1977 - as a kid - first film, Star Wars in the Woolwich Odeon (guess what that is today) and we checked out this new restaurant, the only one of its kind in the country. McDonald's I think it was called. I believe they've opened a few more since then. However let's not get too misty eyed about the decline of Woolwich. I'm sure I heard once that it is the only town in England where a Royal has been mugged. It always has been edgy.
That's crazy. Any idea who was mugged ? Perhaps more to the point what on earth were they doing wandering around Woolwich ?
1977 - as a kid - first film, Star Wars in the Woolwich Odeon (guess what that is today) and we checked out this new restaurant, the only one of its kind in the country. McDonald's I think it was called. I believe they've opened a few more since then. However let's not get too misty eyed about the decline of Woolwich. I'm sure I heard once that it is the only town in England where a Royal has been mugged. It always has been edgy.
That's crazy. Any idea who was mugged ? Perhaps more to the point what on earth were they doing wandering around Woolwich ?
Not sure but think we're talking 17th or 18th century. I was born in the great town and would love it to be true, but suspect that it isn't. Maybe this is why it took so long for Greenwich to be given Royal status?
Well i had a Brown Derby for dessert as well. I always had extra brown sauce on my bender and extra chocolate sauce on my brown derby as it tasted sublime!
Well i had a Brown Derby for dessert as well. I always had extra brown sauce on my bender and extra chocolate sauce on my brown derby as it tasted sublime!
davy said: Well i had a Brown Derby for dessert as well. I always had extra brown sauce on my bender and extra chocolate sauce on my brown derby as it tasted sublime!
Where do i start?!!
I'd start on his bender but then each to their own, Oooh Err Missus.
I too remember the eels in Manzes window. This got me thinking of...
Pioneer Bookshop (virtually next door) Harry Fenton Austins Skillmans Mercury Bookshop Cuffs Record Shop opposite the Curry Asia??
...amongst many others (does anyone remember the Cuffs Record Shop opposite the main store?) This has probably all been done before but I've forgotten. Star prize for 'jumpers for goalposts' response.
worked in woolwich from when i left school in 83 right up to 2001 remember seeing level 42 in the cinema by the ferry roundabout in 84 i think? REAL SHAME WHAT WOOLWICH HAS BECOME!! remember the amout of times skillmans got us out of trouble dont suppose their still there either??
davy said: Well i had a Brown Derby for dessert as well. I always had extra brown sauce on my bender and extra chocolate sauce on my brown derby as it tasted sublime!
Where do i start?!!
I'd start on his bender but then each to their own, Oooh Err Missus.
I too remember the eels in Manzes window. This got me thinking of...
Pioneer Bookshop (virtually next door) Harry Fenton Austins Skillmans Mercury Bookshop Cuffs Record Shop opposite the Curry Asia??
...amongst many others (does anyone remember the Cuffs Record Shop opposite the main store?) This has probably all been done before but I've forgotten. Star prize for 'jumpers for goalposts' response.
You could also add Club sports, and Excel the cycle shop. remember the record shop which I think was called 'down town' ....... not sure I bought hot rats there by Frank Zappa..... The co-op had a great record shop, you could listen to LP's, got Electric Ladyland there, which they put in a brown bag?....... I think I owe Pioneer book shop a big thanks, as they used to sell a thing called 'key facts', which shall we say prepared you for the exams. And with the school I went to you needed every bloody help that was on offer. Amazing that Woolwich had Garretts, Cuffs, and the Co-op. My Grandmother worked in the Co-op, as a young girl for years, and when the restaurant closed she was close to tears, and was also the last time I went out with her. It was more than a shop to her, it was a way of life, she believed in the co-operative movement, and the philosophy behind it. I find it very hard to be subjective about Woolwich, My family worked for the council, and like so many town centres they have been destroyed. In Greenwich councils case they seemed to employ an anti-business approach, instead of trying to have a mixed economy approach, where the council could work with business as a partner.
I blame Greenwich council for a lot of Woolwich's shopping demise. It was never (IMO) as good as Bromley but the council just seemed to let it run down. I heard a good few years ago that when Blue Water was suggested the council then had an opportunity to invest and compete with other town centres. Don’t know if that is wholly true but it would seem par for the course. Also the flats in the dockyard, Greenwich council must be the only council that would ever build flats side on to the river.
1977 - as a kid - first film, Star Wars in the Woolwich Odeon (guess what that is today) and we checked out this new restaurant, the only one of its kind in the country. McDonald's I think it was called.
The McDonald's in Woolwich was the first one in the UK.
My Star Wars experience was in the Lewisham Odeon, and we went to Wimpys first!
Do they still have stalls in Beresford Square Woolwich?
