photo : Historic England https://www.facebook.com/HistoricEngland
Colin Bell… Great photo. We lived a few hundred yards away, when I was growing up. Dad remembered watching it being built as a 8/9 year old in the mid 1930’s. It’s got quite a history, Two workmen died during construction from falls, & the Luftwaffe machine gunned & bombed it during WW2.
Peter Ellingworth… Didn’t the Luftwaffe catch some Canadian Air Force guys having a muster parade in front of Marine Court one day in WW2 with resultant loss of life ?
Wendy Henry Wilson…in late 1950’s and early 1960’s my Mum worked in Grooms, an old fashioned grocers shop – sometimes my older sister and I would play under marina opposite. I remember the wind tunnel effect by the doors of the car showroom on the ground floor of this picture. Then I remember in the mid to late 1960’s, going to the Witchdoctor Disco on the first floor area in this picture too.
Peter Ellingworth… Following on, regarding the two workman mentioned who so sadly lost their lives during its construction. We rant about H&S and at times it does seem there is overkill (I had to write risk assessments at work so at least have some idea), but there is no denying that H&S has been a force for the good : how many people realise that as recently as the 1970’s one or so people were killed a week in the construction industry ? My own father narrowly escaped serious injury or death when working of the construction of the Post Office (around 1960) at the corner of London and Norman Road which was built on the the bombsite there.
A scaffolding clip fell from about twenty plus feet only just missing his head, so even with a safety helmet which didn’t really come into being until the mid-late sixties, he would have been badly hurt, and without one certain death. He didn’t seem too fazed about it if I remember ; like most of his generation he had lived through WW2, so after some of his experiences in Italy and elsewhere then no doubt saw it differently to how we would today.
Colin Bell… Hi Peter, i wrote the earlier comments about the death of the workmen & the Luftwaffe. It had a pretty profound effect on my Dad who actually witnessed one of the deaths whilst watching the building work with his older brother, he was only 8 or 9 at the time. It was sadly somewhat ironic, because all my family have been in the building industry for literally 100’s of years (I am the first one to not follow that path). Dad didn’t go overboard with H & S during his working life, but i can always remember his mantra of telling me ‘three limbs on a ladder at all times’. Thanks for sharing your memories
Richard Burks… Again really interesting local knowledge
