We had to take a double robe apart and hoist it up through a window for one at Sheperd’s Bush. We put it back together for them and ended up being given a huge tip of 50P.
I came here to live in September '99 and got started with Gauthier at the end of December. In between I did several long distance, and international, journeys for a bloke who had a couple of Transit box vans working mainly with English antique dealers to transport their purchases back to Blighty.
One such involved an armoire, a very heavy French wardrobe which was so large and heavy that it had to be taken apart to get into the van. We delivered it to a London address, thankfully not upstairs but it was very hard work. Upside was that the tip was a full English breakfast. Downside was that my brand new body belt, essential to keep everything inside in order, got left at the place. I must have taken it off to eat. I rang them later but they denied all knowledge.
Beau Nydel:
The ‘thing’ on the roof is a walkway to get furniture out of an upstairs window. H&S did away with them but on the continent most removal firms have a 3.5 tonner with a conveyor on for the same reason-old stairways being notoriously awkward.
Brilliant mate, a great post, so is the wheel connected to it to extend it then ? And how do they get round such awkward exits nowadays.
Many years ago there was driver on here who got a job on removals in Eastern France, I met him once at a long ago diappeared routier south of Perigueux and he mentioned the extreme awkwardness of the job, but did not mention such a piece of kit.
I worked for Williams furniture from the Balham shop, also Brixton, Putney and Upton Park when needed. One of the things was someone coming in and ordering a corner suite. I used to ask where they lived and then explained that there was no way a corner suite would go upstairs in those houses. More than one insisted so round we went to prove it. Embarrassing for them. We had to take a double robe apart and hoist it up through a window for one at Sheperd’s Bush. We put it back together for them and ended up being given a huge tip of 50P. Won’t tell you what we said, but our manager stood by us, saying it was a ■■■■ take. Bloody hard work most of the time.
Leaving aside the removals thread (containing many a similar tale), we also used to deliver sofa-beds. For starters, it’s a sofa (settee) with a bed in it, so it’s both big and heavy and not inclined to bend in the middle. The outlet(s) selling these benighted things would take the customer’s address and money… and little else. It never occurred to them that delivering several cwt of florid oversized camp-bed to a third-floor flat (stairs only) might present some difficulties. Even ground-floor houses had doors and interior dimensions that these infernal things would not fit through. By comparison, a double robe was a cinch, we could even get a joanna in where a sofa-bed wouldn’t go.
We had to take a double robe apart and hoist it up through a window for one at Sheperd’s Bush. We put it back together for them and ended up being given a huge tip of 50P.
I came here to live in September '99 and got started with Gauthier at the end of December. In between I did several long distance, and international, journeys for a bloke who had a couple of Transit box vans working mainly with English antique dealers to transport their purchases back to Blighty.
One such involved an armoire, a very heavy French wardrobe which was so large and heavy that it had to be taken apart to get into the van. We delivered it to a London address, thankfully not upstairs but it was very hard work. Upside was that the tip was a full English breakfast. Downside was that my brand new body belt, essential to keep everything inside in order, got left at the place. I must have taken it off to eat. I rang them later but they denied all knowledge.
This wardrobe story reminded me of an evening years ago when I was working in Paris. Another bloke I worked with, a Cockney married to a local French girl, turned up for work one evening totally knackered. When asked why he said that his mother-in-law had died recently and his wife had him clearing out her 3rd floor flat without lift. He said the day had mostly been spent taking the ancient wardrobe downstairs. When asked if it was that big he replied "Big? Big?! It was like the f’ing Arc de Triomphe with a mirror in the middle!
Looks like Albion CD 21 Cab. Still got a hole in my left knee off the ratchet handbrake and sore elbow bumping the PTO lever bolted to the cab rear.
Tyneside
It’s a John Wakely photo and to quote John
“Driver. L.A.D. Leyland Comet tipper. 1964. Plough Lane Wimbledon. 1978. This picture quickly caught in time was taken on a factory clearance site in Plough Lane Wimbledon in 1978. The lorry is a very battered 1964 L.A.D. Leyland Super Comet tipper that was only used for site work. The roof was caved in and leaking as you can see by the rain spots on the engine cover.”
Oily
Old Haymarket, Liverpool, 1964. The J4 van on the left will be heading toward the start of the A59, Byrom Street.
The TK Bedford is approaching the entrance to the Mersey Tunnel which is immediately beyond the left arm of the
Point Duty Policeman. The road on the left is Whitechapel, the road behind the Ford and Rover cars is Victoria Street,
and the road away to the right is Manchester Street, Picture from Bootle History Forum.
Ray Smyth:
Old Haymarket, Liverpool, 1964. The J2 van on the left will be heading toward the start of the A59, Byrom Street.
The TK Bedford is approaching the entrance to the Mersey Tunnel which is immediately beyond the left arm of the
Point Duty Policeman. The road on the left is Whitechapel, the road behind the Ford and Rover cars is Victoria Street,
and the road away to the right is Manchester Street, Picture from Bootle History Forum.
Ray.
The pedant within is urging to say the J2 is actually a J4…
