Firefighters ride a clear round in front of the King at Windsor

Talented London firefighters have turned their hand to other skills, competing for the first time with their own horses in a show jumping event at the Royal Windsor Horse Show.

Prized moment: the LFB team placed third in their class at the Royal Windsor Horse Show

The Brigade’s firefighters beat show jumping teams from the military, police and cadet forces to claim third place in the Services Team Jumping competition, held in Windsor Great Park with the royal castle as the backdrop and with King Charles and other VIP guests watching on.

The team comprised full-time firefighters who ride their own horses, brought together by Dana Curle-Taylor, who is based at Wimbledon Fire Station.

Firefighter Curle-Taylor has served for three years in the Brigade. She has ridden horses since she was five years old, and recently returned to competing on the show jumping circuit with her horse, Edina.

The team also included Kylie Manser-Baines, who was a jockey before she became a firefighter, and Alice Sweeney. Continue reading

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Courtroom drama in 1892: ‘An Infuriated Bear Shot in Croydon’

Bear-ly believable: in 1890s London, performing bears were a common sight on London’s streets, and in its courtrooms, too

SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: The closest we get to performing bears in Croydon these days is seeing Paddington on the big screen. DAVID MORGAN goes back more than 130 years to the weekend when a bear was in the dock, and would pay with its life

It was July 1892, and even by Croydon standards, the town’s magistrates had a more unusual defendant appearing in court before them: Frenchman Jean Baptiste and his bear.

Punched out: how the Croydon bear was featured in weekly magazine Punch

In the 1890s, there were many bears performing in the towns and cities across the country. Handlers often brought them over from the continent. It wasn’t until 1911 that the repulsive practice was prohibited. The RSPCA, founded in London in 1824, lobbied MPs for years until the new law was passed.

In Croydon on that summer Saturday 133 years ago, there was little space left in the dock in the Magistrates’ Court because as well as Jean Baptiste, his large bear was in there, too. Charged with cruelly treating and torturing a she-bear, Inspector Ormonde from the RSPCA outlined the case against Baptiste. Continue reading

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Saturday Soccer School for 3s to 7s, Clockhouse, 9.30-10.30am

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Waddon vicar appointed to take up new parish in Lewisham

David Adamson-Hill, who has served as the vicar of St George’s church in Waddon for the last four years, is set to leave Croydon in the autumn to take up the role in a parish in Lewisham.

Lewisham parish: David Adamson-Hill has been a vicar in Croydon for four years

Formally, Rev Adamson-Hill has been assistant priest in the Parish of Croydon, assisting at Croydon Minster.

In an announcement from the Bishop of Southwark, he has been appointed as the Vicar of St Mary the Virgin, Lewisham “subject to the satisfactory completion of the relevant procedures, he will be licensed to St Mary’s as vicar in the early autumn”.

Rev Adamson-Hill and his wife, Amanda, have had two children since they moved to Croydon, Luke and Mary. Continue reading

Posted in Church and religions, Croydon Minster, David Adamson-Hill, Michael Walcott, Waddon | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Council failed to tell affected schools about their lollipop cuts

CROYDON IN CRISIS: ‘Mayor Perry must really hate Croydon’s children’ says one local politician who criticises recent Town Hall pay hikes while the council was planning to axe school road safety patrols to save just £58,000 per year. By our Political Editor, WALTER CRONXITE  

End of an era: Croydon’s last remaining lollipop safety signs risk being put away a final time next month

Croydon’s opposition political parties, BBC London, non-local news outlets, and even far-right TV station GB News, have all followed up Inside Croydon’s exclusive report about Mayor Jason Perry looking to axe the borough’s lollipop school roads patrols – all to save the cash-strapped council a modest £58,000 per year.

Perry trousers £84,000 per year as Croydon Mayor. He recently hiked the salary package paid to council chief executive Katherine Kerswell by £12,000 a year, to £204,000. Politics, it is said, is all about choices…

“Mayor Perry must really hate Croydon’s children,” Peter Underwood, the Green Party candidate for Croydon Mayor in 2026, said today.

Inside Croydon has discovered that Kerswell and Perry’s increasingly secretive council, unwilling to face any challenge to its often dodgy decisions, didn’t even bother to advise the schools affected by the cuts of the decision they had made to axe the road crossing safety service. Continue reading

Posted in Children's Services, Claire Bonham, Croydon Council, Crystal Palace and Upper Norwood, Katherine Kerswell, Mayor Jason Perry, Rowenna Davis, Schools, Scott Roche, Waddon | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

Patronal Festival celebration picnic, Croydon Minster, June 22

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Addiscombe Community Selling Trail, Sat June 21, noon to 4pm


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Frith Road stabbing: Man is charged with Marjama’s murder

Simon Hinsta Ghebremedhin was today charged with the Frith Road murder of Marjama Osman last Saturday.

