Hi Faith
I come from round that way, I grew up there in the 50s. I never dared walk down Wardley St as a child, because the Wardley-ites were our sworn enemies. I remember having stone fights with them , they one side of the river Wandle, and we the other.
The Wandle was toxic, we never even dared put a hand or foot in it, it was running brown and stunk to high heaven.
When I was older(middle 60s) of course I went down that street, it was very sad by then, condemned and being cleared. Many moved to an estate, which now is called Haldane Place, Wandle Way and St James Drive.(present day map) It used to be called the Henry Prince Estate, and it was built just before WW2. It was notorious for villany, so I think in the 80s or 90s it was changed and given new names as are there now, in order to remove the stigma,(so I heard) which hung above the estate, although most people that lived there were working folk. The villains werent bad people either, they just had different ideas.
The flats were badly built and dripping with damp, which the council called "condensation"
but they did have baths and indoor WCs, unlike the houses up Wardley St, Lydden Street, and Grove. most houses on Lydden and Wardley were being demolished and my only real memory was of desolation. Had folk living on Lydden Grove that didnt get knocked down(the houses are still there) in the mid 70s there were still people with the tin bath in the back yard, who were eventually rehoused and the old houses were renovated and sold.
before WW1(according to the old folk) Gypsies lived on land owned by Moses(or Noah) Penfold(I think it was moses, it was biblical anyway) They were door to door flower sellers and rag and bone men. The old property which I think was from the Penfolds, in the 60s was on the corner of Wardley St, up by the river. If i am correct the last of the houses on Lydden Grove, going toward Lydden Road, if you go sattelite, street view, you will see the last property has a large black gate, it used to be two wooden gates, and behind them was where the Totter(cant remember his name, but not Penfold) Kept his horse in a stable and his cart there, with all the scrap which he had collected.
That wil be the place where the Gypsies were, if Im not mistaken. They were gone before or during WW2.
Along side the Anchor Mission was an alley, at the end of the alley was a pub which they called Florries.
it is also mentioned on this site
http://www.bbc.co.uk/kent/have_your_say/community/romany_voices_archive40.shtmlThe people that lived up Wardley St and on the Henry Prince were really great people, what we call the salt of the earth. They were not afraid to walk there, just outsiders were, why I don't quite know, I think like the tales told to me in childhood of never go down Wardley street, and others who were told not to go on the Henry Prince. If you wanted to find characters they were abundant in these two places, wonderful people.
mm