In Conversation with Nancy and Patsy L1 Oral History Chinatown 2005 Moira Kenny

M. Right so, first of all if you tell me about Cornwallis Street

N. Me and Patsy like?

M. Yeah

P. Well we should really talk about Brick Street do you remember that?

N. She has just asked the question ‘did we both live in Cornwallis Street?' and I am answering her

P. Go on then

M. Did you live in Brick Street first?

N. Oh yeah we were all born in Brick Street

M. Start off with Brick Street then.

N. Okay then

P. You ask the questions and I’ll make the tea

N. See! She’s getting out of it already

M. Well what about Brick Street?

P.  That is where we were born

M. Okay Leave the tea for a minute I’ll record for ten minutes and then we will have a cup of tea, okay?

N. Well we were a big family all of us, there were three families all connected but one big family there were seventeen of us all living in Brick Street together wasn’t thee?

P. Mmmm

N. We all had our little fights but all our children got on alright

P. That was when we were young you see and we were all married from there

N. Oh Aye yeah

M. Where is Brick Street?

N. Facing St Vincent’s Church, there is Brick Street and Norfolk Street we used to go from Norfolk Street to Brick Street you know

P. The Girl’s school was in Norfolk Street and the Boy’s school was in Brick Street. We had our kids there didn’t we?

N. Was our Colin born in Brick Street?

P. Of course he was

M. What type of housing was it?

P. It was an old Public House and we had two addresses

N. We had 56 Brick Street and the corner of that 61 Simpson Street and we had an Aunty that lived with us and she always used the address 61 Simpson Street but it was one house, do you know what I mean?

P. With it being a pub.

M. Did you live above the pub?

P. It wasn’t a pub then, just an ordinary house with no back kitchen

N. No it wasn’t a pub then

P. There was no back kitchen was there?

N. No everyone used to wash in the yard in their bare feet, we used to have a little fire built and boiled the water to wash the clothes

P. and we always had the turkey’s there for Christmas running around and then they got killed. I hated that.

N. It was a good house like you know we all very happy in it. Everyone was a good family and there was loads of us living in it wasn’t there?

P. Oh yeah and then it was condemned and we went to Cornwally

N. You would go past this block of flats and say ’God I’d Love to live there’ there was one block on its own.

P. I never lived there I lived in 17 Great George’s Square

N. Well I went on the bottom, my mother  was over me and my cousins who lived with us in Brick Street they went as well and we got three houses and everyone used to call it McGee’s Mansions, that was my mother’s name before she got married. She was known as Cissy McGee and do you know all the people that talk about you they would say

P. How did that family get three houses on the one block?

N. McGee’s Mansions

P. It wasn’t malicious when they talked about us, that was just a rumour

Sound Agents attend The Ming-Ai Project Launch St Martin in the Field London

Congratualtions to the Ming Ai Institute on the success of their HLF project. We had a wonderful time at the project launch.

www.britishchinesefoodculture.org.uk 

My earliest memories of Chinatown would have to be when I was about six. My dad and his mates coming back to the house on a Saturday night. “Where’ve you been?” I’d say and a chorus of drunken verse would shout back in unison “Chinatown”. Wow, I’d think, evoking magical thoughts of this place that sounded thousands of miles away. A few years later I went for my first meal with my dad and his mate and my brother John. “Where are we goin’?” I asked, “Chinatown”, still sang in unison.Wow, I thought, at last. We went to a restaurant about two down from the Mabo, but the excitement soon turned to horror. My dad and his mate, two aging teddyboys feeding the exotic fish in the tank next to us bits of their banquet for two, me and my brother open mouthed, not knowing whether to laugh or grass them up. A memorable meal to say the least. Years later I had the pleasure and privilege to meet Bert Hardy, the famous war photographer who worked for Picture Post in the 40’s and 50’s. He was working on a project for the magazine about inner cities and came to Chinatown. His photographs of the area are legendary. He told me for some reason the locals took to him being an Eastend cockney and having a down to earth personality, he was allowed access into the mythical opium dens, brothels and gambling sessions and took some amazing shots. My daughter Alice went to school in Chinatown, so dropping her off or picking her up, I got to know the area quite well. Being an inquisitive little so and so as me Ma used to call me, I got books on the area to see what it was like a hundred years ago. With the stories pictures and tales in the books I wasn’t far off as a six year old growing up thousands of miles away in Everton imagining this magical romantic almost mythical place called Chinatown. Anyway, I could have written about the history of the place like when it was formed or the famous people who have visited, but you can go on line for that. Love Mick.

After Stephen Willats

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