FROM THE CROYDON ARCHIVE - December 2008
The New Addington housing estate, 1953, showing the view along King Henry's Drive in the direction of the roundabout where the Addington Hotel used to stand, half a mile away.
John Graney (JRGS 1962-67) adds:
The coach (one of Worralls?) is facing Gascoigne Road; to the left of it
is Queen Elizabeth's Drive. The unmade road to the right of the picture
by the two huts is Goldcrest Way. Most of the houses in the picture are
the pre-war "Addington Garden Village," known to the rest of us as the
Boots Estate. To some of us who lived in the rest of New Addington, the
Boots Estate seemed rather posh. I don't know what they thought of us!
A block of flats was later built on the site where the coach is
parked. The area where the photographer stands was a great playground
for us in the 1950s and early '60s - there was quite a bit of hawthorn
scrub and streams to dam. Oddly enough, I don't think we had a name for
the area. It was just there. Happy Days!
Copyright Croydon Council. Reproduced by permission of Croydon Local Studies Library and Archives Service.