General Chat

Hallo I now live in Hitchin (as you may have guessed), but I was brought up in Sanderstead. We were at the Surrey end, so I remember Hamsey Green & Warlingham in my childhood. Croydon was where we went to the cinema. We used to ride on double deckers and my brother and I loved sitting in the front top seat going down Sanderstead Hill before they bunged in the roundabout and cleared the road - it used to be a narrow road with branches of trees touching eachother over the road and we loved the sound of them swishing on the roof of the bus! I went via Croydon every morning to school in Old Coulsdon. When I left school I regularly met my girlfriends in the coffee bar either in Habitat or Allders, and I commuted to college for years. I went to the Fairfield Halls many times and miss having all that culture on the doorstep. Now we drive down to my mum's, but a while ago I went on my own to see her in my family research role, and I got the train from Luton which goes right through to East Croydon. Had a look round the Whitgift centre, its as windy as I remember it, but doesn't seem as exciting. If anybody ever travelled on the 403 to Warlingham Park and remembers an eccentric, balding, short bus conductor prone to singing Italian opera, that was my dad!

hi emma,wot a naughty girl lol...guess wot?,probably as your coming to south london,i will be visiting my family in neath...i hope to go home for about a month,but every time i go home,its harder to leave,and come back to london,i think once my youngest sorts out her life(shes 18),then i will go back home for good...best wishes...bryan.

Terri i'm also from the "other side" Worcester Park

Hi Suzy I'll tell my mother to give Primma Donnas a try, and next time I manage an adult meal out when I'm in West Wickham I'll also give it a go! Re. Freelands Road: There certainly seem to be quite a few coincidences when you start doing research into family history; like you I thought all my ancestors were from elsewhere - (East) London and northwards - but just recently I've discovered a branch that came from a village only about 20 miles from where I now live in Berkshire! Good luck to everyone with their research; I imagine you've got easier access to records and big public libraries in the Croydon/Bromley areas - you're well placed for finding out more. Helen

Hi Bryan, Am i the only one to truely be currently living in croydon (maybe i',m the only one brave enough!). We live in lovely apartment building opposite the police station by fairfield halls so it is a bit noisy! The reason we moved to croydon was purely due to its great transport links to where i work and my partner and flatmate works: clapham Farringdon and London Bridge. I also wouldn't walk around at night by myself but i think that pretty much applies to anywhere nowadays! Is everyone going to vote today?? From zoe in not very sunny croydon!

Hi Helen Primma Donnas is opposite the swimming baths, near West Wickham station. Well worth a visit. I think you are thinking of Palace Road, which is very near Freelands Road. The URC is still there. Palace View is near Bromley South Station. Talking of Freelands Road....We moved to Bromley in 1974, having no previous connection with the area.....most of my family are from West London. The Freelands Road area has since become a favourite place for our family, with its great pubs and quaint housing. Imagine my shock when looking for my GGG Grandfather in the 1891 census; having found him and all his family in London on the 1881 and 1901 census....where did I find him living...at 23 Freelands Road, Bromley. Spooky or what!!??!!

Terri I used to live just off De Mesne Road, Mellows Road in Wallington...worked in Mitcham and have friends Carshalton. Used to go into Croydon to the night club Cats Whiskers. Before that lived in Morden and Colliers Wood, worked in South Wimbledon (yes Ive moved a lot) and Balham went to school in Clapham for a while too. Sheila oh, and lived in Leigham Vale in Streatham for a couple of years too.

Hi Terri - Am living in Streatham Liz

gosh,theres so many of us,its geat...thanks...joy,the alma lodge is off elmers end road...janice,i love kenly,but did you say ..risca.. in another life,if so read the post wales united lol.i knew thornton heath pond,when it was a pond lol...they used to have an all nite coffee stall on the roundabout,and many a weekend i would stop,have a coffee,and sleep in my car....those were the days lol....bryan.

