Tag Archives: plumbing

The London Borough of agony

Posted on November 3, 2019 by odeboyz

Hackney Borough Council is very old It is poor, yet there are rich people there It is cosmopolitan, yet it is still cockney A fair share of crooks but a nice place to behold. I have been in every part … Continue reading →

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A job in a million

Posted on September 22, 2017 by odeboyz

When I started work at Hackney Council I quickly realised I was a cog in a big wheel. Lou Olivo, the area foreman, was pig ignorant, arrogant, and annoying to anyone at a lesser grade than him. We were trash, … Continue reading →

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Ted Carter: My first ‘lad’

Posted on September 8, 2017 by odeboyz

On my first day at Hackney I went to the depot and met two men who I told I’d been sent my Mr Lacy. “Oh, that wax work dummy, at the Town Hall – is he still standing by his … Continue reading →

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The tragic death of Martin Walker: a Hackney Dustman

Posted on June 9, 2017 by odeboyz

I first met Martin in 1977 when I was foreman plumber at the Defoe Road depot in Stoke Newington, Hackney. He was a plumbers mate on my team. He wasn’t a skilled man but he was essential to us plumbers … Continue reading →

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Humbled

Posted on February 16, 2017 by odeboyz

I believe that I have been extremely silly at various times in my life, for no better reason than part devilment and showing off.  For example in around 1970, I was given a young labourer called Mark. Our first job was replacing the … Continue reading →

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Millfields Road Cleaning Depot.

Posted on January 22, 2015 by odeboyz

It is a large complex set of buildings on Millfields Road Clapton Park in Hackney, (London) the site was tucked between the power station on the bend of the river and Clapton Dog track. I first went there in 1963 to investigate an … Continue reading →

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Stanton and Staveley.

Posted on October 23, 2014 by odeboyz

Not a name that jumps out at you but in the sixties I was a snotty nosed plumbers apprentice sent to work on a building site at “The Barbican” in the centre of London. Apparently  Haden’s (the company I was … Continue reading →

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Hackney Saga 2

Posted on September 5, 2014 by odeboyz

Despite all the efforts I had put into making the WIS (Wenlock Barn Improvement Scheme) work, whilst I was in hospital that week my old area boss Joe Terry succeeded in scuppering the continuation of the scheme set up under … Continue reading →

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