Comments on: Audrey Kneller Of Elder St

By: Yvonne Buffman Cheyney

Yvonne Buffman Cheyney — Fri, 07 Aug 2020 07:10:42 +0000

I am Audrey (Buffman) Kneller’s sister Yvonne living in sunny Southern California. As Audrey mentioned, I attended Robert Montefiore Secondary Modern (very happily) from 1953-1958. Mr. Nurse was the headmaster, Miss Abrahamson was the headmistress. Our class teacher was Mr. Castleton (who sadly passed away) and then we had Miss Diamond. I emigrated to the US in 1964. When I returned for a visit in 1967 I started a friendship with Mr. and Mrs. Nurse and Miss Abrahamson (she became a family friend). I was in touch with them over several years until they passed away. I remember my son of 2 sitting on Mr. Nurse’s lap on my 1975 visit. Neither the Nurses or Miss Abrahamson had children. I am very proud of Audrey for writing and researching this historical document, and a BIG thank you goes to THE GENTLE AUTHOR for all the insights we are privileged to be part of through their daily articles. Best wishes to all from across the pond.

By: MOTB

MOTB — Thu, 06 Aug 2020 09:21:33 +0000

We sang this ditty as children (in leafy Surrey) in the 1950s. One, two, three alairy, my ball’s down the airy, serves you right for playing with Mary, on a Sunday morning. I always wondered what an airy was. Now I know.

By: Pamela Traves

Pamela Traves — Wed, 05 Aug 2020 23:00:31 +0000

Thank You about Audrey Kneller!! So Lovely!!??????

By: Jillian Foley

Jillian Foley — Wed, 05 Aug 2020 17:46:08 +0000

What a beautiful article. I look forward to the next instalment. I am about the same age as this lady so its wonderful reading all her comments. I live in a six storey house on Hove seafront now divided into flats but in my flat which is the only one not modernised I have the speaking tube which leads down into the basement. When I did own the whole house in happier times in the seventies my lovely late husband was in the basement which was empty and my two children were upstairs with me in fits of giggles as he was having a quiet cigarette and the fumes were coming up the tube and he was supposed to have given up his Passing Clouds cigarettes! The Dumb Waiter is still in my kitchen – I think it is the only one left in the road as all the other flats have been modernised – more fool them! A rock star millionaire has bought one of the houses five doors down but he has not got a speaking tube so I feel I am more blessed than him!

By: Elizabeth Olson

Elizabeth Olson — Tue, 04 Aug 2020 18:52:44 +0000

I hope there is more tomorrow night about the Blossom Street family. I hope they are having happy lives.

By: Bernie

Bernie — Tue, 04 Aug 2020 14:09:37 +0000

Probably speaking-tubes were common in those old, tall houses. Certainly there was one in my aunt Ray & uncle Woolf’s house in Spitalfields, 60 Wilkes Street, enabling messages to be passed between the living-quarters below and the workshop in the attic. Those workshops presumably were inspired by Huguenot refugee tenants. While the uninterrupted space and large mansard windows made a fine and well-lit workshop, it must have been devilishly cold in winter! Sadly, that house is among those that were demolished many years ago.

By: Grace Caruso

Grace Caruso — Tue, 04 Aug 2020 12:39:59 +0000

This is lovely. Now that most children’s games come down to something on an Iphone….I would suggest that Audrey list the games they played with a very short description of how they were played.. children’s games have certainly decreased in both number and creativity over the years. Documenting them has become a kind of responsibility.. Send the list to one of the larger children’s libraries or to a university child development program. It is a shame to have this lost.

By: Helen Breen

Helen Breen — Tue, 04 Aug 2020 12:16:41 +0000

Greetings from Boston,

GA, thanks for featuring Audrey Kneller’s memoir of her girlhood in Spitalsfields. Such detail.

She mentions the Josephs family – “They even had a television set, which we did not have, and we lost no opportunity when invited to view.”

That brings back a distinct memory of growing up in the early 50s when a childless couple in our neighborhood opened their home from 5-5:30 in the afternoon for a group of us urchins to watch “Howdy Doody.”

Great stuff.

By: Sue

Sue — Tue, 04 Aug 2020 11:01:32 +0000

Wonderful memories of a London childhood.

By: Claire Weiss

Claire Weiss — Tue, 04 Aug 2020 10:29:19 +0000

Thank you for this illuminating history. So precious to get such detail. And it’s particularly interesting for me as I have been investigating the history of a silk dyeing family – the Hendries – whose descendants ended up in my local area of Lea Bridge, Leyton. They were Huguenots and from the late 1790s to the mid 1800s their extended family had lived in properties at Fleur de Lis Street and Blossom Street! One of these might have been the house that you have so intriguingly described! I will look back on the early censuses to check. Looking forward to the next instalment from you! Many thanks.