Isn't this simply amazing? Would anyone like me to cover the entire High Street from Rushey Green to the Lewisham station roundabout using every picture I can find? Remember, Sydenham is part of the Ancient Parish of Lewisham. Westwood (Hill) = Woods west of the Lewisham parish! Don't think you can hide behind some modern day boundaries... 1854 showing high street stream!
Early 1860s (stream filled in at this part of the high street)
Late 1860s (just before railway bridge was built)
Last edited by Falkor on 21 Feb 2008 23:47, edited 3 times in total.
I'd be interested, maybe start with The Priory, would it have been similar to the one at Penge? Wasn't there a school on what is now the Kaliedscope childrens' centre?
The Priory was in the middle of the high street--there were two different ones. Yeah, there was a school called Prendergast in Rushey Green. I'll probably start this project once I've completed the history of Southend and Downham today or tomorrow.
The problem with these books is that each area's history is mixed up, and we have to dig to find them. Lewisham and Lewisham Past and Present are the only two books that have an order to them. Anyone interested in specific areas will have a problem... that's where I come into it!
Looking at the photo at the top of the thread are those shops on the left the ones opposite Riley's Snooker Hall which are currently being demolished and the one's on the right are now Curness Street?
I have drawings and pictures of an area near the High Street opposite Lewisham Hospital should I put them here or elsewhere?
Oh is the Henry Wood mentioned THE Henry Wood or someone else?
I'm sure I've seen his name on a stone at the Congerational Church, the otherside of the railway bridge.
Looking at the photo at the top of the thread are those shops on the left the ones opposite Riley's Snooker Hall which are currently being demolished and the one's on the right are now Curness Street?
Right about the first part, though the buildings to the right were past the bridge up until a point opposite the library, where that glass fronted Chinese restaurant is now located; basically, it's the whole stretch opposite the snooker hall (then bridge), then KFC and the library.
I have drawings and pictures of an area near the High Street opposite Lewisham Hospital should I put them here or elsewhere?
We've not had a Lewisham High Street topic before, so here's a good a place as any. You got some drawings of Lewisham Park to share? They built those nasty tower blocks there in the 60s...
I thought I could upload my pictures directly, so you will have to wonder what I have.
Notice on the overhanging lights they illuminate the pavement rather than the road, as they do know. I assume the upright light is how the one outside Lewisham Library should look.
Re the tower blocks I don't think I have any pictures but I recall after they were built they discovered children may find there way through the balcolny railings.
There were some fantastic buildings in that area, ooh I have a map from about 100 years predicting what lewisham might look like about now. It showed a museum by Lewisham Park but it was dated 1st April.
Notice on the overhanging lights they illuminate the pavement rather than the road, as they do know. I assume the upright light is how the one outside Lewisham Library should look.
Well spotted! I'm so fixated by the buildings that I never notice details in the foreground.
Re the tower blocks I don't think I have any pictures but I recall after they were built they discovered children may find there way through the balcolny railings.
Oh, I never knew that!
There were some fantastic buildings in that area, ooh I have a map from about 100 years predicting what lewisham might look like about now. It showed a museum by Lewisham Park but it was dated 1st April.
Interesting... I'm mainly interested in the high street stream... did you ever come across any materials on this?
I understand why the tower blocks were built but I feel the current rush to provide housing is about to reproduce past errors.
Re the stream would I be right in thinking till recently there was a ditch in the London Squares in front of the hospital, and hand pump used to be closer to the road, now it seems to be high in the air.
I don't have any info on the stream but I think there was an archelogical(?) survey done in the late 1990's ??
Right, have found the Lewisham re-development. A suggested "lay-out" a hundred years hence, put forward by the chief architect of the LCC at a lecture, dated 1st April 1926 printed in the Kentish Mercury.
Has anyone produce a history of the social housing along Rombrough Way, originally known as 'Lewisham Park Estate' I believe it was one of the first social housing schemes in Lewisham. There is quite an interesting file at the National Archive.
will greenwood wrote:any idea where this would have been....
haycraft and sons 199 - 201 lewisham HigH St
It looks similar to the estate agents (Mark Beaumonts?) opposite Lewisham Library, corner of Lime Groves?
Bit of trivia I think there used to be an Avenue Road where the main entrance to the shopping centre now is. While checking family history we found Whitworth the famous engineer was on a census visiting a fellow engineer Penn.
on the 1862 map, there are a series of marks on the road between ladywell rd and south of the george inn...
I think this is the stream you talking about;
on the 1862 map, there are a series of marks on the road between ladywell rd and south of the george inn...
I think this is the stream you talking about;
Yep! The gaps in-between the markings is where the bridges were...
t was a proper stream mate with brickwork support, culverts under the bridges, and everything...
I'm not trying to be awkward..but there are no streams marked on any maps, and culverts and bridges are common with road drains...we got them here in Wells.
...i dont see why it would be brought to the surface if it was underground, and the fact its on the down side of rushey green does fit with it collecting drainage from the hill opposite.
again, i'm happy if its a stream or a drain...
it certainly could be natural, and then 'culverted' to stop it flooding too easily...(more of a long pond, cos its not connected.)
The stream was joined up to the Ravensbourne at both ends of the high street, so it was like an extra channel. It's not marked on maps because it was too small... Quite alot of the small streams don't usually get marked on maps, like the many ancient ones that flowed through Sydenham and Forest Hill. The earliest illustration of the high street stream is also the earliest illustration of Lewisham from about 1770; you think the Saxons or Tudors would have artifically dug this out and built bridges as simply a road drain? More likely the high street was based around the stream, which was naturally occuring as a channel of the Ravensbourne. They did construct 3 moated houses, however, in the 1200s.
Would anyone like me to cover the entire High Street from Rushey Green to the Lewisham station roundabout using every picture I can find? Remember, Sydenham is part of the Ancient Parish of Lewisham. Westwood (Hill) = Woods west of the Lewisham parish! Don't think you can hide behind some modern day boundaries...
You've just broken my big toe nail...
