Tooting

What has happened to 'Chelsea Girl' ???

The title, says it all really . . . I passed through Tooting Broadway a few years ago while accompanying my husband in his lorry.  I was astounded by the discovery that 'Chelsea Girl' had gone!  I thought that boutique would stand the tests of time, but, sadly it didn't.
I used to attend (sometimes!) Garratt Green Comprehensive and ended up working in the boutique for a couple of years.
I now live in Wales but often recall those days.
Contributed by Jenny thats enough

BARON CHARLES E D`EYNCOURT STOWELL - BANKER

Hi,
My name is Sonja Maria MacMasters. My Grandfather was Charles E. Stowell - Baron D`Eyncourt`- Banker. He had 10 children two sets of twins. One set made it to be l00 and had a telegram from the Queen. I have just come back from England. No time to find it. His wife was Mary Ann. They lived in Henfold Lodge, Mitcham Road, next to the Rectory.
It was a beautiful House and they had five servants. Cook, Nanny, Butler, Maid and a Livery Boy. I would love to see how it looks now? Many beautiful occassions were held there. Do you have any old photos of it?
Please can you help?
read more here
Contributed by Sonja MacMasters

Wartime childhood in Tooting

Upper Tooting Road 1950
(ref: T201002) Year: 1943 Wartime Tooting
The picture of Upper Tooting Rd showing the Mayfair Cinema, and on the left hand side of the street, the RACS shop (Royal Arsenal Co-Operative Society), the dividend was paid with some sort of tin token and the cash was collected from the customer and sent to the cashier via a complex system of screw lidded recepticle sent rattling along a system of cables, the change would come back to the customer in the same way!
The memories come flooding back, we lived in Beeches Rd having been bombed out (1 Rudloe Rd) in 1941? Not sure as I was only five then!
Mum worked as ...read more here
Contributed by Mike Dennis

E. Tucker

Does anybody remember E. Tucker, tobacconist, on the corner of Nutwell Street and the High Street?
Contributed by David Cleife

Bus garage

I used to live in Longley Road in the early 60s and remember as a child at the top of Longley Road where the buses parked there used to be a record shop where I would spend my time listening to all the new groups including the Beatles. It was there I bought a plastic Beatle wig amongst other memorabilia. I also remember a butcher's shop with sawdust on the floor and a man who used to deliver meat on a bike with a basket on the front, but I cannot remember any other shops. Can anybody tell me what else was there please.
Contributed by David Cleife

Memories of my teenage years

I remember going to the Wimpy bar and having wimpy and chips and strawberry milkshake with my friend Vera.
Contributed by maureen knights

various

We lived in Derrinton Road, it was a very long road. I remember the sweetshop that we called 'the old girls'. She had a window full of toys that we used to spend ages looking at. Even at the age of 5 and 6 we had so much freedom, we went everywhere on our own to friends houses the shops. My friend and I put on our mums shoes one day and just went off for hours walking around the shops. My mum worked in a greengrocers and we went there. She sent us straight home because my friend's dad was supposed to be looking after us but he worked nights and nodded off so we sneaked off out. I remember ...read more here
Contributed by deirdre rayment

Upper Tooting

I grew up in Park Hill Court, Beeches Road. My father was the caretaker. He used to be in charge of the bonfire on firework night, up on one of the drying grounds. The girls stood one side and the boys stood the other. My Dad used to set off all the fireworks. the boys used to set those wiggly fireworks that seem to chase you! They don`t have them anymore. I went to Fircroft Infants and Juniors and then on to Garrat Green Girls School. My grandparents lived in the same court with us. My grandad had a shoe repair shop down at Tooting Graveney. My nan used to work there too and it was a dear little shop that ...read more here
Contributed by Dawn sampson

Memories of Sellingcourt Primary and Secondary School

I used to live in Mellison Rd, just around the corner from Sellingcourt Rd. My memories of the school was a good one, governed mainly by the teachers. These are some names of my fellow pupils at the time from the mid to late seventies.
Does anyone else who went there at the time recall these names?
Head Teacher was a strict old so and so with a nasty temper! Mrs Whooley, with that big smelly white sheep dog. I always remember once in assembly we weren't singing a hymn to her liking and she slammed a big book on the floor, it scared the hell out of me!
My teachers were year 1. Mrs Hair, another old school strict teacher ...read more here
Contributed by lee moss

