Camberwell memories
Here are memories of Camberwell and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Camberwell or a Camberwell photo.
Mendleson Wrote His Spring Song in The House.
With Denmark Hill and about level with the Old Henly's garage behind you was a house within the ruins with a metal sign. It stated that during his stay here, Mendleson wrote his 'Spring Song' here. Camberwell was in the suburbs and fields were around the area filled with bird song. During my grandfather's time there were still cows in the area. Ruskin Park was one of the nicest parks in London and is still worth a visit. I enjoyed many a good time there as a boy playing in the children's area, watching doctors and nurses from nearby Kings College Hospital on the tennis courts and seeing the steam trains going down to the coast on the Denmark Hill Station. Later on the station was converted to the Phoenix and Firkin PH and as I moved to North London I was able to comsume a few pints and travel to my apartment in Mill hill. The Parky's (park keepers) as they were known kept the park in excellent shape... Read more
Searching The Tombs!
Oh I know it always seemed so huge and scary, with its giant red doors, but my brother and I had such fun in the churchyard climbing the trees and exploring the broken tombs and crypts. Pretty scary as I always expected a monster to grab me and take me down inside never to be seen again! I think the horror movie of the time was about zombies and living dead and stuff! We also used to pick the daffodils and sell them in bunches for a tanner a bunch till one day the vicar caught us and gave us a right telling off!
The canal ran alongside the churchyard and we used to 'boat' up and down it on a bit of old wood we'd found or anything that floated! We had no fear!! I used to catch the sticklebacks and take them home. I wondered why they died when I'd carefully filled my plimpsole with water for them to live in? Mum wasn't too pleased either!!
My brother... Read more
Old Blokes in White Coats!
Sometimes on the way to the Green we would watch the men walking up and down the Bowling Green. They really took things seriously! The Green was mown to precision and I'm sure the bloke that cut it measured the length of the grass with a ruler! We were amazed!
When the bowler would prepare to bowl my brother and I would shriek and put him off his run or whatever you call it! Since we did this most weekends I bet they really hated us (we thought it was great fun). As is usual though we got older and found other things to amuse us!
Mainly Pre-War Greenwich
Prior to WW2 I can remember my grandparents, both maternal and paternal, lived almost opposite each other in Tuskar Street, a working class area of Greenwich. This made it easy for my own parents to meet one another back in the very early thirties. One memory that sticks very much in mind was of the milkman who served Tuskar Street, coming round with an open horse-drawn cart. The milk was in churns and was measured out into our own jugs, and my memory is of fetching milk for my maternal grandmother, and smelling that the milk was more or less already sour as it was in the afternoon on a fairly warm day.
As a young boy I spent many hours in Greenwich Park, often down in the playground watched over by my Grandpa as I either was on the pond in a paddle boat, or was sailing my boat. At the time my parents and I lived up on Shooter's Hill. My maternal Grandpa, Walter White, was a fitter... Read more
Daimler Ambulance
Nice to see a Daimler LCC Ambulance, presumably being driven up Denmark Hill, from Camberwell Green, on its way to King's College Hospital. I travelled in these Ambulances on a number of occasions as a child. My longest trip was from my home in Nunhead to a Sanitorium in Brentwood, Essex, when Doctors thought I had TB! Fortunately I didn't have TB. Upon my discharge I travelled home by bus! Ken Cook
My Dad And Mum Got Married Here In1968
My dad and mum got married here in 1968, it rained all day.
Police
My father was a police constable in Camberwell from 1945-1960s. I used to be very worried when I saw him in the centre of this huge crossroads, with doubledecker buses and belching great lorries streaming past him on all sides, this was 'Point Duty' directing the traffic before traffic lights were erected. He didn't worry about his own safety standing in the middle of all that traffic, as he had been a Police Warden in the Blitz of the Second World War, when he had been dodging bombs from night to night! The Police Station was very conveniently located in the centre of the shopping area of Camberwell Green, and as a kid I remember dropping into the Police Station for a cup of tea with Dad, while mother rested her feet after a long day's shopping.
Katie Barnes And The Hermits Cave
The one thing that sticks in my memory about growing up in Camberwell was the newspaper stall outside the Hermits Cave pub and the young me being in awe of Katie Barnes (I think that was her name), the 'old' woman who used to sell the papers. She knew everyone's gossip and had a slightly hairy chin!
My Ancestors
The Soulby family and the Audy family all lived around this area, the Miller family started my ancestral name from here too.
