Camberwell
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Camberwell books (15 available)
Camberwell memories
Read and share memories of Camberwell and London inspired by Frith photos
Katie Barnes and the Hermits Cave
The one thing that sticks in my memory about growing up in Camberwell was the newspaper stall outside the Hermits Cave pub and the young me being in awe of Katie Barnes (I think that was her name), the 'old' woman who used to sell the papers. She knew everyone's gossip and had a slightly hairy chin!
Contributed by Rai Wildwood
my ancestors
The Soulby family and the Audy family all lived around this area, the Miller family started my ancestral name from here too.
Contributed by Edna Reynolds
Searching the tombs!
Oh I know it always seemed so huge and scary, with its giant red doors, but my brother and I had such fun in the churchyard climbing the trees and exploring the broken tombs and crypts. Pretty scary as I always expected a monster to grab me and take me down inside never to be seen again! I think the horror movie of the time was about zombies and living dead and stuff! We also used to pick the daffodils and sell them in bunches for a tanner a bunch till one day the vicar caught us and gave us a right telling off!
The canal ran alongside the churchyard and we used to 'boat' up and down it on a ...read more here
Contributed by denise masters
Those were the days !!!
My twin brother and I were born in 1960 and I think we were about five or six years old. Mum always did the shopping at Camberwell Green and we regularly and always unwillingly traipsed after her or my sister Cora from our home at 53 Rainbow Street through the green to the shops. If mum had been lucky on the horses or dogs we got a taxi back with all the shopping! More often than not she didn't and we had to lug everything back home.
I vaguely recall the play park inside the green and the pigeons we used to chuck bread at.
Also I remember the time an old tramp was drunkenly hollering at my brother and I ...read more here
Contributed by denise masters
Church Street, Camberwell
1950s. This is the view down Church Street from the cross road which we all knew as and called "the green" which is to the left of this picture. The large double fronted shop on the right was at the time a Joe Lyons where you could get a cup of tea and a bun from a lady in a white apron (and I have no doubt more substantial meals too - but I cannot remember that). A little further down Church Street on the right, past Wren Road turning was the Police Station with its blue lamp. Note the tram lines - I rode on the last tram from the Oval to the green - but I have now lost ...read more here
Contributed by First name Last name
Old blokes in white coats!
Sometimes on the way to the Green we would watch the men walking up and down the Bowling Green. They really took things seriously! The Green was mown to precision and I'm sure the bloke that cut it measured the length of the grass with a ruler! We were amazed!
When the bowler would prepare to bowl my brother and I would shriek and put him off his run or whatever you call it! Since we did this most weekends I bet they really hated us (we thought it was great fun). As is usual though we got older and found other things to amuse us!
Contributed by denise masters
Extracts From Camberwell & London books
Nestled in the rear slopes of the North Downs, the village derives its ancient name from the Saxon word ‘wudmeresthorn’, meaning ‘thornbush by the boundary of the wood’, and was mentioned in the Domesday Book. This 1930s mock-Tudor shopping parade still stands on Rectory Lane as it winds its way south to the junction with the Chipstead Valley Road, where the buildings of the Woodmansterne Treatment Works, belonging to the Sutton and East Surrey Water Company, are just visible.
An extract from from"Around Cheam, including Sutton, Ewell, Banstead and Epsom Photographic Memories".
Much of Banstead High Street was rebuilt during the 1920s with a series of shopping parades. The leafless lime tree in the middle distance occupies the spot where the village pond once existed, while All Saints’ churchyard is concealed behind the trees on the extreme right.
An extract from from"Around Cheam, including Sutton, Ewell, Banstead and Epsom Photographic Memories".
The station, on the branch line from Sutton to Epsom Downs, opened in 1865, and the white stuccoed house, now a builder’s offices, dates from around the same time. The small confectionery kiosk was one of a trio servicing the requirements of commuters, with other branches at Sutton and Epsom. The roof of the station no longer bears the white lettering, and the building is almost a mile from the town centre itself. The road almost immediately makes another sharp bend over the railway line below, before passing the Cuddington Golf Clubhouse and continuing on to East Ewell.
An extract from from"Around Cheam, including Sutton, Ewell, Banstead and Epsom Photographic Memories".
Originally founded for ladies in the autumn of 1890, the club admitted gentlemen to membership within a year, and from a tin hut close to Banstead Railway Station it moved to this site in Burdon Lane nine years later. A putting green was added in 1923, and further major development took place in the years after this photograph was taken.
An extract from from"Around Cheam, including Sutton, Ewell, Banstead and Epsom Photographic Memories".
Situated on the corner of Sandy Lane, these courts, flanked by suburban houses, now form part of Cheam Fields Club. The pavilion in the background, although substantially altered, has also survived to the present day.
An extract from from"Around Cheam, including Sutton, Ewell, Banstead and Epsom Photographic Memories".