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Tag Archives: Ken Towl
Optivo plays blame game by gas-lighting Addiscombe residents
Residents of shared-ownership homes in Addiscombe, who have spent the past 18 months trying to get an external door lock fixed by their landlords, have angrily accused the housing association responsible of trying to diminish the extent of the issues … Continue reading
Posted in Addiscombe East, Business, Housing, Ken Towl, London-wide issues
Tagged Addiscombe, Ken Towl, Optivo, Southern Housing
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Fobbed off: unlocking 18 months of misery with Optivo
Following the Regina Road council flats scandal, much attention has been focused on the appalling record of local authorities in managing and maintaining properties. But as KEN TOWL has discovered, there are some housing associations whose attitude to residents also … Continue reading
Posted in Addiscombe East, Housing, Ken Towl
Tagged Addiscombe, Ken Towl, Optivo, Southern Housing
3 Comments
The Mayor with no mandate, the BxB homes with no residents
Jubilee street parties, wildfires in our parks and woodlands, further decline on the High Street, and a set of local elections that at Croydon Council they managed to take an agonising four days to deliver the full results. In the … Continue reading
Posted in Inside Croydon
Tagged 2022 Local Elections, 2022 Mayoral election, Brick by Brick, Croydon, Croydon Council, Croydon Mayoral election 2022, David Evans, Emma Gardiner, Fairfield Halls, HM Queen Elizabeth II, HM The Queen, Jo Negrini, Katherine Kerswell, Ken Towl, Labour, London Borough of Croydon, Mayor Jason Perry, Paul Scott, Queen Elizabeth II, Tony Newman
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Golden haloes pick out icons of the Windrush exhibition
KEN TOWL pays a return visit to the Windrush Legacy Association in the Whitgift Centre to view the works of south Londoner Zoe Sinclair Despite her interest in where people really come from, Baroness Hussey of North Bradley, better known … Continue reading
Posted in Art, Community associations, History, Ken Towl, Whitgift Centre
Tagged Diane Abbott, Doreen Lawrence, Ken Towl, Lady Susan Hussey, Martin Luther King, Muhammad Ali, Rosa Parks, Trevor McDonald, Whitgift Centre, Windrush, Windrush Generation Legacy Association, Windrush Legacy Association
2 Comments
Evita gives Addiscombe’s café society a new Latvian crunch
KEN TOWL discovers a welcome addition to his local high street When I ask the name of the manager of the new deli on Addiscombe High Street, she tells me she is Evita. “As in…?” I start to ask. “Madonna, … Continue reading
Posted in Addiscombe East, Business, Ken Towl, Restaurants
Tagged Addiscombe East, Addiscombe High Street, Addiscombe West, Dirty Crunch, Ken Towl
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Summer of Strikes should get us out of the middle of the road
Around the country today, 115,000 Royal Mail workers joined 40,000 BT staff taking industrial action, as the Summer of Strikes continued. KEN TOWL visited the posties’ picket line outside the sorting office on Factory Lane “We know what happens to … Continue reading
Posted in Business, Ken Towl
Tagged ASLEF, Communication Workers Union, CWU, Factory Lane, Ken Towl, RMT, Royal Mail, Simon Thompson
3 Comments
From Picasso to Whiteread in Dulwich, courtesy of the RMT
Last month, KEN TOWL visited Museum of the Year, the Horniman. This week, in his quest for the treasures of south London, he has trekked across the borough boundary again to the Dulwich Picture Gallery, with some help from a … Continue reading
Posted in Art, Ken Towl
Tagged Dulwich, Dulwich Picture Gallery, Ken Towl, Mick Lynch, Pablo Picasso, Rachel Whiteread, Woman in the Window
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Museum on a hilltop that is outstanding in so many ways
KEN TOWL’s been on his travels again, this time to the country’s best museum. And it’s just a bus ride away I have just been to the best museum in the UK. And that’s official. It’s not in Croydon (London … Continue reading
Posted in Activities, Art, Education, History, Ken Towl
Tagged Frederick Horniman MP, Horniman Museum, Ken Towl, LCC, Lewisham
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The evening our art reviewer made an exhibition of himself
Croydon Art Space, in Addiscombe, last night presented an award for an outstanding piece of work by a student at Croydon School of Art. In front of his MP, dignitaries and the artists, KEN TOWL delivered a piece of performance … Continue reading
All change for Elizabeth Line trains on faster track to Heathrow
‘Going anywhere nice for your holidays?’ Gatwick has long been the obvious airport of choice for people from Croydon looking to jet away, but the completion of the £17.6bn CrossRail could finally provide a viable public transport route from south … Continue reading
Posted in East Croydon, Ken Towl, TfL, Transport
Tagged Crossrail, Elizabeth Line, Gatwick Airport, Heathrow Airport, Ken Towl, TfL, Transport for London
18 Comments
Moment my patience snapped waiting for £150 energy refund
CROYDON COMMENTARY: Have you received your Council Tax energy rebate yet? KEN TOWL, right, outlines the testing problems encountered when approaching the council to get his hands on his money They say that patience is a virtue. In Croydon it … Continue reading
