This week, 10, 20, 30 years ago
10 years ago
A hospice was celebrating after fundraising by an 80-year-old widow hit the £100,000 mark.
Peggy Taylor started raising money for St Christopher’s Hospice in Lawrie Park Road, Sydenham, after her husband Keith died there 24 years ago.
The hospice offers end-of-life care to people with terminal illnesses.
Mrs Taylor raised the cash by selling small items including teddy bears and bric-a-brac at community and St Christopher’s events.
A spokesman for the hospice said: “We can’t express how grateful we are. She’s a wonderful star. She just works tirelessly and raises little bits of money, but lots and lots of it.
“She’ll be there with a stall at all the local events, selling teddies and trinkets, or little angels with candles at Christmas. She’s just a delightful character and really cherished here by the staff for her warmth and kindness.”
Boris Johnson was leaving his bike at home as he drove the first of the “new Routemasters” off the production line amid claims they are too expensive to run.
The London Mayor will be in Northern Ireland next Friday to get behind the wheel of the first of a new fleet of five buses set to hit the capital’s streets early next year.
Mr Johnson – who is often pictured about town on his bike – made a pledge in his 2008 Mayoral election campaign to scrap “bendy buses” and reintroduce a form of the famous Routemaster.
The result has been dubbed the New Bus for London by Transport for London (TfL).
20 years ago
A childrens’s hospital with enclosed winter garden and “rocket lifts” was approved by planners.
The £50million Evelina Children’s Hospital was to be built next to St Thomas’ Hospital in Waterloo as it had outgrown its home in the Guy’s Tower.
Bosses at the Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Trust were determined to create an innovative new centre, but did not want it to look like a hospital.
Architects were commissioned to come up with designs and the chosen scheme was designed to give all inpatients a view over the internal winter garden.
Millions of pounds were to be spent on South London roads after fears were raised about the impact of plans to create a congestion charging zone in the centre of town.
Ever since London Mayor Ken Livingstone announced his plans to charge people to drive into central London, people in South London were worried about increased traffic outside the proposed boundary.
But Transport for London (TfL) was insisting that 230 new road improvement schemes, costing £43million across the capital, would “improve journeys [and] protect local communities.”
A businessman won damages from police after he parked his yellow combat tank laden with polystyrene pigs in cop helmets outside a South London nick.
John Gladden was fed up with getting parking tickets on his unusual vehicle when he parked it outside his firm in Valentia Place, Brixton – so he parked it on Brixton police station’s forecourt.
But when Mr Gladden, of St Oswald’s Road, Norbury, went to get his tank the next day, he found three sculptures had been badly damaged.
Despite the police saying they were a hazard – they were damaged being removed – he was awarded £4,000 damages at Central London County Court.
30 years ago
Crystal Palace boss Steve Coppell received a firm “hands off” from Southampton boss Ian Branfoot after rumours linking Palace with England under-21 international Alan Shearer.
Coppell and Palace chairman Ron Noades were at Elm Park, Reading, to see the Saints’ striker score both goals in their victory over Turkey.
Newspaper reports suggested that Palace were planning a £3million swoop for Shearer, which may have led to Palace striker Mark Bright going to Blackburn.
There had been constant speculation about Bright’s future at Selhurst Park following Ian Wright’s departure to Arsenal for £2.5million.
A Roman Catholic girls’ school was pushing ahead with expansion plans after winning its bid to opt out of council control.
La Retraite High School in Atkins Road, Balham, was the first in Lambeth to break free of the council and be directly funded by the Government.
The 620-pupil school took the ambitious step, supported by 98 per cent of parents, because of “underfunding” by the Labour-run council.
Inmates and staff at Brixton prison joined in on the World’s Biggest Coffee Morning to raise cash for the fight against cancer.
The prisoners at the jail off Brixton Hill were given the unusual privilege of an early morning pick-me-up as part of the Macmillan Nurses Appeal, which aimed to raise £20million for cancer care.
Many of the 1,000 prisoners donated money from their weekly wage, which in some cases was less than £2.
Compiled by alexandra@slpmedia.co.uk
Pic: Boris Johnson drove the first new Routemaster off the production line ten years ago this week.