Lewisham & Armley
ARMLEY - I once walked down here after eating some wacky mushrooms and had to move into the middle of the road. One of my friends immediately guessed 'are you standing there so that you dont visibly laugh at the Armley people'. It's like a cross between The Hills Have Eyes and Jerry Springer. I lived in a converted youth offenders institute, on a road named after prostitutes, and our windows were smashed about twice a week by kids. Like actual children between the ages of about 2 and 7. I also had the honour of being told by a toddler that I was the second sexiest girl to live in my building. There was also a brothel, two of the guys I lived with used to bring hookers back who looked like gnarly old trees (we were in student halls but the owner had moved 2 weird drug dealers in as not enough people were stupid enough to live there). The claim to fame was that Armley was home to the original Mikes Carpets - yes fame indeed - apparently there was an advert for it on TV.

LEWISHAM - most people who dont live in Lewisham are scared to come here. It's pretty much what Brixton is assumed to be (by people who do not know Brixton). People who do live there think it stinks of fried chicken.

I have noticed that people have mentioned someone getting stabbed etc so have branched out to the more 'Lewishamy' part of Greenwich - I went to the same school as Richard Reed the shoe bomber and the guy who shopped the NF. The pilots from 9/11 were taught how to fly by people who lived on the estate my school was in. Down the road Damiola Taylor and Stephen Lawrence were both murdered. Those are just a few famous cases I can think of off the top of my head.

A ruddy bad effort I know but it is a crying shame that neither of these towns seem to have been mentioned yet.
(ignoramusaurus, Mon 2 Nov 2009, 12:09, 7 replies)

Lewisham - I have fearful memories...
...of having Lewisham council as a client.

Nothing is scarier than wandering around Catford in a suit, carrying a laptop. I reckon I was only saved by appearing to be a police sting operation.
( prince-igor si tacuisses, philosophus mansisses, Mon 2 Nov 2009, 13:26, closed)

My mum was born in Lewisham.
Fortunately the family got out of there while she was still a little kid.
( idonthaveafunnynickname Drink-Aware? Sure. I'm aware I want another drink., Mon 2 Nov 2009, 15:33, closed)

well
it depends whereabouts in kent you ended up - bromley and dartford are there
(ignoramusaurus, Mon 2 Nov 2009, 16:29, closed)

Yup.
I go shopping in Lewisham occasionally, for the sole purpose of making me realise that Eltham isn't so bad after all...

As for Catford: dodgy place, but there's a chippy near the library that does the best chips I've ever had. Almost worth going just for that. Almost.
( Dave McF wrote some words on, Mon 2 Nov 2009, 17:01, closed)

Re the Taylor and Lawrence murders
Sorry, Peckham and Eltham may have South East London postcodes, but they are hardly next door to Lewisham (assuming you mean Lewisham the actual place, which I assume you do, rather than the borough, which is huge and includes decent places like Blackheath).

Plenty of examples in Lewisham itself to choose from - people seem to get killed in Tesco car park on a pretty regular basis.

Oh, and Bromley may have a Kent postcode, but that's where the Kent connection ends - it's in Greater London, people there got to vote for Boris or Ken as Mayor of London last time round, is policed by the Met, and it's a London Borough.

Sorry if that all sounds pedantic, but I've lived in four separate parts of SE London - Thamesmead, Orpington, Crayford (Dartford postcode but inside the London Borough of Bexley) and Greenwich - and went to school in a fifth (Dulwich) and they are all very different places.
(Capo, Tue 3 Nov 2009, 7:10, closed)

erm
so I do know what I'm talking about. I am talking about the borough. I'm sure that at least one other person on this forum has neglected to mention such wondrousness as Blackheath being associated/ near them. More importantly I'm talking about where I lived which was pretty much slap bang in the middle of Eltham and Lewisham the highstreet. Damiola Taylor is often associated with where I live - God knows why. I am young though so I was actually about when this all happened. Also I do actually live in the place that I'm talking about rather than having lived in 5 different parts. I know I've jumped to the defensicve but this is about as annoying as being told that I dont know how to spell my own name.
(ignoramusaurus, Tue 3 Nov 2009, 11:56, closed)

No offence meant
Assumed that since you compared Lewisham to Brixton, you meant the place rather than the borough (also difficult to envisage an entire borough smelling of dried chicken).

Likewise your comment about "most people who dont live in Lewisham are scared to come here" suggested Lewisham itself, rather than the borough - it's not like you'd say to someone "let's go to Wooolwich" when you mean Greenwich, or "Lambeth" when you mean Brixton is it? Anyway sorry about getting the wrong idea there.

And yeah, I might have lived/gone to school in five different parts of SE London but that's over a period of 33 years from ages 7 to 40 (university apart) which I reckon gives me a pretty good idea of how that corner of London works.
(Capo, Tue 3 Nov 2009, 12:56, closed)