SYDENHAM SOCIETY NEWS Summer 2016 Blue plaque for Sir George Grove George Grove was born in The original Crystal Palace, Clapham in 1820, the son designed by Joseph Paxton, was a of a fishmonger. He trained temporary structure built to house as an engineer, graduating the Great Exhibition in Hyde from the Institute of Civil Park. The exhibition opened Engineering in 1839. on 1 May 1851 and closed five Grove travelled to Jamaica months later. There followed and Bermuda to oversee much heated debate about the the building of lighthouses. future of the building: should He also worked with it be demolished as originally Robert Stephenson on intended, retained or re-erected somewhere else. In April 1852 the Chester to Holyhead the government decided that the Railway, helping to build building would be demolished. Chester Station and the This led to the formation of the bridge over the Menai Strait. Crystal Palace Company which Although an engineer, Grove also would buy the building and re-erect it, had a passionate interest in music and much enlarged, on another site. took every opportunity to attend concerts. It cannot be a coincidence that several In 1850 he decided to embark on a new career directors of the Crystal Palace Company already which would enable him to pursue this passion. He had links with Sydenham. Leo Schuster had lived accepted the post of secretary of the Society of Arts which, at Penge Place since about 1847 and was prepared to sell his at that time, was making plans for the Great Exhibition. His house and estate, on the slopes of Sydenham Hill, as a site for predecessor in this post was John Scott Russell, a naval architect the new building. Samuel Laing had been living in Mayow Road who was living in Charlecote Grove, off Kirkdale. Scott Russell since 1847 and Thomas Newman Farquhar had lived at The was to become a lifelong friend. Continued on page 3 IN THIS ISSUE Sydenham Arts Summer Festival Wells Park news Brunch in Sydenham Open gardens Winifred Knights retrospective U3A Japanese knotweed crumble recipe Welcome to new businesses Your neighbourhood voice www.sydenhamsociety.com Sydenham Society News • Summer 2016 SYDENHAM SOCIETY CONTACTS YOUR LOCALLY ELECTED OFFICALS Blue plaque for Sir George Grove Continued from page 1 Chair Conservation & Planning LOCAL MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT Annabel McLaren Barbara Kern Jim Dowd MP for Lewisham West and Penge [email protected] [email protected] Helen Hayes MP for Dulwich and Upper Norwood Treasurer & Membership Events c/o House of Commons London SW1A 0AA Roger Feather Jackie Aldridge [email protected] 020 8778 5455 LEWISHAM ASSEMBLY MEMBER 020 8778 4318 [email protected] Len Duvall OBE AM c/o City Hall, The Queen's Walk, London SE1 2AA Newsletter Editor Roads & Transport Pat Trembath Ilse Towler [email protected] [email protected] LEWISHAM Councillors 020 8659 4903 020 8778 3743 Civic Suite Lewisham Town Hall Catford SE6 4RU 020 8314 6000 Newsletter Design & Layout Local History Jody Howard-McLeish Steve Grindlay Bellingham Ward [email protected] [email protected] Alan Hall Ami Ibitson Jacq Paschoud 020 8699 6398 Newsletter Copy Editor Forest Hill Ward Emma Mallinder Contact address for post Peter Bernards Maja Hilton Paul Upex Sydenham Society Newsletter Distribution 35 Bishopsthorpe Road Perry Vale Ward Pat Trembath Sydenham John Paschoud Alan Till Susan Wise 020 8659 4903 SE26 4PA Sydenham Ward The Sydenham Society is an independent group representing Chris Best Liam Curran Rachel Onikosi the interests of local residents. 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Southwark Council 020 7525 5000 The deadline for articles for the next newsletter will be Friday 29 July 2016 2 Sydenham Society News • Summer 2016 Blue plaque for Sir George Grove Continued from page 1 Old Cedars, opposite the Greyhound, since 1845. John also frequently stayed at Scott Russell's house at the end of Scott Russell had been living in Charlecote Grove since 1847. Sydenham Avenue. Leo Shuster was also chairman and Samuel Laing a director It was with Grove's wholehearted support that the of the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway whose line conductor August Manns provided "a range of the orchestral ran through Forest Hill and Sydenham. George Grove was fare... that eclipsed that of any other British concert-giving appointed secretary of the Crystal Palace Company on organisation, with a unique record of new works by foreign 13 May 1852. composers giving British first performances, and new works by When the decision was taken to rebuild the Crystal Palace British composers". Grove wrote many of the highly detailed on Sydenham Hill, Grove decided to move to the area. He programme notes for these concerts and these were to form found a house on a new development called Church Meadow, the basis of his Dictionary of Music and Musicians, the first next to St Bartholomew's Church. St Bartholomew's was built volume of which was published in 1879. on a triangle of land bounded today by Westwood Hill, Jews During 1882 George Grove headed a fund-raising Walk and Kirkdale. In about 1849 this land was acquired by campaign which led to the opening of the Royal College of John Goodwin, a builder, Music. He was its first and it is probable that his director and was knighted son George, an architect, the same year. designed the houses that were soon to be built. Sir George Grove died at his cottage in Grove complained Lower Sydenham on 28 that his move to 14 May 1900. His funeral Westwood Hill was being service was held at St delayed by Bartholomew's Church "the dilatoriness of the and he was buried in the builders". Eventually, in Brockley and Ladywell October 1852, Grove and Cemetery. his wife Harriet were able to move in. The vicar of C L Graves, who St Bartholomew's, the Rev wrote the first biography Charles English, became of Sir George in 1903, one of Grove's "best described him as: Sydenham friends". "one of the most remarkable men of his When the Groves remarkable generation... moved to Westwood Hill A man who was at once the land between their an able engineer, a self- house and the church taught but conspicuous was a footpath leading Biblical scholar and to Wood's Nurseries geographer, the secretary on Kirkdale. In 1875 12 of an enormous Westwood Hill, later to be commercial enterprise, Shackleton's house, was editor of a prominent built on this site. Several of magazine, the Director Grove's friends lived nearby including Henry Wyndham Phillips, of a College of Music, editor of a musical dictionary and heaven "a portrait painter of great merit" who lived at 24 Westwood knows what besides". Hill between 1857 and 1861 and August Manns who lived at Steve Grindlay Athol Lodge, 174 Kirkdale from 1865 to 1871. In 1860 George, Harriet and their children moved to a On Tuesday, 5 July at 3pm an late 17th century cottage in Lower Sydenham where he was to English Heritage blue plaque will be unveiled spend the rest of his life. on the house that Sir George Grove lived in at 14 Westwood Hill, next door to 12 Westwood Hill, One biographer described George Grove as the former home of Sir Ernest Shackleton, "the intellectual centre of the Sydenham set", a group also with a blue plaque commemoration. of Sydenham people who shared an interest in the arts, Speakers on 5 July will be English Heritage’s Music Advisor, particularly music. The Sydenham Set included the von Glehns Jane Glover CBE, conductor and music scholar, on Peak Hill, the Scott Russells and Arthur Sullivan who Steve Grindlay and Professor Colin Lawson, "took rooms over a shop in Sydenham Road, to be near his Director of the Royal College of Music. kind friend Grove, at whose house he almost lived". Sullivan 3 Sydenham Society News • Summer 2016 Activities for older people As the population is living longer with a range of complex programme of therapy that helps co-workers to improve health issues, looking after ourselves in old age has become their cognitive skills, become more socially included and more essential.