Bob Collins: Islington Pensioners Forum

Everybody has a story. In the first week of the coronavirus lockdown, Islington Faces began trialling on line interviews. First up is Bob Collins who runs Islington Pensioners Forum. Interview by Nicola Baird

Bob Collins is a retired postal worker from the Mount Pleasant mail sorting office who is still well-known locally. He’s often in the local newspapers – last spotted in the Islington Tribune in a campaign coalition photo with student climate strikers from St Mary Magdalene Academy.

Serendipitously Islington Faces calls him on his birthday – he was born 74 years ago in Archway at the Whittington Hospital so born and bred Islington. During our call he says the postman has gone past his window, again. Kudos to posties and Bob’s friends because he’s just received seven birthday cards in the post.

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“I call myself a North London boy,” says Bob who grew up at the Angel.

“We lived in 56 Liverpool Road – there are only three houses left at that end of the road near the Angelic pub (was the George). My dad played piano in there, and darts. Back in the day they had a little bar where my nan used to go, called the Snug – it’s where all the senior ladies used to sit and drink. It’s interesting how your language changes over the years as back then I would have said ‘old girls’,” says Bob who is at home in Highbury sitting out the coronavirus lock down with his partner, Sandra.

“There were five of us and we lived in three rooms. We had two of the ground floor rooms and one up the two flights of stairs. Mrs Hall was at the bottom. Mrs Lyle had a room that overlooked Liverpool Road by the bedroom used by my sister, brother and myself. She was a disabled lady – she never left the room in all the years we lived there. We helped her a lot. And at the top of the house was Mr Ford,” he says. “Most of time was spent in the kitchen: it was always warm because either the coal fire was on or the oven. Plus my dad was a good cook. That was a result.”

Bob’s parents got married in the war (1939-45) and both had strong Islington connections. “My mum worked in the rag trade, she was a machinist, doing dresses. My dad worked in litho print. One of his jobs was not far from Clerkenwell just off Rosebery Avenue, near Exmouth Market.”

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Q: What does this strange time of Covid-19 remind you of?
A: Bob Collins from Islington Pensioners Forum: “Maybe like when we had the power cuts in the 1970s, and how we coped when we didn’t have power – it was three days on, three days off.”

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Places Bob Collins loves in Islington

• One place I really love is the Emirates. I’ve been going to the Arsenal for 60 odd years. Everyone in the family would say I was mad. I still got my season ticket.
• I like Islington. It’s a really interesting borough and the smallest in London. They keep the parks very nicely and because of where we live, I like walking around Highbury Fields and the New River Walk.
• I like the diversity of Islington. You can go to the back of Canonbury and be in another world, or go to Compton Terrace – which is two minutes from Packington Estate and then you’ve got wonderful Georgian houses.
• I like going to the Islington Museum in 245 St John Street. They put on some good stuff down there. Last show we went to was about Italians in Islington. I like all that social history. The Italian area of Clerkenwell – was near my old school. We went to all the time to the Italian processions, we’d run up from Farringdon Road and stand on that Roseberry Avenue corner with our mates. As soon as it went past you knew you could get down to the stalls at Warren Street, which is non-existent now. https://www.islington.gov.uk/libraries-arts-and-heritage/heritage/islington-museum

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“My family actually had one of the original stalls in Chapel Street – my Nan, Jessie Collins (nee Briton), was one of the original seven angels of Islington. She had a flower stall right at the bottom at the Liverpool Road end,” says Bob promising to show me a “paper cutting from 1964 where they interviewed her, and she was on the TV.”

“Chapel Street was our domain. I worked up there when I was a young boy. In the mornings we used to pull the stall out and go to school, in the evenings we’d pull it back in. And in the weekends I used to work at the stalls, selling bananas up the market,” says Bob adding that he still likes that fruit.

“I went to school in White Lion Street at the top of Chapel Street and then to Sir Hugh Middleton in Corporation Road, just off Clerkenwell – near Finsbury town hall – until I was 15. The school is still there.

Life was spent outdoors with “pals”. Games depended on the season. “Back in the day we had football season, cricket season and in the evening a game called run outs. We played on the bomb sites – you weren’t allowed on them, but they were not fenced off. You did run the risk of nails up your foot as most of us wore plimsolls – the forerunner of trainers. Used to get them from Woolworths,” he says.

Water tanks
“When we were children the really interesting place used to be the water tanks,” says Bob. These water tanks were all around Islington. They were put in during the war to help stop fire during the Blitz.

