Thank you for picking up a copy of the Sutton Storyteller, a new local newspaper for Sutton.
The team that puts together the paper was recently shortlisted in the team of the year category at the 2024 Newspaper Awards.
One of our other publications, the Peckham Peculiar, was named hyperlocal newspaper of the year at the same awards ceremony for the second year running. Turn to page 7 to find out more.
In our third issue, we talk to the people at Interestingly Different, a unique shop selling an impressive range of beautiful handmade gifts, homeware and lovingly restored furniture.
Its shelves are stocked full of high-quality products made by, or to support adults with learning disabilities or autism.
The shop was set up by Elena Nicola and Nick Walsh, the founders of Nickel Support, an organisation that offers holistic training and employment opportunities to adults with learning disabilities from Sutton and the surrounding areas. Turn to page 14 to read more.
Also featured are Brett Goldstein, one of the stars of hit comedy Ted Lasso, on page 8; and the late artist Pauline Boty, a 1960s pop-art pioneer whose work has been rediscovered after years of not getting the recognition it deserves, on page 21.
Finally, our cover star for issue three is Vicki Hodges, the leader of Sing Out Sutton.
Describing itself as a “fun, friendly and supportive group who believe in the power of singing to make yourself and others feel better”, the choir’s mission is to boost wellbeing, joy and community spirit through singing.
Life coach Vicki has been running the choir since its inception in 2016, when it was launched as a research project aimed initially at supporting those affected by cancer.
She has a huge passion for bringing singers and self-described “nonsingers” together to make exciting music, and grew up singing – joining her first choir at the age of nine. Since then, she has been involved in choirs for more than 20 years. Turn to page 11 to read the full story.
We’d like to say a big thank you to our talented team who made the latest issue happen, including designer Tammy Kerr, photographer Julia Hawkins, features editor Luke G Williams and all our other contributors who are listed below.
We’re now starting work on the next issue of the paper, which will be the summer edition. We’d love to hear your story ideas so please drop us a line at suttonstoryteller@gmail.com if there’s someone or somewhere that you would like us to feature.
If you run a business or organisation and are interested in advertising with us, please do also get in touch. As you can see from this edition, you’ll be in great company.
We hope you enjoy the issue!
Mark McGinlay and Kate White
Editors
Mark McGinlay, Kate White
Features editor Luke G Williams
Subeditor Jack Aston
Photographer
Julia Hawkins
Designer Tammy Kerr
Contributors
Lawrence Diamond, Miranda Knox, Caitlin Otway, Peter Rhodes
Marketing and social media
Mark McGinlay
For editorial and advertising enquiries, please email suttonstoryteller@gmail.com @sutton_story @suttonstory @sutton_story
A decision to move children’s cancer services from the Royal Marsden hospital on Downs Road, Sutton to central London has sparked intense debate, with an online petition protesting against the move having attracted – at the time of writing – almost 12,000 signatures.
Currently, about 1,400 children aged under 15 who have been diagnosed with cancer receive treatment at any one time at either the Royal Marsden or St George’s hospital in Tooting.
From autumn 2026, however, these patients will have to travel to the Evelina London Children’s Hospital on Westminster Bridge Road in Lambeth, central London to be treated, while radiotherapy treatment is moving to University College Hospital on Euston Road.
The move is a consequence of new national NHS guidelines, introduced in 2021, which state that if children are receiving specialist cancer treatment then they must do so at a hospital that also has a level-three children’s intensive care unit, which the Royal Marsden does not possess.
Last September, a 12-week public consultation was launched on the proposals, although the options in the consultation did not allow for services to remain at the Royal Marsden.
Prior to the commencement of the consultation, Chris Streather, the medical director of NHS England, said: “The Royal Marsden has an impressive track record of delivering high-quality care for children, but the pace of innovation in children’s cancer treatment means that, to be fit for the future, the centre must move to be with intensive care.”
NHS leaders have also moved to try and reassure those sceptical of the relocation plan by emphasising that it will “ensure a smooth handover” and that there will be “no sudden changes to children’s care”.
