Can anyone tell me why the Ewart Road estate came to built or why the victorian houses that were there before were knocked down? I had assumed that the houses had been damaged by bombs, but looking back over the posts on this forum I found a map which showed only light bomb damage in that area. I'd be interested to know why the houses in those roads were chosen to be replaced by council housing. Cheers!

You might like to look at this map of bomb damage in Forest Hill which shows the western end of Ewart Rd as suufering a V1 hit and being either severely damaged or damaged beyond repair.

Another article I found shows Lewisham as having 2983 houses totally destroyed, 49077 damaged and only 1388 undamaged.

Excellent map, thanks for that. Any idea of a key to the colours, I could not see one.

You can find the local set (and key) here and a previous discussion of bomb damage in this thread

Thank you

The houses in the lower part i.e. past what was Wastdale road, were fine, they were still in very good repair, as i had a friend who lived in one, they were then compulsory purchased, by Lewisham Council, to make way for the new developments.

It was such a shame to see perfectly good houses pulled down. I lived in Bovill road then and there used to be an alley way, which cut through from Bovill road to Ewart road, which was very handy, if you were going through to Wastdale road

I lived in my grandfathers shop in wastdale rd from 1949 when I was bourn for about 3 years then latter on I worked there as a Saturday boy when it became a greengrocers. The shop was the 1st shop @ the end of the Swiss Cottage Pub gardens . When I lived there it was a 2nd hand cloths shop then a pet shop then a greengrocers. He retired in about 1970 & moved away. We moved around the areas & ended up in wells pk rd. The schools I went to where Turnham Rd from the age of 5 till 10 then about 1 year @ Kelvin Grove then Forest Hill when it was boys only. I probably have some photos if any one is interested.

Hi Paul,
It would be nice to see any photos that you may have.
Wastdale road, had numerous shops, that i remember in the 1950's and 1960's. There was a cycle shop, where I got my first bike from, next door, was a newsagents, where i did a paper round.

I also remember there was also an Archery shop, which I always thought was a funny place to have an Archery shop.

There was a great community in that area.[/i]

I was born in our house 90 Ewart road in December 1964. It was in a road of little terraced 2 up 2 down Victorian houses, with a bomb site at the end cordoned off with a corrugated iron fence. Some houses were in good condition, but others were in disrepair and overflowing with large families. The two main families I remember were the Bournes and Fernandez’s. All the kids used to play on the street and it was a good community. My mum and granny worked at the dart factory and Turkish delight factory. In the early to mid 70s they forced everyone out to live in high rise council flats in different places like Dulwich and Peckham and they knocked down the street to build a new build development which included ‘Fern Close’ not sure if that is still there. It was a real shame, as even though the original houses had outside toilets and no bathroom (we used to go to the public baths or tin bath in the garden in the summer) they were lovely to us. We had a great garden with a cherry tree and lovely neighbours. We were moved to a horrible flat up in the air in Peckham in a concrete jungle with no garden. Very sad x

I remember the cycle shop and the sweet shop!😊

I remember Ling's Turkish Delight factory. It has been demolished and replaced by new houses.

My mum used to bring home a box of Lings Turkish Delight every week, not great for the waistline! 😆x

I would dearly love to see a photo of Wastdale Road and Ewart road in the 1940-60.
I lived at No. 32 Ewart all my young life and attended Dalmain Road School.
I remember some of the shops in Wastdale Rd, a newsagents run by a Mr Bonner, and Off Licence, Mr Watts that was on the corner of Dalmain Road. There wa a hardware shop, run by a Mr Mallott and a toy shop down opposite the Swiss Cottage pub, the owner had a pet rabbit running loose in the shop, much to the delight of children.
If anyone has a photo of the row of houses opposite Garthorn Road I would be overjoyed to see it.

Swiss Cottage, Stanstead Road by Steve Grindlay, on Flickr