It’s outside our area of course, but quite a few of us drive to Dulwich Park, to visit either the Park or the world-famous Picture Gallery.
Dulwich Park
Now, as just announced on Twitter by the Dulwich Society, it appears that the London Borough of Southwark plan to start charging £2/hr to park in Dulwich Park and Belair Park.
It all sounds a bit rushed. The decision is due to be determined this coming week, and will be followed by a 21-day statutory consultation. Read more here.
It’s probably not surprising that Councils take every opportunity these days to extract a bit more revenue like this (even if they then need to employ wardens to check that people have paid). It’s just a pity that alternative ways to get there, e.g. the P4, are so unreliable. And isn’t £2 per hour a bit steep?
Dulwich Picture Gallery
The Dulwich Park Friends are urging the cabinet member not to make a decision until they’ve had a chance to canvass views and respond. No doubt the Gallery will have a point of view too.
Handel’s great oratorio “Messiah” is being performed on Saturday 2 March at All Saints Church, Rosendale Road.
This performance is in memory of the immensely popular Timothy Penrose, who was Musical Director at All Saints for 26 years, leading the choral music through the devastating period after the fire which destroyed the church in 2000. He was also a celebrated counter-tenor, who appeared in over 100 recordings, singing with The Sixteen conducted by John Eliot Gardiner and with Pro Cantione Antiqua, among others.
7:30 pm, tickets at the door (£15 / £12 concessions)
A major event for our diaries: next Wednesday, 13 February, 7:45 – 9:15pm
Dan Hill is a full-time military historian who works as a battlefield guide across Europe and a historical consultant and researcher for some of the UK’s leading military charities, broadcasters and commemorative organisations.
British solders in a trench at the Somme, 1916
In this illustrated talk, the final event in the Herne Hill Society’s “Remembering Herne Hill 1914-18” research project, Dan looks in detail at just six of Herne Hill’s war casualties, each of whom took part in one of the six key battles of the war.
Free, all welcome, no tickets required
United Church Hall, junction of Red Post Hill and Herne Hill, London SE24 9PW
There will be another session of the successful Free Junior Open Mic, supported by the Herne Hill Forum, this coming Sunday.
Junior Open Mic is designed to make young performers feel as special as possible and nurture confidence. The Off the Cuff venue provides a professional sound engineer and a dedicated sound stage featuring an array of mics, fully mic’d up house drum kit, full size Roland keyboard and guitar amps. On-hand is a performers’ assistant, award giver, compere, stage assistant and supportive, friendly audience. And a free soft drink to every performer!
These events started in late 2017 and have become the largest Junior Open Mics in London. They are organised by local parents as community events. Typically, young performers are aged between 4-14 and we see up to 36 performers per session – from solo singers with backing track, poets, instrumentalists to rock bands.
So if you have children who’d like to try it, it’s this Sunday 27 January 2019 – 2:00pm to 4:30pm, at Off The Cuff, Arch 645, 301-303 Railton Road, Herne Hill, London SE24 0JN (just next to Herne Hill Station).
Further to our earlier report, and according to The Times this morning, Transport for London (TfL) has now released details of cars and vans failing to meet the Ulez emission standard that entered the congestion charge zone in the past year.
The numbers are breath-taking. The pollution charge being introduced in London in April could affect almost 2.5 million cars and vans a year.
They include 1.5 million diesel cars registered before 2016, 500,000 petrol cars registered before 2006, 400,000 vans, 55,000 HGVs and 10,000 coaches.
TfL is trying to contact as many of the registered keepers of these vehicles as it can identify to warn them that they will be liable for the charge if they enter the zone from April 8. It is tracing them via their number plates, which were caught on congestion charge enforcement cameras, and then asking the DVLA to contact them.
