'In St James's Churchyard stood an incongrously rustic structure known as 'the joy slide.' In the shadow of the impressive 'Waterloo' church, it looked a little like a country cottage on stilts, with its black and white wooden tower over the stairs and a sweeping gabled roof covering the slide. Swarms of children were lining up for a go on the slide, bunching up together, some shivering in shirtsleeves or thin flocks, shuffling forward eagerly to the deep wooden bin, where they could pick up a horsehair mat before clambering up the stairs. Some were so tiny they had to hoist themselves almost into the bin to hook out a mat, and Milly smiled as one almost dissapeared inside it. But their wait in the cold was obviously worth it, for their faces shone with excitement as they were rewarded with an exhilarating few seconds, swirling down the polished wooden slide, and as each child tumbled off the end, their joyful smiles lit up the grey day.'
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| Thanks to Gary Magold for this picture of the slide |
An accurate description, pulling the heavy mat out of the large black wooden bin, the queuing up and waiting your turn, and the thud! as you landed on the coconut mat at the end of your ten second slide. Mind you it was then pick yourself up and quickly run back round for another go, mat secured firmly under your arm. How lovely it would be to have that slide back! Another part of "lost Bermondsey".
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