My Life in Bermondsey
This is a Great place to Introduce yourself by telling a short story about your life in Bermondsey, Family or Friends that you are looking for, or just places you know and been too.
As far as I can remember, my time in Bermondsey was ok.
We did'nt have much, but then we did'nt need much.
It was a tight community around
where I lived in Harold Estate, everyone new everyone. Every sayurday the pubs were full of
Bermondsey locals, playing darts, preparing for the next Beano, or just drinking and chatting.
My Mum and Dad would drink in the Pagoda Tower Bridge Road, just at the end of Webb Street.
(Picture Above) Me and Terry Russell outside the Pagoda (probably a Beano Trip for the Women.
Myself, Brother and sister would sometimes venture down there for a lemonade and a arrow root (Biscuit) or crisps. we were allowed to sit just inside the entrance and warned to be quite and keep out of the way.
Sometimes the dart players would come over and sit next to me , how are you son, have you been a good boy today, they would say? well of course I have?
When they did have there beano's, they would set off with a coach load of beer throwing pennies and halfpennys out of the windows for us kids to pick up.
Saturday's were always the best, I would meet up with my mates and play football or cricket or just wonder around the streets, playing on the bomb sites, of course the war was well over by then, but the remains of the debries were scatterd all over Bermondsey and new developments were gradually going up.
Then down Tower Bridge Road for Pie and Mash in Manzes or Mum would go out early shopping and bring some home. She would do her weekly shop at Abi Levy's, a small grocer shop on the corner of Decima Street, just off Tower Bridge Road.
I started School at Webb Street, not much I can remember about my times there, except that I did not really like school to much, however it was an introduction to girls. One in particular I can remember, I think her name was Lela Morac, not sure if I have spelt it correct, but her family run or had something to do with the ice cream parlour in Tower Bridge Road called Rossies? just on the corner of rothsay street.
Another place down Tower Bridge Road we would frequent was Edwards the donut shop, ah! the smell of the donuts cooking was great, piping hot covered in sugar.
On Saturdays if we were late and Manzes had run out pies, which occasionally happened, we would go to Joyces pie and eel shop, at the bricklayers arms end of Tower Bridge Road. A little greasy for me but not to bad, there were metal trays out the front of the shop where the live eels swam about not knowing there fate at the hands of the pie maker with his greasy apron and large knife at the ready to slice and dice them. This is where Tommy Steele would eat, why he never went to Manzes I'll never know?.
Early evening we might decide to go to the cinema, depending what was showing and how much money we had.
There were a lot to choose from, the Trocette, Tower Bridge Road, my Aunt Mary worked there for a while as usher and ice cream lady.
There was always a break in the film and the ice cream lady's would walk down the ailes with there trays out in front of them and queues lining up trying to get there ices before the film started again.
Then there was the Odeon and the ABC at the Elephant and castle, always popular. and further afield was the Astoria (Pictured Above) and the the Regal.
Also the usual flea pits like the Globe, we would kick the back door until it sprange open then crawl on hands and knees to the nearest seat hoping no one would spot us. We used to do a lot of bunking in the cinemas, sometimes getting caught and being kicked out, but the danger was all part of the fun.
My best freind in Harold Estate at the time was Terry Russell, he live next door No. 58.his Mother Eileen Russell was a colourful character (nearly every other word was a swear word) but she did make us laugh, i thought she was great. His Dad George Russell was a quite man by comparison. He had a sister Maureen who sometimes went around with my sister Patsy, and an older Brother Phil Russell.
L-R (Back) Maureen Russell, I think another Maureen? and My Sister Patsy Rogers.
L-R (Front) Me, Terry Russell
There wasn't much in the way of entertainment for us kids at the time so we had to make our own, unlike the kids of today, if its not linked to a computer or tv there stuck.
We would make our own toys, like scooters with ball bearing wheels and a couple of planks of wood, bottle tops nailed on to make it look cool. They were noisey but great fun, Box cars with pram wheels steered with string tied to the front axle. We also collected things like ciggarette cards and matchbox tops.
Other Freinds and Neighbours at the time were:-Lester Stacey, Brian Stacey, Johnny Whitnall, Tony Asplin, Peter Collins, Kevin Collins, Tony Treadwell, Michael Lambert, David Horton, Lottie Horton, Teddy Horton, The Pimms Family, The Button Family, The Woods Family and many more that i just cannot remember as yet.
