was fed. Allan was bright and won a place to Wandsworth Grammar School. The last I heard about his whereabouts was through his mother who told me he had gone to America on the tail-end of the Skiffle era.

I used to know a girl called Penny Rickyson whose parents had a paper shop called Rickies on the Wandsworth Bridge Road near the junction with Rosebury Road although I can never remember getting any sweets out of the relationship. This shop was next to St Matthews Church where in later years one of my wife’s relatives got married. Penny’s parents must have eventually given up the shop as they moved into Stephendale Road almost opposite the Catholic Church and Tynemouth Street.

Most of my friends lived in Oakbury ,Rosebury and Cranbury roads where we played or else we went to South Park which was on the other side of Wandsworth Bridge Road. I stayed away from Broughton Road having been beaten up by a gang of  kids probably my age or slightly older for venturing into their territory to watch fireworks on bonfire night at a bomb site around the Langford Road area.
 
We moved into 117 Hazlebury Road around 1952 taking the upper floor with a separate family living downstairs.The rent was around one pound ten Shillings per week and had to be paid weekly to the Heaver Estate office on The Wandsworth Bridge Road. The upstairs and downstairs were addressed as 117A and 117B. I can’t remember which was which. If a caller required the upstairs tenants he would knock twice on the door knocker and once for the downstairs tenant. Door bells were an unheard of luxury at this end of Fulham which in those days was regarded as very working class or even lower working class.

Our flat had no insulation, no double glazing and no central heating. We relied on gas fires in the lounge which doubled as our mother’s bedroom, and in the kitchen. We had no bathroom and had either a stand-up bath at the kitchen sink or visited the local baths at Walham Green. During the coldest weather ice would form on the inside of the windows overnight and we often used an overcoat to supplement whatever blankets we had.

1952 was still the era of fog and smog and I have vivid memories of walking home in visibility of only a few yards. If you tied a handkerchief around your face it was black with soot by the time you arrived home. At that time I used to go to St Edmunds RC school in St Dunstans Road Hammersmith.

The area south of Stephendale Road was in my view regarded as even poorer than Hazlebury due to the smaller houses and their proximity to Fulham Power Station in Townmead Road. The Power Station used to purge high pressure steam during the night on many occasions and this could keep you awake for hours.

At the age of 13 I moved schools to Wandsworth Technical college in the Wandsworth High Street as I was seeking a technical education and wanted to move away from the constraints of a Catholic education with its somewhat limited curriculum. I eventually moved away from Hazlebury Road around the age of 14 to stay with my grandparents as I had managed to secure a job in a greengrocers on the Fulham Road near the junction with Munster Road for the duration of the eight weeks summer holiday.

Since those early days I have lived and worked in Zambia(6 years), Saudi Arabia (6 years) and Bahrain (2 years) and I travelled extensively through the Middle East for a number of years in the line of business and have also visited places such as Hong Kong and Thailand on business or holiday. You can understand why Hazlebury Road is not the most memorable place I have lived in. My brother has lived in Germany since about 1963. My wife’s aunt and uncle Lillian and Ted Stocker lived at 52 Hazlebury Road before moving onto a Council estate at the top of Putney Hill.