This week 10, 20, 30 years ago
10 years ago
A Former tank driver who got his break in journalism at the South London Press is to set off on a two-month charity bike ride.
Nunhead’s Peter Jordan said the best three years of his working career were spent taking photos for this newspaper between 1993 and 1996.
From May 1, the 52-year-old will cycle the sacred Camino de Santiago route through France and Spain.
He hopes to raise cash for Help for Heroes, a charity set up by his current bosses to support soldiers.
The award-winning snapper, who lives with his daughter Claire Jordan and niece Louise Wallis, said: “My memories of getting the job and working at the South London Press are the best of my photography career.”
Town hall leaders have approved controversial proposals to make space for new burials by creating graves on top of existing ones.
Southwark’s Labour cabinet has agreed plans to add a new layer of soil on top of the common graves section of Camberwell Old Cemetery, in Underhill Road, East Dulwich, so new burials can take place above.
The plan will create around 1,200 new burial plots.
The last remaining space in the cemetery and land at Camberwell New Cemetery, off Brenchley Gardens, Honor Oak, will also be brought into use to create a further 550 plots.
The £410,000 move has been taken because Southwark faces a crisis in available burial space.
Without the measures, the borough would have run out of burial space completely by late summer.
20 years ago
Underworld figure Dave Courtney was to take the Cannes Film Festival by storm with his first movie, Hell to Pay.
Dave described the film as a “real gangster flick” and had attracted model Jo Guest, pop star Robbie Williams’ dad Peter and Sun columnist Gary Bushell to appear in it.
Dave, from Plumstead, was taking the starring role in the film alongside Billy Murray, who played DS Don Beech in The Bill, for the film set in South London.
He had ploughed more than £1million into the production and said if it made money he would set up a pension fund for some of London’s better-known ex-criminals.
A disabled pensioner got an apology from Lambeth council after being falsely accused of painting a disabled bay outside her home.
Joyce Fowler, 69, of Braham House on the Vauxhall Gardens Estate, Kennington, was delighted when the bay appeared but angry two weeks later when a council letter accused her of painting the bay, and vandalising cars that parked in it.
A council spokesman said: “It appears there was a clear lack of communication between social services and housing on this matter.”
Sports minister Kate Hoey was criticised by Tory MPs for a £500 trip at taxpayers’ expense to watch her team, Arsenal, play Valencia in the Champions League.
Tory shadow sports minister and Arsenal fan, John Greenway MP, said he would have paid for the trip out of his own pocket.
Ms Hoey said: “We had three British teams in the quarterfinals for the first time. If I hadn’t gone to one of the matches the Tories would have been asking why not?”
She said the trip also included a meeting about the foot and mouth situation in the UK and police briefings on hooliganism.
30 years ago
Crystal Palace swept to victory in the Zenith Data Systems Final with a display that simply proved too much for Everton.
Steve Coppell’s men put memories of the FA Cup replay defeat at Wembley the previous season aside to beat the Merseysiders 4-1.
Ian Wright repeated his Wembley feat of scoring twice, but in the final savoured the satisfaction of picking up a winner’s medal for his efforts.
He said: “It was brilliant, the whole atmosphere was made for us. We rose to the occasion.” l
A new super-heavyweight fighting dog arrived in South London and was soon to go on sale, a breeder said.
The Japanese Tosa, which can grow to weigh 17 stone, had been imported by pet shop owner Yvonne Wilson.
Norwood Labour MP John Fraser was to call on the Government to ban the Tosa by tabling a Commons motion.
The dog, called Ichi, was the first Tosa released into Britain and at eight months old already weighed more than 11 stone.
Do you have any memories of stories in the South London Press from the past 10, 20 or 30 years that you would like to see reprinted again? If so, drop Alexandra Warren a line with details. Email her at alexandra@slpmedia.co.uk
Main Pic: Underworld figure Dave Courtney releases movie, Hell To Pay, twenty years ago