This week 10, 20, 30 years ago

10 Years Ago

Hundreds of people turned out to a series of Remembrance Day services and parades across South London to honour the soldiers who lost their lives in active duty.

Veterans and people of all generations joined forces to lay wreaths at the foot of war memorials and follow sombre parades in memory of all those affected by conflict.

Southwark Mayor Councillor Abdul Mohamed led a wreath-laying service at the memorial in West Lane, Rotherhithe, following an official Armistice service.

Bookworms who mourned the loss of several independent book shops in their area are a stop closer to opening their own.

Northcote Books Ltd in Battersea was officially registered as a “society for the benefit of the company” and was backed by a group of 400 people, including many former customers of a bookshop that closed in Northcote Road earlier this year.

The idea was to open a shop within Northcote Library, funded by selling “community shares” and operating as a non-for-profit.

Calls were made to ban HGVs from the capital’s roads at peak times.

The appeal came after the fifth cyclist was killed on London’s roads in nine days – the 13th this year.

According to data from the GLA, between 2008 and 2012, HGVs were involved in 53 per cent of London cyclist deaths despite making up only four per cent of the traffic.

Cyclist and independent Southwark councillor Stephen Govier agreed a ban was necessary.

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20 Years Ago

A school choir sang backing vocals on a hit single as part of a rock band’s bid for the Christmas No 1.

Students from Haberdashers’ Aske’s Hatcham College topped the charts in 1994 when they backed pop band East 17 on their Christmas No1, Stay Another Day.

In 2003, students had the chance to sing on The Darkness’s Christmas Time: Don’t Let The Bells End as a parent of one of the youngsters worked at Abbey Road studios in west London, where the band was recording.

Protesters burned an effigy of USA President George Bush in Brixton during a state visit to the capital.

The demonstration was staged in Brixton by the Stop the War Coalition who opposed the President’s ‘war on terror’ policy in the Middle East. Campaigners also gathered in Clapham Junction in a separate protest.

The President’s visit to London sparked a row over who should pick up the tab for the heightened security, which was thought to run into millions, with London Mayor Ken Livingstone leading the calls for the Government to pay.

Developers were given the green light to build London’s tallest building.

Permission for the London Bridge Tower was granted by Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott after Southwark council backed the project a year earlier.

The project was known as the Shard of Glass and eventually op

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30 Years Ago

A row erupted between the owners of a go-karting track and a developer that wanted to build homes on a plot of land next to where races had been staged for 11 years.

The Lambeth council funded Oasis Karting Project in Stockwell hoped to be given permission to keep running and its owners had applied for charity status in a bid to shore up its future.

But Priory Park Properties claimed the track would be too noisy and dirty for new homeowners living on its development in Priory Grove.

An army regiment launched a major recruitment drive across South London.

The Princess of Wales Royal regiment, which in 1993 was based in Northern Ireland, was looking to swell its ranks The unit, which was known as the Tigers hoped, to enlist 200 soldiers and seven new officers.

All of the new officers would be trained at Sandhurst before taking up their posts.

Residents were celebrating after it was announced that their homes were in line for a £1million makeover.

The drains, gas pipes, electric wiring were all set to be surveyed in homes on the Evelyn and Sayes Estates in Deptford, using high-tech equipment.

It was the first work planned as part of a £24million Estates Action Project.

The work on the two estates was set to last three months.

 

Picture: Pixabay /Totskie_69