Rebranding Lower Sydenham

[alywin]

And Bromley High Street (upper end) has pretty much become a no-go area at night since it's been pedestrianised. Not necessarily no-go as in "don't walk down there or you'll get attacked", but certainly as in there's really nowhere to go down there, barring the theatre (and library on late-night opening), so nobody does.

I was down at Lower Sydenham this afternoon waiting for a bus, and thinking what a dump it was. It doesn't help that so much of the area is a building site, and that the sites are encroaching to a ridiculous extent on the pavement - one bus stop closed, and one you can barely get a buggy past without walking in the road - but as someone said, what's being built down there doesn't exactly give you confidence, either. And of course there's the lovely whiff from those giant pale blue things on the other side of the road ...

[marymck]

I assumed, like the OP, that everyone would want to keep the historic name 'Sydenham' in the title, even if that meant using more than one word. (Cf East Dulwich, Dulwich Village, etc.)
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Off topic slightly, I'd like that to apply to upper Sydenham too. So personally (as I've said elsewhere, I think) I don't like 'Kirkdale' or 'Kirkdale Village' as the name of an area or centre. The twee pseudo-Scotch 'Kirkdale' is in any case such a jarringly inappropriate name for a London street. I'd prefer 'Upper Sydenham' (or Sydenham-on-the Hill? Sydenham Heights? Sydenham Common? Sydenham-by-the-Wells? Sydenham St Philip's? Sydenham by Dulwich?)

Hear, hear, Robin for the name Sydenham.

"Kirkdale Village" (more appropriately "Wooster & Stock Village") drives me demented and this cynical marketing ploy has been very divisive in my part of Kirkdale. The part of Upper "Kirkdale" some shopkeepers want to rename "Kirkdale Village" wasn't even called "Kirkdale" until 1936 and it's never been a village. The marketeers may just as well call it "Dulwich-Village-if-it-wasn't-for-the-houses-and-hill-inbetween".

(Actually, I recently discovered that some of my ancestors did live in Kirkdale Village ... which is now part of Liverpool.)

People feel strongly about the name of the place they live in. These names give a place some roots and, with a name like Sydenham, some historic significance.

As a matter of interest: where did the name Bell Green come from? Was there a green in front of the Bell pub? Or a bell foundry?

[Robin Orton]

As a matter of interest: where did the name Bell Green come from? Was there a green in front of the Bell pub? Or a bell foundry?

According to Coulter (pp. 19-20) the original name was Sydenham Green. It became Bell Green in the second half of the eighteenth century, after the Bell Alehouse, which doubled as a farm house and which stood not on the site of the present pub but 'in modern terms [...] close to the main drive of the gas depot, north of the big workshop.'

I wouldn't have thought the name of 'The Bell' had any special significance - isn't it quite a common pub/inn/alehouse name?

[marymck]

That's interesting Robin.

Sydenham Green is a lovely name. Maybe, with all the regeneration plans, some of the developers could be persuaded to reinstate a "Sydenham Green" public square.

[Eagle]

A green would be nice but where would they put it. In the middle of the one way system?

Maybe the good citizens of the area would dance round the May Pole and Morris Dance.

[Hissing Syd]

Controversially, what if (so to speak!) Home Park was renamed Sydenham Green, ditto Lower Sydenham station? I don't know the provenance of the name "Home Park" but it seems a bit random.

I do love the rather fancy Library Quarter tag; it sounds as though it's been lifted wholesale from Interview With The Vampire, although I can't see it sticking. Might be wrong - hope so!

"Lestat drifted out of the doors of Sydenham Library and looked up thoughtfully, the dappled light of the chicken shop window spilling over his pale features."

[Eagle]

Syd Green sounds great or even Library Quarter. With regret I fear more likely to be known as Chav Green , if some of the clientelle of Sainsbury are any guide.

[Robin Orton]

I don't know the provenance of the name "Home Park" but it seems a bit random.

It appears that 'Home Park' was described as 'a compact farm house [...] and about eighteen acres of land' in 1776. Coulter (p. 23) speculates that the owner of The Lawn, 'the great house opposite' and (p.24) 'centre of one of the great estates of Sydenham', might have been using it as his home farm.

[JRobinson]

The NHS/GP/doctors surgery/sexual health clinic is officially located in Sydenham Green not Bell Green, so there is already precedent for this name.

[JulietP]

Syd Green sounds great or even Library Quarter. With regret I fear more likely to be known as Chav Green , if some of the clientelle of Sainsbury are any guide.

One time I went into Bell Green Sainsburys there was a used pregnancy test on the floor of one of the cubicles in the ladies loos. You've got to wonder about the life choices (or lack thereof) that leads someone to be in the position of doing a pregnancy test in a supermarket toilets.

[Eagle]

Juliet

Am I surprised. I wonder if the offender paid for the item.

[leenewham]

I think they were taking the p*ss Eagle.

[marymck]

OMG I hope it wasn't positive. What a dreadful start in life.

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[Eagle]

In truth difficult to rebrand lower sydenham in a positive way. Especially after the new giant apartments at the old gas works site.

Great pity but the demographics are against a positive rebranding. To many overweight people wearing track suit bottoms.

[michael]

To many overweight people wearing track suit bottoms.

That's always been my criticism of Hawaii, and you should see their gas works, they actually spew out lava and ash on a regular basis as well as gases. There are currently 28 branches of KFC spread across Hawaii.

As part of the rebranding I'm going to suggest that the two gas cylinders are named Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, although their namesakes stand at over 13,000 feet high. To keep things simple Kea is closest to Catford, while Loa is closer to the heart of what used to be known as Loa Sydenham.

The one way system around Stanton Way will never again be without a proper name to describe it. It is, of course, the Hula Hoop.

[Eagle]

Very good Michael.

[maestro]

One time I went into Bell Green Sainsburys there was a used pregnancy test on the floor of one of the cubicles in the ladies loos. You've got to wonder about the life choices (or lack thereof) that leads someone to be in the position of doing a pregnancy test in a supermarket toilets.