Didn't we just love Emma Peel?

Didn't we just love Emma Peel? As a kid, I would always be good on the evenings that this was on TV. The Avengers was so out there for me. It was on rather late but my Mum always knew I liked it. And in our house, if one wanted something, one had to get Mum's approval. So behave and perhaps I might get to see it.

In the sixties decade, Britain and the U.S. had wonderful escapism TV programmes. I suppose many of these retro shows are rather passe and twee nowadays. However, I still look back at many with nostalgic fondness. These things were part of the little 'impressionable boy' world I grew up in.

The Avengers and The Prisoner were two smashing TV shows that I was a glutton for. I liked the Avengers because of John Steed and Emma Peel. Every week they would have to confront some sort of bizarre criminal who found some diabolical way of potentially upsetting the normal way of life. 

It was gorgeously far-fetched and unashamedly so. That was what I think I liked about it. Even today, I enjoy the repeats of the show. Especially if the glorious Emma Peel is in it. I know the actress is Diana Rigg, but I like the character of Emma Peel. It fills me with 'Retro Brit' Nostalgia.

When I went Around My Nan's House.

As a young lad in the 1960's decade, I always remember visiting my Nan's house in Poplar, East London. She used to live down Hobday Road but the house was destroyed in the Blitz. She moved a few streets away after that and stayed in her little-terraced house until around 1970 when she moved to another similar house in Canning Town's Star Lane.

I can remember a circular lid in front of the street door where coal men would tip coal. The entrance was a hallway with a front room to the side. A door would be here. The other wall would have a set of stairs. There would be a slight recess along the hallway by the stairs where another back room door would be. In most houses, these were referred to as the Front room (Lounge) and the back room (Dining Room)

Then beyond this was a further room that was often called the Scullery. It seemed like a miniature living room with a table by a side window. Beyond this was a tiny kitchen with a side door leading out to the backyard. Here was the outside toilet like in the side photo.

Outdoor toilets were very common all over London, but they disappeared very quickly between the 1960s and the 1970s. Many of the old terraced houses that had such toilets are still standing, but all lavatories have been put inside of the dwellings of today. I don't remember it happening. It just did.

It used to be blooming freezing in the winter. I remember some of the older men of the day taking their caps off the hook to wear. This was just to visit the lavatory. I used to find this rather amusing.