The Elms, Wellesley Road, Croydon looking north

The Elms, Wellesley Road, Croydon

Photographs of The Elms

The building in the background is Sunley House, 4 Bedford Park. According to a note attached to this photograph The Elms was the last house in the area to be demolished because it was being used as a site office for the builders. The following is part of a very good colour photograph of The Elms but I was only able to copy the top part of the photo. At least it shows the very light coloured bricks.

The following image shows Lunar House is standing on the land between Bedford Row and Sydenham Road previously occupied by The Homestead and The Elms. Both of these houses had conservatories and outhouses. I have omitted these from my model.

The 29th of March 1967

The person who took the photo to the left of the page dated it and wrote a comment about it. Until I saw that photo all I had to go on were some aerial photos. The model I originally created was so inaccurate I had to start again.

I've looked up the photographer on the net and I can see that he would have been a young man in 1967. In fact, the people who go out and take photos of buses, trains and old houses are nearly always young men. I used to do similar things. Much of my life has spent doing things that most people regard as a complete waste of time. "Why are you dong that?" is a question I am often asked. The answer is that there is often no reason or purpose for what I do other than the fact that I like doing it. A side effect of what I do is that information that would be lost or that would be difficult to find becomes accessible to those who are interested. That perhaps only a dozen or so people in the world are interested doesn't bother me. If some people find it interesting then that pleases me. However, if no one shows any interest then I am not disappointed.

A few years ago I ended up looking after the personal effects of a friend of a relative. The relative and the relative's friend were both dead. All I knew about the friend was what the relative had told me. He died a bachelor with no known relatives. When someone suggested that I should throw away all this man's effects - photos and letters - that shocked me. How could anyone think like that? For that man it would be like suffering a second death. We have two selves - a physical self and an information self. After death we live on in the form of official records, letters and photographs. In Stalin's Russia enemies of the state often suffered a physical death and an information death. They would be removed from photographs and official records. Today, in our overcrowded, dog eat dog society, the deceased, especially those who lived on their own, suffer a similar information death. Pictures of them as children with their loving parents are just dumped in the bin and taken to the tip. The memories of their lives are just yesterday's rubbish.

If we don't care about people why should we bother about buildings? Fortunately, not everyone is like that. That's why I am so grateful to the young man who set out for Wellesley Road on Tuesday the 29th of March 1967 to photograph a building that was due to be demolished. He had no idea that one day nearly half a century later there would be someone, like me, who would be very keen to see a picture of that house. We don't know what benefits there will be from the information we save. But no matter how obscure or recondite that information is there is usually at least one person who will benefit.