Oak Lodge, 32 Alexandra Road c1905

Alexandra Road is the turning on the left at the traffic lights as you travel down Turnpike Lane from Wightman Road. Of late its been a bit scruffy, but is smartening up. Perhaps before long it'll begin to recall the smart days at the turn of the 20th century.

Number 32, or Oak Lodge as it was called back in the day, is opposite Ravenstone Road. Today, it has been converted into six flats and is once again looking very dapper.

From 1904 to 1907, when this photo was probably taken, it was home to one John and Annie Pinchbeck. They moved up from Clerkenwell where John worked for a gas meter manufacturer.

John died in 1907. In his will, he left his estate split between his wife and his daughter and her husband. Both women were called Annie. Annie the younger had married George Ernest Timmins, works manager. I assume he was the son of one of the owners of the Davis and Timmins screw factory on Brook and Clarendon Roads.

Before the Pinchbecks arrived at Oak Lodge, it had been the home of retired grocer 72 year old Thomas Stevenson, his 42 year old wife Caroline, their four children and live-in servant Julia.