Herbert Westray Reminisces
GROWING UP IN SOUTH
EAST LONDON.
I was born near the Elephant and Castle in 1919, in a
ground floor tenement type flat of three rooms. Six of us slept in one room.
Another room the parlour, was used only on very
special occasions, and it boasted of an upright piano which my father bought on
the 'never never'. The other room was the kitchen come dining and sitting room
rolled into one.
It was rather a poor district
but I suppose we were lucky to have a father with a decent job. Some less
fortunate neighbours ware always trying to
dodge the 'tally men' when they called for their dues, or taking father's best
suit to 'uncles' on Monday only to redeem it at the weekend so that he could
wear it on Sunday. He was unlucky if he wanted it during the week. It was a real
struggle in these days for people with low incomes.
A
local washerwoman used to do our washing at
Manor Place Baths for a few pence a week; and sometimes we did not get it returned until
Friday or Saturday. Mum suspected she
pawned it.
Some weekends when dad did
overtime, I was sent to the butchers in Walworth Road to get an aitch-bone of
beef for about 5d a lb., a large joint for 6s 0d. What a treat we had those
weekends; Father would have a cut of steak from the joint for his breakfast
Saturday, and Sunday we would have a
marvelous roast with mother's famous batter pudding, and on Monday a glorious
stew
My father was unemployed for
ten months in the early thirties, and although times were hard he resisted
going for extra help because of the government's means test, and he may have
lost his piano. His family rallied round and send us a food parcel every week,
and my mother supplemented the dole money by going back to silk lampshade
making. She still makes them today at 90 years of age.
I used to be in the local
church and apart from practice three nights a week and Sunday services, we used
to sing at weddings for which we
were paid 6d and funerals 1s 0d. We had a music festival. at Southwark Cathedral and sang Handel's
Messiah...... what a lovely musical memory.
There
were plenty of street buskers in those days. Singers, tap
dancers, one-sting fiddle players, also barrel organs etc. One act consisted of
six men in drag, cart wheeling, dancing and singing with a man playing
a piano on wheels. We kids used to sit on the kerb opposite to and be thoroughly
entertained, but slightly scared also of these strange men. One poor old man
used to scrape at an ancient fiddle, under the arches at Manor Place.
Although the tunes were recognizable, he looked so pathetic he did quite well.
Our
dustcarts were bright yellow, open topped and horse drawn. Every year they
would be scrubbed out, the horses groomed, then we kids would pile in the back and off
we would go to a London park to compete with other boroughs for the best
turnout; if our horse got a rosette we were the proudest kids in Walworth. What
a day out!
On Derby day we would go to
Kennington Park Road to watch the race goers
coming back, from Epsom, in open topped charabancs, drawn brakes and private large cars. We always knew
the people who had had a good successful day because occasionally we were
showered with pennies which sent us scrambling all` over the pavements.
The
'McDonalds' in those days were the Pie and Eel shops where each meal was topped
with parsley liquor which had a distinct delicious flavour. Sometimes when mother did not
cook I used to go with a basin to a butcher in Newington Butts and buy
saveloys, faggots and
pease pudding… what a tasty appetizing dish that was; the mouth-watering aroma
from the butchers used to be indescribable, especially if there were sheep
heads or pigs trotters boiling..... delicious smells and unforgettable.
B.
Westray. Born 1919.
Written
in the 1980s. His mother mention died aged 106.
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