1950s Archives - Brockley SE4

Children of Hiroshima – peace meetings in 1950s Lewisham and Bromley

Jan

7

2025

The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament was founded in 1958 and its first wave of activism peaked in the early 1960s at a time when fears of nuclear war were at their height. The movement against nuclear weapons started a few years earlier, with a key campaigner being the Methodist minister Donald Soper (1903-1998) - who ...

Children of Hiroshima – peace meetings in 1950s Lewisham and Bromley

Jan

7

2025

The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament was founded in 1958 and its first wave of activism peaked in the early 1960s at a time when fears of nuclear war were at their height. The movement against nuclear weapons started a few years earlier, with a key campaigner being the Methodist minister Donald Soper (1903-1998) - who ...

A Lewisham transgender marriage in 1954

Feb

15

2021

I have seen a few mentions on twitter and facebook about the case of Vincent (born Violet) Jones and Jean Lee who were each fined £25 in 1954 following their 'illegal' wedding at St Luke’s Church in Downham - illegal because Vincent was not legally recognised as a man. An article at Historic England includes ...

The Castle Owner and the ‘Countess’ of Peckham: a 1957 trial

Aug

11

2018

In a sensational trial in 1957, a 52 year old man was prosecuted for shooting a 22 year old woman with intent to murder in Gellatly Road SE14 (described in contemporary press reports as being in Peckham, not sure many people living there now would describe it thus).The accused, Denys Eyre Bower (b.1905), was the owner ...

New Cross Speedway Programmes

Dec

9

2014

The New Cross Stadium stood next to the old Millwall FC ground in New Cross on the land now known as Bridgehouse Meadows. As covered here before, it featured greyhound racing, stock car racing and speedway. Here's a selection of New Cross speedway programme covers1948194919501953July 1963The stadium closed in 1969 and was demolished in 1975.Programmes ...

Soft Wax and the Search for LT: a 1950s London Soundman?

Oct

5

2013

As mentioned here last week, Vinyl is a new record shop in Deptford at 4 Tanners Hill (previously home to Blossoming Together, Deptford Deli, Deptford Properly and in the 1930s the Communist Party's Workers Bookshop). It has a coffee shop upstairs, records downstairs and a gallery space. There's a great installation on there at the moment ...

Brockley SE4

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Children of Hiroshima – peace meetings in 1950s Lewisham and Bromley

Children of Hiroshima – peace meetings in 1950s Lewisham and Bromley

A Lewisham transgender marriage in 1954

The Castle Owner and the ‘Countess’ of Peckham: a 1957 trial

New Cross Speedway Programmes

Soft Wax and the Search for LT: a 1950s London Soundman?