Grew up in Bexley / Bexleyheath - so as a child used to spend my time on my bike around The Warren on Midhurst Hill (and on a sledge in the wintertime), and also around what was an undeveloped patch of wasteland on the other side of the footbridge over the A2 by BETHS.
I found The Warren when I was around 15/16. Lived in Bexley (cold blow / baldwyns pk area) & used to cycle down there with a couple of mates. Sat up in the trees having a sneaky ciggy & chatting about life.
Sunday afternoons often played football at the Freeholders Association in baldwyns park......missing the Big Match on itv.
Sat eves spent wandering around Bexleyheath. Mates from school lived in Welling, Barnehurst & Thamesmead so B'heath seemed a good meeting point.
Avery Hill Park, Parish Park woods (Avery Hill estate) Avery Hill Youth Club. First drinking in pubs around 15 was at Jolly Fenman. Irish guv called John who let you stay if you behaved yourself. First 5 pint session (Sam Smiths) aged 16 down The Dive, student bar at Avery Hill Teacher Training College. I grew up in the Avery Hill area.
And there's me thinking that you have no sense of humour!
The grassy bank across the stream in upper Belvedere. Youth club in lower Belvedere where I learnt to play squash. Erith swimming pool. ABC cinema and pubs in Bexleyheath. A few trips in school holidays to watch Charlton train and get autographs at Sparrows Lane - back in those days you could just turn up and wander in.
The grassy bank across the stream in upper Belvedere. Youth club in lower Belvedere where I learnt to play squash. Erith swimming pool. ABC cinema and pubs in Bexleyheath. A few trips in school holidays to watch Charlton train and get autographs at Sparrows Lane - back in those days you could just turn up and wander in.
We used to go to Sparrows Lane too. We bunked off when we signed Simonsen to get his autograph but at the last minute, they switched the session to The Valley. We were gutted but Terry Bullivant gave us a lift in his yellow Nissan Cherry, which was full of old paint pots and other crap. We didn't have any money on us and hadn't thought how we were going to get home though. Luckily, my old man worked at Sykes Pumps so we walked across there and ponced the bus fair home. All worth it to get Simmo's autograph (which I've still got today)
Les Berry had a bronze Mk4 Cortina that emitted a cloud of fag smoke when he got out.
Lesness swing park was our football venue and early hang out. Then progressed to the famous Danson Youth club / YMCA Dartford on a Saturday night. Green huts and co-op hall Dartford for thumping reggae and Motown. Drink, Eardley Arms Belverdere or the Drayman or Guy Earl of Warwick. Then when started to meet up with the Charlton mob, The Castle and Man of Kent in Eltham.
Spent a lot of time in my early teens at the Borough club in Eltham. Done my drinking apprenticeship between there and the Yorkshire grey in the mid - late eighties. As a kid kid, used to play football and cricket on the green at will crooks gardens or at sutcliffe Park. Would go swimming once a week at Eltham baths.
For official youth centre stuff. Not even from Welling. I trained five nights a week at Bexley swimming so wasn’t allowed to hang out before that.
Never knew you were a swimmer. My daughter swam for Erith & District Swimming Club from age 5 to 14, represented Kent, London and had Team GB trials. I know all about the training nights and early mornings being dads taxi.
I thought she might go on to represent the UK at the Olympics but then she discovered boys and Smirnoff Ice.
I didn't know either @curbit. We must have been at galas together. I swam for Woolwich Training and Swimming Club from 1970-1980. Training schedule was bloody tough looking back now, early morning Eltham small pool Mon, Wed, Fri before school. Tuesdays evenings Eltham main pool, Thursday evenings Plumstead baths (I can still smell that place!) Sunday mornings Woolwich Baths and Galas on Saturday nights. Had some top coaches at WT&SC like Bill Penny and Dave Hicks.
Me too at Bexley @Arsenetatters ! My sisters also swam there, the Lamonts, they are a few years older than me.
Lamorbey Monday's, Crook Log Tuesdays, Abbey Wood school Wednesdays, Erith Riverside Thursdays, Abbey Wood Fridays... what a slog. I didnt do the mornings as was never that high up the field. Freda Ross was our swimming star at the time. Was late 70's to early 80s. I decided then too i wanted to hang out at the youth club with my friends.
