City and Suburban
BY JOHN BETJEMAN THERE are certain names which loom large in our lives in London, which we read more often than even that of Gilbert Harding, but with which no personality is associated. For the last fortnight I have been deafened from seven in the morning until after dark by excavators owned by the Willment Bros. Who are these brothers? Do they drink or are they Plymouth Brethren? Have they sisters and are they married? I thought that if I could know something about them I could bear the noise of their machines, and accordingly telephoned the firm. They do exist. One lives in South Africa, and the other surviving brother, the founder of the firm, Mr. C. S. Willment, still works in it. He is not in the London Tele- Phone Directory, so I hope he lives, like Sir Richard Costain, hl a peaceful part of Surrey, playing bridge and golf far away from the noise of his excavators. This leads me to other names —not soulless things like Demolition and Construction Co., Who are just so many robots, but George Wimpey, whose lorries have so often held me up in traffic blocks. Is there a Mrs. George ,Wimpey? Does she play canasta? Are there Young Wimpeys married now and living in luxury on the Wentworth Estate? I rang up the firm and learned from a very nice person that George Wimpey was dead and that he'd been bought out by Sir Godfrey Way Mitchell, of Beaconsfield. Unfortunately, I was switched on to the ppblic relations department before I could find out any more. But the character to whom I am most devoted is Val de Travers, who takes up the pavements in the City and leaves those little trestles and red lamps in the road. I did not picture him doing this work himself, as I was sure he was heir to a baronetcy (the de Travers of Marsh Court, Leominster), and young Master Valentine always had a good head for figures, even before he went to Harrow. Alas! My illusion is dispelled. The name of the firm, so the secretary told me, comes from a canton in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, where there is some very good natural asphalt.
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