George Hooper art exhibition, Clyde Hall, July 18

Posted on June 24, 2015 by insidecroydon
A self-portrait by George Hooper (c) The Ruth Borchard Collection

A self-portrait by George Hooper (c) The Ruth Borchard Collection

Clyde Hall is to stage a one-day exhibition of the paintings of George Hooper on July 18 – marking 21 years since the death of the acclaimed colourist.

Some of the paintings will be for sale.

Hooper’s work is on display in the Victoria & Albert collection, the British Museum and public galleries in Brighton, Hove, Eastbourne and Hull, so this marks an exciting opportunity to view his paintings locally.

Hooper studied, albeit briefly, at the Slade, the Royal Academy School and in Spain. He won two Academy gold medals, a travelling scholarship and the Rome scholarship. Hooper died in July 1994, leaving a huge legacy of colourful, insightful and inspiring paintings. His work is rarely exhibited and many of the paintings on display will be from private collections. Continue reading →

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Bollards! Latest crash underlines danger on Grange Road

Posted on June 24, 2015 by insidecroydon

Further proof of the need for better enforced speed controls on key routes through Croydon was delivered by another out-of-control motorist on the eve of the end of the council’s 20mph consultation.

Grange Road crash June 22Inside Croydon‘s loyal reader sent us this picture, taken from a window of their Grange Road home in Thornton Heath on Monday, after the latest prang on this notorious accident black spot. Fortunately, on this occasion, no pedestrians or by-passers were seriously hurt.

Some jokers and people with views so extreme that they have been kicked out of UKIP are opposed to Croydon Council’s 20mph proposals for residential streets in the north of the borough. This despite 20mph limits having been imposed, and successfully enforced with speed cameras, on roads in the south of the borough.

It seems that for those opposed to the scheme, getting to an appointment a minute or two sooner is more important than trying to make our roads safer places. Continue reading →

Posted in Community associations, Croydon Council, Croydon North, Cycling, Environment, Karen Jewitt, Matthew Kyeremeh, Pat Clouder, Thornton Heath, Thornton Heath Neighbourhood Association, Transport | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Architects’ top work goes on display in Fishers’ Folly

Posted on June 23, 2015 by insidecroydon
An exhibition of outstanding local architecture: taking place within Fisher's Folly...

An exhibition of outstanding local architecture: taking place within Fisher’s Folly…

Fisher’s Folly, the Croydon Council office building on Mint Walk sometimes called Bernard Weatherill House, is hosting a special exhibition of the best of architecture from Sutton, Bromley and Croydon over the next fortnight.

This first competition has been organised by the noted Purley architect, Tarsem Flora, on behalf of the local branch of the Royal Institute of British Architects.

The exhibition culminates with a reception on the evening of July 2.

The best submissions, which come from the RIBA branch area, will be considered for prizes to be awarded at the reception. Continue reading →

Posted in Activities, Art, Bernard Weatherill House, Business, Croydon Council, Whitgift Centre | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Tenors Unlimited turn on the style at Ashcroft Theatre

Posted on June 23, 2015 by insidecroydon

The trio Tenors Unlimited will be performing their show Show the Suit Who’s Boss at the Ashcroft Theatre on Friday July 3.

Tenord Unlimited are coming to Croydon

Tenors Unlimited are coming to Croydon

Scott Ciscon, Paul Martin and Jem Sharples will be performing crooner and pop favourites such as Volare, Can’t Take My Eyes Off You, Summertime; songs written by Tenors Unlimited themselves, as well as classics such as La Donna E Mobile, The Pearl Fishers and Nessun Dorma.

For more than 10 years, Ciscon, Martin and Sharples have entertained audiences throughout the world. Tenors Unlimited sang at the memorial service for Sir Bobby Robson and have sung live at Wembley at the FA Cup final. They have performed alongside Sting, Lionel Ritchie, Beyoncé, Hayley Westenra, Simply Red and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Continue reading →

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Borough police chief tells officers not to attend CCC events

Posted on June 23, 2015 by insidecroydon

Croydon’s police have been instructed not to attend further meetings of the controversial Croydon Communities [sic] Consortium.

