On bad days, you could hold your hand out in front of you, wave it about and not be able to see it at all. You didn’t see people coming, you heard them – coughing as they approached. Delivery men had to use a boy, who walked along the kerb with one hand on the horse and one foot – invisible to him – knocking against the kerb at each step. When they got to a junction, the pair would slow to a crawl as the boy felt his way across and tried to find the kerb on the other side. Similarly, navigation was practised by counting the junctions or lamp posts.
