V1 & V2 Bombs dropped on Lordship Lane.

[bingobongo]

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?!!

[solar]

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.

[bingobongo]

solar Wrote:

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> 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..

[solar]

Hi BingoBongo. We used both baths when I was at school. Also the first class baths had a removable floor so in the winter the pool could be covered and used for dances, Christmas fairs etc. I remember being a spectator and sitting up in the lovely balcony which is no longer used. I've always lived in Se22 but I can't remember when it was filled in.

[Y'man]

I don't recall any spring boards in Dulwich Baths, you had to go to Peckham Lido, opposite the Kings Arms, to find a spring board. My Brothers and I were all born in Crawthew Grove and all went to St Johns, I'm a bit younger than the wheelchair person but I'm sure you would have gone to primary school with my brothers.

Now I remember, it was 6d for first class and 3d for second at the baths. It was a 2d half to get home from Goose Green (Later named Poo Park) on a 185 bus to the plough. 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!

[nxjen]

Really good to hear memories about the swimming baths, reminds me of where I grew up in West London where there were not just first and second class but also a third class pool, really tiny.

But getting back to the chimney, sorry to be a downer, but if you look at it in relation to the spire of St John's Church the chimney in the picture is quite a bit to the right/east whereas as has been said the swimming pool's chimney would be much closer. The swimming baths chimney is very much shorter and is in fact still there, exposed by the current building works. The chimney in the picture is very very tall, unusually so.

[bingobongo]

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

[edhistory]

Orienting this is difficult.

The chimney style is that of a medical waste furnace.

Adjacent to South Bermondsey Station?

[bingobongo]

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!

[Y'man]

The newest London buses (Boris Buses) don't have doors, just the platform on the back. They are still pretty rare as far as the number of them against the other types of bus are concerned.

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.

Another thing I find interesting in East Dulwich is Underhill Road. If you walk the length of Underhill you'll see more different types of architecture than any other single street, certainly in London but possibly the country. Each house has, or had if they've been covered over with pebbledash or similar, the builder's specific mark above the front door. I know at least some are definitely still visible.

[bingobongo]

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]

The clay is why they never brought the Underground out to Dulwich from The Oval or Elephant & Castle. There were original plans for a station at The Plough and then on to Forest Hill but it wasn't financially viable to tunnel through the clay. On Peckham Rye, where the water table is close to the surface it is rarely not boggy & waterlogged in Winter.

[Y'man]

Can't place the wild boggy bit in Townley Road, interesting though.

[bingobongo]

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..

[DulwichFox]

Ok. the buses are busy in the rush hour but during the day a handful of people ..

I really can not see any justification for spending many Millions of pounds to tunnel 4-5 miles

to carry so few people. It makes no sense.

Improving the service from East Dulwich .. Peckham Rye .. Denmark Hill ... Forest Hill would seem a better idea..

DulwichFox

[Y'man]

Dr. Gunawardene was my Doctor, after Dr. MacMillan on Goose Green retired. Such a lovely man, do anything to help anyone. Which was why he was struck off for a while then re-instated when The GMC realised their mistake.

I don't think that can be my Brother in your photo, he would have been four in 1950, would have been 70 now. Sure looks like him though, I was a dead ringer for him as I grew up, though he was 10 years older than me.

Turnings, as you say, odd indeed. Perhaps where you turn into from the main road? Although, thinking about it, there were no 'roads' in the City of London, they were/are all streets.

[Y'man]

?

[Y'man]

DulwichFox Wrote:

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> Ok. the buses are busy in the rush hour but during

> the day a handful of people ..

>

> I really can not see any justification for

> spending many Millions of pounds to tunnel 4-5

> miles

> to carry so few people. It makes no sense.

>

> Improving the service from East Dulwich ..

> Peckham Rye .. Denmark Hill ... Forest Hill would

> seem a better idea..

>

> DulwichFox

And that has what, to do with the price of fish? I'm talking about the 1950's!

[Willard]

Re. the tall chimney in the photo: could it be part of the mini Tyrell Rd industrial estate? Not sure what businesses were in there in the 40s...

[Y'man]

Hi WIllard, an interesting thought not sure whether that estate was there in the 40's, possibly. If it was, it's a good candidate for the chimney placement. Well done.

