ozzieeagle

Wonder how many people have done this, I had great memories of the street I grew up in.... For 16 plus years @ Elsinore Rd in Forest Hill on the Catford border. Great times as a kid, exploring the nearby hills and regularly walking to Lewisham high st in one direction and Crystal Palace Park in another. Even cycled through the Greenwich walkway tunnel and travelled onto Leyton one day and cycled as far as Tunbridge wells ahhh happy days.

Looked back on my childhood and young adolescent days with great and happy memories, recalling my first encounters with girls (thanks to those small compartments on Southern region, thanks Maureen) and the first time I got pissed at the St Georges hotel on Perry Hill.

So I was bustling with anticipation to revisit, On my last trip, turned out to be a happy memory wrecker. The place has seemingly turned into a soulless, rundown, uniformly bleak row of very ordinary houses with very little character. I was totally unprepared for how soulless it would look. Upsetting really. In fact they seem to have turned the whole street into a row of split dwelling flats with numerous bins with cars in the concrete lined front gardens. Cant believe how narrow and small and grey it all looked.

Have you ever gone back and regretted it ?

Wish I'd had left my happy memories alone....

brissybee

Agree, there are places that don't measure up to memory.

An old playing fields I used to enjoy now seems a bit tatty and I street viewed my old fish and chip shop just today and it's now a Chinese take-away!

Jon77

My parents still live on the same street and in the same house I grew up in. They even have my old BMX bike in the garden shed That bike remains in exactly the same spot I left it when I upgraded to a cool new mountain bike in 1988 < great for launching fireworks out of the seat shaft as it turned out>! They still have the mountain bike as well!

In fact that shed is full of old stuff like that. One of those hopper things with the big rubber ball and the plastic hoop around it that I spent ages trying to break the world record. Also the bright orange space hopper. My old cricket bats with the tape around them to keep them together because I didn't want a new one as thought it would jinx me. The fishing rod that I used twice and gave up because I didn't have the attention span and got bored after 10 minutes!

Going back for a visit in April next year, will have to take a look over it all.

The other houses on the street also still have many of the same people in them from when I was growing up. The nosy ***** over the road who would watch me like a hawk and grass me up at every opportunity, she must be about 90 now but still going, which is quite surprising considering what I probably put her through.

eddie007

The fields I played in are all housing estates now.... The land I rode freely across is now crisscrossed with major roads... The tiny churchyard where my first real friend (80 yr old lady I was Saturday girl to from 11-16) is buried is an overgrown unkempt jungle... The tiny roads in the nearby countryside which were too narrow for two cars have all been "improved" to accommodate the juggernauts that service the factories built on what was green belt... the pub on the estate I lived on is boarded up and the shops...which were so modern and fresh are dated concrete 60s eyesores.....

And the "sells everything" shop at the Hurn has closed too... Been made into a Yuppy residence that nobody local could ever afford....



It's all part of growing up, and growing older mate

ozzieeagle

LOL, We had one of those, and directly opposite "Old Ma Smith" Almost felt sorry for her in the end, as her Husband died and she continued on to the day my family left the street and moved to MK, would still be seen waiting with her head over the front gate for him to come down the Road at circa 5pm every evening.

Lorry1

Going back to where I grew up is like going through time warp where time stands still. It is exactly the same, even down to the broken garage door at the garages at top of the road, is still broken! We are talking over 30 years ago!

The only changes are the 2 play parks in the area which have been upgraded for our more 'safety conscious society'. The brilliant witch's hat we use to swing round on has gone. The climbing frame, gone. The see saw, gone! That is sad poor kids can't even get scratched these days!

Apart from that, I love going back as its full of great memories.

Dreamy

Before we left for Australia, I went back to the street where I grew up (from 2 to 11) - some of my happiest childhood memories contained in that street.

I shouldn't have gone.

moneypenny20

I drove down my old street when I was back there in March. Growing up, it was one of the 'top' roads in our village/town. Now it looks small and a bit gloomy. Mind you, most roads over there look narrow compared to here. What really depressed me was that most of the lovely old houses had been knocked down and replaced by mini mc mansions, almost doubling the amount of houses on the road.

quoll

I still go back to the village I spent the first 5 years if my life in and would happily go back there to live - it's still the place it was then (but the house has long been demolished as thatched cottages with no running water and an outside loo often were in the 50s and 60s). The next 5 years were spent on a street in an area that has become something of a no go area - the houses and gardens have shrunk considerably since I was a kid there and, interestingly, I don't think it was a place I had any emotional attachment to anyway. The next 7 years were in another village and it seems pretty much the same as it always was - didn't have much of an emotional attachment to it either. Actually, on reflection it is only my first village that has any emotional calling for me and that's odd because I was 5 when we left there. Hmm, not something I'd considered before, guess I've always been a bit of a nomad without strong attachment to any particular house/street.

RedDragon2008

The police wouldn't let me through the riot barricades

BadgeIsBack

The house of my yoof I remember the most growing up was an old school house and when I went back in the mid 90s the lawn on which we hunted, camped and played seemed tiny.

But that's always the way. Many houses in the UK seem small now of course: as small as the roads are narrow...no surprise there!

chris955

I took my wife back to the house I grew up in in Geelong, I quickly realised why I had left all those years ago. The house was like a little shoebox and 8 of us lived in it. I used to be able to stand at the front gate and see nothing but bush and paddocks but now it is houses as far as the eye can see. I used to go off all day looking for snakes or lizards, no water, no hat or sunscreen and no idea where I was going. My mum would say be back before it gets dark.

scottishcelts

No, it was similar to Beirut, so .......no.

DeadVim

Chatham was shit then and no doubt it's still shit.

Grayling

I grew up on the outskirts of Oxford in a big old rambling house with an acre of garden

Can't go back as they built the Oxford bypass over it