The Secret Life of Streets (BBC Two)

[pilamenon]

I never knew where Amersham was or why anyone would want to travel there. To this day I am not much wiser.

Last stop on the Metropolitan Line, in the Bucks Chilterns. Walk down the hill from the station to a pretty if rather lifeless old town. The surrounding countryside is lovely. I spent much of my childhood not far north of there near Aylesbury (a typical 1960s town planning victim).

This has the makings of a first-rate series judged on the Deptford episode, but it will be interesting to see how much variety from the 'planners destroyed our community' theme there is. Looking forward to the programme about Caledonian Road, my bus route home until very recently.

Vodka - that's very odd about the subtitles. I hadn't noticed it.

[Anna]

Sorry to be thick but which website is that on Anna? The houses were substantial but had the misfortune to be in a wider area of tenements.

Lat, I just put Villa Street, Walworth, into google and it was the first one that came up, it's also got history of Southwark, etc., and article about St. George the Martyr which is of interest to me concerning family history. I haven't looked further into Villa Street, will do so when I've got time. Also I hadn't realised all of Walworth Road had been demolished by 1965.

http://www.ideal-homes.org.uk/southwark/assets/galleries/walworth/villa-street

[Pegleg]

Lat, I just put Villa Street, Walworth, into google and it was the first one that came up, it's also got history of Southwark, etc., and article about St. George the Martyr which is of interest to me concerning family history. I haven't looked further into Villa Street, will do so when I've got time. Also I hadn't realised all of Walworth Road had been demolished by 1965.
http://www.ideal-homes.org.uk/southw...h/villa-street

That's an excellent website Anna. Not visited that for a long time. It used to have a lot of information about Camberwell Grove.

[Serial_Apologist]

Lat, I just put Villa Street, Walworth, into google and it was the first one that came up, it's also got history of Southwark, etc., and article about St. George the Martyr which is of interest to me concerning family history. I haven't looked further into Villa Street, will do so when I've got time. Also I hadn't realised all of Walworth Road had been demolished by 1965.
http://www.ideal-homes.org.uk/southw...h/villa-street

Do check my link at the bottom of message 2, Anna - some lovely photographs of early 18th century Deptford shops from when it was still a village, and which are still there: I used the cycle shop just the other week - scroll down the page to where it's headed "Landmarks".

[Pegleg]

Last stop on the Metropolitan Line, in the Bucks Chilterns. Walk down the hill from the station to a pretty if rather lifeless old town. The surrounding countryside is lovely. I spent much of my childhood not far north of there near Aylesbury (a typical 1960s town planning victim).

That's a pretty long walk down the hill. I've cycled many many miles in that part of the world. It's mid somer country. I'd love to live in the Chilterns.

This has the makings of a first-rate series judged on the Deptford episode, but it will be interesting to see how much variety from the 'planners destroyed our community' theme there is. Looking forward to the programme about Caledonian Road, my bus route home until very recently.

The OU website would suggest 'planners destroyed our community' is not a recurring theme.

[Pegleg]

Do check my link at the bottom of message 2, Anna - some lovely photographs of early 18th century Deptford shops from when it was still a village, and which are still there: I used the cycle shop just the other week - scroll down the page to where it's headed "Landmarks".

Are you still turning a niffty pedal? Witcomb cycles have quite a pedigree: http://www.classiclightweights.co.uk...s/witcomb.html

Built my cycles around Claud Bulter (Holdsworthy made), Carlton and Mercian 531DB frames.

[Lateralthinking1]

Lat, I just put Villa Street, Walworth, into google and it was the first one that came up, it's also got history of Southwark, etc., and article about St. George the Martyr which is of interest to me concerning family history. I haven't looked further into Villa Street, will do so when I've got time. Also I hadn't realised all of Walworth Road had been demolished by 1965.
http://www.ideal-homes.org.uk/southw...h/villa-street

Oh yes, thanks Anna. That picture of Villa Street in 1907 is little different from my hazy memory of it as a 4-5 year old in 1967. I too didn't realise that the Walworth Road had been demolished. 1965 is a bit too early for recall. It doesn't surprise me as certainly the Elephant end of it, the ex Labour HQ and all, has always in my lifetime looked like it was the victim of a bulldozer. But there are parts by the East Lane market, and up to Camberwell Green, where I don't think everything went. Kennedys wonderful sausage shop, for example, but then all its branches in South London went under Gordon to prevent Dave and Nick sticking the boot in.

It is noteworthy that within 4 years and on well below average salaries, my parents could move from a rented gas lit flat in E & C to a mortgage on a terraced house up here in the wooded hills. Some of that was them. No cars, no holidays, no children, no clubs, no designer drugs. Some of it was Harold MacMillan. Eton people were different then. Fewer wags. More sense. Normal hair.

