Forest Hill station 1944 and 2020

Forest Hill station, 1944

The station sadly suffered bomb damage in WW2, leading to the architecturally bereft structure we find today. The 1944 picture clearly shows the Barclays Bank on London Road, which closed in 2018. 

On the far left, you can see the Dartmouth Arms, which the station was originally named after when it opened in 1839.

Forest Hill station, March 2020

Perry Hill Post Office

Perry Hill Post Office circa 1885

A really proud piece of advertising from the time, showing off the shops' wares, highlighting that Post Office was only part of the shops business. It also looks like a couple of policemen are in shot as well. I've noticed a few stray policemen in the pictures - which makes some sense in that the Police station is just down the road. Presumably there were more bobbies on the beat back then.

I am not too sure on the date, but know it is before 1894 from the Ordnance Survey map of that date. From a little web-search, according to the local News Shopper newspaper, it looks like there was a Post Office on Perry Hill until 2003.  

The Ordnance Survey map shows where the Post Office was, which I wouldn't have located from this picture alone. There is a wider lens shot on a Lewisham borough website which I did initially use to find the position. It was much easier to just check the map! The map also highlights the Smithy next door, which would have been reached by the alleyway 'guarded' by the bobbies.

Today stands a Social Housing scheme, named Dowson House. It is difficult to imagine a reenactment of the original by the inhabitants, but you never know - maybe a picture for the future.

Dowson House, Perry Hill, Feb 2020

Forest Hill Library

Forest Hill Library, circa 1910

A beautiful, Arts & Crafts style building opened in 1901, built to plans by local Sydenham resident architect, Alexander Hennell who also designed High Street buildings on Kirkdale. I think the refurbishment in 2008 makes it look good as new.

Old Fire Station, Perry Vale

Fire Station, Perry Vale, circa 1910

There is a nice write up about the fire station on the Sydenham Society website, written about 2010 when development plans were drawn up. Since then, the fire station has been developed and is offices downstairs and flats above. The original doors through which you can see the old tenders in the original photo are still in place as well as the foundation stone showing it being built in 1901. Grade 2 listed since 1973,  I am glad the windows are now white rather than the original yellow!

It is a lovely Arts & Crafts building and a beautiful addition to the area. I hadn't realised the tower acted as a look out for firemen to scour the area on the watch for fires.

Old Fire Station, Feb 2020

Sunderland Road

Sunderland Road, circa 1910

The original postcard has some writing from a father to his daughter, including the words, "This will show you Lilley, how nice it is here." The scene looks quite idyllic, with a beautiful wide avenue of late Victorian homes in leafy suburbia.

Today, the ridge of bushes to the left of the scene, which would have marked the edge of the church grounds, has been developed with modern townhouses, on land presumably sold by the Church at the turn of the 21st Century.

The postbox, is still in the same location, now outside a large block, named Sunderland Mount, presumably built post war as a large bomb fell on this site, as recorded in the WW2 Bomb census website.

Sunderland Road, February 2020

The postbox in the original picture

Modern houses in what used to be church grounds

Christ Church, some ground of which sold for the houses on the left of the 'now' picture

Blythe Vale after a storm

Blythe Vale, June 14th 1914

This is from a postcard, which has, 'Blythe Vale after the storm, June 14th 1914' inscribed on the back. This would make it about 6 weeks before WW1. Clearly summer from the look of the trees as well as the shirtsleeves worn by the chap on the right. The picture itself must have been quite an event given the number of people in the picture - including quite a crowd at the end of the flooding towards Stanstead Road.

Today, the drains look to be working better. As I write this, we are awaiting Storm Dennis, due to bring a month's rain in 1 day. Following already water-logged ground, lets hope the drainage does work better than it did then.

Blythe Hill Hotel, Stanstead Road

Stanstead Road, possibly 1930s

This is the scan of a photograph rather than a postcard. The tramline existed from about 1913 to 1951, and I am guesstimating this picture as about the 1930s based on the style of cars - I have no real idea of date.

