Coaching days in Streatham

Extract from Streatham News 11th December 1925

Not old at 91

Recollections of an old inhabitant

Coaching days in Streatham

News Special

Picture to yourself a quaint old-world village in the midst of green fields; imagine country lanes bordered with shady elms, along which farm horses draw loads of hay and you see Streatham as it was in 1861 when Mr Charles James Robinson, of “Ripley House”, Streatham Common South, first came to live in the neighbourhood.

Mr Robinson, who is in his 92nd year, is one of the oldest inhabitants of Streatham, and a remarkable old gentleman. In spite of his age, he is wonderfully hale and hearty and it is only within the last few years that he has given up cycling, which for twenty-four years was his chief form of exercise. To this day, however, he wears a cycling suit, with knee breeches because he says “they are so comfortable, and I don’t like trousers.”

EARLY RISER

Invariably up at 8 0’clock in the morning, he makes a good breakfast, and then sets to work in the garden, where one of his main occupations is chopping wood. The remainder of the day he spends reading or “listening in”, for he is particularly fond of wireless.

His favourite author is Dickens, for he cannot stand “this modern stuff”. He takes a keen interest in current (affairs), and reads the newspaper thoroughly. He believes in the “early to bed” motto, and usually goes to bed himself between 8 and 9 o’clock.

Born in Camberwell, Mr Robinson recalls as a boy fishing for gudgeon in the old River Effra, which once flowed from Norwood to the Thames. At the age of 13, when he left school, he was apprenticed to a chemist, and after learning his profession, he opened his own shop at High-street, Streatham 65 years ago. He was then the only chemist in the neighbourhood.

PRIMROSE DAYS

In those days Streatham was entirely rural. Primroses and other wild flowers bloomed in the hedgerows of the lanes, which in summer where shady and pleasant, but in winter were cut deep with cart ruts. There were few shops, and prices were, of course, very different to what they are today. For instance Mr Robinson remembers buying oysters in the High-street at 6d a dozen.

Thrale Hall where Dr Johnson used to visit, and the lake in the grounds in which he used to fish, were still in existence. At the fountain, opposite St Leonard’s Church, there was a “lock-up”, and two constables were sufficient to maintain the law and order of the neighbourhood. There was so little traffic and so few people that it was said if one stood in the middle of High-street on a Saturday night and fired a shot from a gun down the road there was small danger of hitting anybody.

COACHES AND BUSES

Although the railway was at Streatham Hill, Streatham Station had not yet been built, and coaches and horse omnibuses were still used to convey people to the City. William Dyce, the Royal Academician, who painted the frescoes in the Houses of Parliament, lived in the district, and was well known to Mr Robinson.

After carrying on business as a chemist for a long period. Mr Robinson retired, about eighteen years ago, and went to live at “Ripley House”, one of the oldest houses on the Common. Now converted into an ordinary residence, this building was erected in 1774 as a “changing house” for the coach horses. Through a side passage – now converted into a lounge hall – coaches with their steaming horses used to clatter into the court-yard at the rear. Here in stables, which are still intact, the fresh team were waiting to be harnesses, to carry the coaches on the last stage to London. Below and house are spacious cellars, where the refreshments for thirty passengers and drivers was stored, and by the light of a candle our representative saw the partitioned shelves where the barrels once rested.

OLD PRINTS

Mr Robinson has converted his house into a veritable museum. The walls are covered with paintings, prints, and etchings, many of them depicting old Streatham. He has a fine collection of antiques, and amongst his treasured possessions are three sack bottles of the time of Charles I, which were found during the excavations near the site of the old Manor House. He also owns a dressing glass which once belonged to Nelson.

Mr Robinson attributes his ninety and one years to the fact that he has worked hard all his life, and taken his pleasures moderately, but he won’t admit that he is old.

“Ninety-one is not old,” he says. “Why, people live to 105, and more!”. He has five children, eleven grand children, and nine great grandchildren.