Then & Now

Mr Alex Acheson came to live in Highfields in 1938.
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In those days, the Labour Party subscription was six shillings a year, we went round every month collecting sixpence a month and entering it on the card. We kept in touch with the grass roots. Now, in many areas that has all gone as the subscription is centralised at Walworth Road. Many people now have a bank account so it's paid by standing order, even the local people are tending to lose touch with the grass roots.

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Mr Bakhsish Singh Attwal came to Highfields in 1957.
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Later on in a school we rented a room on Bridge Road, on Sunday we started to pray.

No places to worship in. Missed the fact that there was not a temple.

Now there are 20-25,000 Sikhs. There are 4 main Gurdwaras (Sikh temples). There are more arguments now because people disagree, eg. beliefs etc. There is no unity.

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Roads were narrower. More crime, drugs, etc and prostitution. English people left and so area became concentrated with Asians and Haiks. More Asian shops. The houses have become better. In every home there is a bath, heating. Nice decoration. More racist. People are more materialistic. Want more. The area has a bad reputation.

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Roger Cave came to live in Highfields in 1940, the year he was born.
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they used to have boxing. We used to use St Hilda's Church which was over the road. They used to have a boxing competition which I don't think would be allowed these days, it would be classed as dangerous.

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I can remember at the bottom of Oxendon Street, there was a Working Men's Club. It always used to be called the Highfields Working Men's Club, that was the main leisure centre for the area. I mean a lot of these Working Men's Clubs have died out now really but that was quite a focal point for people.

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As you work you way down through Highfields towards the railway, I remember going into houses where the toilet was in a court yard so it probably did for half a dozen houses! I think they were the first homes to be demolished. I think that was when I first joined the fire brigade so it was probably the early Sixties.

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I can't remember any spectacular buildings that were knocked down to provide flats, they were just these poor terraced houses really, the worst of the terraced houses in Highfields were knocked down. The better quality terraced houses are standing over the side of St Peters Road. Particularly the area of Connaught Street and Tichbourne Street, it has quite massive houses up there. I think that was an upper class area of Leicester then in those days.

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Helen Edwards interviewing Sandy Coleman for Highfields Remembered.
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I always look back and think that it was a multicultural area in the early 1950s. I went to school with all sorts of different nationalities. I can remember the Chinese friends that I had, I can remember the Chinese laundries, we had Italians, we had Jewish people, so I think even in those days it had got nationalities all getting on together.

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I'm glad to see the renovation that has gone on. I've been down East Park Road recently and there's terrific renovation gone on there which I'm really pleased about because some of the property was beautiful. The lovely big houses have been made into flats now because ordinary people can't afford to run a house like that.

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My children would no sooner think of calling the next door neighbour, aunty and uncle.

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Linda Cox who was born in 1948.
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although we had no television in our house, or telephone, bath or running hot water we coped well. We were never bored and we could go anywhere we wanted and were able to grow up without any modern horrors of to-day that kids have to be educated about at such an early age. We didn't have to have so many awareness campaigns thrust at us – and we were so much better and stress-free for it!

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Mr Boleslaw Dobski came to Highfields in 1947/48.
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Had the war not got in the way, what would you have done if you'd have stayed in Poland?

If I'd stayed in Poland, I was prepared to go to a foreign trade school. It was a newly established school for foreign merchandise, as I already had my apprentice in merchandise and was supposed to go to school. Then the war broke out. I joined the army and happy ever after!

My ambition was to have my own business. My father was a farmer and we hadn't been that bad off, so if everything went alright I would probably start with a small shop, that was my idea. Before the war people were different. A tradesman was a sort of middle class respected fellow. That was before the war. You had your shop, or your own workshop or something, and was middle class. Today, people perhaps go for the high education for professionals and doctorships and so on, but before the war, people had been happy to have been independent with little businesses, so proper tradesmen, properly trained and that was my idea. Perhaps I would have developed a taste for something else later on, but that was the idea, to start a shop or something. But if I succeeded at the school of foreign trade, overseas trade, then probably I'd be looking at something else you see. But when you are eighteen, nineteen you just haven't got an idea and besides, everything was so quiet before the war, now everything is overblown. But before the war people had been quite happy to have live a decent small life, in little towns preferably. Yes, they were the good old days!

