Comments on: Coronet Cinema

By: Sheila Bearman, nee Young.

Sheila Bearman, nee Young. — Fri, 18 Jun 2021 11:05:06 +0000

Hi, Don. I totally agree about all those cinemas along Camberwell Green, and oh, that lovely theatre the Camberwell Palace. Apart from the cinemas, as a young girl, I often joined the queue outside the theatre, and sitting spellbound in the circle, I’d watch some really good productions, including my all time favourites, suspense.
I often went on my own, but walking home to Wells Way, was quite safe back then. When everything was either pulled down, or turned into a shop of some kind, it was a very sad day.
Regards, Sheila

By: Sheila Bearman

Sheila Bearman — Wed, 15 Jul 2020 15:38:24 +0000

In reply to Mike Thomas. Hi Thomas, found your piece on Camberwell most interesting. I lived in Wells Way opposite The Coronet cinema during forties and fifties. Worked at Samual Jones. My mum played the piano over the 'grounds '(next to picture house on V.E Day party. Very happy times.

By: D hancock

D hancock — Sun, 14 Apr 2019 13:16:03 +0000

In reply to Tony. Hi I broke my left arm trying climb up a rope which snapped just as I got to the top. Fell and landed on a piano

By: Don McCorkindale

Don McCorkindale — Tue, 25 Dec 2018 15:01:18 +0000

The loss of so many places of entertainment in south London is a tragedy. Sometimes the removal of unsafe structures was necessary but a lot of the time it was down to corporate greed. I lived on Denmark Hill and was an habitue of Camberwell Palace theatre, [gone] The Golden Domes cinema, [gone] The Grand cinema [now a snooker hall (2020 – now gone-Ed)], The Brixton Empire theatre, [gone] the Brixton Empress, [gone] the New Cross Empire theatre, [gone] the Regal cinema [now a place of worship] Camberwell and the Odeon Denmark Hill, [gone]. Each generation has its tale of woe. This is mine.

By: Mike Thomas

Mike Thomas — Mon, 04 Sep 2017 15:58:32 +0000

I was born in 1941 and lived at 87 Havil Street and went to Oliver Goldsmith School. My grandparents used to take me to the Coronet once a week until it closed! I used to haunt the library across the road. Many years after all that I had a removal business and actually moved Jessie Burgess to her retirement flat near Camberwell Town Hall. Dad was an RAF flyer and my mother ran the box office at the Camberwell Palace until it closed in 1955. Great memories playing in the bombed bit of St Giles Hospital and climbing into the damaged clocktower over the nurses quarters. You could see Tower Bridge from there. What a strange dystopian world we now live in!

By: brenda

brenda — Sun, 11 Dec 2016 15:23:13 +0000

My mother and father met in the Coronet in 1934 when my Dad stood in as an usher for the evening when his friend was ill, so that his pal wouldn’t lose his job. Dad worked at Samuel Jones, engineering. That evening my mum went with her sister, and so but for the Coronet I probably wouldn’t be here. I lived in East Surrey Grove until 1964 when we were rehoused and the place was demolished. I now live in Epsom, which is lovely but still remember my childhood which was very happy in and around Peckham after WW2.

By: Tony

Tony — Mon, 21 Dec 2015 19:22:19 +0000

Hi I was one of those horrible children who played quite regularly in the Coronet, along with many other bombed sites, back of Burgess Rd, including the canal (catching sticklebacks) Westmoreland rd/Thurlow St Before the flats were built.

Would I have changed my childhood – NO! I have so many memories of living in south London mt pie and mash plus many more , now in my late seventies and living in beautiful countryside. Thank for bringing it all back. Tony