Sydenham Town Forum

In reply to a request by Paxton, (see Sainsbury’s in Sydenham Road, 18th June 09), here are some of my memories of the Crystal Palace; I hope they will be of interest. I was born in Thicket Road overlooking the Crystal Palace Park, in January 1920. I have no memory of that of course, but my mother t...

Thanks Steve, your reply has made my day. I am studying the lists with great interest and am filling the blanks where I failed to remember or was confused. I can now trace every shop on the Google street plan and place the name of what it was. There are a number of changes that came about after the ...

I have just been reading the various posts on Sainsbury’s in Sydenham Road with interest as I well remember the store as described by Malcolm, my family were registered with them during WW2 for our rationed goods and as described, there were two long counters, one either side of the store and sectio...

During this decade, children had none of the current manufactured pastimes to occupy their leisure hours away from school, so much was left to their own imagination and adeptness to fill these hours and so, many games were invented, many of them to play on the streets, which due to the lack of traff...

Thanks Steve, I am so pleased that the school is still active, I attended it from the age of three years until twelve years (1923-1933) and, without a doubt, that is where I got the bug for map reading and composing. We all had to draw the town as it was as "Cippingham" in its early days a...

Hi Steve and Ulysses. May I draw your attention to Post posted: 22 Mar 2009 13:18 Post subject: Hello? Is there anyone out there?? Lurkers come forth.. as you will see I am wallowing in a tour of my old home town thanks to google maps street view. Thanks also for your kind remarks, most encouraging,...

Hi Steve and Ulyssis. May I draw your attention to Post posted: 22 Mar 2009 13:18 Post subject: Hello? Is there anyone out there?? Lurkers come forth.. as you will see I am wallowing in a tour of my old home town thanks to google maps street view. Thanks also for your kind remarks, most encouraging,...

Transport: Motor transport was still in its infancy and horses took priority in conveying our goods and ourselves from here to there. As one can see from the various views of Cobbs Corner depicted in so many posts, there was a cab rank outside the Greyhound provided by the late Jimmy Welch and his f...

Hi there, May I ask the question as to whether the inhabitants of Sydenham have no knowledge of cooking a meal? I was browsing around the town yesterday via google maps street views and was amazed to see so many take-aways. Where have all the shops and stores gone? in the period pre WW2 and just aft...

May I come in on this subject as an old supporter of the Crystal Palace "Dirt track" (Later, "Speedway") Club until it@s move to New Cross and change of name.. My earliest recollections of racing meetings in the grounds were of a road racing circuit for motor cycles around the pa...

Yes, you are quite right, the route pre ww2 was from Penge Crooked Billet to Chislehurst through Beckenham, Brom;ey and .Bickley. The original route was covered by "Tillings" single deckers, later by "General" until taken over by "L.P.T.B." and re-numbered 227. After WW...

Sydenham in the twenties cont’d. School Days. There were three “elementary” schools in Lower Sydenham, St. Michaels, Hasletine and Adamsrill. In Upper Sydenham there were St. Bart’s, Kelvin Grove and Holy Trinity. All of them kept a similar time-table, 8.50 for a 9 o’clock start, lunch break (Dinner...

The late Hubert Gregg, who produced a programme for the BBC, called “Thanks for the memory” for several years. (Also well known as a song writer and film star) often told of his childhood in Sydenham, where he attended St. Michaels School and sang in the church choir. He also told of how he was very...

Hi Clive, Nice to meet you on the forum, and thanks for your kind remarks Yes, as I understand it, your Great Grandfather was one of the first owners of a motor vehicle in Sydenham, It was a "Didean" (forgive the spelling, but that was how it sounded to me). It was way befor my time but I ...

Sydenham in the Twenties Continued from http://sydenham.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3100 Cinemas There were two cinemas at first, one, the “Queens Hall”, a purpose built small cinema located on the site of the present “Neighbourhood Centre” and the other was the “Rink” in Silverdale. This was origi...

Sydenham in the Twenties. Sydenham in the twenties. To have some idea of what life was like in Sydenham in the twenties, it must be remembered that World War 1 had only just recently come to its conclusion, leaving its scars over the whole country. Compared with WW2, there was little evidence of mat...

A very interesting subject, may I add the shops, pre WW2 coming down from Silverdale started with Farrance fishmonger on the corner, two doors down was the post office, and then, Barrats the shoeshop, (my wife worked in there for many years before and during WW2), below that, not in the correct orde...

May I add a few comments to this subject? Steve's picture depicting a bus is, without doubt taken from a point a few yards west of the junction of Sydenham Road and Kent House Road. I would hazard a guess that it was in the early twenties as I am confident that the bus was a number 75, a Tillings St...

May I add a few comments to this subject? Steve's picture depicting a bus is, without doubt taken from a point a few yards west of the junction of Sydenham Road and Kent House Road. I would hazard a guess that it was in the early twenties as I am confident that the bus was a number 75, a Tillings St...

Hello Bensomby,
The victims you refer to probably were those kiled in the reputed last raid which hit Fairlawn Park on the date shown.
The church was the Parish church for that area.
Regards Reg O'Neil