1940s/1950s Gonville Road
A Memory of Thornton Heath.
Thornton Heath: It always makes me smile when I see a bus with the destination 'Thornton Heath Pond' I remember the Pond very well. I'm often tempted to ask bus drivers if they know that there really was quite a large pond there, when I was a lad. I, and I think others used to to go the 'Pond' with our sticks with a net on the end and a jam jar to catch catch 'tiddiers'. Tiddlers were an unidentied species of fish usually not more than an about inch or so long. A 2 inch fish would have been a Jaws of it's time.
I was once told that Colliers Water Lane, a road that leads to the Pond was the route that 'colliers', coal miners, took to go to the pond to wash themselves after work. It that really true, where was the coal mine?
Saturday morning pictures at the Granada Cinema was a feature of my weeks. Entrance 6d.
Like all old people I could go on and on (mostly accurately) about 70+ years ago but I have trouble recalling what I did yesterday.
Raffaele Sargeant
It would be nice to hear someone elses' recollections of the area in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
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Your recollections bring back fond memories. I was born in Pridham Road West, August 1939. Life long supporter of Crystal Palace. I remember vividly the 42 Tram from Thornton Heath to East Croyden, and the playing fields at Frant Road. I must have been there at Grendiers Club, Saturdays, at the Granada Cinema the same time as you! If you'd like to chat on the phone at any time about these golden days, let me know and we can swap numbers.