December 2009 - The Wimbledon Society

www.wimbledonsociety.org.uk
December 2009
Changing face of Wimbledon dolls
Christmas is nearly upon us once more and, as usual, many Society members will be
heading to the shops to buy dolls for children. But like everything else, dolls are no
longer what they used to be. True, there are still the sort that can be dressed up and
played with in time-honoured fashion. But today’s dolls also feature in computer games
and big-screen films, demonstrating what they can do in challenging environments and
showing the kind of heroism rarely demanded of the sedate toys of yesteryear.
What better time to look at the links between Wimbledon in particular, and two very
different kinds of doll? They go back a long way here and not just as local playthings.
Lucy Peck, one of the country’s top manufacturers of wax dolls for Victorian children,
lived in Wimbledon. Her great-grandson still does and is now the proud owner of
Rebecca and Lucy (above right), among the last remaining dolls she produced.
Equally fascinating are the Wimbledon origins of Lara Croft (above left), one of the
world’s favourite digitised heroines, whose Tomb Raider adventures involve finding
hidden relics, solving mind-numbing puzzles, scaling cliffs, jumping crevasses, and
beating fearsome beasts. Lara’s world, which has also featured in two blockbuster movies,
was created by the team at Eidos, based at Hartfield Road in Wimbledon town centre.
Tomb Raider will feature on present lists this season. Lara is a lot more familiar
to today’s youngsters. But Lucy and Rebecca too have a rare charm that lives on. For
more background, see Page 3.
Contents
Dolls, past and present
Bookfest
World War 2 Archive
Local History
Pelham Road then and now
Museum
Planning
Around and about
Chairman’s Report
Page
3
4
5
6
7
8, 9
10, 11
12
Acknowledgements:
Page 1: Justin Farr of The Tomb Raider Chronicles
and Keir Edmonds of Eidos Interactive for the
portrait of Lara Croft
Page 4: John Stone Photography,/Time& Leisure for
Bookfest photos
Page 12: Victoria Carew-Hunt for photo of
Clive Peerless
Editor: Tony Matthews 8286 1344/
07749924612 [email protected]
Editorial team: Iain Simpson, Janet Koss
Printing: Rushmere Printers Ltd, 257 Haydons
Road, SW19 8TY
Wimbledon Society contacts
President Norman Plastow
Far House, Hillside, SW19 4NL
8947 2825
Chairman Iain Simpson
56 Home Park Road, SW19 7HN
8947 1301
Hon Secretary David Butler
101 Cottenham Park Road,
SW20 0DS
8947 7302
Hon Treasurer/Membership Secretary
Linda Defriez
6 Ridgway Gardens, SW19 4SZ
8944 6914
Planning Mark Leclercq
37 The Downs, SW20 8HG
8946 0105
Museum Alan Elliot
4 Denmark Avenue, SW19 4HF
8946 6059
Local History Charles Toase
6 Watery Lane, SW20 9AA
8540 2619
Coach Excursions Peter Cargin
82 Gladstone Road, SW19 1QT
8543 5816
Short Excursions Ann Miles
12a Southridge Place, SW20 8JQ
8946 2461
2
After many years of conspicuous service our
Treasurer and Membership Secretary, Linda Defriez, is
heading towards a well-earned retirement from both of
these roles. She is virtually impossible to replace
but if you have any ideas about a potential
replacement for either role, please would you
contact me on 020 8947 1301 or email:
[email protected]
Bookfest this year was an even greater success
with record attendances. Hearty congratulations
to the organisers and particularly those Society
members who arranged the showing of the silent
film ‘The Lodger’ and the event at Southside
House, ‘Darwin’s Publisher’. Both thoroughly
impressive and entertaining events.
Our Planning Committee worked hard to respond to
two local authority consultations by 16 October.
These were Merton’s Draft Core Strategy and the
South London Waste Plan. The Core Strategy is
central to the new Local Development Framework which will eventually replace the present
Unitary Development Plan. The South London
Waste Plan is a four-borough consultation
(Kingston, Croydon, Sutton and Merton) to identify
suitable sites and policies for future management
of waste and reduce the reliance on landfill. Copies
of the responses will be available on our website.
In my last report I mentioned the development
of the Civic Society Initiative. In October, a convention
of societies took place in Blackpool and we hope
to have first hand feedback from neighbouring
bodies that attended. Meanwhile, the CSI has issued
a report based on an analysis of questionnaires
returned by members.
