As far as I know my grandparents on my father’s side were born in Tottenham originally. They moved to Barnet, and then, when my dad was two, they moved from Barnet across London to Tooting. They took the shop on in 1922. My nan and granddad ran it until they retired to Peacehaven. Aunty Maud (Dad’s eldest sister) took it on after that and was there until my granddad passed away.  She went to live in Peacehaven to look after my nan. That was 1963 and that’s when my dad took over the shop. It had been in the family for 50 years. It was W.H. Jennett originally (my granddad’s name) when my dad took over it changed to W.J. Jennett. We sold up in 1972.

It was a general store – selling bread, butter, packet foods like tea and biscuits, tinned foods as well as cigarettes, that type of thing. We had a big fridge to keep the big sides of bacon in that we had delivered. You’d have smoked and green bacon. The term green is used just to say unsmoked. You had a whole side of a pig and all the rib bones had to be taken out, I was only 11 when my dad taught me how to do it. I’d have a little boning knife to get the ribs and the hock bone out. He used to cook his own ham in a big saucepan, ruined my mum’s cooker! Eventually it went on to buying it already done [deboned] but that was a lot later on. We had a bacon slicing machine. I used to clean it, it frightens me to death when I think about it now, on a Friday night I used to hold a knife against the blade and turn the handle, and when I think about it – what could have happened.

I was working there evenings and weekends from the age of 16 after I finished my full time job, I would get home and Dad would say, “give us a hand in the shop”. There were no adding up tills in those days, we had pounds, shillings, and pence – not decimal. You had to know 12 pennies to a shilling, 20 shillings to a pound, you had a long shopping list and that had to be added up in your head, not easy. My dad paid me with treats like a new outfit, no wages as such.

My dad was open 365 days a year – never closed. The only time my mum had to run the shop was when my dad was ill, and for him not to work – he must have been bad. Christmas morning we were open but in the afternoon some customers would still knock on our side door if they forgot milk or bread. We were open weekdays from 8am to 7pm with an hour closed for lunch, 9am to 1pm on Sundays. My dad loved it.

It was difficult living in the shop because even when closed, customers still knocked for forgotten items. Also, as our living room door opened onto the shop,
people could see into our living room if dad didn’t shut the door. We had two chairs in the shop, customers would come in to do their shopping and be there an
hour chatting – telling my dad to serve other customers as they were happy sitting there waiting. I can still see in my mind my dad standing there with his arms
folded, chatting away.

In 1972, after we sold the shop, my dad went back to work in the school service as an assistant caretaker, he did that until he reached 65 when he had to retire. In those days you couldn’t carry on past retirement age. The shop is living accommodation now, all the shops in that area are gone. There was a dairy, my dad’s shop, and a paper shop. We knew the Thomas family in the dairy and we used to help each other out. If we ran out we could borrow from them or
vice versa. We sold a lot of the same stuff in both shops.

Jill Hopkin

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Photo courtesy: Jill Hopkin

Photo courtesy: Jill Hopkin

Photo courtesy: Jill Hopkin

Photo courtesy: Jill Hopkin

I was born on 3rd July and my mum was working in the bank right up until 30th June. The bank manager sent her home as they were so worried she’d have me in the bank.

We lived on Rookstone Road, just off the main road, opposite Smith Brothers. My aunt and uncle worked at Smith Bros – that’s where they met and they were married for donkey’s years after that. We lived in a house with my grandparents. They had the downstairs, then we had the upstairs – mum, dad, my three brothers, and my sister. Seven of us. My dad was a printer.

We weren’t wealthy. We used to play in the street. The streets were so quiet with not much traffic. We’d play football in the road. Or cricket sometimes. There was a lamppost we would use as the cricket stumps. A friend of mine hit the ball so high and hard one day that it was heading straight for the window of the house opposite. I saw it play out in slow motion – and just at the moment it should have smashed through the window, the woman inside opened it and the ball flew straight past her. We didn’t wait to see what her reaction was, we all ran for it!

There was one scary moment in the streets when I ran out into the road without looking. There was this car coming that screeched to a halt, but not without first going over my toes. A neighbour took me into their house to assess any damage – I think my mum was so shocked so the neighbour took charge. I didn’t break any toes. I was fine. Just shocked.

