Charles Arthur Holland-Goodwin was born as an illegitimate child in 1902 to his mother Elizabeth Holland in St Johns Rd Workhouse, a huge building on St John's Road near Archway.  But this is a redemptive tale!  By the 1911 census he is living with William Goodwin, a greengrocer/hawker, his wife Sarah and Susan Elizabeth (presumably their daughter) on Bemerton Street, Caledonian Road.   We may speculate that his mother died and the benevolent Goodwins took him under their wing.

In 1929 he married Rose-Susannah Juliff (daughter of Frederick and Kathleen Juliff who in 1948 were living at 2 Cloudesley Square) and in the same year a daughter was born, Rose Ellen.  By 1935 they are living at Denmark Road, Haringey.  In 1939 they have moved to Calshot Road in Finsbury where Charles is a general labourer.  In 1945 Charles has moved to No 11 Cloudesley Square accompanied by Rose-Susannah and the confusingly named Charles W Holland-Goodwin, presumably their son, and they are still there in 1948, with the Juliffs as in-laws at No 2.  Then in 1951 the daughter, Rose Ellen, appears at No 16 Cloudesley Square married to Cyril Medley and living in the same household as our friends James and Jessie Chesterman!  Finally, in 1961, Charles Arthur Holland-Goodwin, now a "Stationery Checker" and still with Rose-Susannah, appear to swap places with their daughter (Cyril Medley was recorded as living at 11 Cloudesley Square in 1964) and move into 16 Cloudesley Square with the elderly and now widowed Jessie Chesterman, (she died 3 years later aged 83).  Rose-Susannah Holland-Goodwin died in 1966 leaving Charles £584.  Charles died four years later in 1970, aged 68.

This tangled web is difficult to follow and no doubt there are many other twists and turns to uncover.  But it illustrates how despite the most unpromising beginnings, the denizens of the Cloudesley Estate were able to forge remarkably strong community familial and neighbourly ties which served them well in the relatively downtrodden days of the mid 20th century.