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But, that was alright until the 1960s. We started moving out when we got a bit richer and the younger got better jobs, and so they began moving out. We had been selling the houses there and moving out and there is hardly anybody now, nobody living of the Polish community. One or two families perhaps, but that is all. My family was the last Polish family who moved out of Highfields. I moved out thirteen years ago. I stuck it out but I couldn't stand it anymore. The noise, the dirt, the prostitution and so on. My wife didn't want to move, but I say, alright you stay, I go!

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That was our beginning. It was very hard. Mind you, if we sometimes sit together with a beer and talk about the good old days and say "Well yes, it was good, but remember, how many socks did you have?!" You washed the socks so they were ready by tomorrow morning. The beginning was very hard but I should say that in the late Fifties, Sixties we felt we were getting somewhere. We did not ask for anything, we didn't get any grants, we didn't get any help from nobody and yet we managed to stabilise and we are quite alright now.

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So everything changed and Highfields changed as well. Not much for the better, that's the problem you see, because it is still overcrowded. Too many people live in that area. No parking space, cars parking on the pavement and so on. It's too noisy now and different people live there. Different habits, different culture and so on.

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Highfields changed despite the fact that the town or the county spent a lot of money on renewing and repairing and so on. It is still not as good as it was let's say, forty years back. Everybody knew everybody else.

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Dr Stuart Fraser lived in Highfields from 1946 the year he was born.
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Right, can I just ask you as a Doctor today, how would you react to a child of five walking the streets of Highfields today and what would your reactions be and your concerns?

I must admit as a child walking back and I can remember at dusk times and it used to get a bit dark at times, I would be a little alarmed and I would even consider I would talk to social services about it! (Laughs).

That's what I was thinking, I can't imagine my seven year old son walking through Highfields.

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Dr Stuart Fraser has lived in Highfields from 1946, the year he was born.
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the built environment. The Highfields area represents literally the high field area of the city, as I said in St Margaret's Parish; and the buildings now standing in it started in about 1840 literally to the present day, and include at least 2 to 3 major re-developments;

1 the devastation of the Charnwood Street area and the rebuilding into the Charnwood estate in the 1970s

2 the demolition of the St Peters Estate and the rebuilding in the 1960s, and the second demolition in a smaller way, and the rebuilding in the 1980s.

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Hillcrest, as it was known, was used up until the 1970s as a hospital when it was eventually closed and demolished, and is now the site of the Moat Boys' School. I think there could be many memories of Hillcrest and the Union Workhouse hidden in some older peoples' memories and thoughts, but of course I think they may stay locked there due to the implications of the poor law and all its provisions.

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Mr Tirthram Hansrani came to live in Highfields in the late 1940s.
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there are more facilities now, gas central heating, carpets to keep the house warm. Even getting coal was difficult.

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Conduit Street has been demolished. The shopping areas have been changed. There are more buses now. In Highfields there was no danger, you could walk alone at night, at any time. You could wear jewellery safely but now it's not safe. Anybody can get robbed.

The old Highfields was a safe, residential area. Highfields was a mixed area. There were working class people and middle class people. There were no Asian shops on Melbourne Road. Before, people walked or used the buses. People are more selfish now. If I had to live at Highfields I would feel frightened as it's not safe anymore. There is unemployment there.

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Mr Abdul Haq came to live in Highfields in 1963.
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Spinney Park had a cafe which isn't there anymore.

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When did you come to Leicester?

I came to this city when I was 20. But everything has changed – no one keeps their culture, or dress. My son is married to a Japanese girl.

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What has changed in Highfields?

New buildings, garages – Highfields was best area of Leicester after Stoneygate.

And now?

Well, it's still alright. There is good and bad in every area.

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Nothing changed, still same as it is today – all street not changed. Only Mosques converted from houses.