Only just ! Skillmans also gone , they seem to keep throwing money at the town center but keep neglecting that hole of a place called the covered in market , its just a indoor boot sale.
Ken, Floyd & Keston Thanks for invoking some more memories. I do remember Club Sports and the nearby Kentish Independent unit which often had CAFC photos in the window. The comments regarding the Council are particularly interesting at this moment when Greenwich has become a Royal Borough. I started work myself for Greenwich in the Directorate Of Architectural & Engineering Services (DAES) in 1983'ish. At this time the Council logo had just been changed from a logo containing three cannon (Woolwich Arsenal acknowledgement) together with some other symbols (cant remember too well) on a crest to the turquoise 'People & Services First' parallel ticks. These 'ticks' were supposed to represent the river Thames' passage through the Borough but they were just adopted on a whim to replace the old crest which was seen as being militaristic and traditional by the middle class left wing councillors that populated many Labour councils during the Thatcher period. The closest thing I've managed to find which resembles the original logo is strangely credited as being the Greenwich Borough FC badge (see below.)
My how times have changed the present Council has been so quick to embrace the association with the monarchy and restore a more traditional council crest. This crest (the last one) is obviously very ancient - just take a look at all of that esoteric symbolism! Wizened old geezers in togas carrying icons and tridents, latin text, ribbons and helmets, fish like things together with weird masonic shapes and emblems. Surely this crest must have been included in the Domesday Book or discovered on an archaeological dig beneath the recently restored remains of the Cutty Sark - sadly its more likely that the whole thing has been dreamt up by some shiny marketing company employing the sons and daughters of the Left Wing councillors who abandoned the original crest.
The Council killed shopping in Woolwich by occupying the RACS and Cuffs sites for 25 years.Only just vacated to move into a Civic Centre built by Tesco. The largest branch in Europe will probably kill off the rest of the shops.
My mum used to be a councillor many years go in Greenwich. What a lot of people don't know is that in the seventies when Bexleyheath and Lewisham and practically every other town centre wanted to move with the times and build a shopping mall any attempt to do so in Woolwich was blocked by the then very powerful Woolwich Markets Traders Association saying that the Market would be destroyed and cited the ancient charter of 1619 granting of Woolwich as a market as reason. Sounds daft now that the square is a shadow of what it was back then but many of Woolwichs problems stem from that time of stagnation.
Do they still have stalls in Beresford Square Woolwich?
In fairness to the council they have cleaned up the dog shit, the stalls for the best part still sell it?........ A more naff, tatty, fake variety of chav wear would be harder to find. There were still a few fruit and veg stalls though........
When you think of Borough market, and blackheath village and it's farmers market, I do not expect a middle class emporium dedicated to yuppies, but surely a little imagination could have been used here. Surely. A cheese stall, fresh fish, home made goods, arts and crafts, militaria..... even a council information stall or two, one on the Olympics. This could be run with the chamber of commerce and local traders, and support from the asian and other ethnic communities, co-ordinated by the council. A friday market,perhaps?. Is this really beyond the imagination of the council and the local community, to get together with the agencies........Not an easy task, but surely they could co-ordinate with local boroughs like Bexley who have a farmers market in Bexleyheath occasionally...... I took these photos less than 2 years ago, showing the rather sad demise of the town centre, I take no pride in posting them........
Do they still have stalls in Beresford Square Woolwich?
In fairness to the council they have cleaned up the dog shit, the stalls for the best part still sell it?........ A more naff, tatty, fake variety of chav wear would be harder to find. There were still a few fruit and veg stalls though........
When you think of Borough market, and blackheath village and it's farmers market, I do not expect a middle class emporium dedicated to yuppies, but surely a little imagination could have been used here. Surely. A cheese stall, fresh fish, home made goods, arts and crafts, militaria..... even a council information stall or two, one on the Olympics. This could be run with the chamber of commerce and local traders, and support from the asian and other ethnic communities, co-ordinated by the council. A friday market,perhaps?. Is this really beyond the imagination of the council and the local community, to get together with the agencies........Not an easy task, but surely they could co-ordinate with local boroughs like Bexley who have a farmers market in Bexleyheath occasionally...... I took these photos less than 2 years ago, showing the rather sad demise of the town centre, I take no pride in posting them........
Thank you for those kind words, my step-father was a stall holder and I can assure you, having gone often to the market with him in the early hours of the morning, that he did not buy s**t, nor sell it. Although he and I did not like each other, he had a reputation for always selling fresh items at a reasonable price!
Do they still have stalls in Beresford Square Woolwich?
In fairness to the council they have cleaned up the dog shit, the stalls for the best part still sell it?........ A more naff, tatty, fake variety of chav wear would be harder to find. There were still a few fruit and veg stalls though........