CCC chairwoman Elizabeth Ash: the Borough Commander has instructed police officers not to attend her meetings

CCC chairwoman Elizabeth Ash: the Borough Commander has instructed police officers not to attend her meetings

The order comes from the Borough Commander, Andy Tarrant, and has occurred in the midst of CCC being involved with a series of public screenings of the BBC television series The Met at the David Lean Cinema, the next of which is due to take place tomorrow.

CCC is supposedly an “apolitical” community group which was awarded a £5,000 grant from Croydon Council, but which went ahead to appoint members of UKIP – including a parliamentary election candidate – to key positions on its committee.

CCC had already been involved in controversy when its then deputy chairman sent a series of offensive Islamophobic, anti-immigrant messages on Twitter.

Despite repeated requests over the past six months from council officials for the return of the unspent balance of the grant after the end of its one-year term, CCC’s chairwoman, Elizabeth Ash, has refused to refund the tax-payers’ money. Croydon Council is considering taking legal action to secure the public funds.

Continue reading →

Posted in Andy Tarrant, Community associations, Crime, Croydon Council, London-wide issues, Mark Watson, Policing | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Happy hooker looking for volunteers to take to the stage

Posted on June 23, 2015 by insidecroydon

The Hollywood movie can’t be very far away.

Life as a hooker V3First there was the acclaimed book – My Life as a Hooker – by locally based campaign organiser Steven Gauge. A one-man show followed, and now there’s to be a West End play. Wait until Gauge meets up with Andrew Lloyd-Webber…

My Life as a Hooker is basically the story of a mid-life crisis as survived through playing in the front row of the worst rugby team in Surrey, Warlingham RFC’s fourth XV.

Suffice to say that since Gauge passed over the reins of captaincy, the team has gone from strength to strength, while Gauge has moved on to new things, such as writing other comedy books and running LibDem leader Nick Clegg’s election campaign (the 2010 one, not the recent car wreck).

And now Gauge’s stories of mud and blunder are to take human form just in time for this year’s Rugby World Cup, with a theatrical run of My Life as a Hooker at the Museum of Comedy in London from September 21 to 26. Continue reading →

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Poets Anonymous in Wandle Park, July 4

Posted on June 22, 2015 by insidecroydon

Poets anonymous Continue reading →

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Smoking Is Good For You, Spread Eagle Theatre, Jun 30-Jul 1

Posted on June 22, 2015 by insidecroydon

Spread Eagle play Continue reading →

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Ping! Croydon tables summer-long scheme to deliver a smash

Posted on June 22, 2015 by insidecroydon

A sports participation project has been launched in Croydon today, with a massive Ping!

The Ping! festival gets underway in Croydon today

The Ping! festival gets underway in Croydon today

Launched this lunchtime with a session in the Whitgift Centre, there are now 15 table tennis tables sited around the borough (though only one in the south) for the duration of the summer, at venues as varied as East Croydon Station, Croydon Arena and St George’s Walk.

All anyone who wants to play has to do is pick up a bat and take part – free of charge.

As well as free play, there will be coaching sessions, displays and masterclasses, and a weekly competition at the Platform at Ruskin Square. On National Table Tennis Day (yes, there’s one of those; it is on July 16) there will be a competition held at the Centrale Shopping Centre.

The tables will remain long after the Ping! festival is over; installed in parks and estates on a permanent basis or donated to organisations for the benefit of the community.

Continue reading →

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Coulsdon roads campaigner Morgan is kicked out of UKIP

Posted on June 22, 2015 by insidecroydon

To be kicked out of one right-wing party is unfortunate. But Coulsdon agitator Peter Morgan has now been expelled from two such political groups.

Peter Morgan: kicked out of UKIP

Peter Morgan: kicked out of UKIP

According to a lawyer from UKIP, Morgan has had his membership of  that party “rescinded”.

