18^th December

Bartek is here on his own today. Sebastian (and Boss Builder) have both taken the day off. And I don’t know where Karol and Karol and Rafal are – on another project probably, or maybe (also?) fragile from too jolly a jolly on Saturday night. Early this morning another flat-bed arrived with multiple bags of ballast. One man on his own cannot shift it all, so the bags are piled up on the pavement against the front fence. I did notice a white van with unduly interested faces peering round as it cruised slowly past. I think I will count the bags when I leave later on and count them again tomorrow. Bartek is all masked up, cutting something metallic, steel mesh for another layer of concrete perhaps…

In November 1955 Tory ministers Duncan Sandys and R.A.Butler sent a letter to all Local Authorities, asking them to rein in capital expenditure because of pressure on the economy in general and on sterling abroad in particular. Interestingly, though, housing was excepted – such were the needs recognised to be.

At the same time the Local Archives record regular rows between Council officials and representatives of the building trade, or rather, those who worked for the Council. They wanted more money and a five-day week. On the one hand, the Council tried to persuade them how much better their position was as direct employees of the Council because of perks like sick pay and the pension scheme; on the other, Council minutes regularly bemoan the lack of skilled builders – you just can’t get the labour. I find myself shouting down the decades, ‘Get yourselves some Poles!’ But of course, in those days no Pole would have been allowed out of his country nor, doubtless, into ours. Then, as now, there was pretty much full employment so in a sense the construction workers had it their way. The private contractors only work a five-day week, they argued, and we don’t want the bloody pension. We want the cash.

The Council is over a barrel because of all those houses it bought up in Kentish Town. They are so dilapidated there is no keeping up with the repairs. Time to re-work them entirely. The first one to be converted into flats is No 71. Work began on 17/10/1956 and by 13/02/57 it was completed, except for decoration. Next was mine. Work on it began the day 71 was completed, from 13/02/57-03/07/57. Five months. That’s very likely how long the re-building of just my flat is going to take, if I am lucky.

The day the work started on Number 97 in February ’57, the Building Committee of the Council wrote that ‘The Department is now beginning to undertake smaller contracts in the £10-£20000 range, e.g restoration of Woburn Walk and conversion at Kentish Town Estate, and it is necessary to appoint a General Foreman (A.P.T. Grade IV) for this work. A Mr G Knapp got the job at £727.15s - £907.2s 6d per annum plus £30 London weighting allowance.

Was it Mr Knapp who allowed the weird drainage system? Was it he who encouraged his ‘operatives’ as they were oddly termed, to shove some post-war bricks under the bottom of the ‘spine’ wall that we now have to remove? Where do I find him?