Cinemas and Music around Richmond – by DM

Oh yes, cinemas, yes, yes a gang of us, a crowd of us, of course as lads, we always used to go.  Richmond was a great place. I can remember as a teenager going there.  Where Nandos is at the moment that was called L’Auberge Coffee Bar and I sat there one evening drinking coffee making it last as long as I could and I looked and its Billy Fury! […]

Concerts at St Lawrence Hall – by DM

I think there was musical entertainment, yes, there was a band of some sort I seem to remember but now you’ve brought to mind musical entertainment, I remember going to concerts as a youngster at St Lawrence Hall.  Now St Lawrence Hall, is the hall alongside the Cassel Hospital which faces the Common and I used to go to concerts there or variety shows or something with my parents on […]

Going to the Richmond school of Dancing – by MF

In my teens… I was taking to somebody recently… when I was in my teens, we used to go to School of Dancing in Richmond.  It was above a milk bar type place called The ABC, then it became Prontos.  There was a dancing school above there, called Garganico-Bishop.  You went there and then… the woman who ran it, she was Bishop and Bob Garganico, he was a dance band […]

TV singing success of St Richard’s Choir – by DM

St Richards School choir, ah yes they did.  Yes, the headmaster was Alan Dudeney there at the time and he was a great musician, entrepreneur in a small way I’m sure.  He formed a choir and had a very, quite a famous choir and they made some, they used to walk over to the bridge to Teddington Studios and they were on the Cliff Richard show, the Cilla Black show […]

Singing success of choir St. Richards – by TH

Yeh, we had a little playground and I remember, I think it was Alan Dudeney who was the headmaster who took over and went to St Richards and, eh and you know, he started the school choir that went on to, you know, to doing cutting records and being on Magpie, performing at the London, eh Brighton Pavilion shall I say and all that sort of thing so (laughter) spurred […]