House numbering problems in Lock Road – by EB

Well we did have problem on this side of the road in 1969, one house was sold, (Hermiston) and five houses were built in its place.  Lady Dartmouth worked for the London County Council at the time and they decreed that they wanted to call 55A,B,C…  “Oh no” she said “that doesn’t sound nice” she said” no they can have proper numbers and the houses in the rest of the road can move on by ten numbers”, so that is what we had to do on this side of the road from the alleyway where the doctors alley is, so we all had to go up ten, so I was 61 and became 71 and I had a friend Mrs Brown who lived at 71 became 81 and we were always getting her post and I would take it down and ask if it was ours or hers.  And the funny thing was in 1968 we had applied for planning permission to knock down our brick garage and have a concrete one and they dragged their heels over it, so in March 1969 I phoned the Council and asked what was happening about the planning permission for our garage, are you passing it?  This woman said no we had a problem with it, how can you have a garage when you live in the middle of a block?  And I said, no we don’t, we are knocking down an old one.  No she said according to our plans 61 Lock Road, I said we are now 71 Lock Road, 61 Lock Road is now the middle of a block.  I said when I was 61 Lock Road it was semi-detached, now we are 71 and she amended all their records, so we had to go over there and show them plans, show them were we lived, showing the pictures of the house, and they then said OK we’ll pass it and you can have your garage.  All through Lady Dartmouth, I’ll never forget Lady Dartmouth.  Oh she was the woman on the Council, always beautifully dressed always immaculate, always in photographs, Lady Dartmouth, I’ll give her Lady Dartmouth.  She didn’t realise how the mortgage had to be changed, the gas, the electricity, everything and then everybody wanted proof and you had to get proof that this is what’s happened.  That was in 1969 and we became 71 Lock Road.