The Peckham Society Letters We welcome letters from members and those with an interest in Peckham. Where possible we will reply, but not necessarily by return. As you will see below many letters appear on our website and also many are published in our quarterly magazine.We are happy to forward letters to members. We are not able to assist with family research. Our editor is a regular visitor to Southwark Local History Library , 211 Borough High Street, London SE1 1JA which is an excellent source of historical information about Peckham. (Library resources can help you find out the history of the area, your family or house, or provide help with school or college projects. The library also holds information on changes in Southwark today. They are happy to help anybody with an interest in the Southwark area. You don't need to be a member of a Southwark, or any other, library. The collections have extensive finding aids and staff will always give advice on getting the most out of the library. You don't need to make an appointment to visit, except for group or class visits. However, they advise you to book a microfilm reader if you will need to use one.) From: Joy Hodge by email I am hoping to contact old friends through the Peckham Society. I used to live in Dundas Road in a prefab which has sadly now gone. I lived there until 1961 and then lived in Barry Road until 1965. I used to go to Friern Road girls’ school and spent many days in Peckham Rye Park and on Peckham Rye Common. My father grew up in Dayton Grove no. 28. I also knew the shop in Nunhead Grove that Mrs Holland mentioned in her letter. My friend Iris lived next door. In the late fifties and 1960 I went to the top twenty dance hall near Jones and Higgins. I saw Johnny Kidd and the Pirates, Tommy Bruce and Jess Conrad there. I also went to the George Holden School of Dancing in St Mary’s Road and spent many evenings at the St Mary’s Road health centre at the youth club. My primary school was Hollydale Road. I would love to know where Brian Gamble is now. He lived in Ansdell Road; the boy next door was Tony Drew. Jones and Higgins was a lovely shop. I also bought many things at Martin and Fords, and spent many Sundays after Sunday School at Pepys Park. I would love to contact anyone with memories of Peckham. From: Stan Spencer by email Peckham Society News No. 107 arrived this morning and has been read from cover to cover. To the best of my recollection (1930s to 1950s) there was not a market as such in Bournemouth Road. However, there were a couple of stalls at the Rye Lane end of the road, one of which was a farm stall run by people called Taylor. There was also a gent who sold drawing pins, shoe laces and matches from a tray that was hung around his neck rather like the ice cream vendors in the cinemas of that era and he had been on that spot for years. From: Bill Jarvis by email Vivian Woodward - Bellenden Road WW2 Depot My grandmother's brother, Vivian Woodward, was born in Lambeth and moved to Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, as a small child. He became a footballer, and has been described as the "David Beckham of 100 years ago", with many great achievements: records lasting until the 1950s for England international caps, goals and hat-tricks. He also captained the Great Britain team to Olympic Gold in the 1908 and 1912 Olympic Games. A hundred years later those games are now regarded in FIFA and elsewhere as the forerunner of the World Cup. He did all this as an amateur, working as an architect at the family practice in South London. An excellent biography has recently been written by Norman Jacobs, and his achievements are on record. However, not much is known about his later years. My mother took me to visit him at a retirement home in Ealing in the early 50s, but my memory is faint because I was a small boy at the time. I know he was an ARP warden during the war at the renowned Bellenden Road Depot. I would be very grateful to get in touch with someone who recalls Vivian Woodward at that time or who knows about the history of the Depot. From: Bob Freeman Swadlincote Derbyshire Nunhead Football Club I was born in on New Year’s Eve 1919 in Bellwood Road, Nunhead. When I was about ten I went with my dad to watch Nunhead Football Club who played in the Isthmian League and I went whenever they were at home. The local derby match was against Dulwich Hamlet, captained by Edgar Kail, who was a cousin of my mother; my parents were also friendly with the Nunhead goalkeeper, Eric Mulley. We went to the ground through