Domestic Life

Family

mum lived down in Sutton Street, it goes to the concert hall on the South Bank that little road. Its still there but of course the houses have all gone. I lived with my mother and my grandmother and my mothers brothers, very unusual today isnt it, all families living together, but mum had eight brothers and one sister I lived in Sutton Street with my gran and I dont how many brothers were home then, I think about four or five of them still living at home, sleeping together how they used to, two to a bed and I slept with my grandmother. My mother and father slept at the top of the house.

[I lived] in Mitre Street, that was at the back of the Old Vic[with] my mum and my dad and my gran, and there were four girls. I never really moved out even when I got married, I still stayed at home. there was me and my husband and my son, and the next sister down to me, she lived there with her little boy, and the youngest sister, she was married but she didnt have any children and of course my husband always living in the street, he didnt want to move anywhere else.

Pear Street. My grandmother when she was married went there. They had a bloater each for their wedding breakfast and mum was born in there. Then they moved to Mepham Street and my auntie N. was born in there and two sons. And then when they moved to Sutton Street there was six more sons, but it ended up to be ten of them, but she lost one baby so it would have been 11 All lived together very comfortable.

She was a lovely lady though, very kind, you know, but tough. Got to be tough bringing up all those sons. But theyre all good, no trouble with any of them. So it was a good old life, wasnt bad.

she was a bit strict my gran but she never touched me, nor did my dad. Never had a smack in me life. Just brought up to behave yourself and talk to when youre spoken to and dont read a newspaper until I was about 16. Dont know why but that was the rules in those days I think, mustnt read the newspapers. I suppose it wasnt very happy reading, I suppose, I dont know.

Housework

[We had an] old coal fire, the range, you know. And my grandmother used to say Ill teach you how to do that. I used to get the black lead and vinegar in a little saucer and put a bit of black lead in and mix the vinegar with the brush, one brush to put it on and then the next brush to polish it all up, to polish the fire grate, it was all black. it was called Zebra black lead and they were just off of the Kennington Road their factory used to run along there. Zebra black lead, its little tiny square black blocks, in black and yellow stripped paper. Can always remember it.

And she used to teach me how to scrub the floor. You wouldnt do it today, would you, scrubbing the floors? you had your bucket and you kneeled down on the floor and you rinsed your cloth first, wipe your area, got your scrubbing brush and Sunlight soap, put that on the scrubbing brush, do your scrubbing, thats in sections you see, then try that and move on to the next section Very, very clean and very very fussy. I think you had to do it nearly every day, because remember youd got say five men coming in to the dinner and mum and my father and grandma and me so thats got to be done and kept clean, hasnt it?

you know where Lambeth Towers is, well that was where the swimming baths used to be, and the baths where people could go and do their washing and get it all dried and they used to iron it there, used to put them all through these big rolling machines and it was also the public baths where you could go and have a bath if you wanted to.

there used to be a little laundry in Waterloo Roadcalled The Blue House Laundry. The only one thing my mum ever used to send to the laundry was if it was an occasion, Christmas or anything like that, my mum had a great big white tablecloth [she] used to send to be starched and ironed. It used to come up crisp and everything. But that was the only time she ever went to the laundry.

[At Christmas time] we had a big wooden table in the kitchen in Roupell Street, and you used to put a handle in and turn it and the table used to open. Then you used to put your extra piece in the middle and then wind it all up again.

When I lived in Roupell Street you never got your electricity through properly. It was called the Fixed Price Light Company, so that when your electric light bulb blew, you took it up on the bridge and they give you a new one, and you gave them the old one.

Cooking and food

We used to have a bakers oven on top of the fire [in the front room]. I used to cook loads of stuff in it. I still had my gas stove out there, but anything I wanted to cook slow Id put in there.

we used to have the hot potato man down here. And then we used to have the muffin man down here [and] the shrimp man There was a docker used to come round selling muffins. Sunday we had muffin for tea. Always had the shrimps and had these muffins for tea. That was a regular tea - it was regular then, as roast beef was for dinner.

Another thing that used to happen years ago, they were in Harper Road, the Brass Cow. If you ran short of milk you went to the Brass Cow, put a penny in and you got a pennyworth of milk in your jug. [It was] only a brass handle. You put your jug underneath, put your penny in, pull the handle, you had so much milk.

I never had a fridge, no. you had a larder and if you was lucky you had a cold slab in it, like a bit of marble or a bit of slate in it which cooled everything. Milk had to be bought every day, bread had to be bought every day, fresh food had to be bought, and in the summer youd have to put your milk in a bucket of water and butter or lard or anything like that you put in an earthenware dish and probably cover it with a cold wet towel or something.

People had allotments just the other side of the road here where the bus station is. By Cornwall Road, where the Old Vic is there, on the other side And people used to grow their own food. Most people in the houses had little backyards, and they used to have chickens and eggs, and grow their own tomatoes.

Its so different now, very different. The foods not the same though, dont taste the same You dont get that lovely meat now, that sweet meat. And even fish, I mean if you used to fry a bit of fish it used to smell sweet, lovely, but not today.

Going out

there wasnt all the restaurants about then, not like there are now. I dont think we had any restaurants, we didnt, no we never. Well in any case, people couldnt afford it. You done everything what you wanted indoors. You might have got the odd caf, but there wasnt any restaurants about, as I say unheard of thing to go and eat out then, wasnt it? That was that side of the road.

Waterloo Road, on the bridge, we had two pubs on top of one another, The Feathers No 1, and downstairs was The Feathers No 2, and that would have come into Belvedere Road, the pub down. But the [top one was] on the bridge, there was two pubs on top of one another. Has nobody ever told you that? The Feathers, yeah, they were big pubs. It was all pubs round here years ago. Oh no, no, no, no [entertainment]. They were only drinking pubs

I will say this, if a woman went into a pub, the women were usually sitting down chatting to each other, and the men were standing at the bar. Youd hardly ever see a man sitting down. All round the bar. Some of the pubs sometimes, if the pub was good, had a room upstairs. They used to go drinking upstairs and dancing. My mother used to dance with the local undertaker.