By Jerry Green
Palace Magazine Mar 08
In last month’s article we referred to Mrs Elizabeth Louisa Dee’s recollections taken from her book ‘Memories of Norwood since 1852’ which was published around 1909 along with those of William Farmer, editor of the Norwood Review whose column ‘Bygone Days in Norwood’ also recalled times gone by. Part one took readers up Anerley Hill, along Church Road to All Saints church, then from Upper Beulah Hill to Crown Hill and then down Crown Hill and up Central Hill to its junction with Gipsy Hill and Westow Street, Mrs Dee’s reminiscences included the opposite corner of Westow Street to the Holly Bush where “a chemists kept by a Mr Ravis with a long garden in front and a low wooden fence all round a gate at the corner with a path leading to the front door, the gardens each side being distinctly triangular. The shop had two very high bay windows, one in Westow Street, the other in Central Hill.
WESTOW STREET
Mrs Dee described Westow Street as “a very straggling street with cottages and shops all mixed up together”. Next to the chemist “was a corn chandlers occupied by Mr Haynes, afterwards Constables, with a notice board that round the turning at the side cabs were on hire, then Mr Wheeler’s forge, Mr Clewlow’s boot shop; Miss Watson, draper andf Mrs Grist, grocer. This was a double-fronted shop with high windows which brought one to several fair-sized houses since converted into shops. A draper’s occupied by Mr Harris, then Mr Deacon, still later Mr Alexander and is now the large establishment of Messrs Evans and Williams which in the early times was adjoined by Miss Smith’s school and Mr Weller the undertaker’s brought us to The Mount.”
The Mount was the residence of Mr Sinclair. It had previously been the residence of Sir George Sinclair and later Lady Exeter and was now the “beautiful premises” of the Royal Normal College for the Blind. Mr Rogers butcher’s shop, Mr Cooper’s greenhouse and a very tall brick house “only recently demolished” completed this side of Westow Street.
WESTOW STREET (The White Hart to the Holly Bush)
“Opposite Mr Rogers’ shop was the White Hart, a very old-fashioned bow window wooden public house with chains and posts all round. Then Mr Beck, builder; also a large wooden house similar to the White Hart (only with flat windows) two storeys high, double fronted, standing a long way back with a beautiful lawn on either side of the path to the street door. A decorator’s kept by Mrs Clark adjoined and here my husband first worked in Norwood. It was afterwards Mr Woodward’s then Poole’s. Next door to this Miss Clark kept a young ladies school. The postman, Mr Young, had a stationers and newsagents shop adjoining, then Mr Jinks a builders brought us to several cottages standing right back in long gardens. In one of these Mr Martin sold milk, in another Mrs Fisher carried on dressmaking whilst Mrs Todd kept a young ladies school in another and here I taught the scholars music. then we reached Mr Warren, butcher, afterwards kept by Mr Carberry; next a funny little shop with a pump in the corner near the window kept by Mr Oakes, baker and parish beadle. At this time and for many years afterwards he was attached in his official capacity to All Saints church, and opened the carriage doors on the occasion of the marriage of one of my daughters in 1883.”
In his ‘Bygone Days in Norwood’ column in the Norwood Review Mr Farmer recalled how there was a corn merchants opposite the Holly Bush, then Wheeler’s village smithy “where the children watched the sparks fly and saw the horses shod. Some cottages and small shops with a more pretentious row of villas, completed that side up to what is now the Royal Normal College but was then the private residence of Mr Tyre. It stood back from the road with a hedge along the front and two gates for the entry and exit of carriages. The house afterwards became the residence of Mr (now Sir) Tollemache Sinclair of Caithness who built the long wall and enlarged the house, adding the tower and other parts. On the other side of the road was Mr Buck’s wooden house. Then came Mayhew Cottage, also a wooden structure having a large garden and then occupied by a Mr Hansford who contracted for the waiting rooms at the Crystal Palace and afterwrds became landlord of the Swan. “Part of this place (1888) is now used by Mr Prince for his dog hospital. Mr Young, quite a character in his time…but now its chief newsagent and stationer occupied the next premises which afterwards were taken by Mr Pringle and upon the site of which his present shops were built. One or two other shops followed and then came a row of little cottages with gardens and pumps in front – very primitive structures indeed. Then followed a few little shops two of which were bakers – Halley and Oaks.
WESTOW HILL (to the White Swan)
On reaching Westow Hill from her home “in what is now Oxford Road” Mrs Dee recalled a few shops standing back known as Otway Terrace. “The first was a linen drapers with a long, low flat window kept by a Mrs Burningham and presenting a very different appearance to Mr Leighton’s which now occupies the site. The second was a grocer’s occupied by Mrs Almonier and next, approached by two or three steps, a double-fronted shop in which Mr Carr of Leadenhall market carried on the business of a poulterer’s and pork butchers. “Then followed about three more shops, the exact occupation of which is not in my memory. Frogget’s Cottages, the Queens Arms (now Holborn Bars), a barber’s shop whose proprietor rejoiced in the name of Godbehere which, with a few scattered houses, brought us to the picturesque White Swan which stood back well off the road with seats in front and here, later, during the construction of the Crystal Palace often as many as 200 men, principally ground workers, took their meals al fresco.”
WESTOW HILL (Holly Bush to the Cambridge)
The Holly Bush stood back from the road (its front door was in Westow Street) with a latch to press down like an ordinary back door fastener. “The entrance was so low my father had to stoop down to get in the door. There were a few funny settles in front of the window. As you turned into Westow Street there was a very stunted holly bush in a corner.” Next to the Holly Bush on Westow Hill was Covell’s a butcher’s, which had previously been a butcher’s called Billy Bridge who made oils for stiff joints, rheumatism and bruises which he gave away freely. This was followed by a grocer’s named Pocknell; a tiny fishmongers called Tagg; Grays the bakers described as a “high-windowed crooked fronted shop up a few steps” and Mr Baker the pork butcher. Next came the Old Mill tea gardens, a few ‘poor shops’ and then the Woodman pub with its signboard of the woodman returning from his work in the ‘North woods’ carrying his axe and a bundle of faggots “a very different house to that now occupying the site.”. Then came a “few tumble-down houses known typically as the Rookery” before you reached St Aubyn’s school.
Mr Farmer recalled the Swan: “not the present building” which “had been but recently built on the site of a smithy kept by Mr Adams. Near the Swan was a small white house in which Mr Milner, the landscape gardener, resided for a time. It has not long been removed and the site is now occupied by the London and County Bank. The Woodman “was then an old-fashioned country-looking inn, lying well back from the road with horse-trough in front. The Chatham and Dover railway company had not then touched the district and all along the front of the Crystal Palace was a fine open common with a flagstaff facing the centre transept.”
SOURCES: Memories of Norwood since 1852 by Elizabeth Louisa Dee; Bygone Days in Norwood folder. (Both items available on request from Upper Norwood reference library. Thanks to Jerry Savage of UNRL for his help – and a special thanks to Chimeby Links internet cafe in Church Road for their help (and patience).
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