Posted in Council Tax, Croydon Council, Ken Towl
Tagged Council Tax, Council Tax Energy Rebate, Croydon, Croydon Council, Ken Towl
8 Comments
How Winston McKenzie became Croydon’s Public Enema No1
It seems every election has a joker in the pack, and this year Winston McKenzie, the candidate who declared ‘Croydon is a dump!’, is once again seeking your votes. KEN TOWL read his manifesto, so that you wouldn’t have to … Continue reading
‘Any would be better for Croydon than the old strong leader’
With a month until election day, hustings for the borough’s first-ever Mayoral contest are coming thick and fast. KEN TOWL went along to last night’s event held in Park Hill, so that you didn’t have to… Val Shawcross really ought … Continue reading
Posted in 2022 Croydon Mayor election, Andrew Pelling, Jason Perry, Ken Towl, Peter Underwood, Richard Howard, Val Shawcross
Tagged 2022 Mayoral election, Andrew Pelling, Boris Johnson, Conservative, Council Tax, Croydon, Croydon Council, Croydon Mayor, Croydon Mayoral election 2022, DEMOC, Democratically Elected Mayor of Croydon, Green Party, Jason Perry, Ken Towl, Labour, Liberal Democrats, London, Peter Underwood, Richard Howard, Tony Newman, Tory, Val Shawcross
16 Comments
A night at the comic opera: from sublime to the ridiculous
Box office closed, bar closed, bistro closed and toilets closed… KEN TOWL went along to see what the Fairfield Halls experience is like these days, and with a box seat (pictured left) he managed to last longer than the Mayor … Continue reading
Finding the perfect something in Addiscombe’s Aladdin’s Cave
KEN TOWL has been back to a local gallery for a bit of artful Christmas shopping It is not every day that the councillor from the next-door ward sends you an email reminding you to pick up a limited edition … Continue reading
Golden Ark’s laidback landlord meets Orwell’s demands
CROYDON PUB OF THE YEAR: Our man standing at the bar with a packet of pork scratchings nearby, a pint of pale ale in hand and a dog-eared paperback of Animal Farm poking out of his jacket pocket, KEN TOWL, … Continue reading
Posted in Ken Towl, Pubs, Selsdon and Addington Village
Tagged CAMRA, Croydon and Sutton CAMRA, Ken Towl, The Golden Ark
1 Comment
You can’t put a price on this exhibition of a year’s isolation
What was your ‘lockdown project’? Paul Hall opened an art gallery in Addiscombe, and KEN TOWL popped along to view its first show In a backstreet in St Leonards on Sea last year I noticed – you couldn’t miss it … Continue reading
Whitgift Centre pop-up museum provides a tribute and legacy
A vacant unit in a shopping centre is the venue for an exhibition which celebrates the history of the Windrush generation. KEN TOWL was impressed by what he found there Deighton flew from Barbados to England in 1961 with the … Continue reading
Government made it easier for rich kids to make the grade
Last week’s covid-hit A level and GCSE results demonstrate huge disparities in our schools, particularly in Croydon, writes KEN TOWL Can we please stop talking about grade inflation? Sure, when the examination results were announced last week, at A level, … Continue reading
Posted in Education, Schools
Tagged A-Levels, Boris Johnson, Conservative, Croydon, Gavin Williamson, GCSE, Ken Towl, Tory, Whitgift Foundation
2 Comments
It’s time to put back the Sparks into Croydon’s Fairfield Halls
For £70m, the Fairfield Halls should be offering a lot more for the community, says KEN TOWL If the Fairfield Halls disappoint, and they do, over and over, it is because they have a lot to live up to. Through … Continue reading
Schooners and horizontal tanks offer lager on industrial scale
POST-LOCKDOWN (NOT QUITE) LOCK-INS: In his never-ending quest for the perfect outdoor pint, or even two-thirds of a pint, KEN TOWL hopped on the tram to prove it is possible to organise a piss-up at two breweries Someone at Anspach … Continue reading
Posted in Anspach and Hobday, Business, Ken Towl, Pubs
Tagged Anspach and Hobday, Ken Towl, Signal Brewery, Therapia Lane
2 Comments
Spooky goings on down in the basement at Stanley Halls
On the eve of All Hallows’ Eve, KEN TOWL ventured off to South Norwood to encounter a weirdly life-affirming live performance Isn’t it always Hallowe’en these days? As if the times aren’t scary enough, I was intrigued by the invitation … Continue reading
Posted in Art, Ken Towl, Stanley Halls, Theatre
Tagged Ken Towl, South Norwood, Stanley Halls
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READER OFFER: Join our post-covid guided ramble, Sep 19
UPDATED Sep 10: With great regret, following the government’s latest change to its covid-19 guidelines, we have taken the decision to postpone this event. Anyone who booked a place will be contacted directly. We apologise for any inconvenience – we … Continue reading
Posted in Inside Croydon, Ken Towl, Walks
Tagged Inside Croydon, Inside Croydon Guided Walk, Ken Towl
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Pub gardeners’ question time: Builders has others in the shade
Just where is the best beer garden to go in post-lockdown Croydon for a socially distanced, covid-safe drink with old mates? KEN TOWL, pictured right in his best new normal going-out gear, needed no second invitation to try a few … Continue reading
Posted in Addiscombe West, East Croydon, Ken Towl, Pubs
Tagged coronavirus, Covid-19, Ken Towl, pubs
2 Comments
