Well Hall Road and memories of collecting my National Insurance number in 1965

Now I left Eltham a long time ago and bits of the place have tended to fade faster than others.  

But Chrissie’s pictures of the parade of shops at the top end of Well Hall Road brought it all back.

During the 1960s and early 70s that stretch from the Spiritualist Church to Dobell Road didn’t get that much of a second glance.

If you were on the bus you passed it without even thinking and if you walked, it was for me just the prelude to a look in at Normans, and Wilcox’s further along before heading in to the High Street.

But the parade did contain that wonderful model shop and the place dad bought his timber which meant that on occasions I lingered gazing in at the made up model aircraft before going to get some “two b one” and wood screws for something dad was making.

It was also where in 1965 I went to collect the card with my National Insurance number and here someone will have to help me out.

As I remember it was that bit of an extension to the side of what is now the Polish Deli and I guess was an add on to the original building.  After you had entered there was a flight of stairs to the offices and that is all I remember.

I have no idea when it was built, opened for business or for that matter closed.

But that is the price you pay for moving away because things and places have a habit of changing and sometimes it is so complete that you even begin to wonder whether what you remember really was the case.

Now I am on firmer ground with the Shining Pearl which always caught my imagination with that huge swirling red and yellow sun which dominated the window.

I reckon it will have been one of the first Chinese meals I ever ate not counting of course Vesta Chow Mein which with its partner the Vesta Curry stood for all that was exotic eating in our house back in 1965.

Not that I am going to knock it, after all when you are 16 and want to rebel against sausage and mash but lack many culinary skills, the Vesta range was the name of the game, followed by Angel Delight which was even easier to serve than old fashioned blamange.

All of which is a long way from the offices of the Employment Exchange and later Alan’s the furniture place.

But I will add a correction from Carol Coleman, who posted, "I worked for the department of health & social security in this building in the late 1960s. 

It was a benefits office not an employment exchange. The building was an old snooker hall and before that a theatre. 

The stage was still there and the department had converted part of it into office space. The steps led into a large waiting room with a long table and metal seating. 

Public enquiries were dealt with at this table and at either end were two small cubicles used for private conversations if required. A big space with a high roof it was cold working there in the winter!"

So I shall close before I am accused of nostalgic tosh, thank Chrissie for her pictures of the parade and just ask if anyone has a picture of the Shinning Pearl.

Sitting here within a few miles of Manchester’s Chinese Quarter and the equally famous Curry Mile in Rusholme I have a wish to be reminded of the Shinning Pearl.

Location; Well Hall Road, Eltham, London

Pictures; from the collection of Chrissie Rose