From: Mrs Nellie Thornton (née Brooks)
Oxenford Street
I lived nearly opposite the Duke of Wellington pub in Cronin Road 92 years ago. It was a very friendly pub. There was a bar at the side saying “Bottle and jug bar” where you could go and get half a pint of beer in a jug on a washing day. My mum used to send me with a jug to get half a pint of stout.
Every Christmas all the women were given a leather purse and the men got a leather wallet. On Saturday nights the Salvation Army sold their War Cry in the pub and then they stood outside playing and singing as they also did on Sunday mornings.
On the corner of Cronin Road and Rosemary Road was a baker’s shop where during the war a brick was thrown at the window as the owner was a German.
Footnote
Cronin Road is now known as Cronin Street but was formerly called Camden Grove North. The Duke of Wellington was at number 149, at the junction with Rosemary Road. Both the pub and Rosemary Road have been swept away under post-war residential development.
