Admin needs your help on historical SE26 business employers

[admin]

This is a repeat of a part of a posting I have just made in Town Hall (http://www.sydenham.org.uk/forum/viewto ... 687#p75687). Can you help please?

I have an urgent request to identify the major businesses in Sydenham (see http://www.sydenham.org.uk/forum/viewto ... f=9&t=9180)

I am using this definition for major player:

* Employed over 100 people in Sydenham or
* Based in Sydenham employed over 100 people here and elsewhere

Retired players now on the list are:

* Dylon (see http://www.sydenham.org.uk/forum/viewto ... f=1&t=7980)
* South Eastern Gas Board
* Grundig

Any more? Links to stuff here and permission to use text & photos would be very much appreciated.

TIA,
Admin

[Eagle]

Admin

Could you add W H Cobb , store for the gentry , to the retired category. Sure it had at least 100 staff both in the existing building and over the road where the Bookshop now is.

[admin]

Thanks Eagle. Did Cobbs use all the shops in that block or just a few? There must be a piccy somewhere methinks ....

Admin

[Eagle]

To be honest not sure. I think they owned and operated the shops opposite The Greyhound as a depository , but could be wrong. Think this may have been pre war or maybe 50's .
I am sure there are pictures but regret I have not got any.
Believe it was all the block but again not 100% certain.

[maestro]

Here you go, your era too Eagle.




You may find what you want somewhere amongst this lot.

http://images.google.co.uk/search?hl=en ... wIphsyM5q4

[Eagle]

Not quite my era Maestro but lovely picture (s).

Noted prior even to Kirks Camera Corner.

[maestro]

Not quite my era Maestro but lovely picture (s).

Isn't that you scurrying across the road in the background having just given a few groats to the Romanian 'Big Issue' vendor?

[Robin Orton]

I wonder whether either or both of Sydenham (girls') School and Sydenham High School employ 100 people (including non-teaching staff, obviously) ? Or (perhaps more likely) St Christopher's Hospice?

[marymck]

I'm not sure where your boundary ends. Does it include the arqiva transmitter? Although not many were ever actually based there, both they and earlier owners do employ lots of people.

Then, if in catchment area, ther was the crystal palace and the various stations.

The children's hospital may have employed over 100?

My mum worked at a children's home, but I'm not sure where that was. Also peake freans and Robertson jams. Again., I'm not sure where.

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[marymck]

Was the gas works a big employer?

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[Sydenham]

What about the Cake Shop - long time employer in Sydenham and they must employ lots of people to make the cakes for both onsite sale as well as off site delivery (contract business).

Also the council - historically a large employer with their team providing services all over Sydenham - think parks, libraries, street cleaners etc.

[admin]

Sorry perhaps I did not emphasise I'm looking for large historical businesses for a section entitled SYDENHAM BUSINESS. Hence hospitals, schools and councils would look a bit odd.

'Historical' just means they are no longer with us.

Cobbs is probably the only retailer who would qualify. But there must have been more substantial industrial and service companies on the industrial estates. Its a shame they should disappear without trace when they were so important to SE26 in their time. Rack your brains please ...

Current list is now:

* Dylon in Worsley Bridge Road
* Grundig in Newlands Park
* South Eastern Gas Board (& predecessors) at Bell Green
* Cobbs in Kirkdale
* ICL/ICT Service Centre in Worsley Bridge Road

Admin

[marymck]

As a business, I'd have thought that Ted christmas's had a huge impact on the area, but I doubt he'll break the 100 target.

If the Gas Board meets the requirement, I don't understand why the children's hospital doesn't?

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[admin]

If the Gas Board meets the requirement, I don't understand why the children's hospital doesn't?

The hospital can't be really be classified as a business employer ... this is for a section specifically about historical Sydenham Businesses. T'other organisation will, hopefully, have a place elsewhere.

I'm really struggling here. I came from a town not much bigger than Sydenham that had two global enterprises and dozens of major employers. I guess its the problem that most people only come to Sydenham to catch the train back out ... and hence local employment outside retailing was always quite small.

As a business, I'd have thought that Ted christmas's had a huge impact on the area, but I doubt he'll break the 100 target.

I live in a Christmas house. But I thought he was Forest Hill?

Admin

[Robin Orton]

Admin, we might be able to respond more helpfully if you told us exactly why you want this information and what you're going to do with it.

[marymck]

I'm probably wrong, but I thought the Christmas yard was near the current kirkdale/Dartmouth road junction?

I think there were loads of employers in historic sydenham. But they just don't meet your criteria. Coal merchants, a dairy, the bath house. All important local employers, but all under 100.

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[marymck]

I would just also say that I still don't understand why the children's hospital doesn't meet your criteria. Unless of course it didn't employ over 100? I know a lot of the medical staff may have been volunteers in the early days, but I'd have thought it would have employed over 100 in its heyday, including laundry services, etc.

Please consider it in its pre NHS days. It was for many the most important place in sydenham.

You may find this about the lost hospitals of London of use.

Http://ezitis.myzen.co.uk/childrensydenham.html

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[admin]

Admin, we might be able to respond more helpfully if you told us exactly why you want this information and what you're going to do with it.

Its for the launch of the new Sydenham Town website, hopefully, next week. If you have had a peek you will see I have divided the old site into six linked sites plus this forum.

One of these sites is called Sydenham Business. This is separate from the directory of shops, schools and health services which resides in another. I was inspired by the Dylon thread to seek out the great businesses of the past to give it some perspective. As you can see I am rather struggling with just:

* Dylon in Worsley Bridge Road
* Grundig in Newlands Park
* South Eastern Gas Board (& predecessors) at Bell Green
* Cobbs in Kirkdale
* ICL/ICT Service Centre in Worsley Bridge Road

Maybe that just it. Now the trivial job of finding some pix and write a few words about each! Of course many here can do it better than me. So if you have time I'm only a PM away.

Admin

[marymck]

Thanks Admin. I understand now why you didn't want to include the Children's Hospital. I'm slow on the uptake ... or "simple minded" as Tim Lund has just called me on another thread on this site.

If you get a chance, please do take a look at the Lost Hospitals of London site. Maybe you could include a link on your new site? I'm sure Sydders folk would find it interesting ... though still under construction, there's an alphbetical list of the lost hospitals and it's a gold mine of information.

[Tim Lund]

Mary - what I wrote was:

What is it about Mrs Thatcher that excuses people being simple minded, when they are not so normally?

In other words, I don't think you are normally simple minded, and I was not saying you were different from many other people who no one would ever think I was calling simple-minded. You take offence too easily.

This isn't really the sort of discussion which should be heard in the cloistered calm of this august museum and gallery, so I'd be very happy to remove this comment if you would remove the personal remark you make about me above.