"The Tramp", Peter Blundell
Mr.Blundell had lived for several years along the A127 before the Hall Lane flyover was built. His shaggy demeanour, and bags of posessions were a familiar sight along the bicycle tracks. It was his habit, every Wednesday, and most Saturdays, to walk to Romford market and display his drawings on the railings along the kerb, at the north end of the market, by the library. His works were usually done in chalk, and most often were of merchant ships; they were usually not for sale. He had been a merchant mariner in early life, and would occasionally write a letter to a relative, whom he asserted still to be a merchant mariner out of Southampton (whether there was any reply, or indeed whether he had any family at all, was never clear). In later years he was tracked by a London Borough of Havering social worker, who would visit him once or twice a week. He collected his pension at the Redden Court Road post office, and in later life he would occasionally be admitted to Harold Wood Hospital, where he was a popular figure, once bathed and given a haircut. A few years before he died, his eloquence earned him film biography which was broadcast on London Weekend Television. He died at Harold Wood Hospital in the early eighties.

By: Tony Fox