Growing Up In Crystal Palace

A Memory of Crystal Palace.

I was born in Stone Park Hospital Beckenham in 1958 and brought home to No 36 Palace Road. I went to Anerley Infants and Junior School.
My memories of the surrounding area of Crystal Palace are of the pub on the corner of Palace Road, The Paxton Arms Hotel. The old Victorian railway station that I used to take a short cut through to Crystal Palace park. I also have vivid memories of the motor car racing on Sundays, it was deafening.
We lived in a Victorian house that was spilt with us having the downstairs, bedrooms on the next floor and some else living on the top floor.I had a wonderful time growing up in Crystal Palace.
I also remember walking down Hamlet Road and past the Links to the church where my brother and little sister had to go on Sundays.
At the top of Palace Road there was a Square and when I was very young there was a bomb site where we used to play, (Health and Safety would have had a field day) lol.
The pub on the corner of Palace Road, The Paxon Arms Hotel always had an old dog outside sleeping on the pavement, an English Bulldog.
At the end of Palace Road there were a few shops, I remember the sweet shop where I used to buy 4 fruit salads for a half penny, my brother like the black jacks.
If you walked down Crystal Palace Road there were more shops and my Dad used to have his hair singhed every Saturday at Eric's the barbers, the newsagents was next door on one side and a very old chemist on the other with Clouds the grocers on the corner of Waldergrave Road, I think I was Christened in the church up there. On the corner of Hamlet Road was a hardware shop where my Mum worked.
I also the remember at the top of Crystal Palace Road going towards Gypsy Hill there was a cinema and opposite was a shop that had a train in the window and if you put a penny in the window slot the train went round and round.