On Monday morning, staff and children at Invicta primary school joined firefighters past and present to mark 82 years since its original building was hit by a German parachute mine, killing 12 firefighters and three civilians. The school was being used as a base for the Auxiliary Fire Service at the time. Local war historian STEVE HUNNISETT was there – he takes up the story.
This year, the ceremony fell on the exact 82nd anniversary of the original incident, which occurred at 9:20 pm on 14th November 1940.
Ironically, the casualty list was so high because it was a rare quiet night in London, with the main thrust of the Luftwaffe’s attack being directed at the city of Coventry. As a result, instead of the resident firemen being out on calls as they would be on a “normal” Blitz night in London, they were still at the school, awaiting their first call of the night. The mine largely destroyed the school and instead of being the rescuers, the firemen of Invicta Road found themselves in need of help from the colleagues at other neighbouring fire stations.
Twelve firemen were killed, including Arthur Grant who had just weeks earlier been awarded the George Medal for carrying a live bomb from the assembly hall of the school into the playground, where it later exploded. Also killed were three civilians, including Charles White the school caretaker.
Present at the informal ceremony was Stephanie Maltman of the charity Firemen Remembered, who originally placed the plaque back in 2017. Also present were re-enactors representing the Auxiliary Fire Service and the Army, who fielded many questions from the pupils, including the school’s “History Hunters”, a group of children who specialise in the study of history. The History Hunters laid a poppy wreath at the memorial, as did a group of present-day firefighters from White Watch at East Greenwich Fire Station, who later to the delight of the children present, allowed them to inspect their fire engine and aim fire hoses across the school playground!
Thanks to Steve and Invicta Primary School for the photos.
Full-time rugby has returned to the historic Rectory Field, five years after Blackheath FC upped sticks and moved to Eltham.
Askeans, who play in the Kent 2 league, the tenth tier of English rugby union, have signed a long-term deal with Blackheath Sports Club to move into the ground on Charlton Road, and are already making themselves at home.
Blackheath moved its first-team matches out of the Rectory Field at the end of the 2015-16 season, saying it needed to make the move to ensure its financial stability as it battled for promotion to the Championship, rugby union’s second tier.
The much-loved old ground staged international matches in its heyday, and was also a venue for Kent county cricket until 1972.
Now Askesans’ move brings regular rugby back to the ground – and the club is keen for the community to get involved. DAVID SHUTE takes up the story….
We are delighted that we have now found a permanent home at the Rectory Field in Blackheath. But it’s so much more than somewhere for us to play – we enjoy great facilities – for a start there’s 2 fully licensed long bars (I knew you’d be pleased).
We also enjoy excellent changing rooms, a seriously big stand for spectators, several function areas, a great social side and even a pool table (for anyone who the ref sends for an early bath).
In addition to all that, the ground is steeped in a long and rich history starting way back in the 1880s.
It was originally developed for cricket, football and lawn tennis and was, for many years, home of Blackheath rugby club. Five years ago Blackheath moved to a new home in Well Hall, Eltham.
For several years the Rectory Field only hosted odd games – a great shame for such a prestigious and first class ground that was once used for international sporting events. England played matches here before Twickenham was developed.
Back in the day the All Blacks, Springboks, Australian and Maori touring sides all graced the Rectory Field pitch. It was also the Kent County home ground.
But the rich history is not just rugby, the ground has hosted senior cricket and county games and is now the home in the summer months for Blackheath Cricket Club.
Other facilities include tennis courts and a new commercial gym.
Most importantly – rugby is back at the Rectory Field.
We have already settled in and we look forward to calling it our home for many years to come.
We’ve also been made very welcome and so will you be – if you’re interested in joining – players of all standards and supporters (of any standard) can call Ian (Director of Rugby) on 07957 280530.
Askeans’ next home match is against Dartford Valley on Saturday 6 November at 2pm: there is no charge for admission.
The RT buses ran for 40 years from 1939 (Photo: Pete Edgler via Creative Commons)
Two vintage London Transport buses will run on route 53 through Charlton on Saturday as part of celebrations to mark Plumstead bus garage’s 40th anniversary.
An open day is being held at the garage from 11am to 4pm, and to mark the day two buses that used to run on the 53 will run from Elephant & Castle to Plumstead, passing through Charlton at just after 10am.