I once walked in the river Ravensbourne, actually in the river, in my new school shoes, all the way from behind Catford dogs to Lewisham. Those shoes squelched for weeks afterwards. Glory days.
A group of us used to hang around the vast grounds of the West Hill Hospital in Dartford, long closed and covered in horrible houses now.
Not so much a hanging around place, but happy memories of watching Banger Racing at the old Crayford Dog track, the figure of 8 demolition derby. Austin Cambridges/Morris Oxfords seemed a very popular choice
what's the definition of 'kid' ? .. as a sprog I used to play Robin Hood or Davy Crocket games with my mates on the bomb sites in those days still around the Blackheath/Lee/Lewisham area .. older .. everywhere and anywhere .. from Greenwich Park, the streets of Lewisham and Blackheath anywhere out the house .. then playing sport and watching when I wasn't playing, all over London, Kent and Essex .. music at local church halls or the legendary Bromley Court Hotel .. dancing and wooing (Tamla Motown, Philly Soul, Stax .. then rock and progressive music) anywhere from the Lyceum to the Croydon Suite, Purley Orchid, the Witchdoctor in Catford, Wembley Stadium, all over .. taking girlfriends anywhere for some privacy, Margate, Brighton .. memories memories .. so many places, so much fun .. and I do my best to continue .. the spirit is willing, alas the flesh ain't as strong as it used to was ((:>)
Avery Hill Park, Parish Park woods (Avery Hill estate) Avery Hill Youth Club. First drinking in pubs around 15 was at Jolly Fenman. Irish guv called John who let you stay if you behaved yourself. First 5 pint session (Sam Smiths) aged 16 down The Dive, student bar at Avery Hill Teacher Training College. I grew up in the Avery Hill area.
And there's me thinking that you have no sense of humour!
Grew up in Downham, so spent a lot of time playing football either in Durham Hill, the sports field on Whitefoot Lane (used to love it when they left the nets up in the goals there) and Valeswood Park. Also used to go to Sedgehill Dumps where they had rope swings and such, it would be a health and safety nightmare today, I remember plenty of kids breaking arms and collarbones and there never being a bad word said about the place!
For drinking underage it was always Frames Snooker Hall on Bromley Road. I reckon I must have spent every Friday night there for about 2 years from 14-16 playing pool and drinking lager with my pals. Absolutely loved the place, even if the owner Eddie was the most miserable man ever to walk the planet! Proper Arsenal bore!
Moved to a lovely house backing on to Crook Log Primary School in 1953.
I went to school there until 1961 and then onto Graham Road until 1966.
Absolutely loved those years, great teachers, great mates, happy, happy times.
Early 1960's school holidays were spent playing football from dawn to dusk in Danson Park, we used to turn the big wire rubbish bins on their side and used them as goals!
Sunny days during the summer hols plenty of visits to the open air swimming pool.
By '65 was going to the Austral Club in Longlands Road, proper mod hangout, and most Sunday nights at the Black Prince watching the likes of Geno Washington, Zoot Money, Georgie Fame, Brian Auger and the rest.
Always enjoyed looking into Bernie Ecclestone's place at Crook Log and drooling over some of the exotic motors he had for sale.
Looking back I'm so glad I grew up then before all this PC and 'elf and safety bollocks.
When I was young, the places to hang out were Erith Rec, Turners' Field and I'd go to Slade Green Scouts. 75-79 ish As I got older (80-83) and my horizons widened, I seemed to spend an awful lot of time in TW Records in Erith and Ye Olde Black Horse or Iron Horse in Sidcup, then graduated to the Tuesday night discos at the Cellar Bar in Thames Poly.
I used to live on the new housing estate at Crook Log, at least it was new in the 1970s. Despite Danson Park being right on our doorstep we would spend loads of time mucking about on the derelict patch of land, which we called 'the woods', on Brampton Road where the flats opposite the new sports centre/pool are now. You could also occasionally find that other treasure of childhood that the internet has killed off, ripped up porn mags in the woods!
As they were still building the estate around us we spent far too much time running around the building sites. Back in the day they never bothered fencing off construction sites and we would be clambering all over the scaffolding like monkeys and running around the foundation trenches when all the builders had packed up for the evening. God knows how nobody was killed, there were some nasty injuries. Somebody got smacked on the head by a brick that fell off the scaffolding and I got a nail right through my finger.
