random recall on Sydenham hill 1950-------

[multisync]

Thanks for that Steve We used to have a wail of a time in all these old pathways then, but as we all know it would not be so safe now.Walked along the path that runs from Clyde Terrace to F.H station the other day and remembered how I used to run along there after getting the last train from London Bridge.Anything about the old wooden signal box that used to be between Noel Terrace and Clyde Terrace as mentioned in the link to Forresters Hall?

[Steve Grindlay]

This is the only picture I know of the signal box:

It is from a book, London Bridge to East Croydon, published 1988. The caption says the box was replaced in 1950, just after the photograph was taken. Noel Terrace is on the right.

[multisync]

Thanks once again Steve i can remember walking under the signal box to get home.Do you know anything of the history of Noel Terraceor of what used to be on the plot of land at the other end of Clyde Terrace,before the gardens were there.Keep up the photos,they're fascinating

[Falkor]

Yes, Wells Park Road is a Good topic to get into although Greg Whitehead might not think so.Iremember there being three paddling pools being functional in the 60's also asandpit higher up.We used to go to Hornimans park to the paddling pool as youngsters .But once we'd found Wells Park,that was it!

Now you're talking my language!

I must say I feel rather satisfied today having learnt a lot about Forest Hill thanks to this topic. I didn't know about the signal box, and that's the first time I've seen a photo of it together with Noel Terrace, which I assume was in the street named Clyde Terrace? It seemed rather tall. Thank you Steve for sharing the photo with us!

[multisync]

Hi Falkor,Noel Terrace is still standing,you will find it between Clyde Terrace and Forest Hill station in the pathway that runs alongside the railway

[Falkor]

Hi Falkor,Noel Terrace is still standing,you will find it between Clyde Terrace and Forest Hill station in the pathway that runs alongside the railway

I don't think so, my friend; times have changed! I reckon Noel Terrace is before my time mate! Plus, I didn't pay too much attention to buildings when venturing through the alley as a kid. Honestly, I've been down that alley quite a number of times over the last couple of years, but there's all new developments down there. During the early developments must be when Steve took his famous view of the possible Croydon Canal remnants exposed during construction work. The bottom of the canal was less wide than the top you know and I think Steve might have got it!!

[Steve Grindlay]

Actually multisync's right, Falkor. Noel Terrace still exists, just where multisync says. This is what it looked like a couple of years ago:

[Falkor]

Oh dear, I'm starting to lose my touch lately. I'm the big man; how can this be happening to me!? I'll try and find Noel Terrace tonight on the way home.

[multisync]

Hi Steve,do you in your wisdom know anything else about Noel Terrace.We moved in there in the mid 50's[showing my age now] was only achild but at the time there was no electricity.We had gas mantles on the wall the staircases were lit by one of the neighbours each night and our radio caame from Radio Relay in Stanstead Road

[Rebelmc]

.
Further along on the left was Dome hill which had a very avant garde scandanavian style sixties house, with a sauna; a bit `up` for Sydenham, Near Dome hill, can`t remember before or after was a long period house which I was told had its origins as a hunting lodge for King James.

I presume the 'long house' you're talking about is The Wood, which has been covered here in some detail.

The Scandanavian house in Dome Hill Park I know quite well as I was in the cub scouts and the wife of the family was the pack Akela, and I spent many hours there as a child playing with their son, daughter and rather boisterous miniature Schnauser!

Although from the front it looks like a two story log cabin, it's actually a three story structure with the front of the bottom story buried, with the lawn sweeping downwards and around the house to reveal patio doors at the back.

The origins of the house are interesting in themselves, as it was a show house at the Ideal Home Exhibition, which was purchased at the show, then dismantled when the show finished and rebuilt in it's current location.

The Scandanavian connection is completed when you know that the original owners were Danish, so they were probably buying a 'home from home' so to speak.

One question I've never been able to answer though is the origin of the road name. I'm fairly certain I remember them telling me that they either had the first or second house in that close, but the family name was Dohm; so, was the road named after them, but the Anglicised version of their name, or is it a happy coincidence?

[Steve Grindlay]

Multisync, I can add nothing more, than that Noel Terrace was built about 1900; it is not recorded in 1898 but was built and occupied by 1901.

I am grateful to rebelmc for bringing this thread back to kenny b's original post. I've just re-read it and it is fascinating.

Something that jogged my memory was Kenny b's mention of:

a large vaguely Lutyens style house which was a nursing home of some kind; I went into it much later as the demolition crew moved in. I`m surprised it was allowed to be demolished. It was a fine house; inside a magnificent staircase with huge windows which gave a superb view south. It had magnificent gardens too

That sounds to me like St Sidwells (Mais House, adjacent to Lammas Green, is now on the site). I've been told on good authority that the architect of St Sidwells was Richard Norman Shaw.

The house was built in the early 1890s. This shows it from the back garden:

[Pat Trembath]

Something in the recesses of my memory says that Dome Hill Park was named after the Dome Plastics Company - the owner of which had a house built there. Can anyone else confirm this? Very happy to stand corrected!

[Rebelmc]

Something in the recesses of my memory says that Dome Hill Park was named after the Dome Plastics Company - the owner of which had a house built there. Can anyone else confirm this? Very happy to stand corrected!

And the owner of that company was.......................Rolf Dohm, the owner of the aforementioned log cabin!

So he obviously Anglicised it himself.

[msrulb]

Hi Kenny B

I enjoyed reading your words of the area. I live in Adamsrill Road and wonder if you can shed any light about this road.

Do you recall the 'Half Houses' .. were they always built this way or were they one house and converted in to two.. i have talked with a neighbour and have much confusion !!

[kennyb2]

hi msrulb. what do you mean by "half houses"? is it that little terrace of about 4 by the school facing that triangle thing? opposite Champion Grove. I used to live in one of those,


Yes Steve that was the house. It was a superb house and a crime to have demlished it. I went in for a look as demolition started, you could do that in those days!!
It'd make you weep id you knew what has been lost here, and it was in good nick too, having been a nursing home for many years,the gardens were superb once, with a fanastic fruit orchard in which I used to scrump.

Being the old cynic I`m sure most of thse houses were demolish for political reasons, can you imagine with todays prices you'd have a millionaires row in Lewisham?

[Falkor]

What happened in Sydenham Hill in the late 1950s/early 1960s sounds like a bloody disaster... I think everyone was experiencing paralysis, considering so many villas got demolished and went unphotographed; we're lucky to have one of St Sidwells. I'm very disappointed not to have seen Beechgrove, a villa that stood opposite Lammas Green estate; I remember a surviving outbuilding (painted in red) from the early 90s--now demolished--there isn't even a photo of this!

[msrulb]

Hi Kenny B.. Thanks for replying .......if you go up the road towards Mayow from where you once lived.. they are on the right hand side between Fairwyn and Niederwald.. past the gap which was once a house and either demolished or bombed .. there are more turning the corner into Niederwald too..