We used to go to the Granada on a Saturday morning. Sixpence used to get me a ticket for the film and a Coke. We’d see a cartoon, the feature film, and what they used to call a serial, which was normally something like Zoro or Batman getting into scrapes and ending on a cliffhanger that would be continued the next week.

Potatoes seemed to be the staple diet from what I can remember. And Spam. I didn’t care for it – didn’t like the taste of meat generally. So when I was 12, in 1964 I became a vegetarian. It was unusual at the time and my friends saw it as a novelty. My mum thought it was a phase but I’m still a vegetarian now and I’m fit and healthy. My mum died years ago but, when I used to go and visit her, she’d still ask if I was “still a vegetarian” after all these years!

Eating out was tricky as a vegetarian back then. You weren’t offered much more than a cheese salad. Mum didn’t know what to make me so I’d say, “just cook what you normally do but leave the meat off for me”. One meal I remember was very strange – I was given a plate full of mashed potatoes with chips sticking out the top! I think that day I was off playing football all day. It can’t have been a great diet for that but I’ve done alright on it. It’s so much easier now.

My grandmother ran a stall in Tooting Market and I’d go and help her on Saturday mornings. It was a toy stall. She put me in charge of the Corgi and Matchbox cars. I got pocket money for doing it. A couple of shillings, something like that. It would have been about 1963. There was a record shop just a way along. I’d have the radio on and my grandmother would tell me to turn it off as it might spoil their sales.

I did collect records myself. I’m a huge Beatles fan and have lots of memorabilia. My greatest regret is not being able to see The Beatles when they played The Granada. I was desperate to see them but the tickets were 7 and 6 each and my mum just couldn’t afford it. I do regret that. I would have loved to have seen them. I remember they stayed in Trevellian Road when they played there.

In my early teens I used to go with friends to watch the wrestling (English professional wrestling) at the Granada. I remember Rebel Ray Hunter and Mick McManus. It was in the evenings. They also did “midget wrestling” which you wouldn’t do these days.

At 14 I was doing paper rounds. I started off with an evening route, delivering the Evening News and the Evening Standard. I then took a morning paper round. I had to be up and out on my bike at 5.30am in all weathers. I do remember complaining of the cold and my mum got me wearing her nylon tights under my trousers which did seem to help! It used to take me about an hour to do the paper round. I remember I got 12 and 6 a week for it. On a Saturday I would also collect the classified newspapers from the train station at 6.30pm to take to the newsagent and there were lines of men wanting them for the football results at the shop, keen to read the scores.

In my later teens I’d go to The Castle pub. They had a blues club there for 5-7 shillings, something like that, and I got to see Mott the Hoople, Rory Gallager etc.

I remember the Teddy Boys in Tooting. They had a reputation and used to hand around the amusement arcade near the tube station. We didn’t go in there. Later on it was the mods and the rockers. I was a mod. I remember buying a Lambretta LI150. I remember hanging a furry tiger’s tail on the back of it – I think you got it from the ESSO garage, yes, “put a tiger in your tank”. I do remember hearing stories of trouble and scrapping down in Brighton between the mods and the rockers. I was too young for that and didn’t do the seaside trips down there.

Roger Hunter

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When I think about Tooting, multicultural is the main thing that comes to mind for me. That has been my entire experience of Tooting. It has always felt embedded into our schooling and education. I found it surprising that some people didn’t learn about Mary Seacole recently. I remember learning about it in Year 2. I remember we would do things at school where we had the opportunity to take in bits from our family culture or religion – you could take in bits of food for instance. The Sri Lankan kids would bring in curry. I asked if I could take in stuff to represent my heritage. I took in apples and honey to represent Rosh HaShanah. 

My own heritage is a weird one because I am not particularly religious, neither is most of my family. We’re a white, relatively middle class family, but we do have some Jewish heritage. My dad’s family is Jewish. My dad had a bar mitzvah. I didn’t have one. We used to go to my grandparents for Passover. I have always been interested in people’s religious beliefs and what makes them tick. So having a little bit of that for myself was interesting growing up. I didn’t feel sufficiently personally committed to the religion growing up to have a bar mitzvah. As I felt it would be for the experience and for slightly expensive gifts which felt a bit morally devious. I would go to my family for other Jewish festivals. 

