The Wonder Shops Of Plumstead Road

A Memory of Woolwich.

When I was a teenager back in the late 1950's I loved travelling by trollybus to explore Woolwich. At the time I lived at home in Welling but Woolwich always had much more of interest to offer. There was the endless fascination of the river Thames and the paddleboat ferry that crossed over to Silvertown and the Tate and Lyle factory. There were the markets, the live eel shop, the Tramshed and the Army barracks up on the heath. Best of all though was Plumstead Road, the main street that ran from Plumstead to Woolwich Arsenal railway stations lying opposite the Woolwich Arsenal military complex. Back then, way before all the Victorian buildings were demolished to make way for road widening, there were many wonderful secondhand, junk and bric-a-brac shops full of desirable treasures. I still have the Ronson Variflame gas cigarette lighter, the posh fly fishing rod, two model aircrafts, a Swiss Army knife, a Meccano set, and umpteen 78's records of early rock and roll. So sad, then, when it was all swept aside in the march of progress, the motor car, and so-called 'modernisation.'

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