City Matters 48

CITY MATTERS

CITYMATTERS.LONDON 13- 19 September 2017 | Page 3
News Matters
Stock Exchange
worker dubbed
‘kind and caring’
Sex attack
A MAN who died after
falling from the upper
floor of the London Stock
spike hits
Exchange last month has
been remembered as a
“kind and caring family
man”.
the City
The family of
Christopher Woolnough, SEXUAL assaults in the Square Mile have
from Braintree, Essex, spiked according to a City of London Police
have paid tribute to update, with double the number of incidents
the 56-year-old Stock reported to police in June when compared
Exchange worker, who with May.
died falling from a
The report, which will be presented to the
glass balcony inside Corporation’s Safer City Partnership Strategy
the historic building Group this week, showed 10 incidents of
shortly after 10am on rape and other sexual offences in June, the
15 August.
highest number in a single month all year.
His family said in a The figures reflect an overall increase
statement: “Chris was a in victim-based violence compared to the
kind and caring family previous quarter and compared to the same
man who worked for 31 reporting period in 2016.
years at the Exchange,
crime on the rise:
as the service desk team
according to figures
lead.
Devoted
“He never married and
didn’t have children of
his own but was devoted
to his three nieces and
nephew. He would do
anything for them.
“He will be missed
dearly by his family,
friends and girlfriend.
The world has lost a
kind, gentle and caring
man.”
Officers from the
City of London Police
have compiled a report
for the coroner on
the circumstances
surrounding Mr
Woolnough’s death,
which is currently
being treated as
non-suspicious.
The family has
requested privacy at
this time.
Grenade scare
at tower block
A TOWER block just
north of Old Street was
evacuated last Friday
after cleaners discovered
a live Second World War
grenade in an elderly
man’s flat.
Charity workers made
the discovery while
cleaning out the flat in
Godfrey House on the St
Luke’s estate and called
the police.
Police said residents
were evacuated for
around an hour as a
precaution while the
device was removed
safely.
An amendment
and apology
IN last week’s story
‘History on a roll’ City
Matters referred to
founder of the First 100
Years project Ms Dana
Denis-Smith as a he
instead of a she.
We sincerely apologise
for the error.
Attributed
The highest noticeable increase was of 18
offences (24%) from May to June this year,
though this is attributed in part to the seven
attempted murder crimes raised as a result of
the London Bridge terror attacks.
City Police are in the process of developing
a ‘problem profile’ on what they call “an area
of concern” for the City, which will include
an in-depth look at the incidents reported
in June to identify links or trends, and
whether any of the incidents could have been
prevented.
The report flagged mobile phone muggers
on mopeds as another area of concern
and a key driver in the 23% increase in
acquisitive crime in April to June this year
No love lost on Montague
as drug dealer sent down
A MAN arrested for drug dealing in Middlesex Street has been jailed
at the Old Bailey.
Sam Montague, 33, of Bower Lane, Basildon, Essex, was slapped with
a lengthy prison sentence after being caught in possession of 21 wraps
of cocaine in July.
His arrest took place during a pre-planned operation co-ordinated
by the City of London Police communities and partnerships team, with
Montague among the key suspects in a drug supply ring that had long
afflicted the area around Middlesex Street.
Building on concerns raised by the local
community, the activity involved the City
Police roads policing unit, support group,
dog unit, major investigation team, and
scientific support unit among others.
Expertise
Officers pulled Montague (left) into
Bishopsgate police station after witnessing a
drug deal between himself on a black Aprilia
moped and a pedestrian.
Upon search police found three bags of
cocaine in his coat pocket, and a further 18 bags in his satchel bag
along with an unknown quantity of cash.
At court, Montague was ordered to serve two years and eight months
in custody for possession with intent to supply a class A drug, and an
additional 12-month sentence for supplying the same substance, to run
concurrently.
Sergeant Pete Lucas said: “This operation was a resounding success,
and as a result of co-ordinating the expertise and resources of several
different City of London Police units we were able to successfully make
multiple arrests.
“This is a perfect example of using intelligent, creative, problemsolving
methods to respond to concerns from the public, who were
worried about criminal activity in their local area and rightly raised
the issues with the police. We’d encourage anyone else to do the
same.
“We hope this sentence, and this operation, makes it clear that we
do not tolerate drug dealing within the Square Mile, and will use
everything at our disposal – including our relationship with the local
community – to bring offenders to justice.”
when compared with the same period last
year. Opportunistic thieves are now more
likely to be using mopeds, rather than push
bikes as they did early in the year, as a quicker
way to get close to the victim and then leave
the scene without detection.
Offenders have stolen a large number of
mopeds from Minories and Goodman’s Yard,
according to the report, which also suggests a
media campaign encouraging people to keep
their phones out of sight while in public to
combat the thefts.
Last year the force began publishing CCTV
footage of phone and bag snatchers online to
illustrate how quickly offenders can strike, and
Old Street
Barbican
Goswell Rd
Long Lane
BARBICAN DENTAL CENTRE
BARBICAN
DENTAL
CENTRE
Fann St
Old Street
Golden Lane
how the public can protect their belongings.
“People are using their phone unaware
of their surroundings, giving offenders on
mopeds or bicycles the opportunity to snatch
phones – sometimes using force to knock the
phone out of the victim’s hands or assaulting
the victim to take it,” said DI Mark Chapman.
“I would urge people to consider using a
hands-free device to make a call, not to text
or use apps by the roadside, and to always plan
their journey home.
“As well as having expensive phones stolen
with all the inconveniences involved, the
personal information contained on the phone
may put people at risk of identity theft.”
Fortune St
Beech St
General Dentistry
Cosmetic Treatment
Orthodontics
Dental Implants
Sedation
Tooth Whitening
Hygienist Service
Providing NHS and Private Dental Care in the City
Call to make an appointment
0207 253 3232
16 – 18 Goswell Road, London, EC1M 7AA
www.barbicandentalcentre.com
info@barbicandentalcentre.com
Sir David wins
alderman vote
FORMER Lord Mayor
Sir David Wootton has
been re-elected for a
second consecutive term
as alderman for the
Langbourn ward, after
standing unopposed.
Sir Wootton
surrendered office, as is
customary for aldermen
who have served their
six-year term, but was
reinstated at Langbourn’s
wardmote (ward meeting)
on 11 September.
The former partner at
law firm Allen & Overy
would be a familiar
face around the ward,
which covers parts of
Fenchurch and Lombard
Streets and is made up
almost exclusively of
business voters, having
served as alderman from
2005 until 2009.
He was elected
aldermanic Sheriff, then
Lord Mayor for 2011/12
before returning to the
post of alderman of
Langbourn.
Sir Wootton, who was
born in Bradford but
now lives in Sevenoaks,
serves on several key
decision-making bodies
including the policy and
resources and the courts
sub committee, of which
he is deputy chair.