When you think of Borough market, and blackheath village and it's farmers market, I do not expect a middle class emporium dedicated to yuppies, but surely a little imagination could have been used here. Surely. A cheese stall, fresh fish, home made goods, arts and crafts, militaria..... even a council information stall or two, one on the Olympics. This could be run with the chamber of commerce and local traders, and support from the asian and other ethnic communities, co-ordinated by the council. A friday market,perhaps?. Is this really beyond the imagination of the council and the local community, to get together with the agencies........Not an easy task, but surely they could co-ordinate with local boroughs like Bexley who have a farmers market in Bexleyheath occasionally...... I took these photos less than 2 years ago, showing the rather sad demise of the town centre, I take no pride in posting them........
Thank you for those kind words, my step-father was a stall holder and I can assure you, having gone often to the market with him in the early hours of the morning, that he did not buy s**t, nor sell it. Although he and I did not like each other, he had a reputation for always selling fresh items at a reasonable price!
Perhaps you should read that again, as I did single out the fruit and veg stall holders as the exception in todays market? That was my whole point..... Today's market. which i did visit two weeks ago, my post was to support the old market traders,of years past........ and get the council to enforce the bylaws about selling selling counterfeit stuff, and sell honest decent, food for the local community.
Comments
Well i had a Brown Derby for dessert as well. I always had extra brown sauce on my bender and extra chocolate sauce on my brown derby as it tasted sublime!
Where do i start?!!
I'd start on his bender but then each to their own, Oooh Err Missus.
I too remember the eels in Manzes window. This got me thinking of...
Pioneer Bookshop (virtually next door)
Harry Fenton
Austins
Skillmans
Mercury Bookshop
Cuffs
Record Shop opposite the Curry Asia??
...amongst many others (does anyone remember the Cuffs Record Shop opposite the main store?)
This has probably all been done before but I've forgotten.
Star prize for 'jumpers for goalposts' response.
/
remember the record shop which I think was called 'down town' ....... not sure
I bought hot rats there by Frank Zappa.....
The co-op had a great record shop, you could listen to LP's, got Electric Ladyland there, which they put in a brown bag?.......
I think I owe Pioneer book shop a big thanks, as they used to sell a thing called 'key facts', which shall we say prepared you for the exams.
And with the school I went to you needed every bloody help that was on offer.
Amazing that Woolwich had Garretts, Cuffs, and the Co-op.
My Grandmother worked in the Co-op, as a young girl for years, and when the restaurant closed she was close to tears, and was also the last time I went out with her.
It was more than a shop to her, it was a way of life, she believed in the co-operative movement, and the philosophy behind it.
I find it very hard to be subjective about Woolwich, My family worked for the council, and like so many town centres they have been destroyed. In Greenwich councils case they seemed to employ an anti-business approach, instead of trying to have a mixed economy approach, where the council could work with business as a partner.
It was never (IMO) as good as Bromley but the council just seemed to let it run down. I heard a good few years ago that when Blue Water was suggested the council then had an opportunity to invest and compete with other town centres. Don’t know if that is wholly true but it would seem par for the course.
Also the flats in the dockyard, Greenwich council must be the only council that would ever build flats side on to the river.
My Star Wars experience was in the Lewisham Odeon, and we went to Wimpys first!
Woolwich and Plumstead just lost its tradition ---mind my nails and hair looks great
Thanks for invoking some more memories. I do remember Club Sports and the nearby Kentish Independent unit which often had CAFC photos in the window. The comments regarding the Council are particularly interesting at this moment when Greenwich has become a Royal Borough. I started work myself for Greenwich in the Directorate Of Architectural & Engineering Services (DAES) in 1983'ish. At this time the Council logo had just been changed from a logo containing three cannon (Woolwich Arsenal acknowledgement) together with some other symbols (cant remember too well) on a crest to the turquoise 'People & Services First' parallel ticks. These 'ticks' were supposed to represent the river Thames' passage through the Borough but they were just adopted on a whim to replace the old crest which was seen as being militaristic and traditional by the middle class left wing councillors that populated many Labour councils during the Thatcher period. The closest thing I've managed to find which resembles the original logo is strangely credited as being the Greenwich Borough FC badge (see below.)
My how times have changed the present Council has been so quick to embrace the association with the monarchy and restore a more traditional council crest. This crest (the last one) is obviously very ancient - just take a look at all of that esoteric symbolism! Wizened old geezers in togas carrying icons and tridents, latin text, ribbons and helmets, fish like things together with weird masonic shapes and emblems. Surely this crest must have been included in the Domesday Book or discovered on an archaeological dig beneath the recently restored remains of the Cutty Sark - sadly its more likely that the whole thing has been dreamt up by some shiny marketing company employing the sons and daughters of the Left Wing councillors who abandoned the original crest.
a mate was asking me but don't remember it