Month: May 2019

A Common Crow

Penge High Street taken from the Moon and Stars (old Odeon Cinema) and looking toward the Crooked Billet and Almshouses.

I think every single shop and building has changed use since I last went shopping in Penge High Street.

The Police Station is now residential accommodation. Dales and Sherricks menswear are long gone as are Woolworth (now Poundland), the Co-Op (now Salisbury’s). Kennedy’s, Stockwells, Burtons, Art Nash, Kingstons, Olby’s, Edgingtons are all gone …. in fact it’s easier to name what hasn’t changed: The Pawleyne Arms. That’s the only building I could see that hasn’t changed use.

I’m not moaning about change; in fact it’s only though developments with things like the tram that enable me to make the trip without driving. But when you go somewhere that you’ve not been to in a long time the changes hit you in a way that belies their incremental nature.

Badger’s Mount, Kent