Hi. I was born in 21 skinner lane, in 1951. Lived there until I was six or seven years old. I remember well the conditions that we accepted as normal at the time. Although, looking back, they sound a bit Dickensian now. No kitchen, no bathroom, not even a toilet of our own. We had to get dressed in the night if we needed to go to the 'lav', walked down the street and up the entry into the back yard. There were two toilets at each end of the courtyard, for use by maybe a dozen families.
In the house itself some people didn't even have electricity. Old gas mantles and leaded grate fireplaces for cooking on. a sink with a cold tap under the stairs, to wash in, with steps going down to the coal cellar. The bedrooms were decorated with newspaper on the walls, with whitewash on.
