'The Blue'

Hi Milly I remember the Blue but way before your time, 1938/39 maybe earlier, remember theslipperry eels very well also all the other things on sale.. My Sister and I used to go to  Woolworths when it was the 3d and 6d store every Xmas and buy something for Mum and a little something for ourselves. There was also a Cinema just around a corner off the Blue, may have been the Palace we went too when Mum or Dad took us.. Happy days but so long ago, would love a bowl of Jellied or hot eels now but its a long way from Aussie.. Love reading all these tales brings back forgotten memories Cheers love   Ron

Hi Ron
The cinema you remmember was the Rialto and as another member remembered if you went round the back to Trothy Road we used to wait until people left by the back doors and sneak in and also to wait at the front and ask people to take us in.  When you think about in todays world how dangerous that was but our childhoods were so different then we did not have much but everybody had the same.  I also remember during the war about 1944 when I was 7 years old all our mums knew when the was going to be a delivery of, as I remember, tomatoes my mum would send me out to join the queue at 7 o'clock in the morning until she had seen my dad off to work then come and take over.  I cannot remember the name of the vegetable shop which I think was on the corner of Beatrice Road and Southwark Park Road but I do remember the queue seemed to be miles long
Regards Milly

hello ; i  remember all those places you mentioned woolworths  at blue anchor shopping centre . i'm claire conroy used to be claire hook. every saturday morning we use to go to the bermondsey baths, and we would meet up with lots of our friends to get cleaned up ready for the saturday night dance. . we use to have to call out more hot water for no.1 and sometime call out the wrong number  and some poor person would scream out  wrong number.I  am now eighty four and have so many memories to share.I use to live in Abbey street and miss all the good times we use to have. Whats your name and where did you live?

Hi Claire, thanks for the reply to my post and yes I remember the baths at Grange Road and shouting out for more hot water and my sister and I used to buy crystal salts for the bath I think they were pine scented.  When I was 16 my uncle and aunt used to take me to the dances at the Grange Road swimming pool when they would board it over and we would dance to live bands in those days.  I lived in Linsey Street off of Southwark Park Road but my mum and dad were both born in Abbey Street and our surname was Miller. I last visited The Blue in 2005 when I visited my Mum and then it was quite a sorry site with only about 10 stalls there now some old favourites like the plant lady with the flower stall [cant remember her name] also the fish stall,egg and greengroceries stalls also Jade Goodys grandparents had a stall selling gloves, underwear, scarfs etc. Regards Milly

Hi to everyone,
I'm Simon even theo I'm only 42 years old I remember the Grange Road swimming pool. I can't remember when apart from it being knocked down in the 1970s around about the same time as Abbey Building's on Abbey St. My mum would do the same thing as you, she would go to the baths on a Sat morning to have a bath and call out for more hot water. My mum would save up her wages so she could have some soap, it was better then they had at home. my mum was born in Wapping in Jan 1941 and moved to Abbey Building's alfter the war. My mum's name at the time was Rose Knapman. My mum remembers going to the Grange Rd baths one Sat morning bumping into the great Tommy Steele. My mum said that he used to go there most weeks.
When I was going up in Bermondsey during the 1970s we used to go to the Blue every Sat morning and once every couple of months to have our hair cut at Dave's Barbers on the left just before you got to Woolworths. Do you remember the indoor market which used to be on the corner next to the park? After doing our shopping we would go in the pie & mash shop for dinner with a bowl of Jelled eels for me and my dad to scare. I also remember the Fish shop near the school on the left. When I shut my eyes I can still see the Blue very clear as theo it was yesterday even Taylors coaches on the right towards Bermondsey South station.

Since seeing millylinseyst topic on the Blue in July I have been wracking my brain to recall how I remember it in the late 1940s and early 1950s and with the help of other people who lived in Bermondsey at the time we think we may have cracked how we remember it.

My first recollections go back to when I attended Monnow Road School in 1946/7 when this school was a mixed school till 1949 but with the advent of the secondary school the Monnow Road school became all girls and the boys were all sent of to Riley Road.

The Blue at that time was lined with curb side stalls from outside the Queen Victoria pub to Blue Ancher Lane.  At the corner of Alexis Street which at that time joined Southwark Park Road was Jones  electrical shop which charged accumalators for peoples radios and it was also a model shop which sold model aircraft next to this shop was a tobbaconist Deenports as we move further into the Blue we come to Maxim Road and on this corner was a fish and Chip Shop run by Kate and Louise

We now look at the other side of the road where we find the Queen Victoria Pub with the phone box outside as it is today. The shop next to the pub was called Deans and the proprietor wore a straw bloater hat and the slogan for the shop was ' Yes this is Deans'  in the shop they sold anything and everything then there was an oil shop Francis and Champion and they appered to sell everything then Griesbachs Bakery where fresh  bread was baked an in out clothing shop I beleive was called Lloyds and a small shop dealing in Ladies underwear and corsets Carters the Mens shop was along this side and a Chemist called Austins a small toy shop Grants and then Woolworth and the Post office with a phone box outside next to Woolworth was a Bata shoe shop and another chemist called Dolcis and around the corner in St James Road past Woolworth back entrance was United Dairies and the Rialto Cinema and lying back was the PDSA dispensary a barber and flower shop

Going further in to the blue next to the Collen Bawn pub was a sweet shop and tobacconists and either  Uden or Chappels undertakers in the front of the undertakers shop   stood  the carpenter maing coffins and as a young person with my mates we would stand there watching him put the coffins together further along from this was Still shoe shop followed  by a Department store with the cash being sent to the cashier by compressed air on a wire and at the corner of Camilla Road was a Radio shop which late sold Televisions I beleive was called Redifusion

