A little bit of Woolwich ........ from Manchester

Now I like the way a picture of a place I remember so well from my youth just pops into my in tray.

And so it is with this fine photograph of Plaisted’s Wine House.

Over the years I featured lots of images of Plaisted’s from a nice one taken by our Colin and Elizabeth to ones I took in the 1970s.

What makes this one just that bit unique is that it comes from the collection of Ron Stubley who like me lives in the far North ........ beyond the river, Watford Gap and even Birmingham.

Ron like me collects interesting buildings and so on a visit to Woolwich back in 2012 he added this one to the album.

He sent it over about 15 minutes ago with the comment “I'm sure you'll like this one Andrew”, and of course I do.

I shall now wait to see what other gems from Woolwich he may have.

Location; Woolwich

Picture, Plaisted’s Wine House, 2012, from the collection of Ron Stubley

The Woolwich we have lost

My sister and her husband had warned me just how much the centre of Woolwich had changed but when you don’t go there very often it is easy to forget that places can undergo a massive transformation.

So I asked them to go out armed with an old book of Woolwich plus my pictures from the blog and record just what has happened.

This they did and here is the first of a new Woolwich series, starting with Wellington Street which I featured a few months ago with a picture postcard from 1916.*

I say 1916 but the image may date back to 1907 which shouldn’t surprise us.  Once the picture had been taken the cards could have a long shelf life, so while the one in the collection has a postmark date of 1916, another source puts the moment the photographer captured the scene a full nine years earlier.**

If it was 1907 then the Town Hall which dominates the skyline was opened the year before by Will Crook the MP for Woolwich.  The Town Hall included a public hall, central library, public baths a police and municipal offices.

And as Colin’s picture shows little apart from the Town Hall on Wellington Street has survived.  The Old Woolwich Hippodrome seen next to the Town Hall had a short life of just 23 years.

It was an impressive brick building dressed in stone and ran to three stories.   An iron canopy bearing the name of the theatre covered the steps leading up to the central entrance.

Another canopy continued along the sidewall with a sign across its face reading TWICE NIGHTLY AT 6.40 & 9.10. More signage appeared above the canopy reading WMF GRANT & CO. TWICE NIGHTLY also appears at the top of the side wall.

And in our picture the signs advertise Will Evans who according to some was one of our finest comedians and Pantomime stars and was the author of many sketches and songs.

Sadly there is little on him and nothing about his appearance at the Woolwich Hippodrome.

And as for the Woolwich Hippodrome, its life as a variety hall was just 23 years but as a cinema it fared even worse, closing in 1939 when it was demolished to make way for a new cinema which with the outbreak of war was not built until 1955.

Now I am not some crusty old lover of old buildings just because they are old but I have to say those that flanked and stood opposite the Town Hall are on a human scale which cannot be said of the tall brick and concrete slabs that have pretty much turned the street into a canyon.

But perhaps I am being too harsh, it may be that Colin’s other pictures show a better and cleaner Woolwich than the one I remember.  We shall see.

And in the meantime our Elizabeth tells me that "since we took the pictures of Woolwich, the building next to the Town Hall has been demolished. Not sure what is there now. I remember going there when it was known as Flamingos, mind you that was some time ago."

*At the Woolwich Hippodrome sometime between 1907 and 1916, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/at-woolwich-hippodrome-sometime-between.html

**Evans, Brian, Woolwich in old photographs, 1994

Picture, Wellington Street, 1907-1916, courtesy of Mark Flynn, http://www.markfynn.com/london-postcards.htm and Wellington Street from the collection of Colin Fitzpatrick

When you knew you were home …….travels with a ferry

Enough said.

Location; Woolwich

Picture; the ferry, Woolwich, 2012, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Walking the Thames

Now I am the first to admit it’s a bit of a silly title but that is exactly what my friend Neil did, once under the river at Woolwich and then again at Greenwich.

It’s not my chosen way of leaving Woolwich for that other place, but Neil had never seen either of the foot tunnels and so it was an adventure.

