The Tooting History Quiz night will be open to all at our next meeting on Tuesday 10th October. 50 questions on Tooting past and present. There will be prizes and refreshments and Tooting facts to inform and entertain. Teams of up to five people welcome-if you don’t have a team, we will match you up on the night. Free entry for members-guests £2 donation. We hope to see you at The United Reformed Church, Rookstone Road, SW17 9NQ at 7.30 on the 10th October.
Daisy Lawrence was born in Tooting in 1917. She left Sellincourt School aged 14 and went to work at the Tooting Co-Op. In 1942, she was called up to work at the Bletchley Park code breaking centre. Whilst she was working on breaking Japanese codes, her fiancée was held as a POW in the Far East. Daisy’s daughter, Jan Slimming, has written an account of her mother’s life and will be speaking to our September monthly meeting. You will also be able to buy copies of Jan’s book.
Come along on Tuesday 12th September at 7.30pm to the United Reformed Church, Rookstone Road, SW17 9NQ.
Tooting History Group will also be at the Woodfield Pavilion on Tooting Common on Saturday 9th September. The heritage event takes place from 10.30am to 5pm with other local history and heritage groups present. Janet Smith will be talking about the history of the lido and I will be leading a walk on the common at 3pm about the battles for Tooting Common. The event is part of the Lambeth Heritage Festival 2023.
We look forward to seeing you at one of these forthcoming events.
Our monthly meeting in July will be addressed by Dr. Paul Carter from the National Archives at Kew. He will be talking about the records of 19th Century workhouse inmates, particularly from the Wandsworth and Clapham Union which covered Tooting. So what lead to complaints or petitions from Workhouse inmates? How were the complaints investigated by the Poor Law Commissioners?
The talk is on Tuesday 11th July starting at 7.30pm at the United Reformed Church, Rookstone Road, Tooting SW179NQ. (Tooting Broadway tube). Everyone is very welcome.
The most prominent statue in Tooting is that of Edward VII outside Tooting Broadway Station. It has been there since 1911 but how did it come to be there? How was it made? Where was it made?
Steve Parlanti will be telling us about the statue at our next meeting on Tuesday June 13th. Steve is descended from the family who ran the foundry where the statue was made.
You can read more about the Parlanti foundry here .
We hope to see members and guests, old and new, on Tuesday 13th June at 7.30 at the United Reformed Church, Rookstone Road, SW17 9NQ.
The London Borough of Wandsworth doesn’t have a local museum. But it does have a collection of 10,000 + items in a basement on West Hill, most of which have been there since March 2008. There have been Wandsworth Museums in the past and this walk on Friday May 26th will be passing some of those sites. Beginning at Putney Library, Disraeli Road, we will be going down to West Hill, onto the former Young’s brewery site and Wandsworth Town Hall and finishing at the old Court House building in Garratt Lane.
More information about the Wandsworth Museum Action Group here
More information about the Wandsworth Heritage Festival here
Tooting History Group 