Glyn Davies – Mr Green Fingers

For over fifty years Glyn Davies has been tending parks and gardens around Dulwich. In the first of an occasional series on South London People, Angie Macdonald asked him about life in Dulwich and the changes he’s seen over the years.

With his luminous green jacket and peak cap, Glyn Davies is a familiar figure in my street. Most days of the week he can be found working in his front garden, sweeping up leaves and chatting to passers-by. On Saturday evenings, I can set my watch by him as he starts his lawnmower at 6pm and gets to work on his and the neighbours’ front lawns. Glyn is a large part of what I love about Dulwich – a good neighbour, a friendly character, someone who is part of the area’s history.

Glyn, who is 86, has been a Dulwich resident since 1963. But his association with Dulwich goes back even further to the early 1950s when he worked in Dulwich Park. “I applied for the Park-keeper’s job, but I didn’t like it, so I switched to gardening,” he says. “I was sent to Holland Park for a course and had to take exams. I remember planting lots of trees there.”

In Dulwich Park, Glyn looked after the cricket pitch and tennis courts. “We had very few machines then,” he says. “No leaf blowers, only lawn mowers. We used to spend a lot of time raking and digging. There used to be more shrubs in the park than there are now and we had our own greenhouse where we used to grow the summer bedding plants.”

Glyn later worked as the gardener at Sydenham Girls’ School, in sole charge of seven acres of grounds, and Kelvin Grove Primary School, where he stayed for sixteen years until his retirement in 1983.

Born in Wales, Glyn left for London at the age of 15. “If you didn’t want to go down the mines or be a farmer’s boy, you were sent to London to work.” He lived in a Home for Working Boys, in Camberwell. The home provided six slices of bread and margarine a day to the boys, but nothing to drink. “When we were hungry we used to go down to a bakers shop in Camberwell Green called Wilson’s and buy stale cakes and broken biscuits to keep us going. A ‘penny for stales’ they used to call it.”

Glyn’s first job in London was as a nursery gardener with John Peed and Son in Tulse Hill where one of his tasks was preparing for the Chelsea Flower Show each year. “I had to polish all the leaves, wash the palm trees and stick on flowers. My weekly wage was 12 shillings and sixpence.”

When war broke out in 1939, Glyn joined the navy. His first job after the war was as a parcel porter at Victoria Station before coming to work in Dulwich Park.

Over time Glyn has noticed a few changes in Dulwich. “When I first moved here most people had been in their houses since they were built in the 1920s. Over the years people have got wealthier, and a lot more people have removed their front gardens to park their cars and put extensions on their homes. And some people’s gardens are in a bad way – I should love to get at them,” he grins, a twinkle in his eye.

He recalls when Mr Scott from the Dulwich Estate used to inspect the area every day. “He’d walk around and check people’s properties and tell people to paint their houses if they needed doing, chop any overhanging branches or fix broken fences.”

Dulwich has always had its fair share of celebrities and Glyn remembers when Anne Shelton, a singer and contemporary of Vera Lynn, used to live two doors down from him. She lived there for over fifty years and had a number 1 hit song in 1956 called ‘Lay Down Your Arms’.

What Glyn loves about Dulwich is how “quiet and peaceful it is. And the sounds of the birds.” What he loves about gardening is “the freedom of not having a guv’nor – being my own boss.” His garden is beautifully kept and is obviously a labour of love.

Finally, I ask him if he has any gardening tips for Dulwich OnView readers. He laughs and quotes Percy Thrower, a radio and TV gardening expert for many years. “The answer lies in the soil. Good soil equals good growth.”

If you remember any of the people or places that Glyn mentions in this article we’d love to hear from you. Please leave a comment below.