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Elizabeth Norbury   

Wordpress comment (February 10, 2021)
James Bartle was the brother of my great-great-grandmother, Marian. Marian's son John came up to London from Cornwall to work for his uncle James at Western Ironworks. John died in 1908, which may have been why the business was sold in 1910.
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JOHN HAYNES   

Wordpress comment (July 4, 2019)
Any further information about James Bartle would be appreciated. I am his grandson.
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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

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Lived here
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.’



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Born here
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.

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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?


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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 .

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Lived here
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.



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john ormandy   
Added: 20 Mar 2021 17:48 GMT   

Mary Place Workhouse
There was a lady called Ivy who lived in the corner she use to come out an tell us kids off for climbing over the fence to play football on the green. Those were the days.

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john ormandy   
Added: 20 Mar 2021 17:30 GMT   

Blechynden Street, W10
Went to school St Johns with someone named Barry Green who lived in that St. Use to wait for him on the corner take a slow walk an end up being late most days.

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Lived here
Norman Norrington   
Added: 8 Jun 2021 08:08 GMT   

Blechynden Street, W10
Lived here #40 1942-1967

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john ormandy   
Added: 14 Mar 2021 18:59 GMT   

Avondale Park Gardens, W11
We moved to number 6 in 1950 an family still live there now. I think i remember a family name of Larter living in the house you mention also living in the Gdns were names Prior, Cannon, Parsons Clives at number 26 who i went to school with.


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Brian Lucas   
Added: 15 Mar 2021 16:02 GMT   

Avondale Park Gardens, W11
I also lived here at No. 15 1854 then move to No. 23 The Lucas Family

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john ormandy   
Added: 20 Mar 2021 17:21 GMT   

Avondale Park Gardens, W11
Remember the Lucas family think the eldest was about same age as me cant remember his name though seem to rember had several younger sisters may have been twins!!

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john ormandy   
Added: 20 Mar 2021 18:02 GMT   

Avondale Park Gardens, W11
Went to that coranation party with my two younger brothers who both went to St Clements along with Alan Mullery the footballer. I went to St James before moving on to St Johns along with Alan who lived in Mary Place where we were both in the same class.

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Lived here
David James Bloomfield   
Added: 13 Jul 2021 11:54 GMT   

Hurstway Street, W10
Jimmy Bloomfield who played for Arsenal in the 1950s was brought up on this street. He was a QPR supporter as a child, as many locals would be at the time, as a teen he was rejected by them as being too small. They’d made a mistake

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Lived here
Richard   
Added: 12 Jul 2022 21:36 GMT   

Elgin Crescent, W11
Richard Laitner (1955-1983), a barrister training to be a doctor at UCL, lived here in 1983. He was murdered aged 28 with both his parents after attending his sister’s wedding in Sheffield in 1983. The Richard Laitner Memorial Fund maintains bursaries in his memory at UCL Medical School

Source: Ancestry Library Edition

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GrahamClayton   
Added: 10 Oct 2024 19:42 GMT   

Armed guard during 1919 civil unrest
During the 1919 civil unrest, a company of soldiers guarded the power station day and night - if it was forced to close down, a large part of London’s transport system would be inoperable.

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Mark G   
Added: 6 Oct 2024 15:08 GMT   

Change of Road Name to SARK WALK
All of the terraced slum housing on JERSEY ROAD was demolished and the area rebuilt with modern housing in the late 1940’s, early 1950’s. Subsequently, the road was renamed SARK WALK.

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B Willmot   
Added: 24 Sep 2024 00:39 GMT   

King Charles Street, SW1A
My Great Grandfather (Joseph William Willmot) started school here in Charles St - Penley’s College in 1857.

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roy elsom   
Added: 20 Sep 2024 16:44 GMT   

Parkers Row, SE1
In the 1841 a relative of my wife, family name Reeves lived in Parker’s Row

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BB   
Added: 19 Sep 2024 12:41 GMT   

Saunders Street, SE11
My grandfather (and presumably my father, uncles and aunts) all lived in 3 Saunders Street. I’m slowly researching my Family Tree. Does anyone know when this street was demolished, what were the properties like (I’m assuming extremely poor). My grandfather’s surname was HILKIN.

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James   
Added: 18 Sep 2024 12:55 GMT   

Southwark
Does anyone know how this street came to be named Leyden Street? I can only find a couple of Leyden Streets in Britain, one in Glasgow in Scotland and one here

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Lived here
Roger Purcell   
Added: 14 Sep 2024 17:46 GMT   

Verdant Lane, SE6 (1911 - 1936)
My great grandfather Joseph Henry Purcell moved into 140 Verdant Lane with his family circa 1910/11. He had recently retired from working in a senior role for the Borough Market Trust. It would have been a brand new terraced house at the time. He died there in 1916, but my great grandmother Emma continued to live there until her death in 1936.

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Anonymous   
Added: 29 Aug 2024 13:22 GMT   

Wartime
My late Aunt lived in Tidal Basin during the war. Their family name was Brandon. She told a story of a schoolboy killed on the dock railway when walking to school. Apparently it was common for the kids to walk along the busy tracks serving the docks.

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