Comments on: Tony Bock At Watney Market

By: Phil maxwell

Phil maxwell — Tue, 16 Apr 2019 09:55:41 +0000

Great photo’s from Tony. Good to see a photo of the late Gladys McGee who I photographed in 1990.

By: Adele

Adele — Mon, 15 Apr 2019 13:38:00 +0000

This market holds so many memories for my family. My grandfather had a fruit stall there from the early 1930’s, my aunts and uncle helped out (mum was too young) and my uncle eventually took over, selling only tomatoes until he retired in the late sixties. He took a taxi from Aldgate East cab stand to the old Covent Garden market about 3 am on Saturday mornings, loaded up, came back home for a quick cup of tea, then trudged through the streets with his loaded wheelbarrow in time to set up when the Saturday market opened. I remember him coming back in the winter with icicles hanging from the tip of his obligatory flat cap. I then got my 6d spending money, my grandfather (and later my mother) has a bowl of steaming soup waiting for him, he’d unpack and go to bed, Childhood memories. And a very hard life.

By: Pauline Taylor

Pauline Taylor — Mon, 15 Apr 2019 11:21:45 +0000

Thank you GA, I see these photos as showing the grim reality of how people lived then, and, although I am a great believer in markets I would not want to return to scenes like these.

By: Joan

Joan — Mon, 15 Apr 2019 09:59:51 +0000

So nice to see Eileen Armstrong exactly as I remember her. Her daughter was in my class at Bishop Challoner school (and St Mary’s and St Michael’s before that). So many memories.

By: Mathilde Grange

Mathilde Grange — Mon, 15 Apr 2019 08:33:43 +0000

Great pictures. So alive.

By: Valerie-Jael

Valerie-Jael — Mon, 15 Apr 2019 07:03:32 +0000

This brings back lots of memories. I often went shopping here with my great Aunt, and was sometimes embarrassed because she always haggled over the prices and picked each potato and carrot out individually to get the best ones! Valerie

By: Paul Loften

Paul Loften — Mon, 15 Apr 2019 06:33:26 +0000

Magnificent photos of the old market.I fear that it will not be resurrected but you never know. people have become so fed up with the lifeless and characterless thoroughfares.
Pork sausages at 34p a pound! You would not get that at the late reduced shelf in Tesco now