LONDON TRAFFIC

Greymouth Evening Star, 1 April 1933, Page 12

LONDON TRAFFIC

SPECIALS IN CHARGE. Bank, clerks, shop assistants, commercial travellers and pastrycooks ruled Londbn for one day last month, controlling traffic, directing pedestrians and patrolling thousands of miles of streets. It was the special constables’ field day. Three thousand “specials" took over the normal police duties of London to relieve the regulars for their task of controlling the mass unemployment demonstration in Hyde Park. There was hardly a regular policeman to be seen either in Central London or in the suburbs. At every tricky cross roads a flat-capped and white-sleeved “special” waved on the traffic. Watch-Sergeant F. C. Stacey, of the Metropolitan Special Constabulary a West End tailor, controlled the “Centre of the World” —Piccadilly Circus — as if he had been born to it. Buses, private cars and motor cycles rushed at him from all directions. Sergeant Stacey raised his arm and the melee dissolved into orderly lines 'of traffic along Haymarket, Coventry Street and Piccadilly. The tailor traffic controller cut across the road and buttonholed a motorist who was trying to slip down Lower Regent Street, which is a oneway street with no entry from the Circus. A French woman asked the way to Claji’idges. He never hesitated. “Quatrieme a droit, septieme a gauche, madame,” he said, gallantly. (One more foreigner now thinks that the London “specials" are wonderful). In a tour through the suburbs it was found that dozens of “specials” lived up to the standards of the tailor who controlled the centre of the world. • There was Special Constable Tidmarsh, a pastrycoog, on traffic duty at the Oval. “Best way to get to Bromley, Kent, from here?" he repeated. “Tram to Brixton, and Southern Railway,” came the answer. The pastrycook confessed that four hours’ traffic duty had made his arms feel like lumps of lead, and he hoped that the next day’s pastry would not suffer. Here are the stories of others who kept London’s traffic on the move: Special Constable S. E. Bullock (a salesman at Gamages), at Kennington: Yes, this is my first attempt at controlling traffic. It seems largely a matter of common sense and quick thinking. Special W. S. Tweedie (commercialtraveller), the Plough. Clapham: The secret is to decide what you are going to do —and do it. Stick to the sig nal- even if it is the wrong one. Special T. H. Spicer (bank rianager/, St. George’s Circus:' My admiration for the regular policeman and for the London bus driver has gone up 100 per cent,