A WALK DOWN KING DICK'S ROAD - AND BACK AGAIN

By Alan D Craxford

INTRODUCTION

Click here for a detailed map of King Richard's Road about 1955

This is the third of three articles written after a visit we made to my ancestral home in August 2005. The first (358: OUR FAMILY HOME) described my parent’s house, the second (GROWING UP ON FOSSE ROAD NORTH) was a more general overview of the neighbourhood in which I grew up, went to school and where I made my first tentative steps towards adulthood. Now I am taking a long and pensive stroll back both down memory lane and down the main highway from home to the centre of the city of Leicester. If you have travelled with me over the previous two episodes you will recall that we lived on Fosse Road North in the West End of Leicester at most about three miles from the city centre. Our house was in a terrace near the junction of Fosse Road North and Central, Glenfield Road, Kirby Road and King Richard’s Road. Also although it is not apparent from the map, we were at the top of a promontory geographically speaking so that there were quite steep gradients down the roads to the north, east and west.

I shall keep to the same format I used in the first article describing times past ("THEN") and ending with a brief commentary on the present ("NOW"). I shall also scatter a little quiz of the times as we progress. You might like to refer back to the previous Fosse Road article for clues to these first few of questions. You will find the answers through the link at the end of the page.

Q.1.: What is the basic rent if another player lands on your property 'Picadilly'?
Q.2.: Which soap character died in a stable blaze in 1955?
Q.3.: In which year was free school milk for the over-7s stopped?
Q.4.: Which film did I see on my first date?

THEN

A walk down King Richards Road

King Richards Road was a busy thoroughfare and bus route and it was also the main centre for shopping and our community life. In an age before the supermarket there were enterprises of all trades, shapes and sizes. In the early days our choice of venue was determined by the choices of our parents. So, let’s pick up our baskets and let me take you on a stroll down the lane of my memories. I cannot pretend that I will remember the name of every retailer or even put them into their proper historical place on the map but the following have left some persisting impressions on the synapses of my brain. One other thing that has come to mind as I put this article together was just how olfactory life was back then - things smelled!!

Wans Chinese Take Away

What better place to start than on the left hand side of the road on the corner with Fosse Road North. First off we find Mrs Missen in charge of the Kandy Kasket. All our favourite comestibles are laid out in easy reach (liquorish whirls, gob stoppers that changed flavour and colour as you sucked, sherbert lemons, those flying saucer things made out of rice paper and filled with fizzy powder, “Victory ‘V’” lozenges that really were made with chloroform and ether). My favourite is the Frys Five Centre bar (6d,thank you). Next door is the fruit shop (in later years Father and I used to trade trays of over-ripe fruit for bottles of home made wine) and then the West End Veterinary Practice which was not Smokey’s idea of a day out. In the same block was a Chinese take-away (Wan’s Garden) – “Chicken and Chinese Mushrooms and a Chicken Fried Rice, please”.

Lanes Pork Butchers

We were well served with eateries within easy walking distance even in those early days. In the next blocks (between Flora, Dannett and Kate Streets) was the fried fish shop serving every evening and most lunchtimes (“cod and six, when you’re ready!” – that was one shilling for your fish and sixpence for the chips: 7½p in today's money – piping hot and wrapped in a recent edition of the Leicester Mercury). There was also a family owned pork butcher (Lane and sons - their advertising slogan was ’All roads lead to Lanes’) who baked pork pies and prepared black puddings fresh on the premises. You can read about the significance of these delicacies in one of the other articles. I can still smell that concoction of meat and pastry and herbs and spice. Next door was ("short back and sides and plenty off the top") Ken Smith's salon, father’s barber for many a year. The aura of Bay Rum flooded the pavement whenever he was open.

A local delicacy

On the opposite side of the road was the Post Office and the Co-op (Leicester Co-operative Wholesale Society) where Mum usually went for her main grocery shopping. I recall that the main grocery counter was to the right when you walked in - with the bacon slicer and weighing scales prominent on the counter top. Tinned goods and non foods items were to the left. In those days there were no credit cards and, although Green Shield stamps put in an appearence late on, there were very few customer loyalty schemes. Everyone, it seems, had their "divi number" - the account where their (in our case 5d in the £1) dividend was deposited. Everyone, it seems, knew their number by heart. My father's number (weren't we ALL encouraged to use it) was 15702. Much later I acquired my own account - long defunct but still remembered - 144943!! In this group of shops was a greengrocery business run by Mr Andrews and there was the Co-op chemist on the corner of Catesby Street. There was one of the drinking establishments - "The Crow's Nest" (locally called "Crowies" by its patrons). There was also a second barber's shop (mens' hairdresser and stylist) run by a strange elderly little man. Unlike the aforementioned establishment whose customers could be viewed from the street, the door and windows were shrouded in curtains and advertisements for those products that you would expect a man's corner shop to advertise! I have to admit that I went there throughout my teens and was happy enough with the end results.!

