Local Olympians

By Gary Thornton

The 2020 Tokyo Olympics, held over to 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, will be especially memorable for each of the Team GB medal winners, who between them secured 65 medals, including 22 golds.

And for Forest Hill, these games will also be remembered as the first gold medal for one of our local athletes. Alex Yee followed his silver medal in the triathlon by anchoring the mixed relay team — also comprising Jessica Learmonth, Jonny Brownlee and Georgia Taylor-Brown — and obtaining the gold medal. Although Alex grew up close by in Brockley, he attended Stillness Infant School, so here in SE23 we can claim at least part of him as one of our own.

The 23-year-old first attracted attention when he won the 2012 Mini London Marathon and took gold for Lewisham in the London Youth Games, where he competed in cycling and the aquathlon. He recovered from a serious cycling injury in 2017 and began competing in the triathlon in 2019, finishing second in his first event, and winning his first World Triathlon Championship Series in Leeds earlier this year. 

 
Local artist Lionel Stanhope was also quick off the mark, commemorating Alex’s success with an addition to his Brockley sign:

 

There are few past Olympians from Forest Hill, and we have to look to our neighbours to bask in their reflected glory:
 
Tasha Danvers attended Sydenham Girls’ School. A finalist at Sydney in 2000, she won bronze in the 400m hurdles at Beijing in 2008.

Lesley-Ann Skeete was born in Sydenham and ran in the 100m hurdles at Seoul in 1988 and Barcelona in 1992.

Duncan Goodhew lived at Wells Park Road in Sydenham during the 1980s. He famously won gold in the 100m breaststroke and bronze in the 4x100m medley relay at Moscow in 1980.

Linda Ludgrove lived on the Sydenham Hill Estate, and took part in the 4x100m relay and the 100m backstroke at Tokyo in 1964. Linda also won 5 gold medals and 1 silver at the Commonwealth Games of 1962 and 1966.

Photo: Linda Lovegrove, Nederlands: Collectie / Archief : Fotocollectie Anefo


Victor Gauntlett was born in Forest Hill in 1884, but after his family emigrated, he represented South Africa in the 1908 London Olympics, playing in the men's singles and reaching the quarter finals of the men’s doubles.

Richard Barnett was born in Forest Hill in 1863 and finished fourth in the Men's Free Rifle 1,000 yards in the 1908 London Olympics. He later served as the MP for St Pancras South West.

These, and other Lewisham Olympians, are recorded in the London 2012 legacy website,
http://lewishamlegacy.wikidot.com/lewisham-s-olympic-heroes

The Great Big SE4 and SE23 Raffle

Back in April, when we were under serious lockdown, and virtually all local shops were shut, a couple of local ladies, Amanda Pearce and Nicola Johnson, had the excellent idea to run an online raffle: It would generate income for local business and offer prizes for people to look forward to after lockdown.

In total they sold over £17,000-worth of tickets, with all the money invested in future prizes from local businesses. 

As well as generating income for local independent businesses, it was a great reminder of all the wonderful independent shops in Forest Hill, Honor Oak, Crofton Park and Brockley. With hundreds of people entering the raffle to win random prizes, it was heart-warming to see such community spirit during the toughest of times.

Daily publicity for these businesses occurred via social media and provided information about which shops were gradually able to reopen.

Sadly, not all shops have been able to continue after lockdown, and we have seen a few businesses, such as Rob’s Barbers, not reopening since lockdown, and the Dartmouth Arms closing its doors. 

The raffle, and the shop closures, are an important reminder that local independent businesses only survive if we use them.

Full disclosure: I won a voucher for drinks at Subplot 57, the bar underneath Leaf & Groove that has a newly opened garden space.

Southern Rail - Consultation on Cuts to Services

Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) has launched an extensive consultation which sets out proposed changes to the timetable which will be operated by GTR in 2018 following completion of the Thameslink Programme.

These proposals include:
a) Diverting all our East Croydon services to West Croydon - making it take longer to get to Gatwick and other destinations in Sussex.
b) Reducing our peak services to London Bridge to four trains an hour (the same capacity as the rest of the day). These services would be replaced by five carriage Overground trains to Dalston Junction.
c) Increasing services via Crofton Park to four trains per hour

The Forest Hill Society opposes the first two of these changes and supports the third. But it is important that local residents respond to this survey to show the strength of feeling.

Survey responses should be completed at https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/2018timetableconsultation
To help you respond to the large number of questions across all the Southern, Thameslink, and Great Northern Services, we have compiled a list of the nine questions we believe you should answer, with some explanation of each.

