THETHE NORWOODNORWOOD REVIEWREVIEW OfficialOfficial JournalJournal of thethe NorwoodNorwood SocietySociety

No.No. 195195 WINTERWINTER 20112011

CONTENTSCONTENTS

2 Chairman’s Notes 4 Editorial 5 From the Secretary 6 Betty Holdaway & Ken Russell 8 A Secure and Quarrel-free Future for the Upper Norwood Library? 9 New Publications: West Norwood Cemetery's Greek Necropolis The Old Croydonians Centenary Book The Crystal Palace High Level Railway 11 Handley’s Brickworks, Woodside Green, South Norwood 15 Falkland Park 20 Stop Me and Buy One!

FRONTFRONT COVERCOVER ILLUSTRATIONILLUSTRATION

Spurgeon's College

THETHE NORWOODNORWOOD REVIEWREVIEW The Norwood Review is published four times a year, in Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. The deadline for each issue is one month earlier. The next edition of the Review will appear in March 2012. Contributions should be sent, no later than 20th February 2012, to the Editorial Board, The Norwood Review, 47 Ross Road, London SE25 6SB or [email protected]. (020 8653 8768). Would contributors please give their ‘phone number, address and e-mail address.

- 1 - THETHE NORWOODNORWOOD REVIEWREVIEW WINTERWINTER 20112011 CHAIRMAN’SCHAIRMAN’S NOTESNOTES

I allowed my name to be put forward for election as Chairman of the Society at the AGM in April, as Eric Kings had indicated he wished to retire, and I felt honoured to be chosen to fill this role. I have so far enjoyed the experience of chairing our committee meetings and I would like to thank my colleagues for their courtesy and co-operation and for all the work they do. Many thanks are due to David and Bridget Bentliff for kindly hosting our meetings in their lovely home. We have welcomed ‘new blood’ on to the Committee this year in the form of Rebecca Wheatley, who has particular expertise in planning matters, and John Payne, a long-standing member and Norwood activist in other groups. Both are making a valuable contribution to the Society’s work. Eric Kings continues as Editor of the Norwood Review, ably assisted by our indefatigable Secretary, Anna Lines.

Neither Anna nor I were able to attend the Crystal Palace Park Conference on 20th May as we were on holiday then, but a report of this successful conference by our Vice-President Peter Austin appeared in our Autumn 2011 issue. I have since attended, on 28th October, a meeting of the Crystal Palace Park Working Group, representing the Society alongside representatives of other local groups and public bodies.

I was interested to learn that the Brazilian Olympic team will be using the National Sports Centre from mid-July as a training centre. Grand Prix racing will continue in the Park next year, with the Diamond League London Grand Prix race being held on 9th July. Also of interest is the fact that rooms in the Athletes’ Lodge, when not in use by athletes, may be booked by members of the public at £27.50 a night per person for bed and breakfast. The Lodge has 140 rooms and 42% occupancy rate has been achieved in 2011. Bromley Council are planning to recruit a ‘community group’ to advise the trustees who will eventually take over the running of the Park, but onlyTheT hethree places on this group will be allocated to established societies likeNORWONORWO our own. OD

- 2 - THETHE NORWOODNORWOOD REVIEWREVIEW WINTERWINTER 20112011 Another initiative I learned about at this meeting was the possible formation of a ‘Friends of the Subway’ to campaign for opening the access to the subway under Crystal Palace Parade from the Southwark end with the eventual prospect of offering guided tours to the public. The next meeting of the Group will be held on 17th February next year. I am pleased to note that our website is increasingly used by enquirers and researchers. Eric Kings has continued to re-type articles from old issues of the Norwood Review and these are becoming a valuable electronic archive. I receive a number of enquiries myself, usually by e-mail, although I did receive an enquiry by telephone from Australia recently! Our Committee member Jerry Savage, who is a senior member of the staff of Upper Norwood Library, is most efficient in answering these requests. A most unusual request I received last month was from the manager of a firm of builders to suggest a name for a residential development in Chatsworth Way on the site of Rotary Lodge. Apparently, no one had been able to come up with an acceptable name for a new terrace of houses. I offered three suggestions, but it remains to be seen if any of them will be accepted!

