This Week 10, 20, 30 years ago

10 Years Ago

TV gardener Joe Swift was given planting tips by schoolchildren during the reopening of a museum’s award-winning gardens.

Landscape gardener and horticulturist Joe, who is best known as a presenter on Gardeners’ World, visited the Horniman Museum in London Road, Forest Hill, where the gardens have undergone a £2.3million makeover in 16 months.

The project includes a pavilion, reopening of the historic bandstand and a new animal area. The grounds also boast a sound garden, with outdoor instruments such as bells and xylophones, a display garden and food garden.

During Wednesday’s opening, Joe – a patron of the museum – met youngsters from Horniman Primary School, in nearby Horniman Drive, and Brent Knoll School, in Mayow Road, Forest Hill, who entertained with a selection of music, song and dance.

A charity for the homeless has given a new lease of lease to a run-down community centre.

A team from Thames Reach’s Moving In Moving On course were invited to help out at the Rye Hill Tenants’ and Residents’ Association hall in Peckham, which had not been decorated for more than 12 years.

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20 Years Ago

Archaeologists working on a stretch of a South London road found the street paved with animal knuckles.

A prehistoric axe and the remains of a 17th-century house were also unearthed during the excavation in Tabard Street, Southwark.

It was thought that the bones were part of a walkway put in place by leather workers after they had stripped the animal carcasses.

A walkway designed to curb crowd trouble at Millwall FC looked to go ahead despite a row between Lewisham and Southwark councils over who should foot the bill.

Police, many fans and the club agreed that the walkways separating home and away fans making their way back to South Bermondsey Tube station from The Den were necessary to stop violent clashes.

But Southwark council claimed Lewisham had not stumped up the cash for its share of the building costs.

After the cost of the scheme went up, Southwark council agreed to put up an extra £104,000. But officials said they would not slacken the pressure on Lewisham council to pay more.

Firefighters drafted in to tackle a blaze in a garage block were shocked to find them being used as homes.

Two residents of the lock-ups managed to escape while other occupants were out at the time the fire started in the garages outside Kemsley House in Lewisham Park.

Lewisham council said it would take steps to secure the garages and move the residents on.

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30 Years Ago

A two-year-old girl was hailed a miracle after she fell 40ft from a flat window escaping with just a few scratches.

Paramedics were stunned to find the toddler sitting up and calling for her mum after the accident on the Oaklands Estate, Clapham.

The child’s distraught parents had left the her playing with a twin in a bedroom for just a couple of minutes, returning to find her missing and the window wide open.

Residents complained that grounds around their homes were shabby and unkempt.

The complaints followed Lambeth council’s row with a subcontractor, which said its staff had not been given any tools to keep the council’s lawns trim.

They also pointed out that their rates should have paid for the job to be done properly.

The council insisted that it would take action if the subcontractor failed to do the work.

Bungling bureaucrats bricked up an underground car park when six cars were still inside it.

The cars were left trapped in the car parks under the Lettsom Estate in Vestry Road, Camberwell, following month-long building works. But the workers had failed to check whether there were any vehicles left inside.

Red-faced Southwark council officials said that they would have to remove one of the bricked-up entrances – at a cost of around £1,200 to taxpayers.

The council classified the cars as abandoned because none of them had been left with any fuel in them.

Residents campaigning for the car parks to be bricked up were furious the work might need to be undone.