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There's more Asian shops now, meat, clothing, fancy goods, spices. The park was beautiful, many people used to go summer time in nice weather. Very few Asian families in 1963. Only about three or four.

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Mrs Hazel Jacques came to Highfields in 1942.
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St Peter's Church. That's where I got married before it lost it's spire.

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When you go back there today, it must seem very different. Has the area changed?

Well, my sisters and myself went back to St Stephen's Church but it's exactly the same as it was. Apart from the building it was full of black people. Really, it's better now. The personality of the church has changed, people are welcoming there, they're not all staid.

It's High Church, isn't it?

Yes, it is. Father Irwin, he's there now, he's lovely. He and all his black congregation are lovely people. We had a cup of tea with them in their little room at the back that used to be the factory canteen during the war. It was reverted back after the war to a youth club

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Mr Amarjit Singh Johl came to Highfields in 1964.
Extract
Highfields was mostly inhabited by English and white people. The indigenous population was very helpful and sympathetic. If you had any difficulty, there was somebody to help you. It was a good time when you came from India everything looked nice and systematic. It was not overpopulated as it is now. It did not have a bad name either. Everything was peaceful.

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What was the standard and condition of houses. What was the price in those days?

There is very big difference of standards and facilities if you compare now. The standard was poor and basic. There were no facilities of today. A large majority of houses had very poor standards. Nowadays there are facilities of heating, carpets, freezers, TVs. But in those days only rich people had those things.

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What was your first job in England?

My first job was in a factory on Gwendolen Road, then as a bus conductor in the Leicester City Transport. In the factory, working conditions were very poor, it was an engineering factory. They were producing spare parts for diesel engines. The work was hard and I was young and strong. I did not mind hard work but the racial discrimination was very painful and hurtful. Many immigrants did not understand the taunts, it was a different kind of discrimination in those days. It is different nowadays.

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How do you see the change where you used to live?

It is beyond recognition, everything has changed. There were lots of small corner shops in the area. There were no Indian shops. All the shops were owned by English people. The shops used to cater for all the needs in the area, there were a milk dairy on 254 Mere Road, which has been converted into Leicester Family Housing Association. There is a vast change in the area. There was an electric shops opposite the dairy. A meat shop on the next corner and grocery shop. It was a very community based system. People in the area knew each other and shops had regular customers. The service was very good, it has changed altogether. It is very commercialised.

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There were small shops in the Charnwood Street. It was like an Indian bazaar. They have been demolished. The shopkeepers moved to other areas such as Hartington Road or Green Lane Road. The standard of houses is very high now. The houses have been renovated with local government grants. There are all facilities such as toilets, showers, baths. There is improvement all round, such as outside of houses, streets and footpaths. The general appearance has changed but it has lost its peacefulness.

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There was a pub near us. Everybody was given a drink at this pub who came from India. It was very popular place to go for drink. It was the first pub I went to when I came to the UK. Asian people were hospitable and I was entertained with many pints of beer. Now the pub has closed.

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The streets are for one-way traffic. Highfields has a bad name and you try to avoid walking in the streets. There was no such hassle in those days. I remember walking proudly in the streets of Highfields.

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What did you think of the general public? Were they honest?

People were very honest. It has disappeared now. We used to leave the money outside for the milkman, nowadays it is like a dream.

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Miss Alma Knight was born in Highfields in 1923.
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were quite a lot of houses in Gopsall Street that had electric light. I don't think the small houses had electric light, I think they had the gas lights you know. They were quite small I believe, I can't remember them awfully well, they were taken down in the 1960s or 1970s, when the tower blocks were built. The little school and the day nursery were put there then.

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But you've lost things like Charnwood Street.

Oh, yes! When we had the survey for the improvements, a lot of us put, "Wish Charnwood Street would come back."

I see!

