Well Hello Everybody,
I am a new boy to Surbiton.Com and came across it as I was searching for some photographic nostalgia. So sad to hear of the way it has become since I was last there in the 1990s. I grew up in the Surbiton of the 1950s and 60s. My happiest years were at St.Andrews Primary School half way down St.Andrews Road until I left there in 1955. Oh how I would love to meet up with all who were in Mrs. Durrant's class that summer.
I lived in Lovelace Gardens when it was full of huge magnificent private houses which could be bought for as little as £5,000 after WW2. Most were turned into flats and later pulled down to build more flats. Surbiton was a quiet and respectable place, no matter where one lived, and not as described in some of the forums.Yes there were the odd families who could be a bit on the loud side but we all got on and knew each other. There were snobs who thought they were something else but not quite as portrayed in "The Good Life".
I reget to say that our nowhere in our old country is quite the way it was and that is why so many of us have moved away to try and find what still remains of the pleasant kind of life we once knew. I guess the next stop may be France when the south coast goes into decline. From what I have read so far they should certainly pull down the YMCA.
I would very much like to make contact and share memories with old residents of my era and maybe pay a visit to The Surbiton Club one day which I never joined.
I am very interested in locating old 1940/50/60 postcards or a good illustrated book on the old place.
All the best to everyone for now, Peter.