The first bus will be an AEC Regent – the predecessor of the more famous Routemaster, and the type used in the Cliff Richard film Summer Holiday. This particular bus, the RT4779, last saw service in 1978, after which it was left to rot in a farmer’s field before being set on fire for the 2002 film Heart of Me. Enthusiasts restored the bus to its former glory and it will be seen plying its old route in Saturday.
Alongside it will be MD60 – not as iconic, but a bus which saw service on the 53 in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It is only one of two surviving roadworthy Scania Metropolitans and has also been restored by an enthusiast.
The buses will depart Elephant & Castle at 9.30am, reach Blackheath Royal Standard at 10.01am and Charlton Park at 10.06am, although these times may slip somewhat. Later in the day, the RT will run a return trip on the 122 to Crystal Palace, leaving Plumstead at 4.10pm.
The open day will include old buses and other memorabilia, and will raise funds for Macmillan Cancer Support. Tickets will be available on the day for £5 (£2.50 for children) and there will also be a shuttle bus linking the garage with Woolwich Arsenal station.
Councillors will decide whether the bar should go ahead next Tuesday
(Update: The planning meeting was postponed to Tuesday 19 October)
Greenwich Council planners are recommending that councillors approve a planned bar in a former bank at Blackheath Standard – but two influential local groups want the idea thrown out.
The brewery’s application to open The Green Goddess will go before the council’s Greenwich area planning committee next Tuesday. Council officers say that the plan “would bring a vacant commercial building back into use and for a purpose, which is appropriate for a designated retail area”.
Common Rioters’ founders Stephen and Maryann O’Connor have been testing out their ideas with a weekend pop-up pub with the same name at Charlton House. Their brewery’s name comes from the Plumstead Common rioters, whose revolt in 1876 saved the open space from being destroyed by a developer.
While 42 messages of support were received, there were 16 objections, including from the Westcombe Society and Blackheath Society amenity groups.
The Westcombe Society said a bar with no kitchen “may lead to an increase in anti- social behaviour outside residential properties” while there would be “smell and waste from the brewing process”.
Meanwhile, the Blackheath Society said “a ‘wet led’ pub without food seems to be designed to encourage pub crawls and potentially excessive alcohol consumption”.
The group also claimed that the bar would “encourage driving to the site, but as there is no car parking proposed this will lead to more congestion and nuisance in neighbouring streets”.
Another objection from a member of the public claimed that there was “no need for additional commercial activity at the Standard”.
There were also concerns about plans to allow tables outside, but a large fence would be put in place to protect the bar’s next-door neighbour on Vanbrugh Park. Outdoor drinking would not be permitted after 9pm.
Two cycle parking racks would be provided for staff. Transport for London had asked for two racks to be provided for customers, but Greenwich planning officers refused, saying “the provision of cycle spaces for customers (short stay) is not, as ‘drinking and driving’, whether it is in a car or a bicycle is not safe”.
The proposed opening hours would be 10am to 11pm seven days a week, with a midnight closedown on Fridays and Saturdays in December.
Work is already under way on the building to convert the bank’s offices into a two-bedroom flat; there is already a flat on the upper floor.
A final decision is due to be made at Woolwich Town Hall on Tuesday.
A project for benches in Maryon Wilson Park is seeking £4,602
Projects across Charlton could be in line for council money from the Greenwich Neighbourhood Growth Fund – with residents given the chance to vote for which schemes get money.
The cash comes from a levy on developers, and £50,000 is available across Charlton, Woolwich and part of Kidbrooke.
Unlike previous GNGF votes, any resident in any part of the borough can vote for any project, with final decisions to be taken at area meetings with ward councillors after the poll.
Projects in Charlton – and very close by – up for funding include a plan for a new playground and picnic area in Charlton Park, benches for Maryon Wilson Park, work to restore the Long Borders at Charlton House a mural under the Woolwich Road flyover.
Local projects you might want to support are:
Area 3: Friends of Charlton Park / £27,051
Proposal to provide Charlton Park Playground with a new picnic area with shady trees, a drinking fountain and extra picnic benches that will bring new life to a run-down corner of the play park. Local families want to see the playground transformed to a landscaped natural adventure that sparks the imagination of children. This space will provide park users somewhere to sit and share picnics in natural shade on hot summer days.
