please empty your brain below
Eight points, even though I worked on the local newspaper for quite a few years. I knew Doreen Bird, a very hard-working woman who was committed to her art. She pronounced her name "Dreen," which perhaps made her a one-off among the Doreens of this world.

Waterhouse | 09.01.23 - 7:22 a.m. | #

Thank you for your wonderful blog. I was born in Sidcup. But I’m not at all famous so that’s not the reason for my comment. John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin was born in Sidcup.

Allan Fielder | 09.01.23 - 7:32 a.m. | #

Dame Ethel Smyth's opera "The Wreckers" was one of the highlights of last summer's BBC Proms.

MartinG | 09.01.23 - 7:40 a.m. | #

I scored a solitary point, and was almost sure you'd made them all up at one point

Ian | 09.01.23 - 7:42 a.m. | #

Great
The first half of the furniture company …

Artie | 09.01.23 - 8:01 a.m. | #

Seven points for me, but the most startling figure in the post was the assumption that as many as 5% of your readers might have been to Sidcup High Street in the last few years. My guess would be a much smaller proportion than that.

Marrk | 09.01.23 - 8:13 a.m. | #

A town on my list of places to visit. Thanks for writing about the famous/not so famous former residents which provides a structure for a walk. I've heard of four them.

Victoria | 09.01.23 - 8:22 a.m. | #

Fifteen points here.
My father was treated by Sir Harold Gillies, after the second world war, off and on for about eight years. As a family we knew all about him and his work and are still very grateful !

Jo W | 09.01.23 - 8:31 a.m. | #

I think this is quite a sweet idea, and wish other places would do it. I guess it might be flappy banner overkill, but it's a nice way to create a bit of engagement with local areas. Thanks for highlighting it. I am in the 95% (or more?) who have never been to Sidcup High Street. Incidentally, I read 'Pied Piper' recently by Nevil Shute, it was really good.

Jayne | 09.01.23 - 8:34 a.m. | #

I've stayed in Sidcup a few times in recent years so have seen some of the banners. Thanks for researching the people and telling us about them.

John M | 09.01.23 - 8:34 a.m. | #

Ethel Smyth really is quite well known in classical music circles, and features on the Proms from time to time. I read a biography of her - very fascinating.

The Banbury Man | Homepage | 09.01.23 - 8:56 a.m. | #

Sidcuppers are often known as Sedcopians - although I've no idea who invented this term.

Andrew G | 09.01.23 - 9:31 a.m. | #

The first thought of all theatregoers when Sidcup is mentioned is of The Caretaker by Pinter. Davies had to go to Sidcup to `pick up his papers'.

jack hopkins | 09.01.23 - 9:55 a.m. | #

Birdie Bowers was one tough cookie.
For a thrilling account of Scott's south pole expedition I highly recommend
The Worst Journey in the World
by
Apsley Cherry-Garrard
(who was part of the expedition).

Joho | Homepage | 09.01.23 - 10:05 a.m. | #

I wonder how many of your readers, like me, live outside London.

dg writes: at last count, about half.

Joho | Homepage | 09.01.23 - 10:06 a.m. | #

2 points for Birdie Bowers. And there is a brown plaque on a house on Stanmore Hill commenorating Edward Wilson. Like Joho I have read Cherry-Garrard and nmost of the other books about Scott and Shackleton.

Mike Roberts | 09.01.23 - 10:14 a.m. | #

I've never been to Sidcup and I couldn't exactly place it on a map, but that was a brilliant idea, thank you for writing about it. I'd heard of 4 in the first tranche and have read and enjoyed many of Nevil Shute's books. I also knew that his full name was Nevil Shute Norway, so claim an extra point for that.

Z | Homepage | 09.01.23 - 10:29 a.m. | #

Only 1.5 points here. I've heard of Macmillan Cancer Support, and if the UK-US Transatlantic cable is the one that went from Porthcurno in Cornwall, I've heard of that too!!

Cornish Cockney | 09.01.23 - 11:26 a.m. | #

Only heard of Tom Mann because he has a cul-de-sac (Tom Mann Close) named after him in Barking. Along with Tom Mann, notable socialists are recognised in Barking street names (Keir Hardie, Aneurin Bevan, Margaret Bondfield, Ben Tillett, George Lansbury). Tom Mann features in four street names across the UK (none in Sidcup) - and all are Closes.

Paul | 09.01.23 - 11:36 a.m. | #

Just three points for me (two for Gillies, and one for Macmillan Cancer Support).

Other than Scott and Oates, I could not name or number the men in the polar party of the Terra Nova Expedition - so thanks for the prompt to look up Bowers, Wilson, and Evans.

Andrew | 09.01.23 - 11:44 a.m. | #

Between 1980 and 1988 Maples, Waring and Gillow.

marmaduke jinks | 09.01.23 - 12:34 p.m. | #

This list probably excludes living people, but Quentin Blake is probably one of the most famous people from Sidcup. The art block at his former school is named after him.

Robbob | 09.01.23 - 2:05 p.m. | #

Nice to see Sidcup featuring in your blog as I have lived here for twenty three years. Although some would class it as a rather humdrum suburban town, it has had its claims to fame as you've illustrated. The History Society (of which I am a member) remains active and engaged. Sidcup High Street retains a late 19th century ambience, but the jewel in the area's crown is Footscray Meadows which I know you've visited before. Best wishes

David | 09.01.23 - 3:54 p.m. | #

I didn't know that Nevil Shute was from Sidcup, but we had to read "No Highway" in class at my Sidcup school. Nearly every copy had the N crossed off the author's name.

Andrew | 09.01.23 - 6:26 p.m. | #

Sir Roderick Spode, Earl of Sidcup, deserves a mention.

Hughie | 09.01.23 - 7:36 p.m. | #

I’m a reader and I’ve been to Station Road in Sidcup in the last four years, if not the High Street, despite not living in London since 2019.

Stephen | 09.01.23 - 9:47 p.m. | #

‘You can’t have missed’ - that is incorrect.

Messiah | 09.01.23 - 10:40 p.m. | #

I got a two-pointer for Rose Bruford, as I lived near the college's Deptford campus, the new purpose-built version within the compounds of the McMillan Student Village (after Rachel McMillan, no Sedcopian relation).

The building is now occupied by Huddersfield Uni, but Rose Bruford College still has a presence in the area thanks to a collaboration with Lewisham College.

commonliner | 10.01.23 - 10:55 a.m. | #

Thumbs up to Sidcup for their initiative. A shame that other towns hide their local history

On the subject of Nevil Schute - cheered myself up in first lockdown reading ‘on the Beach’

On a personal note a distant cousin of my grandmother was Flora Twort who was an artist who ran a bookshop in Petersfield. Nevil Shute Norway proposed to her. She rejected him as she was infatuated with Stanley Spencer. However she became godmother to his daughters. She left her estate to Hampshire County Council and her cottage adjacent to the Church is the Flora Twort gallery

Roger Norrington | 10.01.23 - 12:50 p.m. | #

Sir Harold Gillies (in Sidcup) and Archibald McIndoe (in East Grinstead) both became leading reconstructive surgery specialists, one in WW1 and the other during WW2.
I've just been reading about them and their work this morning. It seems both were born in New Zealand (and, although different ages, both died in 1960)

RogerW | 10.01.23 - 2:34 p.m. | #

Slade resident Heslop had a wife who had a sister that came from Sidcup.

Jeremy D | 11.01.23 - 12:54 a.m. | #











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