Just About Me 27

It was whilst I was working at Fulham Court that I met a man who had a big say and influence in my life, a fellow caretaker and as I was to find out a well known society security man, Joe Steed. Joe was an enormous guy who ran a company called Steed Security, he provided security for high class weddings, parties even funerals and some close up security for celebrity's. I started working for Joe as an extra job in approx 1988. My first job was working at the Duke of York's barracks in the Kings Road, Chelsea, SW3 Duke of York's Link. It was a Christmas party for the Brigadiers 15 year old son, I thought that it would be easy but the little buggers drank more wine and spirits than Oddbins stock, I worked until 3a.m and absolutly loved it. I went on to work a lot of jobs for Joe and can not possibly remember them all but some of them were, The Savoy Hotel on several occasions including an overnight stay to look after about 80 couture dresses and outfits for the Berkley Dress Ball, ran by socialites Tamara Beckwith and Tara Palmer Tompkinson, it was the same night the Nottingham Forest players held there celebratory dinner after playing Luton Town at Wembley in the League Cup final, and everything they ate and drank, myself and there waiter had the same. Another time just me and Joe did the Wimbledon Winners Dinner at the Savoy, the winners were Michael Stich and Steffi Graf and the next day my picture appeared in the Daily Mirror escorting Steffi Graf to her car, we did a party also held at the savoy where the boy band of the time Bros had hundreds of oranges thrown at them and we had to get them to the safety of an annex room at the Savoy, it was quite bizarre sitting in a room chatting to Matt and Luke Goss whilst the savoy was being cleared.

Another interesting job was on a Sunday evening at the Dominion, Tottenham Court Road, W1, myself and Joe looked after a host of stars and believe it or not HRH Princess Margaret at the Children's Royal Variety Show, I was alone in the VIP bar with Princess Margaret and I could not stop wondering that if only she knew that that morning I had been working as a Caretaker putting black bags of rubbish into big dustbins and now I was looking after the Queens Sister, and the funniest thing is I was never ever checked by the police. We then did the after party for VIPs, including Frank Bruno, Cannon and Ball and Dannii Minogue it was at the time that Frank Bruno had had an operation on his eyes for a detatched retina, but it did not stop him from stopping for a chat and a laugh with us both.

In 1991 we moved again, back to Sulivan Court but this time at number 276 on the third floor, still caretaking, but by now the council were getting the right hump with me for the hours I was keeping, I told them that it was none of there business what I did in my own time in fact would they have preferred me to sit in a pub having afters.

Just About Me 26

 

I really think that this photo deserves it's own page, 1975 somewhere on the District Line, this is not regulation uniform, everything but the jacket was my own fashionable clothing. If anyone is interested the train is a 1938 CP Stock, 6 carriages, Red and the weather was warm.

Just About Me 25

We had been back a while, when one Friday I was about to go on my lunch break, I became startled by a lot of shouting and yelling that someone had jumped out of one of the 22 story blocks to commit suicide, this is a bit of an inconvenience to a caretaker as he has to clean up behind them. I arrived at the scene to be greeted by a man who was obviously dead, I tried his pulse and vital signs and was amazed at how cold he was, the police arrived and moved on all the sightseers, you would not believe how some people react, one guy got down on his hands and knees for a better look, and one woman actually erected a deckchair for extra comfort, now I realise the next bit sounds a bit callous but if you did not keep your sense of humour you would go off the edge, a policeman asked me how long he had been there, I replied " He was not there Monday" the copper looked at me in an old fashioned way and moved on to someone else. It turned out that the dead guy had had a row with his boyfriend who had then killed him, he then about 4 days later picked him up and threw him out of his 12th floor flat window. I experienced a few more jumpers but one that sticks out for me was a woman who had had enough of her alcoholic gambler of a husband, when she jumped her husband had to be dragged out from a betting shop and he then proceeded to go through her pockets for any money she may have had and returned to the betting shop, whilst the emergency services removed his dead wife.

Guy Fawkes night 1988 was an amazing experience, Myself, Mandy and Brian Palmer stood on the roof of one of the tower blocks watching fireworks exploding across London's skyline, it was amazing as rockets would spring into action around us, it was truly a wonderful spectacle.

At the end of November a vacancy had arisen at an estate in Fulham, it was called Fulham Court, people thought we were mad as it had a terrible name, but we both wanted to move back to Fulham so we took a 3 bedroom flat at 138 Fulham Court, SW6. At the time the estate was having a major refurbishment and at least half of it was closed off. I worked with 3 other guys Alex Reid, Tony Housling and my friend Simon Hierons.
Among the empty flats was a number of squats, we were tasked on occasions to attempt the removal of some, Simon also had a Rottweiler named Ryker, his Rottie and my Rottie frankly hated each other, so we would take the dogs to some of the squats and allow them to have a little growl and bark, it was quite funny to see the squatters leave in a hurry, once believe it or not they were Colombian diplomats who had left so quickly they had forgotten there hand gun. It was whilst we lived at Fulham Court that I received some awful news, one Sunday morning the phone rang and my Sister in Law Lynn Allen broke the news that my Dads brother Wally had died, my Uncle Wal was a real character and people will tell you that I am a bit like him, which is funny because they also say that my cousin Barry is like my dad, I miss Wally to this day and he is the guy who if I could have 5 more minutes with, it would be Wally.

Just About Me 24

One of our wedding presents was the loan of a villa on the Costa Blanca in Spain by our friends Simon and Karen Hierons, Denia a coastal city that for me was in 1987 unspoilt by tourism,  Denia Link we arrived in the middle of the night and neither of us had been abroad before, customs completed we went to find a taxi, it had not occurred to me that in Spain they speak Spanish and it took a while to find the hire car. I may not say this too often but I was proud of my new wife for driving for two hours from Alicante to Denia in the pitch darkness and on the opposite side of the road and found the front door of a villa in what to us was the middle of nowhere. We had a fantastic week, the highlight of which was the night we met 2 Dutch guys in a bar we had found, I started a conversation about Holland and the chat eventually came round to football, they asked me what team I supported, I told them " The mighty Chelsea ", to be honest in 1987 they were not so mighty, anyway, one of them was straight up the bar shouting "Drinks for Chelsea" and bought us a drink each Mandy's was a soft drink whilst mine was a vodka and orange juice, it only seemed right that I should reciprocate and shouted a round of drinks in for "Ajax", now I am sure that you the reader's are familiar with Spanish measures of drinks, if not they consist of a high ball tumbler, at least half filled with spirit and topped with a mixer, a lot different from the thimble full of spirit on offer in English bars. 26 drinks later I was to put it mildly, pissed out of my brains, the two dutchmen wanted to go on to a nightclub which I declined to do, but did offer my wife's services as a cab driver, it is at this point worth pointing out that Mandy is 10 years younger than me and frankly if the dutch guys had leapt on her I could not and would not have been able to do much about it, luckily they were both gentlemen and we bid them good night, the journey back to the villa was traumatic for me as we hurtled along towards all these blinding lights and oncoming bouts of nausea. I ended up curled around the big white telephone moaning like a 2 year old whilst Mandy stood over me crying and yelling at me for being slightly tipsy.