Area 3: Friends of Maryon & Maryon Wilson Parks / £4,602
Installation of two picnic benches adjacent to the Triangle as a meeting point for the community and for parents and carers.
Area 3: Charlton & Blackheath Amateur Horticultural Society / £5,000
Revival of Charlton House Long Borders Garden. Recreation of the Long Borders area for wider community use to include plant and creative fairs, farmer’s markets, outdoor theatre and seasonal events.
Area 3: Luke’s Parochial Church Council / £11,051
Enhancement of the churchyard, highlighting historical features, install attractive and imaginative planting, providing benches to facilitate reflection, enhance safety by levelling the path. Eliminating trip hazards.
Area 3: St Thomas, Old Charlton PCC / £10,000
Renovation of the St Thomas’ Upper Hall for the wider community’s use as a hub. To include re-plastering, painting, recovering of the floor, creating a more welcoming and comforting space.
Area 3: Clockhouse Community Centre with New Charlton Community Centre (NCCA) / £47,227
To make significant building improvements the New Charlton Community Centre (NCCA) to the house and hall (including the installation of a disabled bathroom, redecoration of the hall and to clear and install an all-weather surface externally to improve the external areas to ensure the NCCA is further fit for purpose to serve the local community. To additionally replace some dilapidated kitchen equipment in the Clockhouse Community Centre to significantly improve the services offered by the Community Cafe.
Projects close by… (Area 2 covers the Greenwich Peninsula so has £140,000 on offer)
Area 2: Montessori Education for Autism, Westcombe Hill / £5,617
Erect a 6′ x 6′ wooden greenhouse and a 6’ x 6’ wooden potting shed to provide enhanced learning opportunities for children with autism and other disabilities.
Area 2: Invicta Primary School / £65,000
The creation of a bespoke play space and cedar clad meeting room (capacity: 15 adults) to provide an outdoor library for children, music lessons, staff meetings, and a conference space for community hire.
Area 2: Aldeburgh and Fearon Streets Neighbourhood Watch / £7,500
To improve the area under the Angerstein flyover by commissioning a mural that would represent some aspects of the history of the area, as well as its reality today.
Drinkers who want to support a Plumstead brewery’s plans to turn a former bank at Blackheath Standard into a “beer café” can now show their support to Greenwich Council.
Documents submitted to council planners reveal plans to turn the old basement vault into a bottle cellar and tasting area, with the main bar and brewery on the ground floor. Separate plans have been submitted to convert the first floor offices of the bank into housing; there is already a flat on the top floor.
The building would also need a premises licence to operate as a bar – for now, the planning application indicates that it would close by 11.30pm.
“Education is a core theme of the concept – It’s planned to hold occasional brewery tours and ‘be a brewer’ events as well as sommelier led tasting and training sessions,” the application says. It’s anticipated that an apprentice (covering all aspects of brewing and bar management) will be taken on in due course to help open access to the industry.”
The estate ball court is one of Evie’s proudest achievements
Evie Hoyte has been looking out for the people of Woodville Estate, next to the Sun-in-the-Sands roundabout, for 50 years. She spoke to SAM DAVIES about the unique challenges she’s faced in the past 12 months.
“Twenty-seven people live along here, but you wouldn’t think so.” Evie Hoyte is showing me round the Woodville Estate at a social distance. “I’ve been doing it for a long long time, just keeping an eye on the community. It’s a little, closed-in place. But it’s not closed in.”
It’s a grey, locked-down Saturday and there aren’t many people about, but Evie seems happy right where she is. She gestures proudly towards her neighbours’ flats and a sports area with a goal and a basketball hoop. It’s clear she welcomes visitors.
Sitting just off the Sun-in-the-Sands roundabout in Blackheath, the Woodville Estate has been included as part of Greenwich Council’s neighbourhood champions scheme, which is targeting communities in and around Charlton as well as a Plumstead, Woolwich and Thamesmead.
Launched in November, the programme links volunteers with community leaders and organises regular check-in sessions with the aim of making sure everyone is alright. As someone who has been active in her community for over half a century, Evie was a natural fit.