The summary suggests solid support for a new
national body to champion and support the movement, although different in emphasis from the
Civic Trust. It would:



Provide information support and advice.
Facilitate networking and clustering
Be a national lead/voice for the movement.
There will be further debate over priorities,
the size of the body, and how societies might
work together. It is being suggested that funding
should come from member societies’ subscriptions in accordance with their own membership
numbers. A fee of between £1 and £3 per head is
being considered. We will keep you updated
through the Newsletter and our website.
Iain Simpson
Dolls, Past and Present
Dolls of charm and elegance that never move
Two striking Victorian dolls, each in flowing
christening robes and with real Titian hair, share
the drawing room of Michael Norman Smith’s
Wimbledon home. Rebecca and Lucy were created
by his great-grandmother Lucy Peck, one of the
country’s leading wax-doll makers.
Michael’s mother Beatrice recounted stories of
her legendary grandmother, uniquely skilled in
fashioning angelic dolls from wax moulds. When
the family’s own last Lucy Peck doll was sold, he
found these two through a trade magazine. They
now have special sentimental value and their
acquisition led to further research into the flourishing
dolls trade of the Victorian era.
In 1890, Lucy Peck established the Dolls
Warehouse in Goodge Street, moving in 1893 to
more splendid premises at 131 Regent Street,
where she operated the thriving Dolls’ Home
shop. It remained there for 15 years, then switching to High Street, Kensington.
One of Lucy’s best known creations was the
Princess Victoria Doll, based on a picture of the
young Queen by the artist Mary Gow, now in the
Royal Collection at Windsor. It shows her
dressed in nightwear at the moment she learns
of her accession to the throne. The original doll is
thought to be the one now displayed at the National
Trust’s Museum of Childhood in Derbyshire.
Lucy Peck’s notebooks containing the recipes
for her wax models and her sculpting tools are in
Michael Norman Smith with his ancestor’s work
the Bethnal Green Museum of Childhood. As the
popularity of wax dolls waned, being replaced by
bisque, she switched to making mannequins of
real people - debutantes and titled ladies.
She retired in the 1920s and with her husband
came to stay with her daughter, also called Lucy,
in Mansel House, Mansel Road, Wimbledon.
Beatrice lived there as a girl. Overall, the family
have lived in or around Wimbledon for almost a
century. Lucy Peck herself, however, spent her
very final years in Kingston. Industrious to the
last she attended Kingston Art College where she
continued to sculpt and model in clay.
Monica Ellison
A doll of charm and elegance that never stands still
Lara Croft was born on 14 February 1968 in
Wimbledon’s Parkside Hospital to Lady Amelia
Croft and the notorious archaeologist, Lord Richard
Croft, the late Earl of Abingdon.
From ages 3 to 11, she received private
tutoring and then attended Wimbledon High
School for Girls until 16.
Daughter of a peer, she was
brought up in a secure world
of aristocracy, surrounded by
tennis, butlers and corgis.
But at 16 her parents
thought her life needed
more structure. They did
consider sending her to the
continent to spend the summer
with her aunt but instead
she convinced her father to
Stella, the real
let her join Professor
Tomb Raider
Werner Von Croy, a well
-respected archaeologist, on a tour across Asia. It
ended with a tragic accident in Cambodia.
After returning, Lara was sent to the renowned
boarding school of Gordonstoun in Scotland.
There she proved not to be a team player but
discovered rock climbing, setting off alone during
netball practice. She also took up shooting but
was banned for showing too keen an interest.
Eidos of Hartfield Road created Lara but the
information source for getting her through each
stage of her white knuckle computer and Wii
games is a lady named Stella in New York, who
creates the walkthroughs for Tomb Raider.
With millions of games being played around the
world and the two movies starring Angelina Jolie,
Lara Croft is probably Wimbledon’s best known
girl! For the full tour of Lara’s Wimbledon, visit
Stella’s website. http://stellalune.
blogspot.com/2009/07/laras-wimbledon.html
Sim Comfort
3
Bookfest
Bookfest, a
literary
triumph
The Society was involved in several
events at this year’s third annual
Wimbledon Bookfest from 3-11 October,
the most successful so far.
Ticket sales reached 3,300 in all,
with ten events selling out, some of
them the week before. Among those
with waiting lists were the appearances
of Sir Max Hastings, Sir Peter Blake,
William Boyd, Timothy West, Alison
Weir, June Whitfield and Julian Fellowes,
plus The Word events at Polka Theatre.
