Addiscombe memories
Here are memories of Addiscombe and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Addiscombe or a Addiscombe photo.
Baring Road
I was born at Mayday Hospital. My parents still live in Baring Road and my mother has lived there from the age of 13, as my grandmother had the house before they did. I vividly remember playing 'up and down the road.' It is so sad children cannot do that safely any more. I also walked to school from a young age, as did my friends. It was a different world. My Dad had the first car in the street. Brownies was at St Mildred's church and my sister volunteered my mum to be the Tawny Owl while my dad somehow got roped into helping the scouts. It always seemed a close knit community. My parents originally lived with my grandmother, there were several families where parent or parents still lived in Baring Road while their children also had a house there. I always felt everyone knew what everyone else was doing! My friend Linda and I used to have picnics in Bingham Road Park and buy Parma... Read more
The Old Club House School
I was delighted to hear (and see) that I was not the only person who remembers the Club House. It would seem that one or two of us lived on the estate (I lived in Coleridge Road) and a comment regarding the primary school prompted me to remember Mr Payne who tended the boilers that were underneath the primary school and Mrs Masters the headmistress. In sorting out some old paperwork I came across a Postal Order counterfoil from the Post office by the fire station - remember the name - Bellingers. I moved away to the West Country in 1969 and as all my relatives have long since passed on I have had no reason to return to the area. But very happy times spent there.
The Fish Shop
When I was still going to school Ashburton High School I had a park time job at the Fish Shop at the Shirly Road shops I worked every day arfter school Monday to Friday, also all day Saturday, and I got paid 12 shillings for that, this is how I paid for my new bike. When I say fish shop I mean the old fish shops with the slab in the front of the shop with all the fresh fish on it. My friend used to work in the butcher shop. We bouth used to deliver our fish and meat to the Shirly Club House on our delivery bikes. Does anyone out there remember these shops?
Ashburton Club House School
Yes, I remember the Club House - I seem to recall we went there after the Primary school and before the Junior School but I could be wrong! I remember the playground there and going home from school across the old golf course which still had the hillocks and sandy bits! I lived in Chaucer Green so not far to walk! I went back to the Junior/Primary school on summer fete day 4 years ago and it looked exactly the same. It still had the area round the back where we used to do high jump, and the same doors and windows. I hated the outside toilets but they have gone now! I went to Ashburton Secondary school after that. I always think of Addiscombe as my home even though I live in Banstead now. I am very nostalgic about it. I wish I could find a photo of the Club House too!
Shirley Road Shops
I lived at Ashburton and spent my junior school years from 1953 at the primary and junior schools after which I walked everyday to South Norwood where I attended Stanley Tech. The interesting part was the intermediate school that I and many others went to was known as the club house. This was the old golf club situated by the fire station on the corner of Long Lane by Ashburton Park. We all had great fun here. I guess I was about eight years old and remember in the winter the roaring open fires and sliding down the bannister. It was eventually demolished and now has several blocks of flats occupying the site. However, the picture titled The Parade is surely the small row of shops by Shirley Park roundabout opposite the entrance to what was Shirley Park Golf Club - now long gone and at the beginning of Upper Addiscombe Road. Other than living within walking distance of this area Stanley Tech used the football grounds a few hundred... Read more
A Memory of Woodside Related by Auntie Dorrie Who Was Born in 1908
Doris Allen is my aunt who took enormous pleasure in telling me stories of our family life in the very early 1900's. She had a long and interesting life and died peacfully at the age of 99. Towards the end her sight failed so she spent a lot of time talking. I wrote these stories down as she spoke and this is one of her first memories of life around the Croydon area. She told me that her own Auntie Tilly (her real name was Matilda) was part of my Great-Grandad Allen’s second family. Tilly looked after her brother John when his wife, Aunty Ann (nee Prior) died. Tilly never married. Auntie Dorrie was fond of her. Tilly would come and visit my Grandad Allen each week. She was a quiet woman, very quiet, and would never start a conversation. She is remembered by Auntie Dorrie as a little old lady with a long umbrella. She lived in the road opposite the old station at Woodside.
Auntie... Read more
The Old Club House
I remember the old club house school. I lived in Coleridge Road and I went to the Ashburton High School, now pulled down, they have a new school there now but the fire station is still there, also the corner shop oposite the fire station is still there, it used to be the post office and inside the shop he had rows of jars of sweets. I came to Australia in 1962 so we are talking over 50 years now.
Memories of Greater London
Kennards
My mother Kathleen Reeve used to work in Kennards and I remember that at the end of the day over the loudspeaker system they would play "Now is the Hour". In later years she always used to say how much she disliked that tune! I was only 7 but I too remember the arcade and the sights and smells and how wonderful it was for a child at Christmas time.