I have to say that these are adventures I no longer want to do.

I prefer the ferry where I can see where I am going and know that the water is below me and not above me.

I still have vivid memories of that old illuminated sign at the Wapping and Rotherhithe  Underground Stations  announcing  “Men working on Pumps” when I used the Tube regularly in the 1960s to know that over is better than under, a feeling enhanced by one visit to Easington Colliery.

Kay’s father who was Chief Mechanical Engineer at the pit thought I would be interested in seeing how generations of the Baxter family had made their living.

There was no way I could say no to my future father in law, although a mile down and three miles out under the North Sea I wish I had done so.

I last walked the walk when I was ten and have never done the journey since.
I do remember it was exciting.

The floor slowly sloped down there was that echoing sound of your footsteps and the point where the other exist came into view.

So that is it.  I have thanked Neil for his pictures, which have made me a tad homesick but not enough to do that walk.

Location; London

Pictures, the foot tunnels, April 2017 from the collection of Neil Simpson

A century of shopping on Powis Street in Woolwich

I am back in Woolwich this time on Powis Street separated by just over a century.

And I had forgotten how narrow the road is and how crowded it must have been when traffic including buses travelled along it.

Its transformation into a pedestrian through fare will have made shopping a lot safer but something of the buzz has been lost.

That said the place has retained the same sort of small shops which were there in 1908 when Banks and Bryan were trading from number 6 just two doors away from the Shakespeare which I remember drinking in but is now something else.

But there is a sort of continuity for  back then at number 2 was Birts & Son who were pawnbrokers and today almost on the same spot is H&T pawnbrokers who also offer “CHEQUE CASHING, CASH LOANS and PAYDAY ADVANCES.”

And along the road there is the same mix of chemists, tobacconists and clothes shops.

But there the similarity stops.

In 1908 there were lots of grocery outlets, butcher shops and hairdressers, along with a coal merchant, boot maker and umbrella manufacturer.

The list does much too high light the changing needs and fashions that have happened over the century.

Banks and Bryan were mantle manufacturers, G.H. Nickolds made and sold artificial teeth, James and John Matthews were hatters, and at number 36 the South Metropolitan Gas Company had their offices and show rooms.*

Then of course back in 1908 there are the number of horse drawn vehicles, most of which are delivery vans and wagons, with the old cab.

All a lot different from the scene captured by Colin on a Sunday morning in September of this year.

Pictures; Powis Street, 1905, from the series Woolwich Town & City, produced by Tuck & Sons, courtesy of courtesy of TuckDB, http://tuckdb.org/ and Powis Street in 2013 from the collection of Colin Fitzpatrick

*Raphael Tuck and Sons Ltd who sold postcards for most of the late 19th and 20th centuries.http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/raphael-tuck-and-sons-ltd-who-sold.html 

Posters from the Past ........... no 12 ......... something is stirring down in Woolwich

Now the project is simple, take a modern image of a building we all love and turn it into the style of poster which was popular in the middle decades of the last century.*

And supposing these figures had been in place in 1946, may be the Tourist and Information Office of the Borough of Woolwich might have used them to draw those who seldom cross the river from the north of the city to see our bit of London.**

Greenwich might have had the Naval College, and the Royal Observatory and later the Cutty Sark but we had the Royal Arsenal, a pretty busy market ,and trams that could take you south to the delights of Shooters Hill, Well Hall Pleasaunce and Eltham Palace.

All of which makes me think I shall nominate some more places for Peter to paint and reproduce as posters from the past.

And of course invite people to submit their own copyright free iconic image

Location: Woolwich

Painting; Coming home to Woolwich, © 2017 Peter Topping, Paintings from Pictures,f rom a photograph by Colin Fitzpatrick, 2012

Web: www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk 

**Posters from the Past, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Posters%20from%20the%20Past

** Assembly, by Peter Burke, Woolwich Arsenal 2001

Remembering Skillman's ............. 108 years of selling ukeleles, nails and power drills to the discerning of Woolwich

Now when I was last on Woolwich High Street number 108 was an empty shop, and despite a coat of black paint the front still displayed the name of Skillman & Sons, which was where my friend Jean “always went ...... as they had all sorts of nails and things not found anywhere else.” 

