Peter’s memories – Claylands Road, Offley Road

Peter wrote to me in September 2012, sharing his memories of Claylands Road, Offley Road and of the surrounding area. He writes:

I was born in Claylands Road. Regarding Offley Road; I worked there from 1965 to 1968 in the offices in the corner. Originally, these were the offices of Sharwoods but from the mid sixties until 1968 they were occupied by the London Borough of Lambeth Public Health Department. It was from here that a lot of the work to convert Lambeth to smokeless fuel was carried out under the 1956 Clean Air Act.

In 1968 the whole department was moved and centralised in Blue Star House in Brixton. As young lads we used to get into the factory and play football in our lunch hour! I do now have a colleague who was ‘bombed out’ of Offley Road in the war and although he was too young at the time to know much about it there is a good chance his house was on the site of those offices.


0 Responses to Peter’s memories – Claylands Road, Offley Road

  1. Stephanie Steel says:

    My Mother lived as a young child at No 11 Offley Rd and attended Henry Fawcett School until her evacuation from London in 1939. Her parents stayed at No 11 where they lived on the top floor, which suffered damage, firstly from an incendiary device which came through the roof, my Grandfather ran up and down many stairs to the street to fill water buckets while my Grandmother kicked the device around the room to stop things catching fire.My Grandfather chose not to use the shelters at Kennington Park, which took a direct hit and killed many sheltering people, some from Offley Rd. He ran to the park after the bomb hit but there was little he could do. Subsequently they were “bombed out”of Offley Road, meaning the damage was so significant that they had to move.

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