The biggest regret that I have from our honeymoon, was that somebody on the complex was selling there 2 bedroom villa for just £30,000, we viewed it and made up our minds to purchase it as we had no mortgage or rent obligations, the estate agent visited us and told us that we had to own property in England to be able to buy abroad, this is totally wrong and to this day I am convinced that the cow bought it herself, it would today be worth approx £200,000 but that about sums my life up.

Just About Me 23

The great day arrived, Saturday May 23rd 1987, we had originally booked May 16th and had to change it, because it was FA Cup Final day and no one except our mums would have turned up, anyway May 23rd, it rained all day, I had stayed at my parents house in Sulivan Court, for my last night of freedom, whilst Mandy had stayed at home alone as she shouted down the phone to tell me, she was pretty fed up as I along with several others including her dad had popped out for a couple of pints. I was woken by my mum with a lovely fried egg sandwich and a cup of coffee, got up washed and shaved and went with my Brothers to the pub, we then made our way to the church, All Saints Church, Pryors Bank, Bishops Park, Fulham, SW6, by the way for us to marry at this church we had to say that I lived at my parents flat and Mandy lived at my friend Bernie Kelly's house in Burlington Rd, Fulham (Sorry God), the first person I saw was my Dads brother Wally and his wife Rose, we were having a chat when the vicar came out and asked for his money, I was a bit stunned by this as I knew nothing about a fee and was totally skint, Wally gave me a card and told me that I might want to open it straight away, £100, good old Wal had saved the day, I paid the robbing vicar his £60 and turned down the offer of a bell ringer.

Mandy arrived in a white vintage Rolls Royce looking stunning, a quick ceremony and she became Mrs Paul Allen, I still have a problem to this day explaining to her that she has become my property, we then went outside for an endless photo session with our chauffeur holding umbrellas over us to shield us from the driving rain. We then took a short journey to our wedding reception at the Broughton Rd community hall in Fulham SW6, Mandy's Aunt Ruby did the catering and her dad paid for the drink, a fellow caretaker Kevin Hooper did the disco and frankly we had a very good time. We then spent the night in the Hotel Lillie in Fulham. We had taken the family room, and was laying on the bed whilst Mandy went off to change, she re appeared with a plastic ducks mask on and a bunch of feathers sprouting from her rear end, this as you can imagine took me back a bit and I wondered if I had married a nutter, she informed me that we had had a conversation with her brother and his wife at which she had asked what she should wear on our wedding night, I had replied "I dont care if she has a ducks head and feathers up her arse", we had a good laugh about this but she drew the line when I told her I fancied popping out for Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Just About Me 22

One night in 1986 Mandy had just got in bed when somebody opened our letterbox and shouted through it, because you become public property when you are the caretaker of the block, I hurtled towards the door and would have gone a bit mad at them, but they had escaped. This incident made up my mind, we were buying a dog, not any old dog but a Rottweiler, then when these mugs shouted through the letterbox the dog would bite there nose's off. We scoured the Exchange and Mart magazine for Rottweiler's for sale and found a guy in Dagenham selling pup's at £200 each, Brian Palmer drove us over there and we bought a 3 month old male Rottweiler Puppy, we named him Sargent and no one ever shouted through the letterbox again, as the dog grew we realised just how big a Rottweiler can grow, he went about 10 stone fully grown. When we walked him if he wanted to go somewhere you went there too, he even pulled Mandy over once, but he was the probably the softest dog ever, but no one but us really knew that as will become evident later.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rottweiler

We had decided to get married on May 23rd 1987, but the week before my stag night took place, this was a shock to me as I had stipulated that I did not want one, a few weeks prior my future Brother In Law Paul Sime had asked me if I could be the Doorman for a book signing by the society gossip columnist Nigel Dempster, I agreed and he then said they needed two and could I organise this. I asked my brother Colin if he fancied working with me, it was taking place on Thursday May 14th 1987 at a restaurant in Kensington. On the night I got myself suited and booted and was horrified that Colin had not brought a tie and had to lend a jacket from me, we left to get there when Colin said that he fancied a pint before we went, I went mad at him telling him how unprofessional this would be, he totally ignored me and walked into the pub on the estate, I was fuming and followed him in to be greeted by my Dad,my Uncle Wally, my Brother Andrew and several other friends of mine. I had been conned there was no Nigel Dempster job, just an elaborate hoax to have a stag night, I got absolutely hammered and was stripped stark naked by my future Brother In Laws, Paul and Dennis and my Brothers Colin and Andrew and walked across the estate I worked and lived on in the nude to my waiting fiancee. Mandy had to go in the pub every day for the next week to retrieve articles of my clothing.

Just About Me 21

The perks of being a residential caretaker, are that they give you at least a two bedroom flat, they charge you no council tax or rent, and they even paid about 75% of your phone bill, and to top it all off they actually pay you a very decent wage. I started in November 1985 on a housing estate in Shepherds Bush called Edward Woods Estate. The Woods consisted of three, 22 story tower blocks designed and built in the 1960's and 4 long blocks of maisonettes. We were given a 2 bed flat in one of the tower blocks, on the first floor at 7 Stebbing House. It was a typical council estate in that it housed an awful lot of really nice down to earth people along with the most alcoholic's, drug users and care in the community (nutters) that I had ever encountered. My work colleagues were two guys called Mick and Ray (who thought he was the boss) and another two guys who have become friends to this day Peter Bull and Brian Palmer, on the first morning I did not know what to expect and was told that I had to sweep and mop the entrance of the block I lived in and to sweep the front and rear of the block, I started at 8.00am and by 9.15am I had done most of this but had spent 20 minutes or so sweeping leaves underneath a tree at the rear, Brian came towards me and told me it was tea time, we went up to Micks flat and spent close on an hour and a quarter having tea, when we went back out we spent the best part of another hour and a half chatting and then Mick said "Well that's enough for today" well you could of blown me over, I thought I am going to like this job.
We used to work three shifts 8am to 1pm, 1pm to 9pm and all day Thursday and Friday one week, the same but all day Saturday and Sunday the next.
I encountered some funny things at the Woods, a lady who knocked on my door one day to inform me that her floor was electrified, I went with her to see and she walked in whilst I tiptoed round like a fool, as you can see one of us was potty. People would call for the silliest things at the silliest times of the day, a woman called at 11pm to ask had I watched the news as she had missed it and another time to have her hearing aid batteries changed at approx 1am. One of the funniest things that happened was when a Dog who was quite feared named Skipper sat outside our block at midnight howling for a bitch on heat within the block, I had just got into bed when this started and thought that it had to stop, I went downstairs with a long length of string which I attached to Skippers collar and dragged him about 800 yards away, I tried to flag down a police car but was ignored, so I tied him to some railings and ran like hell all the way home, as I got in bed laughing I was greeted by a howling noise outside and was stunned to see old Skipper sitting there. In the morning a fella who lived in the block told me he had seen a funny thing as he left for work, a dog emerging from the lift with about 6 foot of string round his neck.

