Tributes have been paid to an “outstanding” headteacher who became the first Muslim to run a UK school.
Memories
Always arty, never crafty
The book Kelmscott Chaucer was the culmination of the life’s work of designer, poet and Arts & Crafts originator William Morris who lived in the now iconic Red House in Bexleyheath. 125 years after the
publication of that seminal work, Alexandra Warren tells his story
It actually has been a marathon not a sprint
Monday was the 40th anniversary of the first London marathon – one of the biggest sporting events in the world. Here TOBY PORTER traces its history.
Charlton star Ufton won a cap for England
Former Charlton Athletic and England footballer Derek Ufton has died at the age of 92. The doubly talented sportsman – he also scored 3,915 runs and claimed 313 scalps as wicketkeeper for Kent over three decades – was a one-club man in both careers.
This week 10, 20, 30 years ago
A fun-loving band of ukulele players have bounced back from a technological setback in time for their neighbourhood festival.
Plaque for Marc Bolan
Marc Bolan, legendary singer of the 1970s rock band T. Rex, is to get a Blue Plaque in Summerstown. The Blue Plaque will be commemorating his time spent in the area as he began the career which would see him become one of Britain’s biggest pop stars.
Insane son battered his mother’s head in
The middle-aged Mrs Eva Wilkinson lived at 51 Cliveden Road, Wimbledon, with her son Reginald. From an early age, Reginald had been a very difficult boy.
Soseki had a yen for English not England
On the front of an unassuming townhouse in The Chase, Clapham is a Blue Plaque bearing the name Natsume Soseki, who lived there between 1901 and 1903. The Japanese writer, beloved in his own country for his poetry and novels, spent two influential but unhappy years there, alienated from English society as a virtual recluse. Alexandra Warren tells his story.
John delivered smiles wherever he went…
A trophy-winning fisherman and postman whose positive demeanor were known to residents of countless South London streets for 43 years has died aged 69.
Photographer recalls the remarkable early days of the Westway motorway
“There was a dearth of open space in North Kensington. It was appalling,” recalled photographer Adam Ritchie who worked with residents to campaign for facilities when a motorway was built in the middle of the area. “It was a mind boggling situation.”
So many suspects, but none convicted
A tailor, Robert Venner, was seen staggering around his store with blood pouring from his head one evening in 1934. But no sign was seen of his attacker and he died five days later without regaining consciousness. Six suspects were in the frame for the murder over the next seven years, as JAN BONDESON explains.
This week 10, 20, 30 years ago
“Cheeky” thieves left homes and businesses without phone and internet connections after they stole cable wire near a police station. The crooks made off with 100 metres of copper cable, damaging phone lines across South London.
Shot twice in head, his eye hanging out
How did a jealous penniless actor end up shot twice in the head outside the back of his former home, carrying a home-made cosh in his pocket – and why did neither his former lover or son, who were in the flat above, not investigate? Historian JAN BONDESON tells the story of the Clifty Gardens Mystery – and why the flat’s location was a mystery for decades.
This week 10, 20, 30 years ago
The South London Press was given a sneak preview of the capital’s only surviving windmill south of the river before it is opened to the public. The Grade II listed Brixton Windmill was built in 1816 and is located in a small park at the western end of the borough Lambeth council was given a £40,000 Lottery grant for restoration in March last year following a campaign by the Friends of Windmill Gardens.