A dentist who began operating a practice out of his Ilford home in the 1960s is retiring next week.

Ilford Recorder: Jack Godfrey with his wife Susan, staff and MP Lee ScottJack Godfrey with his wife Susan, staff and MP Lee Scott (Image: Archant)

Jack Godfrey, 70, will wave goodbye to Dentaliving on Monday, the business he built up with his wife Susan, 66, in Clayhall Avenue.

His retirement was marked with a celebration on December 13 with staff, the new owners and Ilford North MP Lee Scott.

He was presented with a leather book containing comments from his patients.

Mr Godfrey, who now lives in north London, said: “I was really chuffed, it was very thoughtful.”

The dentist, who qualified at the Royal London Hospital, Whitechapel, in 1967, sold his business to the new owners earlier this year and has been cutting down his hours gradually.

He said: “I felt I had done my time. The administrative side of running the surgery was not a bit I particularly enjoyed.

“I really enjoyed the clinical side; treating patients. I thought it needed someone who could be good with the administrative side.”

Mr Godfrey, who has four children, also said he felt a new owner could modernise the practice and more easily keep up with new regulations.

The business has its roots in 1968, when Mr Godfrey and his wife bought the house in Clayhall Avenue.

They had purchased it to live in, but the dentist then began seeing patients in one of the bedrooms.

The number of patients steadily rose until the practice operated out of three rooms and the couple then moved out.

Mr Godfrey added: “Susan has been a partner in this practice from day one. It really has been a combined effort to build it up.

“She has run the place perfectly and all the patients love her.

“It has been a bit of my dentistry and a bit of her niceness.”