East Dulwich Nostalgia

[carter39]

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?

[Keef]

carter39 Wrote:

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> 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!

[macroban]

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.

[Loz]

It still is there - it got a revamp a couple of years ago. Well, I don't if it is the same one you remember, but one exists.

Walk up St Francis Road and then up the side of the football club. You'll get to a nice new(ish) concrete path through to Greendale.

[macroban]

I've not walked the new path that runs through the St Francis Hospital grounds.

The gates to the original path are still there on Dog Kennel Hill.

[chichirara]

Do you remember the white lady, and the singing dancing lady who ran the charity shop. What about the junk shops, Johns, Thistles and the one on CPR........

[East Dulwich Angst]

Does anyone remember a couple of little sweet shops, one at the top of Dunstans rd (opp the battle ships) & one on Crebor street. Then there was the handy store on Goodrich rd (between Upland & Frien rd)

[Keef]

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.

[cathg]

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]

Binesters.

[carter39]

macroban Wrote:

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> 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.

[mockney piers]

Yeah, not alot of singing.

In fact the last one I recall was "you're French and you know you are" to Margate in the FA Cup a few short years back.

[Muttley]

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.

[macroban]

David Greig's symbol was a thistle.

[fish]

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?

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

Macroban - who he?

[macroban]

David Greig was/is a grocery chain. They occupied the Le Chardon premises. Greig's mosaic is still outside.

[chuff]

I thought that before Thistells, Le Chardron was a butchers. chuff

[cathg]

Muttley Wrote:

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> 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.

[Jeremy]

fish Wrote:

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> 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!

[fish]

Jeremy Wrote:

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> 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.

[Keef]

How long ago was that? I've never really paid much attention to that site, but I thought it had been Mr Lius forever!).

[spadetownboy]

can believe no-ones mentioned free range, used to be the best breakfast on the lane,scottish square sausage and potato bread umm umm.

[SimonM]

I remember Free Range - which was indeed very good for a while - but then went downhill for some reason. Any idea why it closed?

[BARA]

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?