I agree Roz and 40 years ago it was a dump.

Not sure where the remaining chav's shop though. Perhaps they come to our Sainsbury's , I have noticed more clientelle with the tell tale track suit bottoms.

My memories of Lordship Lane, going back to 1975, is different. It certainly was not a fashionable area that wealthy young people moved into, but ('but' may not be the apposite word, 'so' might be better in context) it was known as an interesting and attractive shopping street even in the mid 1970s. It had lots of good food shops, especially cypriot food shops, and quite a few good places to eat and drink even then.

If you disagree, by god, you should have been living on Catford Hill in 1975 to see lack of places to eat.

A old friend moved there in 1980s when house prices were low, and it became a second home to me. I could have dined at a different place every day for a fortnight, my dears, such was the choice on offer. There was a craft studio and quite a few little trendy shops even then, but mixed in with places like Walsh's glazing, so it never looked twee. When my friend moved to Spain 10 years ago I kept telling her "You'll be amazed by how much it has changed, it has got so trendy." Each time she came back she said "yes, OK so there's that trendy new place on the corner, but it is still then same." Then about two years ago she came back and she felt that, finally, it had changed and become a quite different sort of place. She was not sad, just amused, although depressed by opportunistic rent rises putting some favourite shops out of business.

Apologies for my grammer in first sentence 'my memories *are* different'.