Author: Blake Foster

Daniel Forrester is setting off in September on his journey from Saint Francis Hospice through France, Spain, Gibraltar and Morocco, crossing the Sahara to west Africa to Caroline Sarpong’s family home town of Kumasi in Ghana. Caroline, a mum of two from Barking, died at the hospice in November from cancer, aged just 45. Daniel expects the challenge to take up to 12 months, walking around 20 miles a day. He aims to arrive in Kumasi in September next year on what should have been the first anniversary of their planned wedding at St Peter’s Roman Catholic Church in Dagenham. “This is my way of…

Police were called to the scene at around 7.30am today (April 1).  His injuries are not believed to be life-threatening or life-changing. The road has since reopened. A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police Service said: “There was a collision between two cars on the High Street.  “A man was taken to hospital but not believed to have sustained life-threatening or life-changing injuries.  “The road has since been reopened.” Source link

As taken from Joolz Guides: Rather Splendid Pub Walks, his ‘Circuitous Crawl Around Crouch End’ is 5.1km, takes 2 hours 20 mins, and takes in the Woodman; Boogaloo; King’s Head; Queens; andGreat Northern Railway Tavern. Pip pip! We’re meeting up at the dog-friendly WOODMAN. It’s conveniently situated next to Highgate tube station and if it’s a nice day you can sit in the beer garden. The Crouch End circular walk is one of many in Joolz latest book. (Image: Joolz Guides/Quadrille) The Woodman dates from 1810, when Archway Road was opened as a bypass for the mail coaches which couldn’t make it…

Gurvir Singh, 23, was squatting in an abandoned first-floor flat in a part-demolished property near the junction of Oak Street and Mawney Road. The empty property, which could only be accessed via a makeshift ladder, was full of rubble and feared by police and paramedics called to his death to be structurally unsound. Mr Singh was found dead on his bed with blood seeping from his nose and a drug-smoking pipe sat atop a small chair he was using as a bedside table. He had no food in his kitchen, besides a single can of chickpeas. Acting Det Sgt Amanda Mead, from the…

Between March 5 and March 24, Paul Luchford from Sidcup was sent five PCNs by Greenwich Council for using the lane in Blackwall Lane. However, signs along the route make it clear that taxis are exempt from restrictions that prevent cars using the lane between 6am and 10pm. Mr Luchford, who has been a black cab driver for over two decades, said he often uses Blackwall Lane for a regular job he works between Blackheath and Canary Wharf, and had never been fined for using the bus lane before last month. Signs show that taxis are exempt from restrictions in…

Lazari Properties 3 has submitted a planning application to refurbish Greater London House, in Hampstead Road, Camden. The building, first constructed in 1928, is not listed but does sit in Camden’s conservation area opposite Mornington Crescent. The design and access statement, from architects de Metz Forbes Knight Vision, says plans include two new roof terraces on the fifth and sixth floors, and upgrades to the existing entrance ramps and stairs “to improve the grandeur”.  A tiered seating arrangement “packed with plant life” would be created at the front to provide an outside area for the building’s users. The reception area would be expanded, the lower ground floor…

DistriAndina is due to open in High Road later this month. It was first opened in Elephant and Castle in 2002 by the Quintero family, initially as a Latin grocery store, and later expanding to include a café, restaurant, and nightclub. Mateo Quintero said: “We’re thrilled to bring our Latin American flavours further north! “We’re really looking forward to joining the Tottenham community. It’s such a vibrant and diverse area, and we feel it’s the perfect place for DistriAndina to grow.” He said the Tottenham store will offer fresh goods from a Latin bakery, homemade juices, empanadas, and a selection of Latin…

Inspectors visited Golders Hill Day Nursery, in Finchley Road, on March 3 and published a damning report on what they found. They said its overall effectiveness was ‘inadequate’, the regulator’s lowest grade. It got the same rating in all four inspection categories – the quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development and leadership and management.  The nursery, which has 42 children aged up to four, was registered in 2022. Following a visit a year later, Ofsted said action had been taken regarding their “concerns” the nursery was not meeting statutory requirements. Their latest report, published on March 31, began: “Leaders do…

The controversial Borough Triangle development, which covers an area the size of one and a half football pitches, was narrowly approved by councillors at a Southwark planning meeting on Wednesday evening (March 26). A slew of buildings will be bulldozed to make way for the Berkeley Homes scheme, including the 100-year-old locally listed Institute of Optometry and a former papermaking factory home to the Mercato Metropolitano food court for the last nine years. Mercato Metropolitano A replacement food hall is part of the planned development. But until it is finished, most of the 40 traders with stalls in Mercato Metropolitano…

The authority has issued a planning enforcement notice for the land at the back of 61 and 63 Crow Lane after the units there were converted into two residential dwellings without permission. The “unauthorised” change of use took place at some point between April 2018 and April 2022, according to the notice. Several businesses have their addresses listed as rear of 61 Crow Lane on Google, including KMJ Motors, Sign Print and Kwick Shopfront Shutters. READ MORE: ‘Unlawful’ London Tyres in Hornchurch ordered to shut However, KMJ Motors was dissolved in 2018, according to Companies House, and the other two are not listed on…