Our own ‘Darwin's Publisher’ at Southside House
was also full. John Murray VII (pictured above
right with writer and fellow speaker James Hamilton
and our very own Monica Ellison) was particularly amusing. The audience loved his stories about
the family publishing house, not least the belief
of some visitors that he must personally have
known famous writers like Charles Darwin and
Lord Byron because it was always a John Murray
who published their works!
John Murray and James Hamilton both signed
copies of the book The Seven Lives of John
Murray and visitors were delighted to chat over
tea with them. The book covers the entire history
of the publishing house since its foundation by the
4
first John Murray in 1768. It was his son, the second
John Murray, who was living at what is now
Southside House itself when he published a
hugely successful cookery book and continued
building the firm ahead of its move to the famous
No 50 Albemarle Street headquarters. James
Hamilton, who completed the book after the
death of author Humphrey Carpenter, read out
passages including a fine picture of the building
as it still exists today.
The Society was also involved in planning the
talk by Sir Max Hastings at King’s College
School in connection with his new book Finest
Years: Churchill as Warlord 1940-45. There was
standing room only for that as Sir Max (bottom
left) revealed a warts-and-all picture of the great
Prime Minister and his lesser wartime colleagues.
The poetry of Ruth Padel fitted in well with
the bi-centenary of Darwin as she is his greatgreat-granddaughter and wrote the book Darwin,
a Life in Poems to celebrate his life. Her reading
of the poems fitted the atmosphere well. An audience
member later commented: ‘Her reading and
explanations gave me an extra perspective on
Darwin. It was almost as though we could see
the old man collecting beetles in the gloom.’
Other women novelists Sally Vickers, Deborah
Moggach and Emma Darwin, also descended from
the great man, achieved brisk ticket sales too.
Hopefully Bookfest will continue to make its
mark in the literary calendar, even though the
more ambitious and professional it becomes, the
more it costs to run. To ensure that it thrives, it
needs the support of Wimbledon residents. Why
not become a Friend of Bookfest and avoid waiting
lists with priority booking next year? Go to
www.wimbledonbookfest.org
World War 2 Archive
From the misery of Dunkirk to meeting the
love of his life
In our second feature marking the 70th
anniversary of the start of the Second
World War, this is the story of Welsh
Guardsman David Lewis who was still
recovering from the Dunkirk evacuation
when he met the woman of his dreams
days later in Wimbledon Village.
David was 19 when the war broke out.
Born in Caersws, Mid-Wales, he joined
the Army and was to serve for eight years,
later reaching the rank of Sergeant Major.
But in June 1940 he was standing on
David and Gwen, the Wimbledon girl with auburn curls
the beach at Dunkirk, dirty, hungry and ex“Mumbling an apology, I made some excuse
hausted, machine-gunned from the air and shelled
about thinking I knew her but now realised my
by German artillery. But he was among the lucky
mistake. Could I make amends for my stupidity
troops to be rescued and after a few days of
by taking her for tea, coffee, or the cinema?
“hanging about, waiting for the War Cabinet to
“She snapped ‘damn cheek’ and rode off. Then
decide what to do with an Army of mixed up, disshe looked back and with that dazzling smile said
orientated soldiers”, his regiment received orders
‘I'm free tomorrow. I leave the shop at one
to proceed to Wimbledon to rest, retrain and form
o'clock.’ That was when Gwendoline Kathleen
part of the defence of London.
Gandy entered my life. We met the next afterHe says: “This was to prove the most important
noon, had tea in a little cafe and arranged to meet
posting of my military career. I was completely
that evening on the corner of the Common.
unaware that I would soon meet someone who
“About 10 minutes beforehand, all hell broke
would prove to be the one great love of my life
loose, sirens wailed, heavy bombers droned overand would even now be my constant companion,
head and a constant stream of anti-aircraft fire
friend, lover, wife.”
seemed to fill the sky. Shrapnel fell like rain. I
He was billeted in a large unoccupied house on
saw her walking toward me, head held high,
Southside Common. He says: “Marching down
never faltering. This was not just a beautiful lady,
the High Street on our way to our new quarters,
she also possessed considerable courage. About
people lined the pavements, smiling, waving,
10 yards apart I heard the awful whistling sound
some were even crying for they knew that we
of an unexploded anti-aircraft shell.
were recently back from the hell of Dunkirk.