Just About Me 20

It was about time I bought a car, I thought, so I bought a Ford Escort Automatic, a white one, only thing was I neglected to take a driving test or tax and insure it. One day I was driving Mandy to work in Brentford, we were going along the Goldhawk Rd, Shepherds Bush when I glanced in my rear view window, following close behind was a police car, I figured that if I started doing left and right turns that this may just raise a few suspicions with them, so I carried straight on, the next set of traffic lights were red so I naturally stopped, as they changed I saw the police flashing there lights  at me, I figured they were not thanking me in the well known motorist fashion, no indeed, they were not happy. They pulled me over and I was greeted by a police sergeant whilst a young fresh faced cadet went to talk to Mandy, he asked my name, I replied Paul Stevens, he asked my address, I replied 46 Sullivan Ct, he asked me a whole bunch of other questions and then went to confer with the cadet, I could see them comparing notes, the sergeant walked back over to me and asked me did I have a middle name or an alias, I tumbled straight away that Mandy had given my real name and she had heard Sulivan Court mentioned and gave my parents door number 48 to the cadet, what I replied in my opinion was pure genius, " I know whats happened " "she has given you the name Paul Allen at 48 Sulivan Court" " you see I am married and I am trying to give her one ". Well blow me down if the sergeant goes and pats me on the shoulder and exclaims " I understand son" so I pushed my luck and asked why he stopped me "get a tax disc son". I got back in the car telling Mandy to just look straight ahead, I pulled away and the police car turned around and drove off, Mandy asked me what I had said, when I told her she was not too happy, but I still laugh at this and I still think it was pure genius.

My wife's Auntie Ruby is a typical elderly London woman, her language can be flowery to say the least, but you will not meet a nicer more generous person, we used to take Ruby to Macro in Park Royal and she would treat us to lunch in the restaurant, she ran a luncheon club for the local senior citizens and I am sure she never really realised that she was older than a lot of the punters. She also owned a caravan in Leysdown on the Isle of Sheppy in Kent. We all used to go there for weekends, it was whilst we were there that I met a bloke named Kenny Abrahams, Ken's daughter had married Ruby's son. He worked as a Residential Housing Caretaker for the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham (LBHF), he suggested that I apply to become a Caretaker as they were recruiting new staff, I honestly thought that you had to have been in the service's and that I would have no chance, but Ken talked me into it and you know what I only went and got an interview. I turned up and met the man conducting the interview, it soon became apparent that Ken had put a word in and I became a Residential Housing Caretaker.

Just About Me 19

I had been signing on for about a month when a couple we knew, Cath and Lawrence asked us both round to dinner, whilst there Lawrence asked me if I fancied working at the same place he was at for £100pw, in a warehouse in Kings Cross, London. The job entailed working at the back of a dingy warehouse putting plastic bags over the top of women's dresses, well you cant really say no when your out of work can you? So off I went to Kings Cross, about three months later I was on my way to work and posted my P45 form back to the unemployment office thinking it was probably about time to sign off, when I got to work my manager asked me to work on a rush job that had to be completed , thing was it had to be completed at the front of the warehouse, on the street in fact. So I started with all good intentions, after 15 mins or so the sun came out and it became  glorious spring day, so glorious that I downed tools, walked in to get my coat and told the manager that " I am off home now" , "what do you mean" he exclaimed, I explained that the sun was shining and that I was used to being out in the fresh air and frankly hated working in his warehouse, so off I went. When I got home the realisation set in that I had now sent my signing off form back on the same day that I had walked out of my job, I was a bit worried what Mandy would say but she was by now used to my stupid moods and had witnessed enough silly things by me to say nothing. Well now I had to get a job quickly to get the sack from because in them days you could go straight on the dole if you were sacked, so I took a job after a couple of weeks of lazing round as a shelf filler for a supermarket, two days in my plan was complete I had put my finger into two jars of fish paste and scooped the contents into my mouth. Well as you can imagine the boss was not to happy about this and grabbed me by the arm a bit roughly, I informed him that that may not be a good idea and to let go a bit lively or he would regret it, he sacked me on the spot. I got home just in time to watch Liverpool play Juventus in the Heysal Stadium as the match had been delayed due to the murdering scousers actions that night, it was May 1985. The next day I signed on again and everyone was happy.

Just About Me 18

I was out of work for a few days and bumped into a young boy who had been my Saturday milkboy, he told me he was now a milkman himself for a company called Jobs Dairy based in Southall, Middx, So I took the 207 bus to Southall on the off chance and got employed because of my experience, so after the cowboys on the Express it was off to Southall to serve the Indians. They were a bit shrewder than your average Kensington resident so the wages were a bit less, a lot less.

We still had a bit of money left over, so I thought I would put some aside, and bought a quarter share in a Racehorse with Paul Sime, it was trained by a bloke in Cullompton, Devon named Jenkins, the horse was named Milly, Molly, Mandy. Myself, Paul and his brother Dennis drove to Warwick racecourse on a Saturday evening to watch our horse run. It was great fun entering the paddock to be greeted by Mr Jenkins who tipped his hat at us, we patted the horse and chatted to the jockey, then settled down in the owners enclosure to watch the race, it was a flat race over 3 miles and Milly, Molly, Mandy came a close 13th out of 14. But it was all worthwhile for the thrill of watching our quarter of the horse run. When the trainers bill arrived it became clear that we owned a front quarter because we were paying for an enormous amount of food, several bottles of Guinness, it had had shoes for running, shoes for walking, shoes for Sunday best etc, it had also banged it's leg and we had vets bills and swimming to pay for. So, bluntly we knocked him for the bill and are warned off by the jockey club from owning another horse, I never asked Paul, but I reckon if we were to buy a Greyhound.

