Mendleson Wrote His Spring Song In The House.

A Memory of Camberwell.

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 and would grow all the flowers etc on site. There was a paddling pool next to a small shop and would come in handy for a ice cream on a hot day. We would walk miles in the 1960s just to give our mums a break. My uncle Bert lived at the Art Deco flats. I knew some people who lived in the Ruskin House flats who told me that there were some famous people living there. The pub on the hill was the Fox on the Hill and behind it was Hambledon House, during the war it was hit by a bomb and the inside was constructed as a house inside a house, I was told that it was used by the S.O.E to train agents, it became an Air Training Corps base and was haunted by a white fiqure on the staircase, I once stayed there overnight and the drums in the armoury started playing behind a locked door. Sadly it has been knocked down, replaced by some new houses, I wonder if they get house guests? In the picture the park is in all the glory and shows the pride that the park keepers had. Woe betide you if you dropped litter in those days, although I think the look of the place made you feel bad to spoil such a great place. The photograph is seen from the house ruins towards the garden wall, on the other side is a path leading to the childrens area.