There were plenty of buildings around Harold Estate where we could cause mischef, there was Clyde Buildings seperated by a wall from Harold Estate, entrance in Pages Walk, it had a flat roof and the stairwell went right to the top, it was always a good place to view across the rest of the estate, but you had to tread carefully so not to make any noise.
Then there was Swan Mead, between Webb Street and Leroy Street.
There was a little park in Leroy Street with a couple of swings, slide, and roundabout. Also Toby Nobles, a drinking club although I was a little to young to go inside.
Also down Pages Walk were the Guinness Buildings where my nan lived for many years.
Guinness Buildings, Pages Walk
By now i had left Webb Street school and gone to PARAGON Secondary School, every day i would go up to my Nans (356 Guinness Buildings) for lunch and after School for tea and a biscuit before my Mum and Dad got home from work. It was like a second home for me and my Brother, although dark and gloomy, two rooms and a gas mantle to light the place up, also in the front room was a coal cupboard and on winter nights she would have a roaring fire and sit listening to the radio (no tv). The toilets and laundry room was outside and shared with neighbours.
At this point my attention turned to Girls (it happens to us all in the end).
My first girlfriend was Ann Bryant, i think she lived around Law street.
To me this was serious until I met her Dads right boot up my backside?
still it didn't stop us from seeing each other.
Every weekend my Nan would get ready and venture out down Pages Walk to the Victoria for a few Guinneses and always bring back one or two for during the week, or if she wasn't there she would be in the George, Tower Bridge Road, on the corner of Leroy Street where in her younger days worked there doing cleaning.
I was born in Bermondsey in 1943 or to be accurate in Woking, thats where pregnant women in labour went to give birth during the bombing.I don't remember anything about the war (or my early years in an air raid shelter) but I asked Mum She said the bombs were bad but the rockets were realy bad.
Our playground in and on the bombsites was a byproduct of that.I went to Webb Street School and then to Tower Bridge Secondery Modern.
Manzes was the best pye and mash I still go there for a treat, Edwards Doughnuts coming out from the back of the bakers being shaken on the tray of sugar nothing is as good as that now.
We lived at 39 Harold Estate,I remember a few people, my freinds Peter Feddon and Jimmy Rolf, Mary Ashdown lived down the landing at 41.
Tha Grange Road Baths were I thougt I would learn to swim but didn't it had a little room were you could by a cup of Oxo a piece of bread for one and a half pence.
My Dads pub was The Victoria Arms,(I pop in there sometimes to) The Men would leave there on the Beano with the pennys and half pennys thrown out of the windows for us.On a Sunday some of the old ladies would take a jug of beer back to have with dinner.
Ther were no cars parked in Pages Walk or Weeb Street,The Cart Horses stabled of Linten Road were more familier to us.
Guy Faulks Night was great, the fireworks compaired to the one's we have now were poor but the hole thing, the bonfires on the bomesites the excitement of something realy special,even if the jumping crackers didn't jump, the rockets just about left the ground and the bangers just went pop it was great.
Ther was so much more Hop picking, saturday morning pictures at The Trocket, the beach at Tower Bridge, Trams, collecting jam jars, newspapers and things for salvage and with luck after a day of collecting perhaps 4 pence to share between the gang.
To go back there seems to be no sence of shared comunity,but perhaps its just me.
Sorry I still can't spell.
As I have said before, I wasnt born in Bermondsey but my family was. I have some fond memories of the times I spent there with my Grand parents.
We used to visit both sets of grand parents. First stop was my mums parents. I have little memory of my Nan, she died in 1986 I think so that would of made me only 10. I do remember her being a very loving person and always smiling.
Grandad was a large man, I always remember him smoking roll ups and his vest had little burn holes from fallen ash. He always had a walking stick and his hair was always neat with bryl cream.
We used to meet our aunt and cousins round there too and often got savaloy and chips for lunch.
Grandad lived in a small 1 bed flat and I remember me and my cousin playing in the cupboard under the stairs (its was big enough for us to sit in it and play for hours)
Next stop was my dad's parents. Many times we would stop off on the way at Manze's to pick up pie and mash for us all. Nan always had sarsaparilla for us to drink, dont see that about anymore but it was very nice. I dont really remember much about my grandad, but I do remember he always used to pull funny faces when he didnt have his false teeth in.
