News and Events

posted: 26 April 2010

PEARLY KINGS & QUEENS COCKNEY KNEES UP & PARADE MAY 2nd.

There was also a stall at Tower Hamlets Cemetery Open Day on Sunday May 2nd. It was a family day out with rickshaw rides, pond dipping, family history research, lots of activities for children and adults, including bands playing, cake stalls, food and drink.

posted: 26 April 2010

London Marathon 2010.

Thanks again to our two wonderful runners and we hope they will have a few hours well-earned rest before heading back to work next day.

A couple of photos can be seen on the Marathon 2010 page.

8 August 2009

JULY/AUGUST - BUMPER MONTHS

SALES DAY

The next sales day will be on Saturday 22nd August from 10am until 4pm. If you have any goods to sell please pop them along to W. English & Son, funeral directors, 464A Bethnal Green Road (not far from Bethnal Green tube station) during normal weekday working hours or on the actual sales day itself from 9.30am to 4pm. Anything left over is put into the next sales day.

26 July 2009

LIVE BAND/JAM DAY

If you did not get along to the Live Music Band day at the Coach & Horses pub, Leyton High Road, on Sunday 26th July you missed a real treat.

We raised £345.50 on the day, which was a fantastic amount, especially as it was such a pleasant day to be able to spend in a pub, eating and drinking, relaxing, listening to the music and enjoying ourselves. So our thanks must go to Terry & Vera Duggan who organised the event, along with Suzanne Lane and Ray Bartrip who all worked very hard to make it happen and run so smoothly on the day. Our special thanks also to all the bands who performed free of charge on the day for us and to the Coach & Horses pub who allowed us to use the venue to raise money. We are extremely grateful to everyone involved for making it such a special and successful event.

18 July 2009

LIBRARY EXHIBITION SATURDAY 18th JULY

Our thanks go to all the library staff, especially Richard, who helped us so much on the day and made it possible for us to organise the exhibition in their reading room. Thank you also to all those who came along. It was good to meet some new survivors and relatives of those who died.

If you need more information or can organise a fund-raising event for us please phone Derek Spicer on 07722 162 168 or 078 28 197 236 or 01474 702513.

6 July 2009

Another great sales day at English's.

The next sales day there will be on Saturday 1st August from 10am until 4.30pm. If you have anything for us to sell please drop it in during normal working weekday hours or bring it along on the day of the sale.

6 July 2009

London Chest Hospital fete.

If you would like more information about any of our events or the charity please ring 07722 162 168 or 077324 60 444 .

Thanks

Stairway to Heaven Memorial committee

1 June 2009

BUPA 10K.

John Edrich completed the BUPA 10,000 meter run in London on Sunday 24th May for our charity and we are very grateful to him for all his efforts, especially as he had some injuries beforehand. However, they proved not to be too bad on the day and he completed the course in 61 minutes. So it was a a great time considering a wonky knee and calf muscle trouble!! Our thanks to him for giving up his bank holiday to do this for us. If you have sponsored him could you please send your money in as quickly as possible. If you need details where to send the money please let me know.

5 May 2009

Emotional meeting.

Saturday 2nd May was a very emotional day for Alf Morris as it was the first time he had been able to meet Suzanne Lane, a relative of Mrs. Chumbley, the ARP warden who saved his life during the Bethnal Green tube disaster.

Susanne Lane contacted us through our website after reading the brilliant article about Alf in The Daily Mail the previous weekend and for the first time learnt that her grandmother had saved Alf's life. She knew that Mrs. Chumbley had been involved in the disaster, but she had never told her family that she had saved people's lives. Susanne lives in Berkshire so had not heard about our project before.

It was therefore a very emotional day for both Alf and Susanne and also for Alf's wife, Vera, who remembers Mrs. Chumbley standing at the tube station entrance, looking quite stern, ushering people quickly into the shelter during air raids. Suzanne had brought along a treasured photograph of her grandmother to show Alf and Vera. Immediately Alf saw it he became very tearful as he immediately recognised the lady who saved his life. Without her help he would certainly have died on 3rd March 1943 along with so many of his school friends. They all vowed to try to find out where Mrs. Chumbley is buried and to meet up to lay flowers on her grave in the near future.

