Autumns started earlier in England than they do in Poland; to put it another way, summers would end sooner (and in any case were cooler and wetter). School would start at the beginning of September and all thoughts of summer would soon fade amid the wood-varnish and Magic Marker smells of the new school year.
By the time of my birthday in October, gloom would have descended; wet pavements, darkness just after tea-time and the early evening news in black and white, electric fires and, outside, the all-pervasive dampness.
I remember my tenth birthday; 1967. My present, well-remembered, was a Dinky Toys Rolls-Royce Phantom V. My father bought it at Confiserie Francaise, the best toyshop in Ealing Broadway (on the Mall). We walked down the Uxbridge Road to Ealing Common, where I took the car out of its box (but not off the stand; as well as all four doors opening, the boot opened as did the bonnet (on two sides). It cost 10/6d. That's 52.5p expressed in today's money, though the equivalent value today would be more like £7.00.
On Ealing Common we collected conkers (horse chestnuts) under the large, wet, reddish-brown leaves until the drizzle became more like rain and we retreated to the car, returning home to Croft Gardens so I could play with my new toy.
My sixties childhood
By 1970, everything had changed. Adolescence had replaced childhood, grammar school replaced primary, West Ealing replaced Hanwell. Pounds shillings and pence were soon to be decimalised, pop would go Glam, and 405-line black and white TV would give way to 625 lines in colour. My father changed from black and white negatives to colour prints. Toy cars with steel wheels and rubber tyres would be replaced by ones with metallic paint, plastic wheels and wire axles that ran faster.
Before the Sixties started to Swing, life was greyer, but safer - and happier?
Before the Sixties started to Swing, life was greyer, but safer - and happier?
(pic from carmodel.net)
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5 comments:
I was searching for confiserie francaise in ealing amd stumbled upon this read. It's fantastic, very nostalgic and reminds me of my own childhood times in ealing, though I was born in 75 so I remember going to that toy shop in th early 80s. It was my staple zone fir transformers and star wars figures...
Anyway, thanks for writing this. I love it.
Like the first commenter, I was searching for Confiserie Francaise via Google and came across your blog. It brought back memories as it was my go-to shop for Airfix and (occasionally) Revell model kits. A lovely place to browse! Depressingly, it is now a PaddyPower bookmakers. Just one thing - it was on The Mall in Ealing, not Broadway, wasn't it?
Anyway, thanks for the memories.
I wasn't searching for Confiserie Francais, but I remember it. WHY was it called that though? The literal translation is 'French Sweetshop' which is remarkably inaccurate since it was a) not French - and b) not a sweetshop'. I think it was on the Mall, but to be fair we always kind of called that whole area Broadway, from Bentall's, past Smiths, almost all of the way to the Common.
My own go-to shop for Airfix kits was Brayley's (Brayly's? Long time ago and I can't remember the exact spelling) at the bottom of Northfields Avenue. What a brilliant place that was. A Brayley's gift voucher was a highly prized present.
I don’t think I ever came across Brayley’s, but that was probably because of where we lived which was Ealing Common. As for the name of ‘Confiserie Francaise’, I found this comment on a Facebook page which, if true, would account for the inappropriate shop name.
https://m.facebook.com/263528483804356/photos/confiserie-francaise-clock-apparently-when-the-new-owner-of-the-toyshop-took-up-/280825672074637/?locale=en_GB
Sorry, the web address in my comment may not take you directly to the post I found, but rather to the Facebook page ‘I Grew Up In Ealing’ generally. The essence of the post I found is that when the owner of the toy shop took over the lease of the shop, it was part of the conditions that the name be retained and it had previously been a French bakery.
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