THE RIDDLESDOWN R E C O R D E R A half-yearly publication of the Riddlesdown Residents’ Association No. 194 April 2012 1937 2012 RRA 75th Anniversary! INSIDE: the end of an era, who are we, letter to the editor, dog walking, conserving the chalk hill blue, a trek, Purley Lit centenary, strange but true? And much more ... RIDDLESDOWN RESIDENTS’ ASSOCIATION The Committee Vice-President: Mrs H.Kiernan Brian Longman Chairman Bernard Munn 8657 8374 Treasurer 8657 0535 Karen Whitehead Phil Thomas Secretary & Riddlesdown Planning & Environmental Collegiate Liaison Officer Website Administrator 8668 8677 8668 3815 John Rapp Monica Pugh Membership, Road Stewards Editor Riddlesdown Recorder and Transport 8660 6008 8660 9531 Janice Kedwards Bill Whitmarsh Social 8660 2178 8668 2011 Frankie Wheeler Fred Wallis 8660 3886 8668 7837 Mavis Wilder Diana Chitty 8668 3579 8668 3337 All emergencies: (Fire, Police, Ambulance) 999 NEW POLICE NON-EMERGENCY NUMBER: 101 All Croydon Police Stations: 0300 123 1212 Purley Safer Neighbourhood Team: 020 8721 2467 Cover photograph: Riddlesdown by motor bus by Charles Sharland, 1913, courtesy of London Transport Museum 2 Editor’s notes n Happy 75th RRA! CONTENTS Page This year seems to be jam-packed with celebrations. Editor’s Notes 3 The Association is 75, the Queen has been on the throne for 60 years (congratulations Your Majesty) and The Committee Reports 4 London is welcoming the world as part of the Olympics and Paralympics! What an exciting year! The End of an Era 24 As you all know, the committee members and the wonderful Road Stewards are all volunteers, so we should remember to Who Are We? 25 salute all volunteers who help create the atmosphere in our neighbourhood that Letter to the Editor 27 helps us appreciate it so. And we should also remember all those thousands of volunteers that will make London the Dog Walking 27 place to be this year! Yes, as a tourist or a resident, there is a lot to do as part of the Olympics and the Royal celebrations. Conserving the Chalk Hill Blue 32 I also take this opportunity to remind you, if you get the bug, and you want to get Riddlesdown Collegiate 33 involved, please contact us! This also prompts me to seek volunteers for the Recorder. As the current Editor, I A Trek 35 will be producing my last copy in October, pressures of work and life force me to give this publication up, giving the opportunity The Purley Lit’s Centenary 37 to someone who can spend more time on it and help promote it. Please contact me or Strange but true? 39 the chairman if you are interested. I hope that you will enjoy this edition - I have been very lucky that we have had many Community Pages 41 contributors that have helped make this celebratory edition a bumper one, enjoy! Monica Pugh You may write to the Riddlesdown Residents' Association at any of the following addresses: 66 Westfield Avenue, Sanderstead, CR2 9JU, 43 Westfield Avenue, Sanderstead, CR2 9JZ 37 Buttermere Gardens, Purley, CR8 1EJ, 78 Ingleboro Drive, Riddlesdown, Purley CR8 1EF Please mark your letter with the committee member's name, if applicable. You can also use the Website Message Board’s open or private email facilities. RRA Notice Boards are situated by Riddlesdown Pharmacy, by the Church Hall and by K&K Food and Wine. We also use the boards on St. Edmund’s Green and in the station waiting room. Website: www.riddlesdownresidents.org.uk Email: [email protected] 3 C O M M I T T E E R E P O R T S CHAIRMAN BRIAN prescription, the Pharmacy in Lower Barn LONGMAN Road also provides many free NHS services, including medicine reviews, new RRA Chairman medication consultations and follow-ups, cardiovascular health checks including cholesterol testing on the premises and a Support our local shops. one-to-one Stop Smoking Clinic. The I am sure you will have all read the recent Pharmacy is also part of the Croydon stories in the media describing the Minor Ailment Scheme whereby the desperate plight of many small shops up Pharmacist is able to prescribe over-the- and down the country, struggling to counter medications for a whole plethora of survive. It is now a common occurrence common conditions. This service is free to that local shops, once the centre of the children and adults who are exempt from community, are being forced to close. prescription charges, thus avoiding Commercial pressures from the big unnecessary visits to the GP. They can supermarkets, Post Office cuts and rising also provide pre-packed, weekly medicine rental costs are forcing once-thriving local trays to the elderly or infirm, free of shops to