You can view the story on the BBC website.

London Marathon 2009.

Here's a picture of Raju Vaidyanathan at the 22mile mark of the 2009 London Marathon marathon. He ran the course in 5 hours 45 minutes and we thank him very much for undertaking all the gruelling training and especially for suffering the pain of racing in that heat. We are also very proud of him so make sure you send your sponsorship money in.

A sponsorship form can be found on the download page.

The Mother’s Day Film Show organised by the Jewish East End Celebration Society proved to be a popular day. Oxford House is a great venue and it was easy to park nearby, though London transport links proved yet again to be a nightmare as part of the Central line (including Bethnal Green tube station) was closed for engineering works. So we are very grateful to the 80 plus people who managed to make it there on time.

The afternoon started with some really interesting archive films of East London during the war and the rebuilding afterwards, courtesy of London’s Screen Archives and Angela English who sacrifices her day off to come along and show the films. Seeing children standing by bomb sites with notices saying ‘Danger Gas’ and men standing on precarious bombed out buildings that collapsed soon after, made you realise how much health and safety rules have changed our lives since then!! Some of the news reel commentators were so politically incorrect by today’s standards that it really made us laugh. Then Esther Whyatt entertained us with some wartime songs and had us all joining in with her and tapping our toes.

Bernard Kops, the celebrated author who had lived in Bethnal Green during the war, was able to talk about what it was like at the time and also explain how ITV film researchers had contacted many survivors from the disaster at the time and used their memories to help them make the film ‘It’s a Lovely Day tomorrow’ that Bernard wrote the script for. He then showed the film, which was very powerful and without today’s normal graphic blood and gore it seemed even more emotionally charged, knowing what happened, without it being shown in too much detail. Gwyneth Strong (Cassandra in Only Fools & Horses) had a starring role, but if you blinked you missed ‘Linda Robson’. Liz Smith was also very good. We are exploring the copyright situation in the hopes that we might be able to make copies of the film to offer to supporters for a donation. Copies of the archive films are also available if anyone wants them. Please let me know and I will contact Angela English for you.

After such an emotional film it was good to have Esther Wyatt back to sing to us and lighten the mood and she certainly brightened us all up while afternoon tea was served. This included a delicious mix of rolls, sandwiches and the most incredible cakes. We made just over £99 on the raffle and will know more about any profit on the day from the organisers soon.

We must thank very much the Jewish East End Celebration Society for organising the afternoon, in particular Clive Bettington who worked so hard doing everything. Also, our thanks to Bernard Kops for coming along and showing his film and giving us a talk about his experience and to Esther Whyatt for entertaining us so well. Also to Ken Demby and David Nathan who worked very hard bringing the tea urns and teapots and making all the drinks for everyone at such speed. Thanks also to all those who came along, paid out for the tickets and raffle. We really appreciated all your efforts to get to Bethnal Green particularly under such difficult travel conditions.

5 March 2008

Great News

It will give us renewed energy to raise more money in the coming weeks. Let’s all make an extra special effort to see what we can do to raise the rest of the money quickly now.

If our supporters could all contact their local newspapers and tell them of their personal connection with the disaster and say that they attended the Memorial Service last week and are helping to trace other survivors and families of those who died in that area, then it spreads the word in your area. This will help us a great deal to find other family connections and might bring in more donations. But please make sure that the website details are included in the article and also Derek Spicer’s phone number 07722 162 168. Derek will help you if you need any information to organise a fund-raising event too.

1 March 2008

Memorial Service

Fr. Alan Green conducted a wonderful Service, which was so comforting and uplifting. He was assisted by Rabbi Amanda Golby who read a prayer and blessing in Hebrew and English for the many Jewish families that were present.

The names of all 173 victims were read out and this brings home to everyone just how many members of some families were lost and that so many were women and children. After the Service Sandra Scotting, secretary of the Stairway to Heaven Memorial Trust, gave a quick update on what had happened since this time last year, detailing the new planning permission that had been passed by the local council without any objections, not even from London Underground, so all that was needed now was to raise the money in order to build the Memorial.

