Hallo Tony and Pauline,
You can bet your bottom dollar we passed in the City at some point! I worked in Thomas Meadows (Shipping Agents) Milk Street which was a little road just off Cheapside (I couldn't find it when I looked on Google Earth and suspect it has been 'developed'.) This was 1959-1960. I used to walk from Cannon Street to Milk St via Bow Lane. Loved that little lane - so full of character. I found some nice photos of it on the web and it doesn't appear to have changed at all.
There, the wage was three pounds, ten shillings a week, and we had vouchers worth 2/3d and I agonised whether to put another 1/-d to them to them to buy something halfway decent or have sardines on toast at 1/9d and waste the remainder. I obviously hadn't found that little place in Bow Lane! The sardines usually won because, as you know, an extra shilling seemed an awful lot of money then. As you say, Pauline, our mothers had to have their board and lodging money before anything else.
I can't help chuckling about the rush to catch the train that was fast to Hither Green. I had forgotten that awful feeling of hoofing along to the station as quickly as possible - in stiletto heels, of course - to catch the fast train.
One nice thing about working there was that when there was any kind of procession to Guildhall for visiting dignitaries e.g. President de Gaulle and the Shah of Persia, we were allowed to go out and watch the pageantry.
After a year, I got a job in an insurance company in Gracechurch Street - again, pretty near to where you were, Pauline. It was no Saturday mornings as it was at TM's, an extra pound a week and 3/-d luncheon vouchers. However, I hated it there. I had enjoyed working with the girls in the typing pool at TM but some of the women in the next job were hard to get on with.
My sister found a shop near London Bridge that allowed you to use the luncheon vouchers for cigarettes. As I didn't smoke and my parents and sister did, they got me to buy cigarettes with the LVs and gave me some money in lieu so we all felt we'd made a profit! I used to take Marmite sandwiches and eat them in various little gardens and churchyards in the area. Sometimes, I'd go up to St Paul's and eat there.
Oh, just realised Pauline, we match with the shipping and insurance!
When I left school, I thought I would be swapping the boredome of the classroom for something interesting but soon discovered the typing pool was just another form of boredom. I suppose I thought going up to London each day would be exciting but it was - for me - was nothing more than a hassle with the crowds and the trains and the rushing to and fro and all for very little money.
When I see the whole area on the television, I hardly recognise it. It seems full of skyscrapers now.