Among those opposed to the move is Surrey resident Jenny Houghton, who set up the aforementioned petition in October last year and argued that the move will cause “complications, inconsistencies in treatment
and potentially hugely lengthy increases in travel times and logistics for families, at what is already a terrifying and incredibly stressful time for them”.
Houghton, whose son Lewis is a former Royal Marsden patient who is now in remission after intensive chemotherapy treatment, also said: “There is no guarantee that the new service would exceed, or indeed even meet, the current world-leading treatment programmes in place at the Royal Marsden, especially if housed at Evelina London, which is not a cancer-specialist hospital.”
However, opposition to the move is not universal among families who have had children undergo treatment at the Royal Marsden. Isabel and Dan Lowe, whose daughter Aimee had to be transferred from the Royal Marsden to St George’s in 2021 to receive emergency care, told the BBC that the lack of an intensive care service at the Sutton hospital had put their daughter Aimee’s life at risk.
Mr Lowe said he did not agree with those opposing the relocation proposals. “You want your child to be in the safest place possible,” he said. “If their child was in the position Aimee was, I think their views would be drastically changed.”
The leader of Sutton council, Ruth Dombey, and six other council leaders have written a joint letter to the health secretary, Victoria Atkins, urging her to reverse the decision.
“This is a disappointing and very worrying decision which will leave many families frantically concerned about how they will continue to access the care their children so desperately need,” Cllr Dombey said.
“The Royal Marsden is renowned for offering high-quality cancer care to children over many years. We fear that the removal of services risks losing that clinical expertise and could have a serious knock-on effect on other specialist treatments the hospital provides.”
She added: ‘’We will do everything in our power to make sure the NHS and government reconsider this decision and do what is best for families.”
Optimism is growing at Gander Green Lane that Sutton United might yet preserve their hard-earned Football League status under new manager Steve Morison.
The Us have recently enjoyed a winning streak, achieving four victories in a row between 16 March and 1 April, against Forest Green Rovers, Accrington Stanley, Salford City and Swindon Town.
Morison took charge of Sutton on 6 January after the December sacking of Matt Gray in the wake of a disastrous 8-0 defeat against Stockport County – a reverse that left the club six points adrift at the bottom of the League Two table and relegation looking a near certainty.
Gradually, however, thanks to some canny recruitment and tactical tweaks, Morison has revived the side’s fortunes. Prior to joining Sutton, Morison had impressed in the Isthmian Premier League, leading the Essex outfit Hornchurch to a seven-point lead at the top of the table.
Encouragingly for Sutton, Morison also has impressive past form when it comes to fending off relegation, having led Cardiff City to Championship safety in 2021-22.
In all, Morison was manager of the Bluebirds for just under a year, first as caretaker manager after the departure of Mick McCarthy and then as the club’s permanent
boss. He was sacked after Cardiff’s poor start to the following season, but his tactical nous and ability to motivate players has already won him praise at Sutton.
Speaking of his approach in his new role, the 40-year-old has said: “I have tried to get the players to believe and just to try to enjoy their football.”
Although the club failed to win any of Morison’s first nine league games in charge,
they did secure five draws during this spell, prior to a thrilling and morale-boosting 4-3 win at Notts County on 27 February.
Morison enjoyed a highly successful playing career before moving into management, including two seasons with Norwich City in the Premiership, and three spells and more than 290 games with Millwall (pictured).
Among his other achievements as a player were scoring the winner for Stevenage in
the 2007 FA Trophy final and being capped 20 times by Wales. However, if he preserves Sutton’s Football League status, it might just top anything else he has achieved in football. With Sutton one point clear of relegation at the time of writing, the campaign looks likely to go down to the wire, with their finalday showdown on 27 April against high-flying MK Dons already looking like it may prove a tense and decisive match.
Carshalton resident Dan Jennings’ epic quest to interview Paul Weller has captured the imagination of music fans worldwide – and now he is set to write a book about the legendary “Modfather” based on material he has gathered during the course of his 180-episode podcast, Desperately Seeking Paul.