And strangely enough, that year I mentioned, the last year I was at the firm, which was a very happy year, there were about 6 or 7 gentlemen and a girl, well she'd be in her late twenties, she was West Indian, she was awfully nice to work with, she might perhaps have been 30, she remembered Charnwood, her mother taking her! So you see, she was a real Caribbean girl, and she loved what we loved. The families who've settled here, that came in the Fifties, really don't know much different from us, the family atmosphere has gone on. When the West Indians came mind you, you never felt threatened, it was just the music. That was their way of life you see. I will say that as far as I can remember there was no crime.

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Mr Aidan Maguire came to Highfields in 1962.
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I was actually reading something in the Leicester Mercury couple of weeks ago about kids' games. I remarked to one of my sisters that they don't play games like they used to. I suppose there are other things today like computers.

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There used to be the adventure play ground in Spinney Hill Park as well. We used play there.

Was it a centre of your life when you were young?

It was a place where everybody was drawn to. There would be about seven, eight games of football going on, and then you would have a lot of the Asian kids playing cricket the bottom and near the brook, you would very rarely see it now.

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I remember when I was really young there was a band stand.

Can you remember having bands there?

Vaguely, there must have been. I remember there was a big large marble fountain which was near the old Tea Cup. It was a large building. They just let it go, which I thought was terrible, they should have kept really.

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When we arrived it was changing, people who lived round that area who had money and lived in the big houses on Mere Road

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We used to have them down St Hilda's Church, that was a community thing, everybody went to rummage sales because amongst other things you would get little baked cakes and things like that. I suppose it was like the equivalent of car boot sales now.

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It has changed but the funny thing is it's becoming quite an area where lots of single people live. When I was being brought up, there were people living in flats but now there are more students. It is changing into a student area and a lot of people seem to be moving back into Highfields. For instance, when I went college last year there seemed to be quite a lot of people who were tutors who lived down that area so it's got a little bit of a bohemian air about it. There are all nationalities now.

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Marjorie Marston was born in Highfields in 1942.
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And were the nurses and midwives fairly co-operative at that time?

Oh I think so yes, the midwife used to be like a real friend. They used to come around and the mums used to know the midwifes and the doctors too, they used to be real friends.
Our doctors used to be on the corner of Highfields Street.

Can you remember his name?

Dr Casey or Dr Shein, Dr Shein came later. Dr Casey was the older one and I think he moved down to Sparkenhoe Street eventually.

Now does that differ from today, the midwifes visiting the new mothers and has it all changed?

Midwifes go in and I'm sure they probably do try to be very, very friendly but at that time, you saw one doctor and one midwife all the way through, but nowadays of course you go to hospitals and you see lots of different people. Even when you come to the doctors although you try to see the same one, it isn't always possible. I don't know whether you get the same close relationship or not. I mean when I was pregnant we had a similar sort of pattern, you saw the same doctor practically all the time and the midwife used to come home and I saw her all the time and that's quite a nice pattern I think, yes, you get quite friendly.

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We didn't have telephones of course either not in the house.

So if anybody had a burglary or some sort of emergency how did they get in touch with the police and the hospital?

Well I mean there were phones elsewhere but not many people had them in their homes, so you would go to a call box to get in touch with them. They were the big red phone boxes, the ones that have gone.

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We used to do quite a lot really. We didn't go on holidays very often because obviously we couldn't afford it and if I did go away I used to go to Yorkshire with my mum to visit my grandad, that's about all really. We used to have day trips out to Skegness mainly because that's where everybody from Leicester went to Skegness. But that wasn't until later but just the countryside round about really Bradgate Park and places like that. I mean, people in those days just didn't travel the way they do today, they couldn't afford it anyway, but obviously there were not the planes to take them to places and everywhere you wanted to go took a little bit longer than it does today.

Extract
Only as I say it was a lot safer then, a happier place I think. I think generally people were a more communicative to each other you know, probably looked out for each other a little bit more.

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Mrs Margaret Porter came to Highfields in 1923.
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The shops I have memories of were finally pulled down around 1950. A picture taken in 1954 shows them recently demolished, although the terraced row of houses on the other side of Sparkenhoe Street (opposite the workhouse) were still there then. Most of the shops, including ours were still open until that time, although we actually moved to better living accommodation on Mere Road in 1946.

