44 FREE ISSUE 36 OCTOBER 2020 THE STREET FOOD MAKING LONDON ROAD A VEGAN COOL ondon Road has become a popular destination Lfor vegetarians and vegans wanting to enjoy DESTINATION Indian street food. Trendy eatery Urban Guj (pictured) and Santosh have created a cool new foodie buzz. The three brothers behind Santosh have been championing fresh and traditionally made, vegetarian, Indian food with a shop on London Road is now serving up hot food Kenyanalongside twist their since much 1986 loved and sweets their newlyand savouries. refitted London Road has seen a bit of a revival in recent times with new shops opening along with a state-of- 4 the-art academy which opened its doors to school children this month. TURN TO PAGE 6 ARMED POLICE HUNT MASKED KNIFEMEN AFTER Masked men wait shop worker lucky 'to outside the house be alive' after attack THEY TRY AND SMASH THEIR WAY IN TO HMO shop worker has spoken of the former hotel being used to house Housing Ltd Amoment he thought he was going to A young families in temporary police helicopter also circled the area who manage die after he was slashed with a broken accommodation had to be protected by attemptinglooking for theto find gang the on suspects. Bank Holiday The the premises. bottle as he tried to be a Good Samaritan. police armed with machine guns after Sunday (Aug 31). The following The father-of- masked men carrying machetes tried Prior to the incident three young men, two spoke on to storm the building. who were also staying in the HMO were from the the basis of Residents watched in horror as three cars seen hanging around outside and all were day,newly officers formed, anonymity after pulled up outside the 18-bed House of carrying knives. It is believed they were London needing nine Multiple Occupancy on Beulah Road and the intended targets. wide, serious stitches to his six men wearing hoodies and face masks violence face (pictured) Several residents were understandably jumped out with eyewitnesses saying unit came after being they were carrying machetes and knives. to speak to attacked in their homes. Women and children including They made straight for the front door of residents and August and said he was ‘lucky’ to be alive. terrifiednewborn and babies are accommodatednow frightened into theleave the three storey house which they started neighbours “I was bleeding for one and half hours I hotel, were also traumatised and distressed. to try and smash their way through. and several actually thought my life was over. " One eye witness said: “It's fortunate that Fortunately, they couldn't break through TURN TO PAGE 4 nobody in or outside of the hotel got caught into the hotel. the reinforced glass and left but their up in this. It could so easily have happened.” officers went cars circled around, appearing in front Residents have expressed concern that drug of the hotel again, several times before Local authorities including Croydon have addicts have been housed at the address STILL NO COUNCIL police arrived. There were three armed residents living in the former Beulah and they want the council to impose licence House Hotel at 29-31 Beulah Road. conditions including the provision of a full ACTION ON DRINKERS handguns, tasers and submachine guns According to council records Croydon has unitssearching and athe total surrounding of 12 officers area carrying on foot paid tens of thousands of pounds to Oak TURN TO PAGE 2 he police have told how they are Tfrustrated by months of delays by the council in issuing anti social COUNCIL HAEMORRHAGING £15K AN HOUR AS IT BEGS FOR BAIL OUT behaviour fines to street drinkers in roydon has been been Councillor Tony Newman, up £1.5billion in debt before Thornton Heath. Chaemorrhaging debt at council leader for six years, the pandemic which created a Thornton Heath Safer Neighbourhood £15,000 an hour for six years then stood down less than two £42 million funding gap and is Team provided evidence to the council and is on the verge of being weeks after defeating a ‘no unlikely to be reimbursed by including videos of seven key drinkers the first London borough this the government. breaching warnings telling them not to century to go bust. Last week, Cllr Hamida Ali, During last week’s full council drink or congregate at the Clocktower confidence’ vote in him.. Even with multi-million pound Newman’s fellow Woodside meeting Newman made the which is covered by a council Public Spaces savings and 400 job losses ward councillor, (pictured surprise announcement, that Protection Order banning drinking. unless the government bails together) narrowly won the he would fall on his sword. His The lack of council action coincides Croydon out it will have to Labour contest to become the decision came days after ally, with a month long consultation on the issue a Section 114 notice future of the PSPO with