Free beer at Ben's Canteen with new CAKE app

The CAKE app will be sponsoring free beer at Ben’s Canteen for customers to help them get in the boozy green spirit after work.

Every customer at the Earlsfield location will receive a free St. Paddy’s beer when they open a CAKE tab at the restaurant 5pm on. The app will also be sharing a virtual ‘pot of gold’ by giving new CAKE users 10% credit back on their bill (the credit appears as gold coins in the app).  

When you are ready to go CAKE removes the hassle of tracking down the bill and everyone paying. Using your phone you simply select what you ate, hit pay, and walk out. Then check your balance to see how much credit you’ve earned.

To book a table a Ben's Canteen Earlsfield for St. Paddy’s day to secure your free green beer and gold credit, download the app here and book a  table via the app. Or you can email in your request to the CAKE team at bookings@thecakeapp.com.

Last orders at Three Six Six Earlsfield

Announced on their Instagram account today, it's the final night to get one of Three Six Six Earlsfield's signature cocktails before they leave us for a secret central London location.

It's a big loss for the neighbourhood, not just the venue but the energy and enthusiasm that Mick has brought to the Earlsfield community over the years. So cheers, Three Six Six, and all the very best for your next venture. Thank goodness Battersea isn't too far away!

Read the message in full:

Three Six Six Earlsfield is closing down for good tonight!
Join us for last drinks at Three Six Six Earlsfield tonight.
We've got bitter-sweet news to all of our friends and customers.
Today is the last day that Three Six Six Earlsfield will be open after trading for over 11 years.
We are relocating to central london (secret location). We want to thank you for all your support during the past 11 years. It was a very tough decision to make. We will miss you and will be forever grateful to all of you!
Three Six Six Battersea is and will be open as normal.
We want to thank all the lovely Earlsfield's community and amazing people. We will miss you!

Please stay tuned for upcoming news and hopefully we'll see you all very soon.
Let's party like it's 1999 tonight!
If there will be no butterflies, there will be no change....

Thanks to Amy for the heads up.

Support Fertility Network UK at The Earlsfield this Valentine's Day

something a bit different on Valentines @The_Earlsfield @FertilityNUK #charityauction #freeentry #canapés #fertilityawareness #sharethelove pic.twitter.com/t5Z2TWaSwf

— The Earlsfield (@The_Earlsfield) February 8, 2017

Join them for a night of live music, canapes, and pink Champagne, 7-11pm on Tuesday 14 February. Free entry, charity auction in support of Fertility Network UK.

Choose a playground design for Swaby Gardens

Enable, the contractors who maintain parks in Wandsworth say:

Wandsworth Council are redesigning the existing junior playground in Swaby Gardens and would like your view. 

 Up to £163,000 of funding has been secured from NCIL (Neighbourhood Community Infrastructure Levy) to refurbish the junior playground and move the toddler play equipment to be part of the new design. Wandsworth Council secures NCIL funding from development projects in the local areas and invests the funding in local community facilities.

There are three designs to choose from, each aimed to improve movement and physical activity among children of all abilities.

The purpose of the refurbishment is to:

1. Redesign the layout and join the junior and toddler playgrounds.
2. Provide an accessible playground for children of all abilities.
3. Provide exciting play equipment that has; climbing, swinging, rotating, sliding, balancing and stretching features.
4. Offer a range of challenging, energetic strength building play experiences to help build children’s self confidence and tests the limits of their capabilities.
5. Create a place for social interactions, to help children learn how to negotiate, cooperate, compete and resolve conflicts.

Come along to the public consultation meeting on Tuesday 14 February 11am to 4pm at Earlsfield Library to talk to representatives from Enable Leisure and Culture and give your view in person, or have your say online here.

Online consultation is open from Monday 6 February to Sunday 19 February.

For further information please contact:

Teresa Constantinou, Playground Development Officer, tconstantinou@wandsworth.gov.uk

Enable Leisure & Culture manage and deliver the parks service on behalf of Wandsworth Council.