Skilman's, 1977

And judging from conversations I have had recently so did many other people. It was one of those places where you could you get pretty much anything you wanted and was part of our history which I knew nothing about until I came across the story of the Skillman family and number 108 written by the granddaughter of Mr
Alfred Skillman who established the business in 1900*

It opened selling everything from second hand furniture, men’s suits, outdoor clothing, and musical instruments supplying harmonicas and ukeleles to the sailors docking in Woolwich. and later changing emphasis to tools and hardware.

The shop continued in business until 2002 but the closure of the Woolwich docks in the 1960s and the slow demise of the area as a major shopping centre coupled with the development of the “super store” made trading more difficult.

Skilman's in 2002

It is a familiar story where the small independent traders who knew their customers and could anticipate their needs have vanished from our high streets replaced by strings of estate agents, charity shops and coffee chains.

So I welcome the story of Mr Alfred Skillman and his family who served the needs of Woolwich for 108 years but rather than just cherry pick from the original piece I suggest you go and read their story which first appeared in 2002.*

It is a fascinating account which combines the facts of a family business with some wonderful anecdotes like the one of the drunks and the pianos, when Mr Skillman told his children to ‘close now before the drunks come out of the pubs and start spitting into our mouth organs and harmonicas.’”

And a thank you to Tricia who foist alerted me to this very personal account.

Pictures; Skillman’s in 1977 from the collection of Jean Gammons and again in 2002 courtesy of S C Skillman

*The Ironmongers Shop Opposite the Woolwich Ferry, http://scskillman.com/my-family-background/ from SC Skillman Blog,  http://scskillman.com/

Down a narrow alley to Mortgramit Square in Woolwich in 1908

Down an alley from Woolwich High Street, 2013

Sometimes Woolwich can still send you back into that past of narrow gas lit alleys, dark corners and unsafe places.

So with a little bit of imagination as dusk draws in it is just possible to sense something of what it might have been like to wander the area at the very beginning of the last century.

We are standing at the start of the alley that runs from Woolwich High Street alongside the Plaisted Wine Bar and in the distance is the green tiled wall of the Roses which fronts Hare Street.

Back in 1908 what is now Plaisted’s was the Cooper’s Arms while away down that alley The Roses was called the Prince Albert and both were owned by E.J. Rose and Co.

The Prince Albert began as a beer shop in 1840 next door to the brewery and was bought by E.J. Rose and Co who rebuilt it in 1928.*

The square in 1908

And if that was not enough atmosphere had we walked down that alley in 1908 then as now we would have come out onto Mortgramit Square which I have to say has little to offer and I suspect even less a century ago when it was home to George Plume, cartage contractors, and Carter Patterson & Co carriers.

Now I have to confess I had never ventured down the alley and did not know of the existence of Mortgramit Square.

The square in 1872

In the 1870s the narrow street from Hare Street beside the Roses into the square was known as Dog Yard.

It ran west and then took a right angle to turn south before heading off west again down an even narrower alley into the square.

Back then this southern route was flanked on both sides by buildings as was the square.

These look to be on up one down dwelling houses, and in the fullness of time I shall crawl over the census records to find out who was there .

Like so many other towns and cities here were those courts only accessible through alleys where sunlight and fresh air struggled to make an appearance.  To live or work here was to be cut off and to occupy an almost private world.

Walk down from Hare Street today and it is possible to detect the old footprint of the buildings.

All of which I suppose pushes our imaginary trip back another 30 years, and makes me think here was a place mother would have warned me not to go.