As mentioned in the editorial, the most serious issue affecting Upper Norwood at the moment is the crisis concerning the future of the Library. A very well- attended public meeting was held on 30th November just before we went to press. The Norwood Society’s Committee has resolved to support the new body that will be formed to campaign to save our historic and unique Public Library so that it continues to serve the needs of the people of Norwood, young and old alike. Betty Holdaway, the wife of long-standing Committee member and local history enthusiast Keith Holdaway, died at the beginning of October following a long illness. The Committee offered its sympathies to Keith and made a donation to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution in her memory. It remains for me to wish all our members a Merry Christmas and, despite the most difficult times in which we are living, a happy and prosperous New Year. RichardRichard LinesLines

- 3 - THETHE NORWOODNORWOOD REVIEWREVIEW WINTERWINTER 20112011 EDITORIALEEDITORIALDITORIAL The major issue before the residents of Norwood is of course the current dispute over the status and financing of the Upper Norwood Joint Library, which is shared between the boroughs of Croydon and Lambeth. The position is made worse by Croydon Council’s search for economies in its library service, but the arrangements for the two local authorities to share the library were already under strain from earlier disputes. The Society works closely with the Library (which helpfully stores our main archives) and is of material and generous help in dealing with enquiries. We will obviously do whatever we can to help to solve the problems, and at all costs want the Library to stay where it is and continue to offer excellent service.

It is a pleasure to announce that we are receiving some good material and suggestions about articles for the Norwood Review. These arise from people who have lived in Norwood in the past – however distant – and achieved fame or notoriety. An example is that the founder of the famous Wolseley car firm lived for a while in Belvedere Road, and we are awaiting further information before putting something together about the famous police car which can still be seen in television programmes and old films. We had also overlooked, in writing about the blue plaque on the house in Cintra Park once occupied by Marie Stopes, that her mother Charlotte was also worthy of an article in her own right, and we will work on one for the future – she is said to have founded one or two societies in Upper Norwood, one of which was about Shakespeare, her area of expertise. If anything is known please let us know. We also had an enquiry about the Norwood Brewery and were able to help by recovering an article in the Review from some years ago. Ideas for articles for the Review are always welcome, provided of course that they have a Norwood connection. The Society has for some time pursued with Croydon Council two matters. One is the need for signposting for the Stambourne Woodland Walk, which is otherwise difficult to find at both ends. The Council has agreed to put signs on lamp-posts provided we pay for one of them, and, given the financial constraints, we have agreed. We await the outcome.

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We have also been pursuing the question of the demolition of the long- disused public toilets in Church Road opposite All Saints Church. The Council has agreed that they are surplus to requirements, and acknowledges that in their particular prominent location in a Conservation Area they are an eyesore. A local councillor is pressing the Council energetically to clear this small site, but is encountering bureaucratic resistance from various departments. We cannot offer to pay for the demolition, even though the cost would be small, but perhaps we could donate some grass-seed to ‘green’ the cleared site subsequently! The site is, after all, a gateway to Upper Norwood and the Triangle and is opposite a nationally-listed building. Eric Kings FROMFROM THETHE SECRETARYSECRETARY I'm sorry to let you know that our longstanding member, Maisie Nibblett, died on 9"' October aged 91. It was only in March this year that she rang me to apologise for not being able to deliver the Norwood Review anymore. Both the Chairman and the Editor have written extensively, which leaves me with just a few membership matters to write about. Membership continues to be steady. Although I have had to remove 20 names from the database on account of cancellation, death or failure to renew, I have also been able to welcome 20 new members. Most of these have come through our website. About half of you now pay by standing order mandate, which is very helpful. You will therefore not find a subscription form inside your Review. If there are any changes of address, email or other matters, please let me know. Those who have joined late in the year do not owe us a subscription either. They were told at the time of joining. And if the rest of you could pay promptly and return the form then that would save the Secretary a considerable amount of time, worry and expense. Many thanks in advance. I wish you a happy Christmas and New Year. Anna Lines

- 5 - THETHE NORWOODNORWOOD REVIEWREVIEW WINTERWINTER 20112011 BETTYBETTY HOLDAWAYHOLDAWAY

Betty Holdaway, wife of Keith, the Chairman of our Local History Group, has died after a long illness. The couple were married for 56 years. Betty's main interests were her family, theatre, music and amateur dramatics. The funeral was held at Streatham Park Cemetery with a wake at St Peter's on Leigham Court Road. A donation has been made in her memory by the Norwood Society to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. Our condolences go to Keith and the family. KENKEN RUSSELLRUSSELL

Film director Ken Russell, who has died at the age of 84, once lived in Church Road, Upper Norwood.

