Beckenham memories
Here are memories of Beckenham and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Beckenham or a Beckenham photo.
The Prompt
My mum worked at the Prompt Corner Coffee Bar for many years and my sister and I used to go in for our tea most days. We knew many of the regulars, but as I was pretty young most of the names escape me now. Mum also worked as an usherette at the Regal, and we went to the cinema regularly. She also worked in the greengrocers near to the Importers Coffee Shop (not a cafe) but what it was called I don't recall. We lived in Fairfield Road, opposite Christ Church, and spent hours and hours playing with the local children in the car parks (where there were never any cars) and in Kelsey Park, where we made dens in the bushes, and caught sticklebacks in the stream.
Remembering The High Street as A Young Child
I remember going into the Prompt Cafe with my parents along the High Street. As a young child, I can recall seeing loads of little mats or coasters on the wall. Yes, I also remember the strong smell of the roasted coffee beans. Every Friday in the 1960s my parents had lunch in the Regal, now the Odeon, by the roundabout. My dad used to say the lunch was very cheap there. I used to love Kennedys and their meat pies, such a shame they have now closed down. My mother worked in Boots in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Next door to the George pub was a furrier, several real fur coats in the window. My mother took me to the dentist which was held in the Town Hall of all places. The nurse there scared me, especially when I had to have gas, I remember the horrible black rubber mouthpiece she put over my mouth. I was... Read more
Childhood Days
The house you can see straight ahead (was Gordon House) was the house I was brought up in. My neighbour lived above the coffee shop that you all remember, I have lovely memories of that house, of that time. It's such a different place now....
Fond Memories
I too have wonderful memories of walking down to Beckenham High Street, from Elmers End (seemed like a million miles to a four-year-old with little legs!) and passing by the toy shop and putting in a penny to watch the train go around... then walking down past the coffee shop with its pungent odor (which smelled horrible to a little one!) and on to the end of the high street, stopping on the way at Sainsburys with the wood shavings on the floor... aahhh...good times indeed..
Coffee Shop.
I also remember the lovely smell of the coffee shop when I used to walk there with my dad, he loved the smell and often used to go and buy some fresh ground coffee.
Elm Road Church.
My parents were married in this church in 1955. I was born in Stone Park Hospital in 1957. I was also blessed in this church.
Train.
I remember I used to put a penny in a slot on the window frame of the toy shop and watch a train go round in the window.
Walking up Beckenham High Street
I remember there was a shop that sold all kinds of coffee beans. You could smell the coffee a few doors before you reached it. It's in the centre of the photo.
Elmers End
I was born in Beckenham Hospital - the one next to a park I believe. I grew up in Elmers End and attending Elmers End & Eden Park Preparatory School - my husband and I tried to find the school a few years back when we came over from Canada, where I've lived for the past 30+ years, for a visit...but I believe the Elmers End school is no longer there. I went to Marian Vian Secondary School which we did find and although the building is the same it has a number of changes now!! The London Transport Bus Garage that was at the end of our road, Beck Lane, is now housing and so is Churchfields School where my brother went!
It was wonderful to be able to walk down my street and rmember people & memories, like walking to the end of our street to the bus garage for shillings for the meter and on the opposite corner to the cigarette machine... Read more
Memories of Kent
Stories Told to me by my Mother of Penge Characters
Old forgotten characters of Penge and Eden Park: The Duke of Penge Nell Horley the midwife Winny of the Eden Park Trading Agency The Lad who gave a prize-winning fighter a taste of what it felt like to be on the receiving end William Younger was born in 1901 into an ordinary working-class family, his father being a coachman, a strict disciplinarian and authoritarian, and an insistence on reading the Bible at meal time. He had an elder brother Thomas (Dink) who was unable to walk from birth, and a life time to be spent in a wheelchair. In 1919-1921 Dink would make cardboard aeroplanes and tanks and would be seen in Beckenham and Crystal Palace together with my granddad, Thomas Lang (Mother’s side) selling these models. Years later he would eventually go off with a ‘red-haired’ woman to Yorkshire and was never heard of again. William was nick-named by Penge folk as the ‘Duke of Penge’, being an artful gentleman. Tall, 6’ 1”, very smart, he would drape his gloves over a walking... Read more
Borwick's Baking Powder Factory, Penge
My father used to work at this factory in Penge as a Chemist. We moved down to Selsdon when I was five (1950) and then we moved back up to the Wirral when I was 11. Does anyone remember exactly where the factory was and does anyone remember Selsdon in those days?
Where I Was Born
I was born in a third floor flat overlooking the Waterman's Almshouses in 1935. I spent the whole of World War 2 in Penge with my family. I remember the pub the Crooked Billet near to the Almshouses and next door a cycle shop, where I bought my first new sports cycle. I particularly remember the Empire Theatre in the High Street, where I used to go to see the plays every week, and then stand outside the stage door for autographs. My first job was as a junior clerk for A Olby & Son, which was then in the High Street near to the police station. I can also remember queueing up outside the Odeon Theatre with all the other children every Saturday morning to go in to the Odeon Club to see the Saturday morning pictures.
Penge Police Station
In this photo I can see the Police Station on the right, which I remember clearly and can visualize the old bobbies coming out to go on duty. Also I can see the sign in the distance for the Essoldo Theatre, which used to be the old Empire Theatre. Further up the High Street on the right hand side I remember a department store called Rogers, where you could buy clothes, accessories, material etc. I always went in there looking for Christmas presents.
The War Years
I was always in the Penge Recreation during the war, not only to play but I used to cut through from one end of the Rec, as we used to call it, to the other end coming out of the gates opposite St John's Church, where you can see the steeple in the picture. I always used to think how lovely the flower beds were kept by the gardeners. Just outside the gates there was a war memorial, where people used to lay wreaths.
During the war I particularly remember there being a large silver barrage balloon in the Penge Recreation Ground, and also a large brick air raid shelter, where I ran into on several occasions with my brother on our way home from school when there was an air raid on.
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