That alley, that street, that school.

The introduction to my book, Anyone Can Do It, includes the following passage.

We used to live in quite a large house, or more precisely in half of quite a large house. At some stage in its history it had been split into two dwellings by the simple method of building a wall down the middle. Our half of it opened onto a cul-de-sac that ran along the side of the house and led to a narrow pedestrian path that in turn led to another road. I was about four or five years old when my parents bought me a bicycle. Once I had reached the stage of bravery where I was prepared to leave the confines of my own garden I would ride the bike up to the closed end of the cul-de-sac and along the path where I would dismount and peer out into the other road. I would stay there until I saw anyone coming and then remount and ride back to my home as if the devil himself were an inch behind my wheels.

It was this area that I went for a walk around a couple of days ago and I thought you might like a couple of pictures.

So, first of all, here is that narrow pedestrian path, surprisingly unchanged from the way I remember it more than forty years ago.

And this is the street where our house once stood. Unlike the path it is very different now. The right hand side, with the tree, is similar to the way it was but the left, where the houses are visible, was once a wall topped by a fence with a gate about half way down. Behind that wall was our garden and at the far end of the garden stood our house. Very different.

And as a final bonus, I mentioned that my infant school had been demolished. The other half of the school, the junior school is still there, though who knows how long it will remain. Here is a photograph of it - Daisy Bank Junior School.