Murder victim: Marjama Osman

Police and emergency services were called to Frith Road, just off Church Street in Croydon town centre, on May 31 just after 9am, following reports of a stabbing.

Neighbours said that they had seen “a furious argument” taking place on the street before the stabbing: “There was very loud arguing, it was very aggressive. There were three people: a woman and two men,” one said.

Osman, 26, was declared dead at the scene from a single stab wound.

Ghebremedhin is 33 with an address on Streatham High Road. He has also been charged with possession of a Class B drug. Continue reading

Posted in Crime, Knife crime, Surrey Street | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Interim Adam gets council job as HMRC winds up his company

CROYDON IN CRISIS: The council’s most recently appointed planning director was given the role while a company where he was sole director was being wound up in the High Court, an iC investigation has found.
EXCLUSIVE by KEN LEE, Town Hall reporter

In the money: ‘Interim Adam’ Wilkinson had nabbed himself a top job at Croydon, while his limited company was being wound up by HMRC

Three-time bankrupted Croydon Council handed one of its most important director-level jobs to “Interim Adam” Wilkinson within weeks of the journeyman civic official having his private consultancy company formally dissolved after HMRC had the business wound-up for failure to pay tax.

Inside Croydon revealed earlier this week that Wilkinson had been appointed to the role as “interim director of planning and strategic planning” at Croydon, following a career consisting of often short-stay, usually very lucrative posts in local government which included pocketing more than £500,000 in a couple of golden handshakes and settlement payments, as he bailed out of previous council jobs. Continue reading

Posted in "Hammersfield", Adam Wilkinson, Alasdair Stewart, Brick by Brick, Business, Council Tax, CPO, Croydon Council, Heather Cheesbrough, Jason Cummings, Jo Negrini, Katherine Kerswell, Mayor Jason Perry, Planning, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, Whitgift Centre | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 13 Comments

Croydon gang livestreamed arson attack on Ukraine business

Eight men – four of them from Croydon – are on trial at the Old Bailey for a variety of charges in the first prosecution brought under the 2023 National Security Act, following a kidnapping plot against a Russian dissident and an arson attack last year on a Ukrainian-run business

Russian attack: the arson at this Leyton warehouse last year is linked to the invasion of Ukraine

The Old Bailey trial of a gang of eight men, four of them from Croydon, who are accused of terror offences under the National Security Act, began this week, with a jury shown video of an attack on a warehouse in east London which the alleged arsonists had livestreamed themselves.

The warehouse was run by a business supplying Starlink satellite internet equipment to Ukraine. The prosecution says that the gang were recruited by agents for the Russian mercenary group Wagner, in the first case brought to trial under the 2023 National Security Act.

Around £1million damage was caused by the blaze at a warehouse in Leyton in March 2024, the jury was told, in an attack against Ukrainian interests orchestrated by the Russian secret service. Continue reading

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Junction Road annual street party, South Croydon, June 7

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Learner driver crashes double-decker into Norwood rail bridge

Top-sliced: the bus driver’s training manual clearly said nothing about not taking the turn on to Portland Road

Rail services were suspended into and out of Norwood Junction, while Portland Road was closed to traffic for a period this afternoon after a double-decker bus drove into the railway bridge which carries one of the main lines from Croydon to London.

Apparently, the bus driver involved was undergoing training.

Eyewitnesses at the scene suggest that no one was hurt in the collision, which sliced the roof off the double-decker. Continue reading

Posted in Norwood Junction, South Norwood, Transport, West Croydon | Tagged , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

New Addington shooting: two charged with attempted murder

Two men have been charged with attempted murder after a shot-gun shooting in New Addington.

The Metropolitan Police have confirmed that 30-year-old Anthony Dasousa, of Station Approach, Coulsdon, has been charged with attempted murder and possession of a shotgun with intent to endanger life. He was arrested on Tuesday, June 3.

Tevin Nzita, 29, of Warbank Crescent, New Addington, was charged today with attempted murder and possession of a shotgun with intent to endanger life following his arrest yesterday. Continue reading

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Sutton forced to chase £10m in rejected Council Tax payments

Whoops!: the plaintive message from Sutton Council, on its website this morning. The missed payments could leave a big hole in the authority’s budgets

INSIDE SUTTON: It’s a case of ‘Compooter say “No!”,’ as ROSE HILL reports from Sutton Civic Centre on the latest spectacular omnishambles at the LibDem-controlled council

Paying twice: Sutton’s residents are being asked to sort out the council’s own mess

Residents in Sutton are being asked to pay their latest instalment of Council Tax a second time, after the local authority’s payments system went into meltdown at the weekend. The council is blaming “human error” at their bank, Lloyds.