Playing curbey outside my house and general hanging around in our cul de sac behind the William Camden
Riding our bikes (none of that wheelie shite) round Crook Log, Pickford Lane, Danson Park etc
Drinking, smoking and general naughtiness at the Cannon on Welling Corner them down to the Rock Gardens in Danson Park
Great memories
Now come on @AFKABartram, you haven't included the walk to/from BGS through Danson Park for a smoke, up to the B15 bus stop outside the Nags Head.
The Friday nights over Danson Park were great fun. Yes Mum, I'm going to the cinema, honest Mum. Come back at midnight with muddy patches on my jeans stinking of fags and booze. They must have known.
Before that at primary school, the old favourite was the grass fields on Westbrooke Road next to the Scout Hut, which later become the grounds of Fosters School once it was redeveloped. Played football til sun down there and at Stephen's Park at Wrotham Road
Summer holidays were always spent over at Crook Log Sports Centre when they used to do the activity days when they were popular. Used to cut back through the fields behind CLSC, jump the fences of Danson FC and then take a short cut through someone's garden to an alleyway and we used to sh*t ourselves each time in case we got caught.
Oxleas Woods, Castle Woods and Bostall Woods were always great when I used to ride my MTB regularly in my early teens then @AFKABartram's group of merry men corrupted me!
By 16, we was drinking in the Forresters on Wickham Lane. Pint of beer please. What beer would you like young man? Erm.
How the f*ck did I used to go to the pub Fri & Sat, smoke, put petrol in my car and pay car insurance on £45 a week when I was 17?! Jeez.
anyone used to use the 'Apples & Pears' just off the Old Kent Road ?
I used to go in there late 60s on a Saturday night, we would start in the Lord Wellington in the Old Kent Road, then on to the Thomas a Becket then down to the Apples
We had the granny bench (where we used to go and smoke near where all the old people lived but was shielded by trees from the main road so was the perfect spot) Private school across the road we used to climb over play football failing that round each others to play fifa/ playstation.
Hilltop Cafe on the corner of Anglesea and Crescent Roads
I used to live on Anglesea Rd right across from the cafe I used they my tea and Sarnie and hang out With the GreenGrocer next door, if I remember right he guy used to cycle from Erith every day to open up. As I got older we moved to Kidbrooke and we would Caddie at The Royal Blackheath Golf Course at the end of the day we would all head up to the Wimpy Bar in Eltham for Burgers and Finish it off with a Knickerboker Glory Oh Boy Happy Days.
The greengrocer was Bill Medlam. I used to work with his brother Arthur.
I lived on Coldharbour, but spent my early teen years around Mottingham, both Mottingham Estate and Mottingham Village. My early years were spent at the Castlecomb youth club on the Mottingham Eastate. I caddied at the Royal Blackheath Golf Club, and through a couple of the other caddies I got to know the Charlton fans who lived on the Middle Park Estate. People like Dave Waldron, Jimmy Jarret etc. In the early 70,s we would all travel to the Charlton away matches together. About this time we progressed from the Castlecomb youth club to the King and Queen pub in Mottingham. We were lads and got into mischief but nothing to serious. I do remember removing all 4 wheels from a Mini Cooper S that was parked in the King and Queen car park. Removed the wheel nuts and lifted the car up and took the wheels. Great times!
Comments
Sunday afternoons often played football at the Freeholders Association in baldwyns park......missing the Big Match on itv.
Sat eves spent wandering around Bexleyheath. Mates from school lived in Welling, Barnehurst & Thamesmead so B'heath seemed a good meeting point.
Les Berry had a bronze Mk4 Cortina that emitted a cloud of fag smoke when he got out.
If you knocked about up Bexleyheath between about 1992 and 1996 you'll know me.
Ahh... Happy days
Done my drinking apprenticeship between there and the Yorkshire grey in the mid - late eighties.
As a kid kid, used to play football and cricket on the green at will crooks gardens or at sutcliffe Park. Would go swimming once a week at Eltham baths.