“Thoughts flashed through my mind. What
Then I noticed the staff of a very high-class hairhad I done? This angel was in grave danger due
dressing salon, and there leaning out of the first
to my negligence in not selecting a safe place to
floor window, waving and cheering was the most
meet. Perhaps we were both due to meet our
beautiful girl I had ever seen, her enchanting face,
maker. Then just as we met, the shell screamed
encircled by the most gorgeous auburn curls.
down about 10 feet above our heads, slammed
“I just had to meet her. I resorted to hanging
down on the roadway in a shower of sparks and
around the shop whenever I had any free time, all
ricocheted off across the Common.
to no avail. Then one day on guard duty outside
“We sat on a wooden seat under a chestnut
the large house, I saw this vision riding her bicycle
tree, ignoring falling shrapnel, and Hitler's bombtowards me, her beautiful hair outshining the sun
ers, chatting away, getting to know each other, as
and a contented smile brightening that face.
though it was a most natural thing on one's first
“At last after days of constant searching, here
date to be shelled by anti-aircraft guns.”
she was on a bicycle riding toward me. I stepped
David and Gwen were married in 1941 and have
out, held my hand up requesting she stop. She
been together ever since.
looked furious. How dare a member of the military
stop an innocent civilian, peacefully enjoying a
Published courtesy of Powys County Times
ride? I thought I had blown my chance.
5
Local History
Group Notes
When getting your mail was never a problem
Familiar names
How easy it is to pass something daily without
noticing it. Have you noticed the attractive tiles in
the entrance of Grosvenor House, next door to the
Museum? Did you even know that the building,
18-20 Ridgway, was called Grosvenor House?
It is, of course, opposite Grosvenor Hill but
where did that get its name? Investigation by one
of the History Group revealed that land on the hill
once belonged to the family of that name. The
Grosvenors also owned most of Westside and
were connected by marriage to the Drax family,
giving us more road names – Drax and Ernle.
Another missing peer?
Ellerton Road, near Wimbledon Common, also
gets its name from the Drax family’s Yorkshire
estate. A house in that road, The Chantry, has
been up for sale and we were surprised to see it
advertised as ‘believed to have been built c 1927 for
Lord Raynes’.
The lord referred to spells his name Rayne and
has nothing to do with either The Chantry or Raynes
Park. Despite this, thanks to the Internet, the erroneous
information already appears on 469 websites.
It was actually a shoemaker, Charles Houldsworthy Rayne, who built the house. Admittedly
he was an upmarket shoemaker, selling expensive
shoes, but it seems that estate agents may think a
connection with the peerage is more likely to sell
a house. The Rayne family lived at The Chantry,
for some ten years before moving to California.
6
This year’s postal strikes
inspired us to look back 325
years. In 1684 the Penny
Post provided two deliveries
a day in Wimbledon ‘at
eight in the morning and
two in the afternoon’. One
wonders who in Wimbledon
would be getting letters in
those days. How many people
were actually literate?
The Spencers expected
their post to arrive the day
after it was posted. In 1802
Sarah Spencer wrote: ‘It is
terrible when letters take
two days coming.’ There
were no pillar boxes in those days – you had to
take your letters to a ‘receiving house’, from
which they were collected twice a day. Pillar
boxes started in the 1850s.
In 1867 there were four collections a day in
Wimbledon. By the 1890s the boxes were cleared
11 times a day, with the main post office in
Compton Road having 18 collections. That office,
incidentally, was open from 8 am to 10 pm but
then a lot of shops were open for those sort of
hours. As for deliveries, there were seven a day
on weekdays, with a late one between 10 and
10.30 pm.
How did they do it? Well, the photo above
left, taken of postmen posing in Compton Road,
shows just how many staff there were in 1914!
Racing connection
Remember Jarvis, the garage in Morden Road?
As Jarvis & Sons Ltd the firm had premises in
Victoria Crescent and Hartfield Road in the
1920s and later a showroom on the corner of
Woodside.
It built the bodies of sports and racing cars for
other companies and one model of its own. This
was the oddly-named JAPPIC, powered by J.A.P.
motor cycle engines (named from J.A.Prestwich).
There was also a more famous connection.
