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Here's a question - do you have any recollections of Stroud Green pubs in the post war years? Or were you too young to go in them when you lived here? Did your dad use them? Did women go into pubs then?
There are a few on this board who should relate to that.
Well, DonnaW, the Tuck Shop was a favourite place for us schoolchildren. I've just looked into google street view and it is still recognisable.
It's not in Florence Road but lies at the beginning of Woodstock Road.
If you walk along Florence Road and cross Tollington Park towards Stroud Green School you'll see on the right (in google painted brown) a sort of shop. This was the Tuck Shop.
A lot of the stuff; sweets, lollies, ice-lollies, sherbert, broken biscuits, etc., were available in quantities equal to one penny. (Id). If I rememebr rightly other things were priced at 3d and above. We weren't allowed to take anything into school - most of us had school dinners anyway. And, just to say, we all had a cumpulsory 1/3 of a pint of milk every schoolday morning. It was quite busy at 'rush hours' and was owned by Mr ...., (name known) who lived in Florence Road just opposite to me, and he also had a building and contracting business. Mr .... was the father of a good friend of mine, and, as he was someone who got on with things he had more money than all the other neighbours.
His downfall was the attractive woman who served in the tuck shop in his employment.... and thereby hangs a tale.
Unfortunately the school way along Florence Road wasn't always pleasant for me because I've always been afraid of dogs and the family on the corner of Tollington Park (Upper? I'm not sure now) had a large and rather viscious dog which they allowed to roam freely. If I was fortunate enough to see the dog before I approached the crossing i'd simply walk down to Victoria Road to avoid any stress.
Some fascinating 1940's aerial photography is available on www.getmapping.com , taken from RAF and Luftwaffe stock between 1939-1950.
Type in N4 3JH as a postcode, and then switch to the "1940's hires" tab at the top of the map view area. You can see the area prior to heavy wartime bombing. That area was subsequently rebuilt to become Andover and Six Acres estates.
Do you have an answer to my question about recollections of Stroud Green pubs in the post war years - or were you too young to go in them? What about your family and neighbours - did they use them?
Do you remember them from the outside or what they were called in thgose days?
We lived in Florence Road from 1945 -52/3. My dad was a teetotaller because he'd seen the state his father and therefore the whole family was in because of drink.So it's clear we had nothing to do with pubs.
But don't forget a couple of things: Pubs weren't the same sort of social centres they tend to be today - that is most of those who drank did so at the expense of their families as there was hardly any money around anyway. Children weren't allowed into pubs, so it was common to see them sitting outside on the pavement or playing games. Naturally there were those 'better' pubs, but at that time there was nothing like that in SG. I think the most famous pubs around were the 'Spaniard's Inn' and 'Jack Straw's Castle' both up at Hampstead.
Nor, as far as I can remember were there many pubs to be seen in SG. There was the one on the corner of SGRoad and Tollington Park (name forgotten), and the 'Silver Bullet' down beyond FP station. I think there was also one at the junction of SGRoad, Hanley Road and Stapleton Hall Road.
In fact I think it's fair to say that pubs were looked upon as dens of iniquity and stank of beer. Most pubs (as I later got to know) sold a cheap beer which was the collected rests of spillages and probably not finished glasses. This was quite common I know, because for a while I worked a couple of turns in pubs as an 18year-old to get a bit of money.
Compared to today beer bottles were never to be seen smashed on the pavements - all bottles had a deposit, even for soft drinks, and any left lying around were quickly taken back to a source by us children.
Clearly, as a child I didn't interest myself in pubs, but know, from recent experience how pubs today have dropped in standards if I think back to the 60s when I started to go into them myself. In October I 'dropped' into a pub in Finchley, it was a still warm october day and I was looking forward to a thirst-quencher. . . but I quickly left - all the swearing was unbelievable.
I cannot remember if any of our neighbours used them. but I don't think so simply because there really was no money around and the neighbours, still in the grip of the war years had to scrape every penny together to live. In general, as I remember, everybody around were 'decent' caring people who were forced to start again after the war ended. I'm pretty sure that all of us children had happy lives, my time at SGSchool was never darkened by anything, I don't know if many can say that today.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/03/a4475603.shtml
I wonder what happened to Busby ?
http://bombsight.org/?#15/51.5688/-0.1107