I love that the car on the left appears to be on the wrong side of the road and the cyclist is swerving to pass it. I hope he made it!

The modern day picture shows that the Blythe Hill Hotel has become the Blythe Hill Tavern and public transport is still toiling the route - buses ironically being the very reason for the demise of the trams in 1951.

Stanstead Road, February 2020

Woolstone Road - Lutwyche Road off to the left

Woolstone Road, circa 1910

It took me a while to work out exactly where on Woolstone this was taken, but the the garden pillars were the clue that helped in the end. It must have been a lovely thoroughfare with all those trees. Far fewer now, but I imagine they are the same ones.

If you look very closely, there is a car further down the road on the left with two people sauntering over the road ahead. No concern of being run over, despite the lack of speed bumps that blight the road today. I esecially like the lady pushing a pram on the right, her big white blouse is very of its time.  I have guessed the date. This card was sent from Catford possibly on 29 April 1910 - I'm only certain of the April.

I will try and retake the 'now' picture in the summer when the trees are in leaf - and I may even manage to get someone with a pram to walk on the right. Would look better than the wheelie bins on the same spot.

Woolstone Road, Feb 2020

Now & Then: Vancouver Road (near Hurstbourne)

Vancouver Road circa 1910

I went through a phase a few years ago of buying old postcards of near where I live in Forest Hill, South London. The aim was always to try and take the same picture now and post them on here. At long last, I'm doing it. The first is chosen as it has my house on it.

In this picture, I'm struck by the old church, which subsided and was demolished in 1999, being replaced by a new structure which is a lot less imposing and presumably less likely to sink! You can just see the new spire in the 'today' picture.

The horse drawn cart and noticeably no traffic make the street look very different to today, as well as the original garden gates and fences - so much smarter than the hotch potch of driveways, dropped kerbs and council waste bins that you see today.

Vancouver Road, February 2020

#SE23 Christmas Shopping No. 6: Fair Fayre by the Pools, Saturday 15th December

Fair / Fayre - whatever! The one by the pools last weekend was the first Forest Hill Fair as part of the SEE3 Portas Pilot thingamajig.




I have to own up to Fayre ennui at this point. In part due to the fact that I NEED to find presents for the men in my life and also having taken up glass fusing and living with a wood lathe in my spare bedroom, I do not need any more trinkets. Which reminds me, I'm meant to be buying for others! So I wasn't really in the mood when I went fair Fayre shopping on Saturday. But despite the rather empty look from the photo above, there were a few good things of note.




South London Prints do some very cute prints of local sites, including the Horniman and one I especially like of Crystal Palace. If you missed them at the fair, they are sold in Bunka as well as 'Pen & Gravy', the Christmas pop up shop in Kirkdale.




Isa Marie Skincare I had heard of before via twitter. Abandoning my 'buying for men' quest (didn't take much), I bought myself a pot of Body Butter Souffle, which is superb. The girls on the stall (I think Isa Marie is actually Marianne and is on the left!) were also lovely, as were all the stallholders I chatted to, which made for a nice afternoon out and for me made this a pleasant addition to Forest Hill.




Finally, I bumped into a lady who I had met at the jewellery class a few weeks ago who owns a modern retro homewares shop in Stoke Newington but is local to SE23 (who I remembered as camera shy - she is off stage right). The shop is the rather fabulously named, 'Committee of Taste', and some of the smaller stock came to Forest Hill on Saturday. The owner said she had had a good day and was thinking about what to bring next time and was hoping to bring some children's pieces as she had had a good few customers with kids.

For a first run, I think the fair went well. We should expect these fairs to continue as part of the SEE3 project and hopefully the fun arts and crafts items will stay. For me, these were the most interesting to potter around and complement what we have on the High Street.

