THE photograph on the right shows Number 42 Fishpool Street, where reader Harold Peters was born in December 1921.

For the first five years of his life he lived there with his parents, his maternal grandparents, two uncles and an aunt.

He recalls: "There were only three bedrooms. There wasn't room for us - that's why we moved to Spencer Street."

The picture shows his grandmother, Rosina White, his aunt Ellen and his older uncle, Herbert.

Since both uncles fought in the First World War, the date of the photograph is estimated to be between 1905 and 1910.

"My grandfather Jim worked at the silk mill - practically opposite The Fighting Cocks.

"My mother worked there too. During the war she made armaments there.

"My father Ernest was a painter and decorator, working for Miskins builders.

"He fought at Salonika in the First World War - he was in charge of the horses that pulled the gun carriages.

"When he came home he brought his horse whip, and he used to keep it hanging on the wall in the cellar.

"We had a small back yard, and an outside toilet - that was a bit uncomfortable in the winter.

"The lighting was gas - you had to buy a gas mantle, a bit like a bulb. They would last about six months.

"Miskins had a wood yard right opposite our house - it was called Maltings Yard, and about half-a-dozen people worked in there."

Mr Peters had another uncle, whose name was Mr Jeffs, and who worked on a saw mill in the wood yard.

"He lived in Kings Road, and had three children - one of the boys went to Australia and was never heard of again.

"My father's sister, Mrs Stidson, ran The Lower Red Lion for about three years.

"They had two sons and two daughters - Eva, Ivy, Alf and Will."

Mr Peters remembers Mr Charles Cockell, another contributor to the Nostalgia section, from his Spencer Street days, although he is 20 years younger.

"They lived on the odd side, and we were on the even side.

"We had very good neighbours. You could leave your door open - not like Fishpool Street.

"There was Mr and Mrs Slark - he was a painter and decorator for Miskins like my father.

"Mr Yellop worked for the gas board. Then there was Mr and Mrs Freemann, who had a shop selling sweets, cigarettes and groceries.

"The house was owned by Mrs Ives. She was a teacher who lived in Mount Pleasant.

"Spencer Street had a very high pavement - if you were drunk you would fall off it."

Mr Peters' school friends were Jimmy Yellop, Charlie Ewer, who also lived in Spencer Street, and Steve Marshall, who lived in Worley Road.

They used to play cricket in a builders' yard - Gentle's Yard, which they called Gentle Giant.

"We used to play behind the girders and steel rods - it was a strange place.

"It led from Lower Dagnall Street out to French Row.

"We used to go swimming together - where the river runs at the back of Verulam Road.

"Charlie Ewer's dad was an agent for the Sunday papers, and we used to deliver them for him.

"The first car I saw belonged to Mr Miskins. He had an old Morris in the mid 1920's.

"I remember seeing the Belisha beacons switched on for the first time at the top of Victoria Street - I was about eight or nine."

Mr Peters went to Spicer Street Primary School, and then Batchwood Drive School.

"I went there by bike. We had our own allotments, where we grew potatoes and cabbages. The head was Mr Watson."

When he left school in 1936, he worked for JW Vernon's, a printing business at the corner of Hatfield Road and Arthur Road.

"I didn't want to be a painter and decorator - I wanted a regular job.

"For the first two years I was a messenger, taking the proofs to the customers."

One of the biggest customers was Watneys brewery in Isleworth.

"I used to go by train. I had to collect the proofs from the parcel office at St Pancras."

At weekends, the young messenger used to travel all over London on the season ticket his employers gave him.

"I went to the shows and the speedway.

"I went to the Holborn Empire. BB Daniels, Ben Lyon - they used to appear in different sketches.

"Max Miller, the cheeky chappy - he was their regular.

"I went to speedway at Haringey.

"Vernon's was right opposite the Rat's Castle, and it was run by two brothers.

"Downstairs were all the machines, and upstairs were the compositors.

"About 18 people worked there. Some of them lived in Arthur Street, like Mrs Hankin and Wyn Paine, who worked in dispatching.

"After two years I became an apprentice on the machines. They were called Heidelburgs, after the town in Germany where they were made.

"By the time I was 18 there weren't many people working there.

"I was one of the last to be called up because I was one of the youngest."

December 13, 2001 11:00