EAGLE HOUSE

 I was born in England back in 1942. At the time my parents and brother were renting a flat in Eagle House in South Woodford. We lived there until 1949 when we migrated to Australia. 

This is a photo of Eagle House when we lived there. We lived on the top floor, there were two bedrooms, a lounge, kitchen and bathroom. I think it is my mother and brother standing in front of the fence.

This was our little family in 1942. 

It wasn't until 1970  when Bill and I made a trip around the world that I went to see my old home in South Woodford on the eastern outskirts of London.

Bill took this shot of me at the gate in a mini skirt of the 70's. The house hadn't changed. The fence and trees were the same as in 1949.

The house stood on the corner of George Lane and Chigwell Rd. The train station wasn't far down George Lane and we did the shopping there too.

We have been back to England quite a few times because my brother returned to live there in 1975 and my daughter lived in London for seven years, However, I didn't ever visit Eagle house again but other people have.

My brother sent me this photo in the 1990's. The fence had been renewed but everything else looks much the same.

I have a blogging friend who lives in London and has a very interesting blog where she has challenged herself to visit every underground station and walk in a mile radius of the stations and record what she sees. When I saw that she was going to visit South Woodford station, I asked her to check out Eagle House for me, which she did and recorded it here:  These are the photos she took in 2015.

 The fence has been upgraded and the trees have been cut down (that's a bit sad).Traffic lights have been installed.

She asked me if I remembered the stained glass window. And I do, it was the bathroom window. She also explained that when the train line was built out there, wealthy merchants built big houses like this. It was later that they were converted into flats. 

I thought this would be the end of my connection with Eagle House but a few months ago I received an email from a young man saying that he lived on the top floor of Eagle House and he was looking up information about the house and he found my friends blog and through her he found my blog. He was very interested to hear how the place looked in earlier years and who had lived there. I sent him a short story about when we lived there and how close we were to the bombing during the war. He then sent me a video of what the house is like inside now. He was sharing the top floor with a few others. He loved living there..

So the magic of blogging strikes again.