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Exred, I think you might have to get on your 'wobbly' ladder and take another photo of this part of the Goswells, because I'm sure I've read and seen on this site, somewhere, that the wall on the right-hand-side of your photo has been demolished.

It is a great site, I agree. I've looked at others - mmmm, no thanks....Going back to 'cobbles', there were cobblestones around the leaning house and the Guildhall, have these been replaced with Tarmac? The cobbles were a nightmare in my 'youth'....we girls wore 'winklepickers', i.e. very high-heeled shoes with thin, stilleto heels. I've broken many heels in the past just trying to manoeuvre these 'stones'....Castle Hill was another no-go area. We'd rather stay on one side of the road going down to the Playhouse cinema, (the shops' side), than cross over. We'd cross at the traffic lights at the bottom instead. We must have looked very comical. The 'boys' were okay though. They wore 'blue-suede shoes', (there is another term for these shoes, but I don't think The Royal Windsor Website is a suitable place to print it). It wasn't a practical fashion at all...billowy, full skirts, tons of stiff petticoats underneath. Well, Castle Hill was the very worst place to wear all this 'gear', as the winds created havoc with skirts and hair-does alike, so, we always met in the railway/bus station instead of at the top of the hill. Thank goodness the fashion changed and tight, knee-length skirts 'came in'....... my Mother told me I'd ruin my feet wearing 'those silly shoes', happily, she was wrong! Can I just say to exred, that in 'my day', going to the Regal, The Playhouse or the Empire, was always filled with the dread that a guardsman would sit in front of you.......they were always tall, never took their caps off and nine times out of ten, we girls would have to move......well, I thought I'd just get that one in!!!!!! I'm sure he wasn't guilty of any of those tactics - ?

Winklepickers for girls were excrutiatingly hard to wear. The trouble was, they looked so good, especially when jiving!! We jived at the King Edward Horse Hall and The Working Mens' Club, now gone, I believe. There was a church hall down Hatch Lane where there were occasional dances too. I don't remember the wooden cobbles at all, only the cobble stones. I do remember 'Snappy Snacks' and 'The Spot Cafe'....but didn't go in these two cafes, because, in Eton High Street, just over the bridge, a 'new espresso cafe' opened. It was called 'The Cafe Cantata'...very modern and trendy and always full..it was worth the pain of walking into Eton, just to be there really. Soon, a smaller version opened at the top of Castle Hill, two doors away from 'Woods' the Chemist. That was called 'The Tartan Rooms'.....espresso coffee served in glass cups, very trendy! and tartan wallpaper.. heady days...

Well, that was a nice surprise to see The Working Mens' Club....how come that escaped the planners axe?? Opposite there, and back a bit, was a tiny shop called 'Joslin Smith'.....I think he sold everything and anything......I went in there once and the merchandise was 'up the walls and touching the ceiling'. An Alladin's cave of anything a household might need....Very polite man and if he couldn't find what you were looking for, he'd suggest something completely different...along from J.S. was a Lambretta shop...I knew the son of the owner and re-met him at a funeral a year or two ago. I remembered him, but, he hadn't a clue who I was! One good thing about returning to Windsor for a funeral of a friend or relative is that most of the mourners are 'old' friends, on the downside, however, we don't recognise one another..but it doesn't take long to catch up.