Golden Memories of childhood days

Central Hall I believe used to house the big Saturday market!, Tooting was a Saturday trip out as a boy from Mitcham, I can vaguely remember many special days, going to the pictures, and the joke shop on the Mitcham Road.  The 80 bus or 77 to Mitcham Green, and the little Green Line bus, you had to put your hand out to stop it from near the traffic lights, wonderous days.  Yes many happy days as a boy, now I'm 60 and live in Norfolk, I wonder if I'll ever get back to see the awesome changes.
Contributed by David Buettner-Banks

Working at Tooting Police Station

I have been stationed at Tooting Police Station since 2005. We will soon all be moving to Earlsfield Police Station, along with officers from Lavender Hill and Wandsworth Police Stations. Many of the rooms in Tooting Police Station are no longer used and have been locked up. Has hardly changed a bit since that photograph was taken though. We don't have a 'Whiskey-3' anymore. Only 'Whiskey-1' and 'Whiskey-2'. Tooting Police Station is part of Wandsworth Borough Police but for some strange reason it is within the border of Merton.
Contributed by Warren Dempster

My Childhood

I was born in 1994 in a house in Ascot Road which is the road behind Tooting Police Sation. Our doctors surgery was in the house where the cyclist is in the right of the photo. In 1959 my sister married "Jim" policeman from Tooting nick who drove the area wireless car "whiskey3". These cars ranged from Humbers to Wolsey 6/80 and 6/90's. Jim died in 1999 in Plymouth he was in his 80's. On the left corner of the photo was a shoe shop and a fish and chip shop further up towards the police station.
Contributed by Richard Whiteland

I lived above Tooting Police Stn

From 1954-1959 I lived at Flat 4 Tooting Police Stn. With my friend Richard King we spent many happy hours up on the roof throwing mud and moss down on the unsuspecting passers by below. Another trick was to throw stones down the chimney pots. My mistake was to pick the pot of my own flat which resulted in a load of soot spewing out into my parents bedroom. My Dad who was an Inspector at the Station caught us and put me in the cells for a few hours. Our crowning achievement was to set light to a small elastic driven model plane and launch it from the roof. Unfortunately it crashed into a passing trolley bus. Haven't been back ...read more here
Contributed by John Bartley

My teenage memories....

From 1959 to 1973 I lived at Tooting Junction. '59-69 in Glasford Street opposite the police station, then when I got married in 1969 I moved one whole road away in Renmuir Street! Many local people may remember our big, black labrador, who used to bark and throw himself at the front room window if anyone dared to walk past our downstairs flat at 2 Glasford Street. My dad used to mend cars outside in the street, as well as working at Battersea power station for a living! My mum, little sister and I used to sit outside the Railway Bell pub with our bags of Smiths crisps and a pepsi or lemonade while our dad had his Sunday lunchtime pint ...read more here
Contributed by Jackie Rice

Sellingcourt Road School

In 1932 I was taken to my first school just up the road from where we lived in Sellingcourt Road. It seemed quite a forbidding place at the time but I can remember the head mistress whose name I forget as being rather a tall lady - at least to me a little boy- and being dressed all in black with the skirt down to her ankles. I remember getting a clip round the ear from the local policeman for being cheeky to him and getting another one from my father when he found out what I had done. I was able to visit the school a couple of years ago and it still looks the same now as it did ...read more here
Contributed by Victor Stotten

My time in Charlmont Road.

I started my life in 1936 at Charlmont Road. These houses had no bathroom (we used a tin bath in front of the fire) and outside toilets. I went to Selincourt Road Schools, infants then juniors. I remember during the war the time a V2 bomb fell on the houses near by on Selincourt and Mellison Roads, and the damage on the corner with Charlmont Road. I am informed the V2 fell on 6th March 1945 at 12.58, whilst I was having my dinner. I recall the corner paper shop in Charlmont Road run by 'Bernard Say', he would organized all our street parties at the end of the war, and whenever a special event occurred. He also ran trips to ...read more here
Contributed by Brian Lawrence