Alexis wrote:
Interesting to read migmogs comment about Kings College Hospital in London as I lived in that area (Camberwell, Peckham, Brixton, West Norwood) in the 1970s. Living among a community composed mostly of people from the Caribbean I always felt safe, even when returning home from very late shifts at the hospital. In those days there were police on duty inside the hospital and staff were regularly advised not to be in the area after dark. A regular user of public transport to get to work and using Brixton underground station to get to Victoria, it was only after the Brixton riots in early 1981 (it was believed by the local community that a stabbed youth died as a result of police brutality) that I decided to leave London to pursue my career elsewhere - family were worried about me!
This happened to me in 2010 ....
My husband was an inpatient in Kings College Hospital ...we had travelled down from the North West for specialist neurological tests ....his bed was by a blocked up fire escape door ...we where told that the reason the fire escape door was locked and baracaded was to stop thieves breaking into the hospital for drugs ....one bed next to my husband and one opposite where two young black boys who had been stabbed with all of their families around them.... I was staying in a hotel near to Tower Bridge
Staff where adamant that I would not be safe if I walked alone outside of the hospital
And that I would be in danger
They wouldn,t even let me flag down a taxi
Saying that they would order the taxi for me to keep me safe
I lived in North London in the early 1970,s and felt like you very safe at the time
Times sadly change places as do peoples