And this only includes vehicles which have entered the present central London Congestion Charge Zone over the last 12 months. There will be other drivers who haven’t ventured in and are therefore in danger of not being warned.
from The Times
Sadiq Khan has previously said that fewer than 60,000 vehicles a day would pay the £12.50 ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) fee but has not made clear the total number of vehicles that might be affected by the charge at some point during the year.
The charge will apply at all times in central London and will be payable in addition to the £11.50 congestion charge.
An Opposition member of the London Assembly is quoted as saying
“People are blithely unaware of what is waiting for them and are suddenly going to find massive bills landing on their doormats. As many as 2.5 million people who have accessed the zone in recent months will be liable for charges they were really not expecting.”
He added the self-evident comment that “millions more drivers would be affected when the charging zone boundaries are extended to the north and south circular roads in October 2021”.
Note that licensed London Taxis are exempt, however old and polluting they are! Mr Mayor is clearly reluctant to provoke their famously combative owners. Though hopefully the older standard diesel models are progressively being replaced by electric vehicles.
Readers react
Speaking for many readers, perhaps, one of many comments appearing below The Times report reads
“I live in central London. I have a well kept, appropriately serviced 11 year old diesel car….which for several years I was encouraged to purchase by the government of the day. My car has done 52,000 miles. It is used occasionally for short runs but mostly to exit London on long runs to visit family who live rurally and with poor public transport, the local train station at a distance of 12 miles. I am careful to service my car regularly. I am careful to drive it causing as little nuisance to others. How can cases such as mine be treated in the same way as the 18 taxis sitting outside Harrods waiting for fares, all with their engines running at approx 20:00 hrs this evening? How can it be appropriate that I am penalised in the same way as a Diesel engine that is used commercially for delivery for between 8 to 12 hours a day in and around central London? Of course, when I choose to change my car, I will look at the cleanest possible option. But whilst it is used occasionally and in good nick, why should I be subject to this draconian and patently unfair tax?”
The Winter edition of Herne Hill, the award-winning quarterly magazine published by the Herne Hill Society, is now out and can be bought at @HerneHillBooks by the station.
This issue is packed with news about Herne Hill, interviews with local writers and entrepreneurs, updates on the Station Underpass Mural and the Railton Road shops, the story of the ‘discovery’ of a local girl’s memories of Herne Hill 100 years ago, and a moving reflection by local author Antonia Senior@Tonisenioron the local 11 November commemoration of the centenary of the end of World War 1.
At a mere £2.50, this highly readable magazine is amazing value, so if you aren’t yet one of the Society’s members (they get it automatically), hurry down to the bookshop while stocks last.
Better still join the Herne Hill Society (easily done online), get it delivered to your home four times a year, and support the Society’s work for a better Herne Hill.
The world’s first
Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) is to start 8 April 2019, approximately 17
months earlier than planned.
Yes, in just a few
weeks.
To help improve air quality, an Ultra
Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) will be in place in central London from 8 April 2019.
Most vehicles including cars and vans will need to meet new, tighter exhaust
emission standards (ULEZ standards) or pay a daily £12.50 charge to travel within the area of the
ULEZ.
Initially this will apply to the same
areas as the current Congestion Zone
– so we’re not included, unless
we drive inside the Congestion Zone (where the familiar existing charges will
continue to apply as well).
The ULEZ will supersede the Toxicity Charge (T-charge – see Note below) and create stricter emissions standards for diesel vehicles, 24 hours, 7 days a week. Those that do not comply will face a charge.
HOWEVER …
From 25 October 2021, the ULEZ area will be expanded to include the inner London area bounded by the North and South Circular Roads – a dramatic expansion which of course brings Herne Hill into the zone. Here, as we understand it, simply owning a car that falls short of the new emission standards will incur its owners a daily charge of £12.50, in addition to any congestion charge payable if they drive into the central Congestion Zone.
Expanding ULEZ
This is expected to reduce harmful NOx (Nitrogen Oxides) emissions by about 50 per cent in central London, 40 per cent in inner London and 30 per cent in outer London.