Nan used to take us to the market (cant remember what it was called but im sure my dad does) and there she used to buy us hot sarsaparilla on the cold days.
We used to meet our other cousins over there and me and my younger cousin used to play with smuffs. (wonder what happened to them?)
My memory isnt that good but I will add more when things come back to me.
I was born in Bermondsey - Clyde Buildings - Pages Walk. I've been mesmorised reading all the input on this site, talk about nostalga !! blimey i'm blown away with it. My grandad Joe Stacey (bears breath as me nan called him) was the caretaker of Harold Estate till i was 15 (1961). There wasnt a cleaner estate anywhere, kids were terrified of him (as we were) and they wouldnt dare give him any lip and god help em if they dropped as much as a sweet wrapping on the ground.
I was in the Kintore Way Nursery in the Grange Road till i was 5 and remember vividly being made to lay down on canvas cot beds every afternoon for a sleep and always gettin up cos i didnt wanna go to sleep. I then went to Webb Street primary/junior and then on to Bermondsey Central and only got in there cos i had a clever sister else it would have been Laxon !!!.
I'm no good with names and couldnt recognise anyone in any pictures, except for the one taken outside the Pagoda and the only name i know from that was Kath White (landlady) who is still alive and had her 89th birthday couple weeks ago. Kaths daughter (Liz) and myself met in the outpatients of Guys, (at the veruca clinic) when we were 13/14 - we are still very close friends we live approx 26 miles apart in Dorset and see each other regularly.
We left Clyde Buildings in 1961 and moved into a proper flat with an inside toilet and bath off the New Kent Road and as nice as it was for mum and us to have decent facilities, my best memories will always be in Clyde Buildings/Harold Estate
Cant be sure but i think my sister Kathleen (our name was Cole) was friends with your sister Pat, be nice if you could check this out.
Hi Bet
Yes you are right me and my Sister were only talking about you last week and how many people we knew around Harold Estate.
She was indeed friends with Kathleen.
We lived at no 57 Harold Estate top Balcony directly above Joe Stacey on ground floor.
I was mates with Lester Stacey jnr. and his younger brother Brian.
I went to school with Lester, I think they lived at No. 66
Would love to know how he is?
Its nice to here that Kath White is still with us, she should remember my Mum and Dad, BILL and NELL ROGERS. Always in the Pagoda.
Anyway Welcome to the site, I hope you find it interesting, and as you say a lot of nostalga.
Bermondseyboy
Hi Steve
Kathleen lives in Maidstone and will be gobsmacked when i tell her about this. She'll be parked in front of this machine like i am at the moment when she visits next.
Lester is fine, he lives in Bromley, i dont see him much at all, but i know he's well. Brian however died a couple of years ago.
We dont have one single member of the family left in Bermondsey now the last one left 3 years ago and i did my last nostalgic trip down memory lane (webb street and surrounding area) with liz white bout 2 years ago.
I'll certainly keep this on me bookmark and pop in regularly - thanks steve
Bett
Bett
I remember your Grandad. My Mum and dad ( Doreen and Bill) were mates with Sylvie and her husband Jim. I still keep in touch with their daughters. My grandad was the caretaker in Guinness Buildings..George Horton. He used to chase all the kids but he kept the squares clean. He swept every ibnch of the buildings with a yard broom every day
Vossy
Hi Vossy
I do remember your mum and dad, i remembered your mums name was Doreen, but for some reason i thought your dads name was Pete, anyway i do remember them being friends with Sylvie and Jim but they were very well remembered by all the stacey mob, specially my mum she always had a big smile for them and believe me if she didnt like anyone she let em know !!
My sister and i were with Josephine, Helen and Kathleen (sylvies girls) a few weeks ago, we were in Essex at helens place. We get together twice a year, but sadly numbers are dwindling now. Obviously i've no idea if your parents are still alive but if they are please give them mine and Kathleesn best wishes.
Bett
Hi Bett
I was very pleased and to be honest surprised with the good news that Mr Stacey still (bears breath), he must be nearly 100 years old.I remember him very well we lived at no 39 Harold Estate, until about 1956 then we mouved across Tower Bridge to Lloyds Avenue.
