Friends reunited! Pals meet 75 years on
Women first met at primary school that boasts Stephen Hawking, Elizabeth Taylor and John Betjeman among its alumni
Friday, 13th June — By Isabel Loubser
Best of friends, from left: Susan Seiffert, Beatty Jones neé Evans, Lisa Robinson née Pollock, and Jula Westman neé Rabl
FOUR women, some of whom had not since each other since their primary school days in Highgate, were reunited this week 75 years after first meeting.
Beatty Jones, Lisa Robinson, Susan Seiffert, and Jula Westman first met when they were children attending Byron House on North Road.
The school, which has since closed, boasts Stephen Hawking, Elizabeth Taylor and John Betjeman among its alumni, and is the source of many fond memories for the group.
Ms Robinson, 81, said: “I used to love the school dinners. I used to love the music, I remember the building and I remember longing to be in a play and being given a role, but in the end I lost my nerve and I ended up behind the scenes playing the recorder.”
Ms Jones added: “It was a lovely school with a lovely garden that had a pond with newts in it. We were all just really good friends, all being naughty together.”
The group recalled childhood memories of playing on the green in Hampstead, staying at each other’s family homes, and plotting to get away from grandparents.
As they became adults, both Ms Seiffert and Ms Westman became teachers at schools in north London, Ms Robinson became a social worker and later worked at the Royal Free, and Ms Jones worked as a chef.
Since then the four women have been spread across the globe, with Ms Jones splitting her time between France and India, Ms Seiffert visiting her son in Australia, and Ms Robinson relocating to the English countryside before moving to East Finchley several years ago.
Of the reunion, Ms Robinson said: “We just met for lunch. That was fun. I was quite nervous about it initially because I was worried it would be strange, but of course it wasn’t strange at all.
“It is amazing, I never thought we would get together and meet up again”.
Ms Jones said the secret to more than seven decades of friendship was that the group were “just very similar. Sort of rather nice lefty north London families. Lucky us.”
