Shirley Road Shops

The Parade c1955
Enlarge photo |  More about this photo

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 yards away by the old ambulance station in Shirley Road.  If anybody has any photos of the old club house school by Ashburton playing fields or memories of it (Mrs Witherspoon and Miss Mirren were two teachers there) I would be delighted to hear.