Back in 1990 the director of Women in Love, The Music Lovers, The Boy Friend and The Devils, wrote to the then chief librarian at Upper Norwood Pat Scott about his time at Beulah Villa, 124 Church Road - which stands to the left of the entrance of Fitzroy Gardens.

He commented: "I understood it was a shooting lodge for the Prince Regent. The back garden was 600 feet long and - according to the people who gave a mortgage - useless.

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But a short time later - I bought the house in '58 - I sold 400 ft of it to Wates for the price I paid for it - £4,000. The house had rising damp and the ghost of a little girl on the stairs. The area had a lot of character when I moved in, but by the time I moved out six years later, it was becoming overrun by crass development and was fast losing its identity. I left just in time." But Ken found time to lend his support to the Picture Palace Campaign. Talking of the former Granada cinema at 25 Church Road he said: "I think Crystal Palace would certainly be all the poorer if that cinema couldn't come back to the area. I remember fondly my trips there – it had a personality of its own and it would be tragic if that were taken away." The Huntley film archive has one of Russell's earliest films - part of which was shot in the old Crystal Palace high level station which stood on the corner of Farquhar Road and Crystal Palace Parade - in its collection. The scene from Amelia and the Angel, made in the late 1950s, features a dog wearing angel's wings. The film is numbered 3523 in the Huntley archive. Further details about the film can be found in posts on Sydenham Town Forum-- www.sydenham.ork.uk. JerryJerry GreenGreen

- 7 - THETHE NORWOODNORWOOD REVIEWREVIEW WINTERWINTER 20112011 AAA SECURESECURE ANDAND QUARREL-FREEQUARREL-FREE FUTUREFUTURE FORFOR THETHE UPPERUPPER NORWOODNORWOOD LIBRARY?LIBRARY? The Upper Norwood Joint Library has been in a unique category since it was founded as a result of a joint effort by Lambeth and Croydon. Unfortunately the funding arrangements have proved to be something of a political football over some years, and this has not been helpful in some respects. It must of course be acknowledged that both Councils made it possible for major capital improvement work to be carried out in recent years. Leaving aside for the moment quarrels about the Constitution of the Joint Committee, the changes in library provision now being made by many councils because of financial stringencies open up the prospect of a different arrangement for a well-liked and used public facility. Taking a positive view about a possible re-arrangement of the status of the Library one suggestion made – not so far publicly - is to turn the Library into a charitable trust. The first move would be to draft a Trust Deed (which could include local authority representation, and perhaps embrace users from Bromley and Southwark as well as Lambeth and Croydon as Trustees). The charity would be supported by grants-in-aid from the councils (there could be some kind of formal commitment to ensure viability) and could seek donations as well as fund- raising through, for example, Gift Aid. The property would be owned by the charity, and it would employ the staff. From a Member

