Comments on: Mal Gilliam Of Golden Lane Estate

By: Trev Suter

Trev Suter — Sun, 19 Mar 2017 09:38:22 +0000

Born in 1961, I spent a very large part of my childhood at 62 Whitecross Street, where my grandparents lived in a Whitbread house. (Grandad was a Whitbread manager for many years after serving 29 years in the Royal Artillery). This brings back so many memories of the time spent watching the Barbican estate being built, going to the Golden Lane swimming pool, visiting the Whitecross Street market daily before Safeways built their new supermarket on the site of the Whitbread Tanyard; and ruined the livelihoods of many a market trader, going to see the shire horses in Garret Street; that pulled the Lord Mayors Coach, The Kings Head pub, on the corner of Chiswell Street and Silk Street (opposite Whitecross street), walking to Petticoat lane market, via Moorgate and Bishops Gate, going to the first opening of the Barbican Arts Centre and the Barbican Museum (City of London Museum), being able to go into the arts centre any time I wished and watch the many free musical ensembles sharing their talent with the general public, and walking around the estate on the highwalk in the middle of the original London Wall, with the old chapel and big fish ponds remaining right in the centre. Thanks for sharing this Mal, the memories flood back as if they were yesterday; not 43-50 years ago.

By: Nicholas

Nicholas — Fri, 24 Feb 2017 11:35:30 +0000

Very nice piece. I lived in Bowater House from 1984 till 2001 and then in the Barbican. I moved out for quite a while, but 4 years ago, was lucky enough to get back to Golden Lane in Crescent House, and it feels great to be home. Once Londoner always a Londoner!

By: martin

martin — Tue, 31 May 2016 02:55:36 +0000

That estate is nestled into a particular and rare pocket of London just inside the City of London…quite a special place where everything is within walking distance and the whole place goes quiet on a Sunday. For council flats they are of a high quality and the space is well thought out. Lucky tennants.

By: Kerensa

Kerensa — Sat, 28 May 2016 07:17:24 +0000

What a wonderful story! I’ve known Mal for 16 years and been treated to some snippets of the story over the years but lovely to hear it in this way. Funny that we dream of things like the countryside that we don’t actually want! Love to you always Mrs Gilliam!

By: gkbowood

gkbowood — Tue, 24 May 2016 15:33:16 +0000

I really enjoyed this piece and would love to hear more from people actually living in London before it becomes a “Business Centre”. I could relate to her comment “I survived those five and a half years but I was not alive.”

By: Jill

Jill — Tue, 24 May 2016 09:30:54 +0000

A lovely link with the past, Laura Ashley dresses and the St Moritz club, not to mention a part of London that although still there has a totally different complexion…. As always so refreshing to dip back into the past….times are all different and my young son has now chosen to live in the Barbican / Goswell area, and for so many and such different reasons! Thankyou

By: Phil Maxwell

Phil Maxwell — Mon, 23 May 2016 13:31:19 +0000

“these estates have provided the bedrock of community and continuity in London, and how – without them – we are heading towards a city solely for the rich and transient.” – Totally agree. We need a Council House building programme but this government for the rich won do it.

By: Richard

Richard — Mon, 23 May 2016 13:29:11 +0000

Lovely story and nice raincoat! Thanks

By: pauline taylor

pauline taylor — Mon, 23 May 2016 11:36:54 +0000

This piece and all the comments make very interesting reading for me. I grew up in a very very rural spot with only one close neighbour, the next house being half a mile away, but I can understand the feeling of living in a close community that these people, Mal and the others, have. However we, as country children also had great fun as we were free to explore the fields and lanes and hedgerows, all day long when we were not at school, we did not, and I still do not, like to be surrounded by buildings and pavements, but spitalfield’s life has made me realize that there is so much history in London that I have become completely fascinated. thank you Mal and everyone else, you too GA, for making that possible.

I agree completely about council housing as well, decent housing should be provided for everyone at affordable rents. What I have learnt about the situation in London now makes me despair!

By: Malcolm

Malcolm — Mon, 23 May 2016 09:56:38 +0000

Great piece of local interest that has serious connotations for the City as a whole. Council housing should never have been sold off and now we are seeing the result of this ideologically driven policy. We should be building more Golden Lane estates for people to live in, instead – thanks in part to the idiot Boris – we are getting developments such as One Blackfriars, where a studio apartment will cost a million quid. This is untenable for the future of London as a living city. We don’t need any more millionaires in London, we need people who live and work here but this government has made it clear that their plan for London doesn’t include working people. Local communities are an anachronism today and everything must conform to a corporate blueprint designed by business, for business. Even Spitalfields has been bowderlised to a point where it is almost like an exhibit at Disney’s Epcot centre at times.

London is and will always be my home but I don’t want to live in a zoned theme park.