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As I wandered into Ghost Town today I found myself on Kings Road Chelsea which was until 1830 the King’s private road out of London towards Hampton Court. In the 1960s it was the home of fashion, short skirts and rock and roll. In the 1950s Chelsea was full of bomb sites left over from the Luftwaffe lambast of WW2. We played on these sites ( every cloud has a silver lining ) as boys until the short skirts arrived.
Today I found myself looking at the blue plaque on number 50 Smith Street home of P L Travers author of the Mary Poppins stories. PL was born Helen Lyndon Goff and her father , Travers, was a drunkard Bank Manager in Queensland Australia. Pamela Lyndon Travers her pseudonym dreamt up the magical nanny who worked for a very sober Bank Manager in the movie.
London today was quiet, a Ghost town without tourists, workers and populous. Even Mary Poppins wouldn’t recognise the place. No more dancing among the Chimney pots in the age of Global warming and solar panels. No kites in the park just stabbings in the dark. Even the bird seed at tuppence a bag has with inflation gone up bought now only with contactless cards ( seed Capital its now called ). Times have changed since PLT was born in 1899 and in times when an umbrella was the mode of transport we now wait for empty 11 buses to appear in Ghost Town.
Margaret Thatcher once lived off Kings Road on Flood Street aptly named when the Thames flooded as it did when I was born. Christine Keeler lived at the wrong end of the Kings Road and I still remember seeing her friend Stephen Ward being stretchered out of his home having committed suicide..Oswald Mosley had his wartime barracks on Kings Road in the 1930s and the Duke of York housed the famous Saatchi gallery for many years. Mrs Beatons is still a bread shop there ( under a different name ) yet I can still smell the bread coming out of the oven before I delivered it each Saturday morning. James Bond lived just off there according to Ian Fleming. Marksmen have appeared in Markham Square and a Welsh draper called Peter Jones famously opened a store there on Sloane Square.
If Kings Road begins to get rid of the Ghosts rest assured life will begin to return to Ghost Town. If the Government could change the Fire Station into a Railway Station for Crossrail 2 ( by the way where’s Crossrail 1 ? ) then we would see even more life return. The Ambulance Station became a fashionable watering hole called Bluebird and the old Odeon Cinema is being recreated along with the Essoldo. The Estates of Cadogan and Sloane control the Real Estate and they’ve done a great job revitalising the place. Only the River called Amazon or Thames could wash it all away.
As for Magical Mary she still has a place even a job as a Nanny for Chelsea remains a very wealthy area made so because someone cleverly created the right mixed community with Council blocks and Public Housing occupying the territory. Don’t you just love Ghost Town ? I do.
qbitblogger 