an alleyway off Ivydale Road and had many happy times there with a crowd of possibly around 250, until the Club had to close when the ground was sold. It will be interesting if anyone else remembers Nunhead Football Club. I went to Ivydale Road School which was at the bottom of Bellwood Road, about 200 yards from my home, then I passed a half scholarship and went to Brockley Central School in Wallbutton Road, Brockley. I walked there and occasionally cadged a lift on the back step of the United Dairies milk float pulled by a horse along Ivydale Road. Thank you for Peckham Society News where I can read of the places of my childhood. In the Spring Edition No. 107 there was a photograph of the Tower Cinema in Rye Lane. I visited there many times and remember walking up the stairs to the foyer and smelling the wonderful aroma that was always there. The Tower Cinema was to the young lad the pinnacle of excellence. From: Mrs Maureen Stoner Christchurch Dorset Collingwood School I grew up in Camberwell in Dartnell Road off the Old Kent Road. This area was also known as The Island. Why I do not know. My early days were at Cobourg Road Primary School and we lived in prefabs there; this area was heavily bombed during the war and a complete neighbourhood was wiped out in one raid. I have very happy memories of living there. We then moved to Camberwell Green in the first block of the Elmington Estate in 1956. I know that the canal has been filled in but it was a big draw for many youngsters and caused great fears for mums. I had a great aunt who lived in Boathouse Walk in Peckham in one of the little old cottages. I am trying to trace many old chums from Collingwood School especially Jean Beasley who used to live in Barset Road, Nunhead. I have traced many from Collingwood and we had a great reunion in March. Collingwood was once a mixed school named Colls Road but in the later years was changed to Collingwood. Then this became a Girls’ Central School and we had an excellent headmistress. In 1958 the education system was changing and Credon Road Secondary Modern School moved into our school increasing our numbers and frankly bringing down the school. Credon Road School was quite a tough school and their pupils often had teachers in tears. Miss Vaughan Davis, our head, resigned from Collingwood one year after this amalgamation and went to become head at a very good girls’ school in London. From: Pat Gates by email It was nice to stumble across The Peckham Society.My Grandfather had a pet shop which I believe was called Noahs Ark Pet Store in the smaller arcade at the top end of Rye Lane. His name was Warner; and he later moved to East Street with the same business until the war. My father died at the early age of 29 in 1943 whilst in the army. His family [Gates], lived in the top end of Talford Road and one of my uncles, Harry Gates was an officer in the Fire Brigade in Camerwell Road; where he met his second wife Jean.I was born in St. Giles Hospital, and for a short while as a babe in arms lived with my mother and father in Lindhurst Way. We moved away to Dorking during the war with my mother and elderly grandparents. We then moved back to E.Dulwich in 1949; where I met my wife in the mid fifties, [her maiden name was Haynes], We married in 1960 and moved to Plumstead and since to Rochester. As the saying goes, I could write a book on our adventures in Dulwich and Peckham. Best wishes and up the Hamlet! From: Mrs Olive Brenchley (née Dodd) Maidstone CATOR STREET SCHOOL I was born in 1916 in Little Rosemary Road, an extension to Rosemary Road. When I was three months old my family moved to 97 Cronin Road, where I lived until I was married in 1939 in St Luke’s Church. I went to Cator Street School where a wall divided the boys from the girls. Mr Baker used to ring the bell at 8.55 a.m. In the winter some of the mothers would come to the school gate at playtime with milk and cocoa. My two brothers were in the Scouts at St Luke’s Church. Harry Burgar played the big drum and Ern Burgar played the cymbals. When we heard them coming down the street we would follow them all around Rosemary Road, Commercial Way, Cator Street, East Surrey Grove, along St George’s Way and up Cronin Road. They were happy young days. On Thursday evenings at 8 p.m. we could watch the fireworks from Crystal Palace. We’d stand in the middle of the road (no traffic). That was a treat for us. After the war we moved to 69 Cronin Road, next door but one to the Lord Raglan pub. My husband and three children lived there until we were forced