Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Having lived around ED my whole life, it's amazing how much the area has changed. Some former shops and buildings are indelibly etched in my mind - the joke shop on the corner of Northcross Rd and Ulverscroft; the Co-Op, opposite where Iceland is now; the Mother & Son bakery on the corner of Northcross Rd and Fellbrigg Rd; the record shop that used to be next to the EDT; all the shops that used to exist down Upland Rd (the bike shop, Aneloys, Ken's newsagents, the second-hand TV shop, the parafin shop on the corner...)


Anyone remember the dodgy jeans shop on the corner of Whately Rd and Fellbrigg? Or the Odeon that used to be in Goose Green? Or the ridiculously long, thin chips you used to get in Golden City opposite the police stn? How different the local boozers like the EDT, the Magdala, the Palmerston used to be? Or the various incarnations the Uplands has gone thru?


Anyone remember Toby the local stray, who used to hang around outside Joe the Butchers in NorthX Rd? The mad tin foil woman? The two drunks who used to loiter outside the Irish club on a Friday night shouting abuse at people waiting at the bus stop? The bloke who used to fall asleep outside the betting office in C.P Road?


Ah, memories... Anyone care to add theirs?

Link to comment
https://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/topic/1516-east-dulwich-nostalgia/
Share on other sites

carter39 Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Anyone remember the dodgy jeans shop on the corner

> of Whately Rd and Fellbrigg?


Dodgy doesn't really sum that place up, the man was a total pervert!!! I went in once to get some jeans, and when I walked in to the back room to try them on, there was a sofa covered in porn! I didn't try them on, I ran away!

There is a thread HERE about various "local characters" including the hat man and the white lady.


Out of interest, does the newsagent on LL opposite the Woolwich still have the talking parrot toy thing outside? I can't say as I've noticed it for years, but I remember as a school kid walking past it every day when we had to go from St Johns & St Clement's (when it was on Northcross/Archdale) to Epiphany Hall on Bassano Street for our school dinners and assemblies.

Soon after we moved to ED in 95 the small toy shop near the Cheese Block closed down. It was a great place to buy real toys like airfix kits and lego, not la-di-da dolls made out of fairtrade muesli. i can't help thinking if it had lasted a few more years when the area turned into nappy valley the owners would have been laughing and could have retired on the vast profits. I think there was another branch in Gypsy Hill, but what was its name?

macroban Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Some memories there, carter39.

>

> Today I was thinking of the Dulwich Hamlet

> Football Club path that ran from Dog Kennel Hill

> to Greendale. A useful shortcut when it was open.



I remember the old woman who used to go to every Hamlet game in the 70s and 80s. She had one of those old-fashioned wooden rattles that she'd swing around constantly, croaking, "C'mon Dulwich", regardless of the score.


It's a shame the old Hamlet terrace song seems to have died - well, I've never heard it sung whenever I've been.

Before it became Le Chardon, that restaurant was called "Thistells". It was somebody trying to be arty with the word thistles - or maybe they just couldn't spell. The place became increasingly eccentric. Towards the end, we went for a meal and asked for tea after the dessert. The young lad acting as waiter brought us the teapot, and after a couple of minutes we poured our tea only to find that it was incredibly weak. The manager (the lad's mum I think) came and the two of them peered inside the teapot. They'd forgotten to put a teabag in.


The Thistells name lives on because "Chardon" means thistle, of course.


Back in the 1980s there was another French restaurant called Le Careme, I believe. It was somewhere around the bottom of LL, but don't know if it was on the Chardon site.

Muttley Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Before it became Le Chardon, that restaurant was

> called "Thistells". It was somebody trying to be

> arty with the word thistles - or maybe they just

> couldn't spell. The place became increasingly

> eccentric. Towards the end, we went for a meal

> and asked for tea after the dessert. The young

> lad acting as waiter brought us the teapot, and

> after a couple of minutes we poured our tea only

> to find that it was incredibly weak. The manager

> (the lad's mum I think) came and the two of them

> peered inside the teapot. They'd forgotten to put

> a teabag in.

>

> The Thistells name lives on because "Chardon"

> means thistle, of course.

>

> Back in the 1980s there was another French

> restaurant called Le Careme, I believe. It was

> somewhere around the bottom of LL, but don't know

> if it was on the Chardon site.


Le Careme was where Sema Thai is today. Back in 1983 when I was a starving student in Camberwell my parents visited and took me to Sunday lunch there after it had a rave review in City Limits magazine. I can still remember a little bowl of peanuts being served alongside the roast beef, which I thought a little odd.

fish Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Wasn't there a restaurant called Chez Nico, or

> something? The owner of this establishment,

> somewhere near the police station, went on to

> become quite famous - or was he before? Can

> anyone remember?


Yes, Chez Nico, on the current site of the Chinese place (Mr Lius or something). He went on to open up on Park Lane, and earn 3 michelin stars!

Jeremy Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> fish Wrote:

> --------------------------------------------------

> -----

> > Wasn't there a restaurant called Chez Nico, or

> > something? The owner of this establishment,

> > somewhere near the police station, went on to

> > become quite famous - or was he before? Can

> > anyone remember?

>

> Yes, Chez Nico, on the current site of the Chinese

> place (Mr Lius or something). He went on to open

> up on Park Lane, and earn 3 michelin stars!



Landis - Nico Landis.

The handy store in Goodrich Road was a lifesaver for all us girls attending Friern Upper School,it was still there (just) when my daughter went to Goodrich primary in the late 1970s.


I must be ancient as I remember shopping in Woolworths (the site that Foxtons has taken over) David Griegs- those marble shop tops, the drapers (around Sema Thai location) and the Welsh Couple who ran the dairy by the zebra crossing at Goose Green opposite EDT- Jones? their son did the local milk round. What about the Co Op between Cry.Pal. rd and landells where Big M was. Cullins at the corner of Landells and LL- what was the Plough Homecraft before?

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Latest Discussions

    • It’s about chains, and the ethos of family run business versus unhealthy competition 
    • 'Tom Lehrer, acclaimed musical satirist of cold war era, dies aged 97' https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/jul/28/tom-lehrer-dies-aged-97-dead-musical-satirist  
    • But all those examples sell a wide variety of things,  and mostly they are well spread out along Lordship Lane. These two shops both sell one very specific thing, albeit in different flavours, and are just across the road from each other. I don't think you can compare the distribution of shops in Roman times to the distribution of shops in Lordship Lane in the twenty first century. Well, you can, but it doesn't feel very appropriate. Haa anybody asked the first shop how they feel? Are they happy about the "healthy competition" ?
    • ED is included in the 17 August closure set (or just possibly 15 August, depending on which part of the page you trust more) listed at https://metro.co.uk/2025/07/25/full-list-25-poundland-stores-confirmed-close-august-23753048/. Here incidentally are some snippets from their annual reports, at https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/02495645/filing-history. 2022: " during the period we opened 41 stores and closed 43 loss-making/under-performing stores.  At the period-end we were trading from 821 stores in the UK, IoM and ROI. ... "We renogotiated 82 leases in the year, saving on average 45% versus the prior lease agreement..." 2023: "We also continued to improve our market footprint through sourcing better store locations, opening 53 and closing 51 stores during the year." 2024:  "The ex-Wilco stores acquired in the prior year have formed a core part of this strategy to expand our store network.  We favour quality over quantity and during the period we opened 84 stores and closed 71 loss-making/under-performing ones."
Home
Events
Sign In

Sign In



Or sign in with one of these services

Search
×
    Search In
×
×
  • Create New...