Excuse me, I think I've misunderstood the expression bears breath, I thought it ment bering breath as in still breathing (my alfull spelling) Im sorry. I was going to ask you to give him my best wishes.
I went to Webb Street School we used to have a sleep an canves cots too, our cots, coathangers and chairs had little pictures on them of perhaps a Rabbit, Duck or Chicken or other little animals in different colours to identify our things.I remember on some very hot summer days we would put on our swimming costumes for those of us posh enough to have them (mine was hand knitted) or just undies and we would have a hose pipe sprayed over us so we could run in and out of the spray.
I lost touch with my friends when I mouved to The City I remember Jimmy Rolfe, Peter Fendon George and Micky Forester or was it foster. They were more my brother Anthony's friends,others who's names I can't remember, the girl who lived at 41 and my mate my mate who lived on the top landing above Mr Stacey's but the other end. His Dad drove a truck for Cadbury's it made him very popular, I think this may have been after rationing finished,we used to make do with suger sprinkled on a piece of bread or some drinking chocolate in a cone of paper.
Rod.
Good morning, I just joined the site. My parents ran the Stanley Arms pub in Southwark Park Road from 1948 when I was 2 years old, up until about 1956 when we all moved to Kingston in Surrey. I went to Southwark Park Road school but don't remember much about it or the people there. All I do remember was that we played football in Southwark Park on a red cinder type of pitch inside a huge cage !
My nan lived in Slippers Place in a terraced house and my aunt and uncle in St James's Road. My mother's family all had pubs; the Camberwell Arms in Camberwell Green, The Empress of India in Deptford and the Duke of Edinburgh in New Cross.
I was told by my parents that Tommy Steele used to deliever veg to The Stanley Arms on his bike. They used to do lunches and workers from Peek Freens (and others) used to come in for lunch.
Hi Geoff
Welcome to the site, Hope you find it interesting.
Iv'e had a few drinks in the Stanley Arms, from time to time but that was in the mid sixties.
I was a little to young when your parents were there. 1956
I have put a picture of it in the Photo-Pub Section.
I have tried to find Pictures of the other Pubs you mentioned but with no luck as yet.
Me and my mates played football in Southwark Park (not very well) then we would go to the Lido if the weather was good, as shown on the Video in 1966.
Cheers
Bermondseyboy
(back to top)
Hi Rod
Sorry for confusing you, " bears breath" meant - miserable old sod !! thats what my nan called my grandad (Joe Stacey) haha, and he really was one too !! we were all terrified of him.
Its so frustrating cos i dont remember ANY boys names from my years at Webb St, except one, Johnny Clarke and the only reason i remember him is cos all the girls loved him and always wanted to play kiss chase with him, hehe.
You mentioning swimming costumes made me laugh, i remember goin to grange road swimming baths and being told not come back till i got a new costume cos mine had holes in it - oh the shame of it !! haha. We used to come out starving, go over the road to the bakers and get a slab of bread puddin, if we had enough pennies of course, and there was a little sweet shop next door and i remember nicking a pack of something from the counter, hows that for a confession on a monday morning !!
Bett
Hello Bett
Mum and Dad are still with us, in fact I just left them 2 hours ago. They are both well and now live in Welling. I am Peter and Dad's is Bill( his brother is also Peter). We were talking about you and the family last night because I told Mum that we had been in touch. We have all been invited to a party for Jim's 80th birthday in January...will you be there.
Mum and dad both used to work for Mr Meyer in the chamois leather factory in Weston Street opposite where Sylvie and Jim used to live. That's where they all met. I am about the same age as Josephine.
Look forward to hearing from you
Vossy
Hi Pete
Course i remember Meyers very much - me mum worked there (and everyone knew her !) along with sylvie and jim and i think me nan did for a while as well.
After nan died, and cos we were all spread out over different parts of the country, all us women decided to get together twice a year for a "girly" day, instead of just getting together at weddings and funerals. We've been doin this now for a number of years and sadly numbers have dwindled but we still have a great laugh. When we have one i travel up to Kathleen's for the weekend and we go to the designated hostess. The last one was a few weeks ago at Helens in Essex and of course we were both asked to jim's birthday do, however Kathleen has a prior engagement that weekend and altho the girls have said i'm welcome to stay with one of them, i prob wont go cos me sis is not going, plus its a bloody long way for me, and i'm a lazy mare at the best of times.