Looking for a new class for your baby or toddler?

Then take a look at Talking Tots…  not your average class, Talking Tots provides fun, interactive classes for all babies and toddlers that gently boost early communication and language skills, as well as social confidence.

Help give your child a head start and prevent common speech and language problems from arising in the first place. With the number of pre-school children with speech and language problems having increased substantially in the last decade, there is a lot that parents and early years workers can do to help develop children’s communication skills. The good news is that helping to boost your child’s communication and social confidence isn’t rocket science and Talking Tots founders Lisa Houghton and Tracey Park, both experienced paediatric speech and language therapists, advise parents to spend lots more time talking to children, using games, songs and rhymes to help build children’s vocabularies and develop their awareness of words and sounds.

These principles are used as the basis for Talking Tots classes which help to develop some of life's most important skills, including concentration and attention, self-esteem and social confidence, pre-literacy skills, communication skills, and sharing and taking turns.

 The unique Baby Talk programme (for babies aged 4 to 12 months) provides a series of fun, interactive and informative workshops that offer a fantastic opportunity to learn about early child communication skills and what you can do to support this important life skill. Topics covered include an introduction to early communication skills; listening and attention; eye contact; turn taking; copying; and exploring sounds.

For toddlers aged 12 months and above, the Sprites and Sprinters classes have lots of fun and action packed structured games, with exciting props, singing and rhymes. Activities are carefully designed to encourage children’s natural desire to communicate, by building vocabulary and helping them to understand and talk about the world around them.

For more information, please visit our website (www.talkingtots.info/swlondon) and our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/talkingtotsswlondon). Email us at swlondon@talkingtots.info to secure your place or for further information. 

Cheer up your February with a New Year pantomime

Join the Magdalene Players for their 38th Family Pantomime Cinderella at St Mary Magdalene Hall, Trinity Road, near Wandsworth Common from the 2nd to the 5th of February 2017. This famous rags-to-riches story brought magically to life as Cinderella meets her handsome Prince, but her ugly step sisters want to stop her going to the grand ball! Will her friend Buttons be able to help, and will her Fairy Godmother magic her up a dress and a coach? Will the Prince find the foot that fits the crystal slipper, and will everyone live happily ever after? Get your tickets now for a magical night to remember!

Thursday and Friday performances at 7:30pm, Saturday matinee 2pm and Saturday evening 7pm, Sunday Matinee 2pm Tickets: £12 and concessions £10. Thursday all Tickets £10. Group concession available: buy 10 tickets, get 10th free (to take advantage of the group concession please contact the box office directly on the number below; all tickets must be purchased together in one transaction).

Box Office: 07535 925268/Online booking: www.magplayers.org.uk (and more info)

Urgent appeal from the Just Shelter team

Local refugee support group Just Shelter has been in touch with an urgent appeal to support refugees in France. The wish list will be open until the evening of Friday 20th January. They say:

Last winter, you were all incredible and helped us collect sleeping bags, tarpaulins and eventually build shelters for Calais. Whilst the camp is no more, we are kicking off 2017 by responding to an urgent need coming from our partners Help Refugees: as hundreds of refugees and asylum seekers are currently sleeping on the streets of the French capital, and with many more in a similar situation in the Dunkirk camp, they are in very short supply of the following items:

- Pop up tents
- Thick blankets
- Hat, socks and gloves kit

As you are aware, temperatures have dropped significantly and people are literally freezing on the streets of Paris - this includes women and young children. As French police are regularly demanding these families move on, the need is great for easily transportable items.

So, once again we need your help - You can make a difference to someone's life by helping them get through another winter.  We have put together an Amazon wishlist of the most needed items.  

We are travelling to Calais on Saturday 21st January and would love to have reached our target by then, which is: 
30 OF EACH ITEM
Any contribution you can make is massively appreciated.
The wish list will close on Friday 20th evening.

