the cabbies capital

…….said be a Tottenham fan, I said….don’t be daft, you don’t even like football. It was always rugby for my old man, apart from a strange flirtation with being a bruising, Bob Latchfordesque type centre forward when his dodgy back stopped him playing his beloved rugger. What has this got to do with the photos above? Precisely nowt, but I felt the need to give a bit of background colour to my old man, rather than just stick up some scanned in slides from the early 60′s. You see, my Dad was stationed in Wellington Arch for a while and took these photos in the early to mid 60′s, when being in the Met Police seemed to consist of stitting around and drinking a lot of tea, then buggering off to play your sport of choice. Other demanding aspects of the job back then included giving tourists his spiel about how the Lions in Trafalger Square would, in an emergency, rise up to reveal machine guns that could then take out any dodgy looking foreigners. His other favorite story was when him & his copper chums got asked by No 10 Downing St to keep the noise down on New Year’s Eve, after their impromtu game of footy in the middle of the street got a bit too lively. Such was life in what seems like such a different age. But this isn’t the time or place to go all dewy eyed about the past, I prefer to do that in the comfort of my own home. All that’s left to say is that it’s a shame the photo in the middle isn’t my Dad, but it is his good friend Bob. Which is nearly as good. Oh, and someone please remind me to ask Big Sis if she has any of the photos showing my dad in Trafalgar Sq in full uniform. Post winding up of tourists of course.

For more Wellington Arch photos see my Flickr link.