Growing Up In South Norwood And Visiting Central Croydon

A Memory of Croydon.

I was born in Rotherhithe in 1939 and moved with my parents to south Norwood when I was 3.
I went to Cypress Primary School during the last year of the war and remember vividly walking from home in South Norwood Hill to school following nights of air raids and dogfights over our house. My memories are of passing spaces where the homes of my schoolfriends once stood. Also collecting waste newspapers at school and harvesting fruit from the school grounds. I recall sheltering in the public air raid shelter in Portland Road when shopping with my mother.
My parents took me to Croydon regularly on the 654 trolley bus and we visited the Kennards Arcade, a wonderland with shetland pony rides. Sometimes we had tea in the tea room upstairs, decorated with lilac blossom murals and listened to the "Gipsy" string band while we ate. My brother and I attended post-war parties hosted by Corona Drinks company when they were behind Stanley Halls.
I went to John Ruskin Boys Grammar School in Tamworth Road and moved with to the new location at Shirley Windmill. We used the mill as a changing room for our cross country running.
I still live in Shirley and was one of the team that set up the Friends of the Mill following a lottery grant and guided on the open days.
Recent years I was churchwarden at St John's church in Shirley and this year we have managed to reintroduce the Shirley Poppy to Rev'd Wilks grave in the churchyard. I have arranged several history walks in Shirley with the church groups and am now researching a guide walk around the historic parts of central Croydon for our mens' group.
So much more to remember and talk about later.

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