The Dulwich Society has recently been through a period of renewal. We have a new logo which many of you will have seen on our Twitter or Instagram feeds or in the eNewsletter and which is also introduced in this edition of the Journal. You may also have seen our new- look website with more colour, easier navigation and many interesting features including local news just a click away. We are also looking at bringing our administration up to date. With the passage of time, the Society's rules have become a little out of date and we plan to modernise them. We won't be changing anything in the mission statement of the Society, we will still do what we have always done and that is to foster and safeguard the amenities of Dulwich. The new proposed rules are available for inspection on the website and we will be holding a special general meeting of members later this month to consider and adopt them. The notice of the meeting is in this edition of the Journal.
In other news, the local history team at the Society have been active with their series of talks. As well as residents of Dulwich these reach a growing number of people further afield as we have had online attendees from Europe and the US. Some 3,000 people have attended and, in addition, many others have watched the recordings on YouTube afterwards. The talks have raised over £6,000 for local charities and also contribute to fulfilling the Dulwich Society's charitable objective of increasing awareness of what makes Dulwich special. The talks are researched and presented by members of the Society's local history group and are run in conjunction with Bell House, who provide the online platform. The speakers, Ian McInnes, Brian Green, Duncan Bowie and Gavin Bowyer, all give their time for free to maximise the donations to good causes. Thank you to everyone who has bought tickets. Look out for future talks which we publicise in our eNewsletter (please give your email address to the membership secretary if you do not get the eNewsletter) and on social media.
Some of you may remember that the Dulwich Society has developed a map showing the locations of defibrillators around the area. The map can be found on the Society notice board and on our website. These gadgets can be used by anyone, with no training, to save the life of someone having a heart attack. Dulwich has several of these little life savers but we did notice that the centre of the village does not have one. So, at the suggestion of a member, the Dulwich Society has purchased the decommissioned telephone box (outside 87 Dulwich Village). After renovation, we plan to install a “Community Public Access Defibrillator”, one that is available for public use 24/7 in the case of a life threatening emergency. We plan to register the defibrillator with the London Ambulance. The Society's purchase of the decommissioned phone-box also saves for the community this popular piece of our heritage which is a listed building and one of the iconic K6 types that were designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott and introduced to commemorate the Silver Jubilee of the coronation of George V in 1935. We will let you know via the eNewsletter once the defibrillator has been installed and is available for use.
With the Jubilee in mind, I wish you all a happy long weekend.