Mainly Pre War Greenwich

A Memory of Camberwell.

Prior to WW2 I can remember my grandparents, both maternal and paternal, lived almost opposite each other in Tuskar Street, a working class area of Greenwich. This made it easy for my own parents to meet one another back in the very early thirties. One memory that sticks very much in mind was of the milkman who served Tuskar Street, coming round with an open horse-drawn cart. The milk was in churns and was measured out into our own jugs, and my memory is of fetching milk for my maternal grandmother, and smelling that the milk was more or less already sour as it was in the afternoon on a fairly warm day.
As a young boy I spent many hours in Greenwich Park, often down in the playground watched over by my Grandpa as I either was on the pond in a paddle boat, or was sailing my boat. At the time my parents and I lived up on Shooter's Hill. My maternal Grandpa, Walter White, was a fitter at the gasworks in Greenwich until his retirement, and my paternal Granddad, Thomas Chandler, had been a tram driver until his retirement, when he and Grandma moved down to Alconbury in Huntingdonshire, close to where Grandma had been born.
My mother had memories which she told me about that as a young girl she had seen Zeppelins flying overhead in Greenwich during WW1. Later, I can remember coming to Tuskar Street for the street party celebrating the end of WW2. Something that I believe would be frowned upon today due to PC and 'elf n safety. Back then, it was great fun, with all the bunting available strung up across the street from house to house, a very long table going most of the way along the street, and, despite rationing, loads of food and drink conjured up from somewhere as we celebrated peace.
My maternal great grandparents lived not far away, in Mell Street, and between the two addresses I can remember a Salvation Army Citadel, where I wsent in from time to time as a youngster, when they were singing. SA music is not the solemn songs of the Church, but often bright and happy - and an attraction for a curious young boy.
When my father had been a young boy, he and his parents had lived in Gibson Street, Greenwich, quite a bit closer to the Thames. These areas, once very much working class, are now quite attractive quiet areas and fairly popular residential areas despite the houses not being 'mansion size.' Pre-war they had gas lighting, which scared me when the lamps popped when they were lit. Electricity came quite late in time. My maternal grandparents also left Tuskar Street, but after the war, moving 'up the hill' to Humber Road.