Looking back and thinking about toys and things, I’m trying to think if there was a Toys R Us around here when I was growing up. It’s difficult to remember as they aren’t around anymore. I’m sure we must have picked up the odd thing – in the Poundland or on the shelves at Sainsbury’s. To be honest I think a lot of our toys would have come from the McDonald’s Happy Meals – back in the days when they did good toys! It was a way to collect toys from whatever the latest film was that we were obsessed with as kids.

Film and cinema in general has been a huge part of my life. The first film I think I ever saw in the cinema was Toy Story 2, having basically been watching the first film since moments out of the womb. We had a very old battered VHS version of Toy Story that I played on repeat on repeat on repeat. It’s a miracle that it didn’t fall to pieces. That and Thomas the Tank Engine were probably all I watched, all day, at any given weekend. It was one of the most exciting things ever to go and see it at the cinema. Buzz Lightyear and all those toys were a huge part of my life. I had a Buzz Lightyear toy growing up.

I think I had at least three or four birthday parties growing up at Tiger’s Eye, and latterly at Wacky Warehouse. The Tiger’s Eye was like Wacky Warehouse – soft play, ball pits, and stuff like that. I can’t remember if it was towards Tooting Bec. 

I think our clothes probably came from Primark growing up. Our shoes definitely were from Clark’s, there was one on the High Street.

Growing up here all my life, me and my siblings were born at St. George’s Hospital. I went to a school 10 minutes away, the library I went to often is close by. I’ve lived here all my life with the exception of going to university. It holds a special place in my heart – so many family and friends are still based here. So much of my London life is tied up with Tooting. Even friends who didn’t live here and have moved here since and loved it. We used to do all sorts of things – like there used to be a great burger place called Steakside Kitchen. We’re absolutely gutted it’s gone. It’s now a letting agent. It was short-lived. Mainly because the people who were running it seemed to be doing it part-time. No one ever knew when they were open, but when they were they did exceptionally good food! They did fantastic burgers and were halal-friendly too. We would order from there whenever we could find out they were actually open! 

I remember Tooting Arts Club. It was set up by a woman named Rachel, her surname escapes me. She’d worked as a theatre producer. She lives around here and wanted to set up a theatre company based in Tooting. They’d done one or two productions. Then they did this Sweeney Todd. It was made up of a cast mainly of not West End veterans, but a good cast. It was a great production – the concept was to do Sweeney Todd but in an actual pie and mash shop – so they did it in Harrington’s – the oldest pie and mash shop in London. Only seats 30 people and is opposite a hairdresser’s as well. You couldn’t have a more perfect setting for an experiential and site-specific setting if you tried! It was this absolutely fantastic production. As I say, you can only fit 30 people in. The booths you were sitting in were really tight. It was tiny and limited capacity – it all felt very intimate. The stage space was literally the space between the booths, the till and a staircase! It was absolutely tiny and there was one moment when Sweeney jumps on the table and turns to a random member of the audience and says “You Sir, how about a shave?” and holds a razor towards them. My dad happened to be sitting in the awkward spot that night, and was absolutely falling over himself with laughter! They also offered a ticket when you could have pie and mash before the show. Thankfully before, so anyone that wasn’t familiar with Sweeny Todd didn’t have to worry about what was in the pies! It was a very exciting bit of theatre. It was hugely exciting and it was the first thing I came home from uni for. Later in the year, my lecturer used it as an example of great site-specific theatre and asked if anyone had seen it. I could put my hand up. She was jealous! 

Now, as an adult, the places I’d recommend for food and drink are The Selkirk [pub], The Trafalgar Arms [pub], The Gorringe Park [pub], Pizzeria Isabella, and Samrat which is right next to Tooting Rail station – a lovely little old fashioned curry house. It’s not the fanciest, but it does really good food. Whenever we have family and friends, that’s where we go if we want a curry.

I realised when I was at university there were things that I took for granted – like knowing people from different backgrounds – growing up in Tooting has been a privilege and really informed who I am. 

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