The journey in the mornings and afternoons to and from Southall was getting me down, it was an hour there and an hour and a half sitting on a 207 bus, so I talked it over with Mandy and decided to pack it in and search for something new. So now I was signing on once a fortnight.

Just About Me 17

To celebrate the end of our ten week strike/occupation of the Ives St milk depot we all decided to hold a return to work party, we had about £700 in the strike fund so we blew the lot. We held it in a hall at the side of the post office in Chelsea Manor St, SW3. It was a free bar all night and I went with Paul Sime and his first wife Pat, after a while Paul suggested we ring his sister Mandy, to see if she fancied coming along, she said she would but had to finish watching Dynasty on the TV, I think I paid her cab for her. Anyway she turned up and I offered to buy her a drink, after the first couple she cracked on that it was a free bar.  I was mingling amongst everyone and remember my friend Chris Emery telling me to pay more attention to her my reply was "I bet you a pound that I end up tongue in gob with her", at the end of the night I collected his pound and we all went our separate way. I think myself and Mandy went back to my parents flat and drank coffee and chatted, I then took her home in a cab to Shepherds Bush.

We started to see each other on a regular basis and our first proper date was to meet in Hammersmith and via my contacts at Hammersmith Odeon we went to see O.M.D, a nice cheap night but I think Mandy was impressed, it was not long after this that I moved into Mandy's flat in Bush Court, Shepherds Bush, W12. At first it must of seemed a bit different for Mandy because if something broke ie the vacuum cleaner then within minutes I would be out buying a new one cash, top of the range. We had some great nights out, we used to go to a place in Watford in Herts called Baileys, they used to do dinner and cabaret for about £40 a head, we would go with Mandy's brother Dennis and his future wife Sharon, I remember seeing the 70's band Sweet play live at Baileys, it was really funny the original singer Brian Connolly was still with them only he was about five stone overweight and the rest of them were about nineteen years old, but bloody good fun.
We ate out at the Chelsea Steak House three times a week and then suddenly as I wrote earlier I got the cloth bag and went skint.

Just About Me 16

I gave the Ice Cream van the elbow a few months later, and went back on the milk with another company. Express Dairies in Ives St, SW3, the manager who interviewed me was called Mr Anthony, he was a lovely down to earth man who loved a chat, he told me I could be his team captain at the interview, an interview that lasted three and a half hours, he said that he wanted me to be his "Ronnie Harris". I thought he was potty at the time but what a pep talk, you actually wanted to work for him. I was given a round in Kensington, W8 and delivered to some very wealthy people, I earned an absolute fortune on this job one way and another, they were not your 2 pints a day 4 on a Saturday mob, no they wanted a weeks shopping delivered, and I went out of my way to help them out, no not that way, I mean carrying the shopping and a Mars bar for the kids. I could earn, with commission and tips and perks, wait for it, between £600 and £1000 a week. no bullshit. This was approx 1983, with hindsight I should and could of bought houses for cash, but not me, I would go to smart restaurants and fancy cocktail bars with drinks at £3 each when the price of a pint was about 60p.
This was fine until one day the dairy decided to sell the Ives St depot to a property developer, so we all got the hump and occupied the depot for 10 weeks, we were probably the only strikers to have a bigger strike fund than the defence bill for Somalia, well at first anyway. We had such a good time on strike I have to say, me and another bloke Alan Turpin snuck out one Saturday and went to watch Chelsea play away at Derby in the cup, Alan was a bit of a boy, and we went in the away section and got moved out by the police, they escorted us round the pitch to the Chelsea  section, bang on the half way line was a tasty little Derby firm who started spitting at us two and throwing 50p coins at us, Alan was off half way over the fence to speak to them whilst I scrambled around picking up 50p pieces, well we were on strike after all.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYUID1PME_4
The strike came to an end with the promise of a job at the Shepherds Bush depot, and a party which I will tell you about in the next section, and by now myself and my future brother in law Paul Sime went to work there, Paul had joined Express just before the strike and saw it through with the rest of us. The only downside of earning a lot of money on a milk round is that it is difficult to go on holiday, because you had to show the relief guy where you earned some of your money, and that's how I got the sack, some jealousy and a few chosen words to the guvnor and Bobs your uncle out the door. Two things came out of getting the push were that Paul Sime ( 5ft 6ins) became known as big Paul and I became skint.

Just About Me 15

Amongst the artists, whose shows I worked for were, Saxon, Deep Purple, The Who, Wings, The Police, Thin Lizzy, Status Quo, OMD, Tina Turner, Kiss and Cheap Trick. One of the earliest shows I was working at was a Mott The Hoople gig (Who?) it was remarkable in the fact that the support act were not too bad, support act's tend to be rubbish and instantly forgettable, well I remember thinking this band ain't too bad, their name, Queen. I met some top blokes at the Odeon, guy's who once again have become lifelong friends, Bernie Kelly, Eddie Kelly, Colin Butcher, Ernie Collins, Bob Kidd, Mick Collins. These people have always stayed friends although we do not see too much of each other any more. I was also fortunate to be onstage (albeit as a non playing person) for Motorhead, The Crusaders and Kate Bush, funny thing is I remember Kate Bush's costume changes stage left more than the others. I was also fortunate to meet some people who were my hero's one of which was Rod Stewart who I stood in a corridor with playing football with a rolled up Benson and Hedges box.

Around 1982, I bought an Ice Cream van with a friend from the Co-Op Derek Fuller, we paid £600 for it and we were going to earn a fortune, we borrowed the money from Paul Sime. Our van was known as a scoop van because you had to buy tubs of ice cream and scoop it out onto cones. The freezer had to be charged via a cable and a domestic electricity supply, I still lived at my parents ground floor flat in Sulivan Court, so could not have a long trailing wire from the window as it would have probably decapitated someone, so we got a really long extension cable and plugged it into Derek's kitchen in Barclay Close, SW6 on the 6th floor. We stocked up, and went out round the streets of Fulham and took about two bob old money, we went to every event at Wembley Stadium selling hamburgers and hot dogs, we had wholesale rows with other sellers who seemed to think we had nicked there pitches. I was taking time off from the Co-Op to run the van which gave them the right hump, so they sacked me. Derek had to pack up because the money was terrible so I bought him out to carry on trying. I had managed to pay Paul Sime back his money and was determined to go for it, only problem I had without Derek was that I still could not drive, so I asked Dennis Sime to drive the van to the Derby at Epsom. We were supposed to pay a concessionary fee to a bloke to sell food on the course but I thought no way, so I paid £5 to park, and park we did slap bang on the finishing line, all was going well when these three blokes approached and one asked for a strawberry cone " Of course" says I, this bloke took right umbridge at this and informed me he owned the concession and wanted paying, I told him I had paid £5 to park, he then told us we had to leave the course, I started arguing back at him when one of the other guy's opened his coat to reveal a gun, he suddenly climbed in the window and now your waiting for the bit where I attack him, well I never did we simply drove away dropping him off at the gates with a cursory "goodbye sir!"

