Lakedale Road, Plumstead, London
This is rather a rag-bag of bits from books and Mum and my reminiscences.
The map on the left, dated 1720, shows that the basic course of the road that would become Lakedale Road had already been set, although at the time it was called Water Lane. The road was so called because of a small stream that flowed across the high street at the north end of the road. The stream flowed down from the ravine hollow on the west side of the road. In the early part of the nineteenth century the London County Council constructed a pond in the ravine. It
may have been at this time that the stream was directed underground into the sewers as it left the northern end of the pond, where it flows today. The photo is of the ravine ponds as they are now, having been restored by the Plumstead Common Environmental Group.
By the time of the 1841 census, the name of the road had been changed to Cage Lane, because there was a cage at the north end of the road, where prisoners were held overnight. The drawing shows the cage with the stocks on the right and part of the workhouse on the left. The bars of the cage were wide enough to allow a tea-can to be passed in to the prisoner. The 1841 census shows that there were 30 people living in Cage Lane but there were no cottage numbers or names. As
time passed, buildings began to spread up Cage Lane. By the 1850s, building had spread past the junction with what is now Brewery Road and within about another 30 years had reached what is now 108 Lakedale Road. A row of houses that includes number 108 were built in the mid-1880s and was initially known as Belmont Terrace, Cage Lane, with our house
being number 12. Some time between the 1891 census and 1889, the name of the road was changed to Lakedale Road, perhaps because of the boating lake at its southern end.
In 1946 Mum and Dad had to move out of the rooms they were renting in Eastern Avenue because Mrs Collins, their landlady, needed the rooms for her son, who was returning from the war. They, therefore, bought number 108 Lakedale Road with a mortgage from the Amalgamated Engineering Union. Gran, who had moved out of Kempt Street and had been living with her late husband's brother, George, and his wife, Kate, in Anerley, moved in with them.
Gran had the front room as her living room and the backroom upstairs as her bedroom. Mum, Dad and Tony used what became the kitchen as their living room. They did not like the middle downstairs room, so that was left as a spare room until I eventually started to use it as my living room.
When Mum and Dad arrived the house was in a filthy state and required a lot of effort to get it in order. There was a range in the kitchen, which they cleaned up and used for a while.
Mum cannot remember whether there was electricity when they arrived. I can remember though that there was still an unused gas meter on the landing and there are still gas points in the house, one visible in the passage and one, covered up, in the front room.
I do not remember the range in the kitchen. The kitchen and the front living room were heated by open coal fires, but no other rooms were heated, which meant that getting into bed in winter was pretty cold, but a hot water bottle helped a little. The fires were laid in the same way that they were in Engineer Road. Coal was stored first of all in the cupboard under the stairs and then in the yard in a container made from the corrugated iron from an old Anderson Shelter. I can remember the coalman carrying what looked to me like huge sacks of coal. I bet he love our front steps! A few years ago, when I was clearing out the cupboard under the stairs, I shone a torch on the floorboards and I could still see coal dust glinting in the light.
When I was very young baths were taken in a tin bath in front of the kitchen fire. Later on Dad plumbed in a bath in the scullery. When not in use the bath was covered by two wooden boards, which were used to provide storage space. It took a while, therefore, to prepare for a bath. The gas rings were lit to warm upthe scullery.
From time to time the chimney sweep would call. He would place a large cloth over the fireplace, with a hole to take the brush poles. Each pole was flexible and probably about six feet long and a new pole would be screwed on as the brush was gradually pushed up the chimney. I liked to go outside to see the brush emerge.
The downstairs gas meter continued, of course, to be used and the gasman came periodically to empty the meter. He would count the sixpences and shillings on the stairs and some of the coins would be rebated.
Before the Clean Air Act of 1956 took effect, London was affected by some very severe smogs. When this happened a flare would be placed on the junction with Tewson Road, outside the house.
About 100 yards down Lakedale Road, by the junction with Brewery Road, was Beasley's Brewery. The drays being pulled by Shire horses was a lovely sight, Sometimes I used to sneak into the brewery to see the horses in their stable. A little further down the road was a Royal Arsenal Cooperative Society department store. I can remember the money was placed by the assistant in a small metal canister attached to an overhead wire. The assistant would then pull a handle and the canister would be sent along the wire to the cashiers. After a while the change and receipt would be sent back by the cashier. Both buildings had clock towers, and the clocks could be seen clearly from the back garden.
When I was the young, the London Docks were still very busy, and at twelve o'clock on New Year's Eve, all of the ships in the docks would sound their hooters. Quite a noise.
During school term time, I always felt a bit down in the mouth on Sundays because of the thought of a new week at school. At lunchtime Mum and Dad liked to listen to Forces Favourites and the Billy Cotton Bandshow, neither of which appealed to me, but then I used to enjoy Beyond our Ken and Round the Horne, which followed. On summer evenings Dad and I would walk along Plumstead Common Road to the other side of the Common to the putting green. After the game we walked back by a shorter route which meant going down into the ravine and up the other side - about a hundred steps on each side. When we got home Mum would make me some ice cream in Cream Soda. I then looked forward to Sunday Night at the London Palladium, particularly if Roy Orbison or Spike Milligan were on. Then the misery of thinking about school in the morning.