Sydenham Town Forum

Hello,The Hall,or Sydenham Hall,Hall Drive stood on the site of todays Nos.15,17 and 19 Hall Drive, ie.on the left hand side(coming up from Westwood Hill) about half way up,just before the distinctive semi-circle of 1960s houses there.James Crosland Mallam started the prep school in the large former ...

Hello there,My friend Don,a retired gardener who worked for Lewisham Council for many years in various local parks etc.,and myself would be happy to help.We do gardening for an elderly,frail friend each Summer.If you send a private message,I could give you my contact details.My friend doesn’t have a ...

Richard- Had a look in my 1931 Kelly's Directory for Sydenham and found your Grandfather, John William Cranstoun living at 16 Dillwyn Rd. Like so many working class families across London and the UK back then, members of the extended family were living within a stones throw ; William Cranstoun (your ...

Hello-I'm afraid I don't have any photos of 3 Acacia Rd. and I don't know of anyone who has-like yourself, the only photos I've seen of Acacia Rd (whose name was changed to it's present Hazel Grove after the Victorian houses were demolished in the mid-1960's) are the ones at Lewisham Local Studies ...

Thanks for sharing that nice photo,Barrie! It was taken in 1964 and one of the interesting things about it is the pavement being laid-not a new one for Sydenham Hill but the first one for Sydenham Hill! Prior to this the footpaths of Sydenham Hill had just been dirt tracks-a remnant of it's rural ...

Dear Debbie- The Haven and The Sharman Children's Home,run by Miss Sharman, were two different homes;The Sharman Children's Home was at the bottom of Venner Rd. near Penge East Station -at number 173 .In the 1940's and 1950's it was home to mainly Jewish refugee children,many sadly orphaned.It was ...

Dear Mary,Yes- we'd love to see the photos,they sound really interesting-thank you for offering!

Thanks for that,Terry,yes,I thought it was the hall next to the Bath House. In the early 1980's when the hall was called the Bell Green Centre,I used to go to Jumble Sales there and it was very plain and ordinary inside I seem to remember-the coffee bar and everything else from the Youth Club was ...

Thanks so much for sharing those great memories,Terry-they inspired me to dig out an old cutting from the Lewisham Journal, December 6th 1963 re. the grand,torchlight opening (by the Bishop of Woolwich) of the new,revamped St.Michael's Youth Centre,with large,illuminated 'St Michael's Club' sign ...

West Hill became Westwood Hill in 1937 ,the year after so many fire engines roared up West Hill,as was,to try to save the Crystal Palace. Those wooden street signs in Sydenham were the norm when I was a boy in the 60's/70's- the last one to go was,I think, the one at the top of Longton Avenue (Wells ...

Dear Roger, There is a really nice photo of the Alexandra Park miniature road in the 50's on page 31 of the book 'Crystal Palace,Penge and Anerley in Old Photographs by Mick Scott (Alan Sutton Publishing,1995) Although out of print,copies are fairly easily available on Amazon,Ebay etc. Unfortunately ...

Sad news-thank you for sharing this,Stuart, about a true, unsung Sydenham heroine-really interesting. I looked up the name 'Blondun' in a 1930's Kelly's Directory I have, to see whereabouts in Sydenham the family lived,and there they were; Dottie and her family lived at 33a Adamsrill Rd.,which still ...

Used to enjoy going to Jumble Sales, Summer Fetes and Christmas Fairs there in the 1980's, 90's and early 2000's with friends and family now also mostly gone. Another old Jumble Sale venue gone-more than ever it looks like the great British Jumble Sale on a Saturday is becoming a thing of the past ...

Sorry,I forgot to add re.the 2 other adults living at 3 Relinque Rd. in the 1911 census;it was quite common in poor areas back then for families to take in lodgers-despite the cramped living conditions- to make money and help pay the rent,thus the husband and wife,or even the children,would ...

Re.Relinque Rd.- these were typical' 2 up 2 down' terraced houses of the period ie. 2 bedrooms upstairs,one for parents and one for children, and two rooms downstairs- a kitchen and front room( or living room) The toilet was outside in the back yard and there was no bathroom; baths were taken either ...

Hello there-Relinque Rd. was built in the 1880's -one of a cluster of roads of working class terraced housing built near the Bell Green Gas Works in Lower Sydenham;many residents of the houses worked there.The area was quite heavily bombed in WW 11 (the gas holders being a ' good' target for the ...

Saddened and disgusted by this senseless vandalism of one of these treasures,loved by locals and visitors for generations and like a friend for so many children-loved him and the other dinosaurs since I was a child in the 60's/70's. I hope he can be repaired soon and the perpetrators caught

Sorry,I missed the 'Logic' sign during the Snappy Snaps renovation and have no recollection of a shop with that name or logo.I walk down Sydenham Rd. most days at some point but Sods' Law being what it is the one day in the week you don't is sometimes the day when one of these signs briefly appears ...

Great! Thanks for letting us know-sometimes old shop signs are only revealed for a matter of hours before being covered up again/replaced,so I popped down this morning to have a look and take some photos.Yes, it's 'Treble Clef' (formerly 'The Record Forum') Sydenham's premier record shop of the 1970 ...

There's also the St.Christophers Hospice Choir which starts again on Monday 13th January ;we meet on Mondays - 7pm to 8.30pm at St.Christophers Hospice,Lawrie Park Rd. Sydenham. It's a nice,fun choir-and it's free