As for my Christmas shopping however, this wasn't to be. I have since had quite a bit of success on the presents buying front - but posts for these will need to wait till after the 25th if I want to maintain any element of surprise. Suffice to say though - I've done it!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

#SE23 Christmas Shopping No. 5: Jumping Bean

For the last few years, Jumping Bean on Honor Oak Park has been the provider of all my Secret Santa gifts. An easy stop from when I get off the ELL at HOP, I often do go in for a mooch around on my way home - which is one of the things I especially like about this place - it is open at hours that are convenient for me.

With my SE23 shopping challenge hat on, I went in and had a good look round the other Monday after work (open, on a Monday, love it). There is a lot of stock, in a fairly small space, so it does to take your time. I noticed quite a few things for men, which makes some difference to a lot of other gift shops - think cuff links, scarves etc. as well as some nice picture frames. I know they also have a little den of kiddies stuff at the back (due to my allergy to children, I have never been in that bit).

As usual, I saw quite a bit I fancied for myself! Indeed, I wish I had seen this iPad case when I was looking for one a few months back. At £15.99, I think it is a lovely item. I ended up on etsy for mine, which is a shame, because I did look around Forest Hill first.



The other thing I thought was great were these porcelain measuring spoons - not terribly practical, but very cute.



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@FHSoc Jewellery class (Saturday November 24th)

This time last week, I attended a jewellery class organised by the Forest Hill Society. Paul Ravn has been a lecturer and silversmith throughout his career and now owns a jewellery workshop along with his wife Tomoki.

In 3 hours, seven of us had twisted silver wire, soldered, sawn and bashed (probably not the technical term) our way to creating a ring each.



It was lovely to learn something new on a wet Saturday afternoon and meeting other locals. It turns out that the lady opposite me lives on my street! Best of all is taking home something real, so I am looking forward to going back in January to finish the pendant we started and maybe move onto a brooch. I haven't taken the ring off!



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

#SE23 Christmas Shopping No. 4: Doopo Doopo

Probably one of the more interesting gift/arts/crafts shop to open in Forest Hill recently is Doopo Doopo on Dartmouth Road. The owner has a good eye for fun and funky items that you want to live with and can afford.

There is quite a varied stock in and some new items for Christmas which makes it a good place to pop into regularly for a mooch around. The stock includes some lovely material embroidered bags, some housey items, lots of crafty bits and some really nice clothing with great t-shirts in the window at the moment.

There are plenty of smaller items for stocking fillers and I have found a few things here to get me going on my gift list, though my favourite things are probably the bags and some of the lighting and furniture. If I was buying lighting - I would buy one of these:




All the walls are adorned with art for sale. Most of this isn't really edgy enough for me, but probably fits better with most local tastes! The kid's stuff does however float my boat, though being child free, it doesn't really fit with my decor.



In the new year, the owner's husband is hoping to extend the business downstairs into what apparently is an enormous basement - cinema, theatre space and tattoo parlour have all been mentioned (if you can think of a name for the tattoo parlour, contact them on @doopodoopo). In the meantime, in the run up to Christmas, look out for the forest hill fiverfest totally locally offers as well as some specific events for the kids - I'm tempted to borrow a child!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

#SE23 Christmas Shopping No.3: SEE 3 Christmas brochure

The local Portas Pilot scheme has created a brochure of Festive Events for Sydenham, Kirkdale and Forest Hill. Obviously, only one of these is in SE23, so I can only take advantage of this for my Christmas shopping, though I may pop along to a couple of things if I'm free. It isn't all about shopping, as the brochure includes information about carol singing, christmas light events etc too.

The one thing I hadn't so far realised is that the Forest Hill shops look like they will be open late night on the 13th and 20th December - the two Thursdays before Christmas (there is a typo as states Wed 20th, but I'm assuming they meant the Thu). This could come in useful.

