Buddy Watkins and talent shows I wished I had seen at Woolwich Town Hall

I went looking the other day for Earlswood Street.

It is off Trafalgar Road and it is somewhere I haven’t been for over forty years.

Back in the late 1960s I worked there in a camping shop and later travelled past it on the way down to the Tunnel.

But this time I was more interested in Earlswood Street because it was here that Buddy Watkins lived or at least used as an address on his business cards.

He was “Buddy Watkins, Rythmn Pianist” and leader of the Buddy Watkins Boys which performed at dance competitions and concerts.

Now I never knew of him or his band but they bounced into my life while I was reading Woolwich Through Time by Kristina Bedford.

And like you do I am off on a search for what I can find out about Mr Watkins.  In the meantime I have his businesss card and a picture and that is a start.

The house is still there, although sadly many of the places he performed at will have vanished.

I guess that Mr Watkins is the chap standing by the piano but that is about it.

But there will be some stories here, and just perhaps people who knew him, saw the band and may even have performed with the Buddy Watkins Boys.

They did after all support those who were brave enough to "Dance, Sing, Act, or Croon" in the amateur
talent contest at Woolwich Town Hall.

All of which is a reminder that our present obsession with discovering would be hopeful stars is not new.






Pictures; Woolwich Through Time is at Woolwich, Kristina Bedford, 2014

The magic of crossing the river at Woolwich by ferry

Now the ferry is just something that sticks with you no matter how many years it is since you were on it.

And it still has the power to win friends.

So when we were heading back to Manchester I persuaded Tina that we should cross the river at Woolwich and sure enough my Italian partner was won over.

This is the Will Crooks with the Ernest Bevin in the background.

They came into service in the 1930s and carried on doing the business till 1963.

Now I know that on a busy wek day morning waiting to get on board can be tedious and the journey is a short one, but even now fifty or so years after I first did the trip its magic.



Picture; from Woolwich Through Time, Kristina Bedford, Amberley 2014

On Church Parade outside the Royal Artillery at Woolwich in 1939

Now this would be a fascinating enough picture for any of us who know Woolwich but the date it was sent gives it an added interest.

We are at a church parade outside the Royal Artillery Barracks and the date is 1939.

The actual picture may have been taken a little earlier, but it was sent on March 3rd 1939 by a young Douglas to his aunt in Dorset.

Just seven months later the Second World War had begun and some at least of the young men we see in the photograph may well have been preparing to go to France with B.E.F.

Location; Woolwich, London

Picture; Church Parade Royal Artillery 1939 Set Title Woolwich, Tuck and Sons, 1939, courtesy of  Tuck DB http://tuckdb.org/