And obviously, it will simultaneously bring about a collapse in the resale value of older second-hand cars.
Transport for London have published a detailed, and somewhat complicated, pack of guidance on this issue, accessed on their website.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
NOTE: The T-Charge (aka the Toxicity Charge) is a £10 levy on older vehicles entering the centre of London. It came into effect on 23 October 2017 and applies to all vehicles which do not meet Euro 4 emissions standards – typically those registered before 2006.
Currently, the T-Charge runs in the same area and over the same
operating times (Monday to Friday 7am-6pm) as the existing London Congestion
Charge zone.
Pre-Euro 4 vehicles entering the zone during the prescribed hours are liable
for a daily fee of £21.50 (this including the existing £11.50 Congestion Charge
levy).
Transport for London (TfL) has provided an online vehicle checker for users to determine whether their car meets the Euro 4 standard.
This evening our neighbour Rachel has told us about a tradition
she and her family began 4 years ago. She wondered if more of you wanted to
know about it, so we’re very happy to share it with you.
As Rachel puts it “At
midday on 25th, we all step outside, coats on, drink in hand (coffee,
champagne, or whatever one happens to be enjoying at that moment), and have an
impromptu drinks party on the pavement.
We congregate
around number 33. It was just a few of us at the start but is gradually
expanding. People bring extended family, dogs, children. We stay about half an
hour and then all go home.”
A great idea, and beautifully
simple. So if you live on Fawnbrake and can sneak away from the cooking
schedule for a while at midday on Christmas morning, you’d be very welcome to
join Rachel and her neighbours for pavement drinks.
Who lived in your #HerneHill street 100 years ago?
Remembering Herne Hill 1914-18 is a major project to research and map hundreds of casualties of #WWI. All welcome at Herne Hill Baptist Church tonight, Wednesday 12 December, at 7:45pm @TCSDulwich@Hernehill_WW1@hernehillforum
The Herne Hill Society is hosting an important event on the evening of Wednesday 12 December to update residents on the progress of the Remembering Herne Hill 1914–18 Project, and introducing the newly published memoirs – Grace’s Story – of a young Herne Hill lady who lived through that war and in the difficult years that followed.
Please note that the venue for this event will be the Herne Hill Baptist Church in Half Moon Lane, which is the large red brick building only five minutes’ walk from the station, just a little way beyond The Half Moon pub. No tickets are required. Timings are 7:45 – 9:15pm
Meanwhile the memorial website (see earlier post below) is live. Volunteer researchers have unearthed and filed information about over 370 casualties on the database, with hundreds more still to add. The Society has also created two online maps to indicate where our First World War casualties lived, and also where they are buried or remembered today.
Fawnbrake casualties: Lieutenant Reginald Dell
Reginald Dell is one of at least four Fawnbrake Avenue residents – more may be discovered as the research continues – who were killed during World War I. His military records cite his address as 90 Fawnbrake Avenue.
Reginald Dell was born in Wells, Somerset in 1887. But at some subsequent point he became a resident of Herne Hill. He married Hilda Fox in Wells in early 1918. Tragically, however, he was killed in May of the same year.
Hilda remained at this address for the next 9 years, when she moved to Deepdene Road.
Reginald fought in what was known as the Spring Offensive of 1918. The 20th Battalion of the Machine Gun Corps was formed in March 1918 and fought at the Battle of St. Quentin and suffered heavy casualties at the Battle of Rosieres. In April the troops were withdrawn while they waited for new drafts. However, by this time, Reginald had clearly suffered fatal wounds and died on 5 May. He is buried in the cemetery of Avesnes-sur-Helpe with the inscription “Here is some corner of a foreign field that is forever England”.
[Extract from the World War I records being assembled by the Remembering Herne Hill 1914 – 1918 Project]
Avesnes-sur-Helpe Cemetery
News about Fawnbrake Avenue & neighbouring streets in Herne Hill, London