to move because the whole area was demolished in the 1960s for redevelopment. What a tragic thing to do to such a thriving and well established community! The houses were in good condition and with a little bit of imagination and modernisation those lovely houses and streets could still be there now. We moved to a modern house in Evelina Road, Nunhead. I lost my husband in 1964 and remarried in 1970 and then moved to Kent. If anybody remembers the Burgars or the Dodd families I would love to know. Thank you for Peckham Society News. It’s so nice to keep in touch with Peckham and places of my childhood. Keep up the good work. From: Tony Ginman Groombridge, Kent FAT BOY OF PECKHAM My father and his family had an association with Johnny Trunley, The Fat Boy of Peckham. My family name is Ginman and my father always said that Johnny Trunley taught him to become a watchmaker in the 1940s. In fact some of the watch repairing tools I have may have originally belonged to Johnny. My father went on to open two jewellers’ shops - one in Plumstead and another in Welling. It was always claimed that many of the Ginmans in and around the Old Kent Road and South East London were long-term friends of Johnny. If anyone has any information I would be very pleased to hear from them. Also does anyone know anything about Hatcham Cricket Club? My grandfather Arthur Ginman played for them and I have a medal that he won. From: Christopher Farrand Ohio USA ELM GROVE I am looking for information on the homes in Elm Grove. My great-great-grandfather Frederick Farrand and family lived there from about 1825 to 1863. However, I am not sure where in Elm Grove they lived. The 1841 census puts them at 1 Elm Grove, which appears to have been a semi-detached home as there was another family there as well. They don't appear in the 1851 census, but it appears that 1 Elm Grove was not inhabited the day of the census, which means they may have been away. In the 1861 census, they are listed at Elm Grove, Priory Villa (next to Swiss Cottage). My great-great-grandfather and g-g-grandmother's death certificates have them dying at Priory Villa, Elm Grove. Following the order of the census taker, my guess is that their home was near the intersection of Elm Grove with Rye Lane, although I'm not sure which side of the street. Can anyone clarify where their house might have been? Does it still exist? Is there a way of getting a photograph of it if it does still exist? Thanks for any help From: John Smith Irby-in-the-Marsh PECKHAM RYE MISSION I wonder if anyone can help me to find some of my friends from the 1950s? I have a 1953 photo of three of my friends: Brian Turner, John Hatherley and Dickie Drane. We all went to the Peckham Rye Mission Youth Club. If anyone else remembers the Youth Club, and the good man that ran the club, Ken Merritt, please get in touch with me. Other friends I'd love to know about are John Caddock, Bob Warren, Sylvia Marks, Gloria Colletta and Valerie Chivers. We had wonderful times at the Youth Club, and we had many rambles out to the countryside, from Peckham Rye Station, organised by Ken Merritt. I particularly remember the Peckham Rye Mission Youth Club holiday to Ventnor on the Isle of Wight in 1953. That is a holiday I shall never forget. It was the first holiday that I ever had. From: Mrs June Brown (née Wilks) Preston STRUDWICK’S Each edition of Peckham Society News gives me more and more pleasure. I would like to thank all concerned for the hard work involved in putting it all together. In the last issue Eileen Curd mentioned Strudwick’s fish and chip shop in Commercial Way. As a child living in Cator Street, I went with my mum to get our tea there every Friday. My mum went to school with George Strudwick. His dad had a boot and shoe repair shop in Cator Street. George was invalided out of the army during the war and joined his wife in the fish and chip shop. I walked with my mum along Commercial Way thirty years ago and the shop was then a wool shop run by Mrs Strudwick and her daughter. As for George Moakes, the cats’ meat man, we traded with him for many years. I have so many wonderful memories. Thank you for keeping them alive. From: Graham Anderson by email CRAMPTON & CO I am writing from Toronto in Canada and am doing research into my grandfather John Muir Macgregor. He was in business with Crampton at 10 & 11 Barbican. The company was listed as Crampton, Macgregor & Co, Ladies Blouse, Robe and Costume Manufacturers. The building was bombed in 1940; John died in 1932. The Post Office Directory of 1915 