Our Stepney house was in a street called John’s Place just off Sidney Street (where they had that siege). I believe Nonnatus House is a fictionalized place based on another–just go to the Call the Midwife website to read all about it. All Rights Reserved. Bath night was always Friday with a tin bath in front of an electric bar fire in the kitchen (living room) with Budgie (a TV show of the time) on the black white TV in the corner. — Denise, I know this is a cliché but “you took the words right out of my mouth!”. Much of the background is of an earlier period. East End pubs: then and now As our interactive gallery illustrates, times are tough for London's cockney boozers By David Clack Posted: Tuesday July 15 2014 I have loved history and period pieces my entire life. Janice . My mum’s maiden name was Barwick and there was 7 children as well. In my mother’s family there were 12 children. Discover the history of London at the Museum of London, near St Paul's and Barbican. My mum’s best friend, Fiona Haines (my youngest oldest friend I call her) was able to share it with me recently when I was in the UK in June 2014. The hero and narrator grew up in Chichester. She was hired as a staff nurse at the London Hospital, For all that a great nostalgia fest. Eckersley faced similar challenges to the ones viewers see on the series: mothers begged to give birth at home to avoid the hospital; mothers had a difficult time finding people to look after older children; and midwives had to make hard decisions. I came across this blog while I was doing some research related to midwives in the 50s and 60s. My dad’s sister was Ivy Barwick; married to Bill Lemmon. But ever since the 2012 debut of the BBC series, which depicts a fictional group of nurse midwives working in London’s East End in the late 1950s and … The popular PBS period drama Call the Midwife tells the story of midwives who serve young mothers in London’s East End during the 1950s and ‘60s. Reggie Kray’s scrapbook: How fame-obsessed East End gangster kept press clippings over 15 years charting he and brother Ronnie’s first 1950s court appearances for violence and intimidation to their later years ruling London Scrapbook is revealed in documentary series Secrets of the Krays, which airs on streaming platform Britbox Over a 15-year period, Reggie, who […] The BBC’s Call the Midwife is one of the channel’s most popular shows. I remember like others being taken to Chrisp St and ‘Raffie’ Rathbone St markets….. mum still talks of my first christmas present a second hand childs telephone exchange from a stall on Chrisp st… where i was born in 1954 living in clifton buildings. The characters face economic, social, physical and emotional challenges, and every birth is an adventure with its own unique obstacles. We had a tin bath in the yard which was put in front of the fire every Sunday afternoon, whether we wanted one or not! I worked at their surgery in the 60s and remember both I remember listening for hours intently to my dad, mum and grandad about how it was when they were young. Thankful for Netflix, for the simple reason I was able to watch every season (series) over the course of a few weeks, and caught up with my local PBS station. When Chris Dorley-Brown stumbled upon thousands of old colour slides belonging to local photographer David Granick, he quickly set to work. In around 1967 he graduates from McGill University in Montreal, Canada to do an internship/residency? The East End in Colour 1960-1980 by David Granick is … The East End of London was one of the most heavily targeted places. Grace. Every family I knew had running water and electricity. You can also still see the effects of the Second World War in the show, although these have probably been a little sanitised for TV. The houses were very big, Victorian style and run down, (slums) although as a kid you didn’t see that. We had an outside toilet and baths in a tin bath in the kitchen every Friday night. Some strove longer simply for stubbornness to do something which they thought was right. These cookies do not store any personal information. The attitudes of locals to foreigners, especially if they were non-white, was often suspicious and racist. In addition, work was still sometimes hard to come by and the welfare state did not always give all the help that was needed. Author Malcolm Oakley. The first intake of policemen left much to be desired, with many of them being quickly dismissed for drunkenness on duty. And I’m still here…. This is … My dad was a GP in Burdett Rd in the 60’s. We used to go up to Chrisp Street Market at weekends and in the school holidays, or walk to the island (Isle of Dogs) across the two bridges, then use the subway to go Greenwich Park. I hope to write my own story one day against the background of our more recent history, when I get the time. 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