Parliament Rd

Bill Smart

I lived at 135 Parliament Rd, from 1936/1937 until Dec 1947.

My earliest memories are of a fair being held on waste ground in front of my home and watching Dare Devil Peggy dive into a tank of flaming water, I watched from my bedroom window.
Bus Depots
The old tram sheds at the Newport Rd. end on the east side of Parliament Rd., the laundry and the coal yard all later became the Corporation bus depot. The laundry buildings were kept as offices for the depot. United buses were garaged off Union St. in what was the billiard saloon.

Churches
The other main building on Parliament Rd., now a super market, was the Regent Cinema, before that it was St. James Church where I was a choirboy and also a member of the Boys Brigade. This was a wooden building surrounded by corrugated sheeting. On demolition a new church was built on Crescent Rd. This has now gone, on the site is a block of flats. St.James was the sister church to St. Barnabus on Kensington Rd.

Parliament Rd Shops
I worked as a manager of Moores Stores grocery shop in the early 50's. This was at 134 Parliament Rd. the building still stands. Other trades I recall are Saunders(119) (newsagents Dales [sweets) Masons(141) (dairy) Alicks(7) (fruit and veg.)Frank Ridsdale(117) (barber) Allen's(103) (confectionery) Brown (dentist)(35) and Ruff(43 & 45) (off licence). I worked mainly at Moore's warehouse sited between Victoria St. and Greta St. until 1959 when the firm moved to Newcastle. Moores was known as the original Green Stamp stores and had a gift shop and tea warehouse at the corner of Greta St. and Newport Rd., next to the Wesley Church.

A Co-op and Gallens grocery were on the same block as Moores and a shop which sold bicycles and charged accumulators, which were used to run the radios before the use of batteries. On the corner of Warwick St. was an ice cream shop which also sold toffee which was made in a factory at the far end of Warwick St, I think this was Garnetts

War Time Duties
I was on fire duty the night the gas tanks were hit and set alight, a sight and sound still remembered. I remember the bomb falling in the recreation ground, Haymore St. Carlow St. St Paul's church and Lord St all hit. The landmine which luckily did not explode in Albert Park not far away from the army barrage balloon unit. The bomb on the station in daylight was another raid, We had gone to Redcar by bus.



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