SW12 Balham
My memories of Balham |
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I found your site by chance and wish to share my childhood memories with you if you are interested. |
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I am now a grown-up with a family of my own, living in Sheffield, but I was born in Kennington Park Road, and moved to Balham soon after with my parents. My mum was a staff nurse at Lambeth General Hospital, now long shut. My brother was born in South Western Hospital for Women on Clapham road. |
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I actually lived at no. 3 Kate Street. I remember it as one of those large 4-storey Victorian houses, though I don’t remember all the houses on the street being the same. My parents rented the rest of the house to African and Chinese lodgers. The house was large, cold and imposing, and I often remember feeling frightened in it. There was supposedly a ghost who roamed the top floor, following a suicide on the nearby railways. He lived on our top floor. |
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Although I am unable to confirm this, there was also a stabbing in my house when I was about 2/3 years old, after a man found his wife in bed with another man. He used our kitchen knife. I remember the police returning it. Whether it made the local news or not, I don’t know. |
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A Polish family lived next door at no. 1: three generations. My parents had to move after a compulsory purchase order on the road. |
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I believe a school is now on the original ‘Kate Street’ site. I went to school and church at St Mary’s. There was an organist and choir master who taught piano. His name was Mr Ronald Gibbs and I was one of his young pupils. |
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