bingobongo

Well. a cheap van would be better. You could park it somewhere quiet every evening. Having the same gasply neighbours every night, seems like a very bad idea to me...

Hear hear, mate! What an absolute load of garbage it is to rattle on about "hysteria" in such a situation! Anyone in any doubt go read up the details of symptoms and treatment for hospitalised people, the appalling business of having to try to breath via a tube shoved down your throat. Unbelievable lack of empathy/understanding, to take risks with anyone elses health by moaning about masks etc. Just get on with it, and shut up.

HORRIBLE!!!HOW CAN YOU BEAR IT!!! Change of lifestyle sounds essential to me! How about "Van Life", or a "Tiny House" in the countryside? So much stress must be bad for your health.

I don't think its ok NOT AT ALL! To just walk past and do nothing! Everyone might do something useful in such a situation, even if it's just to stand well away and scream/shout/draw attenion to the situation. That's all I could do, once, when a bloke started punching another one in a Road Rage incident. I wouldn't have gone anywhere near them, but I yelled at them as loud as I could. Other people stopped then, and the bloke doing the punching got in his car and drove away. I'm glad your bro is ok, he must have been terrified.

Oh my how strange! Those weird names for the Magdala! Have I got the right pub!!? Maybe not...corner of Northcross Road? I passed the pub every day from 1946 to....? On my way to St Johns and St Clements CE School.They had two huge brewers dray Carthorses ..pulling a wooden wagon with barrels on it. A lot of horses and carts, still, then! Lots of horse poo in the roads,my dad collected it when he could ..for our roses. Smell of steaming horses and can remember them chomping their hay from nose bags. I suppose it doesn't look like that now.

http://dulwichonview.org.uk/2014/08/27/recycled-war-stretchers/ Photos here and story of ARP metal stretchers.. with before and after metal fences..photos of the blocks of flats on dog kennel hill.. and a close up of one stretcher segment of the stretcher fence...

..... at the new built Epiphany > Hall in Bassano street; built where the bomb > shelters used to be I believe. New built....cant be...It's in street party photos when I was 3..45. I think you are 14 years younger than me..So it had been around quite a while..I looked at it recently, on the street view map..It had stone steps up to the top floor on the outside wall, lordship lane end .when I was at St Johns..But they are covered up and inside the extension now. So part was new.. We used to go to the bomb shelter, it isn't under the hall..it has the car park on top now, next to the Epiph'. I do recall Blackmore?s on the > opposite corner, his old NSU scooter parked > outside, crisps, Dandelion & Burdock, Zing, Tizer, > flying saucers, Sweet Cigarettes, Jamboree Bags & > suchlike sensations. Mr Blackmore was ex RAF? He knew all kinds of clever stuff, so educated everyone .. He took over the corner shop from Mrs Murton (Merton) His sister. I remember that list of things, with coconut mushrooms, coconut chips, tiger nuts, curly whirlies, raspberry ripple ice cream, Mivvies..After Sunday school meeting place. > > To BingoBongo:- I went to school with a lad who > lived in Kent House on Bassano, by the name of > Stephen Wayne. Did you know the Wayne family? I > went to cubs in the Epiphany Hall, 10th Camberwell > ?C? pack. By the way, great photo of yourself and > your Sister. We lived in the top flat of Kent House, with the yard which must have been the flat roof of the lower building, We moved out when I was four, our window, with its x sticky tape and roll up blackout blind.. looked over the Epiphany Hall.. I don't remember anyone else who lived there, but there was a small boy called Colin who waS in one photo..I think he lived there... Thanks for reminders! Have a happy Christmas

Google "street view" maps...Perfect for revisiting old territories! ...I went to "see" my mum again yesterday..Not there now of course.. and visited my aunt and Uncles flat, ex above doctor Gunewardenes surgery on Pellat/Landcroft on the way..everything looking more or less the same, only familiar faces, long gone. But still..Just as if they might appear at any second! Someone reminded me... No one said "streets"..then. "Turnings" ..they were called. Very odd! Will look at the different architecture..

