Growing Up In Streatham In The 50''s And 60''s

A Memory of Streatham.

Born in Dulwich in 1947, I spent all my remembered youth living at 52, Wyatt Park Road, next door to a Jewish family. One door down lived Graham? Field. As a youngster, I regularly went to see Batman and Flash Gordon in the ABC/Regal? cinema most Saturday mornings. I went to Hitherfield Primary School and, like Paul Chandler knew Tweedy who lived at the top of the hill in which the school was situated. Later I attended Tulse Hill School where I met some friends, two of whom I regularly have a beer with nearly every week. Another, Clive Brunning was hit by a car and killed on one of our 'beer' evenings! We used to spend Saturdays patrolling the High Street, calling in at the Wimpy Bar (with those tomatoe shaped dispensers), the Bowling Alley ((formerly the Gaumont cinema) for the crushed ice and a few pins worth, and finally the Lyons Corner House.
Friends and I used the snooker hall opposite the Regal/ABC? cinema. I think it was called the Golden Cue and you had a golden key for access? Round the corner from our house was Streatham High school for Girls providing eternal interest for myself and my neighbours' sons.
At the bottom of our road was the Theatre which eventually became a Bingo Hall! At Tulse Hill School there were eight floors and about two thousand boys. Mr Thomas was headmaster, and Mr Lovelace deputy where comprehensive school gowns were still worn by the teachers. TBC

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