CHARTERHOUSE IN SOUTHWARK
“Someone says this was our field, but I can’t remember it…” “We camped once a year, wasn’t it?” “We came down here more than once a year!”
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light-hearted argument ensues as the group tuck into their sandwiches. A makeshift picnic area has been created for the friends at the bottom of Racquets Court Hill, and the sun is shining on this summers day. It’s 4 July 2019 and 15 Londoners have been invited to Charterhouse for a reunion picnic and afternoon tea. Despite very different avenues in later life, they have one thing in common: they all attended the Charterhouse Boys’ Club in Crosby Row in Southwark, London, during the 60s. The Club was established as part of the Charterhouse Mission, a charity founded in 1885 by Old Carthusians with the aim of helping families in this part of London. As the programme developed, the Club became a key element of this work and a great source of comfort for many boys who had nowhere to go and little to do. “Through my bedroom window, in a block of flats, I could just see the window of the gym at the top and, if the light was on, I’d get my gear and go,” explains one of the guests. “Sometimes it would be late Sunday night and there was someone up there kicking a football about. Brilliant, it was.” 32 Crosby Row was a four-storey building equipped with a chapel downstairs (“If memory serves me correctly - not one of us went into the chapel,” confesses one); a first floor with a games room boasting snooker tables, table tennis tables and a snack bar; and a second-floor gym. It was the gym that attracted most of the individuals returning for the picnic. “From there, we arranged Saturday and Sunday football teams and were quite successful,” agrees another. The boys played in the local Southwark
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Bert’s boys Above: Some of the boys pictured here in the 1960s returned for the picnic (above right)
League and the London Federation of Boys' Club, even travelling abroad for matches. “Remember when we was on the boat we were with the Crystal Palace team? They bought us all lagers!” But it wasn’t just football that bonded the group. For many, the arrival of Bert Nolan from Kennington Boys' Club to run Crosby Row had a big impact. Although described as “rough and ready” in his
