Under the great dome of the Old House, close to the edge of the floor: here we would have found the postwar boom in the shares of dog tracks, and here we would have found a remarkably tall man, one Sidney Jenkins, sometimes known as ‘King of the Dogs’, reputable dealer in all shares leisure-related. On 1 April 1960 – April Fool’s day – Sidney Jenkins and his son Anthony formed S. Jenkins & Son Ltd. Sidney’s son John started work as junior in the early 1960s. It was, says Anthony, ‘a family firm and everybody knew one another. We knew when people had families and passed their driving tests, and they were good days.’

The firm specialized in leisure stocks, dog tracks and the holiday camps – Butlins and Pontins – that boomed in the days before cheap air travel opened up the beaches of Spain to the British public. This was often described as the ‘spivvy’ end of the market, but it lacked the defining characteristic of spivviness – financial sharp practice. Sidney Jenkins may have been ‘King of the Dogs’ but his business affairs were solidly managed. His firm had a good reputation and deep personal connections to the directors of the companies whose stocks they traded. Jenkins had a horror of overtrading and the ‘hammerings’, when gavels wielded by the Exchange’s top-hatted waiters sounded the end of a jobbing firm. He plied his risky trade with care; the firm never borrowed money or stock. ‘Father’s attitude was “I like to sleep at night”,’ says Anthony. ‘We earned a good living out of the business and the staff all did well, and Father’s attitude was “Why should I over-trade?” That was something that he was always frightened of. You’ve got to remember also, Father saw a lot of hammerings, a lot firms went broke in his time.’

People remember the Jenkins family for two things: for being tall, and for being decent. One former broker’s boy remembers going down to the floor on his first day unaccompanied – an unusual occurrence – and looking helplessly at the crowd: ‘I was sort of wandering around, a little bit lost, and a very tall man bent down and said, “Your first day, sonny?” and I said, “Yes sir”.