South London News

Celebrate the history and heritage of Lambeth throughout September with the borough’s specially curated heritage festival.

Organised by Lambeth Archives and the Lambeth Local History Forum, Lambeth’s Heritage Festival will bring together more than 80 different events and activities celebrating the history and heritage of the South London borough.

Events include talks about lost rivers, the history of Ovalhouse theatre and prolific female artists as well as online workshops on family history and an urban sketching tour of Brixton.

An ex-police station empty for almost a decade could be turned into a 57-bed boutique hotel.

The building at 101 Streatham High Road has been vacant since 2015 when the local police station relocated to a building further down the street.

Now Everitt Road Properties has applied to Lambeth council to turn the former cop shop, built in 1912, into a hotel and café. As part of the development, a rear extension would be added to the building, as well as a mansard roof.

New data from London Ambulance Service (LAS) reveals the 150 neighbourhoods across the capital in greatest need of lifesaving defibrillators.

When someone suffers a cardiac arrest – which is when the heart stops beating – the use of a defibrillator gives them the best chance of surviving.

But new analysis from the LAS shows 21 neighbourhoods where there is no access to a defibrillator, and 129 neighbourhoods where there is limited access for the population nearby.

NIHL 1 National Championship champions Streatham RedHawks have moved to retain a significant bulk of their squad for next season, writes Christopher Beal.

Danny Milton, Sam Waller, Tomasz Skokan, Jordan Gregory, Preston Tombs and James Warman – celebrating his testimonial campaign – have all signed up again.

Ziggy Beesley, Jared Lane, Luke Brittle, captain Ryan Watt and player-coach Ben Paynter are also all staying on.

Labour has swept to victory across Lambeth, securing all constituencies including three new seats and a Lambeth by-election.

Dominic Armstrong, the party’s candidate for Streatham Common and Vale, finished in first place, picking up 2,796 votes.

The by-election, which took place on the same day as the general election, was called after former Labour councillor Henna Shah resigned.

Green Party candidate Duncan Eastoe was second with 1,354 votes and Conservative Party candidate Lachlan Rurlander was third with 918 votes.

A campaign group anxious to see a locally famous old theatre return to something of its former glory is worried that the chances of that ever happening are receding as the evangelical church that bought it prepares to move in.

Streatham Hill Theatre has, since 1994, enjoyed Grade II listed building status and has a proud past, but succumbed to financial pressures decades ago to become a bingo hall until 2017.

A woman whose baby was stillborn due to mistakes midwives made during labour said she was “appalled” by the lack of compassion shown.

Charlotte Warner, of Streatham, was 23 when she lost her baby boy, CJ, after midwives at St George’s Hospital failed to notice he was being starved of oxygen during labour. They had stopped taking regular heart readings despite having induced labour.

Mrs Warner, now 29, said: “The pain of losing a baby like we did never goes away.”

A former bus conductress celebrated her 100th birthday with family and friends last week.

Lillian Stromdale, a resident at Mary Holben House in Thrale Road, Streatham, said: “I don’t feel 100, I feel as though I’m cheating!

“I can’t say I feel 20 but I feel, well, normal.

“It’s a bit of a surprise, but I’m pleased to have reached 100.”

Ms Stromdale, born in the East End of London in 1924, worked in factories for most of her working life, although she also passed a stint as a bus conductress during the 1950s and said that she enjoyed the job.

Residents are desperate to stop the proposed closure of their NatWest branch which would leave the area without a single bank.

The NatWest branch in Norbury is relied upon by the area’s large elderly population, as well as charities and small business owners.

The community opposition to the closure has been backed by Labour’s Croydon North candidate Steve Reed, who set up a petition that attracted 471 signatories. Residents across the area believe this potential closure demonstrates a “decline” of high streets in general and across Croydon.

A man is searching for his beloved penny farthing after it was snatched outside a hair salon on Monday afternoon.

Robert Torto, 44, of Harlesden Road, Willesden, is appealing to the public to help him find his 56” Trotts and Son’s penny farthing with a distinctive red rear tyre after it was stolen in Streatham Hill Road at around 1pm.

The civil engineer said: “I cycled down to the same hair salon I’ve been going to since 2007, but must have not fastened it securely enough at the bike rack.