Caroline Pook – Page 22 – Wandsworth Society

EU Election Hustings

Tuesday night this week saw well over 100 people in St Anne’s Church, Wandsworth, at hustings organised jointly by the Wandsworth Society and Putney Society. Representatives from six parties (ChangeUK, Conservatives, Labour, Liberal Democrats and UKIP) took to the platform for a 4 minute speech, followed by 10 minutes of questions.

The event was chaired by Jonathan Callaway of the Putney Society and organised by David Kirk of the Wandsworth Society. Considerable effort was made to secure the speakers at very short notice and our only regret was the absence of a speaker from the newly formed Brexit Party.

Debenhams in Southside to close

Today it was announced that the Wandsworth store is one of the 22 poor performing stores to close in 2020 (along with Wimbledon – Centre Court – but not Clapham Junction. This is something of a blow for Southside as Debenhams is the largest space user – and provides a useful cut through from Garratt Lane. In practice it has never drawn the custom from the south end of the centre (Waitrose end) end and it not really going to be missed. But a void will not be good for the north end of the centre. Watch this space.

Brady’s is closing

Many Society members were saddened to hear that Brady’s fish restaurant beside the river is closing its doors for the last time on 28th April. “Luke and Amelia Brady are retiring after 30 years of serving the finest fish to the good people of Wandsworth and beyond”. We will miss you!

Wandsworth Heritage Festival 25 May-9 June

The Festival line up has now been announced with a range of interesting events including tours, walks and exhibitions. The theme this year is Entertaining Wandsworth.

Meeting report: Thames Tideway Tunnel

On Thursday this week Colin Murphy, Senior Engineer on “our” section of the Tideway Project gave 50 Society members and friends a fascinating talk about the scheme. As well as an excellent overview of why Thames Water need to spend some £4.2bn on digging a very deep 25km tunnel under London we had a detailed update on the goings on in Wandsworth. The treatment of King George’s Park (see picture), where a number of mature trees had to be felled was particularly interesting and left us quite optimistic about the outcome.