Do You Speak To Strangers While Waiting For The Bus?

[mcgillianaire]

A photo I took last year of traffic on Slades Hill while twiddling thumbs on the top deck of the 307. (Pic also posted here).

No, normally nor do I but last night was one of those natural occasions when a conversation was struck up in the course of waiting for the infamous 191 and I feel the richer for it. Let's call my friend Jack (not his real name). Turns out Jack's lived his whole life in my neighbourhood, in fact more specifically, Jack was born (and in his words, probably conceived) in the same room where he goes to sleep even now - in a little house on the other side of the street from where I live. Judging by his physical features and depth of knowledge of events he has witnessed alive, I'd say he's easily into his 70s, and possibly even into his 80s or 90s. 'Pushing on' is how he put it delicately himself without revealing his actual age. The hands may have become worn out after years of milking cows in the farm behind the hospital where my dad first ever worked and where my sister was born, but the humour is unmistakably intact. And we're all the better for it. Incidentally, the hospital's still called Chase Farm, and Jack says the farm's still in operation.

As typical Londoners our initial conversation was inspired by the cityfolk's (and particularly pensioners) two favourite topics of banter: bus punctuality and the freezing weather. However within seconds the dialogue took a sudden twist and I found myself in the middle of an incredible history lesson about the neighbourhood I live in - and it was all for free! Turns out Jack's quite the history buff and is part of a family that used to own large swathes of land in the areas where I live in and neighbouring ones too. He told me this was now the 376th consecutive year someone from his family was still living in Enfield, after the family had begun a move from Central London northwards. (Enfield, where I live, is approximately 24km 15km north of Central London.) Then he hit what I consider the ultimate historical gold knowledge: he explained the etymology of one of the most well-known and used thoroughfares in my Borough: Slades Hill (see pic above). As it happens, Jack is a direct descendent of the Slades family that I never knew the street was named after, and that the unmissable Jolly Farmer pub located on it used to belong to the family. In fact, he went on to describe how the current pub was into its third incarnation and how his grandmother was the landlord of the pub till her death some years ago.

Jack is old enough to remember animals going down Chase Side Avenue (the main road across from where I live) to the abattoir at the end of the road near Lavender Hill. As you walk along the Avenue there is a small area where the road splits to form what at first seems like a convenient narrow pit lane and parking space for the houses to the west of the street, separated from the main street by three little pockets of grass. Jack explained how in days gone by those pockets of grass used to be fenced around and when there were too many animals going down the street, they would be placed into those pens (nicknamed piggeries for obvious reasons)!

And remember how I mentioned Jack was born (and possibly even conceived!) in the same house where he lives right now? Well because it's on the same street I live on, he kindly did the needful and took a huge frustrating load off my back. No he didn't solve my council tax problems but he did tell me a fairly detailed history of the building and the plot of land I live on now. Apparently my building is about thirty-five years old which confirms my guesstimate. Before that it used to be a laundry and then it became a warehouse-type factory, but that caught on fire and it was a fairly major one by the sounds of it. Because it was located adjacent to a primary school (that's still going strong), the school authorities made sure another factory was not built next to it. (The primary school and Jack's house were both built in 1900 when my street was created. This makes sense because I cannot see my actual street in maps of the 1890s but it is certainly there by 1905.) After the factory fire disaster the current block of flats came up. Jack explained why the ground around the block was so uneven. Apparently the higher ground is where the previous occupants had thrown their waste, but the flat developers didn't do their homework properly by leveling the ground and making it firm. Naturally that led to loose foundations and I forgot to ask if the problem had been rectified! Here's to hoping it won't affect me!

And so it went on. Jack's an absolute fountain of knowledge and with our common interest in Enfield and London history, we will always get along. I even think I was able to fill him in with some nuggets of my own about the neighbourhood, which he didn't know before. I'm so glad I bumped into him because I hardly know anybody in my neighbourhood and I could do with a few more familiar and even conversational faces. Jack might be getting on a bit but he keeps himself busy and still has an inspirational zest for life. It's surreal to think I met someone, almost by chance, whose family has contributed significantly to the shaping of the village-like London suburb that I live in. Only 350 more years for the Ramanathans to match that legacy! And with that it's good luck and good night!

Comments

[drunkendeadcat.livejournal.com]

wow a conversation between londoners who never knew each other :O hehe

[kali-kali.livejournal.com]

Good to hear you've learned more about your neighbourhood!

As luck would have it, I've learned more about mine as well. Not as much as it appears you did, but I have at least been able to decipher some of the mysteries of my direct surroundings, and have established that my street existed in 1930 (though whether or not my house was here or not I don't know). So I have now narrowed down the street's creation date to sometime between 1901 and 1930. Whether or not I need to look at Greater London records or Essex records at this point to narrow things down further is anybody's guess, since apparently as of 1917 Leyton was part of the London postal area, but still in Essex since it only became part of Greater London in 1965. More research to be done!

[mcgillianaire.livejournal.com]

Oh, good stuff! Yeah, I did learn a lot of incredible stuff. After our conversation I went home and did a little further research and learnt a lot of new things about Enfield and the street that I live on. Turns out that during the Dissolution of the 16th century, the land where I live reverted back to the Crown, but less than a decade later in 1546, the Crown sold it to the newly formed Trinity College in Cambridge. And what's the name of the thoroughfare I live on? Trinity Street. Case closed! (Incidentally, if you read Trinity College's wiki page, it mentions two related possibly urban myths about how the College is anywhere between the second to the fourth largest owner of land in this country and that between itself and Christ Church College in Oxford, it is possible to walk between the two Colleges on land owned by them alone!)

[kali-kali.livejournal.com]

I'd believe it. When I was in Oxford, my friends told me about how much land the University there owned, so I wouldn't be surprised if you could - might involve a bit of creative walking here and there, but it could be possible. Now, to do the research to find out ;)

[miss-s-b.livejournal.com]

In answer to the Question posed in the title: Of course I do, I'm a Northerner. You Londoners are weird.

[mcgillianaire.livejournal.com]

Hehehe. :)

[elodie21.livejournal.com]

I do not do it but it happens at times and you get to know the people you travel with. Once I booked an auto to my place and a girl had to go in the same direction, so I said she can hop along. But its remarkable how affinities develop!