Balham, Greater London
Balham photos
Displaying 1 of 15 old photos of Balham. View all Balham photos
Balham maps
Historic maps of Balham and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Balham maps
Balham books
Displaying 3 of 9 books about Balham and the local area. View all Balham books
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Balham
Displaying a selection of personal
memories of Balham
.
Add your memory of Balham
or of a photo of Balham.
Hernville Road School, Balham 1938/39
I started at Hernville Road School when I was 5 in 1937 and when war broke out in 1939 we happened to be staying with my grandfather so I didn't get evacuated with the school. BUT prior to that, I have a vivid memory of being assembled and waiting in the school hall with an eiderdown fastened up with a leather... [more]
Shared on 03 September 2009
My Great Uncle Bill looked after me occasionally and used to take me to a shop in the high street where I watched a train go round for a penny. My Grandparents lived just opposite us in Old Devonshire Road. This is my only memory of Balham as we moved soon after.
Shared on 11 January 2009
My grandfather bought Smiths Car Showroom after the war when it was the Green Dolphin Cafe. I can remember going to the cafe in the 1950s when I was small. I think it is now a windows showroom.
Shared on 06 April 2006
This shows Powis Street in Woolwich. The large building in the middle of the photo is the RACS Co-op building, it is also the site in the distance of the first McDonalds shop in England. I was born in Balham in the late 1930s. I was working in Woolwich in 1956-1957 and have seen the decline in the area from a... [more]
Shared on 25 January 2009
Greater London memories
This could be my mother and me! I was 5 in 1951 and remember visiting the pond to 'feed the ducks'. The common became a wonderful playground durig my childhood, everything from 'the wild west' to 'army battlefields'. It was safe, we would spend all day playing without fears or worries. The important thing was to avoid the 'Parkie' (Park Keeper),... [more]
Shared on 22 August 2008
During the '80s I lived in Streathbourne Road, just a couple of houses in from the Common. Weather permitting I would run in the evenings. One dark evening in the late autumn I ventured onto the Common. Running in the grass near the Lido, I tripped over a couple who were lying there shagging beneath a tree. I am afraid I... [more]
Shared on 29 December 2007
St Helen's School, Streatham Common
My sister, Adele, and I went to St Helen's School on the corner of Valley Road opposite Streatham Common. I remember Sheila Tittenshaw and another girl called Eleanor amongst others. I learnt to read there. The headmistress was Miss Tarry. We then went on to Fidelis Convent in Upper Norwood. Marianne nee Pentony
Shared on 24 October 2009
Streatham Common The Grove area
I used to be taken by my mother to the White House for a picnic tea with my sister. Although we had a huge garden ourselves, we loved going there. Sadly a young woman was murdered there in the 1950s ( I think) by her boyfriend. However, the girl's mother forgave the young man as she felt her daughter had behaved... [more]
Shared on 24 October 2009
Extracts From Balham & Greater London books
Displaying a selection of extracts from Frith books about Balham, inspired by Frith photos.
High Street North is a relatively undistinguished and typical London suburban shopping street: the exuberance of the Town Hall complex is forgotten. The Midland Bank on the corner of Caulfield Road (right) is one of their 1920s Classical-style single-storey buildings that add quality to many High Streets. On the left the taller Victorian brick buildings were demolished in the 1970s and replaced by bland flat roofed ones.
Read more and see photos from this book.
We pass under the River Thames via the Blackwall Tunnel - the northbound side dates from the 1890s, an early project of the LCC, which was established in 1888. East Ham was in Essex until 1965, but since the mid 19th century very much a part of greater London. Here we approach East Ham's town centre along the busy North Circular Road, which seems... [more]
Read more and see photos from this book.
Our tour now heads north-east to Greenwich to a much grander building. The Royal Naval Hospital, a counterpart to the Chelsea Hospital for soldiers, began as a rebuild of Greenwich Palace by Charles II in the 1660s, but it changed direction in the 1690s. The second pediment from the right is Webb's 1660s work. In 1873 it became the Royal Naval College; when that... [more]
Read more and see photos from this book.
