This week 10, 20, 30 years ago

10 Years Ago

With almost one in 10 parents in the capital reportedly going hungry, the South London Press today appeals for readers to join our campaign to Feed A Food Bank this Christmas.

Thousands of South Londoners are forced to go to food banks just to provide their families with the bare necessities.

The Trussell Trust, the charity behind many of South London’s food banks says record numbers of people are now turning to them for help as food prices soar and incomes fall.

We are appealing to readers to buy a couple of extra items with their shopping to make sure other families don’t go without.

A gang member has become the fourth person to be jailed over the killing of a 20-year-old man.

Chukwurunim Ozour, also 20, of Glebe Path in Mitcham, was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in jail on November 22 after he admitted his part in the death of Mahad Mohammed in Battersea.

He pleaded guilty to a count of constructive manslaughter.

The business studies student had blocked Mahad’s escape route after he was stabbed during a drug deal that went wrong in the early hours of June 21 last year.

The group planned to rip off their victim but attacked him instead when he realised the ruse.

Mahad was heard screaming for help as he tried to escape before collapsing next to the entrance of a block of flats.

Residents visited a library almost 500,000 times in its first year of being open.

The £14million Canada Water Library was opened in 2011 and as part of the first anniversary celebrations, Southwark council has launched a photo competition to find the most unusual and creative images of the building, inside or outside.

The winner will be given the opportunity to feature in an exhibition at the library next year.

The deadline for entries is February 1.

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20 Years Ago

A drug mule was jailed for two years for trying to smuggle drugs worth £6,000 into the UK inside hollowed out yams.

The 29-year-old was nabbed by customs officers at Gatwick Airport as he tried to bring a bag filled with 19 yams, which had been filled with cannabis before being covered in mud, into the country.

Officers found several kilos of the drug.

The man from New Cross denied drug smuggling charges but failed to convince a jury at Inner London Crown Court.

Striking firefighters immediately returned to their station as a house burned after learning that its 83-year-old owner had been evacuated.

And despite the best efforts of the Army’s Green Goddess teams, the house in Gowerie Road, Clapham was gutted.

Neighbours said the pensioner lived alone in the house with her cats and had lived there her entire life.

She was taken to hospital and put into the care of social services after the fire.

Union members defended the action saying the firefighters had no quarrel with the public.

Shopkeepers across Southwest London vowed not to sell spray paints to under-18s after the campaign to curb graffiti attacks was stepped up.

Police, councils and store-owners joined forces to defend their town centres from the scourge of taggers.

Lambeth and Wandsworth signed up to a new scheme with nine other borough councils.

The South West Area Against Graffiti group was formed following meetings between police, council officers and shopkeepers.

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30 Years Ago

British Rail launched an internal inquiry after two trains narrowly missed a head-on crash on the high-level viaduct outside London Bridge station.

The trains scraped passed each other during the morning rush hour on the viaduct just west of the crowded station.

The accident meant the rail company had to close Waterloo East, Charing Cross, Cannon Street and parts of Blackfriars after the accident, which left 10 people injured.

Neither the Ramsgate to Charing Cross train nor the Charing Cross to Tunbridge Wells train was derailed.

Looters raided a school for valuables just hours after it was gutted by a fire.

The thieves picked their way through the remains of the gutted Herbert Morrison School in Hartington Road, South Lambeth, stealing a TV, a video player and at least two computers.

The fire 24 hours earlier had caused about £1million worth of damage and wrecked three quarters of the building.

Firefighters joined school staff and parents in a sponsored six-mile engine pull.

The effort saw crews from Southwark and Dockhead raise money for Cherry Gardens School in Mack’s Road, Rotherhithe, which catered for children with severe learning difficulties and the Fire Service’s Benevolent Fund.

The pull took them from the school, through Elephant & Castle, Walworth, Camberwell and Peckham, raising £2,000.

 

 

Picture: Foodbank