Before the parades of shops in Dagenham became home to pawn shops, cash converters and charity stores there was a different type of shop that featured heavily on the boroughs map. The army surplus store.
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The original and best was situated right by Fords at Chequers Corner. This was on the A13. The fun began before even entering the musty shop that was called The Army & Navy. With the A13 never sleeping to help Dagenites cross the dual carriage way that sliced residential and manufacturing Dagenham in half, there was a subway. This was also somewhere great to come on your push bike and be a pest. The slopes that vanished underground were the obvious choice for a Raleigh Chopper, but the stairs too held much fun and bruises when it went wrong descending the cold hard concrete steps.
Once under the four lanes of choked traffic the first thing that hit you was the smell, that aroma of stale piss, it used to make me gag, taking big gulps of ‘fresh’ air before going down there worked sometimes. The next thing to hit you was the graffiti, it was everywhere, Sham 69, The Who and NF signs were the loudest signs that shouted back from the poorly orange lit lights. I used to enjoy shouting under there; the echo from the several interlinked tunnels fascinated me. The noise from the traffic above me always still audible over my shrieking.