Y'man Wrote: ------------------------------------------------- > > It's a bit small, the school photo, and when I > zoom in it gets blurred. But yes, I do believe > you have my eldest brother (deceased) there. If it > is, that would make you around the beginning of > your seventh decade? Mr. Hughes was still > teaching at St Johns when I got there. > > On the chimney, another thought I had was that > it might be from the one time brick factory! I > had an old ordnance survey map at one time that > showed parts of Dulwich were a market garden. > Then, as it was gradually urbanised, they used > local clay on which most of Dulwich & Peckham > sits, and there was a small brick factory closeby. > No idea where it was or when it was destroyed and > the chimney felled but it's a thought. Interesting ref the clay! I didn't know that, but do remember how easy it was to find very nice clay for model making! There was a boggy bit of 'wild' terrain in Townley Rd, where you could quite easily dig up smooth, light brown clay, ace for models, baked in the stove.. I'm sorry you lost your brother, I'm 74..I might have a better photo..I know many of the names and remember them all pretty clearly ...Mr and Mrs Hughes super nice.. lived in Dulwich Village..

Y'man Wrote: ---- If the bus stopped at the > stop on Lordship Lane hill, it was going slow > enough at Milo Rd to jump off and save the walk > back from The Plough. Were we really that lazy or > merely boys with the daring do! Jumping off buses and on buses too! Was just the thing to do! Not lazy! The hill stop (my stop) was a request, so if nobody rang the bell you might be obliged to jump off or do the long walk back.. And Running and leaping onto buses that were just taking off, or stopped at traffic lights..Could save a long wait! Horribly dangerous! No H and S regs. then! Just the conductor to say 'hold on tight, now!' to anyone without a seat. Or riding on the 'platform' wind and rain blowing in! A long time since I saw a London bus, I suppose they all have doors now!

Here is a photo of Mr Hughes class, St John's...8 year olds? 1950? Not sure...Is one of your brothers here!?

solar Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Unfortunately some years ago the first class baths > were replaced with a fitness centre. The smaller > second class pool is now the only pool. It would > have been better in my opinion to have filled in > the second class pool and kept the much nicer > first class pool with its lovely viewing gallery. Did you go swimming there, Solar? You've got clear memories of both pools? I know now there were two.. I think The second class pool had only curtains over the changing cubicle doors..First class had wooden swing doors. They put too much chlorine in the water, sometimes, then everyone had red eyes..

Sorry I can't make the photo turn around, no "edit" button...That's my elder sister and I, sitting on the family bath. No bathroom in our flat (Bassano street)...Lav in a shed at the end of the yard. If you walk to the end of the street you could see the big bomb site..Air raid shelter, directly opposite our block..Anyone out there recognise us?!!

Just coming back to me, as shadows through mist! First and second class baths!! I can see the changing cubicles as clearly as if I'm about to go in...I think it must have been second class!? But Not sure.. The last couple of changing cubicles were very small, the wall sloped to cut those two, almost to thin triangles, there was just enough room to change. There was a spring board and diving boards, and as I remember it..Queues of skinny naughty boys, in raggy bathing trunks, bombing into the deep end..sceeching and making zoo animal noises.who were free to torture scared girls, like me..as they liked. I was impressed I wanted to do all the daring things they did, so our school pool,for all girls only,was a practice pitch. There were hot water, bath tub baths, as well. It didnt cost much for a big bathfull of very hot water.. Thinking about the chimney...I remember seeing a big chimney somewhere along that swimming pool road, could have been the pool, or maybe, the hat factory? There were sometimes huge heaps of pith helmets? They looked like pith helmets to me.. Stacked outside, waiting for collection/delivery? The person whose mum worked in the post office!! I expect she might have known my mum! In 44 my mum pushed me around in a sec hand wheelchair, we were too hard up to own a real "pram" ..We lived a bit less than 100 yards from the big bomb on lordship lane.but my mother my sister and I had gone to Staffordshire to get away from the bombing, for little while then.I walked over the bomb site, sometimes on the way home from school..St John's...When older..From 47..

Ron Liversage you wrote "From the garden, I could see the church on the left and Lordship Lane. Also there were some prefabs and one of my school mates lived in the prefab directly behind us".. The prefabs behind your house were home territory!....so mates.Would be..The Patricks? Micalefs? Longmans? Seymours?..Two more families..Billy and Linda in one and a boy in another...can't remember those names...all of them there in the 50s.

