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Down Memory Lane, Part 227 (Anderson Shelter, Dulwich Baths) .......... Barny...
I can recall that sometime in the early 60's, Iwas asking my dad why there was a small notch cut into the scullery (kitchenette) window and a similar notch cut into the frame. Dad explained that the...
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Telling history the old fashioned way ..... People in History, R.J.Unstead
I am not a fan of that new generation of history books aimed at young people.True they are colourful, offer high quality photographs, along with original source material and can be imaginatively...
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A little bit of Naples in 1890 ..... part 2
This is the second of those pictures of Naples at the close of the 19th century.*In a city where people lived outside as much as inside their homes here are vivid pictures of life in a southern Italian...
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Lost on Sidcup High Street, looking for Boots the Chemist
Now I am on a roll.Having wandered up Sidcup High Street in 1961 yesterday as far as the old ABC, I back again today.It is another picture postcard from Tuck and Son but sadly without a message on the...
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So was that Luxembourg? ............... holidays by hotel labels in the 1950s
Now I don’t even know if hotels still give away suitcase labels.If they don’t that is a shame because I am sitting beside some of the ones my dad collected in his years as a coach driver and they are...
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On finding Miss Wright of Chorlton .............. unlocking a bit more of our...
464 Wilbraham Road, home to Miss Wright circa 1900Now Miss Wright of Chorlton has been found.She was and continues to be a clue to the storyof the Girls Friendly Society and the Chorlton-cum-Hardy...
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A Picture History of Britain
I first came across A Picture History of Britain, by Clarke Hutton on a wet winter’s day sometime in the 1950s. It had been published in 1945 and I guess the Oxford University Press were on to a winner...
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Remembering Mona Road and that newsagent's in the 1950s ......... a story...
I well remember Mona Road in the mid-1950s. It was on my daily walk from Lausanne Road (no.7, since demolished), to Edmund Waller Primary School off Dennett's Road and Walsham Road.The Eagle, 1957The...
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Back in Sidcup in 1961, at the war memorial
I think this will be the last from the series of Sidcup in 1961.This is the war memorial and our commercial photographer decided on just one more which was a close up of the parish church.I have to...
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Hotel labels and holiday badges ......... how we show off where we go
Now I have been following my dad around Europe in the 1950s using the hotel suitcase labels that he collected.They are fascinating little bits of our history and I shall close with one last one which...
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Mrs Keal and the mystery of 419 Barlow Moor Road
Leon's, 2015It has taken sometime but I now think I have solved the mystery behind the date on the wall of nu 419 Barlow Moor Road.Most people will know the place as Leon’s the fabric shop but I have...
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Dennett's Road, SE14 ................ another story from Chris Taylor
In the 1950s, Dennett's Road ran continuously from its then junction with Queen's Road, southwards and parallel with Lausanne Road, to Mona Road and on up to Arbuthnot Road. I say “up” because of the...
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New Wakefield Street, 2004
An occasional series featuring places I continue to think are special.This is New Wakefield Street, just off Oxford Street and close to what was once Little IrelandPicture; from the collection of...
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Charting a tempestous time ......... the cartoons of David Low 1945-53
Low Visibility, 1953A political cartoon has a short life.What was relevant, funny and to the point will quickly become quite incomprehensible and unless you have the historical knowledge to unlock it,...
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January 2009 when the snow came down in lumps
It began falling in the early hours of the morning and by six had blanketed the township.One by one the family attempted to get into work and school. But the buses had stopped running, it was almost...
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Looking down the High Street ....... revealing clues about the past
Down the High Street, 2015This is one of those scenes of the High Street which will be so familiar as to warrant not even a second glance and give or take a few of the businesses along this stretch it...
View ArticleLooking for coal holes ....... another story from Barny
In England the precursors of manhole covers are the coalhole covers. In the 19th century many buildings in larger towns had a coal hole in the pavement to alllow the coal merchant to empty his sacks...
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Inside the Great Northern
I have always liked the Great Northern Warehouse. It was begun in 1885, was completed in 1898 and renovated and opened as a leisure complex a hundred years later.Picture; from the collection of Andrew...
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The sandwich board ............ a century apart
Advertising the Palace Theatre, 1896Once the man with a sandwich board was a common site on the streets of all our towns and cities.And then sometime after the last world war they seemed to disappear....
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Walking the High Street in 1918
I am on one of those walks which I could have taken just a century ago along the High Street.Looking east, 2014Now this is not so difficult given that by 1918 there were plenty of commercial and...
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