Purley Parade

A Memory of Purley.

We moved into the spacious four-bedroomed maisonette over Purley Radio in Purley Parade in 1955 and I attended Christ Church primary school, just over the other side of High Street (sadly demolished in 1967). A policeman used to see us safely across the road after school and was often rewarded with some of our sweets from the shop in High Street. My bedroom was at the front and overlooked the 109 terminus bus stop, where there were often three buses lined up.

No 1 was a drycleaners called Surrey Cleaners whose large clothes presses used to emit clouds of steam from the rear of the shop. No 3 was a ladies' hairdressers called The Powder Bowl and no 4 was a camera shop called Francois that later branched out into records as well. No 5 was Purley Radio which dealt with radios and televisions, nos 6-7 (I think) was a large post office and further along was the Astoria cinema with its own restaurant. After watching a film we used to exit from a side door into Woburn Avenue (the road at the back of the parade) and were up the large iron stairs and home in two minutes.

After primary school, I went to the grammar school at Wallington and used to walk along to the end of the High Street and around the curved end of the Jolly Farmer, smelling the awful stench of stale beer wafting from the open doorway on my way to the bus stop. Strangely, I now love the taste and smell of real ale.

The road outside the pub used to flood badly after heavy rain and our whole family used to go paddling and help push cars stranded in the foot-high water. The fun was ended when a new sewer was constructed along the Brighton Road following Purley's absorption into the GLC.