'I've got part of me back': Crystal Palace man reunited with photo album found in old armchair

Noel Douglas, 58, lost the album when his belongings were in storage while he moved house, and he couldn’t afford to pay the fee, meaning he lost furniture and artwork as well as the photo album.

Actor and writer Oliver Lansley, 34, found the photo album after he bought a second hand armchair from a flea market near his home in St Asaph Road, Brockley, and posted his find online to try to find the owner.

When Mr Douglas, who lives in Belvedere Road, Crystal Palace, found out someone was trying to return the album to him he was surprised and relieved.

He said: “It’s really, really good, I’m relieved, I feel like I have got part of me back”.

The album got lost when he was moving house.

Mr Douglas said: “I moved to a flat and I put some stuff in storage, the bill was probably quite big, at the time I just left it, I thought if I lose the stuff, I lose the stuff.

“It was worth hundreds of pounds, tonnes of stuff, but it has always bugged me about the album.”

Oliver Lansley took to Facebook to return the album to it's owner

The album contained photos of Mr Douglas’s family that he can now show his 18-year-old daughter for the first time.

He said: “I was thinking about it even two days ago, my daughter has never seen a picture of my mum, she died before she was born.

“The one of me in the palm shirt, my daughter wears it now. It was the days when people took proper photographs. We used to wear those shirts to dress up and go out.”

“It is a bit like losing your wallet, but that is very personal to me.”

The chair where the photo album was found tucked away

Mr Lansley posted the photos on Facebook, asking people to share them and help find either the owner or someone who knows him.

Mr Lansley told News Shopper: "It was just bizarre seeing it there, and going through it, it goes from photos of him as a baby, it is literally a life time.

"It happens so much, people clear their houses and things get lost.

"They start in the 60s or 70s and then the last photo is the guy holding a baby in his arms."

He wrote on Facebook, "Ok Facebook- Time to earn your keep... I have a challenge for you. I bought an old armchair from a flea market in Brockley.

"Underneath the seat was an old photo album containing literally an entire life’s worth of photos.

"If you could, please share these pictures and if anyone recognises this dude (and what a dude- check out those socks- hero) then please get in touch.

"This is someone's history and I would love to get it back to them."