CITYMATTERS.LONDON 13- 19 September 2017 | Page 5

www.citymatters.london
Artizan Street Library & Community Centre
1 Artizan St, E1 7AF
Fuller’s Pub - The Old Bank of England
194 Fleet St, EC4A 2LT
Oh’Lola
58 Hatton Garden, EC1N 8LS
Spitalfields Market E1
Brushfield Street, Spitalfields, E1 6AA
Barbican Library
Level 2, Barbican Centre, Silk Street, EC2Y 8DS
City of London Information Centre
St. Paul’s Churchyard, EC4M 8BX
Coffee Stall
In front of St Mary Abchurch,
Abchurch Lane, EC4N 7BA
Coppa Club
4 St. Paul’s Churchyard, EC4M 8AY
El Vino Wine Merchant
6 Martin Lane, Cannon St, EC4R 0DP
Giddy Up Coffee
Fortune Street Park, EC1Y 0SB
Jeeves Dry Cleaners
131 Fleet St, EC4A 2BH
J Rogers & Sons - Shoe Repair
28 Liverpool St, EC2M 7PD
Guildhall Library
Aldermanbury, EC2V 7HH
Merchant House
13 Well Court, EC4M 9DN
8 Bride Court, EC4Y 8DU
Pod Good Food
75 King William Street, EC4N 7BE
Protestant Truth Society Inc - Book Shop
184 Fleet St, EC4A 2HJ
Rome Coffee Cart
3 Fleet Place, EC4M 7RD
Scott’s Shoe Repair & Dry Cleaners
City Thameslink, Holborn Concourse, EC4M 7RA
65 Ludgate Hill, EC4M 7JH
Old Street Station, EC1Y 1BE
Sweetings Restaurant
39 Queen Victoria St, EC4N 4SF
Temple Brew House
46 Essex St, WC2R 3JF
The Franklin Building
124 Goswell Road, EC1V 7DP
The M Bar
48-51 Leadenhall Market, EC3V 1LT
The Natural Kitchen
15-17 New St Square, Fetter Lane, EC4A 3AP
176 Aldersgate St, EC1A 4HR
Fuller’s Pub - The Counting House
50 Cornhill, EC3V 3PD
Nincom Soup
Old Street Station, EC1Y 1BE
Shoe Lane Library
Little Hill House, Little New Street, EC4A 3JR
Ye Old Cheshire Cheese
145 Fleet Street, EC4A 2BU
You’ll be able to pick up your copy every Thursday from one of the above collection points.
To find out how to become a free collection hub for City Matters, please contact: 020 8640 6015

