‘Cecil Rhodes House in Somers Town was a lovely place to live’

• WHAT’S in a name?

I was perplexed to hear of the change of name for Cecil Rhodes House in Somers Town. I was lucky to live there in the early to late 1950s. It was a lovely place to live, a very close community.

The estate was managed by London County Council then and we had a resident caretaker. He would watch over the estate, keep it clean and watch over any unruly children.

It was well designed with a glass fire escape at the rear of the building, your own front, and rear balconies. There is, as then, a lovely archway in the centre of the building with the LCC coat of arms.

Pets were not allowed unless you lived on the ground floor. Our tradesmen seemed more environmentally friendly – coal would be delivered by horse and cart in strong, reusable, hessian bags.

The milkman delivered milk in glass bottles from his electric wagon called a float. The ice cream man would visit the estate on a tricycle with an insulated box on the front.

On Sunday afternoon the seafood man would arrive selling shrimps, prawns, whelks and winkles etc. Periodically the rag and bone man would arrive, shouting “any rag or lumber” (old clothes or bric-a-brac).

The bus that ran along St Pancras Road was electric, known as a trolleybus. Children could play safely in the estate grounds or in St Pancras Gardens as it was overlooked by many flats, and many mums.

Cecil Rhodes was a well-designed, managed, and appreciated estate. I would wager that in those days not many, if any, would have known the history of Cecil Rhodes.

Should we not face up to the facts rather than hide them. I believe that changing names does not change history.

The people on the estate were ignorant of the doings of Mr Rhodes and had probably been sheltered from the facts and would have been just as appalled.

To us it was only an address. This is just an insight into Cecil Rhodes House, not politics.

LJ SHAW, N18