When the Hurricane hit East Dulwich

[Muttley]

With high winds expected this weekend, I'm reminded of the Great Storm of 1987. I seem to remember East Dulwich got off relatively lightly. Trees were down along Champion Hill next to Denmark Hill station, but not one of the huge trees on Goose Green was toppled - though if you look at them, they all lean noticably to the east, and I think that lean is partly due to the hurricane. Anyone have any other recollections of how the hurricane affected this area?

[BARA]

I lost my chimney and part of the stack which lodged in the roof above my daughter's bedroom. A few trees were blown down in Barry Road, and a few cars crushed.

[Frisco]

One of my chimney stacks moved and had to be taken down.

"I seem to remember East Dulwich got off relatively lightly."

I don't think the woman who lived in Melbourne Grove, by the United Reform Church, whose Vauxhall Cavalier was crushed from back to front by a huge fallen tree would agree. The vision of her standing at her gate in fluffy mules and dressing gown (it was ED 20 years ago!) weeping is still vividly with me.

The other thing I remember about that day is the is the fact that the bin men went out doing rubbish collections as usual, as though nothing had happened. This was in the days when the Council Depot was at Grove Vale, and I don't think Southwark's direct services had realised at 7.30am that there was a full-scale regional emergency. I'm sure I recall at least one of the Goose Green trees coming down in it, although there was another, not so serious, gale a couple of years later. That one took my fences.

[ratty]

I worked for an insurance company (Zurich) at the time. The overtime was phenomenal but the stories of misery from the South of England were awful.

[Keef]

Wow, 1987, I was only 9. I remember it well though, I was in school (the old St John's & St Clement's) and we were watching how fast the clouds were moving in the sky!

[bagpuss78]

....and we got a few days off because some slates came off the roof >:D<

[Keef]

Innit! :))

[Jah Lush]

I was living on the Dog Kennel Hill Estate at the time at the bottom by the railway line and several trees along there were completely uprooted leaving quite a few cars very badly damaged.

[Frisco]

"Wow, 1987, I was only 9. I remember it well though, I was in school (the old St John's & St Clement's) and we were watching how fast the clouds were moving in the sky!"

Wow, I thought you were at least 50 Keef, and one of the real old ED stalwarts. >:D<

[EDOldie]

I was living in Court Lane and remember being woken up by the noise of the wind. Mrs Oldie, fasters of course. Looked out of the window and saw half of south londons vegitation moving towards DV. Dul Park was closed for several days (maybe 10?) while they made the place safe. I think the woods were badly affected too.

[Only me!]

We had just had our first baby (2 weeks old) and remember that night very well as there was a power cut and we had to try and see to the baby in the pitch dark , with the sound of several trees falling on cars. Sounded very impressive to us. Dulwich park was out of bounds for several days.

[louisiana]

Remember it well. From a ground-floor flat on Goose Green, it sounded like the roof was going to lift off. We lost electricity and telephone, and looked out in the morning to shoulder-high piles of branches from the plane trees filling the road all along the north side of the Green. There was a guy in the street in his dressing gown who said he was from the Council...

[Keef]

Frisco Wrote:

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

> Wow, I thought you were at least 50 Keef, and one

> of the real old ED stalwarts. >:D<

Fair cop :))

[Reg Smeeton]

Time to revive this thread...

[DulwichFox]

The night of the 1987 storm I attended The CAMRA Beer Festival in Stratford.

Knowing that I was going, my work Colleagues said 'So we won't be seeing you tomorrow'

I lived in Dunstans Rd at the time opposite Dawson Heights which was devastated.

Woke up at 03.00am still slightly P....ed from the night before.

Could not work out what was going on. No electricy but phone was working..

In the morning tried to get a bus but they were not going far. No Trains. Trees down everywhere.

Got as far as the Old Kent Rd but then had to walk to Black Friars

I was the only person out of 15+ people to get to work that day.

Trees down, cars crushed, Trees through roofs.

Was bad..

Foxy

[Bic Basher]

I was 8 years old and vividly remember the howling overnight. The next morning, there was part of a tree which fell down outside Glennie Court on the Lordship Lane Estate. The damage to that tree is still visable today.

There was no electricity until around lunchtime, no telephone and school was closed. However, all back to normal the following day, bar the teams cutting up logs.

My parents contacted friends who lived in West London who couldn't understand what the fuss was about!

[steveo]

The chimney came down through an attic and into the living room in the flat above, where a mother and daughter had been sitting moments before. It filled the entire room and would have killed them. The top of the house had to be rebuilt.

My recording studio was in the room under it and I thought I was going to lose the lot. The landlord's contractors who all had walkie talkies were urging me not to go into the room because they thought the ceiling was about to fall in.

But my precious Roland 909 had to be saved!

I still have it.

[Drxyster]

One of the sales reps of the company I was working for was supplied with a brand new "Vauxhall Cavalier" on the day of the storm. He lived in a tree lined road and was very concerned a tree may fall on his beloved new car.

He decided to drive about half a mile down the road and parked his car in the very centre of Tesco's car park, well away from surrounding trees.

He returned to the car park early in the morning to collect the car, totally un-damaged by trees, however completely buried under the roof of the Tesco store.

[Louisa]

I remember being woken at 3 in the morning by one of the windows in my bedroom literally coming out of it's wooden frame and crashing to the floor. Pretty shaken as the base of my bed was less than a foot from the impact zone of the glass.

Louisa.

[????]

Woke up in the middle of the night and thought there was a nuclear war, had forgotten by the morning, no power but got what must have been the only 40 running. Got to London bridge station...empty .....like a zombie film, no signs, no lights, no staff no trains, no work, huzzah, had to walk back though and started noticing the damage then!

[????]

Next day the stock market collapsed and I remember going up to the kings road and there were 100s if trees down along the Embankment, but cleared off the roads. Never seen anything like that damage anywhere since

[uncleglen]

Year 6 at Dulwich Hamlet School were at Rippledown House in Kent and it took them all that day to get back. My Dad had a caravan on the Isle of Grain and went there to find every one around his was flattened and his one was totally unscathed. The North facing houses on Eynella road suffered roof damage etc. but the ones opposite were almost untouched (the wind was from the South). I remember waking up at about 4 and hearing glass breaking but we had no damage.

[Ruskin]

We were living on the Norwood Road and largely slept through blissfully unaware of the 87 storm although I woke up at some stage to see a dustbin lid flying past the window. We were on the third floor ..

[Saffron]

Was that storm actually a hurricane? I thought it was just an intense storm?

[Otta]

Yes it was classed as a hurricane.

Chimneys had to come off our roof after, but nothing major. Think steveo wins first prize.