Picture; from the collection of Colin Fitzpatrick, extract from the Post Office London County Suburbs Directory, 1908 Part 1, Street Commercial & Trade Directories and detail of  Mortgramit Square and Hare Street from the OS amp of London, 1862-72, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/

*Draft Chapter Four Woolwich, Enhlish Heritage, 2012, http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/content/imported-docs/u-z/woolwich-chap4.pdf

Never go home …………. “or Fings Ain’t What They Used To Be”

This was the advice given to me a long time ago.

At the time I thought it was rubbish because home is where you are from, where your family live and where many of your memories reside.

And so after I left Eltham in the autumn of 1969 for Manchester I did regularly go back, but the arrival of my own family trips became less frequent and now the last time will have been a decade ago.

I still touch base, through family, friends, and of course social media, and over the years continue to write about the house in Well Hall, the Pleasance, the High Street and Crown Woods.

But it is all at a distance and I know I am an “expat” with my experiences pretty much frozen in time.  

That said Well Hall and Eltham still look familiar.  True there are the odd changes, but it ain’t that different from how I left it.

Not so Woolwich where the transformation has been so profound that I find it hard to recognise great chunks of the place.  

Street names may have stayed the same and the odd building is recognizable, but it is like looking through a dirty window.  Bits look vaguely familiar but not much.

And so the warning “never go home” has come through.

Not that I am going down the line that it is “all rubbish now”, or “not like the old days”.  Places change, and in the passage of half a century they change a lot.

All of which was brought home to me by a series of pictures our Elizabeth sent up to me yesterday after she and Colin had spent a weekend in Woolwich.

Their flight from the city was later than mine, but they too were just passing through.

So, for no other reason than I can, and because there will be others like me who found it difficult finding my way around, here are some of those pictures of the Woolwich I have lost.

Well not entirely there is that Wimpy Bar …….

Location; Woolwich

Pictures; Woolwich in December, 2023, from the collection of Elizabeth Fitzpatrick

Pictures from a Woolwich window ........ no.4 ....... well almost ……. The new ferry and a clutch of figures

Now I have been wanting my own picture of the new ferries that ply their way across the river, and now I can add two which were taken last weekend.

They come from that new series which was inspired by a visit our Elizabeth and Colin made to Woolwich.

It began when they spent a few nights in an Airbnb off Thomas Street, and it occurred to me that the top window of a Woolwich flat must be a pretty neat way of seeing the world below.

And when it is the same window over the space of a weekend, then you have got yourself a project.

All you need is a camera, and the patience to record from the same spot, and the rest as they say is Colin and Elizabeth’s “Pictures from a Woolwich Window”. *

But not content with just looking out of the window, they also ventured out in response to my request for pictures of Woolwich today and that ld o these three.

Location; Woolwich

Pictures; walking across Woolwich, 2019, from the collection of Liz and Colin Fitzpatrick

*Pictures from a Woolwich Window, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2019/04/pictures-from-woolwich-window-no1-night.html

Pictures from a Woolwich window ........ no.3 ....... well almost

The top window of a Woolwich flat must be a pretty neat way of seeing the world below.

And when it is the same window over the space of a weekend, then you have got yourself a project.

All you need is a camera, and the patience to record from the same spot, and the rest as they say is Colin and Elizabeth’s “Pictures from a Woolwich Window”. *

Now, it has been a full thirty years since I wandered through Woolwich and even longer ago that I took a series of photographs of the area.

I know the place has changed, and bits of it have changed so much that I find myself puzzling over a location and more than once have been forced to ask for helping to work out where I am.

So, when our Colin and Elizabeth told me they were going home and spending a weekend in an Airbnb off Thomas Street, I asked for pictures.

It is a short series spanning just that weekend, but over the next few days captures the Woolwich I do not know.

But here I cheated, because the day was so nice Elizabeth and Colin took a walk out across Woolwich.

Location; Woolwich

Pictures; walking across Woolwich, 2019, from the collection of Liz and Colin Fitzpatrick

*Pictures from a Woolwich Window, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2020/09/pictures-from-woolwich-window-no1-night.html

Pictures from a Woolwich window ........ no.2 ....... views across the square

The top window of a Woolwich flat must be a pretty neat way of seeing the world below.

