My family lived in Blackwall Bldgs. from about 1949 until 1954-5. I remember that the top of the blocks had very low iron railings and the top area was used to hang washing, iron poles were fitted for the lines. In about early 1954 a lad of about 7years old fell from the top and died. There were also pigeon coops on the tops of some blocks.

Opposite the blocks, alongside the railway there was rough ground only – I think the houses there were bombed. On the rough ground was the only shop, a grocers cum sweetshop. Tea was sold loose from the tea chests, in fact most of the goods were sold loose even the biscuits – which were mainly broken bits. You took a milk bottle to get it filled with bleach.

Inside the flats it was tiny, quite dark and dismal. Tin baths hung outside the doors, these would be set in front of the cast iron range and a sheet was hung over a line to give privacy – if you were old enough to warrant it. Bath water was generally used first by the mum then dad, the kids would then take their turn, all in the same water with the occasional fresh kettleful of hot  to warm it up. Water was boiled on the primitive gas cooker in the four biggest pots you had and a large blackened cast iron kettle would be boiled over the range if a fire was going.

On the subject of the shared laundry, as I remember there was not a laundry on each floor, there was only one laundry on the third floor at the end of the building. If you look at the picture of the block with the short wall – the one with the kids in front, you will clearly see the water stains which ran down the front of the buildings. This was a grey smelly persistent leak from the old drainpipes.

The laundry had a long row of large rectangular zinc coated steel sinks facing the windows at the front, each with a single large brass cold water tap connected to a long lead water pipe bracketed to the wall. There were also some of the same iron poles for hanging lines as was on the roof. As you entered the laundry there was a huge hand operated mangle. All was communal but women tended to have a ‘favoured’ sink they would use. primacy was determined by proximity to the mangle or a window. Turbans and aprons were de rigeur for all the women in the laundry.

I am not quite sure but I think we lived at number 28, which was on the same landing as George Cornell – who was later shot dead in The Blind Beggar pub by Reggie Kray (who then still lived in Valance Road) in the 1960′s (note this number 28 was the same flat occupied by the Singer family in the early 1900s)