I watched Rillington Place on BBC1 last night and thought of my great friend Frank Waites. We sat next to each other at school and were obsessed with John Reginald Christie. Frank’s dad ran The Bramley Arms near Latimer Road tube when Notting Hill was probably the roughest area in London. Frank told me that there was an old barmaid called Gwen who’d been at The Bramley for years. The pub was a short walk from Rillington Place and Gwen remembered Christie, a silent, sinister loner sitting in the corner with his half of bitter. The Bramley Arms, like Rillington Place, is no longer there but crops up in Quadrophenia and in various episodes of Minder. However, from between the eras of Christie and Arthur Daley, this is the track that always reminds me of Frank, the Bramley and the edgy charms of Notting Hill in the 1970s.
“Half of bitter please, Gwen”

- Hottest June ...21st Jun 2017
- I love this t...19th Jun 2017
- Sir Billy Con...17th Jun 2017
- Pow!!14th Jun 2017
- Jeremy Corbyn...9th Jun 2017
- Three things ...5th Jun 2017
- It was fifty ...1st Jun 2017
- The Chelsea F...29th May 2017
- RIP Roger Moore24th May 2017
- Save the pray...23rd May 2017
- Crouch End....22nd May 2017
- The LSE.20th May 2017
- We've reached...14th May 2017
- Nike's killer...10th May 2017
- President Mac...8th May 2017 prev next