May 10, 2008, 12:18 am

Covent Garden Market

"Ducking and Diving"

 

 

Taken sometime in the 1960s, the picture above shows my father, in the foreground, pulling a barrow and looking to his left. This was probably to check that the "Old Bill" wasn't about. Most activity in the market was centred around "nicking" anything that wasn't nailed down. My Dad preferred to describe his working day as one spent "ducking and diving".

When the market moved in 1974 to Nine Elms in Vauxhall, the authorities installed CCTV. This proved to be a futile gesture as the cameras were immediately stolen. Alfred Hitchcock made use of these activities to great effect for one scene in his film 'Frenzy'.

Copyright © 2008 John McSweeney