[Serial_Apologist]

Are you still turning a niffty pedal? Witcomb cycles have quite a pedigree: http://www.classiclightweights.co.uk...s/witcomb.html

Built my cycles around Claud Bulter (Holdsworthy made), Carlton and Mercian 531DB frames.

Whitcomb's is the very shop I mentioned, Pegleg - it's in the picture on my Msg 2 link.

The bike I have is a Falcon Oxford which I bought in Bristol in 1985 or thereabouts. It's served me really well, but rust has started getting in down behind the pedal cogs, and at 66 I'm not as fast as I once was. I love cycling around Town, but London conditions really call for a more upright model, from which it's easier to turn around and see behind, and with gears on the handlebars instead of having to be reached down for. Some previous tenants had abandoned a cheap Halfords model in the basement when I moved in here which I purloined; one can still get them for under £100. Unfortunately I left it for a second in Peckham High Street last October, and while my back was turned it was gone! I shall probably get a replacement: comfort now comes first over hard saddles, I have to admit; the Oxford can keep for the occasional summer excursions I make out into the countryside beyond West Wickham, out towards Biggin Hill or Eynsham.

[Serial_Apologist]

Oh yes, thanks Anna. That picture of Villa Street in 1907 is little different from my hazy memory of it as a 4-5 year old in 1967. I too didn't realise that the Walworth Road had been demolished. 1965 is a bit too early for recall. It doesn't surprise me as certainly the Elephant end of it, the ex Nu Labour HQ and all, has always in my lifetime looked like it was the victim of a bulldozer. But there are parts by the East Lane market, and up to Camberwell Green, where I don't think everything went. Kennedys wonderful sausage shop, for example, but then all its branches in South London went under Gordon to prevent Dave and Nick sticking the boot in.

When I first returned to the Elephant & Castle in 2006 I suddenly realised that two major redevelpments had taken place since I had last been there in the early 1960s to sing in a school choir in the dingy Palladian-styled church that used to be just east of the railway bridge over the New Kent Road, separated from the railway line on its viaduct by a fairground. Opposite that church was a row of Georgian houses with shop fronts extending to the main road, among which was Neptunes, which served up the best fish and chips I have yet had to this day, wrapped in newspaper, as was the order of the day. Gone now was the church, to my shock, given that it would probably today have been given Grade 2 listing and been considered of considerable artistic merit, and in its place comparatively low-rise housing of 1970s "vintage" - and gone, too, of course, the Georgian terrace, sacrificed to the concrete jungle the E&C has become notorious for, and which is due for demolition - now to be delayed by lack of funds - for replacement by another architect's £vision£, ahem.

[Lateralthinking1]

When I first returned to the Elephant & Castle in 2006 I suddenly realised that two major redevelpments had taken place since I had last been there in the early 1960s to sing in a school choir in the dingy Palladian-styled church that used to be just east of the railway bridge over the New Kent Road, separated from the railway line on its viaduct by a fairground. Opposite that church was a row of Georgian houses with shop fronts extending to the main road, among which was Neptunes, which served up the best fish and chips I have yet had to this day, wrapped in newspaper, as was the order of the day. Gone now was the church, to my shock, given that it would probably today have been given Grade 2 listing and been considered of considerable artistic merit, and in its place comparatively low-rise housing of 1970s "vintage" - and gone, too, of course, the Georgian terrace, sacrificed to the concrete jungle the E&C has become notorious for, and which is due for demolition - now to be delayed by lack of funds - for replacement by another architect's £vision£, ahem.

Yes quite s_a.

The senior civil servants fly in merrily from Highgate or wherever, trying to keep their 200 plus IQs from falling inelegantly out of their heads. They will suddenly develop blankness if any departing disgruntled "maverick" dares to write them a lengthy essay introducing them to the real world. So I was told by someone anyway.

[Pegleg]

Whitcomb's is the very shop I mentioned, Pegleg - it's in the picture on my Msg 2 link.

The bike I have is a Falcon Oxford which I bought in Bristol in 1985 or thereabouts. It's served me really well, but rust has started getting in down behind the pedal cogs, and at 66 I'm not as fast as I once was. I love cycling around Town, but London conditions really call for a more upright model, from which it's easier to turn around and see behind, and with gears on the handlebars instead of having to be reached down for. Some previous tenants had abandoned a cheap Halfords model in the basement when I moved in here which I purloined; one can still get them for under £100. Unfortunately I left it for a second in Peckham High Street last October, and while my back was turned it was gone! I shall probably get a replacement: comfort now comes first over hard saddles, I have to admit; the Oxford can keep for the occasional summer excursions I make out into the countryside beyond West Wickham, out towards Biggin Hill or Eynsham.

There's not many years between us and it's good to know you're keeping fit. It's always gutting if a cycle is stolen, less painful if it's not your best mount.

