Shops and Street Trades
by Ted Stewardson
I remember when we used to go to school, at the end of the road, there were people selling things for the kids - always an ice cream man in summer-time. You could buy a piece of greaseproof paper with a scoop of water ice and half a lemon in it for ha'penny. There was an old woman - Mrs Larkin, and she lived just round the corner. She had a pram with a big tray on it full of sweets - liquorice wood, jelly babies, spearmint chews and she would sell a toffee for a farthing. She would keep them in her front room. You couldn't eat them in class, you had to wait 'til break time.
We used to have an Indian chap came round the street, selling candy floss. I think it was a light brown colour. We used to say it was Indians' toenails. He used to get a bit of paper and roll it into a cone and stuff some of this candyfloss in it - ha'penny a bag.
We used to have all sorts of people come round the streets. There was a bloke selling muffins and crumpets with a cap on his head stuffed with newspaper, carrying a tray on his head. He didn't hold it, he balanced it on his head and he had a bell. He came down, probably on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, saying "muffins and crumpets" and we used to toast them and put margarine on them.
There was a man selling shrimps and winkles. Often mum would buy a bag of winkles and he'd give you a pin. You had to take the shell eye off the winkle, and then hook it out with the pin and eat it with bread and butter - that was Sunday's tea - marvellous.
Other people came round the streets - sweeps and knife grinders, but the favourite thing we used to do as kids was to go up to the Town Hall. Near there was a pie and mash shop and outside a man had a tray of eels in different compartments. They were all wriggling about in this slime. We used to stand there in a semi-circle and watch him. If anyone came up and wanted one - he would take one of these eels out, put it on this block of wood, all covered in blood and chop the eel's head off, then slit it down the middle and take all the insides out and chop it into bits - and it was still wriggling all this time! Then he'd put it in a bag and the bloke would take it away all wriggling! When the eel-man got fed up with us he used to slosh us around the face with a live eel!
One of my first jobs was delivering groceries. One of my claims to fame was that I delivered groceries to Vera Lynn's mum, in Maffeking Avenue - three streets from us. I used to see Vera Lynn coming home at night. She used to get off the train at Upton Park station and walk along the Barking Road to her house. She was just starting then. I think she started at the Granada in some talent show and then she went with Ambrose and the big bands.
When I left school at 13 years old I went to work at Wibbleys - the grocers shop. Old man Wibbley, his wife had died, and he had a German woman and her son there with him. They all called him "the German boy" - I can't remember his name but I was friendly with him. I used to deliver all the groceries, serve in the shop and I wasn't even 14 yet. Mr Wibbley used to go out to the dogs on a couple of afternoons a week, and leave me in charge of the shop. I had to serve, add up, cut the cheese with the cheese wire (I got so good I could get it to almost exact quarter of pound), cut the bacon on the slicer, make up butter pats etc. Fancy leaving me in the shop! I was always hungry! My father wasn't working at this time. The owner used to let me have all the tins that were blown or dented - cheap. Outside the shop was a trestle table with eggs in straw and people would take a bowl and choose how many they wanted. If there were any cracked eggs, they'd get them half price - and so did I. I used to drop this bowl on the eggs. Nowadays you're not allowed to sell them. Salmonella - we never got salmonella in those days! The fit or the dead in those days!
We used to get eggs from China - packed in rice husk - little eggs they were. Some eggs came from Egypt - they were cheaper than our eggs. I was taking a load of eggs to the Dukes Head. They were in a long flat box about 100 eggs. I put it up on my shoulder and it slipped and all the eggs smashed on the ground. I won't forget that - the owner went mad!