[Y'man]

https://uk.pinterest.com/nelliewombat/peckham-nunhead-dulwich/ Some great old shots of the area here.

[edhistory]

Not easy to locate that chimney.

I now have a line running towards Queens Road Peckham Station.

[Y'man]

And that line, edhistory, would make my swimming baths boilerhouse theory a little more valid. Where did you come up with that? I took a line disecting the right angle of the pavement at the corner of Shawbury Road when I did it. It was rough but it seemed to work.

[Y'man]

All sorts of memories flooding back, or flooding hither & thither might be a better term for it. As I read back through some posts I recall other bits & bobs from my life in Dulwich.

To Annie:- where you now live was indeed a Grocer?s shop in my day too. In fact, my Mum had a part time job there during the 60?s. It was owned & run by one, Mrs. Bartlett. I used to walk from St John?s School during my lunch break to the shop, where my Mum would feed me something more nutritious than school dinners, of which we could partake if so desiring, at the new built Epiphany Hall in Bassano street; built where the bomb shelters used to be I believe. Said, Mrs. Bartlett had two daughters, one definitely named Sue and the other, Christine I believe but I might be wrong there. I recall Sue had a car, I light green Austin Mini with an odd formula 1 type racing car front on it. Never seen another one before nor since. Anyway, that?s my memory of your house, Anne. 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.

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.

And so, back to the chimney and other fragments. In an earlier post I mentioned the Welsh dresser in my Grandmother?s parlour. Now, I might have got two stories mixed up here. My Grandmother did indeed live in Crawthew Grove and that is certainly where I recall the big dresser in her parlour as a child. However, my Great Grandparents lived in Nutfield Road. You can actually see their front door in the post bomb photo. It would seem far more likely that they had the dresser at that time and their house was where it got caught up in the pressure from the explosion.

I keep coming back to the chimney. Apart from the brick factory theory, which was only a rough guess at best, if you look closely the lower part of the chimney can clearly be seen which positions it photographers side of Peckham Rye/Park as the Rye or Park trees are certainly behind it. I think Tyrrel road, as put forward by ?Willard? still seems to be the best shot but I?m certainly not poo pooing anything else put forward. We?ll never know what type of lens was used on the camera but we?d have a better chance if a photographic historian looked at them. Surely the trees might be a clue though. The post by ?edhistory? and the photo offered would still seem to point to the Swimming baths and there were tall trees on the back of Goose Green and the triangle where the swing park was in my day.

A tit bit for those who don?t know it. On the front of the Lord Palmerston, above the big window, there is a bust of Palmerston himself looking out onto Lordship Lane, presumably for the Intermittent 185 bus. This can be made out on both the photos if you know what to look for. It?s still there today as I?ve just seen it on Google Maps. Amazing the amount of people who have lived most of their lives in Dulwich and don?t know he?s there.

Also, outside the main door of the Palmerston, on the corner, is a square manhole cover. On this cover is, or was, written something along the lines of ?London County Council Tramways? or perhaps just ?L.C.C.T?., I can?t remember. What I do remember is lifting it up sometime in the 70?s and finding, within, the old electric conduit which ran the third rail of the trams which ran along Lordship Lane. This was pointed out to me by the late and lovely, Jack, a Dulwich 'historical icon' whose surname escapes me for the moment (Alley perhaps). He had a brother Ted. Anyway, I?m sure some of you knew him, ?it?s not us, it?s them?!

And finally:- If you look at a map of East Dulwich, using Whateley Road, Landcroft Road & Crystal Palace Road as borders, the shape vaguely resembles a Bishops mitre (upside down). There is also a bigger one on the outside of that if you use Landells Road & Lordship Lane. Heber Road runs across the middle of the shape and there was certainly a Bishop of Heber. Whether this has any significance in the great scheme of things I have no idea but it is something I knew from somewhere when I was young.

Right, that?s my lot. I wish you all a very merry daft season and all the best for the New Year & Beyond.

Love.

[edhistory]

holloway Wrote:

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> obviously i'm in a minority in finding this

> interesting then. the railings used to be

> stretchers and date from world war 2.

This is a great story that pops up from time to time.

I don't think anyone has measured the railings yet?

Volunteer(s)?