Sir George Shearing rose from a humble background in Battersea to become a best-selling world-class jazz pianist and composer. From playing in a Battersea pub in the 1930s to conquering Carnegie Hall, he recorded and performed across the world. Come and hear Julian Gorham, Sir George Shearing’s great nephew (and Tooting resident) talk about the life and music of one of Britain’s greatest jazz talents at our next meeting.
We had a very successful and well attended meeting on Tuesday 11th February about “Tooting Shops Past And Present”. At our March meeting we will be talking Tooting Shops again. We want you to bring along your pictures, objects, adverts and memories associated with Tooting’s shops, particularly from the 1960s onwards. We will also be hearing a bit more about the early 19th Century history of Tooting’s shops and preparing a map of the shops of Tooting.
There is a lot of enthusiasm for the “Tooting Historic Shops Trail” we are proposing. We are aiming to display boards in about 20 Tooting Shops with information and images of the previous shops on the site. To take the project forward, we need volunteers:
To approach shopkeepers in Upper Tooting Road/Tooting High Street/Mitcham Road/Tooting Bec Road areas to see whether they would display an A2 board;
To research the history of Tooting’s shops;
To help prepare artwork for the trail.
If you put yourself forward to do these roles, we will run briefing sessions to give you an idea of what we are looking to do.
Our March meeting is on Tuesday 11th March at 7.30pm at the United Reformed Church, Rookstone Road, SW179NQ.
We are also planning a trip for members to the AFC Wimbledon Stadium in Plough Lane to view their heritage collection. Keep Tuesday 29th April 11-12.30 free if you are interested in going on the tour. You will be able to book a place at the March meeting.
We look forward to seeing you at our March meeting.
Shops have come and gone from Tooting regularly over the years. Which ones have survived? When did the first coffee shop appear? How should we remember the historic shops of Tooting?
Come and hear Philip Bradley talk about some of the shops of Tooting past at our next monthly meeting on Tuesday 11th February at 7.30pm. We meet at the United Reformed Church, Rookstone Road, SW179NQ.
Everybody is welcome. Members free, guests £2. Light refreshments provided.
Tooting Bec Hospital stood in the grounds of what is now the Heritage Park Estate on Tooting Bec Road between Franciscan Road and Church Lane. It was opened in 1903 by the Metropolitan Asylum Board and was designed to take the overflow of patients from their Caterham and Leavesden Asylums. At it’s peak, it accommodated over 2200 patients. It finally closed in 1995 and was sold and redeveloped as The Heritage Park Estate.
This talk will give a history of the Asylum as originally built and the changes in Mental Health provision that lead to it’s closure. People came to Tooting to work (and live) in the hospital from all over the world. Should there be plaques on the Heritage Park site to remember the hospital? Are you interested in an Oral History project connected with the hospital and it’s former patients and staff?
Come along to the All Saints Parish Church Hall (Bruce Hall) on Tuesday December 3rd at 7.30pm and hear all about this Tooting History Group/local residents project. (Entrance at rear of car park on Brudenell Road).
Our next meeting will be a bit different! Join Karen Ellis-Rees in a history tour of Tooting’s oldest pubs, and find out about the Tooting Brewery, which operated on the High Street for at least a century. Also hear the story of the fatal fire at the Rising Sun Inn, which saw the disappearance of a Tooting landmark. And there will be a chance to taste locally brewed London Porter as made across London in the 19th Century.
The meeting is on Tuesday 12th November at 7.30pm at the United Reformed Church, Rookstone Road, Tooting, SW179NQ. Everyone welcome-members free, guests £2.
Tooting History Group 