Another, not so happy for me, coincidence is that 1985, the year you bought your Falcon that has served you so well, was the year that injury forced me to hang up my wheels. All my serious cycling had been compressed into a 15 year period: daily commuting, Sunday club runs, randonneurs, and a bit of summer TT. When I lived in Merton, it was all round Surrey and western parts of Kent. Once in North West London it was Herts and Bucks. I can still just about bring myself to watch La Grande Boucle and whatever other bits of the spring classics etc. might turn up on the TV or web. I'm hoping Wiggo and/or Cav can do something in the Olympics.

Giving up was a wrench, but nothing like having your home pulled down around your ears. With all the talk on this thread of this or that disappearing it's probably just as well I don't get out much. On some of my virtual trips on google maps, I simply don't recognise the place.

Every time I read about some new development in London, I shudder to think what history will be ground to dust. Although I cannot say exactly what building was being bulldozed at the time (a Victorian church hall?) close to the level crossing in Kingston Road South Wimbledon, I still have a vivid memory of this act of vandalism. The proud slogan of Syd Bishop & Son, who did the work, proclaimed "Watch it Come Down". I couldn't look. What's on the spot today? A pub car park. So much for progress.

I hope, and think, there will be more to cheer the soul in subsequent episodes of this new BBC series. I keep telling myself to look on the brighter side of life.

[Serial_Apologist]

There's not many years between us and it's good to know you're keeping fit. It's always gutting if a cycle is stolen, less painful if it's not your best mount.

Another, not so happy for me, coincidence is that 1985, the year you bought your Falcon that has served you so well, was the year that injury forced me to hang up my wheels. All my serious cycling had been compressed into a 15 year period: daily commuting, Sunday club runs, randonneurs, and a bit of summer TT. When I lived in Merton, it was all round Surrey and western parts of Kent. Once in North West London it was Herts and Bucks. I can still just about bring myself to watch La Grande Boucle and whatever other bits of the spring classics etc. might turn up on the TV or web. I'm hoping Wiggo and/or Cav can do something in the Olympics.

Giving up was a wrench, but nothing like having your home pulled down around your ears. With all the talk on this thread of this or that disappearing it's probably just as well I don't get out much. On some of my virtual trips on google maps, I simply don't recognise the place.

Every time I read about some new development in London, I shudder to think what history will be ground to dust. Although I cannot say exactly what building was being bulldozed at the time (a Victorian church hall?) close to the level crossing in Kingston Road South Wimbledon, I still have a vivid memory of this act of vandalism. The proud slogan of Syd Bishop & Son, who did the work, proclaimed "Watch it Come Down". I couldn't look. What's on the spot today? A pub car park. So much for progress.

I hope, and think, there will be more to cheer the soul in subsequent episodes of this new BBC series. I keep telling myself to look on the brighter side of life.

Fortunately the planners have not succeeded in completely eradicating pre 1950s London from view, so, thank goodness for the likes of Betjamen (for all his upper class pretensions) and others for reversing the tide that favoured the visions of the latter, even if in many cases this has led to gentrification, and the kinds of social cleansing now likely to accelerate. Nevertheless, that accident in 1985 must have been devastating to have ended your cycling days, Pegleg; had I known I would not have been so euphoric in recycling my enjoyments on this thread. So, while apologising for that, I do want to thank your good self and those of the other posters who offered YT so much enjoyment yesterday, and a wealth of links still to follow up on. (And end a sentance a preposition with)

Serial_Apologist

[Pegleg]

Thanks for the thought, but no need to go softy on my part. Better to have loved and lost, even if I got banged up and have now prematurely fallen to bits. You can't be far from the Herne Hill Velodrome that has somehow managed to survive all attempts to obliterate it in the last 50 years.

Gentrification, now that is a dirty word. I wonder if will hear about that in the "Secret Life of Streets" series.

[Serial_Apologist]

Thanks for the thought, but no need to go softy on my part. Better to have loved and lost, even if I got banged up and have now prematurely fallen to bits. You can't be far from the Herne Hill Velodrome that has somehow managed to survive all attempts to obliterate it in the last 50 years.

Gentrification, now that is a dirty word. I wonder if will hear about that in the "Secret Life of Streets" series.

Hmmm...

Yes the velodrome is just a mile and a half from where I live. It's in the province of Dulwich College, who are the landlord over a large district here, and didn't feel they had enough money for its upkeep.

[Pegleg]

Hmmm...

Yes the velodrome is just a mile and a half from where I live. It's in the province of Dulwich College, who are the landlord over a large district here, and didn't feel they had enough money for its upkeep.

Well, I didn't know that. One of my late Uncles talked about the huge crowds the Herne Hill track meets attracted in the pre-WW2 days. He seemed to have traversed the entire nation on pedal power alone.