Category Archives: Upper Norwood Library Trust
Scudamore rides to library rescue with extra £50,000 grant
Bryher Scudamore, one of the trustees, has told Inside Croydon that she is “delighted” that the Upper Norwood Library Trust has squeezed an additional £50,000 over two years from Lambeth Council for the running of the facility. Upper Norwood Library, … Continue reading
Trust to unveil its plans for Upper Norwood Joint Library
The final meeting of the year of the Norwood Society’s local history group next week will feature a talk from Bryher Scudamore on the Upper Norwood Library Trust’s plans for the library. Lambeth Council recently announced that it would cut … Continue reading
Library campaigners take Lambeth to court over bookish gyms
Lambeth Council, which last month lost a case in the High Court over its handling of a public con-consultation on housing, is to face another Judicial Review, this time over its “omnishambles” handling of its libraries con-consultation which has threatened … Continue reading
Librarians prove to be game for a laugh on Gaming Day
Despite not being able to provide any tables for hexagonal chess, which was invented by Wladislaw Glinski, a long-time resident of nearby Streatham, nor for Risk, which is believed to be the favourite game, if played with public money, of … Continue reading
Library staff in walk-out as shelves are stripped of books
Council staff in Lambeth libraries walked out today in protest at plans to close five of that borough’s 10 public libraries, turning some of them into “bookish gyms”, and threatening the future of Upper Norwood Library, which has been run … Continue reading
Green Berry promises an end to City Hall vanity projects
Sian Berry, the Green Party’s candidate for London Mayor, on a visit to Upper Norwood on Friday, pledged to make City Hall drop its grand projects, and set-up a unit to support community trusts trying to run Crystal Palace Park … Continue reading
Lambeth approves ‘omni-shambles’ libraries closure plan
How democracy works in south London, Part 94… STEP 1: Lambeth’s “co-operative” council issues a consultation, cleverly entitled Vision 2020 (geddit?), outlining how the Labour-run Town Halls wants to implement the government’s austerity agenda by making deep cuts to its … Continue reading
MP Reed ‘committed’ to funding for Upper Norwood Library
Steve Reed OBE, the MP for Croydon North, has sent the Save the Upper Norwood Library campaign a supportive message as the campaigners try to stop the “decommissioning” of their library services as part of Lambeth Council’s scheme to close … Continue reading
Norwood Society calls for protest against library closure
Anticipating a larger than usual turnout, Lambeth Council has switched Monday’s meeting to Dunraven School in Streatham, where it will discuss, and doubtless then rubber-stamp in its usual “co-operative” manner, its proposals to close half of the borough’s libraries – … Continue reading
Lambeth axes 50% of public libraries in ‘deeply cynical’ move
Lambeth Council has announced that it is to close five of the borough’s 10 public libraries as a consequence of the cuts in grants from central government. The Labour council’s proposals have been criticised as a “postcode lottery” for the … Continue reading
Ballet and plane-making comes to Upper Norwood, Oct 3
Upper Norwood Library is being transformed into a Fun Palace this Saturday, October 3. The first weekend of October is Fun Palaces weekend, offering a range of activities to bring out the inner artist and the scientist from among 6- … Continue reading
Upper Norwood Library Trust chairman in shock resignation
Community groups in Crystal Palace were stunned this afternoon by the shock announcement from Robert Gibson that he has resigned as the co-chair of the Upper Norwood Library Trust. Gibson has worked tirelessly, often in rear-guard actions, to keep the … Continue reading
Paxton anniversary offers chance to review Palace future
The top site of Crystal Palace Park may not now become home to Boris Johnson’s £500million vanity project. But that is not the last we may hear about plans to reconstruct Paxton’s Crystal Palace.
Overground Festival announces its 2015 programme of events
The organisers of this year’s Crystal Palace Overground Festival have announced their programme for the five-day fiesta of live music, dance, film, arts, comedy and history, which runs from June 24 to June 28. Nine-tenths of the events at the … Continue reading
Reed calls for proper funding for Upper Norwood Library
The chairman of the Upper Norwood Library Trust yesterday told how he wept when the doors to the library were closed for the first time as a result of funding cuts imposed by Croydon Council. Robert Gibson was speaking to … Continue reading
Upper Norwood Library investigates who got the loot
Despite all the on-going uncertainties over their library’s funding, the people behind Upper Norwood Library continue to work hard to provide a busy programme of activities for the community, at least on the days when the diminishing amounts of cash … Continue reading
Library campaigners: ‘Broken promises will be on our minds’
CROYDON COMMENTARY: ALUN and BARBARA THOMAS have sent an open letter to their local councillors, decrying the decision of Lambeth and Croydon councils to cut funding for Upper Norwood Library We are concerned at the latest developments concerning the funding … Continue reading
Library closure would be ‘disaster’ warns Society chairman
The chairman of the Norwood Society has sent an open letter to the Croydon councillors who represent Upper Norwood, and to the MP for Lambeth South, Steve Reed OBE, to appeal for help in raising more funds for Upper Norwood … Continue reading
History talks that explore Norwood’s Dickensian past
The Norwood Society has announced its programme of talks and events for the rest of 2015, beginning this week, on March 19, with a talk about Charles Dickens’s Norwood connections, to be given by Paul Graham of the Dickens Fellowship. … Continue reading
MP Reed ‘guaranteed’ library’s ‘future’ for just nine months
How long is the “future”? How reliable is a “guarantee”? We only ask because it is barely a year since Steve Reed OBE, the MP for Lambeth South, got together with Tony Newman, the leader of the Labour group on … Continue reading
Library trust is ‘shellshocked’ at Lambeth’s 60% funding cut
The future of Upper Norwood Library has been thrown into doubt once again, this time after a Labour-run local authority announced its intention to reduce funding by 60 per cent in 2016. Upper Norwood’s library is unique due to its … Continue reading
ZhongRong given another two weeks to save £500m deal
Yesterday’s meeting of the Crystal Palace Park Executive Board was due to have been held at City Hall and to be chaired by none other than the Grand High Master Mayor of London himself. It is surely a measure of … Continue reading
Library offering a month-full of activities at Upper Norwood
The Upper Norwood Library Trust continues to work hard to provide a rich range of activities, suitable for a range of ages, including lots of sessions for toddlers, regular talks on local history from the Norwood Society, and a monthly … Continue reading
Boris aides make a meal of London Mayor’s Chinese giveaway
London Mayor Boris Johnson’s cosily close links to China’s ZhongRong Group, to whom he wants to hand over a large chunk of publicly owned Crystal Palace Park, have been further exposed today, in the latest edition of the scurrilous satirical … Continue reading
From Penge to Pissaro: talks that offer grasp on local history
Intrigued by your family history? Interested in tracing the roots of your family tree? Want to find out what your grandfather or great-grandfather did in the Great War 100 years ago? The next talk at the Norwood Society, at 7.30pm … Continue reading
