Accident in the Euston Road

The Company letter book reveals an accident which occurred in the Euston Road between the Herbert & Sons cart and a horse-drawn cab on the 23rd June 1862.

 

The ensuing letter reads:

 

37 Chichester Place

Grays Inn Rd

 

June 24^th -/62

 

Sir,

 

I regret to inform you through negligence of your driver of cab 3186, my cart has one of the side pannells (sic) broke in.  The cost of repairing the same by new Pannell Painting, Varnishing etc is as I have ascertained of My Wheelwright to be 20/-.

 

I shall not proceed to order the same to be done for 2 days should you wish to wait on me for inspection of the damage and payment of the same to prevent further trouble and expense.

 

 

NB The above damage was done in the Euston Rd last evening.

 

After appearing on Anglia TV with Dick Joyce in 1982, Jim Herbert received the following letter:

14th October 1982

Dear Mr Herbert,

Watching the Anglia Television ‘Bygones’ programme on Tuesday evening took me back nearly 60 years.

I cannot remember your place in Smithfield, but I do remember where your double-fronted shop was in Grays Inn Road.

The reason for the nostalgia of this programme brought home to me memories of a different kind from scales; it was your company’s ‘Horse and Wagon’, very smart they were too, a nice ‘chocolate brown’, with your company’s name on the canvas sheet above, now this might have been a hard top I can’t quite remember this detail, do you remember the name of the driver at that time? His name was Mr Clifford, we always went with my Dad to the Horse Show around the outer Ring of Regents Park and if you were lucky enough to win a Rosette, you were guided to what was known as the Inner Ring to receive it.

Many’s the time that Mr Clifford took me to help him clean the stable and the wagon, he was particularly proud of his ’Harness’. The stable was situated in a cul-de-sac, behind Railway Street, N1.

Mr Clifford (we had to respect our elders at that time) lived in my Dad’s house with his wife and daughter, at 46 Freeling Street N1. (now demolished)

You may ask why I have written this letter to you? Well, the first time item I noticed was that ‘gold painted’ scale and then the Lion, and now all those years have passed it reminded me of times whilst not exuberant, were none the less, happy childhood days.

I am sorry my handwriting is not so good as it used to be, good luck to you and your company for another century.

Yours sincerely.

W.Dradey