Dan, who has lived in Carshalton since 2013, is a former local and commercial radio DJ and producer who “fell out of love” with working in front of the microphone and moved a decade ago to work behind the scenes in radio, branded content and advertising.
“The idea of the podcast was that I was a massive Weller fan and wanted to do a podcast about him,” Dan told the Sutton Storyteller. “Part of the impulse came from the fact that not interviewing Weller during my radio career was my one big regret.”
Dan started the podcast during lockdown, expecting it to last a few episodes, but it soon became wildly popular and morphed into an epic oral history of Weller’s career and the people surrounding him, with Dan interviewing former bandmates, record-sleeve designers and even Weller’s mother and sister.
“I thought it might last about 20 episodes and it would be a fun thing I could return to every so often,” Dan said. “But it very quickly grew into something much more. It became like an extra job really.”
Weller himself, however, proved elusive, until a chance meeting last summer. “I knew Weller was aware of the podcast and that people had been asking him about it. Then I went to a gig in King’s Cross, wandered into the garden and saw a couple of members of his band who’d been on the podcast. I said hello and then realised Paul Weller was sat with them as well!”
The duo got talking, with Weller telling Dan he admired the podcast and, later that night, agreeing to an interview, which was recorded on 20 November in his studio in Woking and released on 19 December as a Christmas special. “I thought I’d be really nervous in the interview,” Dan admitted. “But Paul was so down to earth he made me very at ease.”
Dan’s epic quest has featured in the Guardian and on ITV News, but he has saved a couple of exclusive reveals for the Sutton Storyteller – namely that he is in the process of agreeing a contract with a publisher to write a book on Weller and that several special episodes of the podcast, featuring more interview material, will be released later this year to tie in with the release of Weller’s new album, 66, in May.
“The book is the next big project,” Dan said. “I’ve gathered all these stories now and there are so many dimensions and story arcs throughout his career. When the book is finally done I think my wife will be quite relieved when I’m no longer talking about Paul Weller 24/7!”
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“I could not do without this help, with the wonderful workers whom I know I can trust” – customer, 80
“They go far beyond to ensure comfort and safety, we can’t thank them enough. For quality of care they would get 5 star plus”
Local author Sam Mills’s new novel, The Watermark, will be published by Granta Books this August.
Mills already has six other books to her name, including the novel The Quiddity of Will Self, which aims to be the literary equivalent of Being John Malkovich, and The Fragments of my Father.
She has written for numerous publications, including the Guardian, the Independent, the New Humanist and the Spectator.
Mills is also the co-founder and managing director of Dodo Ink, an indie press dedicated to publishing daring and difficult works.
It focuses on risk-taking, imaginative novels and innovative, thought-provoking nonfiction, seeking out books that don’t fall into easy marketing categories or compromise their intelligence or style to fit in with trends.
The Watermark, described by Granta as a “fizzing, spiralling, ambitious novel of love and books”, follows Jaime and Rachel, starcrossed lovers who find themselves trapped by a prize-winning author inside the pages of his latest book.
The couple must try to find their way back home through a labyrinthine network of
novels, moving through Victorian Oxford, a utopian Manchester, a harsh Russian winter and an AI-dominated near-future. As they tumble between genres and alternate visions of their own lives, they try to work out if their relationship has a future. The book asks: how can we truly be ourselves, when fate is pulling the strings?
Anne Meadows, who acquired the rights for The Watermark for Granta Books, said: “I have long admired Sam’s ambition and her daredevil willingness to play with form.
“The Watermark is a love story and a kaleidoscopic page-turner that made me laugh and gasp with surprise and will delight bibliophiles everywhere.”
Mills said: “[I am] proud to be published by Granta, a brilliant press prepared to take risks and push boundaries.”
The team behind the Sutton Storyteller was nominated for a prestigious newspaper award last month.
We were shortlisted in the team of the year category at the Newspaper Awards, notably for the launch of this publication last autumn and another hyperlocal title that we started at the same time.
The judges said: “The passion for the project shone through, resulting in two new printed titles full of great content precisely targeted at their communities.”
