Up West

by Pip Granger

  Peter Jenkins was born in West London. His father got a job as Superintendent of a Peabody Trust housing estate in Wild Street, and the family moved there in 1947, when Peter was four. His mother had grown up in the area. Peter went to St Clement Danes school. The family moved out of the West End when Peter’s father switched to a new estate in 1956.

  Barbara ‘Bobbie’ Jones was born in 1936 and grew up in John Adam Street, near the Adelphi, where her parents worked for a firm of coal factors, her mother as a housekeeper and her father as an accountant; her mother was also a knitwear designer. In 1955, the family moved around the corner to Buckingham Street. She went to school at St Clement Danes and then the Greycoat School in Victoria before going to university. She married a London fireman, Roy Walker, who also contributed some memories to the book. Roy died in 2008.

  Pat Jones was born in 1933 and, after returning from evacuation in 1943, was at St Clement Danes for a year before going on to the City of London School for girls and, in 1947, Bloomsbury Technical College to learn millinery. From 1949 to 1954 she worked at a costumier’s in the West End, before giving up millinery because of problems with her eyes. She then worked in a local tobacconist’s and a hairdresser’s, and left the area following her marriage – in St Martin-in-the-Fields – in 1955.

  Ann Lee was born in 1946 and spent the first twenty years of her life living in the Peabody Trust buildings in Wild Street, where her grandmother, aunts and uncles also had flats. She went to school at St Clement Danes, then on to Millbank and Starcross secondaries. Her father worked at Boots across the river in Stamford Street, and her mother had various cleaning jobs. Ann left school at fifteen and worked in the area until she was married, in 1967.

  Ronnie Mann’s mother went in to labour during an air raid in 1942, and was removed to Guildford, making Ronnie the only one in his family not to be born in Covent Garden. He grew up on the Peabody Trust Estate at Bedfordbury, and went to St Clement Danes and St Martin’s schools before finding work on the market. In the early sixties he joined the Mann family picture-framing business in Monmouth Street, next to the Nucleus Coffee bar.

  Mike O’Rouke was born in 1944 and grew up at 14 Shelton Street, next door to the Mercer’s Arms pub. The O’Rouke family had been Covent Gardeners for several generations, working in the market and the grocery trade. Mike went to St Joseph’s School in Macklin Street, then to a grammar school in Shepherd’s Bush. After school he worked for his uncle, James Keith, who had five betting shops in Covent Garden.

  Jackie Trussler was in the same class at St Giles as Patricia Taylor. From the age of three, she lived in council flats with her mother and aunt, at first in Museum Street, then in Gower Street. When her mother remarried in the early sixties, Jackie moved with her to her stepfather’s pub at King’s Cross.

  Margaret Connolly, Mel Edwards and Angela Rash-brooke also supplied accounts of their childhoods in the West End.

  SOHO-ITES

  Sonia Boulter was born in Newport Buildings in 1940, and continued to live there until they were demolished for redevelopment in 1971. Both Sonia’s parents had been born in the Buildings. Her mother’s parents were Italian immigrants. Sonia went to St James’s and St Peter’s, and then on to do her secondary schooling at St Martin’s. She left school when she was fifteen and got a job in the offices at Boots, Piccadilly Circus, where she worked until 1973.

  Alberto Camisa was born in 1951 above the family delicatessen in Berwick Street and lived there until his marriage. With his younger brother, he carried on the family business on a wholesale basis, outside the West End, until his death in July 2008, aged 56. Alberto’s younger brother, Francesco, also contributed a couple of quotes.

  John Carnera was born in Italy in 1940. His father had been interned in the UK as an enemy alien, and John did not meet him until the family was reunited in 1947 in Soho, where John’s father worked at, and lived above, Gennaro’s Italian restaurant on Dean Street. John attended St Patrick’s School, then found work as an apprentice shoemaker in St James’s. The family moved to Islington in 1959, but John continued to come Up West to work and still works in the West End to this day.

  Raye Du-Val was born Ray Duvall in Soho in 1932. His parents were French, and returned to France during the Second World War. His father was killed fighting in the Resistance. Raye still wears a cross of Lorraine. He went to St James’s and St Peter’s School, and then to a boarding school. He took up the drums when still at school – and was expelled for breaking out and playing in a jazz club. He continues to play drums to this day. After a spell on the south coast in the mid forties, he returned to Soho and got a flat in Berwick Street.

  Derek Hunt grew up in Plymouth, and came to the West End in 1959 as a young man to pursue a stage career after working in rep. He has lived in Soho ever since.

