Danson Park

Goonerhater

Was talking to a taxi driver about this place the other day, brought back a good few memories.Looked it up on the net but still a few things i remember not mentioned.

Anyone remember the avery over there ? some scum bags set light to it must be 40 years ago i think.

Im sure i was told there was an open air swimming pool there.Well before crook log baths.

and dosnt a river feed the lake ? if it does whats it called ?

Curb_It

dont you remember danson lido? Even i remember that, just.

DaveMehmet

I can remember the aviary and you used to be able to see the remians of the old swimming pool from the A2

Goonerhater

yes i remember the A2 thing brought it back, but i think there may hve been a swimming area linked to the lake yonks back.

CatAddick

I can remember rowing on the lake with my cousin and losing an oar 30 odd years ago..

ThreadKiller

used to be a nice lido.everyone used to take the boats over to the little island in the lake, don't think there is a river attached though....the river shuttle in blackfen maybe?

BDL

Swimming pool got filled in, was used as a skateboard park after cracks were found in the pool.

Greenster

The old lido can be seen from the A2 as in the neat area of trees very close to the road !

Always tough piches there with various slopes !

nolly

my grandad used to take us there as kids with boats he made out of wood and egg boxes,on the way a ten p mix up then to hes allotment,then back to hes shed in sherwood close,where i tell you no lie he could fix anything.

TEL

The lido in the summer of 76 was the place to be...fresh out of school...what a fantastic summer. Used to row around the lake whenever we could afford it.....had a great time....back in the 50's it was a top fishing lake and used to be full of big carp which were all but wiped out by disease.

The mansion was a fantastic old building...we used to mess around in the stable blocks.....legend had it that the place was haunted.

guinnessaddick

Summer of '76, used to go over there, had a lorry inner tube that we used to blow up at the what is now the audi garage. Great times.

nolly

i still wonder what the good children of sherwood close thought of me my 3 brothers parading round there in the summer holidays of the late seventies early eighties,we were like something out of a dickens novel.

Curb_It

i remember my sister throwing up and up one sunday evening in the summer of 76 after coming back from the lido.. terrible sun stroke.

Goonerhater

The end of the lake nearest tt road was always called the dam, i think there may have been a river and it was damed to form the lake.

golfaddick

I used to go to Bexley Grammar school which backs onto Danson Park and during the winter we used to have to run round it for our games lesson.........out of the main gate of the school, 20 yards to side gate in Danson Lane and straight run up to the boat house, around the top part of the lake and back round the other side crossing over the little cobbled bridge and back into school.

a bugger of a run on a cold wet day................but during the summer great place to play.

charente addick

[cite]Posted By: golfaddick[/cite]I used to go to Bexley Grammar school which backs onto Danson Park and during the winter we used to have to run round it for our games lesson.........out of the main gate of the school, 20 yards to side gate in Danson Lane and straight run up to the boat house, around the top part of the lake and back round the other side crossing over the little cobbled bridge and back into school.

a bugger of a run on a cold wet day................but during the summer great place to play.

When I was there there we used to have a house cross country race of 5 to 6 miles around the park a couple of times, bloody knackering as a kid as we all invariably shot off too quickly. (mind you that became a problem in later years too - ooh err missus!)

mistrollingin

I grew up just a few minutes away from the park. In the early 1960's me and my mates used to play football there all day, usually until it got dark, it really was "jumpers for goalposts" stuff. During the big freeze in 1963 the lake was frozen so solid you could walk across it no problem. Many sunny summer days spent in the open air pool. Very art deco design, great shame when they pulled it down. When I was very young there was a miniature steam railway that ran along the southern side if the lake. "Young boys in the park" Bottles of Tizer, frozen Jublees, Jamboree bags. Halcyon days.