Looking up the hill of King Richard's Road (about 1956) (1)

Beyond Kate Street the slope of the hill bottoms out and King Richard's Road made a lazy turn to the left as it approached Tudor Road. There were lots of tiny shops along this stretch, many having seen better days. There was the cobbler's shop with Victorian lasts, hunks of leather, nails, rubber soles and heels, dust - and that leathery, gluey aroma. There were two or three bakers and cake shops (I recall Kirk's and Kinton's) which served teas in a space at the back. There was Mrs Mitchell wrapped in overcoat and long shawl presiding over her gloomy and ramshackled newsagency at five o'clock in the morning. There was another little sweet shop (conveniently placed half way along the road to school) that sold chocolate covered sugar mice. There was the hardware and D-I-Y shop - more properly called the ironmonger.

The corner of Tudor Road (about 1958) (1)

On one corner of Tudor Road stood Cant's the butcher. Mr Cant was a jolly, bluff, bald-headed individual somewhat akin to Fred Elliott (of Corrie fame). On the other was the Worthington's grocery store (At some stage wasn't this also the "Home and Colonial"?). Tudor Road usually marked the boundary of family shopping expeditions.

A 1960s record player

However I did discover West End Electrics - a radio and record shop - in the summer of 1960. Prior to that time grammophones and records were somewhat frowned upon in the household as 'loud' or 'American' or 'Vulgar'. With Mother's collusion I bought a record player on weekly credit (£9/19/6d over 20 weeks) and a choice of 45s. Singles in those days cost 6/8d (three for £1). I do remember vividly my first purchases: "Because They're Young" by Duane Eddy, "Three Steps To Heaven" from Eddie Cochran, "So Sad" by the Everly Brothers and Elvis' "A Mess Of Blues" - a song which was released to coincide with his discharge from the American Army. In those early days there was hardly a week went by when a new record wasn't added to the collection and I gave up reading comics and started buying the NME.

"Eddie Cochran 1960"

Q.5.: Earlier in the year, the Everlys topped the chart with "Cathy's Clown".
What public spectacle took place at the same time?
Q.6.: Mary Radleigh, Mary Simpson, Mary Cotter and Mary Field featured in which publication in the 1950s and 1960s?

It's off to work we go

Back alleys(2)

Passageways(2)

Brenda and I both had our first experiences of work on King Richard's Road. I began a paper round, for a short time initially in the afternoon but then graduating to the morning shift. I recall earning about a £1 a week getting up in all weathers to be down at the Mitchell's shop at six o'clock ready to take out a heavy bag of papers and magazines. Mrs Mitchell was up even earlier than that - dressed as above, an inveterate smoker with the dog end of a Capstan Full Strength dangling from her lips - marking the corners of the newsprint with 31A Dannett or 12 Muriel. The round took me into the back closes and passageways off the side streets that ran from King Richard's Road and Glenfield Road as far as Muriel Road. Looking at the map now does not suggest this to be a particularly arduous route but at the age of thirteen an hour and a half before breakfast and school could often be a penance. I do remember that the days before Christmas could be very rewarding and one year I was given over £25 in tips.

Brenda found a Saturday job with Mr Andrews the greengrocer. Her main function, particularly during the autumn and winter was to wash the earth off the celery under a freezing cold water tap in the back yard. She was always susceptible to chilblains as well!! From there she progressed to the Co-op Chemists where the senior assistant was happy to tell the customers that she had weighed her on the same baby scales that were still in use to that day. Brenda does note however that at least the place was warm. She also recalls that there were times when gentleman customers would come in but would fidget uncomfortably in the background until one of the older people appeaered. They wouldn't ask her to serve them and at her age then she could not understand why!. Brenda also remembers working in the small cafe of one of the local bakers in 1966 during the World Cup matches. The television was switched on in the afternoons and there were some people who would made one cup of tea last the whole match!!"

Ah! Happy Days!!"

Q.7.: What were you never alone with in the 1960s?
Q.8.: What was Horace Batchelor of KEYNSHAM, Bristol always trying to sell you?