Gary Cullum, the director of the Newspaper Awards, said: “For the second successive year the Newspaper Awards focused entirely on print, recognising the hugely important role that print continues to play.
“There’s no denying we live in the digital age, with tech giants commanding the advertisers’ pound. But, for many, newspapers
The leader of Sutton Council, Ruth Dombey, has announced she will be standing down at the council’s annual meeting next month.
Councillor Dombey, who has been leader of the council for 12 years, will remain as a local councillor for Sutton North.
Announcing her decision to step down as leader, Liberal Democrat Dombey said: “After 12 wonderful years as leader of the council, I have decided that now is the right time to step down and pass on the baton.
“With the general election this year and our important local elections taking place in 2026, I feel that now is the right time to step aside and allow my successor time to take on this important and challenging role and lead us into the next election.
housing across the borough, alongside continuing to care for those in our borough who need us the most – from meals on wheels to Admiral Nurses, to being the first local authority to build a brand new dedicated children’s home at Willow Rise. All of this makes me proud to call Sutton my home and to have been part of its transformation.
“Now is the right time for me to step down. I look forward to continuing to serve the community as a local councillor and supporting the new leader, who will continue our ambition to make our borough the best place in south London to live, work and raise a family.”
A new leader of the council will be elected by full council at the annual meeting on 20 May.
and genuine, trusted news brands remain an essential part of daily life.
“The quality and quantity of entry to the 2024 Newspaper Awards is testament to the continuing resilience of the industry.”
The awards take place annually to “celebrate excellence and innovation in the printed newspaper”, with categories for local and national titles.
The hyperlocal newspaper of the year category was heavily subscribed with more than 30 entries and was won for the second year running by the Peckham Peculiar, which shares the same team as this paper.
Judges said that its “passion for Peckham and its residents shone through on every page”.
All the winners were announced at a blacktie gala dinner on 26 March at the Hilton London Bankside, hosted by the TV sports presenter Mark Durden-Smith.
“It has been a huge honour and a privilege to be the leader of Sutton council and I am very grateful to everyone – fellow councillors, council officers and above all our residents – who cares so much about our borough.
“I’m proud of what the council has achieved since I became leader in 2012.
The London Cancer Hub is putting Sutton on the world stage as one of the world’s leading cancer drug discovery centres.
“Our plans for our main town centre demonstrate our vision to bring our historic and empty buildings back to life and help ensure it remains a hub for our communities to live, work and have fun. This will protect our shops and businesses and bring greater footfall to Sutton High Street, as well as create more local jobs.
“We continue to deliver on our ambitious programme of providing more
A look at the life of Brett Goldstein, the Sutton-born actor whose roles include Roy Kent in the smash-hit show Ted LassoBY LUKE G WILLIAMS
Brett Goldstein is a man with many strings to his bow – among them actor, comedian, director, novelist, producer and podcaster – but it has been the iconic role of Roy Kent in the breakout sports-comedy-drama Ted Lasso that has won him mainstream attention and propelled him towards the heady heights of superstardom.
Born on 17 July 1980 in Sutton, Goldstein was a football and Tottenham Hotspur fanatic as a youngster, as well as an enthusiastic impersonator of a certain 1980s movie icon. “I used to pretend to be Indiana Jones,” he revealed in a 2022 interview. “I’d roll down hills with a hat and jump off roofs with my neighbour.” Goldstein was soon channelling his talent – and inexhaustible energy –into making short films and performing in school plays, before studying for a degree in film and literature at the University of Warwick. Emerging from his studies as – in his own words – a “well educated, naive, middle-class idiot”, his first professional experience of what might be loosely termed the “entertainment” business was
somewhat unconventional – consisting as it did of a year-long spell managing a strip club in Marbella owned by his father, who was in the midst of a “midlife crisis”.
On returning to England, Goldstein pursued a number of routes into showbusiness – writing and directing his own short films and performing in low-profile plays “off, off, off, off West End”. His only formal training had been a summer course at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, and the only apparent constant in his low-profile and apparently scattergun early career was his ability and willingness to graft.