Jarvis built a car body for Sir Malcolm Campbell,
the racing driver who broke speed records and,
like his son Donald, was eventually killed doing
so, although not in a Jarvis car. Charles Toase
Pelham Road then and now
Pelham Road celebrates centenary as history
repeats itself
On 14 July 1909, Lord Alverstone,
England’s Lord Chief Justice,
formally opened Pelham School,
Wimbledon’s answer to a rapidly
growing population of primary
school-age children. The local
press described it as “a magnificent
and striking pile of buildings of a
type and size unlike anything we
have in our midst”.
A century later on 22 August
2009, residents of what is now the
Grade II listed Downings House
block of 28 flats in Pelham Road,
opened their doors for a 100th
birthday party. Guests admired the
light, airy and spacious living
conditions, private lifts, original staircases, the
panoramic views, and the communal gymnasium in
what was once the boys’ assembly hall. The old
Wimbledon borough coat of arms and motto could
still be seen in a stained glass window.
The school closed on 22 July 1983 because of
falling enrolment numbers and the building was sold
for upmarket conversion, reopening in 1990.
Yet ironically, just as the centenary of architect H. P.
Burke Downing’s remarkable building was being
celebrated, the local press was reporting a new crisis
with Merton Council facing the prospect of having to
build new schools over the next three years to take an
expected 450 extra primary-age pupils. As in
1909, a rapid rise in Wimbledon’s population and
birth rate is forcing a rethink on classroom capacity.
Pelham School was built at a total cost of
£16,457, 16 shillings and 9 pence. Designed in an
early 18th century Georgian style, it accommodated
1000 pupils in all, with nine classrooms for 362 mixed
infants and eight classrooms each for 320 girls and
320 boys. There were two playgrounds (older girls
shared with the infants) and separate entrances for
the infants on the ground floor, girls upstairs and
boys at the top. Each had their own assembly
room and main corridor. The building also contained
staff offices, storage rooms and basement space
for heating, lighting and other facilities.
The corridors now contain the entrances to
each residence with its two high sash windows
and partial mezzanine for extra space.
On 27 March 1909 the Wimbledon Borough
News commented especially on the window space
in Downing’s new building. “The effect of our new
school is such as to fill the beholder with admiration….everything for the better health and comfort
of the little ones has been brought into the
scheme...Here the young generation will be taught
with airy, light, cheerful and ornamental environment and we all realise nowadays the influences of
environment.”
Party time for another era
7
Museum
Wimbledon seen in watercolour
The Museum’s Prints, Watercolours and Drawings
collection holds over 350 original works on paper,
mostly watercolours and pen and pencil drawings
of topographical, historical or architectural interest.
Most date from the 19th and 20th centuries and
provide us with an intriguing insight into the evolution of Wimbledon from a rural community sprinkled
with great houses, to an outer London suburb.
The collection is a mix of work by professional
artists and enthusiastic local amateurs, many of
whom were members of the Wimbledon Art
Club, painted for exhibitions and competitions
and subsequently donated their works to the Museum.
Watercolours of local buildings (many no
longer with us), churches and schools were
painted by the enigmatic ‘Porden’ in 1810; by
father and son John and Edward Hassell as part of
a survey of Surrey; and by the topographical artist,
Gideon Yates, who drew interesting views of the
Georgian church and further afield, the Copper
Mills on the Wandle. John
Buckler visited the village in
1827 and painted the
church, as well as Eagle
House, ‘an Ancient House in
Wimbledon’.
In the 20th century, Vincent
Lines sketched many views
and buildings for the local
paper 1928-31. The collection
holds 52 of his 148 original
pen and Indian ink drawings
on card, all in the current
exhibition.
More recent artists feature
strongly too. Among these are
three artists shown here and also Gwen Spencer of
the National Society
of Painters, Sculptors
and Printmakers
who still lives in
Copse Hill.
If you have an
artwork you would
like to donate to the
collection, call the
Museum on 020
8296 9914 or email:
[email protected]
8
Left: The Keir,
West Side 1979
by Stephen Dell
158mm x 138mm
We know very
little about him.
He was a winner
of a Thames TV
Arts and Sciences
design bursary
award 1978-79,
and may have
been a student at
the Wimbledon School of Art, as it was then.
Below: Eagle House, Wimbledon 1960 by
Sidney G Ferris (1902-93). A structural engineer
by profession, he trained at Camberwell School of
Art and Goldsmith’s College. He lived at 6 Kilmeny,
36 Arterberry Road and exhibited at the Royal
Academy, the Royal
Watercolour Society,
Royal Society of Painters, Etchers & Engravers, and at the Imperial
War Museum.
