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"Shelter 100 yards" on FH wall
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Snazy


Posts: 1,516
Joined: Jan 2008
Post: #1
28-03-2008 01:31 PM

Since being at school and learning about the war, I have always been keen to show people a little piece of FH history, that being the wall on London Road.

Opposite the old McDonalds, or just outside the Wetherspoons, just where the pavement narrows, heading up London Road, there is a piece of history on the wall....
"Shelter 100 yards" I believe it says....

However.......... Where was this shelter?

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brian


Posts: 2,002
Joined: Apr 2005
Post: #2
28-03-2008 01:37 PM

Never noticed that. Was not born to 1949. Hope we have some even older people who use the site.
Guess there could have been a communal shelter , could it have been for the cinema. I believe cinema going very popular in the war years

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Snazy


Posts: 1,516
Joined: Jan 2008
Post: #3
28-03-2008 01:49 PM

lol was not expecting anyone to remember it really, just maybe know where it was.

Too close to the cinema to be 100 yards, and unless they had a basement would think it unlikely too.
Did wonder about the subway though and if there was anything of that level further along.

Anything up the hill ?

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stevegrindlay


Posts: 104
Joined: Oct 2006
Post: #4
28-03-2008 02:53 PM

I've been told that it was directly across London Road, where Sainsbury's carpark now is. It was accessible by a footpath roughly where the modern one runs alongside Sainsbury's. At the time the carpark was mostly allotments.

There is a similar sign, hard to read now, on the side wall of the locksmith's next to the Dartmouth Arms. It may well have been directing people along London Road.

I must add that I do not remember it, either.


For a random selection of items on local history visit my blog at:
http://sydenhamforesthillhistory.blogspot.com/
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Snazy


Posts: 1,516
Joined: Jan 2008
Post: #5
28-03-2008 04:12 PM

stevegrindlay wrote:
I've been told that it was directly across London Road, where Sainsbury's carpark now is. It was accessible by a footpath roughly where the modern one runs alongside Sainsbury's. At the time the carpark was mostly allotments.

There is a similar sign, hard to read now, on the side wall of the locksmith's next to the Dartmouth Arms. It may well have been directing people along London Road.

I must add that I do not remember it, either.



Excellent, thanks for that Thumbsup
Always interesting to know a bit about the place you grew up eh Smile

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jalapeno


Posts: 34
Joined: Oct 2005
Post: #6
30-03-2008 01:22 PM

I'm having no luck spotting this sign. Snazy, can you give more precise directions? Thanks.

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Les


Posts: 95
Joined: Jan 2004
Post: #7
30-03-2008 08:58 PM

I've never seen the Forest Hill signs, but on the road bridge over the railway at Ladywell there is a large painted sign saying 'Shelter for 400' (IIRC) and an arrow. I think the shelter may have been under the bridge itself.

In a similar vein, the attached pic is of Ladywell cemetary. http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2136/2065...b9cb_m.jpg

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Snazy


Posts: 1,516
Joined: Jan 2008
Post: #8
30-03-2008 09:09 PM

jalapeno wrote:
I'm having no luck spotting this sign. Snazy, can you give more precise directions? Thanks.


Smile no probs. Imagine you have just come out of the Weatherspoons, come down the steps, turn left to face up London Rd.

As you look up the pavement, there are a few more shops, a couple of phone boxes and the bus stops. Then the pavement narrows.
Where the pavement narrows, there is a perimeter wall of some houses next to the shops. Old dark brick. Most of this is now covered by a billboard, and a phone box (black one)

Behind all that, on the wall is the sign. I will try and get a snap of it tomorrow Smile

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billham


Posts: 115
Joined: Nov 2007
Post: #9
31-03-2008 12:03 AM

To quote from ' A History of Kings and Princes Garth and Forest Hill' by Jad Adams (1993) p42

"The residents of Kings and Princes Garth spent many nights huddled in the basement with the sound of exploding bombs in their ears. Other people from the surrounding area were also welcome to try to sleep in the air raid shelter which was the boiler room later known as flat 9 Princes Garth. A sign on the outside boundary wall facing the station still proclaimed in the 1990s, though in fading script, that a few yards on there is SHELTER FOR 100."

Kings and Princes Garth are the properties opposite Sainsbury's so this appears tp put the shelter on the west side of London Road.

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Snazy


Posts: 1,516
Joined: Jan 2008
Post: #10
31-03-2008 08:08 PM

Cool, thanks.

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Snazy


Posts: 1,516
Joined: Jan 2008
Post: #11
01-04-2008 07:06 PM

Went past on Mon, noticed the whole wall is covered in ivy now.
However here is a pic Smile

Wall highlighted.



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