Woodlea Drive, Bromley. '50s/'60s.

A Memory of Bromley.

I lived at 42, Woodlea Drive from the age of 9 until 18 when we moved in 1963. My dad bought the plot and we used to visit it regularly until the house was completed, and we moved in. Our house was at the top of the hill on the right. Pete Frampton did live on the right hand side at the bottom of the hill and we often played guitar together as kids. Facing our house, the Medhursts lived to our right, and the Chandlers to our left. Barnhill School playing fields lay at the bottom of our garden, long since gone.
The picture by another reviewer is just as I remember it. It looked new, and not established as it does now. I revisited it last weekend with my family and it looked great! The present owner, Dennis, was kind enough to show us round, and it was great to see the improvements he has made to it. Lovely also to see the large oak tree which dominated our back garden.
The houses at the top of the hill were further back than the others because apparently a bomb had landed there in the war, and they thought the foundations wouldn't be firm enough, so they built them set back on firmer ground. I remember my dad paying £3,400.00 which was the basic, no frills, price.
I went to school at Pickhurst Primary, and then attended South Bromley College on Mason's Hill, a fee paying private school. We loved when the Park opened at the bottom of the hill. The shops to the left were built shortly after we moved in. There was a Chemist, Butcher's, Newsagent Greengrocer's, and R. Reekie's, which was one of the first stores where you took a basket round the store and paid for your items at a till. Very progressive for the time!
My thanks again to Dennis for his kindness, consideration and hospitality.