Anyway your'll have a good time thats for sure
Bett
My grandparents moved into the Tower Bridge Road area just before
WW1. They came from Waterloo, Bethnal Green, Tower Hill and Deptford.
My mum was born in Wilds Rents and my dad was born in Bermondsey
Buildings.
My brothers and sister were brought up in Vauban
Estate until we moved to Linsey Street. My dad had the coal yard in
Dockley Road before he and my mum took over the newspaper and sweet
shop in Linsey Street (pic below). 
I seemed to spend my life delivering
papers from Drappers Road to Lynton Road, but mostly in the Rouel Road
area.
We all went to different schools. My big brother went to
Galleywall Road and Bermondsey Central in Pages Walk. I went to
Boutcher, Alma, St Olaves and Bacons. My sister went to Alma and St
Saviour's. My little brother went to Alma and Addey and Stanhope.
Anybody
remember the headmaster at Alma, Mr 'Spud' Murphy, who smoked a pipe
stuffed with Bulwark tobacco? I can still smell it now. In fact one of
the lasting memories of Bermondsey is the range of smells, here's a few
.. Young's Glue factory, tannery shops in Horney Lane, Spa Bakery,
Joyce's & Manzi's pie shops, Sarson's Vinegar, Lipton's jam,
Richmond sausages and then to walk from Central Hall on Tower Bridge
Road to the river by way of Bermondsey Street with morocco leather and
spices and ... and ... aaah ... I can smell it now
Dad drank in most
of the pubs, and I followed in his footsteps. I used to do my homework
in the Lord Palmerston in Lucey Road - it was quite quiet and the
landlord was very protective of his 'A' level student! I was the first
to take an 'A' level at Bacons. Most frequently visited were the Earl
of Derby (darts), Red Lion (more darts) on Spa Road, Queen Vic in
Southwark Park Road and the Gregorian Arms. I used the Greg for lunch
when I was teaching at Riverside School as a student - wonderful scotch
eggs. Dad most frequently used the Queen Vic, Sultan and Blue Anchor
after the family moved from Tower Bridge Road to Spa Road.
I left
Bermondsey for college in 1968 and married in 1971, never to return ..
aaah! Still follow Millwall and come to Bermondsey on regular basis to
see my mum, who seems to run Age Concern in Southwark Park Road. She's
fighting fit and 87 years young (does the shopping for the old folk up
and down her road - all of them younger than her).
Hi Paperboy,
You have certainly started a memory jogging conversation between me and my wife.
In her youth she lived in Lucey Road, as did my Aunt and uncle.
We was trying to place your parents shop in Linsey Street, being it was a sweet shop, no doubt she would have been in there at one time.
She said there was a couple of shops around there, but she remembers one that sold ice lolly's that they made on site in metals containers and frozen.
There were a few familys that I can remeber from around that area, they were the Snells (lots of them), the Kosters, The Dickinsons, and the Rose family.
Also Vauban street is where my Mother and one of her Sisters was born in the 1920's.
I have also been to all the same pubs, and played darts. We had a team in the Claremont Dunton Road.
Bermondseyboy
Here (the green rubbish bin) is where the shop was. The piece of grass to the south of the green bin (but before you get to the netball court) was Joe Halpin's cooperage yard. He lived in Alexis Street with his sons who started the halpn Haulage company, which I believe stille exists.
I remember the Snells and went to school with them - there were 13 of them if I recall correctly and once appeared on TV in the sixties because they were such a large family living in two adjacent council houses - door numbers were something like 118 and 120 Lucey Road. A near neighbour of their's was the Mennell family (I think that's how it was spelt) who had a member called Gerry. Gerry had learning difficulties but became something of a local fugure as he always wore baseball boots and was known as Jerry Boot to us wicked kids who teased him, shouting names at him etc. He used to smoke Players Weights and would come into my dad's shop to buy them in a pack of 5. The cost was then 11½d (old money) and Gerry would always have just 11d in his top pocket to pay with. You had to press him to get the other ha'penny, which he always had in another pocket.
Because I did so many paper rounds and collected the money for them and also collected my dad's coal money too I got to knock on almost every door locally so would have almost certainly spoken to your wife and aunt and uncle. What number did they live at, I might still be able to tell you which newspaper they took. ;-)
