Film-maker’s appeal to trace family of rag and bone legend Alf Masterton, who is subject of a documentary

Published: 17 February 2011
by DAN CARRIER

HIS “any old iron” Cockney drawl has not been heard on the streets of his Camden beat for four years. But the unmistakeable tones of legendary rag and bone man Alf Masterton are due to be aired once more.

The last “Totter” in the borough is the subject of a documentary filmed in the months before his death in 2007. And film-maker Saskia Smith is appealing to New Journal readers to help track down Alf’s relatives for a special family premiere before the film is released to the public.

She followed Alf with a camera on what proved to be some of the final rounds he ever made. Saskia, who lives in Tufnell Park, was a student at the time, and  heard his booming voice  – with his trademark cigar clamped between his teeth and Jack Russell dog Lucky on the front of his handcart – ringing out below her window on an autumn morning in 2006. She chased him down the road and asked if he’d mind if she tagged along with a camera for a week.

The short documentary about Alf and his work is complete, but a new family now live at his Montpelier Gardens home, and the telephone number the New Journal had for Alf has long since been disconnected. 

Saskia, whose other factual works include a look at a nun’s life in a convent, has also helped produce the BBC Two series Gareth Malone’s Extraordinary School For Boys. She said: “I have finished making the film and I would very much like to show it to his family before anyone else.

“It shows Alf in the weeks before he fell ill.”

The film lifts the lid on a trade that has virtually disappeared, and, for those who remember Alf, is sure to bring back many happy memories.

Saskia said: “While he was not a caricature  of a rag and bone man, he certainly had a sense for the past. He was from a different time – there used to dozens of ‘totters’, 

as he called them, in London when he started.”

Alf’s was a pioneer of recycling. While there are now many green websites such as  Freecycle, Alf used to take away and re-use what others had discarded. He once recalled how he would pass the same pram to different families through generations as new children were born and then grew out of it. 

Saskia added: “Alf had a great sense of humour – he really enjoyed meeting people. Following him around was wonderful, it was interesting to see what some people considered rubbish, Alf would get £40 or £50 for. He was very aware as to what a throwaway society we now live in.”

• If you can help Saskia contact Alf’s relatives, please call Dan Carrier at the New Journal on
020 7419 9000.