Thats all we can think of

Joe Foster

Picture taken looking into the Blue from St James Road this can give you an idea of what the stalls and shops looked like Pub is on the right

This picture was taken when the horse trams were still running in Southwark Park Road the lines can still be seen  I beleive it was before 1903

Another picture of the Blue taken from the John Bulls Arch end possibly the same period with the tram lines note the shops and the stalls a good idea of what it looked like in this period

Picture taken looking into the Blue from St James Road this can give you an idea of what the stalls and shops looked like Pub is on the right
This picture was taken when the horse trams were still running in Southwark Park Road the lines can still be seen  I beleive it was before 1903
[image]
-fosney

The pub is the "Coleen Bawn" 196 Southwark Park Road (on the corner with St James Road). Opposite is the shop of William Henry Hobbs (Milliner) 193 & 195 SPR. He also had premises at 220-226 (all listed in the 1921 London street directory). The tramlines were laid sometime between 1871 & 1894.

Regards

Hi to everyone who have answered my forum on The Blue and many many thanks for all the input.
They all brought back so many memories and unlike you Joe I have no one who I can call upon to jog my memory as my sister who had a fantastic memory about names and places to do with her childhood in Bermondsey died 6 years ago so thanks Joe and friends for walking me down Southwark Park Road it was wonderful.  I remember Monnow Road School as my sister went there when it was an all girls school in 1952 I myself went to Bermondsey Central 1948-1953.  Also the PDSA dispensary where it was always my job to take our various cats and dogs for trearmen we always had an overflow of these about 1945/6 as as you can guess I lived in Linsey Street as our house was one of those still standing after the war and my Dad was such an animal lover that apart fron our own cat, dog, canaries and gold fish any of our neighbours or friends who got bombed out we took in until they were able to take them back.
I think Hobbs was the shop with the compressed air system I can remember my Mum taking me there for clothes and my Dad rented our first television set from Redifusion.  So you see how much your replies meant to me. One last thing I remember is going to Jones with our accumulator in my dollies pram but I  thought Jones was on the corner of  Southwark Park Road and Linsey St.  The photos of The Blue in 1903 were so interesting because about that time both sets of grandparents would have shopped in The Blue and as my hobby is my family tree it has added interest.

Thank you all once again
Regards
Milly

millylinseyst

If you lived in Linsey Street do you remember that shop on the corner of Yalding Road that sold Biscuits and thats all they sold I beleive it was called Ellis .  You would enter the shop and all you would smell was the aroma of fresh baked biscuits mostly from the Peak Frean Factory and they were all in the biscuit tins direct from the factory next door in Southwark Park Road was an Opticians and another shop but I cant remember what it was and you are right Jones was on the corner of Linsey Street so your not doing to bad

Joe Foster

Old Black and white picture of the Blue. Monnow Road on the right note all the shops which have now gone and by this time the stalls had gone

Picture again of the Blue. This time from the Galleywall Road end looking towards Blue Anchor Lane  on the right note how the stalls were on the opposite side of the road again this was the time of the horse tram as the lines can still be seen prior to 1903 when the hors trams were withdrawn

Thanks for posting this picture. It looks like the 'John Bull' pub on the right of the photo as it's showing the name of the propriotor on the front 'A Busby' (Alfred Chas Busby). The Busby's had been listed at the adrress since the 1881 census:
1881/George Busby Licensed Victualler age 40 born Horsleydown, Surrey/Census
1882/George Chas Busby Post Office Directory
1884/George C Busby Post Office Directory
1891/George Chas Busby Post Office Directory
1899/George Chas Busby Post Office Directory
1921/Alfred Chas Busby Post Office Directory
The first time I've ever seen an image of the 'John Bull', thanks again.

Hi Joe
Once again you have come up with a winner for me.  Thanks for posting 2 more photos  of Southwark Park Road.  The one that has the wow factor for me is showing the No.1 bus at the bus stop which if the photographer had been a few yards back would have shown the start of Linsey Street.  That bus stop is where I use to get off when I came home from work from 1953 onwards before they moved it further up the road opposite Woolworths I suspect that the photo was taken, going by the clothes the lady is wearing about 1957 or thereabouts,  Opposite Monnow Road I think there was Macks Road and on the corner of Macks Road and Southwark Park Road was as I remember a fish and chip shop cannot recall the name but the fish and chips were the best around.
Regards
Millie

  ... and on the corner of Macks Road and Southwark Park Road was as I remember a fish and chip shop cannot recall the name but the fish and chips were the best around.
Regards
Millie

-millylinseyst

I lived around the corner in Drappers Road, would that have been the 'Venus Fish Bar' or perhaps thats what it was named later! We used to use Chris's in Blue Anchor Lane ("a penneth of crackling and a King Fling please")

Hi Freddie
I think that the fish shop we are talking about did not have such a fancy name in my time but I did used to go to the fish shop in Blue Anchor Lane as I remeber it had a very high counter to the right as you went in through the door and I agree their fish and chips were good too.  I last went into that shop in Blue Anchor Lane about 2005 when visiting my mum who still lived in Bermondsey then but of course, like everything else it looks so different now.
Millie

Hi All,i wonderr if annyone remembers "The Palace"Cinema,on the corner of Ambrose Street.It was Bombed early in the War,but the long Marble Steps remained for years afterwards.The Council had an Emergency Water Tank Built on the Site.Bill Killick