Sydenham Town Forum

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 go...

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 ove...

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,o...

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 sometime...

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 Luf...

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

Alternately ,there's the St.Christophers Hospice Choir,which meets on Friday evenings 7pm to 8.30 pm at the Anniversary Centre in St.Christophers,Lawrie Park Rd.,or the Crystal Palace Community Choir which is on Tuesday evenings 8 to 9.30 at Goodliffe Hall,Highland Rd. SE 19

Hello James- well,both really;I was around in Sydenham in the 60's but only an infant,and still here.Definitely a lifelong music lover and musical historian,as well as having an interest in the history of other subjects.
Glad to be of help-hope you're enjoying life in the U.S.
Michael

James-Thanks for sharing those great local musical memories but I think you have two 60's U.S. Soul men mixed up -you probably mean Sonny Childe and his backing band The TNT,rather than Sonny Charles (of the Phil Spector- produced classic 'Black Pearl' fame-who never came to the UK to my knowledge) ...

There were three large Victorian houses originally on the site prior to the building of the Corporation Of London's/Donald McMorran's fine 50's creation Lammas Green Estate,which was officially opened Nov 1st 1957.One of the houses was destroyed by WW11 bombing,the other two were demolished for the ...

Lucy-Thanks.Yes,the framed photo of the Wiverton Rd. 53' Coronation Party was one of the pictures which hung in poor old Pete's(RIP) downstairs hallway just a matter of months ago.I remember it well.It's very sad to think that all the things he collected over the years are now being dispersed.It's p...

Lucy-If you found these photos in a charity shop or junk shop,I think I know how this happened;a good friend of Don and I sadly passed away earlier this year ,his name was Peter Edis (1945-2017) a lifelong Sydenham resident who had an interest in Sydenham local history among other things .His house ...