MY recent picture of old houses in West Stewart Street at its junction with Jamaica Street prompted a former resident to get in touch from Canada.

Between 1949 and 1952 (when he was eight-11 years of age), Hugh Millar and his family stayed in a third-floor flat in the property on the left of the picture which is reproduced today.

His memory is that the house was divided into eight flats — two in the attic, two on the third floor and three or four on the ground floor.

The second floor was occupied by the Knights of St Columba and Hugh could hear their rituals from his bedroom at night.

Hugh, who lives in North Vancouver, said: “My bedroom had a window in the upper left of the photograph and I often ventured onto the balcony to look at the Argyll hills.

“The Jamaica Street facade had a wall with a ledge and wrought iron and this was a constant draw for children and consternation for their parents.

“The West Stewart side had a wall similar in height to that in the photograph behind the Teacher’s whisky advert — about 18-20 feet.

“This was known as ‘the drap’ and about every three months a neighbourhood mob of children would gather to witness the latest challenger who would risk the drop down to the pavement.

“The council ended the entertainment by reducing the wall by half, sloping our lawn play area but allowing a 10 foot ‘drap’ — that, of course could be managed by much longer children. I never heard of anyone being injured.” Hugh said the north west corner of the land behind the Teacher’s advert was the domain of the tenant on that ground floor corner of the building.

He maintained a garden and kept chickens but no-one ever got a glimpse of him.

Access to the KSC part of the property was via a covered walkway from West Stewart Street while other tenants entered from Jamaica Street. Upper flat tenants got to their flats by using stairs at the rear of the house. The property would originally have been built as a mansion but Hugh believes it may have been a private school before being converted into flats. Hugh’s father was a gas fitter and decided to take up a well-paid job in Toronto working on new pipelines bringing natural gas in from Alberta.

He went out to Canada in 1951 and bought a house for the arrival of his wife and children a year later.

In 1961, Hugh moved to Vancouver where he attended the University of British Columbia and went on to become a social worker.

He has remained on the west coast of Canada, mainly because of its moderate climate but also for the views of mountains and wilderness like those he enjoyed as a child in Greenock.