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  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 |
 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 |
  charlie evans Added: 10 Apr 2021 18:51 GMT | apollo pub 1950s Ted Lengthorne was the landlord of the apollo in the 1950s. A local called darkie broom who lived at number 5 lancaster road used to be the potman,I remember being in the appollo at a street party that was moved inside the pub because of rain for the queens coronation . Not sure how long the lengthornes had the pub but remember teds daughter julie being landlady in the early 1970,s Reply |
 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 Reply |
 Richard Added: 12 Jul 2022 21:39 GMT | Elgin Crescent, W11 Richard Laitner lived at 24 Elgin Crescent Source: Ancestry Library Edition Reply |
  Christian Added: 31 Oct 2023 10:34 GMT | Cornwall Road, W11 Photo shows William Richard Hoare’s chemist shop at 121 Cornwall Road. Reply |
 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. Reply |
  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 Reply |
 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. Reply |
 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 Reply |
 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. Reply |
 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. Reply |
 Added: 20 Jul 2024 01:13 GMT | Whitechapel (1980 - 1981) Diana Lee-Gobbitt - Artist rented a room at No 1 Berner Street, Whitechapel, opposite Church Passage (Ripper territory) for one year, rent approx 3 pounds pw. Worked as Receptionist for n Indian import/export company in the Watney Markets. Owner of No 1 Berner Street was Sammy Ferrugia, Maltese Taxi company owner. The artist was shown the gambling den in Dutfield’s Yard behind the terrace houses. It was common local knowledge prostitution was high end income for those in the East End during the 1950s. Reply |
Added: 7 Jul 2024 16:26 GMT | Haycroft Gardens, NW10 My Grandfather bought No 45 Buchanan Gdns in I believe 1902 and died ther in the early 1950s Reply |