Church Street, Camberwell
1950s. This is the view down Church Street from the cross road which we all knew as and called "the green" which is to the left of this picture. The large double fronted shop on the right was at the time a Joe Lyons where you could get a cup of tea and a bun from a lady in a white apron (and I have no doubt more substantial meals too - but I cannot remember that). A little further down Church Street on the right, past Wren Road turning was the Police Station with its blue lamp. Note the tram lines - I rode on the last tram from the Oval to the green - but I have now lost the ticket :-( Church St lead to St Giles the church in the picture and on to Peckham Rd and to Peckham the north end of the high street with Jone and Higgins.)
Those Were The Days !!!
My twin brother and I were born in 1960 and I think we were about five or six years old. Mum always did the shopping at Camberwell Green and we regularly and always unwillingly traipsed after her or my sister Cora from our home at 53 Rainbow Street through the green to the shops. If mum had been lucky on the horses or dogs we got a taxi back with all the shopping! More often than not she didn't and we had to lug everything back home.
I vaguely recall the play park inside the green and the pigeons we used to chuck bread at.
Also I remember the time an old tramp was drunkenly hollering at my brother and I and threw all his money at us. He scared us half to death but we kept the money he threw! I think we pocketed a good couple of half crowns, two bobs and shillings, and a fair few tanners and threepenny bits as well! We bought loads of sweets... Read more
Looking For Any Saint's of New Cross Gate
I am searching for any Saint family who lived in the New Cross area of London, maybe running a car lot called Saint's Auto's around the Camberwell - New Cross area of South London.
St Gile's Hospital, Camberwell
My late father, Cyril Cook, was the Senior Nurse in the Casualty Department from the early 1950s until his retirement in the 1970s. In that position, my father got to know lots of people in the Camberwell area. Ken Cook
Memories of Greater London
Those Were The Days
I remember Rye Lane in Peckham as a very busy shopping centre. I was born in the area and lived in Mcdermott Road in the prefabs (it is now a Charlie Dimock Garden) until I married in Blenheim Grove Church (behind the station)and moved away in 1963. I remember shopping in Jones and Higgins (in this picture) - to us children it was an aladdin's cave with all its different departments. Later on I worked in Woolworths, which I believe is still in the same place, while still at school in the evenings and weekends, and went to school at Bellenden Road and then on to Peckham school, firstly in the old building then on to the the new glasshouse as we used to call it. We would all play on the shelters on the corner of Peckham Rye Park - they made good slides when it was wet on the shiny stones, then we would go off into the park for a day's fishing in the pond, just playing... Read more
James Walker
This photo shows the James Walker jeweller's shop in the foreground on the right, where I bought my wife's engagement and wedding rings!
Ken Cook
Jones & Higgins
In the picture with Jones & Higgins, on the right, that is my nan and mum pushing the pram, with me in the pram. We lived in Walworth but they always walked there to do shopping and to see my dad who worked in his mum's shop in Choumert Road.
Commercial Way or Road
Hi, I worked on bomb damage for Bishop & Clarke (a firm of builders from Horley), the foreman's name was Mr Collins. In the August of 1945 I was teaboy and builders' labourer, it was my first job after leaving school in Horley, Surrey. One street we cleared was Commercial Road, I remember a cafe just round the corner, I think called 'Janes', I know one day there were whale steaks with onions on the menu,(they weren't bad, can anyone else remember? We also had 'double plain and syrup', good memories, I bought a pair of long trousers at the big shop on the corner, I think Queens Road. I remember walking to the market by the railway in Rye Lane. I now live in Australia. Tony
Up And Down.
My friends and I loved Rye Lane, it had more shoe shops than Oxford Street. On Saturdays we would meet in Manzes Pie and Mash in Peckham Hill Street, then make our way up one side of Rye Lane, shopping if we could afford to, window shopping if not. We would navigate all through the arcade, and carry on to Choumert Road market, there used to be a lovely pub at the top, where my sister was engaged to a fellow called Mickey whose family owned a large greengrocers there, we would then cross over the road and come down on the opposite side, stopping and usually buying a record in a smashing record shop in Bournemouth Road, then another small arcade,into C & A's to try on the latest fashions, then Woolworth's, B.H.S, and Littlewoods and into Jones and Higgins to browse for a long while. On one occasion I bought a beautiful pair of bright red patent stiletto's in 'Saxone's' at the bottom of the Lane and could... Read more
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