Down Memory Lane...

...or to be more precise, down Leicester's Gipsy Lane.

Last week I had to go to a meeting on the other side of town. This meant driving past the street where I was born and along the road that I used to cross on my way to school (I really mean the road that Mum used to drag me across. I hated school), the same road where I used to trail after Mum from shop to shop on her daily trip to buy food (no fridges in those days). There are still shops there but the grocers and greengrocers have gone.

I used to wait for the bus to Grandma's house on Gipsy Lane. The bus stop is still there. I can remember holding Mum's hand, looking forward to being at Grandma's, trying not to turn and look at the Towers Hospital behind me.

An old photograph of The Towers Hospital
 from The Leicester Mercury archives

Last week, as I crawled along in a line of traffic, I glanced at that same Towers Hospital. It stands in its own grounds and, although it is no longer a mental institution (formerly referred to as a lunatic asylum), it is still largely unchanged from the outside. I was surprised at how close the building was to the road. In infant school, we were taken there each Spring for nature walks. I remember walking along a little piece of woodland beside an iron-railed perimeter with the scarily imposing building safely at a distance. I know a lot has changed but the iron-railed perimeter hasn't moved and the building hasn't moved. It's only my memory that has had a size-change. That 'little piece of woodland' is merely a narrow path with trees and bushes alongside it.

It's strange how we remember things from long ago as being smaller or larger, nearer or further away. Maybe our memories can't retain size proportions accurately. Have you ever returned to a childhood location and been surprised by your memory's inaccuracies?