Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

Did any of you have anything going at CH? As I remember it, there were always people selling duty-free cigarettes and tobacco, much cheaper than UK prices.
There also seemed to be quite a few people selling "vodka" by the quarter bottle.

A 'quarter' bottle of vodka used to be around £3.50 a go if I remember correctly.

This of course was an 8th - watered down. I know some people made large profits as they could get a cheap bottle of vodka for around £7!!

I had a somewhat more legal money-spinner, as "The Bicycle Repair Man"
("Look at the way he handles that spanner...." quotes from Monty Python were rife!)

Charged £5 for a complete service, plus parts.

Had business from staff and pupils alike, and it easily funded everything in my final term at CH.....

Verrio Tours were always a good source of tips.

I could never remember all the historical stuff, so used to make it up.

I don't think the black-market was quite so rife in my days.

I did use to make some coppers by importing 'trash-mags' to the fans of war stories. These comics were banned and the penalties for possession were pretty bad. The penalty for distribution was even worse.

BTaylor wrote:Verrio Tours were always a good source of tips.

I could never remember all the historical stuff, so used to make it up.

Verrio tours were great - it was good to go to the tuck shop afterwards!

bicycle repairs was an active whilst i was there, so no money in that. well actually, there was a lot of money in it. for mr bailey.
we'd fix the bikes as an active (i.e. for free), and he'd pocket the money. fantastic!

were the war comics banned for being crap or xenophobic or what?

someone in my junior house brought in a holdall full of his big brothers old porn mags. now that was lucrative.

verrio was tempting, i signed up to do it (i think plum was supposed to be my "mentor" actually) but i just couldn't be bothered to learn all the stuff.

Having MONEY at school? Ours was kept locked up by the House mistress
We had to keep individual account books which were regularly checked. Every penny had to be recorded, and we were given back the surplus at the end of term. I can't imagine being able to hide cash anywhere,even the cleaners would have jumped at the chance of reporting us

midget wrote:Having MONEY at school? Ours was kept locked up by the House mistress
We had to keep individual account books which were regularly checked. Every penny had to be recorded, and we were given back the surplus at the end of term.

That's pretty much as it was when i was there too. I think it was only certain days you could get your money out & I remember having to queue outside Lauries flat if you needed any money.
I don't remember what happened when we moved to Horsham Maybe the seniors kept their own. I do remember buying chits for the Grecians Club from EAL though

We certainly had to queue ouside Clive Kemps study to get ours - it was all written down in the ledger...Chits from Krud (memory is going) in Ma A, but the same system for pocket money...

I remember the illicit trips to Southwater, housey to Donkey Bridge, change into civvies and try to look overage in the offie........Roaring trade in vodka

Hendrik wrote:*snip*

verrio was tempting, i signed up to do it (i think plum was supposed to be my "mentor" actually) but i just couldn't be bothered to learn all the stuff.

It was harldy *that* much stuff - I think I used to get £8 or £9 per verrio and if you did that twice a week you could be doing quite well!

Certainly until you got the balck apron (Year 11) and were allowed into the town there was no need of pocket money, there was nothing to spend it on.

You would go in at the beginning of term with a certain amount, as midget said, every penny was accounted for.

If you ordered fruit from the greengrocer who delivered weekly that was taken off, then there was a certain amount for BSB and other bits and bobs, but nothing for personal items, no tuck shop or anything.

Great Plum wrote:

Hendrik wrote: *snip*

verrio was tempting, i signed up to do it (i think plum was supposed to be my "mentor" actually) but i just couldn't be bothered to learn all the stuff.

It was harldy *that* much stuff - I think I used to get £8 or £9 per verrio and if you did that twice a week you could be doing quite well!

How Much ?

I think we were restricted to around a fiver a term pocket money and as someone has posted earlier, you had to queue on a weekly basis at the Deputy housemaster study to collect around two bob, maximum. No wonder Horsham eas out of the question for a visit.

englishangel wrote: Certainly until you got the balck apron (Year 11) and were allowed into the town there was no need of pocket money, there was nothing to spend it on.

You would go in at the beginning of term with a certain amount, as midget said, every penny was accounted for.

If you ordered fruit from the greengrocer who delivered weekly that was taken off, then there was a certain amount for BSB and other bits and bobs, but nothing for personal items, no tuck shop or anything.

I didn't think women could join the Masons ?

Was there a funny hand-shake and the rolling up or down of stockings involved ?

J.R. wrote:

Great Plum wrote:

Hendrik wrote: *snip*

verrio was tempting, i signed up to do it (i think plum was supposed to be my "mentor" actually) but i just couldn't be bothered to learn all the stuff.

It was harldy *that* much stuff - I think I used to get £8 or £9 per verrio and if you did that twice a week you could be doing quite well!

How Much ?

I think we were restricted to around a fiver a term pocket money and as someone has posted earlier, you had to queue on a weekly basis at the Deputy housemaster study to collect around two bob, maximum. No wonder Horsham eas out of the question for a visit.

It was in tips... they all had to go into a big pot and split between you - normally people would give a pound or two per person and you tended to have about 10 in one group so that amount was about correct...