Bermuda_red

Fond memories of Danson park. Didn't know they closed the swimming pool next to the A2. A real shame. Used to play our home games in the Eltham & District Sunday league at Danson Park in the late 80s. Great memories, bad football, lots of swearing, socially challenged opponents, freezing cold and muddy. Seems like another life now! At School (BETHS) we did a 24 hour sponsored bath tub race in the lake. School discos at the boat house. Went to a wedding at the mansion a few years back, it was derelict for years, but has been renovated and looks good now. My Dad remembers a mini railway there years back.

T_C_E

We used to have a bath race there when I was in the LFB, it was all the services the LAS and MP. All started in good fun, we used to fill fire extinguishers with a red dye and with the LAS go straight for the OB and sink the gits the public loved it. I think was part of the Bexley show, Health & Safety wouldnt allow it now.

Oggy Red

I remember the minature steam railway running alongside the Lido side of the lake, when I was a really little kid, early 60's. I think it only ran on Sundays in the summer, but might be wrong there.

The driver with his oily blue driver's cap was huge compared to the engines, and he used to make it whistle specially for us little'uns. Remember the smell of hot oil, wispy smoke and steam escaping. Remember the track and the little wooden/corrugated iron engine shed, next to a row of trees on the bank of the lake.

Spent many a day in the summer holidays at the stream end (towards the school), with fishing net and jam jar with little air holes punched in the lid. We'd catch minnows and tadpoles.

Later as a young teenagers, we used to muck about on the hire boats trying to impress the 13/14 year old girls hanging around with us.

March51

Happy days, Oggy. Forgive me living in the past as well but well remember having my 7th. birthday party there in '53, playing football and cricket and going on a motor boat that took you round the lake. Rationing had not long finished on sweets and stuff and my mum did a terrific picnic for us. A good year: Matthews Cup Final (I remember my dad saying, "....why didn't we buy him?...." ) with half the blokes in the street coming round to watch our telly with the 'goldfish' bowl' tied on the front of it to enlarge the picture, the Coronation with half the women in the street crying in front of the T.V, Everest being conquered, the sun shone all the time, and Charlton had finished 5th' in the 1st. Division. Tell that to youngsters today and.........

Oggy Red

[cite]Posted By: March51[/cite]Happy days, Oggy. Forgive me living in the past as well but well remember having my 7th. birthday party there in '53, playing football and cricket and going on a motor boat that took you round the lake. Rationing had not long finished on sweets and stuff and my mum did a terrific picnic for us. A good year: Matthews Cup Final (I remember my dad saying, "....why didn't we buy him?...." ) with half the blokes in the street coming round to watch our telly with the 'goldfish' bowl' tied on the front of it to enlarge the picture, the Coronation with half the women in the street crying in front of the T.V, Everest being conquered, the sun shone all the time, and Charlton had finished 5th' in the 1st. Division. Tell that to youngsters today and.........

"...... THEY WON'T BELIEVE YOU"

I think you're 10 years ahead of me Terry, but a sunny summer's day in Danson Park was paradise to us little oiks.

Six-a-bag-of-nuts

I have a vivid memory of a hollow tree, big enough to stand in.
This would have been mid 60's.
Anybody confirm that or did I dream it?
Also remember fishing for minnows and sticklebacks.

TEL

The lake froze over again in 74 or 75, we had a great night over there skating around on the ice until the old bill turned up to turf us out....I ripped a hole in my new leather jacket climbing the fence. Another place we used to have a lot of fun was Bexleyheath Golf Course when it had snowed...we'd grab a few heavyweight plastic bags and use them as sledges...

Shrew

Danson park - frozen pitches playing for the BB
Well Hall for Rope swings and catching the odd eel
Foots Cray for Newts and frogspawn
Brook street Rec for endless games of footy untell it got dark
Barnhurt woods for cycling and go karts made from nicked Prams
St Martins for outdoor swimming

ThreadKiller

got some christmas stuff going on at the weekend

Linked Here

adamtheaddick

My old man always bangs on about a little train that used to go around the lake?? Took him to swanley park with my son the other day and he got choked up as he said it was just how parks were when he was a lad, the train boating lake etc...