This follows Morgan’s suspension, and eventual expulsion, from the Croydon Conservatives – for being a member of another political party (so Morgan could probably re-join the Tories now…).

Morgan’s exit from UKIP is the latest sign of a deepening rift in that party in south London. The split has been festering for some time between Peter Staveley, the chairman of their local party in Croydon Central and South, and Winston McKenzie, the serial election loser, ex-boxer and ex-bar owner who was removed as the chairman of UKIP Croydon North and Lambeth amid allegations of mismanagement and incompetence.

Paul Oakley, a failed parliamentary and European election candidate who describes himself as “UKIP London Regional Organiser appointed by the Party Chairman”, contacted Inside Croydon over the weekend in an attempt to distance his party from Morgan and a local campaign opposing the introduction of 20mph zones on residential streets in the north of Croydon.

Morgan is thought to be behind a myriad of anonymous Twitter accounts – many purporting to be on behalf of UKIP – and hundreds, if not thousands, of SayNoto20 posters and stickers which have been fly-posted, often unlawfully, around parts of the borough.

Continue reading →

Posted in Commuting, Coulsdon, Croydon Council, Croydon North, Cycling, Environment, London-wide issues, Parking, Peter Staveley, Transport, Winston McKenzie | Tagged , , , , , | 12 Comments

Bishop of Croydon preaches for change on the environment

Posted on June 21, 2015 by insidecroydon

In the week that the Pope published an encyclical on the crisis of climate change and the environment, closer to home, the Bishop of Croydon has also called on those in power to take urgent action to save the planet.

Bishop of Croydon Jonathan Clark: calls for action on the environment

Bishop of Croydon Jonathan Clark: calling for urgent action on the environment

Bishop Clark even managed to have a dig at Republican politicians in America, some of whom might be part of Pope Francis’s Catholic flock: “Has no one told those Republican Catholics that they’re meant to be obeying the Pope, not the other way round? Yes, even when he talks about things they don’t like,” the Bishop of Croydon said, just a tad spikily, in his latest entry on his own blog.

The Church of England launched its own Lambeth Declaration on environmental issues this week, and Bishop Clark was among the prelates attending the event.

“What can we do? Well, those of us who preach can preach – unashamedly. We can sign up to the Lambeth Declaration, launched today, and use it to provoke our churches into discussion and action. And we can encourage our MPs that they’re more likely to get our vote, not less, if they support meaningful action, soon,” Clark wrote.

Continue reading →

Posted in Bishop of Croydon, Broad Green, Business, Church and religions, Croydon Minster, Environment, Stuart Collins, Waste incinerator | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Park Hill Park festival gets a sprinkling with fairy dust

Posted on June 20, 2015 by insidecroydon

The first Flower Fairies Festival is underway, with children’s workshops in Park Hill Park today (until 9pm) and tomorrow (11.30am to 5.30pm), while next weekend will see a performance day and the official opening of the Flower Fairy Garden.

Cicely Mary Barker Flower Fairies bookInspired by the works of Cicely Mary Barker, the festival aims to create a love of books and reading through the use of innovative play, crafts, dance and exploration in the outdoor setting of Park Hill.

The organiser, Josi Kiss, said, “By using storytellers, actors, dancers, by inviting children to explore the insect hotel and bee hive, by sending them on a park safari, by gardening and dancing in the park, the Flower Fairies Festival will open up children’s imaginations helping them reach their potential to explore history, art and the natural world through a range of different written materials, factual and fiction, books, magazines, comics or websites.”

Food is available from the Mums the Chef pop-up restaurant. Continue reading →

Posted in Activities, Addiscombe West, Art, Cicely Mary Barker, Cinema, Croydon Heritage Festival, Dance, Environment, Music, South Croydon, South Croydon Community Association, Theatre, Transition Town, Waddon, Wildlife | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Church stages special events for Barker’s 120th anniversary

Posted on June 20, 2015 by insidecroydon
Cicely Mary Barker: noted artist and illustrator who attended St Andrew's Church most of her life

Cicely Mary Barker: noted artist and illustrator who attended St Andrew’s Church most of her life

The 120th anniversary of the birth of Cicely Mary Barker, the author and artist who devised the flower fairies, is to be celebrated at her parish church, St Andrew’s on Southbridge Road, next Sunday, June 28, and then next month with a new original drama, written by a Croydon headteacher, performed by professional cast in the church’s new performance venue.

