We are ready to welcome new volunteers to our small group looking after the garden around South Norwood Leisure Centre and Woodside Health Centre.
We meet at 10AM on the first and third Saturdays of each month. If you’d like to join us, just turn up! You do not need to commit to every gardening day.
Many of you will recall that a project to improve the bridge lighting under the Portland Road Railway Bridge has been ongoing from 2015.
A public drop-in session was held in 2019 and a design selected and an architect was appointed.
This was to be partially funded by the Good Growth Fund – part of the South Norwood Regeneration project, with money added from Councillor’s Discretionary Ward Budget and funds from S106 Planning Obligations.
Since this time, it has been our understanding that negotiations have been ongoing between Croydon Council and Network Rail. We were assured that as recently as last year that this long-awaited project was still going ahead.
Last week, our local Councillors were informed that this project will no longer be fulfilled. According to Croydon Council this is because “The legacy costs of the non -standard lighting equipment are not supported by the Council’s lighting term contract and projects with unfunded maintenance costs are not approved for delivery.”
We really can’t understand why it has taken so long for the Council to come to this decision. This is extremely disappointing news!
We love some of the plants in our community garden! Actually we love them all. Thank you to Mandy for creating this beautiful arch, now covered in berries. And we admired the catkins during our workday on Saturday.
We’re delighted that Sheilagh and Katy are continuing to look after the planters on the platforms at Norwood Junction. They still bring some natural colour and interest to the platforms, even in the winter months. And we’re looking forward to Spring when the bulbs appear.
Thank you to both of you for brightening up our station!
People for Portland Road 2025 AGM will be held on Saturday 15 November 2025 at 11.00 AM.
The meeting will be held at The Victory Club, 227 Selhurst Road SE25 6XY (opposite South Norwood Library).
If you would like to join our Steering Group please get in contact via our email – contact@peopleforportlandroad.org.uk
New people will be welcome!
Our small team of volunteers has been looking after the gardens outside the Leisure Centre and Health Centre since 2016, planting the additional trees around the Leisure Centre in 2017/18.
We meet twice a month, on the first and third Saturdays of each month at 10AM. Our philosophy is to garden to help nature, which is why we have been keeping some of the grass longer.
If you’d like to volunteer with us, either turn up on a Saturday morning or email contact@peopleforportlandroad.org.uk.
We held our AGM on Saturday 3 August 2024. Here are the slides from our presentation.
Our Steering Group members for 2024-2025 were elected as follows.
Chair – Christine Claridge
Vice-Chair – Paul Scott
Secretary – Christina Peskett
Treasurer – Christina Peskett
Steering Group Members –
Shuba Rao
Rachel McKoy
Sedley Wilson
People for Portland Road 2024 AGM will be held on Saturday 23 August 2024 at 11.00 AM.
The meeting will be held at The Victory Club, 227 Selhurst Road SE25 6XY (opposite South Norwood Library)
If you would like to join our Steering Group, please get in contact via our email (contact@peopleforportlandroad.org.uk). New people will be welcomed!
South Norwood Suffragist and Suffragette plaques were unveiled on 21 October 2023.
On 21 October 2023 we unveiled two plaques opposite South Norwood Clocktower to commemorate two special women.
The individual plaques, designed locally by Ken Baker, commemorate two women, Ethel Fennings a suffragist, and Mary Pearson a suffragette who lived nearby and were actively involved in the move to acquire the vote for women early in the 20th century.
Ethel, of the Church League for Women’s’ Suffrage was the eldest daughter of a suffragist mother. She was very active in South Norwood particularly during the years immediately before WW I. She regularly wrote letters to Norwood News, a local newspaper cogently advocating the right of women to vote. The newspaper additionally advertised times on a Friday evening during May until October when Ethel stood on the base of the Stanley Clocktower and gave voice to the women’s cause. It has to be said that her younger sisters Muriel, Agnes and Jessie as well her father also contributed to the agitation to acquire the vote.
Mary Pearson lived nearby. A member of the Croydon branch of the Women’s Freedom League, she was in February 1908 imprisoned in the second class for nuisance through her attempts to gain an interview with Sir Edward Grey, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
Local historian, John Hickman, introduced proceedings at the unveiling venue. He thanked those responsible for acquiring funding for the People for Portland Road project; namely We Love SE25, Stanley Arts and the community for their donations.
In attendance was the Deputy Civic Mayor, Cllr Appu Srinivasan. Sarah Jones MP and Carole Roberts (President of Croydon Natural History and Scientific Society) unveiled the plaques for us. All three talked about these two courageous women.
