Obituary: Peggy Steers

My mother Peggy Steers (nee Tuhill) who died on 7 March 2024 aged 95 was a lifelong Londoner, who spent nearly half her life in Hanson Street, Fitzrovia.

She was born in Islington in 1928 and lived for some time in Citizen Road, Hornsey with her parents Terry and Jessie Tuhill. She attended Pakeman Street School and then Tollington Park School.

Citizen Road was a cul de sac, and her dad delivered milk on a horse and cart there. But the horse never went past Mum’s house as the family used to come out to feed it sugar lumps — leaving her dad to carry the crates to the end of the road himself.

At the end of the street was a railway line, and she recalled that the children used to wave at the train drivers, who would throw them lumps of coal for their fire. The houses on Citizen Road have since been replaced by tower blocks of flats.

She was evacuated during the war with her beloved brother Brian, who she refused to be separated from. She didn’t have a good time, and was glad to return to London. Her sister, Doreen, however, really enjoyed staying with the family she was evacuated with, and returned to visit them a number of years ago.

Mum later lived with her parents and her siblings in York Way Court near King’s Cross for a number of years. Always keen on football, she sometimes took her younger brothers to watch the family team, The Arsenal, at Highbury.

Brian pre-deceased her, as did her older brother, Terence, who died much too young. Still going are her younger sisters, Doreen and Lesley, and younger brother David.

Mum always had a wanderlust, and joined the Land Army around the end of the war and later on the Women’s Royal Air Force as a tracker. She enjoyed talking about driving a tractor in the Land Army and had fond memories of American soldiers teaching her to jive.

Whilst in the WRAF she met and married her first husband, Ken (my dad) but that didn’t last long and we have lost touch with him.

Mum and I lived in Basildon New Town for a while as they were one of the only New Towns offering houses to women who got jobs there as well as to men. We lived there with her sister Doreen (who had also left her husband), and Doreen’s daughter Susan.

The wanderlust took over again and Mum and I moved to Canada with her second husband, Johnny. We only lived there for three years, but her younger sister, Lesley, came out to join us for a while, and ended up marrying a Canadian. Lesley now lives and has a family in Canada, and I was so pleased to be able to buy Mum a long holiday there on her retirement.

Unfortunately, the marriage to Johnny also did not last, but that ended more amicably and we all stay in touch.

Mum lived in Finchley for a while, where I went to secondary school, and we then moved to Wembley.

She hassled Westminster Council for a flat, and the family story is that the council lost the paperwork and were so embarrassed that they quickly offered her a flat. She moved to Hanson Street in the 1980s where she lived for the rest of her life.

Peggy loved living so near to the centre of London. If ever she saw a tourist looking at a map, she would be over to help them with their directions and recommending other places to go.

I remember being on a boat in the Thames with my Mum, me and a friend from Canada — at the end of the trip the boat’s tour guide passed a hat around for a collection but the American family in front of us refused to give them anything as they said they listened to Mum telling London stories to our Canadian friend, which was much more interesting than the official tour guide.

She obviously saw a number of changes over the years in Hanson Street. The house next to her used to be a squat, which she didn’t mind until the people there started to leave a mess. She complained to them and the council for ages about a mattress being left outside, but saw red when she saw a picture in the Evening Standard of the then leader of the council, Dame Shirley Porter, spraying perfume into a rubbish bin and talking about cleaning up Westminster.

She sent a picture of the mattress to Dame Porter and said unless it was cleared in three days she would send it to the papers to tell them about the reality of “clean” Westminster. She never got a reply but the mattress was gone in two days!

Mum also campaigned along with other residents against the proposed closure of the Tesco’s in Goodge Street in 1988 when that was about the only place in the area you could buy a wide range of affordable groceries.

Mum’s last job was with Mullards, who made valves for TVs and were later taken over by Philips. Their offices were in Mullard House in Torrington Place (now owned by University College London and renamed).

Living so close to work was great for her social life. She was an enthusiastic darts player, and Mullard’s competed in the Camden Business League, with their home matches in the New Inn.

Mum had a long, happy retirement, but unfortunately became increasingly frail near the end, and was always very grateful for her kind neighbours and doctor who lives in her street. She died a few weeks after being moved to a nursing home, and I know she would have hated to have died “South of the River” but Westminster Council could not find a vacancy in the area, so she ended up in Crystal Palace.

She leaves a legacy of lots of great memories and laughter. She had a love of jazz, in particular Billie Holiday, and I will always remember her whenever I hear Greensleeves — she hated that song and would always rush to turn it off after the first few bars!

The funeral service for Eileen “Peggy” Steers will be at St Marylebone Crematorium, East End Road, Finchley, London N2 0RZ, 1pm Tuesday 9 April 2024. There is a tribute page for Peggy.