  Pepe Rush spent his early years in Lyme Regis, but his family came to live in Old Compton Street in 1952, when he was ten. His father, a musician, was born in Marshall Street and had grown up in Soho. Pepe attended several primary schools, then went to St Martin’s secondary. He was always interested in electronics, and began to work in recording studios while still at school. Soon after he left, he had his own studio in Berwick Street. In the early sixties he owned a factory workshop in Portland Mews, producing amplifiers and building sound systems for clubs, theatres and musicians.

  Although his parents were resident in 62 Old Compton Street when he was born, in 1945, Jeff Sloneem was born in Glasgow. His father, a Scot who was a performer in variety, insisted on it. Jeff attended St James’s and St Peter’s School until his family moved away in 1954/55.

  Janet Vance (neé Blyghton) was born in 1948, and grew up in Frith Street, on the corner of Bateman Street. Her father was a street bookie who also ran a gambling club in the basement. In 1959, they moved to another flat in Brewer Street, where she lived until her marriage. Janet went to St James’s and St Peter’s School. She has since returned to live in Soho.

  Leo Zanelli’s father bought a restaurant at 21 Romilly Street in 1939, when Leo was nine, and the family moved there from King’s Cross. Leo went to St Patrick’s School, then found work with Collins the publishers, near Covent Garden. He left for New York in 1950. His father gave up the restaurant and opened an Italian drinking club, the Tosca, in Newport Place. On his return to England, Leo got a flat in Newport Buildings, where his parents were then living, and stayed there until his marriage in the early sixties.

  OTHER RESIDENTS

  Anne Payne was born just before the Second World War. Her parents split when she was a toddler, and her mother took her to live with her grandmother in Montpelier Square, Knightsbridge. After her mother died, Anne’s grandmother brought her up. She went to St George’s (Hanover Square), and met her future husband at a youth club in 1953. After leaving school, she went to secretarial college and did various jobs in the West End and the city.

  Andy Pullinger was born in 1943, and grew up in St James’s Square, where his father was a caretaker for Distiller’s Company Ltd. He went to St James’s and St Peter’s school, then transferred to St George’s (Hanover Square). His secondary school was in Chalk Farm. He started working on Berwick Street market when he was still at school. He married in 1962 and emigrated to Canada, where he still lives, in 1965.

  JUST VISITING

  Ronnie Brace was born in 1939 and grew up in the King’s Cross area, and went to Marylebone Central School. Although he never lived in the West End, he was a frequent visitor: he had an aunt in Windmill Street, and his father’s brother ran a fashionable nightclub in Bond Street in the fifties.

  Victor Caplin was born in Rhyl, Wales, in 1946, and moved to Southend, where his family had a clothing shop, soon after. From a young age, he was a frequent visitor to Soho, where his aunt ran Les Enfants Terribles.

  Paul C was born in 1944 and grew up in Crawley, Surrey. He never lived in the West End, but was a frequent visitor to Soho in his teens.

  Charles Hasler was born in 1921. He never lived
any closer to the West End than Islington. He joined the Metropolitan Police in 1946 and was promoted to Sergeant in June 1951, when he was attached to West End Central. He was transferred to Gray’s Inn Road in 1954, but returned to the West End for a further thirteen-year stint at Marylebone Lane station.

  Chas McDevitt was born in Glasgow in 1934, and came to live in Surrey when he was a child. It was music that brought him to the West End, at first as a fan, and later as a performer (and still a fan), and he lived in various places in the West End from 1955 into the sixties. He opened a coffee bar in Berwick Street named after his international hit record, ‘Freight Train’.

  Gary Winkler was born in Prague in 1935, and can thus claim to be a true Bohemian. He came to England with his mother a few weeks before the Second World War. He grew up in High Wycombe ‘in the hotel trade’, and went to catering college. After his National Service ended, he got a job as an assistant manager at a hotel in Holborn. He took over the Nucleus Coffee Bar in Monmouth Street around 1955 and ran it until 1960. During this time, he was living in a flat in Baker Street, and developed a parallel career in music as a drummer.

