Q is for Queen of Hearts
When the much loved Princess Diana visited
Walworth in 1993 our very own Danny Walters managed to give her an impromptu
high five and present her with a bunch of flowers. Diana, later dubbed ‘the
queen of hearts’ was not the first member of the royal family to stray onto the
streets of SE17. On various occasions in the past our present Queen and her
forbears have made some notable visits. Queen Victoria
attended the Surrey
Pleasure Gardens
in 1848 and Queen Elizabeth, when a mere Princess, looked round a new Walworth prefab just before the end of the war.
The Duchess of
York, who later became Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother and her husband the
Duke of York (later George VI) attended the Browning
Settlement in 1928 for the coronation of her counterpart the Walworth May Queen.
During the Silver Jubilee celebrations in 1935 King
George V and Queen Mary passed along a crowded Walworth Road on a drive through South London . And then just months before the Second
World War, Queen Mary, now widowed, took the same route to open Clubland at the
Walworth Methodist Church. Clubland was cumbersomely billed at the time as “The Temple of Youth
for working girls and boys.” Idioms such as ‘teenager’ and ‘youth club’
were yet to be coined. Sadly the buildings were
destroyed just two years later after taking a direct hit during the blitz. On
completion of rebuilding in 1964 the Queen Mother had the honour of opening it
to a new generation. The Queen Mother returned to the area in 1982, this
time for the rededication of St Peter's Church in Liverpool Grove following
extensive refurbishment.
Queen Mary with the Rev. Butterworth May 1939 and the Programme
No comments:
Post a Comment