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)

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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.

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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.

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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.