I'm sorry you removed your posts, computedshorty... I was thinking about some of the things you wrote last time... Eg the tennis court! You are right...probably lots of places we never knew about, I never knew about that alleyway, though wonder if it was a continuation of the one that started at the top of Woodward road ..and went down to Milo between the houses on Lordship Lane, and Woodward.. There was a Chiropodists on the corner opposite the Library, my Gran had her corns and bunions treated there... And an archway with a short back alley..a short cut..close by..through from Woodward to Lordship Lane...I remember seeing the alleyway..wondering where it went to. Interested to read about building work in that time..my father worked on repairs etc to bombed houses.. No shortage of work, then. I was about 4 years old when we *almost* bought a car..a beautiful beast, a 30s Riley, as I remember it.. that had to be started as you describe..with running boards and those little orange arms that stuck out for indicators. It was fifty quid in someone's scrap yard, in Catford. My father was not good at buying bargains, but it was a big disappointment not to drive home in it, when he decided a car with no insurance was a bad idea. We couldn't afford it, anyway..I dont think my mother would have been pleased. The Boy Scouts assoc..I can't remember a single boy scout...except a few of the boys at St Johns, wore the uniform sometimes.. Frank Greenaway sounds familiar...I had forgotten Mrs Merton ..I feel reasonably sure was Mr. Blackmores sister. I remember the sign painters, painting 'Blackmore' over the sweetshop doorway. door instead. And..yes the repainting of that postbox, a few times! Townley road..I saw barrage balloons, high in the sky..walking there with my mother..I think they were supposed to be some kind of block to enemy aircraft..and remember the searchlights at night. Our parents lived through two terrible wars. The stress must have been almost unbearable. computedshorty Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > David. This is the record you wanted. > Percy Seymore was my school chum he had his legs > badly injured. > A large boy who died aged 50 falling from a roof. > I had so many memories on this page I had to > remove most of the early ones posted about 2009. > > Dulwich/Camberwell SE22 > East Dulwich > Between Crystal Palace Road and Darrell Road > V1 Flying Bomb > 3 Killed > 03/08/1944 at 10:24 > This was the 3rd of the 4 V1's that were to fall > in this small area of East Dulwich, > It struck at the South end of Crystal Palace and > Darrell Roads It demolished 14 houses and shops > and caused damaged to 100 others. The area has > been re- developed with post-war housing. > > .

computedshorty Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- Yes!...Google is excellent..it allows quite close inspection of the streets in many towns and cities. I use Google 'Street Level'..using that..its possible to take a stroll right now, online, past my Grans house in Colwell road, and on through the adjoining backstreets to Bassano Street, past the Epiphany hall..(its outside staircase now covered) my pa was on fire watch on the roof of that buildinmg. The bomb shelter we went to..is covered by a car park now, directly opposite the furnace of the steam laundry..the above-ground brick part of it covering the entrance stairs to the underground shelter, is no longer there. You can probably look to see if those blue tiles are still there! ..with the street level google. I was thinking about the blue tiles last night. They were a beautiful deep blue.. I think half way up the exterior walls to window level? Greenaway's! I know the name very well and can see the sign! It was green and white. ..were there builders supplies stored at the back of that building? It was a large smart building ...with bright lit offices, not at all like builders supplies shops. I think I remember heaps of building materials, seen from the garden of the first prefab.. I think it must have been quite a dangerous job, building prefabs..I believe they were made of sheets of material made of asbestos mixed with cement? No one thought of asbestos as a bad material for workmen to cut up, then? If much thought was ever given to healthy work conditions then..I do not think it was. There was a lawn in front of Greenaway's and a brick wall that followed the slope of that bit of steep hill, in 'steps'..I always walked on it from about 4 years old..the step in the wall nearest the gate was quite a long way to jump down. Our prefab was not on the street, but at the back of those near the main road. We had a very big garden..not quite big enough to squash in another prefab, I suppose. I dont think I knew a single person in the houses where you lived, but I remember walking past them on the way to Dulwich library, and the shops near The Plough. They were big houses..perhaps three floors high, each with a semi basement..and small front garden. There was a flight of steps up to the front door? Plane trees along the street, I think... There was a dentist with a big moustache..in the old house on Townley rd corner, I think the doctor was on the other side? A newer building, with a hall attached? I took some photos on one brief return..I must check to see where you pulled the iron bar from the church wall. You sound like you were a bit wild! One small boy from the other side of Lordship Lane opposite your house, I remember him as a naughty person, he used to like throwing stones..at passers by. One day I grabbed him, after he threw stones at me.(I was about 15).and smacked his bare leg, quite hard, but not a serious damage..He burst into tears, and yelled how he would tell his mum. I hope I persuaded him not to throw stones any more ..his mum never came to find me! I suppose I would be arrested for the same smack now! > I remember the two brick curved concrete roof Air > Raid Shelters in Basano Street after the Steam > Laundry. > I lived fourteen houses up from you in LL. > Facing your Prefab used to be our doctors, when > bombed they moved to the corner of Townley Road. > When I left school at fourteen I worked for > Greenaways Builders at the surviving house next to > the prefabs, Putting up Prefabs. > They did not take the iron railings from the > church as there was a drop and steps going down, > this did not stop us working loose one of the iron > rails and dropping it down the gap in the tram > Track causing a tremendous flash, and stopped the > trams. > I think that the Offlicence on the corner of > Jennings Road was called The Wenlock it was all > tiled front in dark blue. If you go on Google > Earth you can see the remaning two prefabs > opposite.