- 8 - THETHE NORWOODNORWOOD REVIEWREVIEW WINTERWINTER 20112011 NEWNEW PUBLICATIONSPUBLICATIONS WESTWEST NORWOODNORWOOD CEMETERY'SCEMETERY'S GREEKGREEK NECROPOLISNECROPOLIS The Friends of West Norwood Cemetery have published a very comprehensive and interesting guide to that part of the Cemetery bought many years ago for use as a Greek Necropolis. It is well illustrated and includes a helpful map for those who wish to visit. The authors are Colin R Fenn and James Slattery-Kavanagh. It is available from booksellers @ £2.50 under reference ISBN 97 187 3520 78 9. Those who join in the regular tours of the Cemetery can buy it from the FOWNC bookstall for £2, or order it by post from the Friends ([email protected]) for £2.50 including postage and packing. THETHE OLDOLD CROYDONIANSCROYDONIANS CENTENARYCENTENARY BOOKBOOK To celebrate their centenary the Old Croydonians’ Association have published a Centenary Book @ £15 (including postage and packing). It can be bought from booksellers (ISBN 978 0954 8783 13) or via the Association’s website (theoldcroydonians.org.uk) or by sending a cheque payable to ‘The Old Croydonians’ to 22 Bowes Wood, New Ash Green Kent DA3 8QJ. A CD of the 1920 Memorial publications is available for £6.50.The book covers the history of what were known as the Borough Schools, and then Selhurst Grammar Schools until closed. Part of the buildings is now used in part for the BRIT School and the rest for a new primary school called ‘The Crescent’. The CD contains a record made in 1920, including photographs, of those former pupils who died in the First World War.

- 9 - THETHE NORWOODNORWOOD REVIEWREVIEW WINTERWINTER 20112011 THETHE CRYSTALCRYSTAL PALACEPALACE HIGHHIGH LEVELLEVEL RAILWAYRAILWAY Mr John Gale, a member and friend of the late Leo Held, has published a book on the subject of “The Crystal Palace High Level Railway”. John Gale tells the story in words and pictures of the former London Chatham and Dover's branch line from Nunhead Junction to Crystal Palace High Level (which closed in 1954) being one of the very few electrified suburban lines in London to close. Leo Held gave him some assistance during the early stages of the book. It is beautifully illustrated, has 116 pages and is for sale at £13.50 post free. A review will follow in our next Norwood Review. ISBN 9781899889 62 4 . In the meantime you may order through the website of Black Dwarf Lightmoor Publishers. http://www.lightmoor.co.uk/new.php

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The claypit at Handley's Brickworks with Tennison Road in the distance. HANDLEY’SHANDLEY’S BRICKWORKSBRICKWORKS WOODSIDEWOODSIDE GREEN,GREEN, SOUTHSOUTH NORWOODNORWOOD Handley’s Brickworks comprised a 46-acre site at Woodside, now a housing estate. The top 30 feet of the site was made up of a yellow clay material used to make the familiar mellow colour of London Stock Bricks. The works was purchased by Edward Handley Snr. and his father in 1915 following the death of the owner, Horris Parks. The long-established Lincolnshire brick-making Handley family had had to close down the Acton & Willesden Brick Company following the exhaustion of the clay deposits there in 1915. Brick-making was a seasonal industry, and staff were engaged in the Spring to dig the clay and make the bricks by hand using a crude form of brick machine. Water was added to a clay mix, they were then dried in outdoor dryers and fired in clamps in the same way as the Romans made their bricks. In the Autumn when the weather turned cold brick-making ceased and the staff were laid off for the winter

- 11 - THETHE NORWOODNORWOOD REVIEWREVIEW WINTERWINTER 20112011 After the First World War expansion and modernization of the brickworks took place. This included a one-foot gauge railway system in the claypit with small diesel locomotives, excavators and draglines. These dug the clay, transported it to the side of the claypit and then it was hoisted to a gantry at the top. The brickworks provided two kinds of bricks. A steam-driven brick machine ground the clay, added water and wire-cut the stock bricks. The other kind was facing bricks impressed with the Handley name and sand-blasted to achieve a rustic effect. Coal-fired steam engines produced the power for the machinery, and these were converted to oil following the Clean Air Act of 1958. The bricks were dried either in tunnel dryers using the waste heat from the boilers or stacked in drying sheds where waste heat was extracted by fans from the five kilns. Once lit these kilns were fired by coal throughout the year to 1,000 degrees centigrade in an oxidizing atmosphere to achieve the red colour. The bricks in their raw and unfired state were placed in the kiln chambers by means of either tunnel dryer cars or forklift trucks. They were stacked by hand with finger spaces between each brick to allow the full flow of air at high temperature. The capacity of the kilns was 30,000 bricks in each chamber. The principle was that the bricks remained stationary whilst the fire was introduced. To effect this each kiln had a chimney attached to it with an average height of 160 ft. One chimney had the name Handley emblazoned on the four sides of it in white ceramic bricks probably manufactured in Stoke-on-Trent . The complete cycle around the kiln took twenty days to complete.The bricks were taken from the yard by lorry, there being no rail-head nearly. Originally the method of transport was by steam lorries and these were replaced by a variety of diesel lorries. The expansion of the works proceeded apace in the housing boom of the 1920’s but the severe depression of the early 1930’s, beginning with the Wall Street Crash of 1931, had a severe impact on production. But by 1939 the works was producing one million bricks a week and trade was brisk. The production comprised 30% facing bricks and 70% commons or semi- engineering bricks, all machine-made. In September 1939 Edward Handley was ordered by the Ministry of War to terminate brick production, stop all machinery, extinguish the fires in the kilns within seven days and prepare for a battalion from a Canadian armoured division to be billeted in the works, The active and employed staff received

