HISTORIC ELTHAM ELTHAM IN..... 1981


John Kennett looks back at what was happening in Eltham in 1981.


At


a time when Margaret Thatcher’s government was


dealing with the IRA prisoner hunger strikes in Northern Ireland and racial riots were taking place at Toxteth in Liverpool and other towns, events in Eltham were not so headline- grabbing although an IRA bomb that exploded outside Government House at Woolwich injuring two cleaners and a dog brought such events nearer to home.


Vandalism was a problem at Well Hall Pleasaunce where damage to the bowling-green required careful repair


80th birthday of the Queen Mother as part of a scheme to put trees into the shopping centre.


The Greater London Council, then responsible for London buses, introduced a controversial flat fare of 25p to most bus routes including those operating in Eltham.


To help solve the traffic problems at the junction of Mottingham Road, Elmstead Lane and William Barefoot Drive a roundabout was installed. Many accidents had occurred to street furniture in Bexley Road by inconsiderate driving. The historic ‘9 miles to London Bridge’ milestone outside the Pippenhall allotments was flattened by a careering Volkswagen and the felled pillar box outside Lemonwell Court was replaced by one to the latest design.


Halfway Street following a suggestion by a local resident. A picture of the lost post appeared in Mr RRC Gregory’s ‘The Story of Royal Eltham’ at what was then known as Polecat End.


The Odeon cinema at Well Hall closed but soon reopened as The Coronet being taken over by a company who managed a number of former Odeons. Greenwich Council installed a number of bollards outside the cinema on the edge of the roundabout. Two were hit by a vehicle as ‘The Final Impact’ was being screened at the cinema.


The new pillar box at Bexley Road


A former finger post ‘indicating mileage to nearby places’ was reinstated at the junction of Avery Hill Road and


The fairy-tale wedding of the Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer at St Paul’s Cathedral was celebrated locally by street parties including those at Elmbrook Gardens, Littlecroft, Heatherbank and Dairsie Road. Eltham Palace was taken over by actors in Tudor costume


when scenes for a BBC TV play called ‘The Preachers’


featuring Hugh Burden as


Bishop Hugh Latimer were filmed there. Plans for a golf range on fields behind the palace prompted the formation of the Court Conservation Society to successfully fight the proposals.


The pavilion at Well Hall Pleasaunce with its thatched roof


work as tiles replaced the unique thatched roof of the bowls pavilion which had been the victim of two arson attacks. At Fairy Hill Park ditches were officially dug across the grass for an improved drainage scheme to the Tarn. South of the sward in front of the Oxleas Wood café work started for Thames Water on excavating soil for a new circular 18 million gallon underground storage reservoir. Two ash trees were planted by the Eltham Society outside the shops in Court Yard to mark the


20


A bigger threat to Eltham’s open space came in the proposal by Transport


SEnine


The new finger post at Avery Hill with John


Kennett, Chairman of the Eltham Society and fellow member Mr AJ Crocker


The site for Bryen Langley’s new yar We are proud of Eltham


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