Childhood memories
I lived at 7 Crescent Place, Kemptown, from 1950 till 1969. Some of the nearby places I remember are St Anne’s Church Hall on the corner, where I went to Brownie meetings (Brown Owl was a Mrs Hoyle, I think). There was the Post Office in College Road, and various shops along St. George’s Road. These were the Home and Colonial, Randall’s and Brampton’s the butchers. Of course there was Barnard’s the electrical shop, where in 1953 aged 3, I watched the Coronation on TV through the shop window!
I remember Bedford’s the hardware shop, Lee’s the dry cleaners, Carmichael’s (a sweet shop?), Hewitt’s the chemist, Greenyer’s the grocers, Clark’s (one of a chain of bakeries), Davigdor(?) Dairy, and a draper’s shop called Agate. A bit further away, in Upper St. James’s Street, was a Jewish bakery called Fogel’s, that sold delicious hot cross buns, which we used to buy on Good Friday. At the top of Lavender Street there was a small greengrocer’s shop owned by Mr. Cole, a nice young man with a bald head, who used to deliver fruit and vegetables to us on Saturdays on his bicycle.
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So nice to hear from someone who lived in Crescent Place during my childhood and can even remember my dad! His name was actually John Carroll, so yes, he was of Irish descent, and always busy painting – for instance Dora Bryan’s house across the road. I vaguely remember the name Compton, but didn’t know all of our neighbours very well. Perhaps, Colinette, you remember the Pauseys from no. 8 (Gill, Pat, Christine and Sarah – who I used to play with) or the Silversons (Edie, Reg, Louisa and Alfie) who lived at the house with the gas mantles (the only other place I ever saw gas mantles was at the Continentale Cinema!). Their daughter was another of my playmates. When they moved away, the house was bought by the Scahill family, who modernized it. I remember babysitting their young sons, Nicky and Christian, when I was a teenager. Like Colinette, I’ve been back in recent years and found everything looks so much smaller, and the distances between places shorter, than I remembered. We’d often catch the no. 7 bus down to Woolworths in St.James’s Street – a short distance I’d always do on foot these days – and Western Road seemed miles away! Recently I’ve enjoyed taking a virtual stroll around Kemp Town with Google Maps – great to see all the old places, some of which haven’t changed much at all.
Could anyone tell me where Crescent Cottages were/are. I understand my Great Great Great Grandfather, Thomas Thorpe and his wife Ellen (nee Dyer), lived at No 2 in the 1850s
In reply to Maureen Buckmaster: I believe Crescent Cottages used to be somewhere off Upper Bedford Street, near Eastern Road. My mother can vaguely remember it from the 1930s or 40s.
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