War time at the Royal Victoria Patriotic Building

On 28 May, the orgisation SecretWW2 unveiled a blue plaque to the RVPB commemorating the history of the building as the World War 2 interrogation centre. Paul McCue, military historian, researcher and author of a number of books, presented a brief history of the role of the building during both world wars to an invited audience. The presentation can be viewed here. https://youtu.be/86RzRlZkfmI

Society’s 2025 AGM

The AGM took place on 26 March in Westside Church. The following documents were presented:

The Annual Report from the Chair https://wandsworthsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/WS-Annual-Report-2025-1.pdf

AGM Minutes 2024 https://wandsworthsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/WS-Annual-Accounts-2024.pdf

Annual Accounts (audited) 2024 https://wandsworthsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/WS-Annual-Accounts-2024.pdf

Following the meeting, the Minutes were published:

AGM Minutes 2025 https://wandsworthsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/WS-Annual-Accounts-2024.pdf

Ron Elam collection of Local Yesterdays.

Many will remember the stall on Bellevue Parade where Ron Elam used to be on a Saturday selling items from his mass of historic postcards of South London views. This unique and irreplaceable collection was recently auctioned. We were concerned that if the collection was broken up the loss to our knowledge of the heritage of the area would be lost. Therefore, in collaboration with the Friends of Wandsworth Common, we have jointly acquired 897 postcards.

There’s a fair amount of work involved in just sifting through the 8 albums. Details of how to view them, for anyone who wants to see them now, and what to do with them all need to be resolved in the near future. The proposal is to ensure that these are held for public access.