And when it is the same window over the space of a weekend, then you have got yourself a project.

All you need is a camera, and the patience to record from the same spot, and the rest as they say is Colin and Elizabeth’s “Pictures from a Woolwich Window”. *

Now, it has been a full thirty years since I wandered through Woolwich and even longer ago that I took a series of photographs of the area.

I know the place has changed, and bits of it have changed so much that I find myself puzzling over a location and more than once have been forced to ask for helping to work out where I am.

So, when our Colin and Elizabeth told me they were going home and spending a weekend in an Airbnb off Thomas Street, I asked for pictures.

It is a short series spanning just that weekend, but over the next few days captures the Woolwich I do not know.

Location; Woolwich

Pictures; looking out across Woolwich, 2019, from the collection of  Liz and Colin Fitzpatrick

*Pictures from a Woolwich Window, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2020/09/pictures-from-woolwich-window-no1-night.html

Pictures from a Woolwich window ........ no.1 ....... night scene

The top window of a Woolwich flat must be a pretty neat way of seeing the world below.

And when it is the same window over the space of a weekend, then you have got yourself a project.

All you need is a camera, and the patience to record from the same spot, and the rest as they say is Colin and Elizabeth’s “Pictures from a Woolwich Window”. *

Now, it has been a full thirty years since I wandered through Woolwich and even longer ago that I took a series of photographs of the area.

I know the place has changed, and bits of it have changed so much that I find myself puzzling over a location and more than once have been forced to ask for help to work out where I am.

So, when our Colin and Elizabeth told me they were going home and spending a weekend in an Airbnb off Thomas Street, I asked for pictures.

It is a short series spanning just that weekend, but over the next few days captures the Woolwich I do not know.

Location; Woolwich

Pictures; looking out across Woolwich, 2019, from the collection of  Liz and Colin Fitzpatrick

*Pictures from a Woolwich Window, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2020/09/pictures-from-woolwich-window-no1-night.html

Out on the Thames by Woolwich

I have never lost my love of the River Thames.

Even now I never feel fully at home till the train pulls out over the bridge from Charing Cross heading towards Waterloo.

As a child I played on that sandy bit of beach in front of the Tower of London, walked the foot tunnels under the river and travelled the Woolwich Ferry.

Later still I waited at the bus stop on Woolwich High Street and caught the raw winter wind coming off the Thames in the early mornings.

And only now have I owned up to lying to my mother about the incident over 54 years ago where I blamed my two friends Jimmy O’Donnel and John Cox for the disaster which led to us sinking ankle deep in river mud after an adventure that went wrong by the barges at Greenwich.

So I can never get enough of pictures of that waterway whether it be on a sunny September morning in 2013 or when the river was still a place work a century or so before.

Today it can appear a pretty empty place but back still in the 50s and early 60s it was a hive of activity, cranes and warehouses opposite the Tower, the smell of Billingsgate and at home in Woolwich the giant power station.


Location; the Thames at Woolwich, London

Pictures; the Thames today from the collection of Colin Fitzpatrick and the Woolwich Free Ferry, Tuck & Sons, 1905, courtesy of Tuck DB, http://tuckdb.org/

Watching Woolwich and the Royal Arsenal change over the last century and a bit

I am looking at two pictures of the area in front of the old Arsenal gates which say much how about how Woolwich has changed.

The first dates from around 1905 and captures that moment when the shift has finished and the workforce is pouring out.

The second was taken by Colin on a Sunday morning in the September of 2013.

At one time the Royal Arsenal was an important part of the local economy providing work for thousands of people, but all of that is no more.

Now the extensive site is being redeveloped as a residential area, and includes The Royal Artillery Museum, and Greenwich Heritage Centre.

Location; Woolwich, London

Pictures; The Royal Arsenal, 1905, from the  series Woolwich Town & City, produced by Tuck & Sons, courtesy of courtesy of TuckDB, http://tuckdb.org/ and the same spot in 2013 from the collection of Colin Fitzpatrick

A piece of faded glory ....... the one in Woolwich

Now I say faded glory, but the sign on the gable end of what is now the Classic Sea Food Ltd has faded too much to be recognizable.

