The event at All Saints junior school, Upper Beulah Hill, Upper Norwood  – where the Society was originally formed – included a presentation of three prints of the school to All Saints’ new head Jane Elliott by Peter Denman, archivist of the neighbouring All Saints church.

The second event – an exhibition of photographs and events from Kingston across to Woolwich and from the Cities of London and Westminster down to Purley was staged at Kingswood House, Seeley Drive, Dulwich.
Among visitors were groups of toddlers from a nearby nursery school who asked questions such as “Why did the glass building burn down?” (a reference to Crystal Palace).

“They thoroughly enjoyed themselves asking all sorts of questions” said Keith Holdaway of the society’s local history group. “They were pointing out different things to the teachers and helpers – the teachers almost had to drag them away.”

The Society, founded on February 5th 1960, is holding a grand anniversary concert at All Saints junior school, Upper Beulah Hill, Upper Norwood on February 5th at 7.45pm. Music will be provided by the Bromley Concert Band.

A few tickets – priced at £8 each including refreshments – are still available. Anyone wishing to attend should contact Peter Austin on 0208 653 0149.

The Society’s local history group is staging a two day exhibition at Kingswood House, Seeley Drive, West Dulwich SE21 with a photographic display. This covers a wide expanse of South London from Kingston across to Woolwich and – taking in two areas north of the Thames – the Cities of London and Westminster down to Coulsdon.

The display will feature events and occasions as well as views and scenes some now gone, some still instantly recognisable.

The exhibition is being held on Friday February 5th (11 am to 6pm) and Saturday February 6th (10 am to 5pm). Admission free.

A mutiny which occurred at Upper Norwood library was among the historical gems revealed to members of Norwood Society’s local history group at their latest meeting.
Jerry Savage, the library’s reference and locaql history specialist, told how the first chief librarian William A Stobie was challenged for control of the library by his senior assistant George Churchill and two junior assistants George Stevens and George Allard.
Stobie was told his behaviour was being monitored and written records kept.
“Effectively they started to blackmail him and warn him that if he did not like the new regime they would go to Mr Jast, the chief librarian at Croydon”said Jerry – even though, strictly speaking, Jast did not have jurisdiction over the independent Upper Norwood library.
Stobie was accused of being overly strict – an accusation he rejected. “All I have done is to encourage them to be more industrious in their work” he said.
Jerry Savage told the meeting at the Phoenix centre, Westow street: “I suspect that Churchill was someone who would have been an awkward employee anywhere. Churchill had a total lack of interest in his work. What he did like to do was disappear off to the basement to read books like Moll Flanders.
“What I think is the clincher for me is that Stobie altered the staffing timetable so Churchill could have two-hour breaks to travel to Croydon and back for hot dinners which I think we can consider to be bending over backwards!”
Churchill and Stevens were sacked by the library’s joint committee – but allowed to work out their month’s notice.
Stobie – who had been chief librarian from the start, left shortly afterwards – possibly quite traumatised by events – to become chief cataloguer in the public library of South Australia in Adelaide. In the same year – 1906 – he was succeeded by Walter Henry Ransome from the Lambeth library service.
The other chief librarians have been Dorothy Owers (1925 – 1952) and the library’s first female librarian . A flamboyant and well-known figure in Upper Norwood she did a lot to expand the library, making it a place where lectures were held after the library had closed its doors for the night and a place where exhibitions were staged.
Owers had joined the library as an assistant in 1916 although there is some doubt she ever became a qualified librarian, he added.
The 1930s saw the opening of the children’s library by W C Berwick Sayers, chief librarian of Croydon for many years and author or co-author of two books on Croydon in the First and Second World wars. The guest speaker was A E W Mason, author of ‘The Four Feathers’.
Among the regular visitors to the library during this time were William Joyce (Lord Haw-Haw) who lived in Farquhar Road and actress Margaret Lockwood who borrowed ‘The Wheel Spins’ by Ethel Lina White – the book on which one of her best-known films ‘The Lady Vanishes’ was based.

During the Second World war the library basement also housed a 14 -strong team of fire watchers who worked on a rota made up of 117 people.
The other chief librarians have been Lawrance H Cuddy (1952 to 1977); Pat Scott, the second lady librarian (1978 – 1990) who was succeeded by her deputy Christopher Dobb (1990-2000) who standardised the library’s name as Upper Norwood joint library after noticing people giving the library various names and Bradley Millington (2001 – present).
The idea for the library began in 1895 when representatives from Croydon and Lambeth – then the Lambeth Vestry – met to discuss the possibility of setting up a library to serve the border area where the two boroughs met. The contract to build the library was awarded to Henry Leney, an Anerley builder.
Opened on July 4th 1900 it had a ground floor lending library with 8,500 volumes and a newsroom. The first floor was left unused until 1903 when the reference library was established.

Photos of the historic subway under Crystal Palace Parade reveal repair and maintenance work planned for last year has still not been done.
Now the Norwood Society is calling on Bromley council to take immediate action before another winter sets in.
Norwood Society vice president Peter Austin, who took the accompanying photos during an official site visit made to the subway as part of the inquiry into Crystal Palace Park, said: “In view of the subway’s deteriorating condition with graffiti on the internal walls and dilapidated ceilings this should now be given the highest priority – otherwise an important part of our heritage in a grade 2* listed national park could be lost.”
Mr Austin, who went on the site visit as part of his involvement in the Crystal Palace Park dialogue process which preceded the inquiry, said the proposed work to the entrance, access and supporting walls was supposed to have taken place with English Heritage funding last year.
“But it now seems to have been delayed – possibly by the public inquiry.”
Norwood Society chairman Eric Kings is now pressing Bromley council to ensure maintenance and repair work is carried out.
Historical Note: The Subway was the traditional home of a ‘Subway Superday’ until the 1990s. Designed by Edward Barry, designer of the adjacent Crystal Palace High Level station – now demolished – it opened in 1865 and led from the station underneath the Parade and into the Park.
The opening of the subway was much favoured by the ladies who before it was open would have to cross the Parade on a rainy day with their long dresses dragging in the mud.
During the Second World War the Subway was used as an air raid shelter and later to store some of the Palace statues.

Other planning matters which the Society are currently involved in include:

OLD LIBRARY, WEST NORWOOD

Groups and organisations are being refused permission to use the old library in West Norwood – even when there is space available for them.
The grade 11 listed building was renovated with the assistance of a grant from the SRB – Single Regeneration Budget.
The Society’s understanding is that it was a condition of this grant that the restored building be managed by a committee consisting of representatives of the local community and of the local council – Lambeth – and that it should be available for use by the community generally.
Lambeth council have declined to set up any such committee and are restricting the use of the building to youth groups. Other groups and organisations are refused permission to use it even when space for meetings is available.
The building is also now in need of further urgent repairs which are not being done.
The Society have written to Lambeth’s director of education asking for his comments.

The Society is calling on Croydon council to take enforcement action after an ‘industrial-style’ metal fence was erected without planning permission along the frontage of the former All Saints vicarage at 215 Church Road, Upper Norwood. The former vicarage has been extended and converted into privcate flats.
The Society is also asking that a metal fence proposed for Dorrington Court on South Norwood Hill should be reduced in height or resited further away from the frontage to make it less conspicuous.

Elsewhere the Society has objected to the proposed demolition of 69 – 69 a Westow Street and to the proposed change of use of the former bingo hall and one-time cinema at 25 Church Road, Upper Norwood to a church on the grounds that there is no on-site parking and the surrounding area is already heavily parked on Sunday mornings with cars belonging to the members of other congregations as well as those of local residents.