Bermondsey Boys!

Really lovely tonight to spend some time in Brussels with my old friend Chris who originates from the smoke. We are old Chinas, but I didn't see him for a while, so I had assumed that he either he had been locked up, or kidnapped by Mexican bandits. If you knew him as well as I do, you would know that neither of these scenarios would be totally implausable.

He was born there, and being 1 or 2 years older than me (!) he was there as a nipper during the Blitz.                                                                                      

Now, he has been in Brussels even longer than me. He raised his family here, and his wife has been one of my son's teachers. His own son, Nick, is a lovely chap, whose company I enjoy very much.

We spend some time in London together from time to time, and we might have sunk the odd one or two in places as diverse as private clubs in St James, and East End boozers that are still run by certain families that we might rather not mention here.

I could tell a great story about a certain amount of confusion between Bermondsey and Bethnal Green (they both begin with the letter 'B'). Anyway, he still made it to my old local, The Boatman in Jamaica Road, before I did :)

We certainly had a pint or three together in Bermondsey!!

Tommy Steele - The Bermondsey Boy