High Street c1955, Penge
High Street c1955, Penge Ref: P26002
Memories of High Street c1955, Penge
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?
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.
Penge High Street
I used to work in the florist across the road from the police station. Did a lot of window shopping on the way home.
My Younger Life in Penge
I remember the High Street quite well. This photograph is looking north. Just up past the Police Station there was a cake shop, then a chemist shop (A J Mack), then there was Olby's, then the large shop, Rogers. Next was Woolworths, then Maloney's cake shop with its cafeteria. Next to Maloney's was Kennedy's fish shop, then Curtess's Shoe shop, then Fosdick's. There had been a 'pub - The Waterman's Arms - and a ''Dells'' dried goods shop once before but both had been long gone by 1960. Then there was a Carlsons ladies' clothing shop, a Victor Value supermarket, then Boots, then The Westminster Bank. Last up on the right was R Glass, the butchers' shop. The Rogers shop gave way to a Wimpy Bar in 1962 with a True Form shoe shop next then either a Granada or a DER TV shop. Opposite the Police Station was The Pawlene pub', then United Dairies, a greengrocers, a Post Office, a cafe, BRW, two or three more shops, Donnies... Read more
Memories of my Youth
I still have the blanket for my pram that my grandmother had bought in Rogers. That was about 1955.
I remember going into Woolworths on Saturday with my pocket money. I also worked in there on Saturdays when I was 15. I also worked in the Co-op on a Saturday in the furniture section upstairs .
Also queuing up outside the Odeon on a Saturday. I remember going to see Cliff Richard"s Summer Holiday and one of Hayley Mills films. I think it might have been The Moonspinners.
Kennedys shop I just loved the pies in there !
Macks the chemist. I remember the glass bottles with coloured liquid inside.
Fosdicks. I used to buy Painting by Numbers in there.
My mother bought my school uniform, have forgotton the name which was opposite the butchers on the corner.
There was also a shop called Greg next door which I think sold cold meats, butter etc.
Olby's And Penge High Street
I left school in Dec 1951 and started work with Olby's in Jan 1952. Opposite to the Police Station in Green Lane was a children's outfitters, then Macks Photography Shop, then Bryce Grants then Art Wallpapers then K&B Radio, then Edgingtons Furniture Shop, then across Cottingham Road, Edgingtons again then there were several other shops ending with a bank. Opposite was the Odeon Cinema then the Co-op furniture store then several other shops finishing with John Collier Tailors at Croydon Road. Across Croydon Road was the Pawlene Arms Public House then Olby's Sanitaryware store and Penge & Bognor Electrical. I worked for Olbys until 1968 with a break from Dec 1954 to Jan 1957 for my National Service.
Penge in The 1920s
The local midwife, Nell Horley, delivered many a Penge child, but she also kept a boarding house, where she would keep a large pot of soup on the cooker all day for the boarders. Nell was my 1/2 Aunt's grandmother. Nell delivered both my mother and father. Nell had a borther nicknamed 'Spider', whose occupation was collecting rags to sell to trade. He would place all the rags across the garden after he had washed them.
Penge Market 1930s
My cousins had stalls in the market, the Prouds. I have so many lovely memories of my dad and mum taking me shopping, particularly around Christmas. With all the old gas lights spluttering and smelling and the smells of the stall with toffee apples, and the hot chestnut stand. Oooh! Yes and the Salvation Army Band playing and rattling their collection boxes. There was Mr and Mrs Cohen with their daughters and son, the egg shop next door to their clothing shop, down the Maple Road was Mr. Anscombe and his daughter, he was a watch repairer. I am now 84 and my older brother Harold is now 97, we still after all we have seen and where we have been think of that area as home. Strange isnt it?
Penge & local memories
Read and share memories of Penge and Greater London inspired by Frith photos.
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
Waterman's Almhouses
As a small child, I lived in Beckenham, and we used visit my grandmother who lived in a flat in Queen Adelaide Court. From her lounge window we could see the Almshouses. At that age I did not have any real understanding of what they were, but they held a strange fascination for me because they were so different from the surrounding houses and blocks of flats.
I have many memories of Penge, including the market (Maple Avenue?), the Crooked Billet bus stop where the 227 bus used to stop. I believe there was a Crooked Billet pub too, but I was still many years away from discovering such pleasures!
Our GP - Dr. Kelleher - practiced in the basement of a large Victorian house in Penge High Street up towards Crystal Palace. I can still remember the overpowering smell of antiseptic.
Queen Adelaide Court
I lived with my parents and my brother at 15 Queen Adelaide Court. The official opening was in 1951, but we moved in in 1950. This block in the photo was one of the first to be finished and while the builders completed the other block the now playground areas were builders rubble. When all the blocks were finished a residents association was formed and I think for two years we had a Queen Adelaide sports day held on the grass around the bottom playground. The residents association also had a social area next to the boiler room in the basement. Here they had darts, table tennis and a snooker table. After a few years when the association lost interest we, as young 15 year olds, would knock on number 76 and ask the caretaker, a Mr Neville, to use the key and spend the evening playing snooker and table tennis. We even practiced our skiffle group down there, "The Jury Four."
Church Memories
During the war I used to go to Holy Trinity Church before it was bombed. The choirmaster was a Mr Choat, (not sure of the spelling), and he used to come and ask me to sing for the local gatherings in the hut where all the meetings took place and I used to go there for Church Parades when the Brownies and Guides went to the Church with the boys. Anybody remember Betty Crayford? would love to hear from you.
Boots.
Just on the left of the photo, by the first car, was Boots the chemist where my mum worked.
Before 1948
My Great Grandparents lived in the alms houses, G grandfather having been a lighterman. Until my Great grandmother died in 1948 when I was 10, we used to visit regularly. The houses were tiny with one room upstairs and a kitchen and living room dowm. The bath and toilet facilities were along a covered way - not very good in the winter. Great Grandmother died aged 90 on 21st December 1948. I have a photo of her and my great grandfather who died in the early 1930's, if anyone is interested. They are standing in front of thier accommodation.
My sister and I used to visit some of the other old ladies, one of whom had a cockatoo which had the run of the house with the owner mopping up behind it!
Brenda Welch, New Zealand.
Upper Norwood
I was born in 1957 at East Dulwich Hospital. Lived on Central Hill, Upper Norwood until 1966. I went to Rockmount Infants and Junior's School. I remember living in a large Victorian house until the council bought the land to build a council estate, poor Mum and Dad were moved to West Norwood to live in an old prefab until 1969, when we moved again. The best years of my young life were in Upper Norwood. I remember my sister used to work in a cafe in Crystal Palace and we use to go there to see her.
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.
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.
