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  Roy Batham Added: 7 Jan 2022 05:50 GMT | Batham Family (1851 - 1921) I start with William Batham 1786-1852 born in St.Martins Middlesex. From various sources I have found snippets of information concerning his early life. A soldier in 1814 he married Mary Champelovier of Huguenot descent By 1819 they were in Kensington where they raised 10 children. Apart from soldier his other occupations include whitesmith, bell hanger and pig breeder. I find my first record in the 1851 English sensus. No street address is given, just ’The Potteries’. He died 1853. Only one child at home then George Batham 1839-1923, my great grandfather. By 1861 he is living in Thomas St. Kensington with his mother. A bricklayer by trade 1871, married and still in Thomas St. 1881 finds him in 5,Martin St. Kensington. 1891 10,Manchester St. 1911, 44 Hunt St Hammersmith. Lastly 1921 Census 7, Mersey St. which has since been demolished. Source: Batham/Wiseman - Family Tree Reply |
  Tom Vague Added: 9 Sep 2020 14:02 GMT | The Bedford family at 3 Acklam Road (1860 - 1965) From the 19th century up until 1965, number 3 Acklam Road, near the Portobello Road junction, was occupied by the Bedford family. When the Westway construction work began the Bedfords sold up and moved to south London. In the early 1970s the house was taken over by the North Kensington Amenity Trust and became the Notting Hill Carnival office before its eventual demolition. Anne Bedford (now McSweeney) has fond memories of living there, although she recalls: ‘I now know that the conditions were far from ideal but then I knew no different. There was no running hot water, inside toilet or bath, apart from the tin bath we used once a week in the large kitchen/dining room. Any hot water needed was heated in a kettle. I wasn’t aware that there were people not far away who were a lot worse off than us, living in poverty in houses just like mine but families renting one room. We did have a toilet/bathroom installed in 1959, which was ‘luxury’. ‘When the plans for the Westway were coming to light, we were still living in the house whilst all the houses opposite became empty and boarded up one by one. We watched all this going on and decided that it was not going to be a good place to be once the builders moved in to demolish all the houses and start work on the elevated road. Dad sold the house for a fraction of what it should have been worth but it needed too much doing to it to bring it to a good living standard. We were not rich by any means but we were not poor. My grandmother used to do her washing in the basement once a week by lighting a fire in a big concrete copper to heat the water, which would have been there until demolition. ‘When we moved from number 3, I remember the upright piano that my grandparents used to play �’ and me of sorts �’ being lowered out of the top floor and taken away, presumably to be sold. I used to play with balls up on the wall of the chemist shop on the corner of Acklam and Portobello. We would mark numbers on the pavement slabs in a grid and play hopscotch. At the Portobello corner, on one side there was the Duke of Sussex pub, on the other corner, a chemist, later owned by a Mr Fish, which I thought was amusing. When I was very young I remember every evening a man peddling along Acklam Road with a long thin stick with which he lit the streetlights.’ Michelle Active who lived at number 33 remembers: ‘6 of us lived in a one-bed basement flat on Acklam Road. When they demolished it we moved to a 4-bed maisonette on Silchester Estate and I thought it was a palace, two toilets inside, a separate bathroom that was not in the kitchen, absolute heaven.’ Reply |
  Susan Wright Added: 16 Sep 2017 22:42 GMT | Ada Crowe, 9 Bramley Mews My Great Grandmother Ada Crowe was born in 9 Bramley Mews in 1876. Reply |
  Joan Clarke Added: 2 Feb 2021 10:54 GMT | Avondale Park Gardens My late aunt Ivy Clarke (nee Burridge) lived with her whole family at 19 Avondale Park Gardens, according to the 1911 census and she was still there in 1937.What was it like in those days, I wonder, if the housing was only built in 1920? Reply |
 David Jones-Parry Added: 7 Sep 2017 12:13 GMT | Mcgregor Road, W11 (1938 - 1957) I was born n bred at 25 Mc Gregor Rd in 1938 and lived there until I joined the Royal Navy in 1957. It was a very interesting time what with air raid shelters,bombed houses,water tanks all sorts of areas for little boys to collect scrap and sell them on.no questions asked.A very happy boyhood -from there we could visit most areas of London by bus and tube and we did. Reply |
 Dave Fahey Added: 6 Jan 2021 02:40 GMT | Bombing of the Jack O Newberry My maternal grandfather, Archie Greatorex, was the licensee of the Earl of Warwick during the Second World War. My late mother Vera often told the story of the bombing of the Jack. The morning after the pub was bombed, the landlord’s son appeared at the Warwick with the pub’s till on an old pram; he asked my grandfather to pay the money into the bank for him. The poor soul was obviously in shock. The previous night, his parents had taken their baby down to the pub cellar to shelter from the air raids. The son, my mother never knew his name, opted to stay in his bedroom at the top of the building. He was the only survivor. I often wondered what became of him. Reply |
