[2024] 1960s
PRIVATE LIFE

0192 Hampstead and Chelsea

After a while our flat in Fulham, by Putney Bridge, was needed for a relative of the landlady, so we were forced to move yet again.

Our new, temporary, abode was in West Hampstead -- just by West Hampstead station and really on the outskirts of Kilburn.  It was a largish flat at the top of an old house – which has been long since demolished to make way for new multi-story flats. The lady who owned it had locked off her own bedroom with all her treasures stored in it, but even so we had a large living room, kitchen, bathroom and the large second bedroom; which overlooked gardens full of apple trees – a marvellous sight in spring. 

We had it for six months or so.  It was convenient for my work at FCB, since I just had to get the Bakerloo line to Baker Street and then walk down to the agency.  Mind you the tube was so crowded in the morning that you didn't have to hang onto the straps provided. The bodies pressed against you held you upright by themselves!

During a later tube strike I was waiting for one of the few trains which was running. When it arrived it was packed full. I just managed to force my way inside the door. By two stops later, others had done the same behind me and I found myself in the middle of the carriage! I was standing opposite, and very close, to an especially nubile young girl; whose dress buttoned down the front. As the train rocked backwards and forward I was fascinated to see her dress, rubbing against my suit, was slowly unbuttoning. I was even more fascinated to see what was revealed, a very skimpy bra – just about holding in a firm young breast! There was nothing either of us could do to stop the progress, which luckily went no further before she was able to leave the train! So there were compensations to peak hour tube travel after all.

Indeed, it's funny what you remember.  Thus I remember the first part of the winter of 1962/1963 for being a week-long fog.  These smogs were common in those days, before the millions of coal fires were regulated. On the other hand, this one was so bad that, as I walked up 'Shoot Up Hill' towards the flat, the cars were bumping into each other; but this was because they were rolling backwards, since their drivers didn't realise they were slipping back down the hill.  That was followed by one of the worst winters in living memory, when the snow lay on the ground for months.

It was during this time the Pat decided to have her back operated on.  She had suffered from a slipped disc for some time, and had been constantly returning to Westminster hospital - to be strapped up in corsets or even to have a plaster cast around her middle -- but none of these really solved the problem.  Eventually they offered to fuse her spine together, around the slipped disc, hoping – by this drastic intervention - to cure the problem.  What they only told her afterwards was that they had stopped doing this for several years since they had paralysed a number of previous patients doing this!  She was just about the first new patient that they had tried it on!  Luckily she survived, and it helped her back afterwards; though I later learned how she felt when I developed a slipped disc myself.

She came out of hospital just before Christmas and I set out to give her the best Christmas possible.  Thus I descended on Fortnum & Mason's wine department. As well as buying six crystal wine glasses, I bought two bottles of wine.  The first of these was a bottle of champagne to celebrate her coming out from hospital. It was Krug Special Cuvee; just about the best you could get.  The other was even better.  It was a Les Montrachet, the only premier cru white burgundy.  It must have been good because the shop assistant handed it to me with the comment “You will certainly enjoy that sir”.  It was almost worth the price just for that whispered accolade in Fortnums.  In fact it was a beautiful wine and one of the few premier cru I've actually tasted.

After Christmas, while the snow was still on the ground, we used to go walking on Hampstead Heath, which was only one stop away on the British Railways line. The snow was beautiful, crisp under foot, and it was gorgeously sunny.

There wasn't much in the way of haute cuisine while we lived there, but not too far away there was a nice middle European restaurant where we ate borscht. But this was nothing like the Rice Bowl in South Kensington where we used to eat before. In my student days we ate there, in the coffee bar downstairs, and feasted on Chinese curries. Sadly it was demolished as part of the enlargement of South Kensington station. When we could afford it we had also eaten in the nearby Indian restaurant; savouring their pilaus.

Eventually we had to move again, as the landlay returned to reclaim her flat, this time we moved down to the borders of Chelsea.  It was officially Chelsea, but really Fulham -- since it was World's End, and the worst part at that.  It was in Slaidburn Street, which was a little cul-de-sac off King's Road.  Even while we were there that part of Kings Road became very trendy with boutiques like 'Granny Takes a Trip' being set up.  But our street, with its small terraced houses, never moved up-market.

Pat found it, and I still think the main thing that attracted her was that it had a refrigerator thrown in - a great luxury in those days!  We had the bottom half of a house with a living room, dining-room and kitchen on the ground floor and the bedroom on the first floor -- where our neighbours above also used to have their bedroom (their living room was on the top floor).  It was not really a proper flat since we lived cheek by jowl with these neighbours, but they were lovely people and, particularly when Sarah came along, they were very friendly towards her and us.

The main problem was transport.  It was in one of the dead holes of London transport.  There was no tube station anywhere near and the bus services were not brilliant.  Hence I had to take a number of buses to get to FCB, but it was worthwhile since it was a comfortable flat.  As such, it was when we started to gather our furniture.  There was some furniture already there but we bought our first sets of Ladderax shelving, which we continued collecting for years afterwards and still have!   

The kitchen was reasonably equipped, though we added to it our first twin tub washing machine -- which was the usual machine in those days (with one tub for washing and one for spin drying).  The television, still black and white in those days, was one of the first cable televisions and provided a good picture.

We lived there for four happy years.  In this time both Sarah and Miles were born, and I changed jobs twice.  You are supposed to remember where you were when Kennedy was assassinated. Well Pat and I were at home watching television! 

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