residents asked and hand over control of Simon Hall resigned for ‘personal While Covid brought the to share their views in a survey the borough to government- council’s first BAME leader. cabinetreasons’ member just 48 hoursfor finance after www.getinvolved.croydon.gov.uk/project/665. appointed commissioners. head it had already racked TURN TO PAGE 2 TURN TO PAGE 4 council’s financial crisis to a thorntonheathchronicle.co.uk editor@ thorntonheathchronicle.co.uk CELEBRATING FOUR YEARS OF THE CHRONICLE our years ago this month In July 2018 working with costs. Advertising, especially Chronicle to continue in the @ThorntonHeathChronicle thornton heath hauntings... FThe Thornton Heath Palace for Life we produced a with Covid, has dwindled and long term.” Chronicle began its life youth edition of The Chronicle the paper is more and more Alma—the apparent focus of the haunting—had written @THChronicle If you would like to support GHOST OF 18TH in print. The newspaper giving a chance to the next reliant on volunteers. to the national newspaper Sunday Pictorial urging them The Chronicle go to: https:// #thorntonheathchronicle was born with the aim of generation of writers. to investigate and they dispatched two journalists who CENTURY FARMER Volunteer Editor Andrea Perry, www.gofundme.com/f/ providing good quality witnessed the phenomenon for themselves. You can now sign up to our mailing We were delighted recently a journalist of more than 30 support-local-newspapers local journalism. It was set HAUNTS FAMILY TV SET list and receive a PDF version along to learn that Crystal Palace years said: “I think what we Under the headline Terror Night in Home Wrecked up with the intention of There are more ghostly tales with updated news: visit: football club had offered paid have achieved by Ghost, they wrote that some “malevolent, ghostly giving the Thornton Heath of poltergeists haunting www.thorntonheathchronicle.co.uk work experience with the with such limited force is working miracles.” community a voice. houses in Thornton Heath EDITOR Andrea Perry club’s communications team to resources has been The famous ghost hunter Nandor Fodor was but are they true? Since 2016 we have covered Sabirina Mohamed and Dinesh remarkable and I intrigued by the case and was desperate to prove DESIGNER: Jo Dawson, John Fraser, a Council member Sanassee, who both worked on am proud of how either way the existence of spiritualism. worse. To get in contact email editor@ the cultural diversity, wealth the youth edition. we have been able of The Society of Psychical A medium claimed the spirit thorntonheathchronicle.co.uk or The hundredsof artists, talentof stories and reflecting amazing to produce a local While researching Fodor, author Kate Summerscale, Research founded in 1882 The Chronicle has always was an 18th century farmer ChronicleWhatsApp: 07930 354128 volunteers living among us. paper that I hope former literary editor of the Daily Telegraph came wrote a book called Poltergeist, been funded on a shoestring called Chatterton and saw the Thornton Heath across his original dossier on the Fielding case and which investigates destructive We have covered the many with support from current occupants as invaders. can be proud of. turned it in to a book called: The Haunting of Alma hauntings and features the struggles of the area and Community ward budgets and Even his wife was said to Sadly without Fielding: A True Ghost Story. Beverstone Road poltergeist haunt the building dressed in a championed causes most a Thornton Heath Community which is a few hundred yards Foder who was director of the International Institute for pinafore with her hair in a bun. Circulation 5,000 copies. notably housing, equality and Action Team People’s Heath from where the author lives. provided accountability. Trust bid paying the print Physical even consulted the eminent neurologist and the Readership: circa 10,000 continued financial support HOUSEWIFE POSSESSED Objects were hurled and founder of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud about the case. Fraser’s book features many the noises got worse with it will be difficult for The Croydon hauntings and BY POLTERGEIST Alma had agreed to be tested in laboratory conditions the family seeing the farmer examines the case of another but as Foder became more sceptical of Alma’s apparitions wearing a black cravat and high ARMED POLICE HUNT COUNCIL ON THE VERGE OF GOING BUST MELFORT ROAD WINS new book has revealed the unexplained case Thornton Heath poltergeist. TURN FROM PAGE 1 TURN FROM PAGE 1 Aof the haunting of a Thornton Heath housewife she is subjected to more intrusive searches, x rays and necked shirt in a black jacket the council’s external auditors revealed the entire Labour cabinet and councillors GREEN RECOVERY GRANT who was apparently possessed by a poltergeist.