Just About Me 14

The years 1977 to 1979 were a bit depressing for me, I had to find a job and the only work I could find, as an unqualified in anything person, was as a counter hand in a betting shop. William Hills to be exact in North End Road, SW6, the job also entailed me writing the prices for each race on a flip chart, this was known as writing the board. It also taught me how many different bets people can have ie Patents. Yankees, Doubles etc, it also amazed me how many pensioners like a gamble, they only seemed to bet in pennies but sometimes to see there smiling faces was wonderful as they picked up there winnings, and they always knew to the penny how much to collect. One day they sent me to work in the Knightsbridge Branch, SW7, the contrast was unbelievable, I remember a Chinese guy placing a single bet of £5,000 on the nose of a horse whose name escapes me, the horse lost and he did not bat an eyelid.
I then moved onto Mecca Bookmakers which was also in North End Road, SW6 because they paid £5 a week more, I have to say they were two of the worst jobs I have ever had, and a big drop in wages from LT.

In 1979, I had a brainwave, I had no driving licence so the obvious job to apply for was to apply to be a Milkman, off I went to the Co-Op on the off chance, not once did they ask if I could drive and I got the job, my first day I was out with a guy who was training me, we were chatting in general, I mentioned the fact that I did not have a driving licence, "Don't worry about that" he said "I only have a provisional, just apply for one and say no more" so I did. I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed my time on the Co-Op, I worked with a great bunch of blokes and we used to do so much together. We played football matches against other depot's and Cricket matches, Dart Matches and days out, we never had to take time off to do this as we could be finished work by 9.30am. We had so many laughs, we would play practical jokes on the poor yard boy one of which was to lock him in the funeral parlour next door with all the stiffs, he would be white as a ghost when he came out.
I met people on that job that would become life long friends and relations, namely my brothers in law, Dennis Sime and Paul Sime.

It was via the Co-Op that my next job came along, a guy I worked with Ralph Guyan worked part time as assistant manager at Hammersmith Odeon, he asked me if I fancied working part time as a bouncer at the pop concerts for a guy he knew called Keith Ruddock, Keith ran a company called ESS Security. My first show was at the Dominion Theatre in Tottenham Court Road, W1, in December 1980 Elvis Costello and the Attractions were playing 3 nights, I was put on an exit door and told that no one was to come past me either through the door or down the aisle, the show started fine but after about 3 songs one guy decided he would jump out of his seat and run towards the stage in the section I was in, I stood in front of him and he ran full on into my arms, I don't know who was more surprised him or me but he stopped dead in his track's, I told him in a very brusque manor to return to his seat, and he did. I thought, that's handy, I can do this. Mr Costello kept on singing about Oliver's Army and How he did not want to go to Chelsea, which I found strange as I could not wait to get there.

Just About Me 13

I have so many stories from my days on LT, lets start with the story about comfort breaks, if you worked on the underground as train staff in those days (1975), you had to tell the driver over the antiquated communication's system that you needed a pee, the driver would then inform a member of staff at the first available station and they would phone the nearest depot with staff on standby, these guys would then meet your train and you could get off and do your business. This was not quite what happened, the guard would simply open the back door whilst going through the tunnel and aim away from the power rail, for information, if you look down at the rails next time, the two shiny rails (running rails) have approx 5-10 volts in them, the two very dull rails (power rails) have 630 volts in them and really are best avoided, so basically peeing on them is a no no. If you needed a dump as a guard you followed rules, a driver would pull up in the tunnel and simply do his stuff. One day a driver had pulled up in a tunnel on the district line which is a double tunnel, and was taking a dump when in the opposite direction another driver had seen him and pulled up so the passengers could watch the first guy scrambling with his trousers and waving his fist like a madman, very funny at the time.

The main station on the Disrict Line for meal breaks is Earls Court, you always got off for breaks and then took over your next train at Earls Court, we had so many practical jokers on their, one such guy, a driver, would do some really funny things, one day he put a pair of sunglasses and held a white stick, banging and crashing as he got in the driving cab and pulled away, another time he put a schoolboys cap on and got on his knees as the train pulled away. You should have seen the passengers faces.

It was also in 1975 that the Moorgate disaster happened  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moorgate_tube_crash I was at Earls Court waiting for my next train when I saw people panicking about getting onto our train, I found this a bit strange as we were not even on the same line.
I have read a lot about this and honestly believe the driver had a heart attack.

I worked on LT until late 1977, I got the sack through my own stupidity, I would rather go out with my girlfriend and friends than do the late shifts, the same diversions made me late for the earlies as well. I can honestly say that of the regrets I have throughout my life, losing my job on LT has to be the worst, I loved that job.

Just About Me 12

Around 1974, my dad wrote to the local council to request a 4 bedroom property in exchange for our 3 bedroom one, he was told he had no chance, so he had to resort to writing a stronger letter explaining that I was now becoming a drug addict and suicidal amongst other things, it had a dramatic effect because we were moving.

A four bedroom flat on the ground floor at 48 Sulivan Court, Fulham SW6. It was the first time I had had my own room, I was 18 years old no longer a drug addict or suicidal. Amazing what a move can do.
For my mum, being back in Fulham was like coming home, my dad was from the Old Kent Rd, SE1, so I doubt he really minded where he was, I felt more of a Fulham boy than my two brothers who were both definitely Bush boys. By now my brother Colin was an apprentice with North Thames Gas and my brother Andrew was still at Christopher Wren school, so he had near enough the same journey in reverse to the one I had had at Elliott. For me, it was closer to the pub and my pals in Putney, bizarrely though, I now travelled to White City Underground station, W12 for training with London Transport.