And so back to school....

Alderman Newton's Boys School crest(3)

Commemorative plaque to Richard III, Bow Bridge Leicester (4)

In 1957 I passed my 11+ and duly went on to Alderman Newton's Boys School; a grammar school near to the Cathedral in Leicester. I walked up and down King Richard's Road twice a day in each direction as it was considered near enough and convenient enough to go home for lunch. After Tudor Road the trip took you past the walls and gates of the King Richards Secondary Shool for Girls. Beyond that there were three bridges: one, the railway, passing over the road; two, carrying the canal and the River Soar, passing under the road. The first bridge was the bridge over the canal and technically at this stage the road gave way to St Augustine Street. It is said that Richard III banged his head / bruised his foot on the way to the Battle of Bosworth Field during the War of the Roses and that later his body was dumped into the river over the bridge that was there at the time. Whatever the story there is a commemorative plaque set into the wall nearby. (More about this in a forthcoming "Aspects of Leicester" article.)

I had my own minor trauma at some point in the same spot - walking along gazing over the bridge and staring into the torpid waters below. I struck my head on one of the decorative moldings sustaining a small cut. With a thin trickle of blood leaking from my temple, I went on to school but was a bit woozy through the morning. I was therefore ordered home at the Headmaster's behest, shephered by a classmate, Adrian Leaf, a curly haired lad who was already six inches shorter than me. I am told we presented as an odd pair to Mother on our front doorstep!

West Bridge and Railway Bridge (late 1940s)

We are now in the West Bridge area of the city. Historically this is where the old Roman Road, the Foss Way, crossed the River Soar. In my time, the West Bridge itself still crossed the river on the far side of the railway bridge. The road also joined Duns Lane - at that time the inner aspect of Hinckley Road (the A47). Local artist David Weston (5) has produced some superbly evocative paintings of trams and trains around Leicester - none more so than those of West Bridge. There were three or four small shops under the spans of the railway bridge including Ellis' fishing and tackle shop. The toe path along the river was a favourite place for local anglers throughout the year. Our school also had us using it for cross country running when the weather was too inclement to play Rugby.

The Leicester mint

Down in this area too were two long-established and nationally well-known firms: Pex (manufacturers of knitwear and hosiery) and Foxes (of Glacier Mint fame). Facing away from the bridges and on the other side of the river was the Castle Gardens. The road to school led past a huge waste and scrap metal merchant (Piggott's, I think) that gave off the aura of damp and rust and carbolic.

"Five feet of heaven in a ponytail... "

Leicester City buses - alternate livery

There were three bus routes out from the City centre which went over West Bridge and along King Richard's Road: 12 (Groby Road); 16 (Glenfield Road) and 19 (Imperial Avenue). In my universe there were four bus stops - under the railway bridge; Tudor Road; outside the Post Office and then (for the 16 and 19) outside St Paul's Church. From there these two routes continued down Glenfield Road. The No. 12 turned right into Fosse Road North and stopped directly outside our house. In those days a child's fare (valid until you left school!) from West Bridge was 1d to the Post Office and 2d to St Pauls. The adult fare was 2d and 3d.

It was on the No 12 around 1960 that teenage love caught up with me for the first time - an affair that I have to say went unrequited (mind you even now I have no idea what 'quited' love was so I don't know how you would get requited, let alone find yourself in the opposite condition). Susan had been a classmate at junior school. She had moved on to one of the principal girls' grammar schools and at times she went home along this route. At others she took another bus which went to Pool Road from the opposite direction. I took to mooning around under West Bridge waiting for the bus 'on the off chance' that I could ride with her. She was quite a sporty person too and would deign to meet me on occasions and would thrash me all around a tennis court at the Western Park. I don't think she ever had any similar thoughts or inclinations and after a time increasingly she went home on the No 15!. I believe she married an architect (or was he a lawyer?) even before I had finished at University. However the catchy little ditty mentioned in this heading was current at the time and suited my impressions of her!!

Q.9.: "What Is Love" was a hit by the American group, The Playmates. What was the name of their infuriating motoring song?
Q.10.: What caused Katie Boyle to break down in tears on Juke Box Jury in 1961?