close. The statistics speak for charge, to help those who are confused or themselves with over 2,000 local shops forgetful about taking their tablets. closing across the UK each year. Established over 40 years ago, this Last year the Government appointed Mary independent Pharmacy provides an Portas, one of the UK’s leading retail essential service to the local community. experts, to lead an independent review into With no other pharmacies nearby, let’s the future of our High Streets and Town make sure we keep this one. Centres. The review came up with 28 ideas Over the last decade, we have seen a for rejuvenating the High Street but what constant stream of small Post Offices can we do, as residents, to support our local closing and despite a recent 10-year deal to shops in Riddlesdown? The first thing to keep Post Offices to sell stamps and handle say is how fortunate we are in today’s parcels, they still need our support. The climate to still have a range of local shops, RRA recently lobbied the Post Office, via including a Post Office, a Pharmacy and our local MP, in an effort to increase the two excellent Newsagents that also sell a range of services that our local Post Office wide range of food and general supplies. can offer for example; car tax renewal. The However as I mentioned in my 2008 report, reply was simple and to the point. There we must not be complacent. These shops were eleven other POs within a 3-mile will only survive if we support them. radius that already had this facility, so we Local shops are essential to our community should use Purley, Warlingham or and often a lifeline to many people, Coulsdon. So what is wrong with especially the elderly. Did you know, for Riddlesdown!! example, that besides dispensing your It is often said, the closing of one shop Have you visited our website? www.riddlesdownresidents.org.uk 4 C O M M I T T E E R E P O R T S CHAIRMAN often leads to the closure of another. All health and safety, potential fire risk and our shops to some extent rely on each other security issues. Unfortunately despite the to generate footfall, from Tip Top Hair to way the work was carried out we were Wessons and Maggie’s Diner to Caterham informed there had been no breaches of Glass. planning controls. Whilse we must remain Did you know that Ray, who established vigilant and continue to explore every the glass business back in 1973, supplies avenue available to us, the land, despite the everything from traditional leaded lights to speculators, remains firmly within the double-glazed units from shower screens to Green Belt Planning Regulations. The other picture frames and mirrors, and lots more. live land issue currently occupying the By now, many of you will be aware that Association is the plot of land adjacent to Peter and Trish after 30 years of working the shops in Lower Barn Road and I would all hours managing Saban Newsagents, refer you to Phil Thomas’s full planning have decided to retire. I am sure I speak for report for the latest update. everyone when I say they will be missed. Having mentioned Planning, I would like Their shop, selling everything from to take this opportunity to thank Phil for all magazines to milk, has over the years the hard work he puts in on behalf of the developed into a community hub. A place Association on a range of Planning and where you not only buy your newspaper Environmental issues - not to mention the but also renew acquaintances and share Web site, which, if you have not yet information and as one elderly resident visited, I suggest you do. It is very good. once told me, a place where they always felt welcome. The same can also be said of Committee our Post Office with its warm welcome In the last issue of the Recorder, I made an from Vijay and Pailupa Patel. appeal for several new Road Stewards. The A recent poll revealed that more than a good news is, we have had volunteers for quarter (28%) of adults in the UK feel Westfield Avenue and Lower Barn Road isolated or have a friend or loved one who but still need Stewards for part of Hyde feels isolated, because of a lack of access to Road and Mitchley Avenue. essential shops and services within walking As a general rule, a Road Steward is distance. Let’s make sure this does not allocated a section of their road, usually happen in Riddlesdown. Please support our around 40 houses. Twice a year, they local shops. deliver the Riddlesdown Recorder and perhaps the odd flyer for fun day etc. and Green Belt once a year they collect the Association’s On the land front, I can report there have subscriptions.