‘I loved selling ice-cream there’: the 13-year battle for a Mr Whippy pitch in Greenwich

Paul St Hilaire Jr and Sr at the site on King William Walk where they used to have an ice-cream van. Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian

When he was growing up, Paul St Hilaire Jr thought his dad was the next best thing to Willy Wonka: no one else’s dad sold ice-cream for a living.

“I remember sitting in the van, eating my Mr Whippy and feeling superior to children queueing up outside,” St Hilaire Jr remembered.