Charlton Community Gardens have been in touch to tell us about a plant sale they’re holding on Thursday 13 June at Charlton Station. It’s an opportunity to meet the people behind the Community Gardens project and check out the progress they’ve made. If you’re interested in finding out more, or getting involved (they need more help with their watering rota, for example), email charltoncommunitygardens [at] gmail.com.
Author: Neil Clasper
Visit Charlton Manor Primary School on Open Garden Squares Weekend
The annual Open Garden Squares Weekend takes place 8-9 June, and Charlton Manor Primary School are opening their doors to the public to show off their Secret Garden.
Headmaster Tim Baker writes:
Visitors will get a tour of the garden and a talk about how the garden is used to support the curriculum. For those that wish we will also give a tour of the children’s kitchen.There will be tea and cakes available on the day. The cakes are made from produce in the garden, ie eggs, honey, carrots etc.
The Secret Garden at Charlton Manor is hidden behind the dinner centre. It provides the children with a quiet area to go at break times and at other times during the day when they may have difficulties concentrating in class. It is packed with learning opportunities and as well as having allotments, a greenhouse and raised beds it also has 4 bee hives, a chicken run home to 10 chickens of different breeds, a stag beetle environment, a composting area containing 4 different composting methods including a wormery, a hide for bird watching, a bird box with cameras linked to the internet, a wildlife area together with pond and an area for conducting investigations using computers such as pond dipping. The children use it through most of the curriculum. Much of the produce is used in the school’s newly built teaching kitchen, enabling them to understand how this all fits with healthy eating.
Champion readers may have seen the school featured on BBC News recently, as they contributed to a garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. Pupils have been attending the show and manning a stand to tell the public about the plants they grew, and have been visited by a number or members of the royal family and celebrities visiting the garden.
This correspondent went along to the school’s Open Garden event last year and enjoyed the experience very much (the cake was particularly good). Why not call by to see what’s going on in this green-fingered corner of SE7?
The address:
Charlton Manor Primary SchoolIndus Road London SE7 7EF
Charlton: home of London’s fastest broadband?
The Guardian this week highlighted a report on the postcode lottery of broadband speeds across London, with some suburbs having notably better service than areas in central London. The report claims that the fastest average download speeds to be found across London are actually in Charlton. Anecdotal evidence suggests, however, that there’s a wide range of speeds even within our postcode.
So what’s your experience of broadband in SE7? Good, bad or indifferent? Have you any tips for improving your broadband speed? Let us know in the comments below, and maybe we’ll get an idea of which broadband providers are serving Charlton best.
Charlton Lido reopens this week…but in what state?
Good news for local swimmers as Charlton Lido is set to reopen on Thursday this week. While the local press reports suggested that it would be reopening “after a £2m refurbishment“, recent photos suggest “will reopen while building works go on around it through the summer” might be a more accurate summary.
The plans are available to view online now but, in short, the developments will mean the introduction of:
- indoor changing rooms
- gym facilities
- a cafe.
While some regulars will look back fondly on the basic facilities provided previously, anyone familiar with London Fields Lido will know that the addition of the cafe should prove very popular, providing somewhere to socialise and warm up or cool down after a swim. (In the current weather conditions anyone enterprising enough to turn up with a supply of hot chocolate this weekend could prove very popular).
What price a swim in SE7?
Pool users will be pleased to see that prices seem to have been held since last year, but would be justified in wondering why, at £6 for a pay-on-the-door adult swim, they pay a third more than swimmers at London Fields Lido, an identically-sized pool run by the same operator. A Twitter conversation with GLL earlier revealed not a great deal more than ‘prices vary from borough’ because of differing arrangements with ‘local partners’, ‘the majority of whom are local authorities’. This is presumably a reflection of the amount of subsidy that councils provide to the operator, but we’d greatly appreciate any insight into how this arrangement works in the comments box below (particularly if you’re a local councillor!). It’s also interesting to note that when I visited London Fields Lido on a chilly January morning, it was busier than I’ve seen Charlton Lido, save for the very brief heatwave in August last year.