“When I was growing up the water tanks turned into the septic tank! Parents used to say ‘don’t go climbing into that filthy water’, but we’d just climb into them! We’d come home smelling, that’s why your mum wasn’t too happy, because of the washing. It was fun because you could make a raft, or get a tin bath and float. The one we used to go was right opposite the old Royal Free Hospital on Liverpool Road. If you look at where that is now – they’ve made that into a housing complex – right opposite is a new block of flats, and that’s where the water tank was. It was big: it must have been 50 square metres.

Bob has spent most of his working life in Islington too. “I just like this borough,” he says in explanation. Since the end of 2018 he’s been chair of the Islington Pensioners Forum, well-known as the voice of Islington’s older community. So how did he get involved with this set of campaigners?

“In my work life for the last 30 years I was doing union work with CWU at Mount Pleasant and with all the things I learnt in the union I didn’t want them to go to waste as soon as I retired. First, I started as a volunteer at Sotheby Mews on Blackstock Road and I’m still volunteering there. I met plenty of pensioners and they said ‘you always talk well, have got a story and are sticking up for people so why don’t you join Islington Pensioners Forum?’”

When Bob went into the offices of Islington Pensioners Forum to ask a few questions, he found that the chair George Durack (also a former Islington Councillor) was like him an ex CWU man. “He suggested I joined the committee and then I shadowed him for two years as vice chair.” When George sadly passed away, aged 94 years old, two years ago, Bob became chair.

Islington Pensioners Forum
Islington Pensioners Forum (IPW) is renowned for its campaigning energy. “We’ve campaigned on the Whittington to keep it open – we’re always up there with our banner, Defend Whittington Hospital. And we’ve been working on the TV licences. We’re fervent about keeping it free for the 75 and over, even been to the House of Commons with that as the deadline is 31 May 2020,” explains Bob. The Forum also helps Islington pensioners stay in touch, sending the monthly newsletter to around 300 people and regularly getting audiences of 25-40 turning up for talks and films. They were also running popular IT and smartphone classes.

“We’ve had some good speakers from NHS, from Windrush, and someone from Grenfell. We’re not political, we’re the campaigning voice of Islington’s older community,” adds Bob.

Covid-19, social distancing and self-isolation for older people and those with underlying health conditions has meant Bob has regretfully had to put on hold Islington Pensioners Forum events, although you are welcome to join still. “We had film afternoons planned and we had just employed an organiser to do our outings – that was anew thing put into place this year. One of my personal things always has been dealing with loneliness and isolation. We were moving forward and now gone backward again. When all this madness is over, we’ll be back at the beginning. For now, we’re trying to keep ourselves safe and follow Government guidelines,” he says adding that despite the lockdown, he’s not feeling lonely as he is getting loads of phone calls. It’s not just the Islington Pensioners Forum, it’s also enquiries from former postal workers as Bob is also the secretary for retired members (there are over 700) at his CWU branch at Mount Pleasant.

It’s clear that Bob’s full of energy and ideas about staying in touch with members, helping share technology skills and campaigning on any actions that affects pensioners. But he’s also got one eye on helping the next generation too. “Intergenerational action is also part of our constitution and part of what we do,” he says, before asking: “What is the only thing children in this age haven’t got? It’s history, because they’re so young. So, when they talk to people like myself they have history.” Hopefully this Islington Faces’ interview makes this point abundantly clear – thanks to Bob we know more about the games our oldest residents used to play on bomb sites and in vast water tanks. But it’s a call to action too: if you are a pensioner and have £5 spare then please do join the Islington Pensioners Forum. Donations are always welcome and if you are in hardship IPF will waive the fee.

• Islington Pensioners Forum office is at 1a Providence Court, Providence Place, N1 0RN Telephone: 0207 226 7687 Email: ipf@islingtonpensionersforum.org
• islingtonpensionersforum.orgMembership costs £5 for a year.
• Twitter @IPFOfficial

Over to you
If you’d like to nominate someone to be interviewed who grew up, lives or works in Islington, or suggest yourself, please let me know, via nicolabaird dot green at gmail dot com. Thank you to Emily, who used to work at Islington Tribune, for suggesting this interview with Bob. If you enjoyed this post you might like to look at the A-Z  index, or search by interviewee’s roles or Meet Islingtonians to find friends, neighbours and inspiration. Thanks for stopping by. Nicola