On LineYou Can Email
at Waiting for the ghost bus Page
by Page
|
|
. | ||||
THE RUSSIANS OF N16There were a number of White Russian (anti-Communist) families in exile in Stoke Newington after the Russian Revolution. Many were Jewish. They were like characters from Chekhov and often spoke amongst themselves, in Russian, of the old times before the revolution. Some went to the Egerton Road synagogue but most were fairly secular. They lived well as they had managed to leave Russia with quite a supply of valuables. One large house in Amherst Park had a ballroom and all had a drawing room, a breakfast room, a nursery, a maid’s bedroom and all the other things necessary for life in Stamford Hill. The women were very smart and had more sophisticated tastes than local people. They were the first to wear the latest fashion: hats large or small, lipstick light or dark, hair blonde or auburn. Like most White Russians they had relatives in Paris, many of whom worked in small exclusive shops or large hotels. This provided an excellent excuse to visit Paris and they all spoke French better than English — at least at first. A fashion-conscious lady would sometimes buy one garment from Chanel or another famous designer and, when it was out of date, carefully detach the label and sew it into something with less prestige. The ladies never answered the door themselves, even when the green van from Harrods arrived. That was the job of the maid. They didn’t always seem to understand that the local Stoke Newington maids were not the granddaughters of Russian serfs and didn’t take kindly to being addressed in an aloof and imperious manner. This often led to notice being given and the rapid departure of their servant. I had a Russian schoolfriend and on one occasion after her maid had left we went into the kitchen and discovered her mother on her knees, her silver lamé dress tucked up, scrubbing the floor. She said that she was going out and for practical reasons had dressed for dinner beforehand. The White Russians smoked a lot, ate in restaurants in town (there were none suitable in Stoke Newington), played bridge and enjoyed music. They were flamboyant. One woman called Sonya had red spectacle frames shaped like a heart and a letter of her name painted in silver on each of her darkly varnished finger nails. Violent arguments and dramatic reconciliations were so normal as to be almost unnoticed. These domestic dramas were embarrassing for visitors but an audience didn’t inhibit the actors. Sometimes the lady of the house would seize a reluctant dog, cat or child and declare that this was her only friend. Her husband would settle down with a newspaper, muttering, before deciding to take action by storming from the room. A few minutes later both of them would be playing some strange two-handed card game and purring at each other in Russian. The original dispute would be forgotten, of course. Leonora Collins was born in Evering Road in 1923. After graduating from King’s College in 1944 she pursued a career with the British Council until 1983. Her son works in Shanghai, her youngest daughter in lslamabad and her eldest daughter llves in exotic south London. |
||||||
|
||||||
