Search found 571 matches

by Steve Grindlay
3 Jul 2009 10:27
Forum: Town Cafe
Topic: Colourful characters of south London
Replies: 10
Views: 6430

ALIB wrote:I know there is at least one guy who sleeps in Sydenham Hill Woods...
That's hardly novel; Matthews the Hermit was doing it two centuries ago.
by Steve Grindlay
2 Jul 2009 20:50
Forum: Town Museum & Gallery
Topic: WHAT WAS HOUSE OF CURTAINS BEFORE IT WAS HOUSE OF CURTAINS
Replies: 9
Views: 8109

You're right, Reg. Boots was at 55 Sydenham Road (from about 1911), Spencers (a toy shop) was at 57. 59 Sydenham Road (present House of Curtains) was occupied by Broadley Bros (tailors) from 1902 to about 1908, then by Pickering & Gregory (house furnishers) from 1912 to 1937. By 1956 it was a fr...
by Steve Grindlay
30 Jun 2009 16:21
Forum: Town Cafe
Topic: shops in kirkdale in 1970s
Replies: 2
Views: 2783

Might it have been Ginadecor?
by Steve Grindlay
29 Jun 2009 21:49
Forum: Town Hall
Topic: Sydenham Community Radio launches on Monday
Replies: 13
Views: 8630

Just so you don't think Juwlz was your only listener I too enjoyed it, particularly the ska session and someone asking "which button do I press?".

I must ask, are Juwlz and me your target audience? And is it possible to stream details of the music playing?
by Steve Grindlay
27 Jun 2009 16:39
Forum: Town Museum & Gallery
Topic: Sydenham's Children's Hospital
Replies: 72
Views: 154077

No idea, Lee, probably the usual reasons - greed, ignorance, carelessness...

Demolition followed closure suspiciously quickly.
by Steve Grindlay
27 Jun 2009 14:18
Forum: Town Museum & Gallery
Topic: Sydenham's Children's Hospital
Replies: 72
Views: 154077

With regard to the date, Reg, your guess is as good as mine - perhaps 1920s? Three of the pictures show Champion House (built about 1860) from the front, facing Sydenham Road. The house was used as the Children's Hospital from 1885. The large extension (which dominates the 1970s picture above) was a...
by Steve Grindlay
26 Jun 2009 09:05
Forum: Town Museum & Gallery
Topic: Sydenham's Children's Hospital
Replies: 72
Views: 154077

Here's a picture of the Children's Hospital. I've uploaded a couple more pictures here:
Image
by Steve Grindlay
13 Jun 2009 09:19
Forum: Town Hall
Topic: Sydenham Sainsbury on reality TV
Replies: 11
Views: 12656

Sydenham Sainsbury on reality TV

Not my cup of tea, but I've just spotted this and this.
by Steve Grindlay
1 Jun 2009 10:50
Forum: Town Museum & Gallery
Topic: Sydenham Hill Road 1861
Replies: 2
Views: 3597

Charles Davidson lived at The Grange, 20 Sydenham Hill for some 40 years. The house was on the site of St Clements Heights, on the corner of Wells Park Road.


Incidentally, "49" is not a house number but the schedule number, identifying the form that the enumerator left at each household.
by Steve Grindlay
1 Jun 2009 08:38
Forum: Town Cafe
Topic: Looking for descendants of Dan Alston (1882-1964)
Replies: 3
Views: 3543

There appear to have been at least three separate Alston families in Sydenham during the 19th/early 20th century. The wealthiest was Thomas Rowland Alston, a goldsmith, who lived in Crescent Wood Road from about 1868 until after 1881. Some of his children (his sons all went to Dulwich College) and g...
by Steve Grindlay
27 May 2009 08:08
Forum: Town Cafe
Topic: The Wood.........one for the historians?
Replies: 22
Views: 26414

jonathan wrote:... The Beatles company Apple had their (1st?) birthday party there and I met George and Paul which was about as good as it got that year...
Very interesting. This might well be the source of the unsubstantiated claims that The Beatles visited Beltwood mentioned elsewhere on this site.
by Steve Grindlay
26 May 2009 17:36
Forum: Town Museum & Gallery
Topic: Brenchley Gardens Railway Bridge...and area
Replies: 13
Views: 12332

On a personal note, I can't resist mentioning that the author of this booklet was my great grand-father, John Nisbet. He was a Camberwell councillor, and one of the leaders of the campaign to keep One Tree Hill an open public space. He is mentioned on the plaque at the foot of the oak tree that he h...
by Steve Grindlay
25 May 2009 17:47
Forum: Town Museum & Gallery
Topic: Sydenham Road Now and Then
Replies: 5
Views: 7810

Sydenham Road Now and Then

Following a suggestion on this thread here are extracts from Kelly's Directory of Sydenham, listing all the shops in Sydenham Road in 1939: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3050/3562884423_c79b29d343_b.jpg http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3658/3563703276_35422446cd_b.jpg http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3...
by Steve Grindlay
25 May 2009 17:46
Forum: Town Museum & Gallery
Topic: SAINSBURY'S IN SYDENHAM ROAD?
Replies: 19
Views: 25883

regoneil wrote:...I wonder if any one out there has a “Kelly’s street directory” of the road for say 1938/9... It would be interesting to re-identify the shops...
Your wish, Reg...

I've opened a new topic, "Sydenham Road Now and Then" with extracts from Kelly's 1939 directory as a starting point.
by Steve Grindlay
24 May 2009 12:50
Forum: Town Cafe
Topic: The Wood.........one for the historians?
Replies: 22
Views: 26414

Dannyp As you suggest I don't imagine Jonathan is watching this thread too closely, and he is obviously the one to answer your question. In the meantime I can confirm that The Wood was occupied by A J C Lyddon between 1959 and 1967. Two of the pictures above show the music room, where I imagine the ...
by Steve Grindlay
22 May 2009 09:45
Forum: Town Museum & Gallery
Topic: SAINSBURY'S IN SYDENHAM ROAD?
Replies: 19
Views: 25883

Sainsbury's opened in that shop in about 1902, and was still there in the late 1960s. This picture shows the shop in about 1908:
Image
by Steve Grindlay
12 May 2009 20:05
Forum: Town Asylum
Topic: MysteryHouse?
Replies: 2
Views: 4992

I was partly responsible for the thread being locked so perhaps I should explain, as I've already done to Annie and bigbadwolf. There is no mystery about the house. It is two doors away from mine, and I know the owners. They are just normal, friendly people (of about my age) going about their own bu...
by Steve Grindlay
27 Apr 2009 18:41
Forum: Town Museum & Gallery
Topic: what is the house?
Replies: 5
Views: 5321

I think you mean 215 Sydenham Road. If so, it was built about 1870 by a local potato merchant when it was called York House. The same family lived there until the late 1890s. By the early 1900s it became a doctor's surgery, and remained so until the 1960s when Lewisham Council bought it and turned i...
by Steve Grindlay
20 Apr 2009 14:55
Forum: Town Museum & Gallery
Topic: Silverdale Postal Sorting Office - Original purpose please?
Replies: 7
Views: 11443

It was built as a Postmen's Sorting Office, opened in 1896, and served that purpose until it closed.
by Steve Grindlay
15 Apr 2009 09:25
Forum: Town Museum & Gallery
Topic: Electoral Roll in 1930's and 40's
Replies: 16
Views: 18464

The collection is now safely housed in Greenwich, at Trinity College of Music, in the Old Royal Naval College: http://tinyurl.com/dkzch5