Please follow the link below on Amazon.fr, which will take you straight to our wish list where you can purchase one or more items, which will be delivered straight to the Calais warehouse. From there, these much-needed items will be delivered by volunteers to Paris and Dunkirk.

https://www.amazon.fr/gp/registry/ref=cm_reg_rd-upd?ie=UTF8&id=3J0IJH7KUEHMN&type=wishlist

The list may appear in French at first but you can easily translate this into English in your web browser.  We have made the decision to use French suppliers so we can get items to the front line quicker and at a lower cost.

To keep up to date with how the wish list is doing over the week, visit our Just Shelter Facebook page where we will be telling the story.

We will also be delivering a van full of sleeping bags collected on our behalf by Wandsworth Welcomes Refugees. We will be visiting the Children's Centre at Dunkirk and will give you some news soon!

A historical year ahead in Earlsfield

The local history dynamo that is Geoff and the Summerstown 182 project is setting up for another busy year ahead. Below are some key dates for your diaries, and keep an eye on their website https://summerstown182.wordpress.com/ for the latest. You can also follow the project on Twitter @summerstown182.

Geoff says: "We are open to any other ideas or suggestions. If you would like to play a part in this project, please come along to our next meeting on 17th January in St Mary's Church Hall."

**Now Tuesday 4th April 7.30pm

Friends of Summerstown182 Meeting Oral History Workshop

St Mary's Church Hall (entry from Keble Street) SW17

Learn how to capture stories using camera and sound at this oral history workshop. More details coming soon to FOS182 about our planned trips to The London Metropolitan Archives and The Imperial War Museum.

Saturday 28th January 2pm
Summerstown182 Winter Guided Walk, Earlsfield

Starts 2pm at St Mary's Church, Wimbledon Road, SW17
A delightful winter amble through the industrial heartland of the Summerstown182 passing locations where many of them once lived. Also featuring the Corruganza Strike, Wimbledon Stadium, the Lost Streets of Earlsfield, Coppermill Lane and Garratt Mills.

**NEW Thursday 23rd February 6.15pm
Bringing a Wandsworth war memorial to life, Tara Arts, Earlsfield
Learn more about the experiences of Jamaican soldiers in the First World War, to coincide with the production of 'Chigger Foot Boys.' Tickets for the talk are £3 and they have a beautiful refurbished venue but space is limited so you will need to book!

 

**Now Saturday 25th February 2pm

Summerstown182 'Waterloo Sunset' Walk, Lambeth

Starts 2pm outside St John's Church, 73 Waterloo Road, Lambeth, SE1 (off Waterloo Bridge roundabout close to IMAX cinema)
In a unique diversion from our usual orbit, we use Charles Booth's maps to track the movements of the family of one of the Summerstown182 in the Lambeth area, 100 years ago. A fascinating insight into the much-changed area between Waterloo Station and The Elephant and Castle.

Saturday 11th March 2pm
'Women of Summerstown' Guided Walk, Tooting/Earlsfield Celebrating Women's History Month

Starts 2pm at St Mary's Church, Wimbledon Road, SW17

This very special walk will celebrate the stories of the mothers, wives, girlfriends, sisters and daughters of the Summerstown182 and examine the effects of the war on the home front.

Monday 13th March 2pm DETAILS TO BE CONFIRMED

Tribute to 'Forgotten Soldier' William Mace
Streatham Cemetery, Garratt Lane, SW17

13th March is the centenary of the death of an underage soldier from Tooting who served for 18 months with the South Wales Borderers. He became sick and was discharged from the army, died of TB and is buried in an unmarked grave. There is no formal recognition of his service. We will be holding a short simple ceremony that day to remember him.

Tuesday 4th April 730pm

Friends of Summerstown182 Meeting MORE DETAILS TO BE CONFIRMED

St Mary's Church Hall, (entry from Keble Street), SW17

Saturday 22nd April 2pm
Guided Walk in celebration of Corporal Edward Foster V.C. 

