I lived at 2 Rosebury Road until I was 21 and have many memories of the area. There was a night watchman called "Chelsea Charlie" who later in life went a bit senile and went around picking up anything he could and after he died the police went to his house and found it full to the brim with old milk bottles and newspapers etc.

Another character was an old lady called Mrs Young who would sit at her window all day and as soon as your teeth got wobbly you were sent to her to have them pulled out! And there was Pauline "Paulie" Palmer, a 'midget' who lived around the corner in Cranbury Road and who had a normal little girl.

A certain lady who ran the Band of Hope at St Matthews Church suddenly disappeared from the scene after all the funds mysteriously went missing.

I can remember the smogs. They were terrible and we all had to wear hankies over our mouths to go to school which used to turn black round the mouth but to us that was just the norm. There was also the bad winter of 1963 when Wandsworth Bridge Road was piled up with snow for the whole of January.

My best friend was Mick Sykes who also lived at 2 Rosebury Road. Our favourite game involved a large grown-ups overcoat and a flat cap and a walking stick. We would wait for an on coming car and scurry across the road and promptly fall over as if collapsed and when the motorist got out thinking the worst we would run off laughing till the police put a stop to our tricks. I know it was naughty but in those days we had to make our own amusement. Another time Mick would put the cap on and stand on my shoulders turning us in to a nine foot giant and in those days pubs had half frosted windows, We would walk past the windows in the gloom and wave at the astonished customers.

The old shops that stick in my mind are the local bakers' down Wandsworth Bridge Road which used to sell Penny Nelsons (slabs of bread pudding) and the motor cycle and scooter shop where we used to get all our maggots for fishing! I also remember Skeltons the 'demon' barbers up by the Bridge, who used to cut all the local kids hair. You would sit on an old biscuit tin and get the same haircut whatever you asked for.

I now enjoy collecting things from the past and going off on adventures in my little caravan as well as fishing as i live by the Grand Union Canal in Southall. I am still best mates with Mick Sykes.

Rosebury Road Queen's Coronation Party 1953 

Editor's Notes:

Keith gave me a name for the lady who disappeared after funds mysteriously vanished from St Matthews but as I am unaware of any court proceedings I am  reluctant to identify her.

I may be criticised for including Keith's use of the word 'midget' in these days of political correctness. I think the term is now 'vertically challenged'. I include the word as it was the way we all spoke in those days and no malice was intended. I am also reminded of a time when I was out with my mother at a very young age. She had always told us to eat our food or we wouldn't grow. We came across a 'small adult' one day and pointing to the gentleman I said in a very loud voice "Mum is that person small because he doesn't eat all his food?". Needless to say she didn't know where to look but the person saw the funny side and roared with laughter - Francis Czucha