Crescent Place

Childhood memories

By Sylvia Shwarz

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.