My regret is that I didn't take a photograph of these shops when I had the chance, and hope to find someone who may have one tucked away somewhere. I never dreamt that I would become so nostalgic about them as I grew older.

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Brett Pruce was born in Highfields in 1955.
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Have you been back to Highfields recently?

I drive up there quite regularly. I go through Highfields on my way to work in the morning.

We have a final question that we are asking everybody, and that's how does Highfields today compare with how Highfields as you remember?

Well, it's scary. I don't like stopping the car. My house really saddens me because I see the house now. It's filthy. There's a big speaker above the front door, and the windows are filthy. I don't know whether they're curtains or blankets that have been just hung up there. I mean it looks filthy. It really, really saddens me because I think everybody then took an interest in their house. I always remember it as being spotless. The front door and the brasses being polished and even the step being red, cardinal waxed and whatever. And to see it now. I was born in the front room there, but it just really saddens me. And the whole way it's gone now, with capped off streets and, you know, I mean. They obviously capped all the streets off to stop the kerb crawlers and whatever, and it segregates it. Whereas we could go anywhere.

Do you feel that's not just the road markings but the atmosphere as well?

Oh, the atmosphere is very aggressive, it's fear I think. I think people are scared you know for one reason or another. I mean you pick the Leicester Mercury up every night and there's people been on Melbourne Road or Saxby Street or Sparkenhoe Street who have been attacked and had money took off them or worse. It always seems to be that area if you like. OK, I mean I think somebody's created that for some reason, for it to have gone from the area it was to the area it is. You know, somebody's got to look at their heart and say, "Well, we've done something wrong somewhere." I mean I'm not sort of knocking Highfields. All the people there are working and trying to get things back to how it was. I'm not sure whether that can be achieved or not, because I don't think people have got the willingness to do that. I mean, who's going to leave their front door open nowadays?

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At the end, up at Highfields we just you know, we daren't go out. But I mean, you can't take away the fact that we had twenty odd fabulous years up there and five or six horrible ones.

But your memories are basically fairly good?

Oh, very good, yeah. I mean, especially the people. And the community. I really, really miss that. I remember my mam being poorly, very poorly. People were bringing you dinners in because they knew my mum weren't fit to cook and my dad still had to go to work. Somebody would come in with two plates. "Here you are, get that down your neck!" and things like that. I mean, I'd love to think that that could happen again, I'm not sure that we've not turned ourselves into too selfish a bunch. But I really miss that.

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At the end, up at Highfields we just, you know, we daren't go out. But, I mean, you can't take away the fact that we had twenty odd fabulous years up there and five or six horrible ones, you know.

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Mr Charan Singh came to Highfields in the 1950s.
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The children were nice and treated us with respect and love. As the population grows it gets worse. The police were pleasant and helpful. I did not even know about social security.

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The houses now are in much better condition. There are carpets, gas, central heating. There were no shops, there are so many now. Nobody had any money. No carpets, no furniture. The children now don't even know what hardship is. I'm retired now. I make do with my pension.

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Councillor Farook Subedar came to live in Highfields in 1972.
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Highfields has always been a very safe place to live in. I'm not saying that there is no crime. There are crimes in every area, but if you ask the Highfields residents the question, "Why don't you want to leave Highfields?" They will reply that the facilities they have in Highfields are such they can't get any in any other area in city of Leicester. So yeah, there are pluses and minuses but overall I think there are more pluses to live in Highfields than minuses.

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Did they used to have the 'bobby on the beat?'

I think so. At the time, we used to enjoy more police on the street than nowadays and they were local policemen. They were on first name terms with the residents and we could identify local "bobby". Now if you ask anyone who your local policeman is I don't think anyone knows.

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So if you had any problems or wanted advice, where would you go?

Well, most of our people used to turn to the local MP. At the surgeries and they used to go the Mosques, Mandir and the Gudwara and they'd seek advice from the leadership there, and through that leadership, they would convey that complaint to the local MP or local council. But thank God, slowly and gradually people have started establishing local Advice Centres and Community Centres. Nowadays, it's so accessible as you can see, so many Advice Centres.

