This week 10, 20, 30 years ago

10 Years Ago

A 15-year-old was chosen as a South London borough’s young mayor.

Emmanuel Olaniyan was elected the 10th Young Mayor of Lewisham, gaining more than 50 per cent more votes than the second-place candidate.

The Forest Hill student won after polling 3,867 votes, more than 40 per cent of the total number of votes cast.

In his manifesto Emmanuel talked about improving communication between the young mayor and young people.

Pop star Peter Andre surprised kids at Rotherhithe Primary School when he took part in an assembly about a children’s charity’s advice line.

The Mysterious Girl singer spoke to 120 excited children on Monday last week about the NSPCC’s Childline Service.

He talked to them about keeping safe, recognising abuse, neglect and bullying.

Spooky South Londoners were set for a scary week at a swathe of Halloween-themed events.

A pub in Stockwell, the Pensbury Arms claimed that it had the best Halloween decorations in South London.

Landlady Lyn Grice said: “The customers are amazed at the decorations and the staff are scared to turn the lights out when they close up each night because they are so frightened.”

---

20 Years Ago

A South London cemetery was given Local Nature Reserve Status by English Nature.

Nunhead Cemetery, the second largest Victorian final resting place in London, was deemed to be home to a vast array of wildlife and the approval was sought by the Friends of Nunhead Cemetery to protect the site from any future development.

By 2003, most of the site was woodland, and 16 varieties of butterfly had been spotted there.

A war of words erupted between two councils over the state of a playground.

Residents wrote to Wandsworth council to complain about how run down the play area in Clapham Common had become.

But the council wrote back saying that, even though the playground was in Wandsworth it was actually run by cash-strapped Lambeth council.

The leader of Wandsworth council raised the issue with his Lambeth counterpart but Lambeth said it did not have the cash to repair broken swings and a slide on the site.

Proposals to charge motorists for driving along the South Circular road were met with anger.

The idea was branded as a cash cow by drivers when it was tabled by the Government.

Ken Livingstone, who said he was buoyed by the success of the controversial Congestion Charge zone, said London should be the test bed for the road levy scheme proposed for congestion-choked roads across the country.

But the plans split opinion and calls for it to be shelved were led by Tory London Mayoral candidate Steve Norris.

---

30 Years Ago

An MP led calls for two hospitals to be kept open.

Bermondsey and Southwark MP Simon Hughes warned South Londoners that Guy’s Hospital and St Thomas’ Hospital were under threat of closure.

He voiced fears of many South Londoners who said lives could be lost with some facing an extra 20 minutes away from A&E if the proposal went ahead.

 A by-election had to be cancelled less than 24 hours after it was called.

Lewisham council officials were left red-faced after they invoked legislation which allowed councillors to be removed from office if they failed to attend any meetings for six months.

But the councillor who triggered the by-election had suffered a stroke.

He had been to one meeting and appealed for a special exception to be made on medical grounds.

Workers digging new drainage discovered an obelisk not seen for 40 years.

The 10ft tall granite statue that had once stood outside the Odeon in Lewisham High street, was unearthed by workmen when they found some disused toilets in which it had been stored.

An elderly passer-by remembered the stone monument which was pulled down in 1940. Only 4ft of the structure was found.

The whereabouts of the rest of it remained a mystery.

 

Generic Picture: Pixabay/shilin wang