By Gone Times

A Memory of Bexleyheath.

I was born in London in 1933 and later, when the Ideal Homes Estates were constructed, my parents with me, moved to Howard avenue at Bexley. Danson Park was the place to go to. Everything happened there. Firework displays viewed from the North Bank each year and, I can remember a kids fancy dress competition in which I was dressed up as Mickey Mouse complete with the face mask which went completely over my head with two eye holes! There was the lido which has disappeared and we used to walk through to The Guy Earl of Warwick to catch the 89 bus to go to Blackheath where my aunts used to live. If you were brave enough, there was the motor launch ride. The lake was used to dump a lot of the bomb damaged rubble from the City which made the lake an even depth and, so reduce the dangers which always existed for people foolish enough to swim in it. The buses were the 132 and 132A a circular route which went from Eltham to Bexley and Bexleyheath in opposite directions depending upon which one was used. My local school was Hurst Primary and later, Chislehurst and Sidcup Grammar at Critalls Corner. It is now in Hurst Road. Behind my house there was a large field which is still in existence. During the war, there were two large communal shelters. One one the eastern side of the field and the other, on the west. Just as one comes into the field from the alleyway which runs from Shirley Avenue, there was an air raid wardens' office built in two foot thick concrete and a sandbag protected porch at the entrance. The sand on the communal shelters was a paradise for us youngsters who could dig and make sandcastles. There were pig bins in the roadsides and, the milkman's horse had a fine time knocking the lids off to find anything worthwhile inside.