Paris and the Bookie's Runner
Climbing London Bridge
By Keith Harris
In the early fifties, we lived at the top end of the elm tree lined St. Benets Grove. One end was the Gaumont, the other the allotments. Being the end of the row, we had a high, wooden side gate.
In front of our house was “London Bridge”, so called because when we climbed to the top, you could see as far as France and the Eiffel Tower. (The fact that it was the Crystal Palace tower didn't matter to us, it was all part of the adventure.)
One day during the hot summer of 1954, when sitting in the dust making roads for my Dinky cars, I saw a man holding a small suitcase under his arm, running at full pelt with a policeman far behind at the Gaumont giving chase. Everyone was cheering and as the man, who was almost out of breath, reached our front garden, my mum waved and opened the side gate. He was through it like the wind. Mum closed the gate and locked it. By the time the policeman arrived, the man was over the back fences and gone.
Apart from me, there was no-one else in sight. The policeman paused, smiled and turned round, walking slowly back towards the Gaumont. Two weeks later, I was out front and the same thing happened again. This time, as the man arrived at our house, I jumped up, waved and stood by the gate with my hand out asking for 6d. He fished in his pocket and threw down some pennies and was gone. I closed the gate from inside, stood on a crate and pulled the bolt. I heard the policeman stamp his feet and walk back.
All through that long summer holiday, I “helped” the man four times, earning a total of 2/6d.
He was the “bookie's runner” ………..I was “7 years old”.
Ted Thomson remembers
There was a a bookie's runner by the name of Ted. Gambling wasn't legalised then - there was no betting shops round The Circle. He would come and get your bets and as long as you give him the bet by ten to two he would then go to the local call box, park his bike outside, and phone through the bets to his bookmaker. So if anybody had an emergency between ten to two and two o'clock, they had to go and find another phone box.