  Sources

  Quentin Crisp, The Naked Civil Servant (Cape, 1968)

  Dan Farson, Soho in the Fifties (Joseph, 1987)

  Frankie Fraser, Mad Frank’s London (Virgin, 2001)

  Jack Glicco, Madness after Midnight (Elek, 1952)

  Roy Harrison, Blitz Over Westminster (Westminster Libraries, 1990)

  Matt Houlbrook, Queer London: Perils and Pleasures in the Sexual Metropolis 1918–1957 (Chicago University Press, 2005)

  Kelly’s Directories, selected volumes from 1946 through to 1959

  Peppino Leoni, I Shall Die on the Carpet: with a Foreword by Fabian of the Yard (Frewin, 1966)

  Fergus Linnane, London’s Underworld (Robson Books, 2004)

  Fergus Linnane, London, The Wicked City (Robson Books, 2003)

  Chas McDevitt, Skiffle: The Definitive Inside Story (Robson, 1977)

  Frank Norman & Jeffrey Bernard, Soho Night & Day (Secker & Warburg, 1966)

  John Richardson, Covent Garden Past (Historical Publications, 1995)

  Nigel Richardson, Dog Days in Soho: One Man’s Adventures in 1950s Bohemia (Gollancz, 2000)

  Penelope Seaman, Little Inns of Soho (St Catherine’s Press, 1948)

  Judith Summers, Soho: A History of London’s Most Colourful Neighbourhood (Bloomsbury, 1989)

  Richard Tames, Soho Past (Historical Publications, 1994)

  Marthe Watts, The Men in My Life (World Distributors, 1962)

  Duncan Webb, Crime is My Business (Frederick Muller, 1953)

  Peter Wildeblood, Against the Law (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1955)

  Picture acknowledgements

  Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders, those who have not been contacted are invited to get in touch with the publishers.

  Map on pages 10–11 by Encompass Graphics

  Photo section

  Bomb damage, Newport Dwellings, 17 April 1941: City of Westminster Archives Centre

  Bedfordbury kids: © Len Mann, courtesy Peabody Trust; Coronation Day at Bedfordbury (three photos), 2 June 1953: private collection courtesy Linda Rockey and Nicola Duckworth; St James’s and St Peter’s School, July 1955: Getty Images

  Making ballet shoes at Gamba, 1966: © Henry Grant Collection/Museum of London; waitresses, 1955; Covent Garden Market, 1957; bookshop, June 1956; brothel, Soho, July 1956; street betting, May 1955; all Getty Images

  Chas McDevitt, Freight Train Coffee Bar, 1959, and opening night, spring 1958: both courtesy Chas McDevitt; the 2I’s, 1955: General/PA Archive/PA Photos; George Melly, Skiffle Club, 1958: © Terry Cryer; the Windmill, July 1951: Getty Images; busker, 1956: © Roger Mayne/Museum of London

  Albert George Dimes, 26 September 1955; Jack ‘Spot’ Comer, 11 May 1956; Freddie Mills, 20 March 1953; Ras Prince Monolulu (Peter Carl Mackay), February 1956: all Getty Images

  Index

  Abbey Orchard Street, Peabody Buildings (i)

  Abbott and Costello (i)

  Abingdon Abbey (i)

  Acapulco coffee bar, Hanway Street (i)

  Act One Scene One, Old Compton Street (i)

  actors (i), (ii), (iii), (iv)

  Adam, Robert, James and William (i)

  Adams, Derroll (i)

  Adelphi (i), (ii), (iii), (iv), (v)

  Adelphi theatre (i) ‘Green Room Rag’ (ii)

  Agar Street (i)

  Aldford Street (i)

  Aldo (i)

  Aldridges’ Horse Repository (i)

  Aldwych (i)

  Aldwych Theatre (i)

  Algerian Coffee store (i), (ii)

  Almina, Princess (i)

  American Embassy (i)

  American Red Cross (ARC) (i)

  Americans in London (i), (ii), (iii), (iv)

  Amies, Hardy (i)

  Anderson, Peter (i)

  Anderson & Shepherd (i)

  Anderson shelters (i)

  Andy (at Pitta’s) (i)

  Anello & Davide (i), (ii), (iii)

  Angel, Miss (i)

  Angel (transsexual) (i)

  Anne Boleyn, Queen (i)

  ‘Apache’ (i)

  Arandora Star (i)

  Archer Street (i), (ii), (iii)

  Arts Theatre (i)

  Ashley, April (i)

  Asprey (i)

  Assirati, Bert (i)

  Assirati, Marjorie (i)

  Astaire, Fred (i)

  Astoria cinema (i)

  Attenborough, Sir Richard (i)

  auction rooms (i)

  Auxiliary Fire Service (AFS) (i), (ii)

  Avery, Josh (i), (ii)

