COCKNEY “CHARS.”

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 63, 12 February 1936, Page 12

COCKNEY “CHARS.”

"A REAL JOY.” LONDON’S APPEAL. Mrs? X., whose modest home was at Islington, was the typical Cockney charwoman. She arrived punctually on the job every morning, carrying her inevitable string bag, which, if she was lucky, returned with her full of Brussels sprouts, a piece of cabbage, and cast-off clothing—anything was acceptable to Mrs X. Wearing sober black, which ago had turnetl to a doubtful green, she anneared daily to work at the flat of Mrs Nell Murray in London, and Mrs Murray, who arrived in Sydney on February 3, gave a description of Mrs X. as one of her most pleasant recollections of London (says the Sydney Morning Herald).

For two years Mrs X. “took charge” of Mrs Murray and her husband, and this she meant • literally, Mrs Murray said. She was a perfect joy. Life was never dull with Mrs X., for she was full of anecdotes.

Mrs X. had one great passion, and that was cleaning brass; every item of brass in the flat was polished so constantly that metal polish appeared more frequently than anything else on the housekeeping bills. She was not very particular about the cleanliness of the carpets, but no one could criticise her brass polishing. “She was very motherly, and if the occasion had arisen, I am sure she would have died for either of us,” Mrs Murray said. “Nothing was too much trouble, and if we were out of cigarettes she would run down four flights of stairs, cheerfully, and buy u» fresh supplies. Her feet were bad, toocaused bv too many years of work, I suppose.” Before she left London, Mrs Murray had a modern flat and a modern housekeeper. “If ever I have a large establishment,” Mi's Murray said, “I shall find some small inconsequential duties for Mrs X., and have her with mo again.”

PLUMBING IMPROVEMENTS

Before she left London for lier six months’ leave, Mrs Murray, who is a journalist, gave up her flat, for she said furnishing styles changed so rapidly in London that it was preferable to make a frequent change. Her last flat was furnished in off-white and beige upholsteries ; but even now thsse were going out of favour, and bolder coloured furnishing fabrics were replacing tlicm. When Mrs Murray first went- to London, eight yea'rs ago, she took a flat in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, which had a sitting-room lined with shelves containing beautiful first editions—but it had no bathroom at all. Instead of a bath, a huge saucer-like bowl was provided, in which one was expected to sit crouched up like a Buddha, and pour water heated on the gas stove over oneself. Not the simplest performance, and the emptying of the bowl after the bath invariably meant another wetting. Her second flat at Lincoln’s Inn, at a high rental, was not much better, in that it had the bath in the kitchen, which meant that the daily maid had to wait until the family had bathed before she could commence her work.

Her two greatest problems when she first went to London were keeping warm and keeping clean, Mrs Murray said. London dwellings were then amazingly behind others in the matter of appointments, but now many new buildings o( flats with modern plumbing and central heating had been erected, and were obtainable at moderate rentals.