This is the continuing story of one house in Well Hall Road and of the people who lived there including our family.*
Now I am in reflective mood, after all it is over half a century ago that we moved into 294 Well Hall Road which we continued to occupy for more than thirty years.
But oddly what brought the memories flooding back was a story of another house, a house which has seen all my children grow up in, and which I first fell into in the mid 1970s.**
One of the four was born in the upstairs bedroom and all of them still come back for Christmas, and casual visits.
And I have been wondering if they feel about Beech Road as I do about the house in Well Hall.
For my sisters their memories of the old property in Lausanne Road are so vague as to be meaningless and so 294 is pretty much associated with their growing up and eventual moving on.
We don’t get back to Eltham very often but when we do I always feel a need to pass the place.
Not that I have ever wanted to knock on. In that great sweep of memories revisiting your old home doesn’t work.
I remember going back to Lausanne Road and by chance we were invited in. I was impressed by the way it has been modernised and for a few minutes was drawn to the place.
But it was a house I never really liked added to which it seemed so small. In particular the garden which as a child stretched for ever was less than I remembered.
So I have avoided becoming a casual visitor to 294.
Better that it remains as it was, and a little bit of me feels the same about Eltham. For a long time the place was frozen in my memory sometime around 1973, and while more recent visits have chipped away at that picture of the place when I think of the High Street, there is still a Burton’s on the corner, Hinds and the Co-op still offer up a shed load of stuff to buy and the old ABC is still showing reruns of Carry On films.
But Google street maps and the increasing number of pictures posted of the place today help make the transformation from then to now.
All of which leaves me pondering on the point of the story which I suspect is nothing more than doing what most of us do when we feel home sick, which is to recognise that all places change, and no less Well Hall.
Location; Well Hall, Eltham, London
Painting; 294 Well Hall Road, & St John's parish church © 2015 Peter Topping
Web: www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk
*One hundred years of one house on Well Hall Road, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/One%20hundred%20years%20of%20one%20house%20in%20Well%20Hall
**One hundred years of one house in Chorlton part 62 ............ a quiet place, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/one-hundred-years-of-one-house-in.html
But oddly what brought the memories flooding back was a story of another house, a house which has seen all my children grow up in, and which I first fell into in the mid 1970s.**
One of the four was born in the upstairs bedroom and all of them still come back for Christmas, and casual visits.
And I have been wondering if they feel about Beech Road as I do about the house in Well Hall.
For my sisters their memories of the old property in Lausanne Road are so vague as to be meaningless and so 294 is pretty much associated with their growing up and eventual moving on.
We don’t get back to Eltham very often but when we do I always feel a need to pass the place.
Not that I have ever wanted to knock on. In that great sweep of memories revisiting your old home doesn’t work.
I remember going back to Lausanne Road and by chance we were invited in. I was impressed by the way it has been modernised and for a few minutes was drawn to the place.
But it was a house I never really liked added to which it seemed so small. In particular the garden which as a child stretched for ever was less than I remembered.
Better that it remains as it was, and a little bit of me feels the same about Eltham. For a long time the place was frozen in my memory sometime around 1973, and while more recent visits have chipped away at that picture of the place when I think of the High Street, there is still a Burton’s on the corner, Hinds and the Co-op still offer up a shed load of stuff to buy and the old ABC is still showing reruns of Carry On films.
But Google street maps and the increasing number of pictures posted of the place today help make the transformation from then to now.
All of which leaves me pondering on the point of the story which I suspect is nothing more than doing what most of us do when we feel home sick, which is to recognise that all places change, and no less Well Hall.
Location; Well Hall, Eltham, London
Painting; 294 Well Hall Road, & St John's parish church © 2015 Peter Topping
Web: www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk
*One hundred years of one house on Well Hall Road, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/One%20hundred%20years%20of%20one%20house%20in%20Well%20Hall
**One hundred years of one house in Chorlton part 62 ............ a quiet place, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/one-hundred-years-of-one-house-in.html
Love your memories, similar to memories of pass lives we all have.
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