another annie Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Hi bingobojngo, welcome to the entertainments of > the East Dulwich forum. > I live in the corner shop corner of > Goodrich/Landcroft opposite the bombsite/now flats > you and Computedshorty are talking about - the one > that was a grocers, not the sweet shop. Thank you for your welcome, Annie.. I do remember the shop that is now your house...I know Mr Blackmore's shop became a house too..its strange to think of your life ..and mine ..in layers on those streets, at such different times...I didnt go to 'your' shop much..my ma used to do all the shopping, further down Lordship Lane..Aylings green grocers, The united dairies, Hunts the sweet shop, I can see them all... but. The Baptist Church, (close to your house) Boys Brigade, Girls Life Brigade, YPF..were all busy in those days and once per month there was a full uniform march around those streets with the Boys Brigade band. Hilarious really..they hit an awful lot of bum notes and my uniform was unbearably itchy. Next time you walk past the stone steps that lead down to the Church basement from Goodrich road..you can see the metal bar that I believe still holds up the railings, from the street to the church wall..its bent in the middle..because it was used so much ..and bent out of shape, being swung on so much. Especially by the bb boys who did all kinds of army style keep fit. (Nothing so energetic for the girls brigade) One fellow I remember could leapfrog over your nearby red postbox.. The next corner down from your house, was R Whites(?) Offlicense. I got Tizer, Smiths crisps there, and light ale for my pa..my mum only ever drank tonic water with a slice of lemon. It seemed quite exotic to me! There was an old style telephone box outside R Whites, with a black dial phone and the Button B and Button A connection ...you had to feed it four pennies and press button A when connected. Nobody vandalised phones in those days, but they were peed in, sometimes, so I can remember the pong of the telephone box. It was the time of those very serious thick smogs, caused by smokey chimneys that caused lots of deaths. So all the street lamps ..there was one outside your house and Mr Blackmores shop..were changed to bright orange sodium lamps, or it was impossible to see anything at all at night. My bus got lost on the way to school in the smog. Further up Landcroft, after Mr Blackmore's shop, an old lady lived who had gone a little crazy. As many did through the war years. She always wore a floral wrap apron and slippers, and she used to sweep the length of the pavement between Goodrich and the next street up...poor old gal, who knew what was happening in her mind for all the while she was shouting abuse at imaginary enemies, and hateful people that no one could see. She wore out her brooms very fast, so she was usually sweeping with just the wooden head. David Lyons lived a few houses down from you...in Goodrich. His mum bought one of the latest radiograms..huge bits of shiny brown furniture..that opened (usually with a slowly pirouetting tiny ballet dancer inside..and glowing 'cocktail bar') To play 78s or 45s or 33s records. Frankie Laine, Johnny Ray (he was famous for crying real tears as he sung) Peggy Lee..Frank Sinatra.. We could play only 78s at home..an o!d wind up record player...but I had the ballad of Davy crocket, and Max Bygraves ..and "Green Door" can't remember who sang that! > Computedshorty has told me something of this > crossroads, i'd be interested in any other > memories you could share, it's great to learn > about the house and its history. Thanks.

