This week 10, 20, 30 years ago
10 years ago
Campaigners highlighted a borough’s housing shortage by occupying five council buildings, stopping their sale at auction.
Protesters from the Lewisham People Before Profit party got into the buildings by posing as potential buyers.
Once inside, they refused to leave, forcing Lewisham council to postpone the auction which was scheduled for Monday.
The protesters say the council should not be selling the four derelict homes and a disused nursery in Angus Street, Deptford.
The four houses are in Lampmead Road, Lee, and Albyn Road, Etta Street and Friendly Street, all in Deptford.
There were 17,000 people on the council housing waiting list at the time, with 350 families in hostels and 1,000 in temporary accommodation.
The town hall claimed the buildings are so run-down it would be better to sell them instead of repairing them.
One of Damilola Taylor’s killers was recalled to prison for breaching the conditions of his release.
Ricky Preddie, 24, had been out of prison for just 16 days when he was recalled on Thursday last week.
He was jailed for eight years in 2006 for the manslaughter of 10-year-old Damilola in 2000.
He was first released on licence in September, 2010, but sent back to jail last March for breaking his parole.
Gary Trowsdale, managing director of the trust set up by Damilola’s parents Richard and Gloria Taylor, said his killers had never shown any remorse.
He said: “The Taylor family, society at large, and the boys themselves have been failed by the system and the academics that run it.”
Damilola was returning home when he was stabbed in the thigh with a broken beer bottle on the North Peckham Estate.
20 years ago
You would have thought she was the one person in the world who could afford not to wear the same thing twice.
But the South London Press revealed that the Queen was getting her plush garments dry-cleaned at a small family business in Streatham.
Mr Steeds Drycleaners – run by husband and wife team Douglas and Lesley Steeds with their daughter Claire – had been awarded the Royal Warrant after dry-cleaning Her Majesty’s clothing for five years.
The Mitcham Lane shop’s long list of exclusive clients also included impressive fashion labels including Gucci and Hermes.
Mrs Steeds, 56, said: “We have put our heart and soul into this shop.”
Cops were completing investigations into offences including shootings and street robberies in their own time after overtime was cut, it was claimed.
One Walworth detective said critical evidence and potential witnesses would be lost if cops went home when they were called off the job.
An officer from Operation Trident, investigating gun crime, said the Met was “on its knees” because of the overtime cuts.
A Met spokesman said: “Non-essential overtime is not being permitted, but the question of when it is essential is up to the supervising officer.”
30 years ago
Miniture dachsunds William and Gerhard were banished from Angel Under Fives Day Nursery in Brixton by top dogs at Lambeth.
Jacquie Tuck, 34, of Overton Road, Brixton, whose two-year-old daughter Ashanti went to the Gresham Road nursery, claimed the ban was barking mad.
She said: “The children love those dogs, they belong to the nursery.”
A council spokeswoman said the dogs were moved on health and safety grounds and that they might be unhygienic, prompt allergic reactions and cause disruption.
Squatters were given five weeks to quit an ambulance station which had been disused for more than 20 years.
Around 140 people, many of whom had been sleeping rough, were living in the building in Waterloo Road, Waterloo.
The owners had decided to develop the building and an injunction had been served on the squatters to leave.
A spokeswoman for the firm representing the building’s owners said: “We have obtained an order from the High Court which would have allowed us to move the people straight away.
“Instead of that we have said we will do nothing until mid-March. I do not think we can be fairer than that.”
Actor Robert Powell was inundated with posters when he launched a competition to celebrate the Bard’s birthday.
The star of the BBC’s kids’ serial Merlin dropped into Kingsdale School in Alleyne Park, Gipsy Hill, to promote the Shakespeare Globe Poster Competition.
Children in Southwark were invited to learn more about Shakespeare and plans to rebuild his theatre, the Globe, in Bankside.
The competition was organised by the Shakespeare Globe Trust and Southwark council and sought drawings of a characters in his plays.
The winner was to be announced on April 23 – Shakespeare’s birthday.
Compiled by alexandra@slpmedia.co.uk
Main Pic: One of Damilola Taylor's killers was recalled to prison for breaching the conditions of his release