Bottom left: St. Marks
Place, Wimbledon 1964
by Robert A Willis
(1918-77). He lived in
Pepys Road. Influenced
by Bateson Mason, he
was an exhibitionstand designer who later
founded the short-lived
Graphic Arts Group and exhibited regularly at
London shows. He was attracted to old buildings,
streets and leafless trees which provided material for
his preoccupation with line and texture. Also an
accomplished cartoonist and military modeller.
David Woodcock
Museum management help needed
The Museum Committee's Visitors Group is planning
some new projects for 2010 and needs help with
managing events. If you would be interested in
dealing with the administration of an event or acting
as a steward at one, please contact Cassandra
Taylor. Tel 0208 946 1544 or email her at
[email protected] to discuss details.
Museum
Everybody has
a story to tell
The Museum is embarking upon a new initiative to record
the oral history of people in Wimbledon. Centenarian
Eddie Hansen of Denmark Avenue is our first interviewee, and
we hope to identify and record the stories of many more.
So what is oral history, why do we do it, and how do
we preserve the results? Oral history has become increasingly
popular with historians, museums and community groups
because it offers the opportunity to find out about lived
experience – not just what happened to people but how
they felt about it. It is also a way of capturing the lives of
ordinary people, what is important to them and how the
big historical events of the 20th century, such as the Second
World War, affected them. It gives the chance for some
groups who have been largely neglected by traditional
history - for example disabled or unemployed people –
to have their voices heard, perhaps for the first time.
The Museum is particularly interested in capturing insights
into local history by recording people’s memories of time,
space and locality as they have evolved in Wimbledon. We
want their version of events as they experienced them in
their own words. The joys, the disappointments, the anguish
and the rewards of life – an emotional rollercoaster in
their own words.
An interviewer will come to you and identify topics
you are particularly interested in before the interview.
Often, the interview follows a chronological pattern
through birth and childhood, early family and schooling,
then on to further training, friends, church life or other
influences, work and occupations, leisure activities,
sports and holidays, health and retirement.
Frances Cornford (below) interviewed Eddie Hansen.
She says: “The great reward of oral history is to be able
to share someone’s direct personal experience. What
seemed commonplace to them at the time is exotic now.
To be able to talk to
someone who witnessed
the transformation of their
neighbourhood and to
capture that experience for
other people is a privilege.”
If you have a story of
your own about life in
Wimbledon, please contact the Museum of Local
History on 020 8296 9914
or drop us an email at
w i m b l e d o n m u [email protected]
Eddie Hansen
(right) was born
22 November
1909 in Preston,
Lancashire,
the only child
of a newspaper
editor and the
daughter of a
Methodist
minister. He
always wanted
to be a teacher
and studied sciences at Trinity College,
Cambridge. He came to Wimbledon in
1936 to teach at Raynes Park County
School and lived with his wife in Raynes
Park and then Thornton Hill before moving
to the flat in Denmark Avenue in 1939
where he has lived ever since. He also
wrote 20 physics textbooks.
Of Denmark Avenue he recalls: “There
was a big old four-storey house and General
Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army
lived there. There was a curved drive and
two horses were stabled at the back.”
He was in civil defence during the war.
He says: “The worst bomb was at the bottom
of Worple Road, in between Spencer Hill
and Murray Road. The bomb dropped in
the middle of the road and a trolley bus
came along and didn’t see the crater and
ran into it – absolute chaos.”
There was a German prisoner of war
camp on the Common. “In the top maisonette
here there was a German lady and she
used to invite them to come and work in
the garden. They were young lads. They
didn’t know what the war was all about.
They were just glad to get out of it.”
“Denmark Road housed all the servants
from the big houses on the common –
that’s how it started life. They were all little cottages and there was a grocer’s.
There was old Maurice who sold coal and
oil. There was a wool shop – my wife was
a great knitter and she used to go there.
There was an off-licence. There was a jobbing
builder and an electrician and a plumber.
If anything went wrong you just got him
down and he did the job and that was it.
The rag-and-bone man bought 13 of these
cottages and wanted to sell them all at
once for £300 each. It was a bit more than
I could afford but I wish I’d bought them all.”
9
Planning
Redesign for Wimbledon Station forecourt
Good news is always welcome in the planning
sphere and the following seems to fit the
bill. The Society has been campaigning for
some time about the need for improvement and
regeneration of Wimbledon town centre. We
have helped to organise public meetings under
the auspices of the Wimbledon Civic Forum
and promoted the idea of a vision for the
town centre being incorporated into the
council’s emerging Local Development
Framework. (See www.wimbledoncivicforum.
org.uk/events/visions-wimbledon/).