Missed the latest edition of City Matters?
Catch up with this week’s headlines at
citymatters.london
Find us on Twitter @City_Matters
Got a story to share? Drop us a line at
editorial@citymatters.london

Switch your soap for social good.
The Soap Co. is a hand-crafted ethical luxury brand that
creates beautiful products that are good and do good.
Right down to the glue that seals our soap
wrappers we strive to reduce our impact on
the environment and our revenues create
employment for our blind or otherwise
disabled or disadvantaged staff.
Find out more at thesoapco.org/office

Page 12 | 13 - 19 September 2017
CITYMATTERS.LONDON

Newspaper distribution staff wanted to join City Matters
team. Successful applicants will help deliver our weekly newspaper
across the Square Mile. Training and support given; £10 per hour;
applicants must be aged 16 or over.
For an informal chat about the roles please contact:
020 8640 6015
or Email: steve@citymatters.london

Page 14 | 13 - 19 September 2017
CITYMATTERS.LONDON

CITYMATTERS.LONDON 13- 19 September 2017 | Page 15
Resident Matters
BUMPING INTO EACH OTHER CREATES FERTILE GROUND FOR BETTER SOCIETY
Something to share? Have a
story from the Golden Lane
Estate? Send your news to
goldenlanegazette@gmail.com
Things that go bump
‘Bumping’ sounds like a nightclub dance craze
from the 1970s. In fact, it is a theory of social
cohesion.
The citizens of small, tightly-packed
communities get on far better if they bump
into one another regularly. And the places
they do this are held by social scientists and
community-engagement experts to be sacred,
fertile grounds for a better society.
Golden Laners have their chosen spots.
Fusion gym, Waitrose and Fortune Street Park
are all well established ‘bumping’ places. Lesser
known ones are the undercover pavement on
Golden Lane alongside Stanley Cohen House
and, my favourite, the short tunnel of trees
behind the Cripplegate Council noticeboard at
the back of the Shakespeare pub.
But bumping also happens outside the
confines of our bright and colourful concrete
paradise. Often I will see neighbours at the
open meetings organised by Healthwatch City
of London.
These are roundtable talking shops at which
City residents, workers and service users chew
the fat with healthcare professionals in an
effort to shape future policy. Issues such as
medication passports, community pharmacy,
dementia, and social care come under intense
scrutiny.
These talks are important because the City of
London shares some health and social services
provisions with neighbouring boroughs,
notably Hackney, so policy needs to embrace a
wide range of needs.
The Healthwatch gatherings take place in
various locations, but often at the Dutch Centre
in Austin Friars,EC2.
They are always a great success, and I think
I know why: the free buffet lunches they serve
to fuel the conversation are mouthwateringly
good, so good that I have even spotted some
of my Golden Lane neighbours stuffing their
faces at lunchtime then disappearing quietly
before the serious topical talking starts.
This is obviously unethical and I never
hesitate to remind them of their poor conduct.
And in my experience, all the best ideas come
with a full stomach, so ‘Let’s do lunch with
Healthwatch’ could be the start of a new trend.
It’s good to talk... and eat.
‘Recovery After Heart Surgery’, an
examination of patient experiences and
priorities, is being hosted at St Bartholomew’s
Hospital on 5 October, while Healthwatch
City of London’s fourth Annual Conference
is at the Dutch Centre, 7 Austin Friars on
20 October.
Crystal ball moment
I predicted in last month’s Golden Lane Gazette
that objections to the development proposed for
Golden Lane Gazette
with resident Billy Mann
the former Richard Cloudesley site would start
rolling in. I wasn’t wrong, and even more piled
in on deadline day last week.
I also mentioned that a “clever resident from
Bayer House” had circulated his own alternative
to the existing Hawkins Brown blueprint.
This is the ‘Fred Plan’, a scheme more
compatible with the estate’s existing
architecture, and its author, Fred Scott, is
so clever that to advance his rival idea he has
created an artistic photo-composition of
what looks like an awayday of 1950s British
intellectuals loitering ghostlike over a model
of Fred’s insurgent 21st-century Golden Lane
redesign.
They look to be contemplating, with deadly
seriousness, a time in the future when our
prize-winning estate will be enlarged in a way
sympathetic to the original post-war vision of
its architects Chamberlin, Powell & Bon.
In the light of how the Richard Cloudesley
project has been managed so far, in which
residents’ views have been barely registered, let
alone considered, it is tempting to remark “pigs
might fly”, but stranger things have happened.
Culture vultures
The reinvention of the City as a cauldron of
creativity under the title of ‘Culture Mile’
might not be as farfetched as it sounds.
Getting the heritage architecture of Golden
Lane and the Barbican to be included in this
hot new idea might be a fantasy too far, but
at a recent party to mark the closure of our
community centre for refurbishment, I learned
about Joe Mitchell.
Back in the 1960s, Joe was the “Cameron
Mackintosh of Cripplegate”, rallying residents
of all ages to perform on the Golden Lane
Community Centre stage in his famous
‘Follies’. Some of Joe’s protégés even went on to
attend the Italia Conti Academy of Theatrical
Arts.
Italia Conti has been an incubator of top
talent for many years, so don’t be surprised
if the next Doctor Who hailed first from the
Golden Lane Estate.
Behind the scenes
And if your life is not already dramatic enough,
take time to check out the absorbing Life on
the London Stage exhibition at the London
Metropolitan Archives around the corner in
Clerkenwell.
gaining interest:
the ‘Fred Plan’
Billy Mann has lived in Basterfield House
on the Golden Lane Estate for more than
20 years. He is membership secretary of the
Golden Baggers allotment group, and earlier
this year was made a Housing Hero by
the City of London Corporation.
He writes a blog about neighbourhood
happenings at basterfieldbilly.blogspot.com

