The SW12/SW17 Neighbourhood Network published a delightful walking trail from Balham to Tooting a few years ago. The walk takes you from Balham Station to Tooting Bec Underground.

There is an accompanying soundtrack where you can hear memories and reminiscences of life in Balham and the characters who live and work there. They include comedian Arthur Smith, local shopkeepers and local residents.

You can download the whole recording from the link below.

Our last monthly meeting in March was an excellent talk by Roger Wates from the well-established Tooting firm E & A Wates. He has just sent me news on what the company is doing during lockdown, which is quite amazing.

In its 120th year, SW London interior specialist E & A Wates has switched their workshop furniture restoration work from high quality reupholstery to critical personal protective equipment (PPE).

E & A Wates showroom and workshop are temporarily closed in response to Coronavirus (COVID-19). This week, with teams working at a safe distance behind the scenes, E & A Wates have supplied and cut foam to assist in making over 4,300 visors for NHS frontline staff within 21 hospitals in London and neighbouring counties with potential for another 2,500 components if required.

The visors are being made in conjunction with a prop maker Faye Jones and over 60 colleagues who crowdsourced the project so the visors can be donated to NHS hospital staff, the visors can be sterilised and reused after each shift. So far the group have made 6650 visors with 3200 planned for production this Easter weekend

We have received details of the following event at St George’s Hospital archives this coming Thursday:

Come along to our Explore Your Archives event for a chance to learn about our Wellcome Trust funded project ‘Opening Up the Body: the Post Mortem Case Books of St George’s Hospital (1841-1946)’.  This event will explore the post mortem examinations and case books alongside other related materials held in the Archives & Special Collections at St George’s, University of London.

Two sessions are available on Thursday 28^th November:

13:30 – 14:15 pm

14:45 – 15:30 pm

The event will be hosted at St George’s, University of London. Booking is essential via archives@sgul.ac.uk

Were you evacuated from London during the war? Do you know someone who was? Next Wednesday, 21st August at 2pm, there is a talk by historian Peter Daniel at The Furzedown Project in Moyser Road about the evacuation of children from London during the Second World War. The Furzedown Project is at 91-93, Moyser Road, SW16 6SJ..

This talk, organised by GLL/Tooting Library, is happening next Tuesday 16th July at Tooting Library from 6pm. You can book free tickets here.

Come visit Tooting Library and learn about the construction and demise of Springfield Hospital with Dr Khaldoon Ahmed!

Psychiatrist and filmmaker Dr Khaldoon Ahmed will take us on a journey of the construction of Asylums in the 19th Century, to their eventual demise to luxury housing. 

Supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, Khaldoon and a team of volunteers looked at the history of Springfield Hospital, originally built in 1841, now being redeveloped into apartments and new mental health facilities. In this talk he will present his findings, and show a short work-in-progress film about the old psychiatric intensive care unit at Springfield that was demolished last month.

The talk will also include a discussion on architecture and the treatment of mental illness.