Comments on: The Return Of Benjamin Shapiro

By: paul loften

paul loften — Mon, 20 Sep 2021 23:19:00 +0000

I should add that the house where we lived at no 2 was a rented accommodation . I think after the war the local council requisitioned property so that families whose homes were damaged or destroyed had somewhere to live. We had to live with another family upstairs sharing the same door . This property was in an appalling state . Damp bedrooms and falling apart . I was born in the Hackney Hospital and my mum and dad moved in there just after I was born . Because of the terrible state of the house I developed pneumonia in the first weeks of my
life and the hospital told my father when he visited that I was not expected to survive . I mean Bernie ,when you really are not aware of the full picture you really should take a bit of care what you write

By: Paul loften

Paul loften — Mon, 20 Sep 2021 22:28:23 +0000

Dear Bernard
You did indeed live in the same road but you do not know me apart from from reminiscences we exchanged . One thing I do not do is exaggerate or make up stories . My sister does in fact remember you and the nice house where you lived at no 8 and your stepmother who walked a small dog up the street and occasionally spoke to her. Perhaps you were not aware that our house at no 2 was split into an upstairs and downstairs . With another family occupying the upstairs .Maybe they had that bath but we certainly didn’t . My mother used a tin bath in the kitchen that had to be filled with numerous kettles of hot water . There was definitely no bathroom for us in that house there was just a small box sized toilet at the back .It just goes to show how some people are blissfully unaware of how others had to live,. If you don’t believe me perhaps you would like my sister to confirm here what I said is true

By: Bernie

Bernie — Mon, 20 Sep 2021 16:38:34 +0000

Acceptimg that a little exaggeration may serve literary purposes, I would gently question one of Paul Loften’s remarks in his item above. Postwar, Paul lived for some time in the same street where I lived most of my childhood at number 8 (as we know from earlier exchanges). It is (perhaps) possible that there was no bathroom in his home, but my understanding has always been that one was built into every house in that street, built in the late 1880’s.

By: William Martin

William Martin — Mon, 20 Sep 2021 15:29:59 +0000

I would love to know more about his sojourn here in the States. V

By: paul loften

paul loften — Mon, 20 Sep 2021 11:35:04 +0000

Thank you both for the story and photos. It rings so true for so many of the Jewish immigrants that came here at the turn of the century. My own childhood was spent in poor very poor post war accommodation in Stoke Newington . My father spent almost six years in the army and when he returned my sister never knew who he was. There wasn’t any decent housing about in London
America was a big temptation for my mother who had a friend that was a ARP warden with her in Hackney . Her friend went to America after the war and we would get regular letters addressed from North Harper Avenue in Hollywood . Fay would send photos of her big detached house and modern kitchen. We never had a bathroom! It took until 1958 on a council house waiting list that we were offered a council flat in Clapton . It wasn’t America but we had a bath and our own room .

By: Pauline Taylor

Pauline Taylor — Mon, 20 Sep 2021 08:46:38 +0000

I remember being taken to Petticoat Lane in the early 1950s and watching in amazement as the man threw his crockery into the air. Thank you Ben and GA for bringing back happy memories.