Visiting London as a boy

 London as a boy

When I was 12 I spent a week in London. This was in 1954 and London was quite different then. I was taken by my mother who was determined I should visit some of the well known National features. It came as our family, never well off, was at a low point. Father had been ill and off work for some time and felt he couldn’t come. However mother felt that I needed the experience but was determined to do our trip as economically as possible.

I was a keen trainspotter  so I noted that we were hauled by a Patriot class 4-6-0 on our journey. These were a quite common locomotive on the LMS region. We travelled into Euston on the West Coast main line

We stayed at a cheap B&B in Putney. For entertainment we mainly relied on being an audience at BBC programmes which were free. As tickets were only available at two per address relatives were drafted to get more tickets. As a result we saw a recording of the then famous TV panel show “What’s my line”. We also attended several radio performances. The one I recall was a miscellaneous collection of performers all drawn from the Commonwealth. The audience “warm up” for “What’s my line” was Richard Dimbleby, panellist himself,  father of David and Jonathon prominent today. A very large, rather obese, man he was known as a solemn commentator at major state occasions but on that day he showed himself in humorous, even comic, mode. In describing the seating he said the reinforced concrete one was his.

In the village where we lived I had been quite friendly with Alf. Older than me he had become an apprentice chef at the hotel where his brother Danny was also an apprentice chef. Mother determined that we should invite these boys to spent the day with us. I think she thought that they might be homesick and grateful for familiar faces. As it happened Alf was in awkward shifts but Danny had a free day. He was old enough not to be inhibited by us who he didn’t know well. With him we visited a large library ( British Library ? ) where he was fascinated by Bradshaw’s rail timetable. Long ceased publication this book sized publication gave rail timetables for all  the UK. The one indulgence was to go a performance of the musical “White Horse Inn”. Danny much enjoyed this and mother for years after would recall his uproarious laughter.

During our trip we visited the Tower of London where we saw the Crown Jewels. At the nearby Tower Bridge I was astonished by the mudlarks; boys delving at the rivers edge for coins thrown by passers by.  Madame Tussauds I thought not very interesting but the new planetarium was fascinating. Brand new at the time, the only one in the country, this was regarded as the height of technical sophistication. We had a commentary pointing out the constellations. Ever since I’ve been able to identify the Great Bear ( aka the Plough) and the Pole star.

I was very interested in aircraft and flight and I persuaded mother to go to Heathrow. At the time this was the only airport of any note in the UK. Security wasn’t a big issue in those days and viewing areas gave close proximity to the aircraft. I marvelled at the big four piston engine craft like the Constellation flying international routes. At the time these were the height of technological prowess and were never seen at Birmingham Elmdon ( now called Birmingham International ). The only international route from Elmdon was to Ireland flown by ex WW11 Dakotas. I only learned much later that the massive radial engines were not very reliable and to have one fail over the Atlantic was unsurprising. Recently, with vastly more reliable turbofans, twin engines are common across the Atlantic.

At the time there were many inexpensive cafes by J Lyons and ABC. where we ate during the day. Lyons cafes were a national institution then but disappeared completely later. As we had a fierce schedule we were travelling around the city a lot and I became very footsore. When I moaned enough we would take a bus where mother would ask for a ticket in the opposite direction and then alight after a free ride a couple of stops in the direction we wanted to go. I was a trial during this manoeuvre as I would say we were going in the wrong direction. Mother was very conscious we were on a tight budget.

The Festival of Britain was long over but some remained. I enjoyed our visit to the Festival funfair at Battersea.

I was impressed by the 6 wheel trolleybuses along Putney Bridge road outside our digs. I was a bit surprised that they seemed absent from central London. There it was the old RT buses as I don’t recall the famous RM model at that time. Emergency vehicles were a not uncommon sight; Daimler ambulances with a bell instead of a siren which came later.

All in all it was a memorable and enjoyable trip. Later as a teenager I visited Parliament so I’ve always felt I know something of London which has such a central part in the life of the UK.. More recently I’ve become increasingly disenchanted by the crowds and expense of London. Our last visit to a Hub hotel very near Westminster Cathedral went very well but in general I regard the whole area of London and the south -east as best avoided unless necessary as in visiting our daughter at Guildford