god id forgotten about boldings the shop on euston rd actually run right through to warren st behind
the ware house man at george st would chip the side of the bath that was going against the wall for half a quid and youd get the bath half price
we used boldings a lot during my apprenteship as the company i worked for was in jermyn st
about ten plumbers and only the foreman had a van(morris minor when i started and escort when i finished )the rest of us walked or used buses and tubes i was once stopped from taking a gas bottle on the tube when i went back they put the bottle in a sack and sent me back
i was once sitting on a bus with a six foot of 22mm chrome in my hand and another passenger grabbed it thinking it was the hand rail and wound up in a heap on the floor
we did everything that the other trades didnt roofing. cleaning cookerhoods and duct work in resturants ,shoveling pigeon crap of roofs crittal windows, glazing and even some plumbing
like most builders we had an influx of painter every spring im sure most of then were prison trained the rest were just out of colney hatch
in those days the building trade was fun loads of practical jokes sneaking of swimming in the serpentine sunbathing in the parks or on the roofs where we were supposed to be working whistling the girls from the scaffold happy days
Remember the trade counter at George street??, Old Arthur Meaking, "Bike" Bezikle (sp) the senior counter hand, who had to be addressed as Mr, forget the other persons name just remember his first name as Alec (who had been in the Chindits) Mary at the cash desk, with the paint, glass and lead counter, then behind or rather at one end of the counters, the lead and glass bays "Alfie" Angel was a driver, white sanitary ware was down the back, coloured ware was on the third floor, above that "C" shop, where specials were assembled, and brass siphons etc were made, those old boys were artists with a hand thread cutting chaser, and a lathe
Old "Joe" was their in house plumber, who would go all over the country to service any of the companies fittings installed in a Country Gentleman's house
Boldings were taken over by Folkards the polythene chemical waste company, and moved to between Shepards Bush and Acton, and the brass foundary moved to Andover
The Ladas w/c was old even when I was at Boldings, a Victorian model if ever there was one, high level flush tank, Mahogany covered with a drop valve, 2" flush pipe (lead of course) with a Mahogany seat and cover, quite often fitted by a cabinet maker, which brings me on to another tale, about my old man, who was a cabinet maker, and had to fit a w/c seat for the old queen Mary when she was alive
This involved a lady in waiting, who had to go and see the queen when the seat was in place, and ask her to try the seat out for hight, it took four "goes" to get it the right hight !, up half an inch, no down a quarter of an inch, etc, and every time a person sat on the seat a spray of perfume was sprayed