Irish residents

Church St back yard racers!

Gerry Hickey

Wally teaching the lads a few tricks

Gerry Hickey

Stand up straight boys!

RECORD & SLEEVE FROM JORDANS COINCIDENTALLY BOUGHT BY THE IN-LAWS

SUSAN HICKEY NEE JOINER

Seemed a big 'garden' to us!

Gerry Hickey

Mum's finest hour!

Thom Hickey

By Gerry Hickey

Our Mum & Dad Joan & Walter Hickey moved to Church Street in the early 1950s. They had met in London after leaving Ireland in the 40s from Kerry & Tipperary. My brother Thom & I came along in 1955 & 56, both born at St Mary's Paddington.
We lived happily above a bookies at 41 Church St up to 1963 with a soap stall immediately outside, funnily enough run by a man known as 'soapy' to us! A lovely couple named Anne & Jim lived on the floor above. We have great memories of tin baths and a basement which extended under the pavement & you could look up through either a grate or glass bricks to see passers-by, a fantastic adventure for 5 year olds!

We went to St Edwards Catholic School nearby and were taught by lovely Nuns, Sister Mary Monica, Sister Mary Mildred & Sister Mary Calasanctious (forgive guess at spelling) - the 'Once a Catholic' stage play could have been based on them! They were firm but fair and we have great memories of our early education there - Thom who is older remembers friends named Michael Harvey, Paul Stassoplus, Paul McCreevy, and Ramon from a Spanish family who wore winkle pickers! He also recalls a Russian or Slav woman in the neighbourhood called Olga Poliakova - she sent a telegram to Mum & Dad when Thom was born. It would be great to hear from anyone remembering any of those names.

We went to church in Lisson Grove and played in Regents Park when taken there at weekends, it seemed enormous to us of course. As it happens I always preferred trips to the Eye hospital nearby because we got to climb up on the stone lions outside the Town Hall steps on the Marylebone Road - I still smile to myself every time I pass there going into London from where we moved out to and still live today in Harrow.

Dad worked for Wimpeys and worked all over London & the South East building new towns (" we built Bracknell without a level!") and large parts of Heathrow. Mum was a nurse and worked at many local hospitals though she spent most of her time taking me to hospital, because I was famously accident-prone. She used to swear I nearly fell down a man-hole once in Church Street and a stall holder saved me falling in by grabbing me by the hair - explains why I'm baldy today in my late 50s! We often reminisced about life around Church Street and Jordans featured. The picture of a record bought at Jordans is 'Macnamara's Band' by Bing Crosby - record and sleeve still immaculate. I married Sue whose parents from Harrow bought that record some time in the 1950/60s long before we knew them, a spooky coincidence you could say! Our only regret is our lovely sister Julie came along too late and grew up in Harrow not knowing anything of this nostalgic piece of London we travel through frequently, we promise to stop more now that this great site has revived and refreshed the memory. Good luck to you all.