Tag: Hiway Drving School

Moving All My Stuff To Clanricarde Gardens With Larry The Drummer, 29 November 1988

OK, so I had clinched the deal to rent Clanricarde Gardens, collecting the keys on the Saturday…

A Busy Weekend Socialising, Hoity-Toitying At The National Theatre And Setting Up My New Flat, 25 to 27 November 1988

..but the reality was, I had taken on rather too much. I had a swathe of driving lessons booked (five lessons in three days, to use up my purchased block of 10), had agreed to do several stacks of exam marking for Financial Training and had arranged activities on several evenings…

…and was due to start work at Binder Hamlyn on Thursday 1 December…before which I was determined to move my stuff from Woodfield Avenue to Clanricarde Gardens.

My friends at the Hiway Driving School suggested that their friend Larry, who was a drummer and who had a drum-kit-sized van and liked to make a bit of extra dosh during drumming down time, might be willing to help me with the move. Larry stopped by to meet me (I think one day the preceding week). I gave Larry an approximate size of load, Larry seemed confident that we could manage that much in one van journey, so we agreed a fee and that Tuesday afternoon was a suitable slot for both of us.

Here is my note book page for that Tuesday:

Ambitious.

1.15 Schlep

Returning ASAP

The imperative for returning was because I had arranged to cook dinner for several of my South London-based friends at Woodfield Avenue that evening. I must have been out of my mind.

Transporting my stuff in Larry’s van proved to be a bigger logistical problem than either of us had bargained for. Specifically, once we started stacking boxes and crates of my worldly goods into the van, it became apparent very rapidly that it would be a snug fit to get the job done in two loads, let alone one.

I was convinced that we would need to do the second load on another day, as we both had evening engagements, but Larry was confident that we could do two circuits and still be back in good time. Larry was right.

One of the elements that made Larry right was his monumental strength and stamina at the schlepping element of the job. Especially at the Clanricarde Gardens end, where there are two flights of high-ceiling-house staircase to navigate. I lost count of the number of times Larry lapped me carrying stuff up the stairs. My guess is that he came close to managing two armfuls for every one I managed…and his tended to be heavier armfuls too.

Too big a job for Dumbo, even too big for his Chelsea Tractor friend in the street

He was a very nice, friendly fellow. Larry told me about his drumming during those few hours we spent together. I especially remember him saying that he had drummed with the Joe Jackson Band. So, on researching this piece, 30 years later, I surmise that Larry is most probably Larry Tolfree, who was the drummer with the band when I saw Joe Jackson at Keele in 1982:

After The Exams, Lots Of Fun At Keele, Late June 1982

Here is a track from Jumping Jive in which the drummer (whom I suspect is Larry Tolfree at that time) displays his considerable talents as a drummer:

I recall we did the full two rounds of removals in the space of four hours, allowing Larry plenty of time to get to his evening gig and me enough time to prepare dinner for six.

The other thing I recall was Larry’s extreme unwillingness to take more money than we had originally agreed. I wanted to give him double the money because it really had turned out to be double the job he originally bargained for. Larry insisted that it was his own fault that he had overestimated the size of his van. I insisted that it was my fault that I had underestimated (or not comprehensively stated) the size of the load. In the end, I think I persuaded him (reluctantly) to split the difference and take some extra money, but not double money.

Thirty years later, I’m finding it hard to imagine quite such a hyper-active day. I hope I had planned a relatively easy meal to cook…

…I’ll report on that and my actual transfer to Clanricarde Gardens in the next piece.

Driving Lessons, Jilly Dinner & First Sighting Of Clanricarde Gardens, 21 to 23 November 1988

One factor that nearly prevented me from getting my new job with Binder Hamlyn Management Consultants was the fact that I did not drive. As part of my “deal”, I promised to take driving lessons and try to qualify as a driver as soon as possible.

So, the Monday after leaving Newman Harris, I enrolled at the Hiway Driving School in Streatham Hill and commenced my lessons. 11.15 on 21 November was the first time I ever took the wheel of a real car.

I’d love to report some tales of derring do and/or some scrapes and/or some near misses, but I’m afraid that my transformation from non-motorist to motorist was pretty much an anecdote-free affair.

That week I had a lesson every morning before going on to do something else. Most of that something else was a combination of exam marking for Financial Training and flat hunting. In the matter of flat hunting, I was advised, at that time, to study the classified ads in the London Evening Standard as soon after publication as possible, in order to track what was going on and to jump in to see a place or two if I saw anything I fancied.

Hence, I imagine, the driving lessons mid morning, enabling me to pick up the paper early lunchtime, after my lesson.

On the Tuesday evening, Jilly came over for dinner after work. 6:30ish is the only timing indication in the appointment diary. I cannot remember where she worked at that time (was it already the Barbican Centre by then?) but my diary helps me to recall that she lived in a flat in Nether Street, Finchley. I remember us finding that street name funny.

Nor do I recall what I cooked for Jilly that evening, but I’ll guess it will have been one of my Chinese and/or South-East Asian specials. I do remember that Jilly was full of useful advice for the flat hunting and that her advice was timely, as I had pretty much drawn blanks from my classified trawls those first two days.

I think her advice included “ringing up some agents in the areas I fancied and asking them to get on the case for me” – in other words, to look at agent ads as well as the classifieds. I labour this point because, I’m pretty sure, that is the method that got me to Clanricarde Gardens (and some other places) the next day.

Thanks, Jilly.

Jilly Visiting me At Keele, c1984

Update – Jilly responds:

I found [your diary entry] a little hard to read; when it talked about “dinner” with Jilly, I had to read it three times before it (dinner) stopped looking like “I am vinyl”, but eventually, I realised what I was reading about.


Gosh, that was a long time ago, and yes, I remember living in Nether Street, when, I think, I was working at Green Moon PR Agency.


I must admit, I can’t remember much about the flat hunting advice, except that I probably would have told you to be very quick about going to see something that you liked the look of, especially in those days before mobiles, email, and the like.

So, on the Wednesday, through an agency whose name has escaped me, but I recall it was located above Tootsies Restaurant on Holland Park Avenue, I saw Clanricarde Gardens for the first time and was so taken with it I thought I had probably found what I was looking for first dips. It was only the fact that I hadn’t yet seen anywhere else, combined with the fact that other agents were on my case now and leaving me messages at Woodfield Avenue, that kept me viewing for the rest of that day and the next day.

I shall write a piece about some of the strange places I saw, once I have dug out some more notes, as I am sure I have a note pad on this topic as well as my diaries.