lists them both at the Barbican address but also as Crampton & Co Blouse Manufacturers at Hanover Street in Peckham. I am hoping one of your readers can shed light on the Peckham address (maybe a second location or factory) and also more information on Mr Crampton, (first name, pictures or descendants). From: David Wells by email PECKHAM MANOR SCHOOL Letters about Peckham Manor School have prompted me to write that I attended it (1968-1973). I remember the “Technical Wing” being the thing that must have saved many of us from going off the strait and narrow. They employed real teachers, people from industry, who showed us how to use real engineering equipment to make real things without the obsession of health and safety. As for the origins and changes to the main school in Sumner Road, it was actually a Primary in the 1920/30s when my mother attended it. From: Irene Warden by email THE “FIVE MILES CLUB” I came across an old medal, with an inscription on the back: 5 Miles Club C.C. Abbott 1923 I noticed that one of your articles mentions the "Five Miles Club Championship Race": Rovers' Club Race meeting at Sayes Court Recreation Ground, Deptford, where my grandfather Henry d'Arcy won the Five Miles Club Championship Race. Would this have anything to do with my medal? Does the name C.C. Abbott mean anything to anyone? From: John Beasley, Editor SE15 Further to our request for information on Califano's we have been fortunate to receive many excellent informative letters on this subject. They will appear on this site soon. Thank you to everyone who responded. From: Kath Adams Wincanton Somerset Please thank all the people who work so hard to make Peckham Society News such a wonderful read. I have had such kind letters regarding my little article. From: Ron Woollacott SE15 Further to the item in the last issue about the hosepipe factory conversion, according to Kelly’s Directories the hosepipe factory was established at 177 Kirkwood Road some time between 1935 and 1950. W. Greenwood & Sons and Co. Ltd. were manufacturers of flex hoses in 1950, and by 1980 were listed as “oil resisting hose pipe manufacturers”. I do not know when the firm ceased business. [Please inform our Editor if you have any additional information.] From: Peter John Smith by email I read with interest Miss Gardener’s letter about working in Jones & Higgins (Rye Lane) and serving Anne Shelton (issue no.94). I also worked for Jones & Higgins; I was a motor mechanic in their garage behind the shop (entrance in Hanover Park). I worked there between 1959 and 1961. Anne Shelton used to have her car washed in the garage. (Dickie Valentine's dad lived in Hanover Park.) Ted Broadribb (Freddie Mills’ boxing manager and father-in-law) used to have his car serviced in the garage and I used to have to deliver it back to his house in Sunray Avenue SE24. He tipped very well and once gave me a pair of boxing shorts (because I was an amateur boxer). Diana Dors visited the shop and passed right by me. It seemed that many celebrities shopped at Jones & Higgins. I am hoping to contact old Peckham friends through Peckham Society News. I have already been in contact with someone who lived in Sternhall Lane (off Rye Lane) during the time that I (plus my mum, dad, brothers and sisters) lived there. I would love to contact people who spent their spare time in Peckham Rye Park in the early 1950s (when I was 14 till I went into the army at 18) because that is the era that brings back the happiest memories of my life. We also all used to meet up at the Mission Youth Club (Troy Town), Peckham Rye, on Saturdays. Ken Meritt ran the club. He did a good job helping us all on the strait and narrow, and insisted we went to Bible Class and then to the church in Rye Lane (up from Jones & Higgins) on Sundays. After Bible Class we used to dash to the Odeon cinema, Goose Green, to go to the pictures. My sister, Pauline, was an ice cream girl in that cinema; she won the "Miss Cinema" (Rank UK) title in 1955 and appeared on TV. I lived in Peckham from before WW2 till about 1965, when we moved to Barry Road, East Dulwich. From: Peter Butler by email PECKHAM MANOR SCHOOL RUGBY Roger Burrell was the rugby coach during the early 1960s. If I remember correctly, during my second year at the school the rugby squad colours were all black and all the competing teams did the Haka before the game. From: Philip by email I was in the “All Blacks” at Peckham Manor School. We had to shout out Tacaty Ticaty Hobuldy Gobldee or something then jump in the air. It was all at the behest of