The perks of working for LT were terrific, a free pass for use on both the Buses and the Underground and a pass entitling you to only having to pay one quarter of the fare anywhere on British Rail, to be a guard was a lot more difficult than you would imagine, along with opening and closing the doors you were responsible for the train and in fact in charge. You also acted as the emergency driver (Motor Man), you had to memorise the workings of two separate braking systems and be able to diagnose any problems with it, and the most exciting part, actually driving a train. I have driven a train to every stop on the District and Circle lines and am proud to say that. To this day I am really jealous of the guys who drive trains.
At first I worked as a member of station staff at Earls Court, basic thing like sweeping up and directing people and the bit announcing the trains over the loudspeaker system. Now anyone that knows me will tell you that I can be a bit of a joker, most people would announce where the train was going and a number of stops on route, to me this was boring, I would tell people the colour of the train, how many carriages it had, a brief summary of the weather and I just could not help myself announcing Parsons Green as Parsons Nose, and you know what, no one ever noticed.

Just About Me 11

Well another new job beckoned, it was 1973 and I was now 17, I joined Total Oil, at 33 Cavendish Sq, W1. I was once again in the post room, I worked with a guy named Victor, Victor was in his 50s and was from Ireland, he was a cracking chap and never once lost his temper as I mucked up the run of monthly invoices, in those days their were no computers, well one but that took up a room on its own, and we had to feed a large box of continuous paper through a machine that placed each one into a windowed envelope for posting. Inevetably this would also come flying of the spokes and go all over the floor, Victor would calmly collect it all up and straighten it out, whilst I shouted, swore a bit and walked off for a fag. We could fill up to 30 complete sacks of outgoing mail and receive a similar amount of incoming mail everyday, compare that to today and the pouches of mail that companies receive today, and half of that is junk mail. We had a lot of temps working at Total Oil, one of which was an actor whose name escapes me but, he played the Judge on the successful afternoon TV drama, Crown Court, I just could not stop calling him Judge and Your Honour as I was totally star struck at the time.

Around this time, my Friend Paul Stevens from Elliott school had looked me up, and we both discovered pubs, we used to go to the White Lion in Putney a lot, we had some great times, Paul was a butcher at Tesco's at the time and would always be playing pranks on the women and girls in the pub, things like turning up with pigs trotters up his sleeves or pigs ears slung over his head, they sound silly now but it was pretty amusing then. Paul went on to become a bus conductor on London Transport and whilst I was earning about £18 - £20 per week he earned over £100, remember this was 1974-75. So you guessed it, I wanted to be a bus conductor too. I went along for the interview as they were crying out for staff, and, got turned down because I was too tall, I would have had too stoop over on the upper deck, but they needed staff so badly that they took me on as an Underground Guard at a better rate of pay than the buses. So it was bye bye Total Oil and hello London Transport.

Just About Me 10

My next job was at a company called Golden Ltd, they were based in Berkley Sq, W1. Their main business was as a subsidiary of L'Oriel they supplied women's hair and beauty products. I worked in the stationary and post room with a guy called Gerry, Gerry was about 40 years of age and loved Radio 4, he had a friend who worked in a local restaurant named Roylio, now with a name like Roylio I am sure you have all cracked on that he was gay, although in 1971, gay meant happy and frankly if the seven dwarves had walked in Roylio would have felt happy. He used to terrify me, he had a habit of turning up when Gerry was out and I used to grab a large paper knife, and at the time convinced myself that if he came near me, he would have got more than he bargained for.
Gerry was a very boring man as well, so after yet another 3 months I moved on again.

Key Employment never let me down, they fixed me up with a local firm of Solicitors, Bellamy, Bestford and De Lattre. They were based in Uxbridge Rd, W12 and I was there new messenger at £13 per week, I had to go to the Law Courts in the Strand to file papers for action, Somerset House to obtain marriage certificate's for divorce hearings and to Barristers Chambers in the Temple. I used to really enjoy the train journeys and the sights, one day I was in the Law Courts reading the daily events, when I saw a prison officer with a guy handcuffed to him, the guy was fiddling with the cuff's and somehow managed to slip them off, he ran as fast as he could straight out the door and up the Strand to Freedom. I don't know if he got caught or not but it was a dramatic escape to watch.
I lasted about 18 months in that job, and only left because they would not give me a pay rise.

Just About Me 9

The 2nd August 1971, a monumental event in world history, I started gainful employment,  I got the job via the Key Employment Agency, in those days you could get a job really easily, I had four in one day once, but that's another story. My first job was at 20th Century Fox in Soho Square, London W1, I was 15 and the office junior. My wages were £10 per week and at the end of the week a chap came round and put my wage packet on my desk, I nonchalantly glanced at it as if it was a non event, but inside I was bursting to get it opened, My take home pay was £8.78p I had never had as much money in my life. When I got home my Dad asked me if I had been paid, I got my wage packet out to show him, "You've opened it" he exclaimed and then burst out laughing. I gave my Mum £2 a week keep, was meant to save £2 a week and had £4.78 a week spends. The savings must have lasted all of a month I reckon, but I do remember actually having money left over at the end of the week.
I remember the boss was called Mr Howard and another guy who worked there Joe, Joe taught me a valuable life lesson, whenever we had finished a piece of work or accepted a delivery, we had to sign either it or for it, I signed my name clearly, "Don't do that" said Joe "Just do a bit of scribble, then if it all goes wrong nobody knows its you that has cocked up" I still to this day scribble on things.

I had been at 20th Century Fox for three months when, one morning I got up and was a bit fed up, I guess the hours made you fed up having been used to school hours and suddenly being thrown into an all round eleven hour day,  I told my Mum and she said " Its not like school you know, you can change your job if you want too". Well that was that then, I walked straight in and gave my notice in. When I got home I proudly told my parents of my actions " That's great " said my dad  "Where are you going to live". Well as you can imagine this took me back a stride, he then carried on and told me bluntly that " If you have no work to go to next week then you better find somewhere else to live", this of course was another of life's lessons, never leave a job before you have another one to go to.

He also told me another great lesson, and one worth noting, whatever job you have there will be a fiddle, it could be Goods, it could be Money, it could even be Time. Well he told me to make sure that whatever it was I was to make sure I got in on it. Well I truly reckon it has been the best piece of advice he ever gave me along with "wear a condom"

Just About Me 8

The cinema was an exciting place for me, you see my Dad often fancied watching a film and would take me with him. We first went to watch The Silencers, with Dean Martin in it, he played a secret agent and it was Americas answer to James Bond. There have been 23 Bond movies and only 4 Silencers films, so from that I guess for once America got it wrong. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Silencers_%28film%29

Another great film we watched was Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, this is a classic movie starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butch_Cassidy_and_the_Sundance_Kid

But for me the one that stood out was Papillon, starring Steve McQueen, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070511/  it was about a guy imprisoned by the French and his struggle for survival.