'Tiny Ted's Tooting - The Dustman V.C.'Starts, 2pm St Mary's Church, Wimbledon Road, SW17

Corporal Edward Foster from Fountain Road won the Victoria Cross 100 years ago this spring at Villers-Plouich. This walk remembers his bravery and covers significant locations in the area where he worked and lived. We will also visit his grave in Streatham Cemetery.

Friday 28th April 8pm
Wandsworth Historical Society Talk

'The First World War memorial in Summerstown and its 182 stories'

Starts 8pm, Friends Meeting House, Wandsworth High Street, SW18

ALSO, more details coming soon on -

- our second 'Heritage Roadshow' in Tooting Library
- a plaque to commemorate the 'Lost Copenhagen Running Grounds' of Garratt Lane
- talk/exhibition visit to learn more about extent of Indian and Caribbean involvement in the First World War, including potential visits to the Muslim Burial Ground and Peace Garden in Woking and the Chattri Memorial near Brighton - talks/presentations on Summerstown182 to the Furzedown Project, Generate, Wandsworth U3A, The Streatham Society
- we will continue our workshops with Burntwood School and are about to start our involvement with Smallwood Primary

Beer and carols on Saturday

You're invited to the Christmas meet up for Earlsfield businesses

Local traders wanted!!

In business and looking for new markets & ideas?

Join members and local businesses at The Earlsfield P.H., 511 Garratt Lane SW18 4SW on Wednesday 14th December from 6.30pm for an informal business network session.

Be part of the thriving business community in Wandsworth, celebrating the best in Earlsfield and promoting a 'buy local' agenda.

Get together over a glass of wine, beer or soft drink in a friendly welcoming environment.

Our aim is to keep things simple and allow a natural flow of relaxed and informal networking. There will be an introduction from the Chamber with an update on the Earlsfield Business Network, a part of Wandsworth Chamber devoted to business based in Earlsfield.

It's free, it's festive and it's fun!

Register now for this free event via the link http://www.wandsworthchamber.org/events.php or just turn up.

You can also check out & join our new Earlsfield Business Network group on Meet Up.

For more info, please ring Will on 07957404423.

Raise money for Macmillan with a Flip Out coffee morning

"This year we are opening up our Macmillan Coffee Morning to Flip Out Wandsworth guests and the local community!

The World's Biggest Coffee Morning is Macmillan's biggest fundraising event for people facing cancer. People all over the UK will be hosting their own Coffee Mornings and all donations on the day are made to Macmillan.

Come and enjoy some of our delicious cakes (even gluten free ones) in our canteen and 50% of all earnings of cakes sold on the day will go to the Macmillan Fund Raiser. 

Flip Out Wandsworth Macmillan Coffee Morning takes place on Friday 30th September from 09.30am till 12.30pm"

Read more on Facebook.

Blue plaque unveiling this Saturday

A huge congratulations to local history champion Geoff Simmons of the Summerstown 182 project. To celebrate securing Heritage Lottery Funding, he'll be unveiling a Blue Plaque outside the Tooting home of Sidney Lewis, believed to be the youngest soldier to have served in the British Army in the First World War.

Psst we hear the next Earlsfield-themed Summerstown 182 walk will be at 2pm on Saturday 3 December...

Meet Earlsfield's local design company Little Shock

It's always lovely to hear from local businesses, especially when they have an offer up their sleeve! Our latest 'local trader' is Mark from Little Shock:

Little Shock (littleshock.co.uk) is a small local company run by of Mark Shipton, an Earlsfield local (on Burntwood Lane) who specialises in Graphic Design, Web Design and Digital Marketing. He is keen to work with local businesses to help them get more customers online and offline, as well as building strong business relationships in the local community.

Mark has worked with lots of big brands in the UK, like Tetley Tea, Campbells Soup and The Hairy Bikers - He now uses the expertise he has learned to help out small & medium sized businesses to get new customers and promote their services. With over a decade's experience in the Digital Marketing industry, he is sure that he can help local businesses grow.