a New Zealand teacher who tape recorded (very high tech.) one of our assemblies before he returned. [Our New Zealand magazine compiler advises us that the words were more likely part of the Kamate Haka: - Ka mate! Ka mate! Ka ora! Ka ora! Which translate as – I die! I die! I live! I live!] From: Mrs Grace Smith-Grogan SE15 I felt so sad when the London sparrows disappeared. Every other bird visited my garden but not a trace of the sparrows. Why? We all asked but there seemed to be no answer. The Editor published my poem entitled “Where have all the sparrow gone” which ended up with “Dear God please send them back”. That was a few years ago. I have an enormous escallonia bush growing just outside my kitchen window. Recently I noticed a great deal of activity within its leafy branches. Imagine my delight when there emerged about a dozen healthy and well nourished sparrows. One flew down to drink from a rain water pot quite close by. A baby squirrel ran up to the branches. His expression was of surprise. I felt a warm glow flood over me. The famous quotation of Robert Browning, who attended a boarding school in Peckham’s High Street, flashed into my mind. “God’s in His Heaven – All’s right with the World!” From: Audrey McCall Hastings I was interested to read Jonathan Fox’s letter in the last issue. In the early 1950s my 15-year-old brother worked in Reg Harrison’s cycle shop at 41 Queen’s Road; it had a workroom behind. They made and assembled bicycles which arrived in many pieces. The marque mentioned was then affixed to these cycles. Some were special racing bikes made to order; he also sold other brands. A special customer was Reg Harris who won five world titles. He won two silver medals at the 1948 Olympic Games. The nearness of Herne Hill cycle stadium meant the business thrived. I purchased my first bike from Harrison’s and very daring it was with semi-drop handlebars. When Mr Harrison died the business soon folded and the whole area was completely purchased by the council to enable the Acorn Estate to be built. Does anyone remember “Arthur’s” the newsagent’s shop on the corner of Pemell’s Place, 5 or 6 shops away from Harrison’s bike shop? I delivered newspapers from “Arthur’s” to houses including the clapperboard houses in Consort Road. I hated the long gardens at the front. A man who lived in one of these houses used to give me money wrapped up in layers of paper for me to give to Arthur “when it was quiet”. They were bets so I guess I was a “Bookie’s Runner”. Keep on with Peckham Society News. I love it but it does bring back some sad wartime memories as well as funny ones. From: Ken Cook by email I lived in Athenlay Road, Nunhead, from my birth in 1941 until the day I was married in 1962. Some of the older residents still referred to our neighbourhood as "Waverley Park". When I was young there was still a lot of horse-drawn traffic on the roads, such as the milkman, the breadman, the coalman, the rag and bone man etc. Consequently there was a good supply of manure for the keen gardener. To collect this bounty more easily for his allotment, my father constructed a small hand cart. My brothers and I would scour the local streets in search of this valuable by-product! I recall that on one warm Saturday afternoon we ventured as far as Nunhead Lane in our search; by this time the cart was pretty full. Instead of returning home, we decided to visit the Grand Surrey Canal at Canal Head, which was located behind the Abbey Rose depot opposite the Jones & Higgins's corner. Rye Lane was always packed with shoppers in those days and you can imagine the comments that were made as a bunch of young boys pushed their precious cargo through the crowds! From: John Jordan by email A letter on the Peckham Society website caught my eye. I was born on 17 April 1942, in the middle of an air raid, so my mother tells me! I entered the world in King’s College Hospital. We lived in Machell Road, Nunhead. It’s nice to have confirmation of the Italian prisoner of war camp on Peckham Rye as my children and grandchildren think I’m making it up. I also tell them that the kids in the “forties” had the best adventure playgrounds ever invented thanks to Mr Hitler. The bomb site on the corner of Kimberley Avenue and Evelina Road and the one in Kimberley Avenue itself were my favourites. In order to supplement my pocket money I worked at Jones & Higgins in Rye Lane on a Saturday and during school holidays for the princely sum of 12/6d a day. I had such a good time I would probably have worked there for nothing. On