In the main though, it probably doesn't help me too much in my quest. There seem to be a plethora of craft and food markets in the area, not least being instigated/ supported by the Portas Pilot money. These look like they could be fun for a potter around, but I need some convincing that they are actually going to sell things that I want - let alone need. Don't get me wrong, I can fritter money as well as the next girl, and I do enjoy and support the leisure element of local shopping. I suspect that I will actually see things I want to buy for myself - but I could probably do with that not being in December.

  

#SE23 Christmas Shopping No.2: Best of Both Boutique

Come on. How cool are these Willy Wonka sunglasses?

The 'downside' of the SE23 Christmas shopping decision is that I need to do some research... I have to be honest, Best of Both Boutique on Dartmouth Road opposite the pools is unlikely to be where I'm going to find the perfect present for my Dad. In fact, I've never actually been in the shop until this weekend, assuming that the clothes are all for nubile nineteen year olds (I'm more of a chubby forty year old) and the clothes really aren't for me - very young and also very glam - I'm more a jeans and t-shirt kinda girl. 

The accessories on the other hand, I really like. As well as the glasses (which get a mixed reaction), there is some nice jewelry and absolutely fabulous clutch bags. If you are young at heart and like some funky accessories, it is worth going in for a mooch around.

If my husband is reading this......

#SE23 Christmas Shopping No.1: 'Decided. This year, I will only buy Christmas presents in #SE23. Who's with me?'

Last week on twitter I posted: 'Decided. This year, I will only buy Christmas presents in #SE23. Who's with me?' 

So now I need to follow through.

The idea came to me whilst in Luton airport waiting for a flight. I had done a quick scan of the shops there, with half a thought to Christmas, but was uninspired. Over a glass of wine, I thought harder about who I was buying for and where I might shop. As I am increasingly keen to shop locally, I mentally thought through local stores and then decided to commit to just SE23 as my shopping limit for presents this year. Living on the SE6 border, I was tempted to add this in, but felt that I would end up buying everything in Argos and that would take the fun out.

My initial thoughts are that this could be difficult - especially for the men. (I suspect that Dad will get what I want to buy him rather than what he would like.) To be fair, I don't have a huge number of people to buy for: husband, Mum and Dad, Grandpa and lets assume the Secret Santa present for work - so I think that this becomes quite achievable. The more I have thought about it, the more optimistic I am. My aim is to get good value gifts that suit the person I am buying for. I am not precious about small independents - they just need to be in SE23. The one concession I will allow is that I can make something outside of SE23 - but that's not buying (well, you know what I mean).

So far, my list of likely places to procure fall into two categories - local fairs and then shops: 

Fairs:
Havelock Walk artist community on 1st/2nd December; Horniman Museum has a Craft Fayre on  8/9th; Forest Hill Food Fair on Sunday 9th; SEE3's craft fair on Saturday 15th.

Shops:
Bunka; Shannons; Sugar Mountain; Doopo Doopo; Maplins; Neroli; Aga's Little Deli; Finches;  Dapper; Hills & Parkes; Jumping Bean and the pound shop that isn't a pound shop on London Road.

Others: (currently discounted due to who I am buying for but still in the frame):
Travis Perkins (bet I change my mind on that one); HOP framer; Best of Both Boutique; Marie's bags (or whatever it's called); Stag and Bow; florists; Topps Tiles; Sainsbury's; Boots.

Of course, the other difficulty is keeping the presents secret. So Mum, if you don't want to know what you are getting for Christmas - stop reading!

To Infinity......and beyond! (Well SE23)

I have been watching the cable laying on Brockley Rise with interest and it looks like it is now coming my way. The 3 white vans in this shot are all BT OpenReach bringing fibre optic cable to SE23. (There was in fact a 4th van just out of shot!).

Our internet service is pretty abysmal. Poor on most days and utterly useless on weekends or the school holidays. This is made especially difficult as I have to work from home one day a week and to be honest, its a struggle to stay connected.