Mark is offering all businesses in Earlsfield and the local area, a FREE consultation on their needs and would love any local business owners to get in touch (even if just to say hello).

To find out more, visit the Little Shock website at this address - http://littleshock.co.uk/ - or call Mark at the home office on 020 3642 3262.

Sign petition to stop rat-running traffic

A petition has been set up to stop rat-running traffic down Franche Court, Aldren and Burmester Roads which is trying to avoid the traffic lights at the junction of Garrett Lane and Burntwood Lane.

Campaigners have been in touch to say:

"We are asking for support to stop this for the following 3 reasons:

1. Safety: there is excessive traffic of all types with a high proportion of commercial vehicles and lorries. Speed restrictions are not adhered to and the road is not safe for the increasing numbers of young children living on the roads.

2. Noise - due the significant volume of traffic and the increasing use by heavy lorry (particularly local skip companies) traffic. Vehicles also use their horns and shout at each other when there is congestion on the road.

3. Parking - residents struggle to park cars as cars and lorries are quite frequently driven so fast that this does not allow time to park cars safely.

We are close to gaining enough signatures - the deadline is the 22nd September."

Sign the petition on the council's website.

Changes to Tooting constituency boundaries

You might have seen the news about changes to the boundaries of MPs' constituencies. The Boundary Commission has released their proposals for redrawing these boundaries to reduce the number of MPs.

For Tooting, they propose adding a new triangle at the  bottom corner. It's unlikely to affect what's a fairly solid Labour heartland, but you can comment on the proposals on the consultation website. (Thanks to Rob on Twitter for pointing out the original post had the old and new boundaries back to front!)

 

More information

"The number of constituencies in London must reduce from 73 to 68. By law, every constituency we propose must contain between 71,031 and 78,507 electors

During the consultation we will be visiting London and holding five public hearings

• 17 - 18 October - Westminster (link is external)
• 20 - 21 October - Bromley (link is external)
• 24 - 25 October - Harrow (link is external)
• 27 - 28 October - Kingston (link is external)
• 31 October - 1 November - Romford (link is external)"

Wandsworth Jumble Trail

"A Jumble Trail is like a car boot sale but on your street, communities co-ordinate to set up stalls outside their houses to sell bric-a-brac, toys, vintage clothes, cakes or whatever.

The whole thing is coordinated online at jumbletrail.com providing visitors with a colour coded map to explore the treasure on sale in your neighbourhood."

"Recycle for London is working in partnership with Wandsworth Council and Jumble Trail to bring you this free event. Recycle for London helps Londoners to recycle more by providing them with information and motivation to recycle as much as possible, no matter where they are in the capital.

Please be aware it is the responsibility of each householder to ensure the public highway remains accessible, so please ensure your stall is in your garden and not on the pavement, and there is no rubbish left in the street after the event.This is a community event, organised by locals and open to everyone.

Please contact wandsworthjt@gmail.com if you have any questions."

This Trail is championed by local dad Guy Dorrell from Faircatch.

The Wandsworth Jumble Trail is taking place on Sunday 9th October from 11am to 4pm. Sign up and see who's got stalls online.

Join By the Horns to celebrate their fifth birthday

"In celebration of our first five years, we’d love you to join us for a Birthday Party at the Brewery Taproom & Beer Hall on Saturday 10th September

We’ll be running tours of the brewery so you can find out all the juicy details behind By The Horns and what goes into making our beer.
Tickets are £10 which includes two pints of cask beer!

We’ll also have street food and live music.

You’d like more? Then how about one pump of free cask beer on the bar! Come down & enjoy a beer on us to celebrate.

We look forward to welcoming our beer drinking buddies, old & new, and seeing what the next five years holds!"

Council moves to protect local pubs

An article in The Times reports that Wandsworth has become the first council in the country to use the planning system to protect its pubs from redevelopment.

