Latham Skips

Happy birthday to this legend!! Love you lots brother # #

Fly high Nanny Myrtle 🦋🪽🌸xx would of been 95 tomorrow xx rest in peace # #

Beautiful send off for a lovely man xx rest in peace Ron xx

🕊️Ronnie Latham’s cremation will take place at 2 pm on 5th March, 2024 at Beckenham Crematorium, Elmers End Road, BR3 4TD followed by a celebration of his life in the Wellington Suite at the Bromley Court Hotel, Bromley Hill, BR1 4JD from 3 pm.

Please share this information with those who would like to join us and a big thank you for your support through this difficult time x 🕊️

Friends and Family of Ron Latham, Please see below xx Latham Skips

Hi. We’ve been asked by many people about flowers and/or donations for the funeral. Ron often expressed that he thought flowers at funerals were a terrible waste.
However, if you would like to send flowers, we are happy to respect your wishes.

In these hard times, nothing is expected. If you would like to come to the funeral, but have a budget to consider, please come and disregard the idea of flowers or donations.

But if you would like to make a donation in the place of flowers in Ron’s memory, please consider these options…

Foal Farm Animal Rescue
https://www.foalfarm.org.uk/donate/

Cancer Research UK
https://donate.cancerresearchuk.org/donate?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiAibeuBhAAEiwAiXBoJIZzHT6AA_eV1EjezS31P_t4oCKcie5pXTU7QcD7vqDlNoTA3JTV0xoCcFwQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Age UK
https://www.ageuk.org.uk/get-involved/donate/a/ac/winter24/tr/ppc/?formreference=1072-DA04&utm_source=google&utm_medium=ppc&utm_campaign=winter24&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiAibeuBhAAEiwAiXBoJP8XwBEc3ZXsZyqMCuLX9QJSPzMyGXh18UVbi7sjV_PkNEgnsYUIMxoCJJwQAvD_BwE

Rest in Peace Ron Latham xx I will miss your laugh, your funny stories and just the kindest man ever!! # # hope your up there having a pint with Grandad xx

This week we are at Elmer’s End. This is one of a series of pictures taken by Beckenham photographer Geoffrey Tookey (1902-1976) recording local places in the 1950s before they disappeared. This one is dated 1952 and illustrates the austere nature of the immediate post war world.
This is the West Kent Brewery established some time before 1838 by James Turner b c.1781. His son also James, b c.1814 was later involved in the business. Around 1850 the business was taken over by William Snelling who ran it until his retirement in 1869. It then passed through many different hands until merging with T Bailey of Camberwell in 1900 on which site brewing was consolidated. Sold to the Notting Hill Brewery c.1908, brewing ceased entirely. Pictures of the brewery are often captioned ‘The Old Mill’ but there is no evidence it ever was.
The main building remained empty until around 1926 when Arthur Kempton a baker, later specialising in pies moved into the main building, also starting at this time was Magnum Electrical Appliance Co., probably in the building at the back of the picture. In 1929 a garage opened next door, to the left of the picture. This went through many changes of ownership until closure in the last couple of years.
Pie making ceased around 1936 and in 1939 Arthur Kempton appeared in a bankruptcy hearing at Croydon. This appears to have been the end of the building as commercial premises although some of the subsidiary units were used for a variety of uses until after the war, as can be seen here. It was now a small scale industrial estate. The words on the side of the chimney stack ‘Public say so’ are probably some sort of accolade for Kempton’s pies.
Throughout the brewery’s life, right back to the Turner’s time, the owners/managers lived at Holmhurst, a large 18 room house to the west which was at least as old as the brewery, often combining brewing with farming.
At the point Kempton left the Latham family moved in and bought a lorry, gradually this grew into a fleet, in great demand as war came; the area behind the house, perhaps sometimes including the area of this photo, being used a lorry park. After the war they moved into rubbish clearance. Today they are Latham’s skip hire, based in Sydenham.
In 1961 the owners of the factory, outbuildings and house sold up and they were all demolished to be replaced by flats. S.S. Tools and production, visible at the back of the photo survived in Croydon Road until the end of the 70’s. Bolingbroke House is now on this site.
This is a similar view today
https://goo.gl/maps/23cdX9vYvr3EAibG7

; ; ; Historic Collections; ; ; ;