London Roads - 1963

She always loved to look out this window on to Commercial Road.

The things she had seen. My god, she could write a book, and maybe she would one day if it wasn’t for the…well you know….her head was in many different places these days.

She remembered the old days when she lived up Mile End road. That was a place. The night when they held the film premiere – now that was posh. Who hadn’t attended, she would like to know. Everyone who was anyone, was there.

She had stood outside the club across the street called the Kentucky. It belonged to those nice brothers, the Krays.

She’d heard stories about them, but never believed any of it for a second. Hadn’t they helped her when her mother had taken ill, and needed a doctor quickly. The eldest one had even checked up that things had gone all right. They were the very best of East London, and no one would tell her otherwise.

She did remember seeing one person in particular, Princess Margaret. She didn’t attend the premiere, instead she had seen her slip into the Kentucky, with a cigarette in a holder flaying about her mouth. She guessed she must be friends with the Krays.

The first time she had seen the brothers, was when they had been taken away by the boys in blue. Apparently they were due to do national service and hadn’t made it. She had been told they had simply forgotten and that seemed to make sense to her. Nice, kind boys, she thought.

The next time she met them, the eldest Kray boy held the shop door open for her.

“I hear you and your bruv were in the nick,” she’d said.

“Tower of London, nothing but the best for us Krays. You know missus, we were in the same place as Rudolf Hess, Robert Walpole, Samuel Pepys, and Guy Fawkes.”

He gave a smile and she just had to laugh, as well.

That night, the night of the big film do, the stars had all headed off to Stepney Town hall for a big feed. Roger Moore was even there; said he loved the pie-and-mash, and who wouldn’t, she thought.

She remembered reading in the paper that they had all headed off to the West End club that belonged to Ronnie and Reggie, the place was called a name that began with an ‘e’. Now what was it? Esmeralda’s, that was it. The paper also said the boys were disappointed that Princess Margaret hadn’t made the film, but she knew that wasn’t true. She had spotted Margaret and the Boys heading off into town later that night.

That was early in 1963. A year that started out so well and ended up with the killing of the President. She had wept buckets that night. The week before they had shot Kennedy, she remembered her brother watching the first programme on television called Doctor Who. He had loved it. He was no longer with us, but she remembered they had played the theme tune at the funeral. Some of the boys had got a little band together to see him off.

God, she missed him and the old days.

But now it was 1987 and Commercial Road would just have to do.

bobby stevenson 2019