No one will actually have to pay double. It’s just that the council failed to take any payments for a five-day period over last weekend.

The end of the month and the start of the month are typically when the vast majority of people arrange their automated bank payments for regular bills, such as Council Tax. It seems that for five days, from May 29 to June 2, Sutton Council’s bank system was refusing to accept any money, for payments for rent, licences or Council Tax. Continue reading

Posted in Sutton Council, Victoria Goddard | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Owner Ansari seeks to avoid Leslie Arms planning conditions

Sorry site: in December 2024, Historic England has issued a further warning about the state of disrepair of the Leslie Arms. Now its owner is trying to get out of his planning conditions

CROYDON IN CRISIS: Since 2000, a multi-millionaire property developer has been allowing a Grade II-listed pub to decay. Now, he wants to change the conditions of his latest planning permission. KEN LEE, Town Hall reporter, on the sorry tale of a historic Addiscombe landmark

In a town studded with sad sights and sad sites, the Leslie Arms is one of the very saddest.

A landmark at the junction of Lower Addiscombe Road and Cherry Orchard Road, the fine Grade II-listed building has graced Addiscombe since 1900, built to replace a pub of the same name which dated from the early years of Queen Victoria’s reign.

In its heyday, it was a busy local hostelry, at which live music was performed and it provided a venue for countless family celebrations and community events.

But The Leslie closed as a pub almost a quarter of a century ago. Continue reading

Posted in Addiscombe West, Business, Croydon Council, Housing, Leslie Arms, Planning, Property, Pubs, Tony Newman, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 16 Comments

The sorry 25-year chronology of a once great Addiscombe pub

LESLIE ARMS TIMELINE

Since 2020, the owner of the Grade II-listed Leslie Arms on Lower Addiscombe Road has submitted 13 separate planning applications for the building – 14 if you include his 2009 appeal against a refusal of a planning application. Ten of these applications required a separate application because of listed building considerations, making a grand total of 24 planning applications. The works do not appear to have ever been completed. Continue reading

Posted in Addiscombe West, Business, Croydon Council, History, Housing, Leslie Arms, Planning, Property, Pubs | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Shock and inaction is numbing communities to these killings

CROYDON COMMENTARY: The founder of a charity that addresses violence against women and girls, JENNIFER McDERMOTT, pictured right, responds to the tragic news at the weekend of Marjama Osman, another woman killed in the borough

I am deeply saddened by the continued loss of lives in Croydon, especially among women. Unfortunately, I hesitate to get directly involved, as I am mindful of my own triggers — my daughter Cassie was also killed in the borough, and while her case didn’t involve knife crime, it was still Violence Against Women and Girls all the same.

The pattern keeps repeating. Each time tragedy strikes, there is an outcry — but little meaningful action follows.

This cycle of shock and inaction is numbing communities to the reality of these killings.
And it is unacceptable. Continue reading

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Trebles all-round! Kerswell’s nominated herself for an award

CROYDON IN CRISIS: The council still has debts of £1.4bn, or more, but that won’t stop a select few execs attending a gala event at a Mayfair hotel next week, where tables cost up to £5,000 and our bureaucrats are up for an award – based on their own nomination. WALTER CRONXITE, political editor, reports

You scratch my back…: Jason Perry and council CEO Katherine Kerswell have a big night out planned

Katherine Kerswell has been getting her glad rags ready. And Jason Perry has been having his dinner suit let out.

Because this time next week they, or some of their colleagues from the Town Hall and Fisher’s Folly, are off to Mayfair for a glitzy night out at an event where booking a table for 10 can cost up to £5,000.

Croydon’s cash-strapped council has been short-listed at the 2025 Local Government Chronicle Awards in the “Most Improved Council” category.

Please try not to laugh.

After three Section 114 notices – admissions of effective bankruptcy – as well as being subject to two Reports In The Public Interest, and after needing more than £300million in government bail-outs in the past five years, all of the council’s hard work could be about to be recognised.

And who nominated Croydon Council for this “Most Improved” gong?

None other than Croydon Council itself, of course. Continue reading

Posted in Alisa Flemming, Alison Butler, Council Tax, Croydon Council, Katherine Kerswell, Mayor Jason Perry, Section 114 notice, Tony Newman, Veolia | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

Humiliated Perry gets police to evict Wandle Park squatters

‘Ello, ‘ello, ‘ello: police officers and Reclaim Croydon squatters have a quiet chat, as the eviction in Wandle Park took place this morning. There were no reports of any ‘incidents’

EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES and AUSTEN COOPER

Officers from the Metropolitan Police moved in on the squatters at the Wandle Park café this morning – without any prior notice as is usually required to secure an eviction.

Send in the clown: did Mayor Jason Perry tire of waiting for the council’s legal department to take action? Or was he just angry that he missed the clown workshop at the weekend?

