Lausanne Road SE15 in the 1950s

Andrew Simpson grew up in Lausanne Road, SE15 but has been living in Manchester for many years where he now runs the Chorlton History site. He has though been writing a bit recently on his time in South London, including a series of reflections on his time at Crown Woods School in Eltham in the 1960s, with some evocative 1968 school photos. He also reflects on his less than happy time at Samuel Pepys Secondary Modern in Sprules Road SE4 (previously Brockley Central School, then later Hatcham Wood, Telegraph Hill and lately but not for much longer Crossways Sixth Form - soon to be taken over by Christ the King) - and the failings of the 11+ system which consigned many children to second best education.

I particularly liked his tales from Lausanne Road in the 1950s, when his parents let out rooms to a range of interesting characters including 'Millie the Mole'  and her  boyfriend Boy Boy Jones, a getaway driver for a Peckham smash and grab gang and 'a couple who met in Lausanne Road. She was single and German and he was Polish. Their romance began with midnight trysts and ended with the two getting married... Both had been victims of the displacement of millions of ordinary people who had been in the wrong place when the war broke out and found themselves part of that tide of homeless refugees in 1945'.