Page 16 | 13 - 19 September 2017
Extra Matters
The force for good
with global appeal
CITYMATTERS.LONDON
FIRST-HAND ACCOUNTS OF LIFE ON THE BEAT COMING TO CoLP MUSEUM
WHEN the City of London Police Museum moved
from its cluttered base in Wood Street to a spacious
new home at Guildhall Library in November, the aim
was to breath fresh life into its exhibitions.
Among the immediate challenges for project
manager Seif El Rashidi (right) was to trim the
‘historical fat’ that had been collected over the years,
streamlining the exhibition to paint a narrative that
tells tales from the beat dating back to the 19th century.
Now, nearly a year on from the relocation, Seif is
preparing to unveil an added nuance to the museum;
eye witness accountants from some of the first
responders on scene at major incidents in the City.
Resources
“As generations move further away from the time
of significant incidents it is important to present the
human aspect of the scenarios,” he explained.
Interviews have been conducted with around 20
former officers, with one particular recording focusing
on the IRA blast at the Old Bailey in March 1973.
“Museum’s need to be dynamic,” said Seif. “The
move from Wood Street was seen as a chance for a new
beginning and we spent a long time working on how
we could make the most of the time and resources that
had been spent rejuvenating the gallery.
“We wanted to create an audio experience that added
personal stories to the narrative, showing exactly what
it means to be on the beat and how the role has changed
but also how it hasn’t.”
Seif says that the museum has proved particularly
history lesson:
life on the beat laid bare
popular with students, most notably those stopping
into the UK from America to continue their studies.
Not even a full year in their new home and Seif
has already welcomed eight tours made up of solely
American students.
“We find a lot of interest comes from people on law,
crime and policing courses – it makes for an exciting
field trip.
“But in light of recent events regarding terrorism (two
attacks in London and one at a concert in Manchester)
what is striking to them is the relation to firearms we
wealth of detail:
and growing still
have here in the UK. As a US cadet the first
thing they are taught is how to operate a
gun and that poses an interesting question
in itself.
“Some are more reassured when they
see armed officers, but others say that
guns will lead to more violence.
“Periodically the issue flares up
and there is always a lot of talk
about whether policing should be
handled differently; this is why
the museum is so popular.”
City of London Police
Museum is located at
2 Aldermanbury EC2V 7HH
KnightFrank.co.uk
Crawford Building
A 17th floor two bedroom apartment right next to Aldgate East station
This 2 bedroom apartment has exceptional west and south facing views along with a large
balcony. Both bedrooms are a great size and there are 2 bathrooms.
The kitchen is open plan to the reception room.
Leasehold
Guide Price £1,250,000
Approximately: 91.0 sq m (980 sq ft)
KnightFrank.co.uk/aldgate
aldgate@knightfrank.com
020 8022 4048
@KnightFrank
KnightFrank.co.uk