Nostalgic memories of Camberwell's local history
Share your own memories of Camberwell and read what others have said
For many years now, we've been inviting visitors to our web site to add their own memories to share their experiences of life as it was when the photographs in our archive were taken. From brief one-liners explaining a little bit more about the image depicted, to great, in-depth accounts of a childhood when things were rather different than today (and everything inbetween!). We've had many contributors recognising themselves or loved ones in our photographs.
Why not add your memory today and become part of our Memories Community to help others in the future delve back into their past.
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Displaying Memories 1 - 10 of 24 in total
When I was quite young my grandfather would take me up to Ruskin Park when he went to bowl and I would sit on one of the seats, I guess to the right of this picture. Unlike the other comment I did not try to put them off - there is NO 'run up' BTW you are thinking about cricket - indeed I was shown what to do and how to do it. Here I learnt that the balls were neither round nor weighted a fact that I have ever after ...see more
Wayne’s comment made me re-read my piece and I was driven to expand. This is St Gile’s Church. My parents were baptised and married here in 1937 and I was baptised and then confirmed by Mervyn Stockwood here. To our right was the Vicarage and its’ garden which was sold to ‘the Americans’ by Revd John Nicholls in the 60s, demolished stone by stone and exported to be replaced by the flats within ...see more
I was born in 1950 St Giles Hospital and my family lived on Farmer's Road, Camberwell. I moved away many years ago and sadly from what I have researched the road no longer exists, or at least part of it. We lived at number 137 and from what I could see it had been demolished. Our family name was Kench.
My Mother was born in Graces Road in Aug 1893 in her parents house with her eight Bros/Sisters until she married my father in 1918, on leave from France. In 1920 they moved to Green Lane, Thornton Heath. I was Born in 1930. On special occasions we would go by bus to her parents, Graces Road, via Brixton. While changing buses she would go into Hemmings and buy a cake called "Hemmings Delite" for all her family. During ...see more
My earliest childhood memory of Camberwell is sleeping on the floor of one of my father's taxis during the Blitz of the 1940's. I will never forget the noise of those air raids.My father, Harry Blowes, had a taxi service operating out of 50 Camberwell Station Road.
After the war, my father took on another two railway arches (rented from British Rail) so that he could start up a new business called Blowes ...see more
my dad bless him is long gone now and no photographs of his home or relatives in Camberwell .his father Ernest Howard Kemp was a barman at the prince of wales pub on union road Clapham , My grandmother s maiden name was Amy Passmore, my dads name William Howard Kemp he joined the army down there went of to war and for some reason never returned to Camberwell, I Think his home was bombed during the ...see more
I lived in Camberwell from 1944 until when I married in 1964.
There remains a small terrace of seven houses in Grove Lane called ‘Grove Lane Terrace’; they were built in the 1920s. My family has deeper roots than Grove Lane as my mother was born and lived Wells Crescent and my father lived in Vestry Road until they married.
My grandfather told me that, when he ...see more
I was born in Fleetwood in 1936 and lived there until 1959 when I left to emigrate to Australia. I was brought up in Byron St living with my parents George and Dolly Arkwright ,I attended Blackinston primary school then moved to Chaucer Rd school finishing up at Bailey school . I started work working for the North West Gas as an apprentice gas fitter but left after 18 months so as to work for my dad in his car body repair ...see more
kate barnes was a perminae fixture at the bottom of grove lane in camberwell she was a fiery lady and if you upset her the air could be quite blue with her colourfull labguage she enjoyed her pint and she often sat by her newspaper stand with her beer and bread roll usually filled with cheese at lunchtime she was still there in the early sixties when she retired the place never felt the same
Most of my late mother's family were baptised in St Giles, and my mum and dad got married there. Have yet to get into church to see , this being part off london; its locked .