 Brenda Newton Added: 5 Jun 2021 07:17 GMT | Hewer Street W10 John Nodes Undertakers Hewer Street W10 Reply |
Added: 30 Dec 2022 21:41 GMT | Southam Street, W10 do any one remember J&A DEMOLITON at harrow rd kensal green my dad work for them in a aec 6 wheel tipper got a photo of him in it Reply |
 ken gaston Added: 16 Jan 2021 11:04 GMT | Avondale Park Gardens My grandmother Hilda Baker and a large family lived in number 18 . It was a close community and that reflected in the coronation celebration held on the central green . I grew up in that square and went to school at Sirdar Road then St. Clements it was a great place to grow up with a local park and we would also trek to Holland Park or Kensington Gardens .Even then the area was considered deprived and a kindergarden for criminals . My generation were the first to escape to the new towns and became the overspill from London to get decent housing and living standards . Reply |
 Scott Hatton Added: 11 Sep 2020 15:38 GMT | 6 East Row (1960 - 1960) We lived at 6 East Row just before it was demolished. Reply |
 danny currie Added: 30 Nov 2022 18:39 GMT | dads yard ron currie had a car breaking yard in millers yard back in the 60s good old days Reply |
 Added: 4 Sep 2022 15:42 GMT | Superman 2 I worked here in 1977. The scene in the prison laundry in Superman 2 was filmed here. Reply |
 CydKB Added: 31 Mar 2023 15:07 GMT | BlackJack Playground Emslie Horniman’s Pleasance was my favourite childhood park.I went to St Mary’s Catholic school, East Row from Nursery all the way through to Year 6 before Secondary School and I was taken here to play most days. There was a centre piece flower bed in the Voysey Garden surrounded by a pond which my classmates and I used to jump over when no one was looking. The Black jack playground was the go to playground for our sports days and my every day shortcut to get close to the half penny steps foot bridge via Kensal Road. There was also a shop where we could buy ice lollies on hot summer days.The Southern Row side of the Park was filled with pebbles which used to be so fun to walk through as a child, I used to walk through the deepness of the pebbles to get to Bosworth Road or east towards Hornimans Adventure Park. Reply |
 Added: 10 Jun 2024 19:31 GMT | Toll gate Close Did anyone live at Toll Gate Close, which was built in the area where the baths had been? Reply |
 Norman Norrington Added: 28 Dec 2020 08:31 GMT | Blechynden Street, W10 I was born in Hammersmith Hospital (Ducane Rd) I lived at 40 Blecynden Street from birth in 1942 to 1967 when I moved due to oncoming demolition for the West way flyover. A bomb fell locally during the war and cracked one of our windows, that crack was still there the day I left. It was a great street to have grown up in I have very fond memories of living there. Reply |
  Christine Smith Added: 7 Jan 2025 18:02 GMT | East Row, W10 The bombed out church was St. Thomas’. It was later rebuilt. I went to the primary school in East Row, St. Mary’s from 1960 and we used their old church hall for our dinners. I had a large number of relatives living in the area. Reply |
Donald Daniel Added: 6 Jan 2025 09:41 GMT | East Row, W10 Daniel family lived at 6 East Row until 1960 when we moved to St Pauls Cray Kent...remember the bombed out church opposite...cannot remember other people living there three families i think...we had the upstairs flat Dad was Thomas mum was Elizabeth (Betty)...i was only 9.with my twin Kenneth..... Reply |
Lindsay Trott Added: 1 Jan 2025 17:55 GMT | Lockside not on 1939 Register I have the Denby family living in Lockside in 1938 but it does not appear on the 1939 Register. Reply |
 Janelle Robbins Added: 27 Dec 2024 18:47 GMT | Harriet Robbins Please get in touch re Harriet Robbins Reply |
 Dave Hinves Added: 27 Nov 2024 03:55 GMT | he was a School Teacher Henry sailed from Graves End 1849 on ’The Woodbridge’ arrived South Australia 1850. In 1858 he married Julia Ann Walsh at Burra, South Australia, they had 3 children, and 36 grand children. Died 24 June 1896 at Wilmington, South Australia. He is my 1st cousin 3x removed. Reply |
Kevin Pont Added: 23 Nov 2024 17:03 GMT | St Georges Square This is rather lovely and well worth a visit! Reply |
Simon Chapman Added: 22 Nov 2024 17:47 GMT | Blossom Place My Great Great Grandmother, Harriett Robbins lived in 2 Blossom Place in 1865 before marrying my Great Great Grandfather. They moved to 23 Spitall Square. Reply |
Mark G Added: 26 Oct 2024 21:54 GMT | Skidmore Street, E1 Skidmore Street was located where present day Ernest Street and Solebay Street now stand. They are both located above Shandy Street and Commodore Street. Reply |