http://jeremyduns.blogspot.com/2010/05/smersh-v-smersh.html

‘Get out of Mixed Flats’ demand [Critic, Vol XLIII, No. 8, July 4 1967]

“Otago students seethed last week when Falus, a campus broadsheet, revealed that Vice Chancellor R. Williams, had ordered a male student to leave a flat he shared with three girls.”

Source: OUSA Archives http://www.ousa.org.nz/history/archives/

Golden Dough Boys

2 c flour
1 t baking powder
pinch of salt
1 d butter
1 egg, beaten

Mix with enough milk to make a light dough and form into balls.

Put the following in a saucepan:
1 c sugar
1 c water
1 T golden syrup
1 T butter

Bring this to the boil and add the small balls of dough. Cook for 15 mins.

Roger Donkin remembers The Shambles, 1960-62

It’s not entirely clear from where the name of the flat originated: it may have been the shambolic nature of the place itself, or it may, as has been suggested by a former resident, been named for a place in Manchester of the same name.

Shambles is an old name and derives from Viking word Shamel apparently meaning ‘bench’, ‘booth’ or ‘shelf’ and the name is found in many places in the UK where there are market places.

The most famous example such a place is the Shambles in York which is allegedly mentioned in the Doomsday Book, one of the few streets that is. This would make it over 900 years old.

This is a quintessential medieval street with upper storeys of buildings stretching out across the street precariously towards each other. The street was once a flesh market (hence also being known as Flesshamel) that is, a street of butchers. Livestock were slaughtered in the streets and it’s been suggested that it is this resulting mess that provides the word shambles with its contemporary definition. In fact the OED gives three definitions: 1) a mess or muddle, 2) a butcher’s slaughterhouse, 3) a scene of carnage.

Reports about the Shambles in Dunedin, of parties and exploding pans of golden dough boys from the 1950s and 60s, suggest the OEDs third definition may be most approprite for explaining the name of our Great King Street residence.

I’m really keen to hear from people fro the 1940s and 1950s who may remember named flats a couple I know of are The Lighthouse (Heriot Row) and The Jam Factory (Filleul Street).

The Jam Factory (Filleul Street), Smerch HQ (Cumberland St), The Lunatic Fringe (Castle Street), Skid Row (London St), The Shambles (Great King Street), Peasmouldia (in an old shop near the staff club on Union St named after an English folk club?), Brewer’s Elbow (Great King or Cumberland Streets?), The Shelf (North East Valley), Toad Hall (22 Pitt Street had a BALL. With FIREWORKS!), The Manse (London St or Elder St), Ipanema, The Spanish Slum (London Street),

Free Latvia (Cumberland St?), Department of Slovenic Studies (72 St David Street), Nightmare Abbey (Castle Street)

Do you remember the 1960s in Dunedin?