Teddington, Middlesex, Christmas 1906

Merry Christmas from the postcards then and now blog. Here is a wintry scene showing Teddington Bridge in a photograph taken by Richard Charles Young in late 1906. For more old views why not visit the Sepia Saturday blog. As always, click the postcard to enlarge.

Richmond, Surrey, Peldon Avenue c1915

Richmond, Surrey, Peldon Avenue circa 1915. The pleasant tree lined avenue that we see in the old postcard looks like so many other late Victorian suburban streets in West London. The postcard publisher, who identifies himself as 'GWH', has got the street name wrong on the postcard caption - there never was a Peldon Road in Richmond, it was Peldon Avenue. On the modern Google Street View we can see what has replaced Peldon Avenue - a group of large blocks of flats called Peldon Court. When the flats were built its name changed from Peldon Avenue to Peldon Court. Below the postcard you can see a part of the Bacon's map of 1904 showing Peldon Avenue as it was. The son of the artist Camille Pissarro, Ludovic Rodo Pissarro, himself an artist, lived in Peldon Avenue from 1919 to 1921.

However, it was in the early part of The Blitz in 1940 that Peldon Avenue became infamous. It was hit by a land-mine - a huge bomb dropped on a parachute - on 20 September 1940. The bomb destroyed almost all of the street causing the greatest loss of life in the borough of Richmond during the whole war. All of the female members of the Danby family were killed along with many other people. A good account of the bombing of Peldon Avenue can be found at this BBC web page. The present flats were built in the late 1950s. This is the only picture I've ever seen of Peldon Avenue, it may be the only one there is. Click the pictures to enlarge.

For more old photographs visit the Sepia Saturday blog.

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Sulgrave, Northamptonshire, c1920

Sulgrave, Northamptonshire, circa 1920. Sulgrave is a village in South Northamptonshire, near Banbury. This view hasn't changed too much in the intervening years. The road now has a proper surface. The thatched cottage on the left has gone and the post office is now a private house. Postcard by Blinkhorns of Banbury.