While some pubs had been listed as "assets of community value," giving a 6-month window for communities to attempt to buy them if they went up for sale, this change is much more wide-ranging. One hundred and twenty pubs in the borough cannot now be demolished or changed into estate agents, homes or shops without permission.

Thankfully, pubs in Earlsfield seem to be thriving and it's to be hoped that none of them were in danger of being lost to estate agents. The rest of the high street of course has no such protection...

New Lidl store opens this week on Plough Lane

The team at Lidl have been in touch with details of the opening celebrations for their new store on Plough Lane. They say:

"Lidl UK has confirmed that its new store on Plough Lane in Wimbledon, London, will open its doors for the first time to customers at 8:00am on Thursday 11th August, with FA Legend Peter Shilton in attendance to cut the ribbon to the brand new supermarket.

As well as offering customers the chance to sample some of its award-winning products, Lidl has teamed up with football legend Peter Shilton as part of their ongoing partnership with The FA as Lead Partner of FA Skills, the grassroots programme for children between ages 5 – 11 years old. To celebrate the grand opening, the supermarket is inviting local families to meet the star and take part in the ‘Football Trolley Chip Challenge’, all under the guidance of the ex-England keeper, with prizes being handed out to those that take part. The challenge will take place straight after the store opening and ribbon cutting, with Peter helping the public to finesse their footballing skills until 9:15am. With limited spaces, families are encouraged to arrive early for a chance to play and win.

Following the exciting launch, for the first week of trading customers will be able to enjoy 50% off selected fruit & vegetables including Oaklands Baby Potatoes for 44p (1kg, was 89p), Mango for 42p (each, was 85p) and Sweet Potatoes for 47p (per kilo, was 95p).

The new supermarket, which marks a multi-million pound investment in Wimbledon forms part of the company’s ongoing expansion plans in the UK which will see its existing store portfolio of 630 stores increase to up to 1,500. The 1,631m² store has created 40 new jobs and boasts state of the art facilities including an in-store bakery, customer toilets, baby changing facilities and ample parking.

Lidl UK’s Regional Head of Property, Chris Young-Wootton, commented: “We would like to thank all those who have played a part in bringing this new Lidl store to Wimbledon and we appreciate the support of Legend Peter Shilton. It is wonderful for us to be able to create more jobs and investment opportunities in the area and we can’t wait to start serving our multi-award winning products to the local community.”"

Touring the new Tara Arts theatre

Earlsfield has been lucky to have Tara Arts right at its heart since 1983 (read here for more about their history). In October 2014 they closed the theatre for a substantial renovation to update the fabric of the building and create a whole new venue. I was lucky enough to tour the new space recently with Jatinder Verma, the artistic director. It's a cliche, but his passion for the theatre and what they do within and beyond its walls shone through.

Even from the outside, the 1880s building combines respect for its heritage - the facade, the tree design that grows up the outside - with a modern sensibility.

The branching design reflects one of the original trees on site

The natural theme continues throughout the building. From the Devon earth theatre floor to the tree motif running through all sections of the building, there's a natural feel to the new theatre. From the tiny, bee-house containing courtyard to the green roof and solar panels, this is culture-meets-ecology on Garratt Lane.

Bricks from the original building have been painstakingly cleaned and re-used and combined with doors and woodwork imported from India and bright colour schemes (be sure to check out the loos...).

The new building has extended down to the basement with a green room and storage space, and now has offices and a rehearsal / classroom space above the theatre. It's accessible via lift and should provide useful venue hire for local groups too. The masterpiece is of course the theatre itself. I can't speak to the stagecraft side of things, but looking from the audience side the stage and surrounding space looks to lend itself to creative productions across lots of levels.

Tara Arts have a slew of new productions lined up, from Shakespeare to their own commissions, with the season starting in mid-September. I understand there will be a community open day soon for locals to come and have a look inside before the main season gets underway. Highly recommended!

If this has whetted your appetite, Tara Arts is looking for more volunteers: information and application forms are on their website.