St Lawrence Street to Renton Road

Joseph was born in Gateside Hospital, Greenock; Bríd was born in Lecamey; Helen, myself and Tommy were born in 24 St Lawrence Street. According to my mother, Helen and I were born in the USA - Up Stairs in the Attic.

At the time we were living in a small two-room flat (with a WC) on the top (fourth) floor. We later moved down one flight of stairs to a marginally larger flat but still just two rooms. One room served as kitchen/dining/living room and was also our parents bedroom. Their bed was set into the wall and hidden behind a curtain. On the wall of that room hung a large zinc bath that was brought down on Saturday nights for our weekly scrubbing, so I suppose you could say that the room also served as the bathroom. Us children all slept in the other room but I understand that for most of the time one or more of us, prior to starting school, spent a lot of time in Lecamey.

The arrival of Tommy gave us extra housing points and so we qualified for a council house. On June 18, 1951 we moved into a middle-floor flat on 38 Renton Road. It was brand new and had four bedrooms, a living/dining room, a kitchen (which we called the scullery) and a bathroom. Renton Road was about 20 minutes walk from St Lawrence Street, almost all of it uphill.

I cannot find a good photograph of 24 St Lawrence Street. The block of tenements, 18-24, was demolished in the 1960s. Tenements further up the hill (the Bally Brae) survived longer and I use a photograph of those to show what no. 24 looked like.

I have also sourced an earlier aerial photograph, and a couple of rear views, of St Lawrence Street with 24 included. In the first copy of the aerial photo I have marked our tenement, some wasteground outside the school playground, and the route I took to go to school. I had to climb a very steep staircase to a footpath called the Serpentine. The solid line shows the route I should have taken. On the dotted line I scrambled over waste ground and a bomb site.

I also include views of Renton Road to show our house, plus three photographs that I took from our window.