  Bacon, Francis (i), (ii), (iii), (iv)

  Baedeker’s Guide to London (i)

  Bag o’ Nails, Kingly Street (i)

  Baker, Ginger (i)

  Baker, Hylda (i)

  Baker Street (i)

  ballet (i)

  balloon animals (i)

  ballroom dancing (i)

  Bangladeshis (i)

  Bankhead, Tallulah (i)

  Bannister, Mr (i)

  Bar Italia, Greek Street (i), (ii), (iii)

  Barber, Chris (i)

  Bardot, Brigitte (i), (ii)

  Barker, Ronnie (i)

  Barnett, Jim (i)

  Barriteau, Carl (i)

  barrow boys (i), (ii), (iii)

  barrow-making (i)n

  barrows, porters’ and stallholders’ (i), (ii)

  Bart, Lionel (i)

  The Bastille, Wardour Street (i)

  Bateman Street (i), (ii), (iii), (iv), (v), (vi)

  Bateman’s Buildings (i), (ii)

  bathrooms (i), (ii), (iii), (iv), (v), (vi)

  baths, public (i), (ii)

  Batman (i)

  Battersea funfair (i)

  Bayne, Ken and Kate (i)

  Bayswater (i)

  BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) (i), (ii), (iii), (iv), (v)

  Beak Street (i), (ii)

  Beano (i)

  The Beatles (i), (ii), (iii)

  beatniks (i), (ii)

  Beaumont Buildings (i)

  bebop (i)

  Bede, Venerable (i)

  Bedford, Edward Russell, 3rd Earl of (i)

  Bedford, Francis Russell, 4th Earl of (i), (ii), (iii)

  Bedford, John Russell, 1st Earl of (i)

  Bedford Estate (i)

  Bedford House (i)

  Bedfordbury, Peabody estate (i), (ii), (iii), (iv), (v), (vi), (vii), (viii), (ix), (x), (xi), (xii), (xiii), (xiv), (xv), (xvi), (xvii)

  Behan, Brendan and Dominic (i)

  Belcher, Muriel (i), (ii), (iii)

  Belgrave Square (i)

  Bell, Bonnie (i)

  The Bell, Wellington Street (i)

  The Bells, Drury Lane (i)

  Benitez, Mr (i)

  Benson, Johnny (i)

  Bentine, Michael (i)

  Bentley, Derek (i)n

  Bentley, Dic
k (i)

  Bergman, Ingrid (i)

  Berkeley family (i)

  Berkeley Square (i), (ii)

  Berman, Monty (i)

  Berman’s (costumiers), Irving Street (i), (ii)

  Bernard, Bruce (i)

  Bernard, Jeffrey (i), (ii), (iii)

  Bernard, Oliver (i)

  Bernhardt, Sarah (i)

  Bertoni’s (hairdresser), Denman Street (i)

  Berwick Street (i), (ii), (iii), (iv), (v), (vi), (vii), (viii), (ix), (x), (xi)

  market (i), (ii), (iii), (iv), (v), (vi), (vii), (viii), (ix), (x), (xi)

  Betterton Street (i)

  Betting and Gaming Act (1960) (i)

  betting shops (i)

  Bicycle Thieves (i)

  Biddle, Margaret (i)

  ‘Bill’ (i)

  Billingsgate 172 Billy Bunter of Greyfriars School (i)

  bingo (i)

  Binks, Alfie (i)

  Black Cat Café, Old Compton Street (i)

  Black Horse pub (i)

  black market (i), (ii), (iii), (iv), (v)

  ‘Blackies’ (i)

  blackout, wartime (i)

  Blemund, William (i)

  Blitz see bombing, wartime

  Bloom and Green (i)

  Bloomsbury (i), (ii), (iii), (iv), (v), (vi), (vii), (viii)

  Bloomsbury Group (i)

  Bloomsbury Technical College, Southampton Row (i), (ii)

  The Blue Lamp (i)

  Blue Posts pub (i)

  Blyghton, Charlie (i), (ii), (iii)

  Bogart, Humphrey (i)

  bohemians (i), (ii), (iii), (iv), (v)

  bombing, wartime (i), (ii), (iii), (iv), (v), (vi), (vii), (viii)

  bombsites (i), (ii), (iii)

  Bond Street (i), (ii), (iii), (iv), (v)

  bookies (i)

  bookshops (i)

  Boots

  Piccadilly Circus (i), (ii)

  Stamford Street (i)

  Boulter, Sonia (i)