Although I now live in rural Belgium, my first 30 years were spent living between Catford and Lee and I knew Blackheath, both village and heath itself, very well. I fell in the pond as a lad and my father bought our first TV from a shop in the village so that we could watch the Coronation.

I have one particular query that I wonder whether any of your members may be able to answer.

Some time in the mid-1970s, a cracked girder was discovered in the railway bridge at Blackheath Station. Initially a 2 ton weight restriction (allowing cars to pass) was imposed but because that was ignored the road was quickly closed to all vehicular traffic, I think for a period of several weeks.
 

Bus 75 from Croydon and Catford was diverted to terminate at Lewisham (instead of going to the Royal Standard and Woolwich) via the route that buses 54, 89, 108, 108B and 192 usually served and they were, in turn, diverted to run between the village and Lewisham via Hare and Billet Road.

What I am trying to find out was the exact (or near enough exact dates) that this happened. I think that it was in 1974 or 1975 as I moved away from the area to live in Brighton in early 1976. Rather oddly, London Transport’s official archives appear to be silent on the subject, probably because it happened virtually without notice - I still remember my surprise at seeing one morning an eastbound 75 with LEWISHAM on the front instead of WOOLWICH Free Ferry - and I have been unable to get anything useful from local newspaper archives at this distance.

David Woodcock

Champlon, Belgium