Sunday, February 24, 2008

charlton

Neighbourhood tour continued:

This is the Assembly Halls (sort of community hall/function rooms, and used as a church on Sundays) in the "Village" - and I say "Village" to disabuse you of any notions of rusticity.

It would have been a village once, surrounded by fields and woodlands and no doubt considering itself some distance from the Big City, but now its a stretch of roads and shops, merging into all the other roads and shops and part of the greater London sprawl.



It has a church - the oldest parts of which are C17th -


and public toilets which have been closed for at least the last 15 years.


Newer houses and roads - some of them are post-war in-fill: filling in gaps left by bombed-out houses.


Some of them are more recent estates. Embellished as you can see in the style of 'south London eclectic'.

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love those shadows in the last pic and those splashes of sunlight on the church.

tut-tut said...

I'd say you've got lots to contemplate on your way to and from . . .

Reya Mellicker said...

I LOVE the neighborhood tour! It's beautiful.

mouse (aka kimy) said...

thanks for sending the sun this way! it's shining bright today! love the last bit of shadow play. xxxx

Akelamalu said...

I love this neighbourhood tour Lettie, it's really interesting. :)

R.L. Bourges said...

When I'm in London, I really do get that sense of villages merging into one another.
Glad to see the light held out over England today. Wishing you more of the same for tomorrow.

dennis said...

Dennis simply adores the first building-- wow!

Dennis like Saint Nicholas and Buddha eclectics.

Gary said...

What struck me when I was in London was how old everything was, old as in full of history. In America we think something is old at 200 years and we put up plaques and say 'ooh' but England has got us beat in the age/history issue.

Looking at these pictures reminded me of that feeling once again. Only this time I am not sitting in a pub with my pint and playing with the cool shiny coins you use for money. Ah, memories.

PS - Thanks, I really like you too.

Gledwood said...

I LURVE ole redbrick buildings...

... hey was once reading some Sunday Times snobbery about how Great Britain is "the only country that would allow pebbledash vandalization of its homes and buildings..."... then I'm online a couple of weeks ago and spot a pebbedashed block of flats and wonder whether that's in the midlands or Down South and guess where it is? In BERLIN in GERMANY!

Just goes to show that pebbledashing is an international phenomenon!!

;->...

Dumdad said...

That's a bit mean - advertising a men's lavatories and then dashing up to it to find it's locked and out of use. It's an accident waiting to happen....

Squirrel said...

super shots. The lavs can't be transformed, can they? could they save the outer walls?

Soozcat said...

Your pictures remind me why I want so much to visit England some day. *saving pennies*

Malcolm Cinnamond said...

Has Santa committed suicide? I blame the trying to squeeze a year's work into one night.

Trac said...

Good old SE7...

:O)

Lynne said...

I am so enjoying your neighborhood tour! Love that old church! Does is have a graveyard attached to it?

Steve Reed said...

This is GREAT! Oh, I love London -- all the stained glass and chimneys and row houses with so much Victorian character. The Assembly Hall and the apartment house with the curved windows (in the post below) are really wonderful.

Tanya said...

Ah takes me back!

Tanya said...

oh glad it arrived and didn't get lost being so small and all.. using tattyariel e-mail and maybe you should keep up to date with me with the L&A blog as I seem to have lost the mojo for the other!

xx

Gledwood said...

Hi there!

goatman said...

I assume the bombed-out buildings are from the V2's?
There is a fellow blogger (squirrel I think is his hook) who does photos around his town of Nyack New York. I have seen so much of his town on his blog that if I were dropped into it without telling me, I think I would know where I was! So too with the shots of your town now. Nice idea.
Thanks for the visit to my blog.

The fabric of my life said...

ahhhh I have such a fondness for your neighbourhood. It's my roots you see, my dad's family are all from Charlton/Woolwich area, some still there.

kate said...

I'm trying to get a handle on S. London eclectic. In the meantime, I like the amazing roof on the Assembly Halls.

lettuce said...

sally, we've had some good days for shadows lately, haven't we?

hmmmmm tut-tut...
thanks reya, and kimy and lamalu, glad you like it

yes lee. i think its something to do with the churches and pubs.

i'd have thought dennis would be more interested in the duck
:o)

gary, cool shiny coins. :o)

hi gled. ha! so there to the germans. (our house is pebbledashed. :o( )

tis true DD, and south london seems to be full of such accidents, waiting...lurking...

lettuce said...

hi squirrel. "lavs" - thats very british i don't spose you call them that in the states, do you? maybe they are listed. Listed lavs. :o)

sooze i'd be happy to show you around in person. save hard!

could be malc. That, or the simply being forgotten..... he's still up there.

:o)
(daftness? cocktails?)

lynne its got a few graves/monuments etc. in the little yard in front of the church and theres a very very small yard behind as well. the main cemetary is elsewhere tho. There are some great memorial stones and plaques inside, i'll try and get some pics some time.

steve do you have a bit of a thing about chimneys?

hey Lil, I'll come and check out your mojo.

some of them i expect Goatman, but this area was targeted earlier - and throughout the war - esp. because of the Arsenal nearby - and there was damage during the blitz as well.
it is nice, isn't it, that sense of familiarity with other parts of the world

donna, come and stay!!!!

kate, its a style all of its own. I'll try and collect some other examples for you. ;op