The History of Sydenham from Cippenham to present day. Links to photos especially welcome!
Moderator: frenzarin
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Falkor
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by Falkor » 25 Sep 2006 16:33
Click below to see this photo in high quality!

Will add more photos in due course...
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Steve Grindlay
- Posts: 606
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- Location: Upper Sydenham
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by Steve Grindlay » 25 Sep 2006 22:05
Will add more photos in due course...
I'm looking forward to that. Thanks.
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Falkor
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by Falkor » 26 Sep 2006 13:17
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Greg Whitehead
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by Greg Whitehead » 26 Sep 2006 13:40
Wonderful pictures Falkor.
Can I ask where you get your pictures from and whether or not you have any of other parts of Sydenham or were these pictures taken as they tore the houses down to build the Wells Park Estate?
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Falkor
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by Falkor » 26 Sep 2006 13:52
Can I ask where you get your pictures from and whether or not you have any of other parts of Sydenham or were these pictures taken as they tore the houses down to build the Wells Park Estate?
Most pictures can be seen at the London Metropolitan Archives (LMA). The Wells Park estate is on the south side of Wells Park Road, built on houses demolished in the 1970s with several roads extinguished from the map. The photos above were taken on the North side of Wells Park Road, showing houses that were demolished in the late 1950s! Edney Street no longer exists...
I got photos of other parts... might do Wells Park Road next... I put some of these up already, but you may have missed them.
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sarahc
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- Location: Sydenham
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by sarahc » 26 Sep 2006 19:00
Hi Falkor,
I am really enjoying your pictures. So interesting. Can I put in a request for some Lower Sydenham pictures. We get left out down here!!
Cheers,
sarahc
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Steve Grindlay
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- Location: Upper Sydenham
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by Steve Grindlay » 26 Sep 2006 20:12
I really shouldn't answer for Falkor, and he may want to correct me, but I believe many of the pictures were taken by the LCC architects' department before and during the redelevopment of this part of Wells Park Road. In the aftermath of the war there was a severe shortage of adequate housing and the LCC set about replacing slums and bomb damaged houses. To its credit the LCC was very conscientious about recording what was being destroyed.
The photographs are now held by the London Metropolitan Archive. As far as I am aware you have to visit the LMA, where you can browse these collections, and also order copies.
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JulietP
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by JulietP » 3 Apr 2012 06:55
Great pics! Does anyone know how Halifax (then Hanover) Street and Fransfield Grove escaped the bulldozers? Were the buildings simply in better nick?
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jebit
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- Location: Ammanford Wales
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by jebit » 29 May 2012 09:58
Thank you so much for the opportunity to relive childhood memories, I lived at 13 Edney Street from 1949 until about three months before they demolished it!
I had given up hoping that there were some pics around of it and thought that i would have to rely on a failing memory but once i saw these pics it all came back.
i have lots of strange stories about Edney st like the day that the road caught fire due to a very large army truck cracking the gas pipes, and of course the coronation street parties etc
if i can find some of the family photos i will post them.
jebit
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Tony Martin
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- Location: Adelaide, Australia
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by Tony Martin » 23 Jun 2013 07:21
I know exactly who lived in many of the houses in the photos mentioned above and I know the names of the 2 ladies talking to the coalman! My Grandmothers and my Aunts houses are also there.
I couldn't believe my eyes also when I saw my house with the 2 milk bottles out the front.....
Is it possible to view the originals of the photos? I am planning a visit from Australia later this year and would love to see them.