In February 1971, it was decided that I was wasting my time being at Elliott any longer, and my parents, I think, harbored thoughts that I was being held back academically, but maybe the truanting didn't really help, anyway my parents changed my school and I went to Sir Christopher Wren School, W12. This was the local school that originally was deemed not very good in 1967, but now in fairness my brother Colin attended and was doing really well at. It was in walking distance, my reputation had obviously arrived before me, as the first thing my new housemaster said to me was " So your Allen, when are you leaving". When I went into class I could not believe these people were my age, some of them were enormous and grew close on a beard, whilst I, although tall, still spoke with a squeaky voice and attended scouts. I soon fell in with my usual way, meeting a couple of guys Billy Hennessy and Billy Daniels, we all bunked off together, I even made my little brother carry my PE kit around so that I did not have to do it, Sorry Colin! I lasted one term at Sir Christopher Wren School and left my school days behind it was May 1971.

Just About Me 7

I made some really good friends at Elliott, namely Paul Stevens, Eugene King, John Hicks, Barry Stock and Michael Arnott. We used to all hang around together and I found myself experiencing lots of firsts with some of them. My First Cigarette, My First Chippy Loaf, My First go at Shoplifting and Bunking Off School. My First Cigarette was nothing special but in my mind I looked tough, pretty stupid really, My
First Chippy Loaf was fantastic, a loaf of uncut bread cut in half and hollowed out, filled with chips and soaked in vinegar and laced with salt. My First go at Shoplifting was ridiculous, in an off license on the Ashburton Estate, Putney SW15, I decided to nick some chocolate bars and a tin of coke, I stuffed them in various pockets, and the shopkeeper was not too happy about it, he grabbed me round the throat whilst I totally shit myself, he took me to the housemaster John Taylor who caned my arse, I was more worried my dad would find out than anything else, but I don't think he did, Sorry Dad you have now. Bunking Off School became a habit, I visited all the local parks and deserted buildings in Putney, namely a disused brewery in Lacy Rd, SW15, it was great fun in there, we found loads of empties which we returned to the local off license for the deposit back, the first time round the guy paid us out, the next time he shouted to us to F Off, I guess he had been kind the first time and knew what we were up to, but never again.

At home my Paternal Grandmother came to live with us, at first this was quite exciting but after time became a bit fragile, two women into one kitchen does not work, Fact, every night my Nan would jump up to clear the dinner table and wash up, this sort of thing frustrated the life out of my mum who saw it as her kitchen. I don't want you to think that it was all terrible because it really wasn't, we lived in a happy home, only thing was it became overcrowded as we grew bigger.

 One day in1968 I was returning home from school, sitting on the top deck of a 220 bus, gazing aimlessly out of the window, when as we reached Shepherds Bush Green, a convertible Cadillac pulled up sharply outside the old Essoldo cinema, emerging from it at speed were four large Gorillas with machine guns. They ran inside the cinema firing round after round. Well as you can imagine, this came as a bit of a shock to this twelve year old boy, I remember ducking down as the bus pulled away. I told my mum about it, and she probably thought I had gone mad, it was a couple of days later I realised it was all a publicity stunt to promote the latest film Planet Of The Apes.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063442/

Just About Me 6

Approx 1968 they only went and picked me for the house rugby team, I hated the game and they picked me.

I reckon the fact that at the time I was about 5 feet 6 inches and most others were about 4ft 10ins probably sealed my fate, the game was on a Saturday morning at Raynes Park playing fields, I moaned about this and was told that if I did not turn up I would get a large amount of detention or worse, it did not help me that my games master was John Taylor the Wales and British Lion international (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Taylor_(rugby_player), so I did the best thing I could and turned up. Could not tell you the result as I could not wait to get back home in time to go to watch Chelsea play. I must have made the right impression as I was never picked again, and years afterwards I met John on an underground station, he gave me the impression that he did not even remember me, what a liberty!

In every year I was at Elliott they had an annual cross country run, I remember the first year telling my dad I was taking part, " Just follow the leader closely" he said " then nip past him at the end for victory", I lined up with great anticipation, they shouted go so we did, I finished 298th out of 300 apparently taking a rest 300 yards in is not the way to win!

Another thing they taught us at school was Woodwork and the use of various tools, one of these was called a spokeshave, spokeshave's were really useful for rounding objects off and in the use of carving. One day they set us a task of carving a fish from a handy sized piece of wood, I got stuck in with my usual amount of enthusiasm and towards the end of the project I had somehow managed to carve the fish's head off.
The other thing that always sticks in my mind about woodwork was the day  a teacher decided to punish me and another boy for some minor misdemeanour, the punishment was to saw a large sheet of asbestos in half, no face masks or goggles, can you imagine that today, too soft if you ask me.

Just About Me 5

Well as you can see I am really getting into this now!

1967 was interesting in April I was in Du Cane Rd Hospital, with an abscess on my Left knee, Dad said it was a boil so being medically trained he set about squeezing it, Dr Allen admitted defeat for now and allowed me to have hospital treatment instead, he then went off to Villa Park to watch Chelsea beat Leeds United 1-0 in the FA Cup Semi Final, whilst I had my knee lanced.

In May Chelsea played Spurs in the FA Cup Final at Wembley, Spurs won 2-1, that morning I had been at Saturday morning pictures, where half the audience pledged allegiance to the Blues and half to Spurs and a singing battle commenced, the only thing Chelsea won that day.

Around this time, my Dad and me went for a walk at about midnight on a Saturday after he had been up the Pavillion Pub with my Mum, we walked down to Wormwood Scrubs, it was at this time that the A40 Westway was being built and we walked along it until it stopped half way approx 50 feet up in the air.

The other major event of 1967 was that I started secondary school, my parents were told at that time that the local boys school was not very good, so they applied for Holland Park School where no spaces were available, so I ended up going to Elliott Comprehensive School. It was situated in Putney SW15, 4 miles away. I had to get the 220 bus to Putney Bridge and then the 85 to the top of Putney Hill and then the same journey back again. My first day at school was nerve racking at best, I knew nobody and was put next to a guy called Carl Nemeth, they started to tell us the timetable and when they said we had two periods of games on a Thursday I thought that's handy we can bring in Monopoly or Cards. Can you imagine my face when they put us on a coach to some playing fields to learn Rugby.   (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliott_School_%28London%29)

Just About Me 4

1966, a year not to forget, The World Cup was held in England. One of the games was held at the White City Stadium, which was about a quarter of a mile away from where I lived, the game was I believe Uruguay v France. White City was predominantly a greyhound track but it also held the Horse of the Year showjumping event, myself and my brothers and a couple of other boys used to walk there to obtain the riders autographs. Famous riders of the day were Harvey Smith and David Broome. They used the army barracks opposite to stable the horses. Another use for the barracks in 1966 was for the boxer Cassius Clay (Muhammed Ali) to train for his fight with Henry Cooper at Highbury Stadium. We never caught a glimpse of Clay, but quite exciting all the same. On the 30th July 1966, the world cup final took place at Wembley Stadium, the road outside our flat was called Wood Lane, W12 and was the main road at the time for traffic to get to Wembley, and I remember seeing coach loads of people going to the big game, a game of course that England won to become world champions. I caught the end of the game because I was out playing football with my pals.