So we are pleased that Merton Council has
decided to put some money behind the re-design
of the Wimbledon Station forecourt. This is still
in the early stages of design and will not take
place until 2011. However, the council is committed
to improvements in the pedestrian access, the taxi
rank arrangements and the amount of visitor
information and signage.
Anyone currently arriving at the station and
keen to explore the historic area, find Wimbledon
Common or visit the tennis museum will find
nothing to show them the way. The nearest help
is in the library some streets away, itself unsignposted and with limited opening hours.
The proposed station forecourt improvements
will be a step in the right direction, hopefully to
be followed by others in the town centre along
lines we have proposed to Merton. Members who
want to make their views known to the council
on how they feel the station and the town centre
as a whole can be improved can contact John
Hill, Director of Public Protection, the council’s
champion for Wimbledon town centre. Email to
[email protected]
Sad loss of the Marie Reparatrice convent building
You may recall that we wrote to Merton about
the planning application for the Marie Reparatrice
convent on the corner of Ridgway and Edge Hill
(picture right). This involved demolition of the
existing convent building and construction of
nine new houses while retaining and extending
the old Victorian corner gatehouse.
Sadly this was approved by Merton’s Planning
Application Committee in August after a very
short discussion. It went through more or less as
applied for, including the internal house on the
green space at the rear near a very large cedar
tree. None of the councillors mentioned the
conservation area.
Our concerns in this case were ignored and
our request to speak at the committee meeting
itself was denied. In addition to the question of
over-development and loss of green space apparently out-weighed in the council’s view by
the promise of funding via a Section 106 agreement
- we had argued for an increase in the pavement
width. Traffic on the Ridgway has increased
dramatically since the current pavements were
first created in the 19th century. A wider pavement would provide greater safety for today’s
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larger population.
Despite this setback, we have written directly
to the owner/developer, Phoenix Spencer, and
asked if they would be so kind as to increase the
pavement width by a couple of feet across the site
frontage with Ridgway. Maybe the developer will
show greater community spirit even if the council
was not moved to insist on this.
Planning
Village atmosphere
threatened by
new development
More time for Merton
The number of planning applications has dropped
dramatically from around 100 a week to between
25 and 45 towards the end of this year. This may
have allowed Merton Council to spend more time
on each application, taking calls from concerned
members of the public and concentrating on enforcement.
We believe this will also allow the council
more time to consider our requests to improve
and regenerate areas such as Raynes Park, where
there is movement towards the withdrawal of
some 23 large and unsightly advertising hoardings
on the railway embankments. An enhancement plan
has been approved and the council has commissioned
consultants to prepare plans for implementation.
There has been some activity regarding PPS 15 –
Planning and the Historic Environment, where the
proposals are to change the way we consider heritage
assets in terms of significance. Little attention
was paid to the concept of conservation areas in
this draft document as these seem to be of less
interest to the current administration. The English
Heritage Report on Conservation Areas at Risk
will be covered in the next Newsletter.
There have been rounds of consultation on
Merton's Draft Core Strategy, the London Plan,
and the South London Waste Plan, and the Planning
Committee has commented on all of these. Fuller
details are available on the website.
We are still looking for new volunteers to join
the Planning Committee so if you would like to
contribute do please get in touch.
Mark Leclercq
For the most part, local residents take
it for granted that Wimbledon Village
is an especially pleasant location
and will remain so for ever more.
We may have been shaken but
not completely stirred by the rather
characterless structure put up on
Ridgway at the southern end of the
High Street that now houses
branches of Carphone Warehouse
and Tesco. After all, a car showroom stood on the site before that
and the bakery (shown left) and the
florists nearby have not yet gone out of business.
However the effects of a new plan being considered
by the council may not be quite so benign. This is
to demolish some of the low rise retail buildings
in the High Street a few doors up and construct
four and five-storey buildings (planning application 09/P1850 refers) housing retail on the basement and ground floor levels with flats above.
Keep it distinct
Our concern is that Wimbledon Village, one of
those still surviving in London like Highgate,
Hampstead and Dulwich, should remain essentially
low rise with interesting independent shops. It
should remain totally distinct from Wimbledon
town centre which has a plethora of multiple
chain stores like Next, WH Smith, KFC and Burger
King. While the town has simply developed like
any other since its creation in the 1870s, the village
dates back many centuries.