computedshorty Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > This is the picture now of 1 & 3 Goodrich Road. It looks very green and posh...! Barbara Martin and her mum, and the Roberts fam. Lived in the next, or maybe second or third, much older property after that new house... The trees just in sight behind that house..must be Partly the church garden and partly our garden when we lived in the prefab, on that space, now gone. There's some kind of govt department building there now I think..I do know for sure...that although the prefabs were all cleared away...the apple tree my pa bought in brixton Woolworths, was left in place..I saw it briefly...many years later. I suppose it might be still there. An enormous apple tree. Woollies, Brixton, was very dark and also gas lit then...with sawdust on the floor in winter. You were old enough to understand more and to be shattered by the war experience. Old enough to have terrible memories..I sometimes wonder how anyone could have come out of it all and just got on with life..everyone must have been profoundly broken by it. I have one or two memories though very small, I was about 2 or 3.. Remember being very scared and thinking my pa couldn't help because he was scared too, when we went into the air raid shelter..(Bassano st shelter) I had the funny face style gas mask for kids..There are quite a few recordings of the bombs, exploding, online..and the sound of the bomber that had its engine cut out..a moment or two of silence, (buzz bomb?) before the bomb exploded.That made me remember ...hearing those sounds again, and the air raid siren and all clear.. > The open space opposite the Fish Shop was a > smaller bomb that I can't trace. > Before the Police Station was Built in Lordship > Lane there were two shops from up Whatley Road > then a space also from that bomb the house that > had gone then had wooden shores between to support > the two buildings that survived. > The large bomb that dropped in Landcroft Road was > between Goodrich Road & Crystal Palace Road where > we were buried in the debris. I think I was about > nine. > I remember next to The Grocery Shop in Goodrich > lived George Wood who froze fruit flavoured ices > at home and sold them from his box tricycle > calling out "Georgie Wood's got a little bit of > good". A penny for a stick of triangular ice,that > most of us dropped.

An aside...and with cap in hand touching forelock. I'm definitely on one or the other, venus or mars, then...maybe an intergalactic traveller. There's no differences worth the name between genders/sexes..except for all those determined to hang on to, or construct.. domination of whichever one is an own ..(entirely without logic)...favourite. > > Of course you can call it a sexist comment, but if > you don't realise that men and women are different > then you are probably on Venus or Mars. Anyway, > once I've completed my research on the Business > thread I'll publish my findings which to this > point I will admit are not proven and just a > hunch.

Gas lamps for light in houses were commonplace When I was a child..(we lived in Bassano St, Kent House) I remember my ma buying gas mantels, tiny white lace socks, fireproof, that fitted over the gas flame to spread the light...They had to be replaced when they wore thin, a hole in the mantel caused a popping noise, tiny explosions I suppose, of gas in the wrong place! My pa always lit the gas with a Swan Vestas match, I think ..held close to the mantel, while pulling on one of the thin metal chains, each side of the lamp. The light was variable, depending on how far that chain was pulled..and it made a squeaky metallic noise..like a hinge that needed a spot of oil... KidKruger Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Re: V1 & V2 Bombs dropped on Lordship Lane. > Posted by bob 03 February, 2012 18:56 > > "Yes I remember the two sisters in 1982 it was > said that they still had gas light as they did not > trust electricity. > Bob S" > > > This is true, I removed the gas piping for the > lighting from that house when the sisters had > moved out. In the bedrooms on each chimney breast > were 2x runs of thin gauge gas pipes leading to > fittings which held the flame and had to be lit by > hand.

