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.