The story of one house in Lausanne Road over a century and a half, and of one family who lived there in the 1950s.*
Today I went looking for the place of one of my more terrifying moments.
I would have been eight and as you do I chose to go down Bousefield Road on my scooter.
It could have been Gellatly but Bousefield is the steeper and seemed more of a challenge.
All went fine for a while but soon the momentum took over and the confidence slipped away and it all ended in disaster somewhere in the middle of the road.
It was nothing over serious, a few scratches and a nasty bleeding knee, a mark on the red and blue Triang and a large wallop of embarrassed shame.
Undaunted I returned more than once but despite the speed of the descent I never repeated the fall.
And now I have gone back.
The passage of fifty seven years has of course softened the events, the old tall trees have been replaced by newer smaller ones and the road seemed far less steep.
I suppose back then I would have been coming back from the Pepys park which after the long climb up from Arbuthnot offered plenty of challenging rides for one eight year and a foot scooter.
So this was the route we took passing the St Catherine’s Church, the gates of the top park and eventually to Bousefield.
I told no one at the time, and it has pretty much stayed a closed memory which I visited only rarely, but the pictures of the church and the park by Adrian brought it all back and hence the walk of discovery.
They say you should never go back to the places you grew up and there are plenty which I should not have returned to. Some looked grubby and run down and some had long ago become car parks, but this little stretch from Lausanne up to the park and back via the hill of shame was not one of them.
It has all fared very well and in fact looks more well healed and prosperous than I remember it.
But then I was just eight and houses and trees and whole roads are just taken for granted.
And so it is with the pub on the corner of Kitto and Gellatly which today goes under the name of Skehans.
I have no memory of it but I thought I would be clever and went looking for it in the directories but it’s not listed in 1914 so I am guessing it will date from sometime afterwards.
But Adrian did a bit of research and one one of his friends remembers it as the Duke of Connaught, which satisfies my curiosity and of course points to just how many people share this bit of south east London with me.
And Less Ennis kindly added that "the pub opened in 1896,was called the Duke of Albany,became McConnell's then Skehans,it was known locally as the Red House."
And that is the point of an adventure, even one separated by half a century.
You are never quite sure what you will find or how the whole thing will turn out.
Pictures, St Catherine’s Church, and Pepys park, 2005 courtesy of Adrian Parfitt
*The story of one house in Lausanne Road, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20story%20of%20one%20house%20in%20Lausanne%20Road
 |
| In the park, 2005 |
I would have been eight and as you do I chose to go down Bousefield Road on my scooter.
It could have been Gellatly but Bousefield is the steeper and seemed more of a challenge.
All went fine for a while but soon the momentum took over and the confidence slipped away and it all ended in disaster somewhere in the middle of the road.
It was nothing over serious, a few scratches and a nasty bleeding knee, a mark on the red and blue Triang and a large wallop of embarrassed shame.
Undaunted I returned more than once but despite the speed of the descent I never repeated the fall.
 |
| The park 2005 |
The passage of fifty seven years has of course softened the events, the old tall trees have been replaced by newer smaller ones and the road seemed far less steep.
I suppose back then I would have been coming back from the Pepys park which after the long climb up from Arbuthnot offered plenty of challenging rides for one eight year and a foot scooter.
So this was the route we took passing the St Catherine’s Church, the gates of the top park and eventually to Bousefield.
I told no one at the time, and it has pretty much stayed a closed memory which I visited only rarely, but the pictures of the church and the park by Adrian brought it all back and hence the walk of discovery.
 |
| St Catherine's 2005 |
But then I was just eight and houses and trees and whole roads are just taken for granted.
And so it is with the pub on the corner of Kitto and Gellatly which today goes under the name of Skehans.
I have no memory of it but I thought I would be clever and went looking for it in the directories but it’s not listed in 1914 so I am guessing it will date from sometime afterwards.
But Adrian did a bit of research and one one of his friends remembers it as the Duke of Connaught, which satisfies my curiosity and of course points to just how many people share this bit of south east London with me.
And Less Ennis kindly added that "the pub opened in 1896,was called the Duke of Albany,became McConnell's then Skehans,it was known locally as the Red House."
And that is the point of an adventure, even one separated by half a century.
You are never quite sure what you will find or how the whole thing will turn out.
Pictures, St Catherine’s Church, and Pepys park, 2005 courtesy of Adrian Parfitt
*The story of one house in Lausanne Road, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20story%20of%20one%20house%20in%20Lausanne%20Road
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