Kennards
Was there really a live donkey in Kennards Arcade at some point? Was that just a childhood dream I had? One highlight of my childhood was going to one of the big department stores with my grandmother and mother. Ladies dressed in black played violins while we ate coffee and cake. For a few brief hours we were rich, had a huge house and all the other things I once thought made life fun. I cannot remember if it was Alders, Kennards or Grants. One day I wanted to take my grandmother there for coffee. Alas that wonderful experience had been replaced by a self-service cafe. I have no idea of dates, but was born in 1955 and the self-service cafe disapointment happened when I was a teenager.
Dees Ford Dealer South Croydon
I purchased my first vehicle at Dees in 1959. I was twenty four and really wanted a car but the prices were high for used vehicles and the registration fees also. I went to Dees with my friend Graham (we met while working at Mullard in Mitcham) and one of the the employees told us they had some used vans for sale. In those days the registration fees for vans was a lot lower than a regular car. We were directed to a location about a mile away where Dees had a body shop and a storage area. On arrival we discovered they had a lot of used Thames vans for sale. Apparently there was some sort of contract with the Singer Sewing machine company whereby they exchanged their vehicles annually for new units. As a result Dees had a lot of vans for sale, in some cases with low mileage. We bought one each. Only problem was the color,... Read more
Fair And Lake - Wandle Park, Croydon
A travelling fair each summer here was both a delight and a way to earn a few shillings when the fair ended. I would help dismantle the rides and stalls, working hard from morning to evening for about five shillings (25p) some of which would then be spent next day on hiring a rowing boat on the lake! The families who owned the rides were generous and very hardworking. I loved those times and it seems such a shame that the boating lake is no more.
There were little arched footbridges here and there and I shall never forget the way the water was reflected on the underside of the bridge as the boat glided under each one. There was an island in the centre of the lake and sometimes I would stop the rowboat in the rushes around the middle island. It was like being beside an island in the sea for a 12 year old lad, keeping a sharp eye peeled for... Read more
Watching The Steam Trains From This Bridge
This railway footbridge was one of my favourite places as an eleven and twelve year old lad, back in 1946 and 1947.
I would stand for ages in the centre of this bridge just waiting for the next steam train to rumble and thunder beneath me. Clouds of steam and smoke would billow up, strongly smelling and smutty stuff but highly exciting too! I would try to count the trucks or carriages as they passed below. Some of the freight trains seemed endlessly long, truck after truck after truck - with tons of coal uniformly filled and neatly mounded.
I was not "train spotting", or collecting engine numbers or anything like that. It was just the sheer joy of seeing and listening to these fascinating machines pass beneath me on this super footbridge - so long ago, but still as fresh as ever in my memory.
Memorybank total
We're very pleased and excited by your response so far to our "Share your Memories" community.
You've shared 28,797 memories of 5,942 towns & villages across the UK - keep them coming!
Find Memories
Simply search for your favourite places to read others' memories and share your own.
Tips & Ideas
Not sure what to write?
It's easy - just think of an important place in your life and ask yourself:
How does it feature in your personal history?
What are your best memories of this place?
How has it changed over the years?
How does it feel, seeing these old photos of your favourite place?
Do you remember stories about the local community, its history and people?
Start now!
It's easy to add your own memories and reconnect with your shared local history. Search for your favourite places and look for the orange "Add your Memory" icon to begin.
Places this week
Here are some of the places you've shared memories of this week:
- Patshull Park, West Midlands
- Barking, Essex
- Kings Sutton, Oxfordshire
- Latimer, Buckinghamshire
- Taunton, Somerset
- Hullavington, Wiltshire
- Blundellsands, Merseyside
- Buntingford, Hertfordshire
- Bamford, Derbyshire
- Mitcheldean, Gloucestershire
- Golders Green, Greater London
- Croydon, Surrey
- Frensham, Surrey
- Blaenllechau, Mid Glamorgan
- Newcastle, County Down
- Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire
- Hampton Wick, Surrey
- Beeston Castle, Cheshire
- Lowestoft, Suffolk
- Glasson, Cumbria
- ... and lots more - Browse this week's memories now.
Your memories
To jump straight to the memories you have added already to the Community, click here
I Remember When...
This stunning compilation highlights some of the best stories selected from the thousands contributed here on the
Frith website. The result is an absorbing chronicle of British life from the Second World War to the mid 1960s.
A colourful treasure trove of memories, "I Remember When" is an
irresistible mix of personal stories and recollections that affectionately reveal the detail of everyday life in Britain.