Barker’s artwork adorns the church, with the panels on the font and with the special display of one of her major religious works, “Out of Great Tribulation”.

An endowment from the commissions earned from Barker’s books was received by the church and used to pay for its most recent building and restoration work.

Next week’s celebrations at the church –  which was where former Waldrons resident Barker worshipped for most of her life – will be attended by the community and members of the artist’s family.

Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Church and religions, Cicely Mary Barker, Schools, St Andrew's, Theatre, Waddon, Wealands Bell | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

20mph zones under threat from UKIP activists, warns Khan

Posted on June 19, 2015 by insidecroydon

What appears to be a UKIP-led campaign against 20mph speed limits on residential streets in the north of the borough has been condemned, after stickers and posters have been placed – often unlawfully – around Croydon.

Tasteless: the UKIP-led anti-20mph zone campaigners have plastered their stickers across the borough, including in the car park at Mayday

Tasteless: the UKIP-led anti-20mph zone campaigners have plastered their stickers across the borough, including in the car park at Mayday Hospital

In a display of bad taste typical of Peter Morgan, the activist many believe to be behind the campaign, one of the “Say No to 20mph” stickers has even been placed on the parking terms board outside Mayday Hospital.

“Sooner or later this sticker will be spotted by a family visiting a loved one involved in a road traffic accident caused by a speeding vehicle,” Shasha Khan, of the Green Party, told Inside Croydon. 

Continue reading →

Posted in Bensham Manor, Broad Green, Commuting, Coulsdon, Croydon Council, Croydon Greens, Croydon North, Crystal Palace and Upper Norwood, Environment, Norbury, Parking, Selhurst, Shasha Khan, Thornton Heath, Transport | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 17 Comments

Council to investigate flats conversion at The Ship pub

Posted on June 19, 2015 by insidecroydon

Croydon Council is to investigate a planning breach at The Ship on South Norwood High Street, where estate agents have been letting out upper floor flats that have been developed without permission.

An asset of community value: The Ship pub in South Norwood

An asset of community value: The Ship pub in South Norwood

The pub closed last year, after 160 years of serving locals. A campaign group of residents and businesses was formed and lobbied the planning committee, won the support of Croydon’s London Assembly Member Steve O’Connell, and successfully applied to have the pub declared an Asset of Community Value, believed to be the first time this has been achieved in Croydon.

As an Asset of Community Value, a deal could be struck which will allow The Ship to become community-run, a model which has proved very successful elsewhere, such as with the award-winning The Hope pub in Carshalton.

Continue reading →

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Street Eats music and food at Project B, July 3

Posted on June 19, 2015 by insidecroydon

Project B Continue reading →

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Purley Festival music finale programme, Rotary Field, July 4-5

Posted on June 19, 2015 by insidecroydon

Purley Festival Continue reading →

Posted in Activities, Art, Music, Purley | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Croydon Tory MP gives his backing to newspaper strikers

Posted on June 19, 2015 by insidecroydon

Wonders will never cease (Part II).

There will be no Croydon Guardian for at least two weeks

There will be no Croydon Guardian as we recognise it for at least two weeks

A week after a right-wing Tory MP declared he couldn’t possibly live in London on the National Minimum Wage, now another Conservative MP from Croydon has declared his support for striking journalists at the Croydon Guardian.

Gavin Barwell, the MP for Croydon Central, has today published a blog post supporting the strikers, as American-based newspaper owners Newsquest seek to impose even more staff cuts to its south London free papers where journalists have endured multiple redundancies over the last decade.

