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Remember The Days Of The Old School Yard
Aug. 26th, 2018 08:33 pmLeyton Orient Women's first home game of the season, and so my first visit to their Mile End Stadium home.
Thanks to weekend-long engineering works, there was a replacement bus from Hemel Hempstead to Stanmore, then it was a longish tube ride the rest of the way. Happily, I had the new issue of She Kicks to see me through.
As my university was in Mile End, I couldn't resist the chance to visit some of my old student haunts for the first time since I graduated 26 years ago. Fortunately, the house where I lived for my second year is almost bang opposite Mile End tube station, so I crossed the road for a good look at the old girl. She's still looking pretty good (from the outside; I was content to just see everywhere from the outside, knocking doors and bothering householders didn't occur to me). I still remember my room, the top one, on the left as you look from the street. The front door, white in my day, is now grey.
Curiously, the houses that were occupied by two groups of friends of mine also have new grey doors, both with fancy new silver knockers. As I was on my little walking nostalgia tour, it started to rain.
No matter, there was somewhere I had to see two Tube stops away in Leyton : the house that had been home to my best friend at Uni Michelle and the rest of her gang, the 'Leyton lasses'. The opposite side of their street has gone, replaced by a metal fence, but happily the Leyton lasses' house is intact. When I posted the photo on Facebook, several of the Leyton lasses commented that it looks much tidier now than in their day!
Still the rain came down. Tube back to Mile End, and a walk along the Mile End Road to see the place where our lives were supposed to centre on in those days : the actual college. On the walk there I passed several buildings that are new since my days, including the new Student Village built in 2000 that precipitated the knocking down of our much loved Halls of Residence in South Woodford (so I couldn't complete my trip down memory lane with a visit there). The frontage of the college is still pretty much the same, though one bit has been revamped.
My favourite student take-away, the Fisherman's Inn kebab house, is now a KFC - and is next to an overhead arch above Mile End Road that wasn't there in 1992 and is propped up by a Costa, a Starbucks and a Peri-Peri restaurant that weren't either. Lunch in the KFC, for old time's sake.
With my tour over, I walked, by now like a drowned rat, along to the Mile End Stadium for the game. Met a few of the club people, including a player's wife, who were a pleasant and friendly enough bunch. One of the fans offered us all a jelly baby from a big bag. Orient lost 3-0 but I really got into the game and found myself enthusiastically getting behind them. It's true what they say about football : you don't choose your team, your team finds you.
Thanks to weekend-long engineering works, there was a replacement bus from Hemel Hempstead to Stanmore, then it was a longish tube ride the rest of the way. Happily, I had the new issue of She Kicks to see me through.
As my university was in Mile End, I couldn't resist the chance to visit some of my old student haunts for the first time since I graduated 26 years ago. Fortunately, the house where I lived for my second year is almost bang opposite Mile End tube station, so I crossed the road for a good look at the old girl. She's still looking pretty good (from the outside; I was content to just see everywhere from the outside, knocking doors and bothering householders didn't occur to me). I still remember my room, the top one, on the left as you look from the street. The front door, white in my day, is now grey.
Curiously, the houses that were occupied by two groups of friends of mine also have new grey doors, both with fancy new silver knockers. As I was on my little walking nostalgia tour, it started to rain.
No matter, there was somewhere I had to see two Tube stops away in Leyton : the house that had been home to my best friend at Uni Michelle and the rest of her gang, the 'Leyton lasses'. The opposite side of their street has gone, replaced by a metal fence, but happily the Leyton lasses' house is intact. When I posted the photo on Facebook, several of the Leyton lasses commented that it looks much tidier now than in their day!
Still the rain came down. Tube back to Mile End, and a walk along the Mile End Road to see the place where our lives were supposed to centre on in those days : the actual college. On the walk there I passed several buildings that are new since my days, including the new Student Village built in 2000 that precipitated the knocking down of our much loved Halls of Residence in South Woodford (so I couldn't complete my trip down memory lane with a visit there). The frontage of the college is still pretty much the same, though one bit has been revamped.
My favourite student take-away, the Fisherman's Inn kebab house, is now a KFC - and is next to an overhead arch above Mile End Road that wasn't there in 1992 and is propped up by a Costa, a Starbucks and a Peri-Peri restaurant that weren't either. Lunch in the KFC, for old time's sake.
With my tour over, I walked, by now like a drowned rat, along to the Mile End Stadium for the game. Met a few of the club people, including a player's wife, who were a pleasant and friendly enough bunch. One of the fans offered us all a jelly baby from a big bag. Orient lost 3-0 but I really got into the game and found myself enthusiastically getting behind them. It's true what they say about football : you don't choose your team, your team finds you.
