What a great thread, my family moved to Forest Hill in '58. We're on the edge, bordering Catford and Brockley. I went to Rathfern and Fairlawn Schools and remember Sainsbury when it was where the charity shop is now (Red Cross?) and every Saturday would be one of the ABC kids for the Saturday pictures.
On the corner of Stanstead and Brockley Rise was a Coop and outisede was a flavoured milk machine and my dad would take us there as a treat every now and again, then you had the chemist with its loads of potions and wooden cabinets and then Ghinns the Haberdashery, Grumpy Mr Andersons Newsagents for whim I did a paper round and where Talents is was a fishmonger, I understand from the current owners on a hot day you can still smell fish, the green grocers run by an old couple (probably younger than me now) and then Bloomfields the bakers. On the other side was barclays bank where the chemist is now and the post office ... Ghinns though was the most unique of shops.
Does anyone know if there are any plans for Steve Grindlay to give a talk about Forest Hill later this year? Has anyone been to these talks, which I believe are held in the library?
Also, wouldn't it be wonderful to have some of our our seniors who actually lived in the area, give their stories and memories about pre-war Forest Hill.
Somebody I know remembers when Willow Way was full of stables.
The, photos on post 63 showing my grandfathers car taken outside his shop, in the background is the back of the Swiss Cottage. The address of the shop was 1 Cambridge Terrace Wastdale Road. These days I have Parkinson's & my memory is not that good but I do remember going to the barber next to the Capital in the 60s & the barber had a perfect Quiff with a DA @ the back. He always asked if you wanted anything for the weekend (I did not know what he meant). the photo was taken in 1948
This is my grandfather outside his shop 1 Wastdale Rd taken in 1965. Fred Garratt , the shop name has part of G missing & the A stands for Agnes my nan
This post was last modified: 25-05-2015 05:24 PM by paul garratt.
Have just come across this brilliant thread. Came to Forest Hill in the early 80s. I remember when Macdonald's was Woolworths. Bought denim dungarees for my godson from Tilt - He's 40 next year. Village Way hairdressers was a greengrocers - run by a funny old bloke whose wife looked like Sybil from Fawlty Towers and when it got busy at Christmas her sisters would come to help and they all looked the same. They had a shop cat too. The Malt Shovel was a new pub and is now The Hill. Remember Romantique II - walls were sort of half logs and had paper currency from all over the word fastened to it. Seemed sophisticated at the time. More recently miss Foret des Amis - now the Cinnamon restaurant. Goslings was a great deli - think they kept the coffee grinder in the window from the previous owners. Feeling very old!!
Good find Poppet2. They are great photos.
I found this one which is of the original Sainsbury's (Red Cross shop) decked out with it's Christmas Turkey display. Not sure of the year but I know I wouldn't mess with the lady on the right.
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