Hi Bryan, Suzy, Joy, Janice et al Just dropped in again to see how the conversation was progressing; quite a trip down memory lane! I too remember the Frank and Peggy Spencer dance classes in Penge.. I'm not sure where Prima Donnas restaurant is in West Wickham, Suzy - with two children I only seem to see the inside of Macdonalds, Pizza Express and the Addington Village Inn when we visit my mother! (By the way, is Palace View anywhere near Freelands (?) Road, as I got married at Trinity URC which I think is in the same area?) After our wedding, we held our wedding reception in the Pickhurst, so I remember it well. (Funny how reminiscences often seem to centre round pubs! My locals were the Swan, Wheatsheaf, and White Hart in WW, and the Fox and Hounds (?) in Keston!) Joy, my father spent many years commuting by train from West Wickham to Cannon Street - what a terrible service it used to be - don't know if it's any better now? The only good thing he could say about it was that if he fell asleep and missed his stop, he only had to continue one station to the terminus! We had many phone calls plaintively beginning "I'm at Hayes.....can you come and pick me up!" Janice, I too will give you a wave when I'm next in Pickhurst Lane! Regards to all Helen

Hi Bryan I lived in Tooting when i was younger now i live at the other end of Croydon in Old coulsdon.Janice you must live very nearby as i can see the gliders go up from my garden as well Jenny

Did you say Thornton Heath? OOO I am in the north but my grandmother was born in Thornton Heath so does that count?:)

Hi Suzy, I live off Pickhurst Lane, on the road that goes past the station. My kids went to Pickhurst School and Hayes. Jan Walker - haven't you got some marking to do? If not, why not!! Janice

Brian - don't move to West Wickham - I work with Janice in Sydenham and it is all her fault that I'm into this genealogy stuff she even read the map for me as we sped down to Taunton Records Office last autumn - Stonehenge looked wonderful! I live in kenley up by the common with the gliders, used to live in South Croydon and before that Thornton Heath down by the pond.But my saving grace is that I am really a Bournemouth girl via Somerset, Gloucestershire, Preston, Stockport and Risca over the last 400 years!! I'm called Janice as well. Jan

Joy I think he's called Chris Greener. Something like that. He is still around because he visited my childen's school recently.

Joy ....and I passed my driving test in West Wickham. LOL

Hello Bryan I am in Petts Wood, near Orpington, although I lived in Bromley for about 11 years - Palace View. Janice Tibble - One of my best friends lives in West Wickham (Pickhurst Lane), and I am going there tomorrow night. Will give you a wave!! Emma Matthews - I know Penge very well. I used to attend the Peggy Spencer dance studio there as a child!! Helen May - a good friend of mine runs Prima Donnas restaurant. Is that near your Mum? Joy (Kentish Maid) - I used to go to the "Three Tuns" in Beckenham too!! Also "The Beckenham". Don't think they are there now. We visit the "Pickhurst Pub" a lot - a great one for kids. My Mum lived in Bromley for many years, but she now lives in Dorset too - Highcliffe, near Christchurch. What a small world, eh?

Would you count me as a Sarf Londoner? Born in Southfields, just off Wimbledon Park Road, early childhood in Wimbledon Park (Durnsford Road opposite the Electricity Board), but then went up(?!?) in the world and moved to North Cheam in Surrey (well it was then - now part of Greater London). Mum always said we lived in Cheam, conveniently forgot the North bit. LOL Now I've really let the side down! Live in the middle of Epsom Downs by the racecourse - that really is Surrey! LOL Sue

hi joy,everything you said,rings a bell with me,the pickhurst ive been in many times over the years,the w.g.grace is a wonderful pubive been up and down pickhurst lane,thousands of times..the regulars,including kate,now use the alma lodge,but i havent been there for over a year,sorry meant to say pickhurst rise!...best wishes...bryan

it really is a small world...i live in thornton heath,i use the local tesco,i lived in maple road penge,in the 70s..some of my family lives/lived,bourn vale,hayes,i have friends and family new addington,and i was engaged to a girl in west wickham..and i often go into the pub in beckenham,where kate,from big brother is a regular.....bryan.