Supporters were urged to try to organise a small fund-raising event and special praise and thanks were given to W. English & Sons, funeral directors in Bethnal Green Road, who had raised over £3000 for the charity so far in their regular ‘Sales Saturdays’. This was more than any other local business had contributed, so Sandra appealed for help from more of the local shops, offices and companies, even if they just support our marathon runner, Raju Vaidyanathan by sponsoring him on 26th April, or John Edrich who will be running the BUPA10000 on 25th May.

Local band ‘Resigned’ had written a song about the disaster and given copies of the CD to the charity to sell to raise funds. Copies are still available for £2.50 and the song is hauntingly beautiful and we think you will want copies. They will also be on sale at English’s during the working week and on Saturday 7th March for their next sales day.

The Jewish East End Celebration Society are organising a film show afternoon for Mother’s Day on 22nd March (more details below) and tickets were on sale after the Service. Supporters were also asked to help out with station collections at Bethnal Green underground on Friday 13th March and at Victoria mainline station on 24th April. Even if they can offer an hour or two to give others a short break it will be very helpful. Please ring Derek Spicer to offer a time slot. The rest of the charity trustees were introduced to the congregation.

Then everyone walked across the road to the top of the stairs where everyone had died on 3rd March 1943, to lay wreaths, flowers and to receive blessings from Fr. Green and Rabbi Golby. Everyone was then encouraged to go back to the church for refreshments provided by the Bagel Shop in Brick Lane and the Spicer family, and to view the new model of the proposed Memorial which had been provided by Harry Paticas Architecture. There was also an exhibition of articles, information and photographs for people to learn more about the disaster and to ask questions and give ideas for fund-raising to the trustees of the charity.

One of the more exciting and rewarding parts of the afternoon was the fact that at least 2 different families were meeting other family members for the first time. They did not know that the others existed until the charity put them in touch with each other. Others were able to talk to members of the congregation and discover that they knew their deceased relatives before the disaster, so it was a happy end to the proceedings. Donations and sales on the day raised £578.

18 July 2008

Meeting with the Mayor of London.

From left to right: Mayor of London Boris Johnson with one of our Remembrance Books, Chairman of the Trust Alf Morris, John Biggs LDA member for Bethnal Green, Harry Paticas – architect of the Stairway to Heaven Memorial.

The Mayor has provided a letter of support to send to businesses and companies and has also pledged to try to find ways in which he can help us raise the funds we need as quickly as possible.

His letter can be seen in full here..

27 June 2008

Cllr. Ann Jackson, former Mayor Tower Hamlets

On Friday 27th June 2008 we were thrilled to receive a cheque from for £33,500 from Cllr. Ann Jackson, the former Mayor Tower Hamlets. This princely sum is the result of Anne's hard work raising the money during her year in office. We are extremely grateful to Cllr. Jackson for all her efforts in raising so much money for us and delighted to hear that she will continue to support us in any way she can now that her term in office is over. She is seen here after presenting the cheque to Alf Morris, our Chairman.

1 March 2009

2009 MEMORIAL SERVICE

For more information please ring 07722 162 168

January 2009

Silence is golden.

Train Driver, Anna Reid, has just completed a sponsored silence for the Memorial, raising a magnificent £600. As she puts it: “Most of my colleagues thought I couldn’t keep quiet for a whole minute, let alone the whole day!”.

It was tough, but she was doing it for such a good cause as her Great Nan, Mary Stevens, died in the Bethnal Green tube disaster, so she wanted to do this for her and for Mum. Anna’s, mother, Marie Reid, was 13 at the time of the tragedy and when she came home from school her mother, Caroline, was not there. Caroline had gone to identify her mother among the rows of dead bodies in the crypt of the church. Marie still finds it difficult to talk about the event even today, so Anna knows how painful it is and wanted to raise this money in support of her mother too.

Some of Anna’s colleagues asked if she could do the sponsored silence every week!! It’s a good job she can take a joke.

Well done Anna and thank you very much for your wonderful efforts. It all helps the charity to be nearer its goal.

If you would like to do something like Anna’s sponsored silence just let us know and we can supply the sponsor form and any info you need. Just ring Derek Spicer on 07722 162 168.”