I found this in my box this morning and thought I would share it.Too many artefacts are lost because no record is kept I think this site is exceptional in recording history for future generations.I just hope that they appreciate it.

the last time I was on a bus I was driving it!.
  I drove out of stratford garage 1996-1998

 as you say good luck to them all.I just wondered how my old school(rokeby)fares these days

When the oportunity arose ,after ww2,we didnt take the chance to rebuild london to take into account the ever growing populace and widening of roads to take into account the growth of motor vehicles usage.So, we still have roads that were designed ,basically,for the horse and cart.

As you quite rightly say,some of us worked hard towards getting a good start.If you look at the students that left at the same time that i did (1968)you,ll see 1 was awarded an obe a couple of years back, our class also produced a doctor.
         I wonder if theres been successes like that since?.A lot of it was down to the teachers .As soon as I started work I thought that that was the end of school my first week was an induction course followed by training school for a month and then college! oh well.

Sorry,should have tested the link first heres another link to the same place its the history of hackney wick and its the "leabank" one in searches if this doesnt work.good luck...john


http://leabanksquare.lefora.com/2008/08/29/hackney-wick-history/page1/

I suppose our house in preston road,stratford was like a lot of properties in west ham it was a 2 bedroom terraced property.As you go in through the front door to the left was the best room(used high days and holidays)with nice comfy? horsehair filled sofa and armchairs,dining table and piano. mum played and tried to teach me but as i have large pork sausages for fingers it didnt work.
    The next room was our more usual living room.down the stairs,three, with the two cupboards on the right which were used for coal storage.The poor coalman delivering the coal one saturday got down on the second step and promptly disappeared when the step collapsed.leaving him up to his waist through the stairs coal bag still on his shoulder.
    My parents made him a cup of tea and let him take it easy for a while.ahead from there was the scullery,washing machine ,fridge.out into the garden to the little room by the side of the toilet where the "copper" was (it was a boiler for doing the laundry)and also my dads workshop.The outside toilet last it froze in the winter of 1962/3 and stayed like that for months .when it did thaw it broke and had to be replaced.
     In green street e7 theres a block of flats at queens market called HAMARA GHAR when i was picking up one of the residents I asked what it meant and the lady told me "OUR HOUSE"
           Still on the subject of houses I have a bungalow in norfolk which still sports a open fire,amazing.When I,m up there I never have the tv on always the radio and a coal fire blazing .I suppose I do miss the fifties!

Just a thought but I wonder if madness will now do another version of OUR HOUSE and call it HAMARA GHAR(in the middle of our street)

keeping on with the theme of buses,the link i,m posting is to the history of hackney wick and includes pictures of clarnico,s in carpenters road and photo,s of the 178 which used to run from maryland point to clapton pond.
  As youngsters we thought that clapton pond was somewhere exotic!

http://leabanksquare.lefora.c...08/08/29/hackney-wick-history/ -

I see in an earlier thread there was mention of salmons in west ham lane,corner of pitchford street.I used to visit said shop for some fishing equipment in the 1960,s alas gone now.
      My son used to do a saturday job in lediards(I think it was next door )until he came home dripping wet he had fallen,head first into the vat containing the spuds that he was pealing ,it was a little while before anyone realised what the noise was and rescued him just in the nick of time.

I remember balaam street famed for its cold throughout the borough only went there once with a cousin,never again.We tried a lot of other pools around,but ,gravitated back to romford road.
     Whoever thought an open air swimming pool would burn down? 

those were the days.five a side football,table tennis,snooker and billiards on a 6ft table.couldnt beat it .of course when you reached 16 you were "too old" to go after that.two very good gents ran it a Mr batchelor and tom green.
       i remember when i got to 16 i was awarded the "sportsman of the year "trophy which was kept for a year before returning it for the next recipient and you had a little name plate added to the big wooden base.the only problem with my tag was that they put H.LETCH?? when it should have been J.I often wondered what happened to that trophy.It was a large cup,about 18 or so inches high.

the view we had was opposite n/o 6 preston road by the side of n/o7 and beyond the railway bridge .

when i was about 6 maybe 7 in the summer I used to go into my parents bedroom and look out the window, with my mum and watch the parachutists jumping from the balloon ,with basket underneath,this would have been about 1957/8 on a friday evening ,i think,and from the direction it must have been on hackney marshes.I wonder if there was any other places that these exercises were acrried out?

I was one of the original pupils at this school and left in the summer of 1968 for an apprenticeship on the GPO as a telephone engineer I stayed with them until 1992 when I took "the queens shilling" or voluntary redundancy.                                                       
It was a terrific school then,dont know what it is like now.
        My question is when was the "high" dropped and why?

Hi,
       Ilive not too far away from angel cottage . I know there are plans afoot to renew angel lane bridge soon for the new shopping centre (at the rear of stratford station)angel lane is closed to cars at the moment so,whether theres any plans for any demolition in the area to widen angel lane .Heres the planning application link below complete with maps.   http://pacaps.newham.gov.uk/PublicAccess/propdb/property/property_detailview.aspx?keyval=JSGZ48JY09701&module=P3e planning application.