Waterman's Almhouses

A Memory of Penge.

As a small child, I lived in Beckenham, and we used visit my grandmother who lived in a flat in Queen Adelaide Court. From her lounge window we could see the Almshouses. At that age I did not have any real understanding of what they were, but they held a strange fascination for me because they were so different from the surrounding houses and blocks of flats.

I have many memories of Penge, including the market (Maple Avenue?), the Crooked Billet bus stop where the 227 bus used to stop. I believe there was a Crooked Billet pub too, but I was still many years away from discovering such pleasures!

Our GP - Dr. Kelleher - practiced in the basement of a large Victorian house in Penge High Street up towards Crystal Palace. I can still remember the overpowering smell of antiseptic.