Continue reading →

Posted in Chris Philp MP, Croydon Central, Croydon Guardian, Croydon North, Croydon South, Gavin Barwell, Local media, Steve Reed MP | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Athletics body condemns plans to bulldoze Palace track

Posted on June 18, 2015 by insidecroydon

Finally, the Lottery-funded national governing body for athletics has delivered a report which is strongly against the demolition of the track and field facilities at Crystal Palace. UK Athletics has delivered its views nine months after the start of a “consultation” commissioned by Boris Johnson’s Greater London Authority, apparently staged to justify the bulldozing of the athletics stadium, indoor training hall and other sports facilities.

Belatedly, UK Athletics has decided that it wants to keep Crystal Palace

Belatedly, UK Athletics has decided that it wants to keep Crystal Palace

Superseded since 2012 by the Olympic Stadium at Stratford as “the home of British athletics”, Crystal Palace was due to be a regional development centre for the sport under Olympic Legacy plans.

But those plans appeared to be discarded when the Tory Mayor of London hired a company, of which Sebastian Coe is the chairman, to conduct a consultation which appears to have had a single objective. Which is all a bit bitterly ironic, given the promises on sporting legacy made by Conservative peer Lord Coe when he was in charge of the London Olympic Organising Committee.

The confidential 22-page UK Athletics report, seen by Inside Croydon, makes the case for providing year-round training facilities in south London for as many people as possible – something which requires some indoor tracks, jumping and throwing areas, just as has existed for nearly 50 years at Crystal Palace.

The UK Athletics report says, “UK Athletics and England Athletics supports the retention of appropriate indoor and outdoor athletics facilities at Crystal Palace in order to service the considerable demand for athletics from registered clubs and members living in the South London area.” And to think it took them nine months to reach such a conclusion.

Continue reading →

Posted in 2016 London elections, Athletics, Boris Johnson, Bromley Council, Croydon North, Crystal Palace and Upper Norwood, Crystal Palace Park, London-wide issues, Mayor of London, Sport | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Boxpark loan deal turns councillors into a bunch of bankers

Posted on June 18, 2015 by insidecroydon
How the developers' artists envisage Boxpark will appear alongside East Croydon Station next year

How the developers’ artists envisage Boxpark will appear alongside East Croydon Station next year

£3 million.

So now we know how much tax-payers’ money it takes to bring a decent-sized business to the town centre.

The Croydon Guardian reports that Croydon Council has gone into the banking business, making a £3 million loan to Boxpark to persuade them to set up on the Ruskin Square site next to East Croydon Station. Let’s face it, as bankers, Croydon’s Labour-run Town Hall can hardly do a worse job than RBS or HSBC, though Council Tax-payers may wish to exercise a little caution.

As one senior Katharine Street figure said to Inside Croydon of the council’s cabinet member for economic development, Toni Letts, “If you asked her what the ‘RoI’ is on the Boxpark scheme, she’d probably think you were asking about the Republic of Ireland.”

Continue reading →

Posted in Addiscombe West, Boxpark, Business, Centrale, Croydon Council, East Croydon, Jo Negrini, Jon Rouse, Nathan Elvery, Planning, Property, Ruskin Square, URV, Whitgift Centre | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Thornton Heath Arts Week, July 18-25

Posted on June 18, 2015 by insidecroydon

Thornton Heath Arts Week Continue reading →

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Croydon Concrete Safari, free guided walk, June 27

Posted on June 18, 2015 by insidecroydon

Wandle Park walk Continue reading →

Posted in Friends of Wandle Park, History, Waddon, Walks, Wandle Park | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

17th annual Streatham Common Kite Day, June 21

Posted on June 18, 2015 by insidecroydon

streatham kite day Continue reading →

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Love Norbury – first anniversary, June 18

Posted on June 17, 2015 by insidecroydon

Love Norbury Continue reading →

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Notorious Norbury Market and Fair, June 28

Posted on June 17, 2015 by insidecroydon

Notorious - Portrait - June - Jpeg Continue reading →

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