Social Scene - Tony Barnett

Post date: 21-Mar-2020 16:53:28

Social Scene

The large number of people on Paul's list didn't surprise me or probably anybody else because I realised many years ago how unusual it was to know so many people at that age.

I remember clearly when this thought first hit me. I was about seventeen.

One Friday night about nineish I came into the saloon bar of the Old White Bear in Hampstead, the one with the bar billiards, and saw it was packed, about sixty people and it struck me forcibly that I knew every one of them and quite well too.

I thought then how lucky I was to be part of such a large and very convivial group of like minded people, but I also knew then that this was not the norm.

Over the years I've talked to many people about their own adolescence and in terms of numbers nobody I met even came close.

Paul has mentioned many meeting places, the Witches, YS, Klooks Kleek etc, but of course Hampstead itself was a great place to live. We had the wonderful Heath and many of you will remember those illicit midnight summer swims in the Mixed Pond.

Hampstead had been a magnet for artists and writers for many years which made it an interesting place to live. I think that one reason for our large and diverse social group was down to those unsung heroes, our parents who had decided to live in Belsize Park rather than East Cheam.

Happy Days

Tony Barnett xx

The White Bear in recent times