Saturdays the store took on probably twenty or thirty “school kids” to help with extra business and for most of us it was more like a club taking over the canteen in the lunchtime and flirting with the permanent office girls. I met my first real love there. I wonder whatever happened to Pam Hatton? The streets then were, or appeared to be, a lot safer. Parents didn’t take their “little darlings” to school after the first day. We all just seemed to go together. Obviously there wasn’t the amount of traffic around that there is now but even at the age of five I still had to cross over a bus route to get to school and didn’t think anything of it. In any case, my Mum used to leave home at about 5.30 in the morning to do office cleaning and my Dad worked in a butcher’s shop and was also away early so my Nan used to get me up for school and wasn’t able to walk me to school even if I wanted her to. I remember the old Tower Cinema in Rye Lane which always seemed very grand to me. I seem to remember going up dozens of steps to get in. In particular I remember going there at the time of the Olympics when there were all sorts of sports equipment on display on the stairs. Funny what you remember! The best time at the cinema was Saturday morning at the Odeon. The poor staff must have dreaded Saturdays coming round! The noise when the hero or villain came on the screen was deafening. From: Percy Hill Harpenden, Herts Your magazine gives me pleasure every quarter and I wish it success. From: Mrs Angela Quick Toronto, Canada I now live in Toronto, Canada, and am in my mid-seventies. When I came across your website, memories came flooding back. I was born in Peckham and my late father and mother had a drapery shop at 109 Queen’s Road. My first school was for a few terms, at Wood’s Road, opposite our shop. There was a store called Wades on the corner of Burchell Road. I recall many happy outings to Peckham Rye Park, and Christmas excursions to Rye Lane. My late Mom loved going into Jones and Higgins. Maybe one day, when I can get to London, I will take a journey down memory lane and have an abundance of nostalgia by visiting good old Peckham. It has changed, I am sure, but I will always remember it as it was in the years prior to the War in 1939. From: Ernest John Savage Shirley, Croydon I was born at 70 Denman Road in 1913. My sister Jessie worked at Jones and Higgins in Rye Lane. The Fire Station in Peckham had a horse-drawn fire engine. As a family we attended Rye Lane Baptist Chapel, where I sang bass in the choir, and played the double bass in Dr Green’s orchestra on Sunday evenings. We held open-air services in Hanover Street (now Highshore Road) opposite the chapel. During the week we held open-air services around this area, shouting out scripture texts. I lived in Peckham for eighteen happy years. From: James Roffey Clayworth, Nr. Retford The picture of the former Walmer Castle in the last issue brought back memories of when I was a small boy going with my mother every week to the public library that stood on the opposite corner of Grummant Road to that public house. I was, of course, far too young to go into the Walmer Castle, or any other public house, but I knew a little of what it was like because a man who lived opposite our house in Shenley Road played in the Walmer Castle orchestra. Every evening he could be seen setting off to work, wearing a dinner suit and black bow tie. I am told that the Saloon Bar was “very respectable”, where suitably dressed customers sat in leather padded armchairs amongst potted palms. Unaccompanied ladies, men wearing caps, or who were without ties, would not be served at the bar but asked to leave. In 1939 I was evacuated to Pulborough in West Sussex with my sister’s school – Peckham Central Girls. When I came home four years later, I found all that remained of the library was its ornate Victorian frontage. The grand steps leading up to the entrance doors were still there, but a plank of wood had been nailed across them, which was just as well because immediately behind was a National Fire Service reservoir on the site of what had been the library. In common with every other building the Walmer Castle looked very shabby. Whether it still had its potted palms and orchestra I do not know. I look forward to every issue of Peckham Society News and to the memories each one brings to me. From: Bette Everett by email I really enjoyed reading through the last magazine and was especially happy to see the picture of the boy on the bike in Dayton Grove as we lived at No 3 for a while - I believe it must have been round about the start of the war. I well remember catching caterpillars from the big trees opposite and keeping them in matchboxes as pets. I don't suppose the poor things lasted very long, although we always put a bit of greenery in with them for their dinner! If it was cruel I can only say in my defence that I was only about 3 years old and it was all my big sister’s fault! Does anyone remember Sister Charlesly of the Salvation Army? My sister and I, along with assorted cousins, used to go with her to the local Army Hall every Sunday, morning and afternoon. She was like the Pied Piper as we used to wait by our gates for her and then troop behind her to the Hall. We all absolutely loved her and I think she lived in Colls Road. At the top of King Arthur Street, where we lived there, was a pub called The Railway Tavern and Sister Charlesly used to go in there every Sunday evening selling The War Cry. The customers were a pretty rough lot (including my Dad, grandfathers and uncles) but to a man they respected her. What a lovely lady she was. What happened to her? Does she still have relatives living in Peckham? My sister and older cousins were training to be Guards (the Sally Army's Guides) but as I was too young to be a Guard I was a Sunbeam. How cute is that! I still get a laugh from that one even after all these years. How we loved to march on certain Sundays and how proud my big sister was as she carried the flag. Happy days! I still go to the Boscombe Salvation Army when they have Christmas concerts and they are absolutely brilliant. We really had a wonderful childhood in spite of the war years. From: Kelly Heywood by email I moved to Peckham when I was five years old and am now 37. I have some very good memories of my childhood. The Odeon cinema stands out in my memory very much from about the age of seven years old when my eldest brother Steven used to take me and my sister Theresa to watch the Saturday morning movies. After they had finished they used to have games and dances for the children on the stage. It used to be great fun. Jones and Higgins stands out too. I remember a doorman all suited, with a sort of top hat, who used to open the doors for the customers. From: Eric Seal Burgess Hill RH15 I was born in Peckham in 1939 and apart from being evacuated during the last war, continued to live in Peckham up to 1969. Peckham Society News is always full of interest for me as I was a Postman/Driver working out of the Sorting Office off Rye Lane from 1961 to 1969. That is why the map that came with issue 101 was chock-full of nostalgia for me. There were very few street or road names that I did not recognise, as over the years in my job as a Postman I must have driven around all of Peckham in my little red van (no cat!) delivering parcels or emptying the letter boxes, and when I wasn’t driving I was walking around delivering letters. Even now, just looking at a street name on the map I can see the street in my mind’s eye (as it was up to 1969 anyway)! In addition to the map, in the magazine there was a letter and photo on page 16 sent in by Dennis Long from Angmering in Sussex; the photo was of him as a little lad in Dayton Grove. That photo hit the spot, because I think that one of those houses just in the photo on the left was No 16 and that was where I lived from 1952 to 1965. There is no doubt that issue 101, the map and Dennis Long’s photo brought back very happy memories of Peckham. From: Derek Fisher by email When the Collaro factory left Peckham in the early 1940s to go to Langley Mill in Derbyshire, I don't suppose anyone knew what floodgates were being opened. There were about 2,000 people employed there making munitions. My late wife and I were amongst them together with many others who came from London and hosts of local girls and a few men. Men were very much in short supply at the time. I was only 16 and with them until a fortnight after my 18th birthday, on 13 August 1944, when I was called up into the army. The reason I am writing this now is that a book was published called Boiler Suits, Bofors and Bullets. It was about Collaro’s and it got my curiosity going so I started making enquiries and eventually managed to track down 22 ex-employees. I arranged a reunion which we had at the Bell Inn at Smalley (not far from Langley Mill) on 26 October 2005. We all had a brilliant time with plenty to "natter" about as we hadn't seen each other for some sixty years. I think I was the youngest there at 79 and the oldest was 85. It was so enjoyable they