Probably the biggest event in Lewisham in 1968 was not related to global political movements but to the weather. In September 1968 there was flooding across the South East of England, with the Lewisham area badly hit: ‘Hundreds of families were… trapped in their homes in Lewisham, South London, which was one of the parts worst affected. All the families could do was to shore up their doors with planks, chairs, and carpets as the water swept into their homes. The worst affected part of Lewisham was the High Street. The River Quaggy, normally only 6 inches deep, rose in some places to 15ft. In Carthorn Street the water rose to 4ft. Traffic was halted as it stretched from Catford to New Cross. Extra police were called to filter some of the traffic through side roads’ (Times, 17 September 1968).The photo above shows the flooding on Bromley Road, Catford, outside the Robertson Jam Factory. The latter closed in 1970 with the loss of 350 jobs.
Photo by David Wright - who has also posted other photos of the flood here and here at the interesting Geograph photography site.
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5 comments:
I've seen a great photo of Ladywell Station during those floods - it looked like a canal, you couldn't even see the railway lines. I think they were Ladywell Society photos, but they could have been on display at the library, can't remember now. And there's the ones of people in a rowing boat on Lewisham High Street too.
Somebody I worked with said that his dad has some super 8 footage of this, would be great to digitise some of the films people must have lying around in their cupboard of local scenes.
I can remember Ladywell Park looking like a lake.
I remember going downstairs in our house and seeing the frigde floating in the hallway,
I remember it well - seeing a dustcart being used to ferry people across the deeply flooded road by Ladywell Station; and all those poor people in nearby streets with various soaked belongings draped over hedges etc. Many were crying, God bless 'em. And yes, I saw that picture of people in a rowing boat in the middle of the high street.
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