Speak or text?

At the turn of the old year and while watching the Thames fireworks, there arrived a flurry of text messages wishing me a happy New Year.  Others came via email, and I reciprocated.  Over breakfast this morning I pondered over how the very first residents of our East End would have carried out this informal greeting.

The first telephone I have come across was one applied for in 1884 by Friederick Sander to link his George Street shop with his brand-new orchid nursery in Camp Road.  We are talking overhead poles and loosely strung wires, and the council did not like the idea.  It didn't want them on the footpaths, but required the telephone company to strike private deals with property owners.  I bet that went down well!

Bearing in mind that the first homes east of The Crown were put up in 1881 – it is possible that Shakespeare Cottage in Cavendish Road was the first – and telephony was in its infancy, progress was slow, very slow.  A copy of the 1906 directory shows only seven lines in the Fleetville area, only two being purely residential connections both in Clarence Road.  The others were the police house and four manufacturing firms.

By 1928, Cunningham Hill, Cunningham Avenue and Clarence Road had 57 "telephonic apparatus machines" between them; two years later only 130 connections had been made to all types of premises in the East End.  Hence the importance of the public telephone box, the first of which were outside Fleetville Post Office and The Crown Post Office.  Police telephones could be used for emergency purposes by the public as well.

Early phone box outside Fleetville Post Office.
Is that someone waiting to make a call?
Courtesy ST ALBANS MUSEUMS

Even in the 1950s, and still with manual exchanges where call connection was made via an operator sitting at the exchange (initially at the Corn Exchange, then the Post Office building in London Road, removing to a former villa in Marlborough Road, next to the later purpose-constructed and current exchange) new connections were only slowly acquired because of equipment shortages at the old exchange.  Some of us will remember the days of party lines, where we shared equipment with someone on the other side of town, and we were dared by our generally more responsible parents not to listen in on the other party's calls.

Those who came to live at the new Marshalswick estate n the fifties were desperate to have a phone, but not only were they denied (the aforementioned equipment shortage) but there were no opportunities to wire in even one public phone box.

Forward to the 1970s, we had the novelty of local dialling, then subscriber trunk dialling, and then incredibly and futuristically,  international dialling.  Wow, how cool was that, if such a phrase had been invented then?  Among the brilliant new services, apart from the speaking clock, was one for youngsters; a selection of pop numbers changed weekly.  Because parents often disapproved of the home telephone being used for such non-essential purposes, there began the trend of teenagers collecting around public call boxes, much to the annoyance of others who had a genuine need.

One story was relayed to me by a lady who had rushed along the road in Sherwood Avenue to make a 999 call from the box at The Quadrant in respect of a relative who was desperately ill.  She had found it surprisingly easy to persuade the teens to let her use the phone, because, as they had said afterwards, none of them had ever made a 999 call and wanted to listen in on the experience!  They even reputedly hung around after the call, watching out for and timing the arrival of the ambulance.  Such innocent pleasures from a stressful situation.

Technology then brought us other ways of getting in touch; first with the brick-sized mobile phone, then tiny "mobs", which then became smart, and therefore larger.  And, of course, the internet.  Most of us no longer keep small change in our pocket in case we need to make a call while we are out.  The world without wires no longer requires us to share party lines, or negotiate to be the first in our street to introduce poles and wires.  Not even insisting on calls being kept private, many of us talk to ourselves while we walk along the street, or sit (or stand) on the train.  Ours is a very public world.

Today you may have texted a New Year message to a friend, emailed it, or sent a card by mail.  You may have called at a nearby house to wish New Year greetings.  A very modern method a century ago would be to show off your wealth and use the telegraphic apparatus.  One touch-screen press today and you are through while getting on with your life.

Me?  I'm blogging a New Year Greeting to you all.  Happy 2017.