Tooting Junction

A Memory of Tooting.

I was born in Ascot Road just behind the police station and lived there with my parents and little brother, Clive, from 1934 through 1947. The station played a huge part in my early life. It was a wonderful place. All the flats were occupied by the men and their families, and I frequently sneaked down to the stables to see all the beautiful horses. At the end of Ascot Road/Links Road were stables with the horses for the bakery and dairy. Many a time I did the rounds on a Saturday morning delivering the milk while the milkman took the money. Often received a shilling just before the horse went home for a well deserved drink.
In 1944 a batallion of tanks lost their way and went up Seeley Road and turned into Ascot Road to join Links Road on their way to wherever. If you had seen the road surface after their passage??
I went to the Convent of the Holy Family at Tooting Broadway (now a nursing home I believe). To get there (when my mother had pennies for the bus) I would nip out of the back garden, over the alley and through a small door into the Coop yard to cross onto the main road and catch the bus to the Broadway. If pennies were short Clive and I walked.
From time to time we went to the Astoria, Granada ( beautiful place) and the Mayfair cinema. Two films and a singsong to the organ - a good shillings worth!
Memories, memories.