0119 Pat at Imperial College
When I first went up to Imperial College, Pat was still living down in Chichester - where she was an assistant in the county library headquarters. This meant I had to meet her either in Chichester or at her parents, at Chelwood Gate, which was somewhat closer.
The first time I met her after the holiday was indeed at her parents. It was gloriously sunny day and we went out onto Chelwood Common and hid ourselves away. At that stage I had resolved that we would behave ourselves, but the temptation was too great. I soon had my hand up her skirt and under her knickers; and the passion was on again!
Pat
& her parents outside the back door of their house
After that first visit though I used to have to go down to the Chichester. She lived in digs there, her parents having moved away from there a couple of years before. To get the maximum time for my money, I used to catch the milk train out of Victoria at about 3 o'clock in the morning. This meant arriving in Chichester around 5 in the morning, and walking to her digs. Even so, I always had problems waking her up by throwing stones of the window!
This lasted for the whole of my first term at Imperial; going down at the weekend to see Pat and being introduced to her life in Chichester. I well remember her taking me to her favourite coffee bar -- the Mehitabel (Cleopatra's cat) -- where we feasted on mushrooms on toast. Pat's ideal meal then was beans on toast, and accordingly mushrooms on toast was the ultimate in luxury!. There were nice, but not what I would now call haut-cuisine.
Mind you, in Chichester there were no opportunities for any hanky-panky!
Imperial College library
Pat had been trying to get the job in London for some time, but fortuitously - just before Christmas - she obtained an interview at Imperial College library. She was accepted on the basis of this, and became cataloguer in what was then the relatively small staff of half a dozen or so.
When I went up again to Imperial College, after the Christmas holiday at home, Pat was living in a very small bedsit in Notting Hill. Fortunately, I managed to get the student accommodation bureau of the University to look for digs for her and they came up with really excellent choice – the home of Pistol and Marion Packer.
Marion and Pistol had a large maisonette, in part of an Edwardian building in Putney, not far from the Thames,. It was fascinating place, since Pistol was an artist. He taught at the Slade School of Art. I should explain that Pistol's rather strange name came about because his surname was Packer; hence pistol-packer. Even more strange, when he entered anything into the Royal Academy summer exhibition, though he was never accepted, he hid his identity under the pseudonym Magnus Ferdich - Great Freddy - since his first name really was Frederick! His wife Marion was almost as arty as he was. They had two children, and a spare room where Pat was boarded!
The most immediate impact, as soon as the front door opened, was the smell. There were elements there of exotic cooking and, of course, of the oil paints used in his studio. But, dominating everything else was the smell of Gauloise cigarettes. They had a unique smell, and the couple smoked them all day long. It was a very continental smell overall - and quite attractive.
The kitchen consisted of a galley of pine units – which was very artistic in those days. Next door to it was the studio, a room with a bay window which must have been 20 feet square. Here Pistol painted, to music coming out of a very expensive hi-fi system! His style, I suppose, was abstract expressionist. Anyway, I liked it very much and even now we have three of his paintings; the best being titled 'rape in the landscape'; the 'rape' being oilseed rape which gave the painting - painted on holiday in Provence - its golden yellow colour!. But, above all, he and Marion were lovely people, and they made Pat -- and even myself -- very welcome.
Having said all that, Pat's room was the usual anonymous little bedroom, like thousands scattered across the city. She stayed there, and we very friendly with Pistol and Marion, for a couple of years. Indeed their daughter was the bridesmaid at our wedding. However, they eventually needed Pat's room for their daughter and Pat moved on to another bedsit on the other side of the river, in Fulham.
Sometime later Pistol and Marion moved away from London. The last time we met Pistol he was renovating an old house down in Hastings. He had all the floorboards up in most of the rooms, with almost nothing left of the interior.
Over the other side of the river Pat's new digs were on the top of an Edwardian semi. It was close by Putney Bridge tube station, which was convenient for work. Backing onto the Hurlingham Club, we had a suite of three rooms in the attic. There was a bedroom with a double bed -- which came in very handy for our evening games -- and a living room.
The house was owned by a quite conventional couple, but they leased out the first floor to girl who was a hostess at Churchill's club -- which was an interesting occupation in those days. We didn't see much of her since she worked through the night and slept during the day!
At this time, in my second and third years, I had to move out of my digs in Fulham and moved into a room in a tall block of flats just next to Stamford Bridge football ground. If you looked out of the back window of the flat you could watch Chelsea play at home -- though I normally tried to get away on those days, since the crowds outside were horrendous. Once more it was a bedroom for two. My new room-mate was from College of Estate Management. I never developed a real friendship with him, though, even though we shared the room for two years - since I only ever went there to sleep. The rest of the time I was in Pat's digs where I did my work and everything else.
The library staff; Chris, Geoff, Leonore, Pat Currie, Di & Judith
Indeed a lot of the time we stayed late in the library, since it had the best facilities for study. In those early days the library was in the corner of City & Guilds, on the first floor opposite the Science Museum. In addition to having a large selection of books and journals, it had a warren of offices at the back and that was where Pat worked as a cataloguer. Her boss, Geoff - the indexer - with whom she shared an office, was very friendly – towards me as well as Pat - as was everyone in the library.
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