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At early stage, there were very few cars. What you see now is a nightmare. You know, if someone had asked me back in 1972 to forecast how many cars I would see in the streets of Highfields in 1994, then I would be a very brave man to say 2 or 3 cars per household. I remember there were hardly 5 to 10 cars in the whole street. Now, the residents in our own streets have to go and park their car in different places because there is no space. So what we see nowadays is incredible, not just in Highfields, I think all over the country!

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Asian ladies hardly used to go out to work. Nowadays, they are fighting for their position which is a very healthy sign and I think we should encourage them. They're educated, they go out to the universities, they've been out to different institutions and they are establishing themselves. I'm happy for them.

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I regard Highfields as a very precious village. To me, Highfields has got a lot to give to the community and to society at large. If someone was to study the way we live, or some serious research student wants to research an inner city or diverse cultural community, there can't be at a better place than Highfields village, I can tell you that.

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Mrs Nora Swift was born in Highfields.
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The most outstanding thing I can remember was walking across Spinney Hill Park. The sheep were grazing on the hillside, what a lovely sight and not one smelly grass mower in sight!

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Mr Eric Tolton was born in Highfields in 1916.
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And now Mr Tolton, for a final question we are asking everybody is how does Highfields as it is today compare with your memories of the area?

Well I dont really know the Highfields a lot from a personal point of view now, but from what I see in the paper, and read, and hear, it was much better in my day than it is now. You were safe to go out, you could do things cause in the very fact that there wasnt the traffic, it made things more peaceful. like it is. Mere Road, Highfields Street, Saxby Street were quite select areas you were coming up in the world if you lived there, but Im afraid you cant say that nowadays really, its a pity really because there are some lovely houses up there, big houses but I dont know I liked it in those days better than I do now.

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Mrs Muriel Wilmot came to live in Highfields in 1927.
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I went to St Peter's Church.

Do you remember what that was like?

Very very nice indeed, I loved it. I used to go to Sunday School in the afternoon and service for grandmother and father at night, and if there was anything on in the week I would go to that also.

Did a lot of people go to that church?

Yes, there were a lot then, it had an atmosphere then which is minus now.

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You see as the Asian community gradually moved in, the English people moved out. So gradually every street became more and more empty of white people and of course we are completely in the minority now. There is only two or three in each street now.

That is a big change isn't it?

That is a very big change. But it's happened over a period of years.

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Can I just ask you one last question? Do you have any feelings as to how Highfields compares today to when you were a child?

Not favourable feelings. No I wouldn't say so, not really.

In what way do you think it has changed?

Well, for one thing you dare not go on the park. Somebody was stabbed there a fortnight ago. I would love to go, I would dearly love to go on that park, it would be a godsend for me, being on my own. If I could take a book or something and be able to sit and talk, but you can't because somebody can come up from behind you and probably take your bag or stab you. We have a lot of burglaries. My neighbours have been burgled twice next door, which makes me rather frightened now. Where I am living at the moment, I keep the back entry locked all day long.

That's very different to how it was?

Oh no, it was nothing like that. It was a lovely area. As a matter of fact, my father used to say when we walked onto Mere Road, it was a beautiful area, look at all the lovely trees, very residential. The trees are still there and it is quite nice in its appearance but it's the burglaries, they happen all the time. My friend Mary, she has been burgled twice.

Do you think it is a general thing?

Well, I think it is over the whole of England. Everywhere. I suppose you have heard Leicester is supposed to be a very bad area. You hear people from Nottingham and Birmingham say "Oh, you live in the Highfields area, how dreadful."

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.Mrs Dorothy Woodford was born in Highfields in 1921.
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English was considered the most important subject, we were taught the correct way of writing letters, job applications, replying to invitations, etc. From subsequent experience of communications I have received in my business career, this does not seem to have quite the same priority today.

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Looking back over 60 years the enormous changes which have taken place are almost unbelievable. Conceptions of 'poverty' today bear no relation to that of the Twenties and Thirties.

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