It will have once proudly advertised a company or product which in most cases has vanished and so the advert has become a “ghost sign”.

Ron, who took the picture back in 2012, knows my fascination for them and so dug out this one from his collection, adding “is that a ghost sign? I have never noticed it before”.

And like him I am stumped. I know longer live near Woolwich and Ron was just passing by so neither of us can g down to Greens End and look, but perhaps someone can.

Back in 1914 the building is listed as Davis, D & Co, Government Contractors, but the sign could date from any time and may even be a piece of graffiti which would be a bit embarrassing.

So, we shall wait and see.









Location; Woolwich,

Picture; ghost sign on the side of Classic Sea Food Ltd, October 2012, from the collection of Ron Stubley

Woolwich on a Sunday in September

I am always fascinated by photographs which capture reflections of buildings.

Part of the appeal is the way the reflected building is distorted but also it is the multiple layering of images.

And so here we are with the Woolwich Centre on Wellington Street with the Town Hall captutred in the glass.

Picture; from the collection of Colin Fitzpatrick

A chance conversation and a discovery ........ a five minute encounter on the bus

Now I know that Manchester is a cosmopolitan city but what are the chances that a casual conversation with a stranger on the bus should reveal that not only were we both from London but both grew up in Greenwich not more than a mile from each other?

Manchester 2009

Not only was that but our early years spent in Peckham again just a mile away.

It had started with the woman asking me if the bus terminated at the bus station and in the course of a few minutes we picked up on each other's London accent and the rest as they say became the surprise of the evening.

We never exchanged names but I discovered that her son lived in Chorlton and her daughter in Levenshulme and that she was moving to Southport where her brother lives.

And there I suspect the story comes to an end but if there is one thing I have discovered over the years you can never say never.

So a chance conversation and a five minute encounter on the bus have yet to run its course.

My fellow traveller lived in Lee which is just down the road from Eltham and back beyond that lived on the Old Kent Road which with a short walk down Pomeroy Street across Queens Road brings you to Lausanne Road where we lived in the 1950s and early 60s.

Eltham, 2014

Now I don’t draw any more significance from the set of coincidences other than to say it made me feel rather happy.

Manchester is my adopted city where I have lived since 1969 which means that I have been here far longer than in London and love the place.

But there is no getting away from the pull of where you started off in life.  That said all those other experiences do get overlaid.

And like many it can lead to a bit of confusion as to who I am.

Woolwich and the river 2011

Most people maintain I have a London accent and one expert correctly placed me across the river in south east London.

My sons will affectionately mimic me but forty years in the North have changed it subtly, but when my sisters are up or I get excited it reverts to that Eltham accent.

And I never quite feel at home until the train pulls across the river into Waterloo Station.

But all my grown up experiences have been here in Manchester, our kids were all born here and I get a quiet pride from walking the streets and taking in the history.

Setting all that aside I can also fell a pull for the Highlands where the family originated, and Newcastle upon Tyne where they settled after crossing the border, and have even been known to reminisce about Derby where mother grew up after the family arrived from Germany.

Quite a lot really following that chance conversation.

Location; all over

Pictures; from the collection of Andrew Simpson and Elizabeth & Colin Fitzpatrick

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

On a January day in Woolwich ................. from Theresa Simpson-lee

Now there is a lot of truth in that simple observation that you should never go back to where you grew up.

Usually it just leads to disappointment as favourite shops, special places and even the atmosphere have undergone vast changes.

Despite what some say Eltham is pretty much as I left it in 1973 and while there are bitts which I mourn the passing of it is pretty much as I remember it.

But not so Woolwich and here I have my sister Theresa to thank who spent an afternoon wandering around the town.

And so I just leave you with the first of a series of pictures taken this month.

Location; Woolwich

Pictures; Woolwich 2017 from the collection of Theresa Simpson Hall