This week 10, 20, 30 years ago

10 Years Ago

Some children offered a place at a top primary school had their places withdrawn following a council blunder.

In an email to all Lewisham councillors, the authority’s head of children and young people’s services Frankie Sulke admitted a mistake had occurred when allocating places at Haberdashers’ Aske’s Hatcham College in New Cross.

In the email, Ms Sulke had said: “The wrong grid reference was used which meant that the distance to school measurements were inaccurate.”

Police who were trying to track down thugs who staged a pitched battle in the stands during Millwall FC’s FA Cup semi-final arrested three men.

Cops had raided three homes as part of an investigation into the crowd trouble which marred the clash between Millwall and Wigan.

A further 17 CCTV stills were released of people at the match at Wembley Stadium police want to talk to in connection with the violence.

British intelligence services were complicit in the torture of a South London Dad, MP’s claimed.

MP’s were told Shaker Aamer, from Battersea, who was detained in a US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, had his head repeatedly hit against a wall, was force fed, deprived from sleeping, held in solitary confinement and denied drinking water.

The Westminster discussion about the father of fours plight also heard that he would die unless he was freed urgently.

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20 Years Ago

South Londoners bade farewell to a popular beat copper who died after serving on the force for more than 30 years.

PC Barrie Critchley was a familiar face in Clapham, ever since he started his career there in 1966.

He retired in 1997 but the next day was back on the beat as a bike-riding special constable.

But while out on his rounds he suffered a heart attack and died aged 58 in Peckham.

More than 7,000 readers signed a South London Press petition calling for plans to close Battersea Zoo to be scrapped.

The 50-year-old attraction was under threat with its staff facing redundancy in a bid by Wandsworth council to save money.

The campaign attracted star support with Live Aid champion Sir Bob Geldof telephoning the newspaper’s office to voice his dismay over the plans.
The ex-Boomtown Rats frontman, questioned why the council would want to restore the Victorian Battersea Park and then close its zoo, a major visitor attraction.

South London’s hospitals were put on high alert amid fears that the deadly SARS virus could make its way from Asia to the UK.

By April 2003, the vicious strain of the common cold had claimed 228 lives in 25 countries after first being identified in Vietnam.

Six cases of the disease had been identified in the UK and all six had recently returned from trips to the Far East.

Hospital staff said they were ready to face what was expected to become a world pandemic of the disease.

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30 Years Ago

Staff working at the Old Royal Observatory in Greenwich celebrated the completion of its £2million facelift.

The world-famous venue opened its doors again for the first time following the 15-month restoration programme. The observatory now housed a brand new museum, featuring 12 galleries.

Museum bosses hoped the revamped facility would offer visitors a dramatic new insight into the phenomena of time, space and astronomy.

A hostel for the homeless launched an urgent appeal for donations as it faced closure.

The Lawrie Park Road Hostel in Lawrie Park Road, Sydenham, needed £30,000 to help it keep running for two months until it could secure £200,000 long-term funding.

Staff warned that cash from the Government’s Rough Sleepers Initiative was due to dry up.

It was the last year that the Government provided funds through the initiative.

More than 400 homeless people had stayed at the hostel since it opened in December 1991.

A secondary school that was dragged back from the brink of closure enjoyed a surge in demand for places.

Kingsdale School in Alleyn Park Dulwich, was overwhelmed by demand with 330 parents making it their first choice for their kids.

It was the third increase in demand in as many years and it was the first non-religious mixed school to be oversubscribed in Southwark.

School staff said the surge in interest was down to its return to traditional values.

It was a complete turnaround in fortunes for the school which four years earlier had been given a damning report by inspectors.

 

Picture: Pixabay/_Alicja_