Croydon In The Mid 1950's

A Memory of Croydon.

What a fantastic website. So many fond memories.

I moved to Croydon with my parents when I was two years old. Even in the mid nineteen fifties it would be considered a little too expensive to afford ones own camera, let alone the interest in collecting photograph’s of ones home town.

We lived only a few minutes away from Surrey Street, Wandle Park and Duppas Hill Park. Sailing model boats on the pond at Wandle Park. Or, what would be considered a little reckless by today’s standards. Tobogganing down Duppas Hill during the Winter months, on sections of corrugated steel salvaged from dismantled Anderson air raid shelters installed during WWII. It is a wonder no one was seriously injured from the size and weight of these sections. Still, It was, a lot of fun!

I met my future spouse in Croydon. We were married in the Croydon Parish Church and held the reception at the Gun Tavern in Lower Church Street.

Subsequently, my occupation, took us to Toronto, New York and Atlanta.
We have been fortunate enough to be able to return to the U.K. on a number of occasions. The last time being in 2019. During this visit I was able to spend more time in Croydon, exploring some of the locations that I used to know so well. Although, I really felt I was a stranger in my old home town. So much has changed.
This website has helped remind me just what Croydon was like seventy years ago.

Norman Allum