Evie’s taken an interest in her community ever since moving to London from Trinidad aged 21. She worked as a nurse for most of her adult life and brought her children up on the Woodville Estate, watching them grow up and eventually move away to have kids of their own. When she retired from nursing in 2003, she started working in social services, then finally settled into full retirement in 2011.
The secluded estate lies just off the Sun-in-the-Sands roundabout
But she’s never been one to put her feet up. “I thought what am I going to do now?” she says. “I can’t be just squiggling my fingers and doing nothing. And this is when I started getting absolutely involved with the community.”
She helped install an allotment, allowing Woodville residents to grow their own fruit and veg, as well as a garden, which Evie looks after along with some of her neighbours. Her proudest achievement is the Woodville sports court. A decade ago the estate had a five-a-side football pitch around the corner from where it is now. But it wasn’t visible from the balconies of overlooking flats, meaning kids often felt more inclined to cause trouble there. Evie was instrumental in securing council funding to get a new court built in the middle of the estate.
“We deliberately made it open,” she says. “So that the teenagers don’t sit in a little cubbyhole and make mischief.” Because it is so secluded, Woodville was once an appealing spot for drug dealers. “But we were keeping an eye on things,” says Evie. “And if there was any anti-social behaviour, we would report it to the council.”
The sports court has been popular with people from all over, and Evie talks glowingly about visitors. “I am really really proud of the outside world coming in,” she says. “The other day I saw a gentleman with four kids and they were having such fun. I thought, that’s brilliant, because he was a complete stranger and he didn’t know this was here.” Charlton Athletic have even sent football coaches to Woodville to host games for kids.
Behind the sports court is a cluster of noticeably more modern buildings. This is a gated accommodation project, built recently, with houses available at prices considerably higher than those of the rest of the estate. The council consulted Woodville residents like Evie before granting planning permission to the project. While they got the green light, Evie says she’s had next to no contact with her new neighbours.
During the pandemic, Evie has tried to maintain a close relationship with the council. But at 77, she’s not especially keen on Zoom — where most of the neighbourhood champions’ meetings take place. “When we used to have participation meetings, we used to meet 10, 15 people, and everybody brings something to the table from where they live,” she says. “But now people depend on Skypeing and doing Zoom and all of that. So we don’t get involved as much as we used to.”
Instead she focuses on her immediate community, regularly knocking on doors and catching up with her neighbours from a safe distance. “All my neighbours know me,” she says. “If they need anything, if they want me to help, I put myself forward.” If anyone has a serious problem, Evie conveys it to the council through a younger, more technically-minded neighbour, who takes part in the Charlton neighbourhood champions’ meetings.
Evie Hoyte, left, is looking forward to seeing more of neighbours on the Woodville Estate like Val in the future
She admits that her social network has shrunk in the past year, making it hard to keep track of people she used to be in regular contact with. “Probably some people not well,” she says. “Probably some of them died, I don’t know.” Of Woodville’s 27 residents, so far nobody has had the virus. Evie has managed to stay safe, mostly keeping to herself except for trips to the supermarket with her daughter.
She has had her first dose of the vaccine already and is expecting her second soon. She says everyone on the estate has been sensible in adhering to the government’s lockdown measures. “You feel proud of people following the rules without you telling them to do it.”
Evie’s now looking forward to a post-pandemic world. “In the summertime, it really is buzzing,” she says, remembering barbecues from previous years. For now she remains positive. “Yes I am. Because I wanted to get back on my feet and get back out and do my work and do my allotment and do my exercises — all of these things that you cannot be doing, but we’re all thinking positive. And there’s always light at the end of the tunnel and I think the light is nearly on our doorstep.”
If you are in Charlton and want to become a neighbourhood champion, email kelly-ann.ibrahim[at]royalgreenwich.gov.uk.
SAM DAVIES is a journalist who has written for Dazed, DJ Mag, the Guardian, the i, Mixmag, Pitchfork, Readers Digest and Vice. He co-hosts the podcast Exit The 36 Chambers.
This is the last of a series of stories published here and on our sister site 853 about how SE London’s communities have reacted to the coronavirus pandemic. See all the stories published over the past year.
The Charlton Champion 