- 12 - THETHE NORWOODNORWOOD REVIEWREVIEW WINTERWINTER 20112011 their calling-up papers and the remaining staff who were of pensionable age (except those who were given dispensation) were called upon to help with the war effort locally. Brick manufacture, therefore, ceased and a plant-hire company named Handley of Croydon was established whereby sixty machines of various capacity, including bulldozers, scrapers, dumpers, lorries and others, were involved in the South London area clearing bomb sites throughout the war.This company employed forty staff including a Mr. Jack Milsted, who was Manager of the operation. The company was highly successful. The brickworks was severely damaged by enemy action at various times during the war, one kiln was flattened, another one severely damaged, machine houses were also affected and the two steam engine houses had their roofs blown off. About one thousand incendiary bombs, H.E. bombs and a V1 landed on the site. A number of the employees were engaged in fire-watching in the works and an atmosphere akin to that of Dad’s Army was present. Overall they were generally successful in their warnings of impending air- raids.

Excavating clay at the Handley Brickwaorks in the early 1960s

- 13 - THETHE NORWOODNORWOOD REVIEWREVIEW WINTERWINTER 20112011 After the severe winter of 1947, with its attendant fuel crisis, power shortages and rationing, reconstruction began and bricks were once again in demand. The works were restarted under the changed name of the Woodside Brickworks (Croydon) Ltd. Production reached around 500,000 bricks a week even with the reduced plant available. Sales were so good that in 1951 the company acquired the Newdigate Brickworks in Surrey and in 1961 the Ashford Brickworks in Kent . Production then reached a million bricks a week. Clay at the Woodside site was however running out, but it was discovered that pulverized fuel ash could be mixed with the clay, and this helped to keep the works going. The excavation of the clay left of course a large pit, and this was used for a time to dump rubbish of all kinds at fifteen shillings a load. This. included rubber tyres, hardcore, wood, paper and other items that frequently caught fire. When the works was eventually sold a considerable amount of time, energy and money had to be spent on the site clearing it from poisonous chemicals. In 1963, with the extension of the London Underground and, in particular, the Victoria Line to Walthamstow, the waste London Blue Clay was brought by lorry into the brickworks and turned into bricks. Some of these bricks now line the tunnels of the Underground stations on the Victoria line, unfortunately hidden by the white ceramic tiles. The Trustees of Edward Handley’s Estate, on the instructions of the beneficiaries, were then instructed to sell the site. The three brickworks were then bought by the old family firm of Hall & Co,. local building merchants and fuel suppliers of many years’ standing. There were no redundancies following this purchase. However, when Hall & Co. became a quoted company on the London Stock Exchange, they were taken over by Ready- Mix Concrete in 1974. Clay reserves on the Woodside site had been almost exhausted by then and the site finally closed in 1976. The site was later acquired by Croydon Council for housing – they too had trouble removing the site contamination. From notes of a talk given by Edward Handley.

