Catford Centre | Catford Tales

Catford Centre

Many of the shops that occupied Rushey Green at the heart of Catford, have now gone and the relatively modern Catford Shopping Centre, which was intended to be Catford’s retail quarter, has also undergone change as many of the smaller shops and businesses have been replaced with larger supermarkets and chains.

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- Photo courtesy of Lewisham Archive
- Photo courtesy of Lewisham Archive
- Photo courtesy of Lewisham Archive
- Photo courtesy of Lewisham Archive
- Photo courtesy of Lewisham Archive
Before the building of the Catford Centre, Rushey Green was where you went to shop.

1920s-1960s Rushey Green and Central Catford

Oral history of Peggy Fitzsimmons and Tessa Pearce
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In the centre of Rushey Green stood the The Savoy Ballrooms, a popular hang out for South Londoners. On the 8th March 1966, a grewsome gangland killing happened here. Two notorious London gangs – The Krays and the Richardsons came to blows in the early hours over gaming machines and Richard Hart lost his life. Later in the 70’s it re opened as Mr Smiths nightclub and is now an Italian bed shop.

John Fleming’s blog: Krayzy Days – Why London gangster Ronnie Kray really shot George Cornell inside the Blind Beggar pub in 1966

Wikipedia: The Richardson Gang

1966 The Krays and Richardsons' Shoot Out
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- Photo courtesy of Architecture of Doom
- Photo courtesy of British Brutalism
- Photo by Kevin Ireland
In the late 1960s, Owen Luder, an architect of the Brutalist style, redesigned several areas of Catford including Eros House and The Catford Centre. Luder’s design incorporated Catford Mews and Milford Tower Housing Estate after the original housing was flattened during World War 2.

1970s Brutalism in Catford
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On June 17th 1971 Bruce Forsyth, the Grenadier Guards Marching Band, Ms World and the PG Tips Monkeys opened Tescos in Catford shopping centre. When Tescos opened, it was big event in Catford, it was one of the first stores of its size. Crowds flocked to Winslade Way to see Bruce Forsyth.

“We got at our seats and started work, and then, ‘cause it wasn’t open to the customers at the time, we was just getting ready and then you heard this band, and we looked outside, and it was the Grenadier Guards playing from the top, from the high street down to us and then the door burst open and all the customers come in ….and we had Miss world, at the opening, and we had PG Tip Monkeys and the Home Wear Manger said “you’re a cheeky little monkey” and it bit his finger, he had to go to hospital. And Bruce Forsyth cut the ribbon.”.

Account of Mavis, Tesco worker

1971 The opening of the Catford Centre and Tescos
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Voices of Peggy Fitzsimmons and Sir Steve Bullock

Video courtesy of ProdeeTV

2011 London Riots
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- Photo by Warren King
- Photo by Warren King
- Photo by Kevin Ireland
- Photo by Kevin Ireland
- Photo by Kevin Ireland
Lewisham Youth Theatre devised an ambitious choreographed dance piece using the techniques of Frantic Assembly to represent the chaotic and frantic nature of the London Riots. Grabbing the audience’s attention with a Flash Mob style ensemble movement piece, the scene drew on digital technology to create an interactive sequence where the audience were invited to watch and listen to verbatim accounts of that day of disorder back in 2011.

Frantic Assembly (www.franticassembly.co.uk)

2015 Catford Tales: Staging the London Riots
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- Photo by Kevin Ireland
- Photo by Warren King
- Photo by Warren King
- Photo by Warren King
- Photo by Kevin Ireland
- Photo by Kevin Ireland
- Photo by Kevin Ireland
The Catford Centre, with its many shops and supermarkets, also became the backdrop against which LYT performed the accounts of shopping in Catford, past and present. For the week leading up to the performance, feline like art work turned the concrete walls of the shopping centre into a colourful playspace, attracting curiosity and interest from passers by.

2015 Catford Tales: Shopping, selling and cat-esque creations
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