General Chat

I wonder if anyone out there ever went on the Cloudsley Outing. This started off following the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. People in a pub in Cloudsley Road, Islington got together, organised collections in the neighbouring streets and then put on a couple of coaches taking mums and kids for a day at Margate, it was such a great success that some years later there were in the region of some 30 odd coaches leaving Cloudsley Road for the day trip. I think it cost 1s6d a week for a Mum and 2 children, extra children were 6d a week each. On the coach Mum was given money to pay for the family lunch, I think she also received 5/- spending money and the kids receive a bob or so each, there was the most fantastic tea of fish & chips, icecreams, plates of bread and butter, and loads of cakes, crisps, sweets etc., bags were passed round when everyone was finished for the cakes that were left to be taken for the children. The money collected even allowed for children over a certain age to be taken to the circus at Xmas, and the children that were too young received a very nice xmas present. My mother and I acted as coach captains on a few ocasions handing out the money when the trip started. We even volounteered for the circus once and spent the whole time running around looking for the kids from our coach so that they didn't get lost. I know my children had a fantastic day out and I often think back and apreciate the people in that pub who went to so much trouble. Grace

Bet they had a lovely time!..

Hi Lynda - I lived in Liverpool Road, just down from Richmond Avenue (on the high pavement as we called it). Do you know its really strange that with so many coaches going I've never met anyone wh actually went on the trip. We used to have a great time and my kids loved it. I live in Australia now (have done for the past 31 years). Really miss the old place and would have found it really useful to be living there, with access to the family whatsit centre for looking up all the b/d/m details. Did you know the Dace family who lived in Thornhill Crescent ? Grace

Hi Christine & Lynda - yes we always had a great teime in fact my kids still have a laugh about it. - Lynda - I'm mot sure what number the Dace family lived but they were my cousins. I went to Laycock Street Girls School, but 2 of my daughters went to Barnsbury Girls (Theresa and Lesley Ryan). Yes, the house prices in Islington are astronomical now, my sister was still living in Liverpool Road up until her death 2 years ago and often remarked that such and such a house ha sold for X amount. I tried to talk my husband into buying a house in Theberton Street when we were first married, but withoug success, he often remarked that he wished he had done so. Before we came to Oz we were living in a council flat next to the Arsenal. I have a son and husband who are still died in the wool arsenal fans, especially my son who has ben known t log onto the comp in the midle of the night to listen to a commentary on an Arsenal game that wasn't being televised to Oz. As for me - oh how I would love to go shopping in that big Sainsbury's at the end of Liverpool Road. Grace R