I was really pleased to receive this email from a "Lambeth lad" from Doris Street called Brian Walker (aka The Lambeth Pilgrim) now based in Sri Lanka, who has given me permission to include his email in this blog, along with some photos taken in the 1940s. If anyone remembers Brian, he would love to hear from you - his contact details are included at the end of his email.
Good on you!
I'm just compiling my own family history and came across your blog whilst researching Lollard Street School, where my parents went to school from about 1911 to 1918. I myself was born at 1 Doris Street, which was on the corner of Tracey Street in 1935, which seemed to be a house of minor distinction amidst otherwise mediocrity. I'm still trying to find out how this house came to be so much older and different from all the others in the same street. My father was Charles Richard Walker, born in 1905 at 143 Ethelred Street, from where his father operated as a jobbing builder and decorator. And my mother was Louisa Evalina Fogg, born in 1906 at 1 Doris Street, from where her father operated as a piano tuner and repairer. I can well remember the area during the war years, and actually attended a victory party in Doris Street in 1945. There was Johnnie Evans the dairy right opposite 1 Doris Street on Tracey Street, and a little corner shop on the opposite corner of Doris Street. I also recall Palladino's the barber's shop and Marcantonio's ice-cream parlour in the Walk. Alas, all demolished in the sixties. I think it was being so 'bleeding cheerful' that kept the people of this area going during the great depression of the thirties and the war years. And I've certainly been tarred with the same brush.If you feel so inclined. I can be contacted in Sri Lanka by email: walker01@sltnet.lk. Brian Walker, Cosmos Coconut Club, Mallawapitia, Kurunegala, Sri Lanka.
The corner shop Brian is talking about is Groom's and I remember the huge jars of sweets on the shelves there. Dolly Mixtures were my favourite! Then on hot summer days, we used to buy our Jubblys there - those frozen orange drinks which are still sold today, but they are nowhere near as nice......... These are the photographs Brian has emailed to me:-
Prince Regent "Beano"
I think the short gentleman third from the right is the man whom we called "Old Farvey Wright". We used to take his empty Guiness bottles back to the Off Licence at the Prince Regent and he let us buy arrowroot biscuits with the money we got back from the bottles. Whenever there was a Beano, us kids would gather outside the pub and scramble to catch the money which was thrown out of the coach window to us.
Above: Kids in Doris Street in 1942
Above: Lambeth Walk in 1940
Outside the shop on the corner of Doris Street.
