Further to Elaine Neale’s letter and the Past Times page on September 13 re Charlie Chaplin staying in Bradford, Elaine mentions him performing at the Empire Theatre in Great Horton Road.
I recall that by the 1950s this had become a hotel, The Alexandra, part of which was the Tudor Bar. On the wall there were Chaplin’s bowler, boots and cane. Could any reader perchance confirm that these were his genuine ‘props’?
The following week, in a report about Bradford’s bridges of yesteryear, there was a reference to ‘Hoppy Bridge’. According to Wiliam Claridge in Tony Moxon’s history of Bradford Grammar School, Hoppy’s (not Hoppy) Bridge crossed a stream (not the Beck) which ran down Church Bank past the then school.
The term ‘usher’, used to describe Henry Hoppy, is misleading in that, while today it has a rather more menial connotation, in the case of HH it meant “second master”, a position of some importance, albeit in a small school as it then was.
Derek Mozley, Moorhead Terrace, Shipley
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