Crystal Palace memories
Here are memories of Crystal Palace and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Crystal Palace or a Crystal Palace photo.
Palace Road
I remember walking down Palace Road with the shopping trolley aged 4 to go to Wavyline supermarket with a shopping list, on my own. Amazingly I made it back safely! Those where the days. I remember Nobles the chemist, Batty's supermarket and Clouds the greengrocers.
Student Hostel
I lived in the National College Hostel from 1955 to 1956 which, to the best of my recollection, was located at 28, Dulwich Wood Park, Upper Norwood. The local pub, which our meagre allowance allowed us to visit once a week - usually on Sunday evenings - was the Paxton. I went by my "student name" of Joe in those days and I recall meeting a lovely young lady named Mary Rickett in the Paxton with her Mum and Dad, who used to invite me home for supper after closing time. Apart from the fact that Mary was a most beautiful young lady, the fact that I was treated to hearty meals like macaroni cheese, etc. on a regular basis made me the envy of my fellow students considering the starvation diet on which we existed at that time!!
Unfortunately our course of studies concluded and I returned to Liverpool, got married and emigrated to Vancouver in Canada, however I have never forgottem those magical days of my youth and,... Read more
Crystal Palace 1960s - 1970s
I have similar memories to you Lyn, in fact I was in your sister's class at Anerley School (born in Stone Park hospital) so I remember you too as an older girl! I remember the penny in the slot train going round along Church Road and later it burned down, that was a shock, it smelt of burnt bacon. Now I come to think of it that sounds ominous. Hope noone was hurt. I recall the really loud motor racing and being surprised as a child to hear it when I was halfway down Anerley Hill where there was a sweet shop (up from Versailles Road) as I always thought it was only our road that could hear it!
Growing up in Crystal Palace
I was born in Stone Park Hospital Beckenham in 1958 and brought home to No 36 Palace Road. I went to Anerley Infants and Junior School. My memories of the surrounding area of Crystal Palace are of the pub on the corner of Palace Road, The Paxton Arms Hotel. The old Victorian railway station that I used to take a short cut through to Crystal Palace park. I also have vivid memories of the motor car racing on Sundays, it was deafening. We lived in a Victorian house that was spilt with us having the downstairs, bedrooms on the next floor and some else living on the top floor.I had a wonderful time growing up in Crystal Palace. I also remember walking down Hamlet Road and past the Links to the church where my brother and little sister had to go on Sundays. At the top of Palace Road there was a Square and when I was very young there was a bomb site where we used to play, (Health and Safety would have... Read more
Memories of Greater London
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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