1942 At 14 Years Old My Life Changes

A Memory of Croydon.

After our family home in Trafalgar Avenue, Peckham was damaged by the 'blitz' for the 3rd time, my mother decided enough is enough. She got in touch with her sister who lived in the country (South Norwood) to try and get us accomodation near her - this she did. We moved from Peckham to a nice upstairs flat at 34 Whitworth Road. Both of these houses although suffering a pummerling (minor damage from doodle bugs) are stiil standing today (2013). From that moment my life changed dramatically. New friendships were forged, I became a member of the 3rd Queens Cadets in Wellesley Road, Croydon learnig to play the drum and bugle for 4 years. This and the other military training in the middle of the war stood me in good stead for when I became a real soldier when called up for sevice in 1946 aged 18. My other warm memories of Croydon are the Ice Rink
in Purley. Not of course really Croydon but all the youth of that era from a 10 mile radius would flock there for good innocent fun...no drugs, no stabbings, no murders, no fights (well maybe minor scuffles!) It wasn't paradise but it was lovely growing up in in this time. Of course love was in
the air. There must have been 15 or more cinemas and theatres from Purley to Norbury in a straight line...hot spots for blossoming courtships or whatever. Then there were the parks so numerous from Wallington to Crystal Palace, from Purley Downs to Streatham. Besides the cinemas and theatres there were the shops. Literally scores of them, the main ones being; Kennards, Allders, Grants. All the mens and ladies shops Burtons, 50 Shilling Tailors, Alexanders, Dorothy Perkins, C&A, M&S, Ghinns for knitting. Then in George Street was the wonderful tool shop Hammonds, here you could buy anything from a lawnmower to penknife or an apron to
cane for basket weaving. There was another shop further up George Street called Settys Furs. This became quite famous around 1949 regarding a murder that was on the front pages of
the national press for weeks. This was known as' The Body in the Marshes'. I used to get a full update of the trial through a girlfriend who I was courting at this time who was an assistant in the shop. She was a lovely young girl named Marie Sandell and she lived in Wallington close to
Mellows Park. We were very much in love as 19 & 21 year olds, a product of Purley Ice Rink. I do hope she is still around and has enjoyed a happy life and gets to read this. Another thing that changed in my life in the move from SE15 TO SE25 was that I became a Palace supporter. I was before the move (living off the Old Kent Road and close to their ground) a Millwall pup. On a Saturday we young lads used to run along the canal path up to the ground, climb up the stacks of timber in the wood yard adjacent to the ground, and ask the dockers who mostly made up the Millwall crowd, to pull us up into the ground. This was usually greeted with lots of ribald remarks and making us kids wait until the very last minute when they would finally relent and haul us over the wall and into 'The Den'. More memories of life in Croydon during wartime to follow.