SEnine


Minister Kenneth Clarke for a bridge over the River Thames to take a new road through to Falconwood which would decimate the ancient woodland of Oxleas Wood. As this was announced work began on a new major road through Eltham known as the Rochester Way Relief Road which had been long in the planning stage. Some of the road would be in a cutting through the Eltham Park area and


houses to


be demolished in Glenlea Road were boarded to keep out squatters. Work started between Westhorne Avenue and Foxhole Road on the sports ground at Kidbrooke Lane which was reduced in size to take the new road on an embankment by the railway.


Limited housing was under construction. At Albert Road, Mottingham, Glenlion replaced Victorian cottages with new housing, and six one-bedroom homes near the Prince of Wales pub were marketed as Consort Mews. To the rear of All Saints church at New Eltham the new houses were known as Bishops Close and at Brownspring Drive a block of ten 1 and 2 bedroom flats by Marsden Construction Ltd. were priced from £28,000 to £38,000. A detached house was built on the Progress Estate at Cobbett Road, next to St Barnabas Church.


Large crowds were attracted to a variety of events arranged for the Mottingham Week festival and the film ‘Chariots of Fire’, depicting Eric Liddell a former pupil of Eltham College and his success in the 1924 Olympics, was chosen for the Royal Film Performance.


first London Marathon passed across Unigate depot at Green Lane


Woolwich Common on a wet morning with a loss of an hour’s sleep as on that day the clocks had gone forward.


Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, her husband Denis and son Mark attended Eltham Crematorium for the funeral of her chauffeur George Newell. The death occurred of Ernie H Bonds, former headteacher of Eltham C of E School, where as a young teacher the writer came under his guiding light. Two occupants of a small plane were killed one Sunday morning when the pilot lost control as it crashed into the playing fields of the John Roan School at Kidbrooke Park Road and damaged the pavilion.


The


marking their gallon measures in litres the Unigate milk distribution depot at


HISTORIC ELTHAM


The Wimpy Bar at Grove Market Place.


Green Lane closed with the transfer of their pint milk bottle delivery to Bromley depot.


At a time when the number of unemployed had reached 2.5 million a purpose-built Job Centre was opened in Pound Place on the site of a wood yard. Wimpy was the first occupant of Grove Market Place in 1967 but in 1981 moved its operation to its present location in Eltham High Street. Nearby the electrical dealer Currys (now Clintons) replaced the long- established Simpsons furniture store. A rear extension to Barclays Bank was completed by builders Bryen Langley who were redeveloping the former garage for Cliffs Coaches in Footscray Road as their headquarters and yard.


w yard and offices at Footscray Road Volunteer and help out


As petrol stations were additionally


Simpsons closing down sale


As the year drew to a close, the forecast of a white Christmas proved accurate with a heavy frost that evening, and so does our short look at events from thirty years ago.


All pictures are from the John Kennett collection 21


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