Like many on here I grew up in Lewisham and would have thought a young girl getting shot was quite newsworthy- having checked the BBC and ITV sites it seems they don’t agree.

[Link]

I grew up in Lewisham, having been born in the hospital, parents still there etc, now moved to Kent (see ASCPFC's post above).

I always remember Sally Ann Bowman's (RIP - awful) murder in Croydon in 2000's. It was all over the national news etc. As that coverage was in full media frenzy, I went to play football one Sunday morning in Catford, where the Power League is.

Across the road from the Power League, there was (and still is I think) a 'chicken shop' on the corner. Outside the was a sign, with a very long name (looked Sri Lankan from my uncultured knowledge) on a 'yellow sign', I assumed it was somebody who worked there (maybe that's just casually racist from me).

Anyway, it had the usual 'Did you see anything? Call this number etc.' as the bloke had been stabbed 17 times and murdered on the Friday night. Didn't even make the Mercury or SLP.

My hypothesis: Nobody gives a flying f**k about Lewisham or the crime there. The borough's long been swept under the carpet for me. I think it has ranked highly in several polls and statistics as 'worst place in UK' consistently beating the likes of Glasgow etc. Here's one from Ch4 about 10 years ago: [Link]

Can't envisage myself ever returning for reasons other than visiting friends and family (I'm actually staying in the Hills after Leeds), however it is still begrudgingly home for me.

Now Zaha's got a bit of green grass ahead of him here... and finds Ambrose... not a bad effort!!!!

The last time I was in there, around 1978, the barman tried to sting three of us 50p as a cover charge for the music. We told him to shove it and never went back.

I have a 'Feeling in my water' that many,many years ago, I set foot in a Public House called the 'Catford Ram'.

Apropos Lewisham, I recall visiting a chap, in Lewisham Hospital, who had been a victim of an assault. I heard loud shrieks and a young lad raced in shouting at the top of his voice "I have just been stabbed in the ar.e".
It certainly was not a salubrious locality back in the day but it might have vastly improved as other areas have done over the years.

I remember shop fitting the Pizza Hut on Catford Broadway back in the late 80s. It was a dump then.

Pro USA & Israel

I have to admit that a foray to Catford/Lewisham is certainly not on my radar.
Will continue my visits to Arundel,Petworth or Midhurst and some other locations in West Sussex !

Edited by Willo (24 Apr 2022 3.02pm)