Overall, though, it’s great to see the return of one of London’s few heated outdoor pools; if you go this weekend, tell us what it was like (and remember to wrap up warm when you get out of the pool).
Charlton Community Gardens open meeting – 25th Feb 2013
The third open meeting of the Charlton Community Gardens project takes place from 7.30pm on Monday 25th February, at St. Richard’s Hall, Swallowfield Road, SE7 7NS.
The group’s aims are ‘to promote cooperation and support for everyone interested in sustainable and organic growing and wildlife diversity’, and they are working on leasing local land for ‘shared growing and learning together’. The meeting is an opportunity to find out what the project is all about, and hear about progress in securing the group’s first plot of land.
This will be the group’s first AGM; they would welcome new members on the Steering Committee, and there will also be a plant sale and raffle (with prizes including a mini greenhouse!).
If you’d like to find out more about getting involved, or put yourself forward for the Steeting Committee, the organisers can be contacted by email at: charltoncommunitygardens [at] gmail.com.
Feed the deer in Maryon Wilson Park
Festive goings on in Maryon Wilson Animal Park this Saturday, with mince pies, hot chocolate, seasonal singing, and a chance to feed the deer. Come along to support the volunteers, and donate what you can to help keep the deer in the park. It’s all happening 2-3.30pm, Saturday December 22nd in Maryon Wilson Park. You can follow the Animal Park on Twitter: @MWAnimalPark.
Charlton Toy Library’s 30th anniversary party
Charlton Toy Library are having a birthday party on Saturday – and they need your help to 
secure the future of this local service…
Charlton Toy Library celebrates its 30th Birthday on 10th November 3pm-6pm at Charlton Assembly Rooms with a spectacular party. Everyone with children is invited to come and enjoy a music session with Boppin Bunnies, theatre workshop with Theatre bugs, balloons, bubbles, birthday tea, party games, face painting and much, much more.
The library is based at Charlton House and runs a borrowing service of toys, books, DVD’s, CD’s, baby safety equipment, dressing up clothes, games puzzles and lots more. It also runs stay and play sessions three times a week 09.30-12.30 on Tuesday, Thursday and Fridays.
Charlton Toy Library does not receive any public funding and relies on a diminishing number of grants. It is likely to lose its outreach programme, which provides a much needed service in the local community for disadvantaged families, in the next few months due to lack of funding.
The service in Charlton House is run solely by a tireless team of dedicated volunteers but the Outreach service delivered by a part time qualified worker and, until recently, a big friendly red van is a cost that the library can no longer afford to run.
Colin Brown, chair of the management committee of the library, said “After 30 years serving the community it will be a terrible shame for the toy library to have to cease running its outreach programme. The ‘stay and play’ and borrowing sessions in Charlton House are also at risk as we rely very heavily on volunteers.
We hope that, following the volunteering boost triggered by the Olympics, we may be able to attract some more help but the running costs needed to keep our outreach worker are increasingly difficult to come by, indeed we have already had to sell the ‘friendly red van’ to cover salary costs for the next few months. This has not been helped by the fact that applications to charitable trusts have been increasingly unsuccessful in recent months due to the economic climate and the number of other organisations applying for them.
We will keep the Toy Library going in its present format for as long as possible and will enjoy celebrating our 30th birthday on 10 November”
The party will be a fundraising event with an affordable ticket price and an auction of promises for the adults. We are very grateful to Asda on Bugsby Way who is sponsoring the event.
If you would like to help us celebrate and support Charlton Toy Library, tickets can be purchased online at uk.virginmoneygiving.com/charities/charltontoylibrary. If you are unable to attend but would like to support the Toy Library you can still do so by visiting the Virgin Money Giving website and making a small donation or by donating a ‘promise’ for the auction (details of which can be found on our website www.charltontoylibrary.co.uk).
If you would be interested in becoming a volunteer, helping run our weekly sessions, helping with fundraising or have any services you could offer directly to the library, please contact us on 020 8315 0055 or e-mail us at charltontoylibrary@gmail.com.
The Charlton Champion 