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Plaistow
Plaistow maps
Historic maps of Plaistow and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Plaistow maps
Plaistow area books
Displaying 1 of 13 books about Plaistow and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Plaistow
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West Sussex memories
High Slides!
I remember getting stuck up the top of one of these slides when I was about 4 years old! My big brother, who is 16 years my senior, took me out for the day with his girlfriend, to Chessington Zoo. I went up the steps of one of these slides and found it was so high I was too scared to come down, despite his encouragement from the ground. He had to climb the steps and, as children followed him up, had bring me down the slide on his lap, quite an embarrassment for a 20-year-old lad! To make matters worse a child at the bottom, who was being called away by his mother, remarked loudly "Wait, I just want to see this man come down the slide"!! My brother has never let me forget it!!!
Origin of Pub Name.
The pub was originally known as 'The Gate' - hence the sign hanging over the door. The current name is a corruption of 'Borne's Gate' from the time of the landlord whose name was Mr Borne. The pub still exists, beside the stream of the same name, Bonesgate Stream.
The Bones Gate After The War
My uncle used to live in Cranborne Avenue, Tolworth. We would visit and all troop across the fields - many with remains of war time crashed bombers etc. - to the delightful Bonesgate Pub.
Happy days!
The Zoo
I remember these slides, especially the ones with the bumps in...great fun. My dad used to work down the road at the fishmongers and he would take fish at the end of the day for the penguins.
The Ace of Spades And Hook Underpass
I was born in Kingston on Thames in 1943. In 1947 my family moved to Thames Ditton close to the old AC car factory and then in 1949 to Lovelace Gardens in Surbiton. At the very young age of 7 or 8 my mother used to send me off on my own on the 65 bus with my rubber flippers and inflateable ring to learn to swim on my own at The Ace of Spades Hotel swimming pool. This was a popular up market out of town venue at that time and on one occasion I met Diana Dors who was teaching her husband Dennis Hamilton to swim. I went to St. Andrews Primary school, then in St. Andrews Road Surbiton and made a huge number of friends in the surrounding area. I later attended (unsuccessfully) Ewell Castle School, famous for Oliver Read. I became a keen motorcyclist and, like him, a bit of a tear away and one of my main meeting places was the Tip Top Cafe... Read more
Visiting The Sweet Shop
I lived in Old Coulsdon as a small child and can remember walking up to The Parade to visit the sweet shop. We lived down the bottom of the hill at the bottom of The Glade and it always seemed a long hard climb up to The Parade. We used to cut across through the churchyard.
If I was very lucky I was allowed to buy a Jamboree bag in the sweet shop. A Jamboree bag was a mix of different sweets like penny chews, liquorice sticks etc and also a small toy.
Other times I would buy a sherbert dab or 2oz of boiled sweets such as rhubarb and custard, pear drops and best of all fruit pips which were very small fruit flavoured boiled sweets so you got lots for your money.
We moved away from Old Coulsdon in 1962 but I still have fond memories of the village.
Leaving Old Coulsdon
I was born at 52 The Glade in 1960 and can remember a happy childhood, although my mum was a single mother (unusual then) and we struggled with money. I remember the parade of shops near me up the hill and especially the sweet shop with Mr Newby as owner. I went to school at Keston and loved it there. It had a swimming pool and that can't be usual for that time. We used to have a maypole at the summer fair and I loved dancing around with those coloured ribbons! I loved the area, with its common and the pond and Happy Valley. I can't forget the 190 red bus that took us into Coulsdon, Purley and Croydon and how we always seemed to be waiting ages for it! Unfortunatly circumstances were that my mum needed to move, and I was pretty heartbroken leaving at 14, about to take my CSE's at Purley High School, and leaving behind my friends. I'd just discovered The Grange Youth Club... Read more