Q No.	Our View	Notes
14	We recommend you respond to this based on your circumstances, but in favour of later running services on Friday and Saturday	We support the introduction of late night services from London Bridge or Canada Water. However, early morning services may be important to you.   Please mention late night services on Friday and Saturday in the comments section of this question.
17	We recommend you select Yes	This supports services through Crofton Park
29	We recommend you support this	This supports services through Crofton Park
30	We recommend you support this	This supports services through Crofton Park
58	We recommend you select No	These services would replace Forest Hill services to East Croydon
59	We recommend you select No	This makes more services fast on our line rather than stopping at Forest Hill
60	We recommend you select No	Unnecessary duplication of London Overground services to West Croydon. Enforced interchange at Norwood Junction, a station that has no step free access for interchange (on the way to Gatwick Airport).
61	We recommend you select No	These services world replaces Forest Hill services to East Croydon
67	We recommend you support SN3.1 and reject SN3.8. We also recommend you reject the reduction in peak hour services to London Bridge

Mix it Up at Brockley Max

This year’s Brockley Max festival willl run for nine days from 27 May to 4 June and is dedicated to the memory of the beautiful and vibrant Gill Fraser, co-organiser of Brockley Max. The Opening Night starts at 2 pm on Friday, 27 May outside Brockley Station with the legendary evening of entertainment. With the best line–up ever including more than ten groups, the evening will be hosted once again by ‘Dre the coolest, smoothest MC in Brockley and produced by Richard Swan, one of Brockley’s best known musos. What follows is eight more days of exciting, surprising, family-friendly activities, events, workshops and exhibitions across Brockley, Ladywell, Crofton Park and Honor Oak.

Now in its eleventh year, Brockley Max brings the best talent and creativity the area has to offer for your enjoyment. The theme this year is “Max It Up – Join The Fun” where the community has come together to keep Brockley Max alive and thriving despite the cuts. It still is the best place to celebrate the summer in SE London. Full details of all the events can be found on Brockley Max's website

Brockley Max is run by Max Media Arts, a community-led volunteer organisation. Shops, churches, cafes, bars and local businesses support the festival by hosting events, giving raffle prizes and displaying programmes. The festival only happens because of the hundreds of volunteers who give their time, whether performing, organising, or helping at events. All of them make this area a special and better place to live.

No To Train Cuts! - The Campaign moves up a gear

Our train services are under threat again from multiple fronts.

With the cross-party support of local politicians, the Forest Hill and Sydenham Societies have been running a campaign against proposed cuts to our service on one of Southern's busiest passenger routes. We have written to the Minister of Transport, both privately and in an open letter, requesting a meeting to discuss our concerns, but while we have had a reply, he has not yet agreed to a meeting. Over 1500 people have already signed our petition.

As a result, all the civic societies along the line will be leafletting their local stations demanding action. Brockley Central, Forest Hill and Sydenham Societies handed thousands of leaflets out today and HOPRA and the Telegraph Hill Society will leaflet Honor Oak Park and New Cross Gate tomorrow. We will be encouraging all the affected commuters to sign our petition at http://nototraincuts.notlong.com/ and write to their MP (either Joan Ruddock or Jim Dowd) asking them to raise this matter with the Minister for Transport.

What are the cuts?

In December, Southern Railways plans to cease service into Charing Cross station, terminating all services at London Bridge.. This is as a result of the DfT and SouthEastern Railways agreeing to exclusive access by SouthEastern Railways (also operated by Southern Railways' parent company GoVia). Southern have tried to smuggle this change in without any announcement; there is nothing on their website regarding this change in service despite the fact that they claim to have consulted widely in their official submission to ORR, the rail regulator. This off-peak service on one of south London's busiest lines has significant demand and there was supposed to be further investigation before the service to Charing Cross was altered.

As if this wasn't bad enough, Southern Railways plan to reduce the number of trains in the afternoon and off peak which serve the Sydenham line by making the Caterham and Sutton trains fast to Norwood Junction. This means that the number of trains will be reduced from six trains an hour to four trains an hour once the East London Line starts operation in May 2010.

Southern have previously argued that the Sydenham line requires eight trains an hour formed of 12 coaches in order to have sufficient capacity to take commuters to Central London, which is where the majority wish to travel. How can a reduction from six trains an hour to four be justified (regardless of the number of coaches)? They claim that we will have additional capacity, but official modelling of demand for the East London Line service predicts severe high peak crowding from day one.

