Back 37 years to South Woodford
This morning, I took the Central Line out all the way to South Woodford to see a colleague for a discussion. When I left the tube station, I realised that I had not been there for 37 years. I fought the two General Elections of 1974 as the Labour candidate for the then constituency of Wanstead and Woodford and I used to do leafleting at this station.
The February 1974 election was held against the background of a miners’ strike which had led the country to a three-day working week, but these days we have hardly any miners because we have virtually no coal mines. The October 1974 election resulted in the return of the minority Labour Government with a majority so small that, within a few years, it was forced to conclude the Lib-Lab pact – the nearest thing to a post-war coalition until the real thing in 2010.
December 7th, 2011 at 11:20 pm
SOUTH WOODFORD! of all places.
My husband used to live there (most of his youth)until 1973 when Britain joined the EEC and he moved to Holland. Wanstead is where I used to work as an aupair. So we know the area quite well. Our daughter who lives in New York met a friend there who originally comes from South Woodford. Friend is back in England again and guess what: she lives right opposite where my husband used to live. It is a small world, is n’t it. Although, was it not 2 years before a London cab driver knew all the streets. Thank God we have navigation nowadays. South Woodford, Greenheys Drive, sweet memories, we must go back one day.