Tony Martin
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multisync
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- Location: upper sydenham
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by multisync » 23 Jun 2013 16:46
I don't know the last time you visited but I think you will find it has changed an awful lot. I visited this area a lot between 1963 and 1969 I then came back in 1982 and my god it had changed so much, you wouldn't believe it. Good luck Tony
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pb59
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by pb59 » 13 Jul 2013 22:27
Just to see the area that my family come from uncle bill was born there in 1933,and his sister inlaw my auntie was born in the same area,his surname is Brooker
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Bill Fowler
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by Bill Fowler » 21 Jul 2013 15:42
Delighted to discover the great pictures of 1950s Springfield Rise.I lived at no.48 from 1946 until 1956,when most of the old area was cleared for redevelopment .I have an acute memory and can clearly remember many of the people who lived there.Included,is landlord John Lidle,who even to this day,I can describe from head to toe,including the sword stick he carried on rent collection days !!
I will attempt to post more of memories and hope that they will be of interest.In the meantime,if anyone wishes to correspond,I would be very happy to reply.
My name in those days was Bill Wyatt.I hope someone remembers me.
[ Post made via Mobile Device ] 
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Beerboy
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by Beerboy » 2 Aug 2013 08:00
pb59 wrote:Just to see the area that my family come from uncle bill was born there in 1933,and his sister inlaw my auntie was born in the same area,his surname is Brooker
If it was Billy Brooker, then he and his brother Ronny were my mates at that time. Tommy is the younger brother. I think their Mums name was Marge. They lived in Fir St. except for Billy who lived with his Gran in Springfield. If they are still around they may remember me, Ron Martin, here in Thailand.
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Beerboy
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by Beerboy » 13 Jan 2014 12:55
Thankyou and the other contributors for carrying me back to my stamping ground. I lived in 28 Springfield Rise from 1933 or just a bit later, we moved up from the bottom of the street when I was about three. until we were moved out for slum clearance. Each photo brings back memories of a life far removed from life today. Helping Harry Edney by mucking out his horses stable in Plane St. and helping old Mr. Carter saw up and chop logs in the same yard. Playing on the bombed sites -it was a Doodle bug (V1) that destroyed Oaksford Ave, and a V2 that landed on Panmure Rd. I was in Edney St. with my pal David Hewlett when that one happened, debris came flying over the roofs and then the dense dust! Good memories and also bad, but thank you for keeping them alive.
Falkor wrote:
Click below to see this photo in high quality!

Will add more photos in due course...
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Beerboy
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by Beerboy » 25 Mar 2014 08:18
Looking at where Mr. Edney is standing, it seems to be just about where the house stood that my mum told me to take a used pair of shoes and ask the lady of the house -I can't recall her name- if she would like to buy them for a couple of bob. I used to cringe. Money was very tight in those days. No welfare state to support you. Opposite where Mr. Edney is standing I remember when coming home from school, someone told me that my brother Tony had been taken to hospital. He was about two years old and had been diagnosed with diphtheria. The next day, the council came and fumigated our house. About a week later I finished up in the same hospital as him (Park Hospital, Hither Green) with Scarlet fever. We were in isolation, so had no visitors but my mum brought me the best meal I have ever had, two bread rolls with Kraft cheese. Thanks to the Yanks.I can taste them now. She left them at the Gatehouse, and Nurse Jeffries delivered them to me. It was bloody freezing in there with just a big iron stove in the middle of the ward. Talk about Oliver Twist! While I was in the hospital the V1 (Doodle bugs or Buzz Bombs) started coming over. But that is another story.
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NickiC
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- Location: United Kingdom
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by NickiC » 10 Jan 2015 23:04
It is fascinating to see where my great grandparents lived in 1862 and had their first child. It was at 13 Edney Street but I can't work out which side of the road it would have been. Am I right to assume that the houses were 2 up 2 down?
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john barker
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by john barker » 20 Jun 2015 13:18
with regard to 13 edney street
i lived at 13 edney street from 1949 until 1955, going to kelvin grove school walking across the bomsite to get to the back gate of the school.
the houses were indeed two up and two down with no electricity only gas and a toilet out the back, the back yard was very small
there is on this site a photograph of edney street with my fathers lorry parked outside the house which was on the left side
I have lived in Wales for the past 40+ years but still remember things that happened in edney street
John Barker