computedshorty Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > The shops on Goodrich / Landcroft Roads used to be > > Murtons Sweet Shop then Blackmores and Flectures > the Grocers. > Facing was a dirlect two story building that was > in the process of converting into flats > fenced arround when the war started wit byh scaffold > boards stood upright, this was owned by Tilt > Estates, when the war > ended we pulled all that boarding down and set it > alight in the > middle of the crossroads, for the Victory > celebrations, the heat was so great that the > margerine stacked in the > Grocers shop window melted and ran down the > incline of the window display and could be seen > against the Glass window. > There was a Red Post Box on that corner, my > brother who was serving abroad received his > letters > partly burnt as they had been in the Post Box. > The picture is where the bombs dropped > The other picture is the newer buildings built > there it was never a bomb site, the old number 1 & > 3 Goodricch Road and the back was having additions > with pink fletton bricks with a flat roof, that we > used to climb up to. > The old inner rooms did still have peeling > wallpaper. The two staircases were removed and a > set of outside steps were being built on the end > near the church. I'm sure you are correct ref the part finished building.!...that explains why it was inaccessible ....another remembered bomb site...with flapping bits of wallpaper and broken fireplaces..(I checked your map to see if it was in fact a bomb site), was opposite the chip shop..on Landcroft Road, close to Whately road. I might have known you! but you are approx ten years older, (from your toddler in the garden, photo)..Yes! That post box! I posted all my Christmas cards there for about 15 years.. Annie..I will remember some more, later. What became of Ronnie Partridge? ...... PS...you wrote about 'the other picture' I can't find another picture...is it attached to a diff. Post? Or will you repost, please?

another annie Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Hi bingobongo, welcome to the entertainments of > the East Dulwich forum. > I live in the corner shop corner of > Goodrich/Landcroft opposite the bombsite/now flats > you and Computedshorty are talking about - the one > that was a grocers, not the sweet shop. > Computedshorty has told me something of this > crossroads, i'd be interested in any other > memories you could share, it's great to learn > about the house and its history. Thanks. I won't be able to write much about your house Annie...but the area around it...was close to home... Bedtime now...hope to write something tomorrow...

Mr Blackmore and his sister ran the corner shop for as long as I can remember...He was very well spoken, rather like an ex RAF flyer, from an old movie, and his shop was very popular as a meeting place. He offered bits of education, and some stern discipline to those who liked to crowd his shop. No one was allowed to sit on the counter. There was usually a crowd of youngsters outside on Friday evenings, maybe en route for the chippies...not far away ..in Crystal Palace road or corner of Landcroft and Whately road. I can see him very clearly, and hear him talking..together with the arrangements of sweet jars and stationery supplies.. I can see this thread is about bombs not people memories..!!!.so I add..opposite Blackmore's shop (corner of Goodrich and Landcroft and beside the Baptist Church) was a bomb site I suppose the size of several houses, fenced all around. I liked playing in the bomb site of David Grieg's in Lordship Lane..although it was forbidden ( I guess out of respect for those killed and injured there, as much as for any dangers) but that one opposite Blackmore's was inaccessible. I remember the flapping remains of wallpaper and broken, open fireplaces, visible.. one above the other, (the remains of bombed houses), on the walls of the buildings still standing. I remember the two-balls game of .. A House To Let....No Rent To Pay..Knock At The Door...And Run Away... With the 'To Let' signs in windows in Landcroft Rd. With the added words "No Blacks".

I came across this forum after googling 'Doctor Gunewardene' of East Dulwich. I remember him pretty well..he was Buddhist, and had a statue of the seated Buddha on his desk, I thought he looked very much like that. Tubby and smiling. A very kind man..who by all accounts I ever heard, and one other I just found via Google, had experience some very rough justice, a three year gaol sentence, it says in the report online... and had been accused of taking part in a botched abortion. Abortion was illegal in those days I think, in any case. He was a very popular doctor, with a large practice until that time, and I believe his patients rallied round to do all they could to help him. His surgery was the street level ..or at least ...his name was on the big shop window of what had been one of B.T.Anson's builders' supplies shops. Bern Anson had made sure he had that surgery, I think perhaps, free of charge...at any rate..they were good friends. I believe he was there for some years. I never heard a single bad opinion about him, I think he was a much loved doctor, I'm very glad to have been treated by him with great care.