10 years ago
With almost one in ten parents reportedly going hungry in the capital, today the South London Press is urging readers to join our ‘Feed A Food Bank’ campaign this Christmas.
Thousands of south Londoners are forced to go to food banks just to get essentials to their families.
The Trussell Trust, the charity behind many food banks in south London, says a record number of people are now turning to them for help as food prices rise and incomes fall.
We encourage readers to purchase a few extra items when shopping so other families don’t have to go without.
A gang member is the fourth person to be jailed for killing a 20-year-old man.
Chukwurunim Ozour, also 20, from Glebe Path in Mitcham, was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison on 22 November after admitting his involvement in the death of Mahad Mohammed in Battersea.
He pleaded guilty to one charge of constructive manslaughter.
The business administration student blocked Mahad’s escape route after he was stabbed to death in the early hours of June 21 last year during a drug deal gone awry.
The group planned to rip off their victim, but instead attacked him when he realized the trick.
Mahad was heard screaming for help as he tried to flee before collapsing next to the entrance to a block of flats.
In the first year of its opening, residents visited a library almost 500,000 times.
The £14m Canada Water Library opened in 2011 and as part of the celebrations of its first anniversary, Southwark City Council has launched a photo competition to find the most unusual and creative images of the building, both inside and out.
The winner gets the opportunity to be represented in an exhibition in the library next year.
The closing date for entries is February 1st.
20 years ago
A drug mule has been sentenced to two years in prison for attempting to smuggle £6,000 worth of drugs into Britain in hollowed-out yams.
The 29-year-old was snapped by customs officers at Gatwick Airport as he attempted to bring in a bag filled with 19 yams filled with cannabis before it was covered in mud.
Officers found several pounds of the drug.
The New Cross man denied drug smuggling charges but failed to convince a jury at Inner London Crown Court.
Striking firefighters immediately returned to their station as a house burned after learning the 83-year-old owner had been evacuated.
And despite the best efforts of the Army’s Green Goddess teams, the house on Gowerie Road, Clapham was burned out.
Neighbors said the pensioner lived alone in the home with her cats and spent her entire life there.
She was taken to hospital after the fire and placed in the care of social services.
Union members defended the action, saying the firefighters had no argument with the public.
Shopkeepers in south-west London have vowed not to sell spray paints to under-18s after intensifying the campaign to curb graffiti attacks.
Police, city councils and shopkeepers banded together to protect their city centers from the scourge of the taggers.
Lambeth and Wandsworth signed a new program with nine other county councilors.
The South West Area Against Graffiti group was formed after meetings of police officers, council officials and shopkeepers.
30 years ago
British Rail launched an internal investigation after two trains narrowly missed a head-on collision on the high viaduct outside London Bridge Station.
Trains scraped past each other on the viaduct west of the crowded station during the morning rush hour.
The accident meant the railway company had to close Waterloo East, Charing Cross, Cannon Street and parts of Blackfriars following the crash which left 10 people injured.
Neither the Ramsgate to Charing Cross train nor the Charing Cross to Tunbridge Wells train derailed.
Looters searched a school for valuables just hours after it was destroyed in a fire.
The thieves made their way through the remains of the burnt-out Herbert Morrison School on Hartington Road, South Lambeth and stole a television, video player and at least two computers.
The fire 24 hours earlier had caused about £1million worth of damage and destroyed three quarters of the building.
Firefighters joined school staff and parents in a sponsored six-mile motor train.
As part of the effort, teams from Southwark and Dockhead raised money for Cherry Gardens School in Mack’s Road, Rotherhithe, which cared for children with severe learning disabilities, and the Fire Brigade’s Benevolent Fund.
The train took them from the school via Elephant & Castle, Walworth, Camberwell and Peckham, raising £2,000.
Image: Food Bank
