The Baker Family

Gran and Grandad Baker, Jen, Joe, Floss and Mum

Alan Baker

Grandad Baker in Broadley Street

Alan Baker

Nan, Grandad and Charlie Plummer 1937

Alan Baker

Photo memories of my family around Church Street

By Alan Baker

The first photograph is of my grandparents with my father and his siblings taken around 1920 I would think. The grandad Baker ones were taken when he worked on Marylebone council.

I can remember buying a shirt in Jordans in the late 1950s, it was green with some sort of shiny thread pattern woven into it and when it was washed it became light green and eventually white after further washes.

I do remember Chocolate Joe but that would also have been in the 50s, the lady in the film was talking about buying sweets for 50p.  Whether this chap was still trading or even alive in the early 70s onwards when we changed the currency, I don’t know.

My first job after leaving school was in an office in Fitzroy Square near Euston Road, very often I used to see Prince Monolulu walking about the area shouting out “I gotta horse” because he used to sell horse racing tips.  This chap used to wear a very colourful oufit with a feathered headdress and he lived in Cleveland Street which is just around the corner to where I worked.

The fifth photograph down isn’t very good quality but is of my dad’s parents, his brother Joe with his wife Jen and his sister Floss together with my late mother.

The sixth photograph down is of my grandfather outside his home at 104 Broadley Street. To his left is a row of shops, the second one up was a newsagents run by a chap whose surname was Crane and I was mates with his son Johnnie.  Next to the newsagents was a funeral directors who I believe was called Francis and I remember that they carried out my grandfather’s funeral in 1947 with a hearse drawn by black horses with black plumes on their heads.

The seventh photograph down is of my gran and grandfather in the back row, presumably outside No. 104. The chap on the left at the back lived next door to them on the top floor of No. 102 but his name escapes me although I do remember that you could hear him in the mornings when he was shaving because he used a Rolls Razor which needed to have the blade sharpened on a leather strop which was built into its case and made a particular noise when being sharpened. The chap in the middle at the front was Charlie Plummer who lived a few doors along the road and generally came to my grandparents on a Saturday night for a chinwag as they had no TV at that time.  My grandfather died in 1947 from lung cancer and my gran went on to 1961 dying from pneumonia and a couple of other things at the age of 71 in St Mary’s hospital.