Consulate packet

At other times I would walk home with Alan Frith as far as the St Paul's Church junction and then sit on the low wall outside Estonia House mulling over the world, the future and smoking a last fag. "Hold on a minute, cigarettes?". Well, this is 1962, cigarette smoking was a popular majority habit, all your peer group were at it, advertising was freely displayed (TV, cinema, billboards) and Sir Richard Doll's conclusions (made in the late 1950s) were not yet generally known. I had started during those paper round days. Park Drive were sold in flimsy packs of five and Mrs Mitchell would sell cigarettes in twos wrapped in a twist of newspaper. I had the collecting bug for a time amassing a large stack of Kensitas coupons (whatever happened to them? I don't think they were ever traded!). Father smoked his Senior Service and Mum sucked on the occasional Craven 'A'. I'm not sure that I ever really liked the taste of tobacco smoke and that is perhaps why I bought ('Cool as a Mountain Stream') Consulate. I finally gave up the habit taking my last smoke on a tube train to Harrod's sale when 20 Benson & Hedges sold for 35p.

NOW

Click here for a detailed map of King Richard's Road area today

So, what's so special about King Dick's Road that merits an article of its own? Well, unlike the other thoroughfares of my youth - which may now appear more time weary, a little more shabby than I remembered, it isn't there any more. It isn't just a matter of people moving on, businesses closing and others opening in their place. No, it has physically gone, bulldozed, obliterated - as if some petty bureaucrat, ashamed of the area's past, has expunged it from memory with the stroke of a planning pencil. Compare this current map of the local area (6) with the one reproduced at the beginning of this article.

The old Pex Building The West Bridge is in the distance

In the late 1960s, the central ring road had replaced the area where Pigott's scrap yard stood and a huge roundabout - St Nicholas Circle - took its place complete with a Holiday Inn on top. In 1970-71 a Compulsory Purchase Order was made under the Housing Act of 1957 to clear terraces and slums and allow the development of the western approach to the city along the A47 (7).

The Great Central railway ceased passenger traffic even during my years and the Central Station was closed. Now the railway bridge has been removed and with it the little businesses that sheltered in its lea have disappeared. The Pex building is no longer a factory. It has been redeveloped and now houses the offices of the Land Registry. (8) Other Grand Redevelopment Schemes are now afoot on the other side of the riverbank to create the Leicester Waterfront (9).

The site of the Kandy Kasket Now a hairdressing salon. August 2005	The Crow's Nest. Glenfield Road East

For most of its length, King Richards Road was demolished and recreated as a dual carriageway which veered away from its junction with Fosse Road North, crashing through a new junction with Fosse Road Central to merge with Hinckley Road. The housing along Noble Street was cleared; 1,084 houses disappeared under this order. A few premises were left on the northern side of the road (including Lane's the butcher) as far as Clara Street but, indignity of indignities, even this last vestige of yesteryear was not allowed to keep its old name, and this part of King Richards Road became Glenfield Road East. The Kandy Kasket is no more but Wan's Garden Cafe and the Vet's practice still operate. A new hostelry has been built on the eastern corner of Flora Street - bearing the name of the much older and now disappeared public house I mentioned earlier that used to cater for its clientelle a little further down the road.

View east from Fosse Road corner. August 2005	View towards St Pauls Church from Kate Street. August 2005

The No.12. To City Centre. August 2005

From the corner of Fosse Road North, what was once a bustling community is now an opened vista which looks straight down towards the city centre. The slope of the hill seems foreshortened and Tudor Road now feels only moments away by foot. Even the bus routes have been altered (although you can still catch the No 12!), and the old brown and cream Leicester City buses themselves have been superceded by private concerns.

It should not surprise me for such changes are the inevitable price of progress. It should not concern me either as I have not lived in Leicester for so long. And yet it does, the romantic in me does give pause for thought. This is my past, these are my roots, this was my heritage, these are my memories; I was a part of it and once I did belong.

REFERENCES

(1) Photographs of King Richard's Road (1956) and Tudor Road (1958): "Images of Leicester" - The Leicester Mercury; Breedon Books 1995
(2) Passageways and Courtyards Terraced houses in Leicester
(3) Alderman Newton's school badge. Old Newtonians RFC
(4) "On the trail of King Richard III in Leicester" 24Hour Museum: Leicester pages
(5) David Weston's web site David Weston - Artist
(6) Leicester City Centre - Cycle Map (part) Leicester City Council
(7) Post War Slum Clearence Leicester City Council
(8) The Land Registry, Leicester Bede Island Photographs
(9) Leicester's Regeneration - "The Waterside"The Leicester Regeneration Company

Added: October 3rd 2005

To read other readers views on this article see: LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Answers to QUIZ 2 questions on Page 6: Editorial