Dear LPG,

Getting out of the house is one of the freedoms that has been in short supply on such a scale that we never thought would occur again.  Until recently, and in an age where getting on a plane and travelling to the other side of the planet has become second nature to so many of us, walking around the neighbourhood where one lives became a means of getting where you need to go.

I have to admit to having become one of the people who used to walk while fully focussing on thoughts of my destination and what I planned to do when I arrived but, isn’t it funny how much more appreciative of those little street details you become after a period when the opportunity to walk down such a street has been drastically limited. 

Over the years the residents have changed and fashion has also altered the look and feel of the street but how much have we noticed.  The subject of this poem could have been any road in the borough really. 

This poem celebrates a road that I have walked through as part of journeys to so many places, on so many occasions, nearly every day since I became a local resident over 40 years ago.  I have recently taken a look at it through more focussed eyes…

CALLANDER ROAD

New roads, new houses in suburban

London were much needed.

Callander Road SE6 was finished in 1937

And re-finished after ten years when the gaps

Made by the bombers were filled in.

Life settled, people worked hard.

Time passed, people aged. Mrs Jones was widowed.

Delighted to welcome our two-parent two-child family

Move in in a blazing hot dry summer.

New century; in 66 they reached their nineties.

Frail and proud, not admitting help was needed.

While we retired and the ‘children’ moved out.

Today change, but not decay, up and down the road.

Scaffold and skips much in evidence.

Enabling house enlargements, observing generation change,

Welcoming diversity, reflecting London, a resettled road.

Maybe the speed bumps are unloved,

While the cemented-over front gardens unwise.

Trains more frequent, buses a plenty.

Shops, big and little. Park five minutes’ walk.

Choice of cafes, even one vegan (will it last?)

Gym, crèche, holiday programmes, new pub.

Living in Callander Road still to be desired.

Full of advantage for us all.

Foster Murphy