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FALKLANDFALKLAND PARKPARK

The 1890 mansion known originally as Falkland Park (now Spurgeon’s College) stands in a commanding position on South Norwood Hill. The history of the site is of interest, and dates back to the Inclosure Acts and the advantage taken of them by wealthy people to create estates. John Francis Maubert was one such wealthy person. He was a stockbroker of Swiss origin and set out to acquire plots and pieces of land until he owned a swathe of property stretching from Whitehorse Lane to Grange Hill (then called White Lion Lane after a public house which stood at the junction of South Norwood Hill and Church Road). He gave Norwood as his address from about 1820, and lived at Grange Hyrst, a Georgian mansion on the Grange Hill part of his land. It is likely, although impossible to prove, that he had the mansion built with an imposing view from which, on a clear day, one could see Windsor Castle. Maubert was married, and had one daughter. In due course Admiral Cary, who was retired, married Maubert’s daughter and moved into Grange Hyrst with her father and mother. He lived there for some years, and continued to do so with Maubert’s wife and his daughter after Maubert died. Then his wife died, followed soon after by his daughter and he

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Sketch of Grange Hyrst was left on his own. Later his brother, the Earl of Falkland died in 1884 unexpectedly and he inherited the title of Lord Falkland (11th Earl of Falkland). The Admiral died aged 80, and the title (and presumably Grange Hyrst and the land) passed to a nephew, who had no interest in the Maubert property and put it up for sale in about 1886. Apart from a detached part the house and land were sold to Thomas McMeekin in 1889 for £37,000. Thomas McMeekin was a successful and wealthy tea merchant born at Helensburgh, Scotland, and owned several tea estates (or tea gardens) in Assam which were managed by his 3 sons. It seems that in his youth he was sent down to London to serve an apprenticeship at Crystal Palace in agriculture and for a while worked as a foreman in the grounds. He decided to apply for a post in the tea industry in Assam, India, but was advised that he needed more specialist

- 16 - THETHE NORWOODNORWOOD REVIEWREVIEW WINTERWINTER 20112011 training and experience. To get this he got a job a Kew Gardens, where he took a keen interest in tea cultivation, and eventually got a job in Calcutta. When there he became a joint owner of a tea estate, and was so successful that he struck out on his own and acquired tea estates, all of which were successful in the light of a world demand for the product. His wife and children were there: and several of the children were born there. Thomas McMeekin decided to return to England and set up a marketing company there, leaving his sons to manage affairs in Assam. He was attracted by the availability of the Maubert house and land, perhaps because his Crystal Palace experience had given him a familiarity with views from the Norwood Ridge. So he bought the Maubert land from the 12th Earl of Falkand and moved into Grange Hyrst, together with his servants. A detached piece of the land, isolated by Ross Road, was sold separately by Lord Falkland to James Junkison, and has a different history. Then he set about realizing his ambition to have a grand modern house with a surrounding imposing landscaped estate, and his ambition was in due course realized.

Map showing Grange Hyrst and Falkland Park - 17 - THETHE NORWOODNORWOOD REVIEWREVIEW WINTERWINTER 20112011 He called the new mansion Falkland Park, perhaps to exploit the grand title of the previous owner of the land to enhance its reputation. The architect was Henry Adair Rawlins and the house was built by Patman and Fotheringham of Theobalds Road, London. A later press cutting from when the house and 8 acres of the estate were donated to the Baptist Church speculates that the house must have cost in excess of £40,000 when it was built in about 1890. . His pleasure did not however last long because he ran into financial difficulties said to be due to the delayed arrival of two ships laden with tea from his estates. There was also a slump in world tea prices at about that time, and this may have contributed to his troubles. Although no doubt galling for him to do so, he moved back into Grange Hyrst and put Falkland Park and its estate (except for Grange Hyrst and its lodge) up for sale. It attracted a buyer – Charles Hay Walker and his wife Fanny, together with their family. Hay Walker’s father, Thomas Andrew Walker from Brewood in Staffordshire, was a very prominent civil engineer with an impressive list of achievements, including part of the London Underground, the Severn Tunnel and the Manchester Ship Canal. Charles Hay Walker followed in his footsteps and a major work was the docks at Buenos Aires. These were constructed, seemingly over a long period, with stone brought across the River Plate estuary from quarries in Uruguay. At least two of his sons were born there, and decided, eventually, to marry locally and stay in what had become a company town called Thomas McMeekin Conchillas. The town itself boasts a Baptist church (the Walkers were keen Baptists), and is said to be the only one with such a church rather than the usual Catholic one. Charles married his first cousin Fanny, the daughter of the brother of Thomas Andrew Walker. They were both born at St John’s, New Brunswick, Canada, which suggests family connections there. So for a time the McMeekins and the Hay Walkers both lived on what was the original Maubert land – the McMeekins in Grange Hyrst and the Hay Walkers in Falkland Park. Then Thomas McMeekin decided to retire to Bournemouth,

