Boring Morden

As they say, "each to their own."
I lived in Morden as a child until my late teens.
At seventeen in 1957, I left school and started workling in an office in the West -End.
I bought a pre-war Austin Seven convertible, so I'd go pretty much anywhere. I often used to drive to work.
With a car, places like Kingston, Richmond, Richmonmd Park Hampton Court and Kew were within easy reach.
But I've very happy memories of Morden. The place where we teenagers met up of a summer evening and on Sundays if we'd nothing special to do was the bridge at Canon Hill Common.

It's where I met my girlfriend at the time. On Sunday Mornings, we'd often have a cup of tea in the little cafe next to the bowling green. You walked up past the lake and you could cut through to the right. Or you could drive down and go rowing at Ravensbury Park, or walk across Morden hall Park to the George.

I remember the Wimpy bar on London Road. The last shop on this esplanade was a record shop and I got all my jazz albums there. There always was a good selection as the owner's wife was into jazz.
My friend Dave and I saw Dracula at the Odeon when it was released. Even in those days the cinema was poorly supported.
Every week the old Crown pub had a jazz band. All the well known jazz bands played there. Kenny Ball, Alex Welsh, Acker Bilk, Mick Mulligan, etc., I suppose not much ever really happened in Morden, maybe that's why I liked it.
I've lived in South Manchester since 1972. But I left Morden around 1960.
I did the "nostalgia trip" about 20 years ago. Some parts are hardly recognisable, others have hardly changed.
My parents used to live in Tudor Drive, that had hardly changed. Except there was a housing estate next to the Beverly roundabout, where once there was a big field which always had horses in it.