Another event that happened in 1966, in Shepherds Bush, was the shootings of 3 local police officers outside Wormwood Scrubs prison (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Roberts_%28murderer%29) by criminals led by Harry Roberts, Roberts is still in prison to this day for the shootings. I can vividly remember all the police vehicle's zooming past us on route to the scene and the shot up police car being transported back past us. If the truth is told as a 10 year old boy I found this very scary.

I also recollect the TV programme Dr Who being aired on BBC for the first time, it has never been my thing, but the sight of two Daleks on the back of an open backed van scared the living daylights out of me, the BBC TV centre was just up the road from us, on a Thursday they would film Top of the Pops Live, I remember running there to see the Beatles emerge from TV centre, well I think it was them because the car windows were blacked out.

Just About Me 3

I soon settled into Coverdale school and made a lot of friends and gained my first girlfriend, a couple of notable events that I remember were, the time the BBC filmed a piece for a magazine style TV programme, not sure what it was about but must have been detrimental to the school as we were all told not to speak to the reporters, one boy in my class was a real rebel and totally disregarded these instructions, his name was Herbert Clarke but I remember being in the background, this was my first TV appearance but not the last.

Another silly thing I remember from Coverdale was being walked to a school Football match at Ravenscourt Park, W6. The teacher told us not to talk going past the tree in front of a certain house. The tree was a Monkey Puzzle Tree, and we were not to talk because if we did it would bring us nothing but bad luck, he probably just wanted a bit of quite time, but to this now middle aged man he instilled a fear of talking when passing Monkey Puzzle Trees, and one that has now been passed to my wife and daughter.

Another major event in my life happened in 1965, my dad took me firstly to see Fulham FC play, it was okay I guess but on Saturday 17th April 1965 my dad took me for the first time to Stamford Bridge, the home of Chelsea FC. They played WBA and drew 2-2 (Chelsea goalscorers were Bert Murray and Bobby Tambling) and the crowd was 30,792, but to one small 9 year old boy a life long love affair was born. I vividly remember a sea of colour and a cacophony of noise that was infectious and very, very contagious.

Just About Me 2

When I returned to school, I proudly told everyone including the teachers about my happy news regarding my Baby Sister, this came as an enormous surprise to my Mum because as I said earlier she had delivered us a baby brother, Andrew. I do not know of any reason to say this apart from being a bit of a story teller. Another of my stories was a diary kept at school of what we had done during our school holidays, most of the kids had been away to caravan parks etc, but not us, oh no we had been mountain climbing far away and my dad had fallen to his death. Happy to report that Dad is still with us at the age of 78.

I had a great early childhood with my playmates Larry Osbourne and Terry Smith, we played Run Outs, Had and of course Football, we played football up against the gates of the local church, St Peters. The gates seemed so big to me but were not really. My dad used to help out in the grounds of the church, not through religion but because he just loved gardening. I also attended as a member, the 3rd Fulham Boy Scouts, having great times bob a jobbing and in my mind guarding the community.
Thinking about it now my parents must have really struggled to bring us three boys up so nicely, they must have had to go without themselves to give us things. I recall an occasion that I was walking with my mum and glanced upon a crispy ten bob note (50p), my mum took it off of me lively. Which by my reckoning with interest she must now owe me a tidy sum!

In 1964, I was fortunate to wear an Olympic Medal, my friend Larry Osbourne's uncle was a member of the  Great Britain Olympic Rowing Team that won a medal in the Tokyo Olympics, I do not know what colour it was but it was a very special moment for me.

In 1965, a major event in our lives happened. The local Authority decided to demolish our little prefab along with several others to accommodate a new housing complex which is now called St Peters Terrace. This came as a great trauma particularly to my Mum, she had lived in Fulham from her childhood.

We were all shipped off to a flat on the second floor of a small block in a far away (2 miles) place called Shepherds Bush!
Our flat was situated at 93 Macfarlane Rd, W12. In a small block opposite the London Transport training centre, a site which now accommodates the Westfield shopping centre.

Both myself and my brother were sent to a local primary school called  Miles Coverdale Primary School (http://www.milescoverdaleprimary.co.uk/)

Thought it would be fun to put the current website on, so my family can see how it has changed.

Just About Me

Okay whats all this about, well I read a blog by my friend Gemma Mortimer and felt inspired. My name is Paul Martin Allen and in the tone of Forrest Gump they call me Paul Martin Allen, or just plain Paul.

I was born in 1956, July to be exact, in Parsons Green Clinic, in Fulham, London SW6. My mother Mary and my Father Ron all lived at No 4 Cedarne Road, Fulham with my maternal grandfather Albert Martin.

We soon all moved into a prefab at No 4 Reportan Road, Fulham. A prefab was a purpose built building, built to replace houses that were bombed and destroyed in World War 2. The picture (left) is very similar to the one we lived in.

In November 1958, my brother Colin David Allen was born in the same clinic as myself and in 1959 my Grandfather Albert passed away but I honestly do not remember too much about either of these events happening.


My school days began in September 1961, at Munster Road Primary School in Fulham, a quick bit about Fulham because it has just occurred to me that some of you may well be outside the UK, Fulham is a town within England's capital city London. It is now a fairly affluent place to live and has a real community feel about it. Back to 1961, what I remember of Munster Road School is only good, I remember receiving a book as a prize called " Little Red Wing " I still have this book to this day.

In June 1962 my youngest brother Andrew Graham Allen was born, now this event I do remember, my dad looked after us both as my mum went off to St Stephens Hospital in Fulham Road, SW3 to give birth, well that's how it seemed to me at 6 years of age but I reckon there must have been more to it than that.
My recollection of coming home from school to be greeted by my mum who leapt out to surprise us and to be pointed in the direction of a large pram in the garden containing my new baby brother.