How times change

[JPS]

Hi all,
Not sure if this is the right place to post this picture, so apologises if it's not.
This picture was taken a long time ago and not by me, so I claim no credit. I do however remember the ships passing-by the end of this street when I was a boy and that's what makes it interesting to me. This area of London (East End) has long since changed, with many hundreds of millions of Pounds being spent on it's regeneration.
Does anybody else have pictures taken of the place they lived when they were children? I would be interested to see them if you have.

[Benjy]

hi this was the main syreet where I lived...Bonhill Alexandria Scotland taken around the late sixties,police office on right of photo all gone now apart from police office which is now doing computer repairs

[JPS]

Hi Bernard,
perhaps it's just me, but I look back at the old pictures of where I lived as a child and have many happy memories.
I have been looking at my old picture collection and try to go back to the area I used to live in and take pictures of the same area as it is today and then compare the changes.

Thank for sharing your picture and the update of the area now, it is much appreciated.

[Saskwatch]

Two very interesting shots.
John - was yours taken in the area that is now called (I think) Docklands? I recall passing the docks along the Thames when we rode into London on the top deck of the bus (from Barking). I remember occasionally smelling the cargoes that were being unloaded too. The big cranes were very exciting to my brother who was frequently told to SIT DOWN!

Benjy - I found it fascinating to see what things had changed and what had stayed the same when I went to my childhood area. Some shops were still selling the same type of merchandise in the late 80's that they did in the early 50's.

[delboy]

I cannot give you any photos of my childhood, but have a few from my ill spent youth in England


Wapping water police station (I think)

Trafalgar Sq looking down Whitehall towards Big Ben



This one is quite hysterical sorry historical It was the day after they had re installed the bells after the war in this Cockney Church in Cheapside (sorry forgot the name) It is suppose to be the church that Cockneys are born within the sound of the bells to make them Cockneys.




Wharfs on the Thames



Thaxted in Essex This is where Holst wrote his Planet Suite I think

Bloody good days but glad I live in NZ

Delboy.

[Saskwatch]

Delboy - tradition says that to be a legitmate Cockney you must be born within the sound of Bow bells (St Mary le Bow). Both my mother and grandmother were Cockneys. During my childhood the word was commonly applied to anyone with an east London form of speech (that included me!)

[rpcrowe]

When I was a boy, the Sunday newspaper (New York News) would post an old picture of somewhere in New York City and post a modern shot from the same vantage point. It was quite interesting to compare areas that I knew to what they looked like a half century or more earlier...

I wanted to do this with images in my family photo album from when I was a kid...

Unfortunately, the area in which I grew up, which was once a very respectable lower middle class neighborhood, has deteriorated into a crime ridden jungle. When I visited New York City in the 1990's my family urged me not to visit my old stomping grounds because they were so unsafe. My family had left that neighborhood in which they had lived for 50 years because of the crime infestation...

Not too long ago, I was watching an episode of "Cops" on television. The episode concerned a swat raid on a notorious gang den. It was right around the corner from the house in which I grew up and where I safely played as a kid!

Things do change. Sometimes for the better and often for the worse...

[JPS]

Thanks all for your memory's.
Hazel, yes Docklands is correct. I lived in and around that area all through my childhood and early adult life. 30 years ago nobody really wanted to live in this working class area. House conditions were poor to say the least, today the whole area has been regenerated and boasts apartments worth millions of pounds. I have managed to get quite a few pictures and maps showing how the area looked when I was a child and continue to record the area I now live in as things change.

Delboy, thank you too for sharing your pictures. Trafalgar Sq. has changed a bit these days, with more pedestrian walkways, where roads once stood. I'm sure my brother used to work for 'John Coller' in the 1970's not too long before they closed down and I know you won't believe me but I'm sure it was in Cheapside. I now live in Essex and will visit Thaxted soon and see if I can replicate the picture you have posted, I'll let you know.

Richard, I know what you mean, some areas I want to visit to photograph are sort of 'no go areas' especially with an expensive camera in your hand. I suppose sometimes our memories are the best we can hope for, which is a shame because in my case I wanted to leave a photographic legacy of my childhood memories, to my children.

Once again many thanks to you all you have made an old man very happy.

[delboy]

Thanks for that John, one other thing we must learn is how to store and look after our photos. Here's a few more from a hell of a lot of transparencies in boxes and envelopes, and because I have not stored them correctly they are fast deteriorating. As you are an Essex man I have included a few more from Essex
These were taken in the early sixties



Romford in Essex I understand where this photo was taken this market square is no longer but has shops and buildings on the site.



Picadilly Circus



Ilford High Street



Chigwell Row Church sorry in B&W trans in a bad state.



Somewhere near Basildon

Regards

Delboy.

[Saskwatch]

delboy - thanks for sharing your shots. I used to go to Romford market, I recognise Ilford High St (used to shop there sometimes), I have attended services in Chigwell Row church (when staying at the Girl Guide Camp).
I grew up on the Becontree Estate - those miles of grey row houses erected in the 30's to provide decent accomodation for people when the London slum areas were torn down. For people like my parents they were a godsend - clean, all the basic services easily accessible and all they had to do was pay a modest rental fee.

JPS - if you make it to Thaxted will you try to get and post a photo of the windmill?

[Benjy]

Hi,another shot of main street Bonhill,Alexandria,Scotland....you could buy almost anything needed here,sadly all gone,PS I had an uncle who stayed in your neck of the woods Bethnal Green/Roman Rd as I seem to recall...