I like to think that BT Infinity will help me out - though as my real issue is connectivity rather than speed, I'm not so sure. Recent checks on a speedtest show I have about a 3mbps upload and a pathetic 0.78ish upload - but that is when I can get on.. The speeds are actually better than I expected (nowhere near that nirvana 8 I keep on getting told about), though nowhere near the 100mbps I used to get when I lived in the US 7 years ago.

So we definitely will switch when it comes - July per the BT website, but I need to be realistic about what it will bring - and a slight word of caution came from one jgdoherty on the SE23 forum (who seems to know an awful lot on the subject).

I think I need everyone in SE23 to express interest, but no one sign up but me!

Still excited though - so much so, I felt obliged to photograph my new local hero:

Hop and a skip to Hopscotch for a burger

Hopscotch on Honor Oak Park has really grown on me.

The first weekend they opened, I got as far as the door, then ran at the sight of buggies and screaming kids through the steamed up windows.

Since then, it seems to have settled into a more adult affair. Not that kids aren't welcome, but adults are welcome - so many places round here seem to have to chase the buggy crowd for midweek revenue - but lets face it, if I want a quiet cup of coffee with a read of the paper, I wouldn't go to a creche.

It has more recently opened up on Thu, Fri & Sat evenings. I have passed a few times when it has been crowded, but last Friday it was just me & hubby. We both had a drink and a burger, and they were superb. The burger with stilton and bacon hit the spot for me. (The lager hit the spot for hubby!). Despite the fact that the place was empty on this visit, the music and ambiance honestly meant I didn't notice.

I hope this becomes a winner for the area, cos it sure is for me.

Looks like they are on twitter @hopscotchbar - I'll be following.

Forest Hill Society

It's funny, when I moved to SE23, I rather thought the Forest Hill Society (FHS) was a bunch of old fuddy duddies - which may actually be down to the logo and the odd things I picked up from the SE23 forum (which it turns out has nothing to do with FHS).

Last year, I decided to go along to their AGM to find out a bit more. Having spoken out (on what topic I can't even remember - ah yes, may have been internet communications and blogs...), Richard Hibbert, the Chair, suggested I get involved. I was adamant I was too busy, but he has a way of getting you involved, just a bit.

The aims of the society are set out in their constitution, which roughly translates to an interest in:

- promoting public interest and civic pride

- planning

- amenities

Whilst it may sound dry, depending on your area of interest, it is quite easy to get involved and actually do something. I have limited interest in planning or transport from FH (I use HOP or Catford Bridge), but I am keen on more amenities in the area and lets face it, I love bars, restaurants and shops!! For all of these, I think SE23 has plenty of room for improvement.

So far, I have helped organise the Burns Night at the All Inn One and the Royal Wedding Party by the Old Post Office. I've really enjoyed both. If anyone else is interested, I seriously suggest getting in touch. The FHS is a broad church and really is only limited by its resource pool - ie active members.

Ironically, the bit I think I still need to work on is there internet presence (lets see if I can sort my own first eh).

Stag and Bow Officially opened this weekend

I've popped into Stag & Bow a couple of times since its doors opened quite some time back. They have a cookie but on trend make up of craft and haberdashery goods as well as some small housey antiques. Over the last few months, the shop has 'filled out' so to speak, and now looks and feels like a proper store.

I am keen to sample their craft workshops. They do all sorts from crochet to leather work. This seems like it is quite a trend too. I recently went to a Homemade London open evening, who do similar things at their store in town - though fairly well advertised in SE London as the business is run by Mrs 'Brockley Nick' (creator of Brockley Central). Hopefully the concept will also work in Forest Hill, though I imagine there is some risk involved to get enough footfall.

Immediately noticeable at Stag & Bow, is the lovely shop front. This is a great addition to this stretch and hopefully becomes one to set a trend on Dartmouth Road. I do hope that with the onset of the Pools and the opening of Sylvan Post, footfall will be forthcoming. I'll certainly make it to one of their workshops.