Marsala Road Ladywell The Prefabs

A Memory of Lewisham.

I was only a few months old when our family moved to 122 Marsala Road, Ladywell in 1949. I was ten years of age when we moved from Ladywell to Dartford in August 1959 but there are many different and varied things that I can remember.

Money was then very tight and Dad was working in London and Mum also worked full-time. Mum's Aunt Mabel (Massingham) came over most days to look after Ian and me until mum got home at the end of the day.

The milkman used to leave the milk in the fridge each day, and even if Auntie Mabel wasn't there the prefab doors would be left unlocked, such was the spirit of the day. Regularly the milkman would leave a bar of chocolate in the fridge for Ian and me and that was a real treat. He had a horse that pulled the milk cart and I would love going out to stroke him.

At night I would always hear the clunking and banging of the trains that were shunting to and fro and early every morning, I suppose it was about 4 or 5 o'clock I would hear the gate opening and swinging with a loud creaking sound, and then the unmistakable sound of the large click as it shut firmly on the latch. I suppose it was either a night-workman coming home or beginning his early morning shift.

We would always have plenty of places to play. All three friends - myself, Bobby Bedson and Paul Gilbert - would play in each others gardens, or quite often play on the small bombsite on the corner of Algernon Road and Marsala Road.

I have a vague recollection of making friends with a boy from one of the older houses, two or three houses down the road. We would all go car registration number hunting, looking for the lowest numbers and letters. This we did mainly in Marsala Road as there probably between ten and twenty cars parked in the street most days. If we went to the far end of Marsala Road and turned a corner to the right, under the railway bridge, there was a small coach company. I think there was only room for one or two coaches in his small yard.

I cannot remember the name of this company but it was in Ellerdale Street. From memory Elmira Street used to be called The Mill Stream, or at least that is what we called it, as it ran parallel with the River Ravensbourne, but I don't remember any houses in this street, and I imagine that the street had suffered from bomb damage. There were no fences between the road and the stream just a mound of earth running the length of the road and several yards wide. This was not at all shallow and even at that young age, about 8 or 10 I never remember any of us fooling around too close to the water’s edge as it was probably quite deep, and was at least eight to ten feet wide.

On the opposite side of the stream, behind a bordering fence was a council depot, with all the old fashioned dustcarts – the type that the rear of the body would lift up so the rubbish got pushed to the front. I can remember Ian doing something that got him into trouble - I think he may have climbed under or over the fence and set some pile of rubbish on fire within the council compound, or some such thing.

Another 'game' we used to play - we used cycle to the top of the hilliest part of Adelaid Avenue and wait until a bus came into view around Brockley Road. We would then pedal like fury to see how far we could get before the bus caught us up. Obviously not the most sensible thing to do but we thought nothing of it at the time.

My mum recalls that she had to use scissors to cut the grass at the front of our prefab as they didn't have any shears or a lawn mower

Bobby Bedson, was my best friend and we went to Gordonbrock Primary School together. We spent nearly all our time together playing in the street, on the bomb site at the corner of Marsala Road and Algernon Road, up at Hilly Fields and to a lesser degree at the "Mill Stream" which led towards Lewisham railway station and the bus terminus by the Gaumont Picture House.

The roads around it formed a very wide one-way system and this was the terminus for the buses. We would be allowed to empty the ‘used tickets’ box on the entrance platform at the rear of the buses for our bus ticket collecting hobby.

I think it was in 1957 when we had the floods and the Lewisham Rec. was badly flooded. The Council erected a safety fence to stop people going into the grounds but we all climbed over this fence, but the newspapers were there and they photographed us jumping over the fences. I was so frightened that I would be in the papers the next day that I think I tried to be good for a whole day, while I hoped this episode would pass.

Bobby and I got into a lot of trouble one day, because on the way home at lunchtime we stood and watched for ages, a road roller that was rolling the tarmac in Ladywell Road. We were there for so long my auntie came looking for me.

I am interested in researching the old prefabs in Marsala Road and if anyone has memories and especially photographs of the prefabs, and also the houses before the WW2 bombings I would love to see them.

Tony Brown
Dartford, Kent
email: tonyjan@talktalk.net

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