David Bild

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EXCERPT:

TAPE 108 Jewish Project

TITLE ON TAPE: DAVID BILD (M MONNICKENDAM)

Marjorie             This is an interview between David Bild and Marjorie Monnickendam on the 8th of February 1987.  David, first of all tell me about your parents.

David Bild         My mother came from Poland and my Father came from Russia, before the nineteen hundreds.  They met … my Father met my Mother when she was working in her Father’s butcher shop.  They fell in love and they were married about 1911.

My Father had many varied occupations.  He had a restaurant.  He had a clothing factory.  He was a poultry dealer.  And he was a fruiterer.  But I think that his main occupation was owning a restaurant in the heart of the East End.

I was born in 1926, and my Mother was quite old: she was fifty years of age when I was born.  We lived in No. 11 Leyton St, which is right in the heart of Petticoat Lane.  It actually runs parallel with Middlesex Street and Bell Lane.

M            And what was the place like?

D            We had quite a large house.  There was a shop, with kitchens at the back.  There were, I believe, six large rooms and three floors.

M            Who had the shop?

D            My Father.  I remember as a boy suddenly he came back with an American soda fountain.  It was the first restaurant in the East End, which had an American soda fountain.  I remember going … the house had a cellar and in the cellar were the syrups that were drawn up to the soda fountain, which was on the front of the shop.  Also on the Sunday morning, at Petticoat Lane Market he would have a stall outside the shop.

M            What sort of things did he have on the stall?

D            Oh there was several things, sandwiches.

M            What language did he speak at home?

D            Only English, my parents could speak Yiddish, but they would never speak Yiddish in the home.  Obviously most people in the East End spoke Yiddish and when I used to walk around I think I spoke and could understand a little of the words.  Although, as I grew older, I didn’t want to speak Yiddish.  It didn’t worry me; I didn’t like the sound of Yiddish at the time.  I’m very sorry about that because I think I lost out quite a lot as I’ve grown older.

M            Tell me about your name.

D            My name is David Bild.  But my Grandfather when he came to England, when he landed, at the emigration depot, when they asked for his name, his name was David Solomon Bild. When his friends heard this they said, “Bild doesn’t sound very Jewish”.  And so, he dropped the name “Bild” and called himself David Solomon.  So my father, who’s name was Nathan, Nathan Solomon and he had three other brothers and two sisters, but the older brother who was quite old when he came to England kept the name of Bild.  And as I grew up I had cousins and uncles and Aunts called Solomon but I also had an uncle called Bild.  And when I asked why there was a difference between the two brothers names, I was told the story of what had happened when my Grandfather came to England.  I liked the name Bild, and as it was my real family name, at the first opportunity I changed my name from David Solomon back to David Bild, after my Grandfather.

M            Were you a very frumm family?

D            Yes, quite frumm, yes.  We were quite religious at home.  Sabbaths my parents came home, Sabbaths candles were lit.  We weren’t allowed as children to do anything that we should not have done at the time!  I remember at about the age of five going to the Synagogue with my Father on the Yom Tovim.  We used to walk from Leyton Street to the Synagogue, which was a great synagogue in Filbert St, Ashkenazi Synagogue.  I can recall walking along Commercial Rd.  Tremendous atmosphere because obviously everything is closed especially for Pesach, Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur.

Then when I became older, when my Father then, for a period, worked for a clothing manufacturer – a very famous firm, which was called Ellis and Goldstein – they had to work on a Saturday morning.  Although most of the people who worked there were Jewish and my Father said, “Well of course, simply because I am going to work it doesn’t mean to say that you have to stop going to the Synagogue.  So I used to go to Dukes Place School.  At the time I loved to go …  I loved the services, I loved to hear him singing.  I used to go on my own on a Saturday morning and on the Shabbats on Friday night.

I can picture the preparation for Pesach, the first Seder night. We always had two Seder nights, when we had a sort of nanny who would do the cooking.   I’ve got three sisters and a brother.

At that time we had two maids in the house.  Family were invited and there always about twenty people sitting around the table for the Passover.  I picture my Father sitting at the table with a white cushion.  Every Seder night, before we would get going, the family

started giggling.  My Father would get cross and then we would see a little smile coming up on his face.  He would then laugh with us and then we would get down to the serious business of conducting the Seder service.

M            So what was it like in the East End?

D            I was very happy. There was a lot of poverty in the East End.  There were people who appeared to be quite comfortable.

This page was researched by University of Greenwich Student Sufyan Hanif, as part of the 2nd Year HIS1078 History in Practice work placement.