The third threat to our services comes from the possible reinstatement of the South London Line service from Victoria to either Bellingham or London Bridge. One of the options currently being considered by TfL and Passenger Focus is to cancel our loop service from London Bridge to Victoria via Crystal Palace and replace it with one via Peckham Rye instead.

Meet the Manager - Southern Railways

This Thursday, 15th October, Southern Railway are organising one of their regular 'Meet the Manager' sessions on the London Bridge station concourse from 7:30am - 9:30am. We would like as many people as possible to join us to explain to them why cuts to services is unacceptable. We hope that a large number turn up so that Southern Railway management will see the strength of feeling from their passengers. Additionally we have invited the press and local politicians to join us to hear the views of passengers.

Please join us on Thursday in opposing these cuts.

In December 2009 Southern Railways plan to cut our direct evening service (and Sunday service) from Charing Cross, running all trains from London Bridge. This is a well used service and provides a direct connection from the West End after 7:30pm. As this is an off-peak service we reject Southern Railway's claims that there is no capacity through London Bridge.

In May 2010 Southern Railways plan to reduce evening peak services and daytime services from London Bridge by over 30%, from 6 trains per hour to just 4 trains per hour. They will continue to run 6 trains per hour in the morning, meeting the demands on the line, but will not provide a similar service in the evenings, hoping that customers will switch to East London Line services or put up with serious overcrowding.

You can also join over 1,200 other people and sign the petition at http://nototraincuts.notlong.com

Campaign Agianst Rail Cuts hits the front page

Front Page story in the News Shopper

BBC Online article

South London Press

Sign the Petition at http://nototraincuts.notlong.com

NO to Train Cuts

The Forest Hill Society has launched a petition opposing cuts to our train services:

Southern Railways are planning to cut trains to Brockley, Honor Oak Park, Forest Hill, and Sydenham in December 2009 and again in May 2010.

In December 2009 they plan to cut our direct evening service from Charing Cross, running all trains from London Bridge. This is a well used service and provides a direct connection from the West End after 7:30pm. As this is an off-peak service we reject Southern Railway's claims that there is no capacity through London Bridge.

In May 2010 Southern Railways plan to reduce the PEAK SERVICES (as well as off-peak services) from London Bridge by over 30%, from 6 trains per hour to just 4 trains per hour (the same as the off-peak service). They will continue to run 6 trains per hour in the morning, meeting the demands on the line, but will not provide a similar service in the evenings, hoping that customers will switch to East London Line services or put up with serious overcrowding.

We reject the cuts to services through Forest Hill and call on Southern Railways to run the same level of service as they do in September 2009.

We call on rail authorities and local politicians to support our calls to maintain 6 trains per hour in the evening peak and direct services from Charing Cross in the late evenings.

Please sign the petition at http://nototraincuts.notlong.com

Update: BBC Online have covered this campaign on 22nd September. LBC will be covering this issue tomorrow morning.

Perry Vale residents locked out of the station

The latest news on increased accessibility for Forest Hill station is that when Oyster readers come into operation, in January 2009, the gate to Perry Vale will be kept shut throughout the day, only opening during evening peaks. During those evening peaks members of staff will be on hand to read every persons' Oyster card with handheld readers (from 3pm until the end of the peak).

This system would create delays for passengers exiting the Perry Vale exit as a member of staff checks every Oyster card. It is questionable whether staff would be willing to stand in the rain, snow, or freezing/boiling temperatures for hours at a time and trains every five minutes. In reality this system is likely to lead to the gates being closed and for passengers to get soaked while the cross the railway twice (over the bridge and then through the underpass).

Southern Railways have started work on implementation by making space for the gates at the ticket hall and then the barriers need to be installed by TfL. But the plans for the southbound platform are as described above.

The Forest Hill Society, along with Councillor Paschoud, are putting pressure on Southern Railways and others involved in the Oyster implementation to avoid shutting the gate. There are two alternatives that we would prefer:

1. Oyster reader available at the Perry Vale exit for pre-pay customers to swipe in and out, similar to the system in place until recently at New Cross Gate. This would allow the exit to remain open as it does today.
   
2. A new exit onto Perry Vale car park providing staffed ticket barriers all day and an accessible entrance to the station on the Perry Vale side of the station.

Further problems will occur at Sydenham and Brockley where the exits on the northbound (Sydenham) and southbound (Brockley) platforms will be remotely operated for disabled passengers only. Of course once these gates are opened there will be nobody to stop other passengers flooding through the gates. Honor Oak Park station should be fairly straightforward as a single set of barriers can be placed in the ticket hall.

We will keep you updated regarding progress on this matter.