Hello Jean!I am in my mid 50's. Left Wandsworth when I was 8. Broke my heart. My parents said I was homesick for about 2 years before I settled down away from London.My brother went to the Beatrix Potter Nursery School, which I think is still running, and then to Highfield Prep School, which was still going until a few years ago.My school was a big squarish building behind huge gates and a long drive. I think (looked on Goggle map) that the building is still there but not a school anymore. St Anselm's used to be a convent which went from age 3 up to 18...now I think it is a Primary school. My family were not RC but I was so happy there. I had to catch a bus, I think a 49, and it stopped outside the school. It makes me feel sad that the schools have gone.My grandma lived in Dalebury Road and my Great Aunt lived in Streathbourne Road. I remember we used the Tooting Bec underground. I had a friend who was 2 years older than me and she would call for me and take me to the common to play (that was when we came across the prisoner!) I was only about 3 at the time, my friend 5 - you wouldn't allow that now! But at the time, it was deemed safe to let small children out - and we never came to any harm.I remember walking past the prison (ooh - exciting!) and my mother used to tell me of the last hanging there...they rang the bells early in the morning and she said it was quite horrible to think of what was happening.It is funny how those 2 sweetshops are lodged forever in my memory. You could get so much for a ha'penny - I used to like (apart from those gorgeous flying saucers) a sherbet fountain with the liquorice stick that you could actually suck the sherbet up through, and also a liquorice stick with a balloon on the end - my dad used to blow up the balloon through the liq. stick and then nibble off the end before handing it back to me.I remember the United Dairies too, with those funny little electric van things.I do not remember much about shopping away from Belle Vue, but I do remember my mum taking me to a shop called Arding and Hobbs (sp?) which had a thick carpet and my brother and I used to roll all over the floor and the shop ladies did not mind.I have gone all nostalgic now. I think we were very lucky children in that we were so very happy.Oh, and the summers were always hot and the winters always had snow! And Father Christmas always left a Rupert Annual in my sock (well, by the sock..my dad's feet were not THAT big!) XXXXXXX
Caroline Hall ● 5342d