Thursday 16 August 2012

'Ice-cream men and hot chestnuts'

Hornsey Road as described in 1890s Booth notes:

Worse handwriting than mine. Almost.

'Then into Hornsey Road which is a street of small shops, giving credit and so bring business with the surrounding neighbourhood over the heads of the cheaper and better shops in Seven Sisters Road and Holloway Road. Out of it on the east side is Pine Grove and Gladstone Street, two storied, purple to light blue. Pine Grove is chiefly stables and shop stores. Further south is Roads Street, a small Italian colony, ice-cream men and hot chestnuts. No trouble to police, "great respecters of the law" said Dyball. Houses built 1870.'

I wonder how the Hornsey Road felt after Sicily or Naples. Se vogliamo che tutto rimanga com'รจ bisogna che tutto cambi.

2 comments:

  1. Where have all the ice cream men and hot chestnuts gone? I bet you can get chestnuts on the Hornsey Road but I suspect their temperature is closer to tepid. Like the ice cream.

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    Replies
    1. I do wish you could get proper too hot to hold roast chestnuts in London. Not today though.

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