Lamorbey Monday's, Crook Log Tuesdays, Abbey Wood school Wednesdays, Erith Riverside Thursdays, Abbey Wood Fridays... what a slog. I didnt do the mornings as was never that high up the field. Freda Ross was our swimming star at the time. Was late 70's to early 80s. I decided then too i wanted to hang out at the youth club with my friends.
Not so much a hanging around place, but happy memories of watching Banger Racing at the old Crayford Dog track, the figure of 8 demolition derby. Austin Cambridges/Morris Oxfords seemed a very popular choice
Eltham mid-60s - early 70s - "Old" Quaggy, Sutcliffe Park, Well Hall Pleasaunce, discos at Welcome Inn, Dutch House, Prince of Wales
For drinking underage it was always Frames Snooker Hall on Bromley Road. I reckon I must have spent every Friday night there for about 2 years from 14-16 playing pool and drinking lager with my pals. Absolutely loved the place, even if the owner Eddie was the most miserable man ever to walk the planet! Proper Arsenal bore!
I went to school there until 1961 and then onto Graham Road until 1966.
Absolutely loved those years, great teachers, great mates, happy, happy times.
Early 1960's school holidays were spent playing football from dawn to dusk in Danson Park, we used to turn the big wire rubbish bins on their side and used them as goals!
Sunny days during the summer hols plenty of visits to the open air swimming pool.
By '65 was going to the Austral Club in Longlands Road, proper mod hangout, and most Sunday nights at the Black Prince watching the likes of Geno Washington, Zoot Money, Georgie Fame, Brian Auger and the rest.
Always enjoyed looking into Bernie Ecclestone's place at Crook Log and drooling over some of the exotic motors he had for sale.
Looking back I'm so glad I grew up then before all this PC and 'elf and safety bollocks.
As I got older (80-83) and my horizons widened, I seemed to spend an awful lot of time in TW Records in Erith and Ye Olde Black Horse or Iron Horse in Sidcup, then graduated to the Tuesday night discos at the Cellar Bar in Thames Poly.
only just dawned on me that the question was posed around being a kid so I revise my previous answer to:
Penhill Park, Sidcup (with occasional bike rides to the big park alongside Rectory Road, Sidcup). Halcyon days!
As they were still building the estate around us we spent far too much time running around the building sites. Back in the day they never bothered fencing off construction sites and we would be clambering all over the scaffolding like monkeys and running around the foundation trenches when all the builders had packed up for the evening. God knows how nobody was killed, there were some nasty injuries. Somebody got smacked on the head by a brick that fell off the scaffolding and I got a nail right through my finger.
The Friday nights over Danson Park were great fun. Yes Mum, I'm going to the cinema, honest Mum. Come back at midnight with muddy patches on my jeans stinking of fags and booze. They must have known.
Before that at primary school, the old favourite was the grass fields on Westbrooke Road next to the Scout Hut, which later become the grounds of Fosters School once it was redeveloped. Played football til sun down there and at Stephen's Park at Wrotham Road
Summer holidays were always spent over at Crook Log Sports Centre when they used to do the activity days when they were popular. Used to cut back through the fields behind CLSC, jump the fences of Danson FC and then take a short cut through someone's garden to an alleyway and we used to sh*t ourselves each time in case we got caught.
Oxleas Woods, Castle Woods and Bostall Woods were always great when I used to ride my MTB regularly in my early teens then @AFKABartram's group of merry men corrupted me!
By 16, we was drinking in the Forresters on Wickham Lane. Pint of beer please. What beer would you like young man? Erm.
How the f*ck did I used to go to the pub Fri & Sat, smoke, put petrol in my car and pay car insurance on £45 a week when I was 17?! Jeez.
Private school across the road we used to climb over play football
failing that round each others to play fifa/ playstation.
My early years were spent at the Castlecomb youth club on the Mottingham Eastate.
I caddied at the Royal Blackheath Golf Club, and through a couple of the other caddies I got to know the Charlton fans who lived on the Middle Park Estate. People like Dave Waldron, Jimmy Jarret etc.
In the early 70,s we would all travel to the Charlton away matches together.
About this time we progressed from the Castlecomb youth club to the King and Queen pub in Mottingham.
We were lads and got into mischief but nothing to serious. I do remember removing all 4 wheels from a Mini Cooper S that was parked in the King and Queen car park. Removed the wheel nuts and lifted the car up and took the wheels.
Great times!