BermondseyBoy

Hi Brian, thanks for that and welcome back, I wonder if you can help with this. In the late 1950s the Bermondsey & Peckham lot would all meet up or end up in Ilderton Rd, what as I remember was a café but no one seems to remember a cafe. Now seeing Toyes Fish & Chip Shop and I’m almost certain it was in this row of shops, could Toyes have been the place. So, do you know whether Toyes had seating in there plus one or two gaming machines.?
Cheers Ray (Kiwi)

Hi Ray,

I'll have to ask mum... do you remember whereabouts in Ilderton Road it was?
Mum was brought up in Upcott Street and remembers more of the old buildings and shops.
When I was growing up, there was only two parades of shops left between canal bridge and the OKR end of Ilderton Road, that being the shops on the bridge and the parade between the Old Den car park entrance and Wagner street.
I do remember a fish and chip shop and a barbers (where I used to sit on a plank of wood across the arms of the chair! ) and there may have been a cafe along there too?
There was a cafe behind the ambulance station in Hornshay Street (Rosie's?)
It was only recently that mum mentioned about a tiny pub that was in Ilderton Road opposite (ish) Millwall's entrance, but she can't remember what it was called?

Brian.

Hi Brian, the place I am thinking about was defiantly in between Wagner St & the old Den car park. I'm not to sure of this but could that pub your Mum mentioned be the Little Wonder,later to become The Barnaby and demolished in 1962. Possibly on the corner of Manor Grove?
opposite the church. Ray (Kiwi)

Hi Brian, I even surprise myself sometimes,only I have located this photo and it confirms where I thought the pub was. Only hope it is the one your Mum remembers.

Hi Ray,

I spoke to my mum today...
Yes, she does remember the cafe, she thinks it was a couple of doors along from the fish and chip shop, which was owned by Bill and Vye.
She doesn't remember what it was called though unfortunately, only that it was frequented by rough lads from Bermondsey and Peckham!
I asked her about the Little Wonder pub, which she remembers being almost opposite the cafe in question. The Barnaby, a little further down Ilderton Road, was called the Canterbury Tavern at that time, as confirmed by Bermondsey Boy!
She said that locally, the Canterbury Tavern was known as the bottom Canterbury and the Canterbury Arms was known as the top Canterbury... logically I guess.
The Little Wonder would have been demolished, probably in the late 60's to make way for the Tustin Estate.
Mum asked if you were local to the area?
She was brought up in Upcott Street and her name then was Sylvia Couzins.

Brian

It's great to see these pictures. It's correct the flooding was in 1964 and was a burst 36" water main on the bend at the junction with Delaford Road. It was summer time and we were woken about 4:30 by a copper banging on the door asking us to move cars up on to the bridge. I had a Lambretta TV175 at the time. I lived at 143 and the picture must have been taken by a neighbour since we were a couple of doors to the right on the same side. Opposite the Cliff was Pirolli's ice cream, sweets and tobacconist shop. Joe and Lou were Italian and had two sons Vince and Toni. They made their own delicious ice cream and Toni ran a fleet of ice cream vans.

The RACS (Co-op) was on the corner of Zampa and Bolina Road. They sold biscuits loose that were stored at the front of the counter in tins with glass lids so you could see what was in them. You asked for biscuits by weight and they were put into a paper bag. The shops at the Rotherhithe Road end included the doctor's on the corner of Bramcote Grove (in the 50's a doctor Ross), next door was Stan Welch's hardware shop (which was just like the sketch from the two Ronnies), a couple of doors down was O'Brians (two brothers) grocer and off license with the chemist next door run by Stanley Ross (the doctors brother).

I belonged to the cubs and then scouts at the Baptist Church, we held our meetings at the school opposite. I left Ilderton Road school in 1957 and went on to Credon Road. These are great pictures it's good to walk down memory lane.

Hi Brian.
Thank your mum regarding the cafe and tell her she was right about the rough lads from Bermondsey and Peckham. I don’t know if you would call me local as I came from Pages Walk, Bricklayers Arms and at that time we would go all over the place. Another café we used in that area was in the Old Kent Road, just past the Regal, same side going towards Canal Bridge, this would have been around 1956 to the early 60s.
Good to have a picture of the Canterbury Tavern Pub but I couldn’t remember anything about it, even though I had been in there a few times. The reason I said it was there, until I found the 2017 picture, was for some unknown reason I remembered a church on the other corner, funny what you remember. Still we got there in the end, be good if we could come up with a picture of the Little Wonder Pub.

RAY.

Hi Ray,

Again, great photos!
the last one certainly brings back some memories... my house was just the other side of the corrugated iron!
Also in shot is the rear of my old next door neighbour's dark green mk1 Ford Escort.
My guess is that photo was taken around 1980-81 after the end of terrace house was demolished.
All a bit of a rush job that... I remember coming home one afternoon to find a flurry of activity around Charlie and Joan's corner house.

Their side wall had suddenly bowed into Rollins Street!
The bow was so severe, that the front bedroom floor partially collapsed into the front room.
The old couple were moved out of the house and it was demolished shortly afterwards.
This unfortunately had a dominoes effect on the adjoining houses when large cracks started appearing in the brickwork.

Everyone else was moved out over the next several months, mainly to the New Cross area; the rest of the houses were all later demolised... the end of an era!
One interesting point in that last photo; if you zoom in on the side of the church in the background (it was actually Chapmans sweet factory at the time the photo was taken) you will see the outline of the end of terrace house which was attached to it!

Thanks Ray,

Brian.