BARNSBURY BOY - micky simmonds
I was born on Boxing Day 1946 in St Mary's Hospital, Archway during one of the worst winters on record and I spent my early childhood in Wilton Square just off New North Road. After attending Rotherfield Infant School I then went to Shepperton School, but this closed down I believe, in 1956. So back to Rotherfield Street again while our family then moved to Newbury House in Essex Road.
We moved on again to Papworth Gardens, between George’s Road and Mackenzie Road, so I had to change schools again and so went to Alfred Pritchard, my final junior school where I played for the school soccer team who were unbeaten that year. Sandy won’t like this but at the start of the season (57-58) we played Laycock School in a friendly and beat them 5-1. Later in the year we only managed to draw 1-1 with them. [We didn’t lose a league match either that year. Shame about the friendly though; I probably got injured or something. - ed]
As you would have realised by now, Barnsbury School was literally across the road from where I lived so I started there in September 1958 until I left in 1962 and began life in the big wide world.
My first job was working for GHS Bookmakers trading as Alfie Hunt, who had a shop next to Beck’s the joke shop in Upper Street by Almeida Street, but I had to move on because I was only sixteen and by law you had to be eighteen to work in a betting shop. I got a job in a West End betting office in Earlham Street called George Dexter where I worked upstairs in the office. In 1965 when I was eighteen I made the mistake of going back to GHS where I did not last long as I went to work with my dad for another bookmaker.
I then moved into the print trade in 1967 with the Metropolitan Water Board where I stayed until 1977, changing jobs to work for Oxford University Press until I got made redundant in 1981. I became a casual worker in Fleet Street after that and in those days a lot of strokes were being pulled as most of you probably know. I was working for a well-known broadsheet newspaper and one time I used the name Sykes (among others) to fill in my pay-slip which I gave to the FOC who took it to the wages office. Later, when I went to collect my money, I approached the counter window and without looking, said 'Sykes' and a voice from behind the counter said, ‘I thought your name was fuckin’ Simmonds!’ Fortunately it was an old mate of mine, Jimmy Sewell, who was often to be seen in the arcade or with us over Highbury Corner during the early sixties. In fact when I first got married - to a lovely young lady called Susan Spencer - we lived in Powell Road, Clapton and Jimmy often stayed the night after some of the parties we threw.
[Small world. I still haven’t seen Jimmy in over forty years but some time ago I picked up his mum one evening and took her to the local bingo hall. We got chatting and she said that her son had a cab garage up Highbury Grove way and his name was, you’ve guessed, Jimmy Sewell. ed]
I then went to work for Greenaway Harrison in Hayes which suited me as we had moved to Southall in 1975. There I fell foul once again of the redundancy situation in 1990. I then became a postman but hated the job so I left there in 1992 to work for SmithKlineBeecham who then merged with Glaxo in 2000 where I then got outsourced to various companies which included TNT and Sodexo where I still am and hoping for them to make me redundant.
In my personal life I have one son and two granddaughters and in 2014 will have been a widower for 25 years.
January 2014.
We moved on again to Papworth Gardens, between George’s Road and Mackenzie Road, so I had to change schools again and so went to Alfred Pritchard, my final junior school where I played for the school soccer team who were unbeaten that year. Sandy won’t like this but at the start of the season (57-58) we played Laycock School in a friendly and beat them 5-1. Later in the year we only managed to draw 1-1 with them. [We didn’t lose a league match either that year. Shame about the friendly though; I probably got injured or something. - ed]
As you would have realised by now, Barnsbury School was literally across the road from where I lived so I started there in September 1958 until I left in 1962 and began life in the big wide world.
My first job was working for GHS Bookmakers trading as Alfie Hunt, who had a shop next to Beck’s the joke shop in Upper Street by Almeida Street, but I had to move on because I was only sixteen and by law you had to be eighteen to work in a betting shop. I got a job in a West End betting office in Earlham Street called George Dexter where I worked upstairs in the office. In 1965 when I was eighteen I made the mistake of going back to GHS where I did not last long as I went to work with my dad for another bookmaker.
I then moved into the print trade in 1967 with the Metropolitan Water Board where I stayed until 1977, changing jobs to work for Oxford University Press until I got made redundant in 1981. I became a casual worker in Fleet Street after that and in those days a lot of strokes were being pulled as most of you probably know. I was working for a well-known broadsheet newspaper and one time I used the name Sykes (among others) to fill in my pay-slip which I gave to the FOC who took it to the wages office. Later, when I went to collect my money, I approached the counter window and without looking, said 'Sykes' and a voice from behind the counter said, ‘I thought your name was fuckin’ Simmonds!’ Fortunately it was an old mate of mine, Jimmy Sewell, who was often to be seen in the arcade or with us over Highbury Corner during the early sixties. In fact when I first got married - to a lovely young lady called Susan Spencer - we lived in Powell Road, Clapton and Jimmy often stayed the night after some of the parties we threw.
[Small world. I still haven’t seen Jimmy in over forty years but some time ago I picked up his mum one evening and took her to the local bingo hall. We got chatting and she said that her son had a cab garage up Highbury Grove way and his name was, you’ve guessed, Jimmy Sewell. ed]
I then went to work for Greenaway Harrison in Hayes which suited me as we had moved to Southall in 1975. There I fell foul once again of the redundancy situation in 1990. I then became a postman but hated the job so I left there in 1992 to work for SmithKlineBeecham who then merged with Glaxo in 2000 where I then got outsourced to various companies which included TNT and Sodexo where I still am and hoping for them to make me redundant.
In my personal life I have one son and two granddaughters and in 2014 will have been a widower for 25 years.
January 2014.