It is suggested that the police action was at the behest of a humiliated Mayor Jason Perry, after the action group, Reclaim Croydon, had succeeded in reopening the café and as well as providing a much-needed shelter for the homeless, also serving drinks and refreshments from the council-owned building – something that the £84,000 per year Tory politician had failed to do in more than three years. Continue reading

Posted in Broad Green, Business, Croydon Council, Croydon parks, Friends of Wandle Park, Mayor Jason Perry, Waddon, Wandle Park | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 20 Comments

Chance to see Shaun the Sheep at BFI without getting fleeced

Don’t delay, sign-up today: the special BFI free schools screening of Shaun the Sheep at the BFI on the South Bank is on July 3

Hundreds of Croydon schoolchildren could get to enjoy a free animated movie from Oscar-winners Aardman, if their teachers get a hurry on, and all thanks to the latest initiative from an arts charity.

As part of the Primary Arts Go and See programme, teachers at London primary schools can register for freebie tickets for a special screening of Shaun the Sheep at the British Film Institute on on the South Bank on Thursday, July 3. Continue reading

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Overdue maintenance works approved for six Croydon schools

Pupils and staff at six schools in Croydon are to benefit from the roll-out of a multi-million-pound maintenance programme, funded by the government, with £110.3million being invested in schools across London through the Condition Improvement Fund.

Fixing the roof: Norbury High is one school which will have essential maintenance carried out this year

The schools will benefit from projects intended to fix crumbling roofs and remove dangerous asbestos – “restoring pride in England’s classrooms and undoing a decade and a half of dangerous Conservative neglect”, according to the government.

The Croydon schools where this essential maintenance work is likely to begin this summer are:

  • BRIT School for Performing Arts and Technology
  • Norbury High School for Girls
  • St Thomas Becket Catholic Primary School
  • St Mary’s Catholic Junior and Infants
  • Beckmead College
  • Orchard Way Primary School

“With free breakfast clubs, more affordable school uniforms, and safer school buildings, Labour is helping to set every child up for the best start,” said Sarah Jones, the Labour MP for Croydon West. Continue reading

Posted in Beckmead Park, BRIT School, Croydon West, Education, Norbury Manor, Sarah Jones MP, Schools | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

‘It has to be’: Westfield scheme needs millions of public money

UNDER THE FLYOVER: In our latest podcast interview, housing specialist Fiona Fletcher-Smith, now the volunteer chair of the Whitgift Foundation’s governors, discusses the housing crisis, the closure of Old Palace School, what’s happening with the long-promised ‘kiosks’ in the Allders building, and how it will take another bail-out for Croydon before developers URW begin the redevelopment scheme which they first announced in 2012 

The recently appointed chair of the Court of Governors at the Whitgift Foundation, the largest landowners in Croydon and the freeholders of the slowly deteriorating shopping mall in the town centre, says it was inevitable that the £1.4billion scheme promised by developers Westfield would need public financing to go ahead.

Fiona Fletcher-Smith is the latest interviewee for our podcast strand, Under The Flyover. As well as volunteering to chair the Court of Governors at the under-fire Whitgift Foundation, which was founded more than 400 years ago but is having to confront 21st Century global financial pressures, the Irishwoman is also the chief executive of L&Q, one of the country’s biggest housing associations.

So she is uniquely well-placed to offer insights into Croydon’s current housing crisis, as well as how what was originally presented as a vast new shopping centre to regenerate Croydon town centre has now shifted into a detail-lite “masterplan” proposing around 3,000 flats around where the Whitgift Centre stands today. Continue reading

Posted in "Hammersfield", Allders, Boris Johnson, Business, Charity, Croydon Council, Fiona Fletcher Smith, Housing, Inside Croydon, London-wide issues, Mayor Jason Perry, Mayor of London, North End Quarter, Planning, Property, Sadiq Khan, Under The Flyover, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, Whitgift Centre, Whitgift Foundation | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 17 Comments

Take a journey back in time with the 418 vintage bus day

Hold very tight please!: vintage buses are coming to Kingston and Epsom this Sunday

There’s a heritage bus day being staged this Sunday, June 8, on the 418 route between Kingston and Bookham in Surrey. And all journeys are free.

Organised by the London Bus Museum, vintage vehicles from the 1940s to the 1990s will be running along the route.

A normal TfL bus service will also be operating on the day (where you will need to tap-in for your fare as usual).

But for one day only, RT-type buses, which formed the world’s largest standardised bus fleet when in operation around London in the 1950s, will be operating the route, with a few cherished Routemasters and other privately-owned buses (“of types used on route 418 over the years”, according to the organisers) also providing this very special service. Continue reading

Posted in Activities, History, London-wide issues, Outside Croydon, TfL, Transport | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Businesses! Speed up your cashflow by using myPOS

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