- 18 - THE NORWOOD REVIEW WINTER 2011 and the Hay Walkers bought Grange Hyrst and the Lodge, thus re-uniting to the two parts. Then Hay Walker's wife Fanny died in 1918, and as she had expressed a wish to endow the Baptists with a part ofher considerable fortune Charles Hay Walker decided to do something to meet her wishes. However, the 1914-18 War, and its consequences, made it difficult to do very much until the building boom ofthe 1920's. During the time he and his family lived at Falkland Park he had acquired a very large country estate near Farnham, then known as Frensham Hill. He then used Falkland Park as a family home alternately but tried, unsuccessfully, to sell Falkland Park in 1912. In 1914 he made Frensham Hall available as a military hospital, and moved back into Falkland Park. He sold Frensham Hall in 1925. Sadly, Fanny died at the age of 57 in 1918 and is buried in All Saints Churchyard, Sanderstead. The family then moved to another property in Princes Gate, near the Albert Hall, London, and in 1923 or so decided to dispose ofthe Falkland Park property and land. The Falkland Park mansion and about 6 acres of land stretching from South Norwood Hill (where a new entrance was made) to Wharncliffe Road was donated for use as Spurgeon's College, together with a cash sum to help with the conversion. The rest of the land bordering parts of the Grange Hill, Wharncliffe Road, South Norwood Hill and Ross Road frontages was divided into building lots and sold to speculative house builders. The Lodge was sold as an existing building, and remains. So now there is also Falkland Park Avenue, Wharncliffe Gardens, Grange Gardens, Grange Avenue and Grangecliffe Gardens (most built in 1926/27), and the Wharncliffe Road frontage was sold by the College and developed in the 1970's. The new entrance to the Falkland Park mansion was meant to use the original ornamental gates by the Lodge, but these were taken for scrap during WW2. Unfortunately, in spite of strong objections, the South Norwood Hill frontage, formerly a popular petrol station and shop, was sold by the College for a rather over-dominant flats development. There, for now at least, ends the story ofFalkland Park.

Acknowledgements: Andrew McMeekin, Judy Powles from the College, Lindsey Cordery from Conchillas and Carol Morgan from the Institution of Civil Engineers.

- 19 - THETHE NORWOODNORWOOD REVIEWREVIEW WINTERWINTER 20112011 STOPSTOP ME ANDAND BUYBUY ONE!ONE! At the bottom of Woodvale Avenue, past its junction with Court and Auckland Road, the road narrows, with only one pavement, and carries on to the gateway into the Pond (as we called it, known officially as South Norwood Lake). Here it was that we saw the man on his ice-cream tricycle approaching. Walls Ice Cream used to sell their wares in that way before the 2nd World War. The large ice-box container was in front, between the two wheels, and behind that the salesman was seated, with his feet on the pedals. Tricycles are very stable, of course, when properly driven, but I wonder what the whole vehicle weighed. And rear-end steering probably demanded some skill. My Mother must have bought me an ice-cream, on this occasion, and I guess that may have been the last time I had an ice-cream from ‘the Walls Ice-cream Man’ before the War, when all good things were rationed or unobtainable. From our house, going round the Pond was a favourite walk, and not only in hope of an ice-cream. Nearby, in Warminster Crescent, was a house where we might hear a canary singing, sitting outdoors in its cage, hanging near the window of a large old house. Once you got inside the grounds of The Pond, the motor-boat was a great attraction. This was close to the path on the left, and if you were lucky the boatman was taking passengers on for a trip all round the pond. How long it took or what it cost I do not know, but I remember going in it. Once the War started the boat was taken out of the water, put on some stocks, and stored under a tarpaulin on the bank. After the end of the War we all looked forward to its trips resuming, but alas this was not to be. Perhaps the boat had rotted between whiles. So the Lake remained unused for some while, until eventually people sailed yachts on it.

