When Beatlemania hit Lewisham

Sixty years ago, the Beatles performed at Lewisham Odeon, one of their two performances there in 1963 as they rocketed to superstardom and Beatlemania gripped the country’s youth. 29 March – the Roe/Montez tour The first Beatles show in Lewisham on 29 March was as part of a tour package headlined by American singers Tommy

Pear Tree Cottages: the final residents

In this second blog post on Lewisham’s first slum clearance, we will meet the last people who lived in the clearance area just south of Loampit Vale. Who were they, and where did they go when the area was cleared? In a previous post, we heard about how three small sites became the first slum

Slum clearance: Pear Tree Cottages, Loampit Vale

By way of a change, we are going to take a short diversion from our journey down Lewisham High Street into a neighbouring thoroughfare – Loampit Vale. While the area now houses very few buildings more than 50 years old, there are plenty of stories to be told. In this first diversion we will find