have asked me to arrange another for next year - nothing like being optimistic! I have to give thanks to the South London Press and the Southwark News which both published letters, to John Beasley for his help and all the local press in Derbyshire. I only wish my wife Brenda could have been with us to enjoy the day but unfortunately she died three years ago. From: Richard Hutt by email As a new member who lives in Australia, I am thoroughly enjoying reading back issues of the magazine and want to thank you for such an excellent historical publication. From: Frank Staples Cheltenham GL52 I well remember an Italian family who kept a sweet shop on the corner of Archdale Road and North Cross Road in East Dulwich in the 1930s. I think their name was Gulliano; they were very well known in the area. Ice cream was made in the kitchen of the shop – cream ice water ice. One could buy a cornet for ½d or 1d or even a wafer for one penny. They had a couple of push barrows, which they would load up in the summer mornings and push them around the local streets. One barrow always went to Peckham Rye Common and the Park. A roaring trade was carried out. It was extremely fine ice cream. Trade was dependent on the weather so if the weather was cold or wet they did not go out. The shop itself was a meeting place for young local children and we used to gather in the shop and sit on lemonade boxes which were placed around the walls. I think there was mother, father (Italian nationals) two sons (Jack and Mick) and I believe a daughter, but I am not sure. When war came Mick joined the British Army and eventually found himself in Italy. It was thought that he found his way to the town from where the family originated. However he did bring back a lovely Italian girl to England and married her After the war, as young men, we used to congregate at the shop and sit and talk. We were always welcome. We might sit there for the whole evening. I do not know what became of the shop because we all made our way in the world but it was a slice of my life that I will not forget. From: Derek Kinrade SE15 While sheltering in a Hammersmith Oxfam shop during the great storm that engulfed that area on 9 September, I came across a copy of The Invisible Woman: The story of Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens by the eminent biographer Claire Tomalin. I know that our Editor referred to Dickens’s affair in Who Was Who in Peckham, but my copy (1985) predates Claire Tomalin’s biography (1990) Whereas in 1985 John Beasley was somewhat tentative about Dickens’s presence in Peckham, Tomalin is quite definite, basing her account on one of the great man’s diaries. He normally destroyed these but this one (for 1867) was lost and turned up later. Although coded, it appears really beyond doubt that Dickens visited Nelly at Windsor Lodge in Linden Grove, using the name Charles Tringham, as he had previously done at Slough. Indeed in a footnote (page 291) Claire Tomalin alludes to George Silverman’s Explanation having been written at Peckham. Claire Tomalin refers to Peckham as then “being still a pleasant, open rural area” and quotes Tallis’s Illustrated London (1850): “There is not in the immediate neighbourhood of London a more agreeable country then [sic] Peckham Rye, Nunhead and adjacent localities”. [It was good to receive this letter. Derek Kinrade refers to the first edition of the Invisible Woman. After it was published, even more information about Charles Dickens’s love affair in Linden Grove came to light. This was included in the second edition of the book, which was published in 1991 by Penguin Books – Ed.] From: Henry Hadden Worcester WR5 My father was born in Meeting House Lane in 1901 on the day Queen Victoria died. He was very fond of ice cream and told me of an Italian ice cream seller – called Califano, who sold ice cream from a horse and cart. We went to the pictures at the Tower cinema in Rye Lane and to the Gaumont when it first opened. Another place I went was the Ideal cinema in Queen’s Road. There was also a picture house, where Mum took me with a bottle of water, at a place that later became the Peckham Odeon. The films were silent and a piano player accompanied the films! Later we moved to Brockley. My Dad used to do shift work, and when he came off at 6 a.m. he collected me for an early morning swim. We went to the open-air pool on Peckham Rye. One day I jumped in; there was a thin layer of ice on the water. My muscles froze; I just managed a struggled width, but later hot tea and toast put things right.