Bob Parker followed his mother Ethel and three brothers into the Market in 1970 and enjoyed a lengthy career here, which incorporated an interesting period as chairman of the NCGM branch of the T&GWU. He looks back on his memories, including being part of the seismic move to Nine Elms in 1974.

Several members of your family have worked at the market, can you tell us a bit about the Parkers of Covent Garden?

My three brothers – Billy, Georgie and Jimmy - were all in the services. Billy was in the Navy, attached to the Americans and out in Japan during the war. He came back and Georgie was conscripted into the Army – he was a guard in Spandau. Jimmy went in the Army too, he was out in Egypt. After they’d finished with the services, they all ended up in the old Covent Garden as porters.

But my mum – Ethel Parker (nee Holland) worked in the market well before them – she used to shell peas for Baileys after the first World War. That’s when she and my dad met, when he came out of the Army, and they ended up having 12 kids! If he was still alive, one of my brothers would have been 100 a few months ago, but I was the last one. I never knew my dad, as he died when I was 18 months old, in 1945.

I left school in 1958 – I was a carpet fitter, worked in a clothing factory and various other jobs. I never really thought about following my brothers into the market, but I was out of work when Jimmy called me one morning and told me to come and meet him at 5am the next day. I went to the Transport & General Workers Union office and they said ‘you start tomorrow’ – that was it.

We were all attached to different companies - Billy was RE Jenkinson’s, Georgie was Southside Importers, Jimmy was with Dan Wuille and when I started in 1970, I was on JI Emanuel in James Street. He was a good guvnor, one of the best on the market in my view. He was strict with his two boys, but treated us very well.

My son Dean also came into the market. He didn’t fancy getting up at 4am at first, but in the end he took the plunge and he’s still here, working for Bar Fruits.

What did the workforce think at the time about the relocation to Nine Elms in 1974?

It was brilliant working over there. The sounds, the smells, the people – it was great fun. It was a great life. We were next to Bevingtons, Mack & Edwards and the Nag’s Head pub, which we all used, of course!

One of the main problems was the theatres – people would be parking their cars up and getting in the way of our night men at 11pm. We could see why the authorities wanted to move us.

No porters wanted to come here though. Why would they? Every turn they did was on a trolley or a barrow. Down to Leicester Square or The Strand. The only firm I knew that had a forklift was up on Long Acre, where there was a banana warehouse. There were hardly any, if any, pallets.

When we first came for our forklift training a couple of weeks before the move, a lot of the older boys realised it wasn’t going to be for them. There were about 900 porters who made the move – at JI Emanuel in the old market we had 16 porters, but only 12 came here including the three night men. As time went by, more and more work was done at night, so it shifted.

Most of the men who came here stayed ‘til they reached retirement age and then it was down to the discretion of the guvnors if they thought you were still capable of doing the job. As the years went by, the numbers began to dwindle. When we arrived here, it was chaos at first because none of us knew how to drive a forklift and we all had to come over here to be tested. The training was, let’s say, rudimentary! And the test was to drive in to Springers, pick a pallet up, turn around and put it on top of another pallet. It took 10 minutes and I’m not sure it mattered if you succeeded or not, you passed!

How did everyone adapt from the traditional ways of old Covent Garden?

It didn’t take us long to make the transition. Driving forklifts in the rain and snow was better than pulling a trolley up and down hills, it turned out. So, it was a lot nicer. There were obviously people who didn’t like the change – hundreds of them – and it’s the same now with the redevelopment.

You don’t want your way of life changing. If you want to change something down there, that’s up to you, but leave my bit alone! The people who are here now will be saying the same things in 30 years, but the market will still be here. The new buildings do look nice. You have to accept it for what it is, whether you like it or not.

You became chairman of the T&GWU’s branch at New Covent Garden Market. How big was the union then and why did things change?

It was a closed shop when I came into Covent Garden. The unions used to be a massive part of it all; we all know they’re not here any more.

I had been involved for a few years when they wanted to change the T&GWU to Unite and we voted against it. But I became the chair when it was Unite; for years before that Tony Buckle and Jonny Watts led the T&GWU here.

I used to have it all written down, but all our records got destroyed – by accident, when we were asked to leave our office by the landlord. All the names and history were in those two cabinets that were lost, such a shame. Jonny Watts was immaculate – he took a degree in computer technology in his 70s and every day he went home and recorded everything. The information on there was priceless, but that computer has gone too, I believe.

Jonny was so clever, he never got annoyed, his voice when he spoke to you never changed. I got out of my pram once or twice (!), but he never did.

Jean Tatum was our secretary for over 20 years and she played a massive role too. Jean was at every meeting and she never missed a beat.

We have had some difficult guvnors here. Some of them were very good businessmen, but not nice people to deal with. When we used to sit down and negotiate wages and conditions, Gary Marshall was one who could always see both sides of the argument. I wouldn’t want to name names in a negative sense, but there were others that were murder, very anti-union, but Gary came from a different place.

Our downfall unfortunately was when about half a dozen porters went behind our backs and told the guvnors what they wanted to hear. That was the end of it. I remember the last meeting in 2012 when I packed up and told everyone we needed to form a new committee. I said I’d stay on while it was sorted out, there were about 80 men left and not a soul came forward to take the role on. I called it as the last meeting and told them they’d have to get in touch with the Dagenham branch.

You were still portering until you finished about a dozen years ago, weren’t you?

I loved working in the Market, never had a bad word to say about it. I was working for Geoff Lamb at Tealing’s when I packed up as a porter at 69 or 70 and can honestly say that every morning I looked forward to going to work. How many people can put their hand on their heart and say that?

I just enjoyed coming in - the atmosphere, the noises, the porters were out of this world. We had some great men - Jimmy Frankham, Jimmy Hayes, Davie Small, the Watsons – all lovely, lovely people. There were a few naughty people too, but that was all part of what made it interesting. We had the very best and some of the worst!"