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South Norwood Lake between the wars

The birds were another attraction of course, especially to youngsters. There were ducks, obviously, Mallards with their changing plumage as the year went by, and I think there were moorhens and coots. Feeding the ducks was a great sport for the children, usually with bread crusts. I recall being disgusted when a child-minder once gave me diced cold potato to throw to them! Before 1956 I remember seeing great crested grebes - I was rather pleased to have recognised them from an illustration in a Père Castor book - and then Canada Geese, which I believe became rather a pest.

Either side of the Lake were trees and grass. On one side certainly there was a ditch near the boundary fence. Apparently my uncle broke several ribs when he fell into this ditch while chasing me. Across the far end of

- 21 - THETHE NORWOODNORWOOD REVIEWREVIEW WINTERWINTER 20112011 the lake was the railway line, with occasional green trains running to and fro. These were Southern Electric trains, made up of units of 3 carriages at a time. Later they were all adapted by inserting a fourth coach, so that each unit had 4, but then they looked odd because the additional coach had bigger dimensions. It must have been on the far side of the Pond that I had to surmount a hill. On my tricycle I could cheerfully pedal all the way back home, but there the footpath went over a hillock, caused by the roots of a big tree I think. To get over this successfully I had to get up speed as I approached. Auckland Road nearby was a splendid place to walk in autumn, as there were so many trees. All the leaves, in their lovely colours, gold and brown, would fall and lie all over the pavements, a bountiful harvest which I enjoyed by shuffling my shoes through them as I walked. Many times my Father would tell me to walk properly, and pick my feet up, but to no avail. I still do it today, and think of him. A little further along the road Fox Hill and Belvedere Road went off on the left, climbing up to join the main road at the top, which runs to Crystal Palace. Years later I found that Camille Pissarro, the Impressionist painter, had fled to England from the German invasion and stayed in south London for a year or so, where he painted twelve pictures of the Crystal Palace area, one of the Parade, and one of Fox Hill under snow.

(His son Lucien stayed in England, and worked as a printer and engraver, founding the Eragny Press.) Camille Pissarro

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Camille Pissarro’s Painting of the Crystal Palace

We always used to admire the hexagonal Victorian pillar-box near the bottom of the hill. At the top were some great concrete blocks in the road, which I thought were to stop enemy tanks if the invasion came. Looking back, and recalling the steepness of the hill, I reckon they were really to prevent any of our own tanks going that way by mistake and then losing control on the gradient. The road at the top, leading back towards South Norwood Hill, had different street-lighting. Towards the end of the War some lights were turned on again, in what we called "the dim-out". The mercury-vapour lights there were bluey-green, and a great contrast with the sodium lamps on South Norwood Hill. Croydon in the 1930s must have been in the forefront of progress to have sodium lamps slung centrally all the way down this main road, and several others as well, possibly including Purley Way. Robin Phillips - 23 - THETHE NORWOODNORWOOD REVIEWREVIEW WINTERWINTER 20112011

VICEVICE PRESIDENTPRESIDENT Peter Austin, 7 Glyn Close, SE25 6DT Tel: 020 8653 0149 Email: [email protected] CHAIRMANCHAIRMAN Richard Lines Tel: 020 8653 8768 Email: [email protected]

VICEVICE CHAIRMANCHAIRMAN Jerry Green

(Acting)(Acting) TREASURERTREASURER Richard Lines

SECRETARYSECRETARYSECRETARY Anna Lines 38 South Vale London SE19 3BA Tel.: 020 8653 8768 Email: [email protected]

COMMITTEECOMMITTEE David Bentliff, Phillip Goddard, John Greatrex, John Payne, Jeremy Savage, Rebecca Wheatley

Keith Holdaway,(Local History) 223 Leigham Court Road, SW16 2SD TheThe Tel: 020 8761 1751 NORWONORWO Website: www.norwoodsociety.co.uk OD

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