RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY

Jean Edards

Ninety-two-year-old Jean Edards has lived her whole life in the same house on London’s Benyon Estate, experiencing massive social change, enduring war time bombs and enjoying a rich family life.

And, after nine-decades in the three-bedroom semi on Hertford Road, she has no desire to move anywhere else. “It’s the only home I know, and I love it. I’ve seen it through war, bombs and everything, but it’s my home,” she says.

Jean is the longest-standing resident of the Benyon Estate’s properties in De Beauvoir Town in East London, having been born in the house in 1934 and never living anywhere else.

The property first became home to Jean’s family in around 1900, when her grandmother, known as ‘Granny Matt’, rented it from the Benyon Estate. Granny Matt passed the tenancy onto her children, who in turn raised Jean and her brother Reg and sisters Marjorie, Grace and Violet in the three-bedroom house.

Later, after initially leaving Hertford Road to get married, Violet returned to live in the family home with her then three-year-old son Michael who stayed there until he was 16.

Michael remembers the home as the centre of family life, hosting frequent family parties, enjoying home-cooked food and dancing in the kitchen to Frank Sinatra “on the wireless.”

Jean never married or had children of her own but today her great and great-great nieces and nephews continue to visit regularly, maintaining a strong family connection to the home.

Jean’s father, Tom, worked as a market porter at Spitalfields Market, which meant early starts – and early nights.

It’s a routine that still shapes Jean’s daily life. She continues to go to bed early and wake around 4am, habits formed while accompanying her father to and from work.

Jean believes her father’s job also has helped her live a long and healthy life, thanks to the fresh produce he brought from work.  “We grew up on up on good vegetables,” she says. Her mother, also called Violet, worked locally as a milk lady at a nearby school.

Jean started work aged just 14, as a machinist in a nearby factory, a job she continued until she was around 50.

The house on Hertford Road holds powerful memories of the Second World War. Jean’s sisters Marjorie and Violet were moved to Torquay, Devon, but Jean remained in De Beauvoir right through the war, enduring the German bombing raids on London during The Blitz.

Reflecting on those times Jean says: “you don’t forget it”. She recalls the bombing of the nearby De Beauvoir bath houses in 1940, which caused significant damage and broke through the back wall of the family home.

An air raid shelter in the garden consisted of a dug-out hole with a tin cover. At the time, the toilet was located in a shed at the end of the garden, something that became particularly dangerous during air raids. Jean said: “You just had to wait!”

Around 50 years ago, the Benyon Estate carried out an extension to the house, bringing the bathroom indoors - a significant change after decades of living without one.

Despite the many changes around her, Jean remains deeply attached to her home and the Benyon Estate is proud to have her as a tenant.

Estate Manager Edward Benyon said: “We strive to create and maintain homes that people want to live in for the long term and Jean and her family have certainly done that here on Hertford Road.

“It is fascinating to hear of all the changes she and her family have lived through.  Our aim is always to maintain the heritage of the Estate but in homes fit for the 21st century – and to always be aware that these are not just houses, but parts of a community.”