Friern Road

A Memory of Dulwich.

I was born 291 Friern Rd prefab December 1952 went to Goodrich infants & Heber rd school. Remember the parade of shops junction of Barry rd & Lordship Lane, Bert the barber, Val’s the greengrocer & next door grocer shop, Redapples(?) sweet shop on corner where I buy penny Five Boys chocolate bar & stroke the blind boy charity box statue that sat outside. The Plough pub opposite where dad would bring a lemonade & packet of Oxo crisps to the beer garden.
Remember the library fascinated by the spiral staircase & 10th renewal of Struwwelpeter book. Remember Lloyds bank - yrs later a colleague told me her father was the manager at that time. Dentist above bank (?) still have ptsd over extraction at 5 yrs old & Dr Herd on Eynella Rd. Dulwich Park visited almost daily to feed ducks in between visits to Hornimans museum & opposite park with paddling pool & sandpit.
Sunday school at Christ Church Barry road where I was christened.
Played out on street most days until 1960 when prefabs were cleared for redevelopment. Prefabs boiling hot in summer & freezing in winter- no insulation apart from asbestos roof. Anderson shelter in garden for coal shed. Remains of bomb sites on Friern rd used as playgrounds boarded up houses that became our hideout & dens.