What a difference 40 years makes, outside the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich

Sometimes a picture takes you right back and reminds me just how things have changed in a comparatively short period of time.

So here I am at the gate of the Arsenal in the autumn of last year.

Now the redevelopment of Woolwich has passed me by and looking at the photograph taken by our Colin I have to say it is pretty unfamiliar.

I recognise the entrance and have to say that it is looking better than I remember it back in the early 1970s but the surrounding area might as well be a scene from Planet Zogg and if it weren’t for the Arsenal I would be hard pressed to tell you where it was.

Which I why Jean’s photograph of the same spot in 1977 is so valuable, allowing me not only to fix the scene as it was when I used to walk past but is another reminder of just how quickly places can change within the space of two generations.

So thank you to Jean who has unearthed a whole collection of images of Eltham and Woolwich as it was.
And of course I am not going to pass off the opportunity of showing many more of them.

Pictures; the Arsenal in September 2013, from the collection of Colin Fitzpatrick and the Arsenal in 1977 courtesy of Jean Gammons