BermondseyBoy

Hi Kiwi,

Yes I remember these! When we visit a museum these days..its not to learn..its to reminisce!! There is a museum in Eastbourne that has a range of foodstuffs from yesteryear..we recognise them all!!
Congrats on your long marriage, I find it helps if you have the same sense of humour..well you have to laugh! A happy New Year to you and your family. Do you live in London?
My nan lived in the Purbrook Estate in Tower Bridge Road, opposite Sarsons Vinegar factory and near The Caledonian market, which used to open at two in the morning so that all the villians could come and sell their dodgy gear...I believe Princess Margaret's jewells were sold there Twice!

My nan was called Minnie Gertrude Rhodes she married Henry Mortimer, we used to visit the live eel stall (I didnt like seeing them cut up) which I believe was owned by the Mortimers. Minnie lived until she was 86 and used to push a pram to help her walk about, she enjoyed a Guinness and used to drink in The Bear (it was Black or White Bear, I cant remember which!!)
all the best, Matilda (Jeanette)

Hi Matilda.
We now live in New Zealand and yes you do have to have a sense of humour. I think the pub you are talking about is The White Bear which you can see in the Long Walk Topic, which is on page 18.

1960s Robinson jam gollys.

By the way Matilda, Princess Margaret's jewells were only sold once and I did'nt like getting up that early. .
Kiwi (Ray).

Hi Kiwi,

Lovely place to live I'm told, bit further than Lincolnshire!...yes...bit of a pain getting up that early...and the tiara I picked up cheap kept falling off me head when I tipped me Guinness glass back to capture the last little dregs!

We have thick snow here at the moment..and the shops are full of the masked avengers..funny..people dont die of flu and old age anymore..just covid!

When I lived in Dockhead, Shad thames was close by(all posh flats now) The smell of spices and other strange aromas were always present,I remember the Spillers factory and the cloud of flour that was always in the air..The Ship Aground pub where you could have a turn on the mike, everyone a Frank Sinatra or Gracie Fields..The Fire Station always going off to shouts, coming back with fire damaged goods and flogging them in the pub, I worked in Woolworths in The Blue for a while..girls were always bringing in clothes and jewellry to flog..it was all good...it said so on Shaw Taylors Police 5!!

take care
Jeanette Matilda

POLICE 5, that brings back some memories, Shaw Taylor MBE sadly no longer with us (26 October 1924 – 17 March 2015).

love your humour Jeanette, you sound as silly as me. As you say Shad Thames with the smell of spices and other strange aromas, after all these years just a whiff of something similar can take you back to Shad Thames. I do not know who Mike was in The Ship Aground Pub but what a lucky guy he was, I bet he has a lot of memories.
Stay Safe Kiwi (Ray).

Fag Cards, remember playinging with these? I had hundreds of them. Flick them to cover each other or stand them up against the wall and try to knock them down if you did you won and took all the cards.

Fag Cards. Anderson shelter in a back garden

I certainly had a cap bomb and remember blanco sponges.
And threw 1d bangers around on the 5th. Can't even buy them without age verification now.
As a boy in the fifties I never went hopping, but well remember Murphy, the Head at the Alma, railing against it at the start of Autumn term. In fact I did my stint 10 years later, by which time it was mechanised. The smell hadn't changed though.
I was interested you moved to Wateringbury.
On my daily walk from Alscot Rd to the Alma, I of course crossed Yalding Rd. Little did I know that's where I would work. At Plant Protection.
And now you live near Wellington?
I have visited NZ, unfortunately never for work, but believe the company still has a national HQ at Little Hutt. So the scruffy "Soap Works" huddled by Yalding Station is the direct ancestor of (half) of a major global business.
I belonged to the 22nd Bermondsey Cubs and the Dockhead site of the OBC. All as did my father before me.
But its now parks and yuppie flats where I worried my mother sick clambering in and out of bombed out buildings.
I am very impressed by your range of archive material and see so many sights I remember. Many thanks for the memories.

Mendawai wrote:I certainly had a cap bomb and remember blanco sponges.
And threw 1d bangers around on the 5th. Can't even buy them without age verification now.
As a boy in the fifties I never went hopping, but well remember Murphy, the Head at the Alma, railing against it at the start of Autumn term. In fact I did my stint 10 years later, by which time it was mechanised. The smell hadn't changed though.
I was interested you moved to Wateringbury.
On my daily walk from Alscot Rd to the Alma, I of course crossed Yalding Rd. Little did I know that's where I would work. At Plant Protection.
And now you live near Wellington?
I have visited NZ, unfortunately never for work, but believe the company still has a national HQ at Little Hutt. So the scruffy "Soap Works" huddled by Yalding Station is the direct ancestor of (half) of a major global business.
I belonged to the 22nd Bermondsey Cubs and the Dockhead site of the OBC. All as did my father before me.
But its now parks and yuppie flats where I worried my mother sick clambering in and out of bombed out buildings.
I am very impressed by your range of archive material and see so many sights I remember. Many thanks for the memories.

Hi Mendawai, welcome to the site, glad that you are enjoying the posts. Thank you for your comment regarding archive material and memories, to me that makes it all worthwhile. Cheers Kiwi.