Shape and size determines who moves in.
Build large retail units in the village and that is
what we will get. In addition, a typical 12 months
of construction work would probably disrupt existing neighbouring businesses, particularly catering establishments like Pizza Express and the
bakery delicatessen Paul, both of which have
outdoor seating for customers. See our objection
letter (www.wimbledonsociety.org.uk/planning).
For the latest on planning applications go to
http://planning.merton.gov.uk or the Society’s
own website at www.wimbledonsociety.org.uk
To join the Planning Committee yourself contact
the Chairman, Mark Leclercq, on 020 8946
0105 or [email protected]
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Around and about
What future for
Society excursions?
The Society’s programme of short excursions
continues to prove very popular but demand for
our day-long coach excursions has been lower
and the last two ran at a small loss. We try to
make them as cheap as possible and if we do not
get sufficient numbers, we cannot cover the costs
of the coach and any other fixed expenses. We
are currently wondering whether to abandon
coach excursions entirely and would appreciate
members’ comments, whether or not you normally
join us on these trips.
We would particularly welcome comments on
the day of the week and the month of the visit.
Many stately homes now have highly profitable
weddings on Saturdays so are closed then. Private
tours are generally impossible at weekends.
Comments would also be welcome on the type
of venue proposed – houses, gardens etc - with
any specific destinations you can suggest. We
can do little about costs as we already charge
the absolute minimum and our visits are regularly
cheaper than those of other organisations.
If you don’t use email, please send your comments
to 6 Ridgway Gardens, London SW19 4SZ or the
Museum. Otherwise do please give us your email
address so that we can remind you of events at
short notice in between Newsletter mailings.
Contact details to: [email protected]
Your address will be used only by the Society.
Selling for Christmas
The Society’s 2009
Christmas card
(left) is a painting
of Rushmere in
snow by local artist
John Field of the
Worple Art Group.
Price £4 for a pack of ten cards. Among books for
sale, Norman Plastow’s ever popular Wimbledon at
War 1939-1945 is the obvious choice in this 70th
anniversary year. Price £7.99. Both cards and
books are available at the Museum every weekend
afternoon 2.30 - 5.00.
Fanfarewell to
Clive
Peerless
We record with sadness
the death of Clive
Peerless in the summer
(see September issue).
He was for many
Clive Peerless
years a good friend to
both the Society and the Village Club, supporting
their aims and participating in their activities.
Clive was born in 1939 and attended Lancing
College in Sussex where his primary interest became
jazz rather than curricular studies. It was a passion
that continued throughout his life and as a trumpet
player he formed bands at school.
When he left, later qualifying as an accountant,
he continued playing in other people’s bands and
forming jazz groups of his own. He also made a
brief foray into journalism as a jazz critic. The
high point of his musical life was a visit to New
Orleans but at his own gigs he preferred to play
Dixieland, mainstream and modern jazz rather
than the free collective music of New Orleans.
Clive enjoyed travel and before gaining his
accountancy qualification he worked in Rhodesia
(now Zimbabwe) and in a casino in the Caribbean.
His other passion was for vintage cars and during
his life he owned several, including his pride and
joy, a Lagonda LG 45 Rapide.
In his last ten years he became Treasurer of
the Village Club and the Village Hall Trust and
was a regular and popular frequenter of the former’s
bar, which he always referred to as ‘the other
place’ – his home from home.
With his wide variety of interests and eclectic
reading taste (compensating for his earlier failure
to study at school) Clive was a good conversationalist
and entertaining companion, equally at home
discoursing on the existence or otherwise of a god,
animal rights and natural history. He will be
missed by his many friends.
Cassandra Taylor and Tony Brown
The Wimbledon Society was founded in 1903 and has had its present name since 1982. (Originally the John Evelyn Club, it was known as the John Evelyn
Society 1949-82.) A Registered Charity (No 269478), its main objectives are to preserve Wimbledon’s amenities and natural beauty, study its history, and
ascertain that urban development is sympathetic and orderly. Annual subscriptions are at the following rates: Individuals £10.00; Families £15.00;
Organisations: Non-commercial £25, commercial £50. Please send membership applications to the Membership Secretary.
The Museum and Bookshop (020 8296 9914), 22 Ridgway, near Lingfield Road, are open from 2.30 to 5.00pm Saturday and Sunday. Admission free.
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