According to Chrissie Hynde (The Pretenders) both she and Joe Strummer (The Clash) lived in a flat in Forest Hill "with the guys who became the Basement Five".
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/t...005084.ece

So we have more punk roots in Forest Hill. I'm surprised BD has not mentioned this previously. For more on punk in Forest Hill see - http://www.se23.com/forum-archive/messages/9/722.html

Is it possible that London Calling (the obvious choice for our national anthem when London declares its independence) was written in a flat in Forest Hill, just like the Socialist anthem The Red Flag?

I have been reading 'Culture Clash: Dread Meets Punk Rockers' (SAF: London, 2007), the autobiography of Don Letts, DJ, film-maker, member of Big Audio Dynamite and general mischief maker. Don grew up in Brixton, going to Christchurch Primary School and Archbishop Tennison secondary, but during the punk period when he was DJing at the Roxy club (early 1977) he 'moved to a grand old house in Forest Hil, built on the second highest point in London' with his then girlfriend Jeanette Lee - later a member of Public Image Ltd and later still co-owner of Rough Trade records. Leo Williams and JR, who were in black post-punk band The Basement 5, lived there and 'Both Joe Strummer and Chrissie Hynde also lived there at different times'.

Letts also mentions 'hanging out with John Lydon after the Pistols' gig at the Nashville. We went back to my house in Forest Hill and spent the whole night talking about reggae music and Jamaican culture'. 'After the shows at the Roxy, Chrissie Hynde, some of the Slits, the Clash, Generation X and the Pistols would hang out in Forest Hill, often all at the same time', while Letts spliced together the super 8 film that would become 'The Punk Rock Movie'. All in all, the house in Forest Hill sounds like a punk powerhouse. Not sure of the address or whether the present occupiers would necessarily want to know if they've read the book which also describes a sad teenage suicide in the house.