by the First ResidentsBS3 Heritage Group for Futures Past
Just imagine a knock on your door, with lunch on the go, to be told that one of the UK’s biggest stars of Variety, Radio and TV is at the other end of your street! It happened to Florrie Tame, who lived at no.50, Little Paradise in the early Fifties. On hearing the news, she promptly marched, with family members in tow and frying pan still in hand, to find Max Bygraves, the well known showbiz personality sitting on a wall in her street.
Florrie’s granddaughter, Sally, and grandson, Terry are pictured here next to the star himself.
In 1954 Max was appearing in his own show at the Bristol Hippodrome called “Paradise Street” and this visit to its namesake, was intended as publicity for the show, and at the time, as you can see, caused a lot of excitement. Some of the people pictured were young women on their way back to work and just happened to pass through. Others were longtime residents including Linda Evans, Joyce Hudson, and Linda Hudson.
And Florrie, why wasn’t she in the picture? Well according to other family members, in the rush to get there, she’d forgotten her teeth….. and became ‘camera shy’!
Here’s Sally remembering that special day.
But the joy in that original community of first residents in this area was about to come to an end. Within a decade, homes in Little Paradise were deemed uninhabitable by the local authority and were swept away. It was the final chapter of the first residents’ story.
Meanwhile, the remaining residents, many descendants of those first residents moved out to new homes on the southern fringes of the city. It was the end of an era.