“Even when I was doing stuff that no one was watching, I was always working,” he would later explain in an interview with the New York Times. “Either I’m mentally unwell, or genuinely this is the thing that gives me purpose and makes me happy.”
In 2006, Goldstein moved into standup, honing his craft in a motley collection of venues, building up to a show inspired by his Marbella experiences titled Brett Goldstein Grew Up in a Strip Club, which won warm reviews at the Pleasance Dome
as part of the Edinburgh fringe festival in 2011.
Not long after, a short film titled SuperBob that Goldstein had made alongside Jon Drever, an old school friend from his Sutton days, caught the attention of a casting director for the Ricky Gervais series Derek; in 2012, Goldstein was duly cast in the role of Tom, the sweet-natured love interest of Kerry Godliman’s Hannah.
Here – at last – was the big break Goldstein had long sought. “That was my first proper TV job,” he later admitted. “[From] then it was slightly easier.”
A low-budget feature film version of SuperBob landed on cinema screens in 2015, winning cult status aplenty, but it was Goldstein’s eventual casting in Ted Lasso, which began broadcasting on Apple TV+ in 2020, that moved his career to a whole new level.
A comedy drama that tells the story of an American college football coach who takes over the management of a struggling English Premier League club, Lasso was the brainchild of the actor Jason Sudeikis, with significant input from producer Bill Lawrence and writers Brendan Hunt and Joe Kelly.
Goldstein was originally brought on board as a member of the writing team by Lawrence, who had previously cast him in a 2017 sitcom that failed to advance past the pilot stage.
The idea was that Goldstein’s English background and passion for football would add authenticity to the project.
However, while working on the show’s first season, and with the start of filming edging nearer, Goldstein became convinced that he was the perfect fit for the role of Roy Kent, a profane and ageing midfielder based on Ireland’s former Manchester United captain Roy Keane.
Demonstrating the chutzpah that is one of his trademarks, Goldstein hatched a plan to state his case to be cast as Kent. He self-filmed five scenes with himself in the role
and emailed the video to producer Lawrence.
“I’ve been thinking I could play Roy,” he wrote to the producer. “But if this is embarrassing, you can pretend you never got this email, and I will never ask you about it.”
Expanding on why he so passionately believed he was the perfect fit for the role, Goldstein later told Rolling Stone magazine: “I felt like I understood him. I won’t name them, but we have family friends who are
professional footballers, so I grew up around these types.
“I was around when they retired, and I know how difficult that transition is. How football is your life and then suddenly it isn’t – and you have no training for the real world or normal life. There’s a real sort of tragedy to that. No one wants to stop playing football – it’s just that your body can’t. That’s tragic.
“I understood the sadness of that. I understood his depression. And, most
I’ve been thinking I could play Roy, but if this is embarrassing, you can pretend you never got this email, and I will never ask you about it
of all, I fully understood the rage. It was all the aspects of him. I thought: ‘I am Roy Kent.’”
The rest – as they say – is history. Ted Lasso became a worldwide smash, with Goldstein winning popular and critical plaudits for his work, while also picking up successive Primetime Emmys in 2021 and 2022 for outstanding supporting actor in a comedy series.
Myriad other opportunities soon came his way – in 2023, Shrinking, a TV series he created with Lawrence and the actor-comedian Jason Segel, debuted on Apple TV+ with Harrison Ford, whose 80s alter ego Indiana Jones Goldstein had so idolised as a youngster, in a leading role.
In the ultimate symbol of mainstream acceptance and fame, Goldstein has even ended up with a role in the Marvel film universe, having made his debut as Hercules in the post-credits sequence of the 2022 blockbuster Thor: Love and Thunder.
Having climbed to the peak of the showbusiness mountain, however, one ambition does remain for the lad from Sutton who has made it big. A self avowed Muppets fan who has declared The Muppet Christmas Carol to be his favourite film, he still hopes to one day appear alongside his fuzzy felt heroes.
“My ultimate goal is [to] work with the Muppets,” he has said. “I do that, then I’m dead.”
Saturday 8 June Kensington Gardens, London
Join us for our family-friendly 5k walk, bringing together everyone impacted by dementia.
Become part of a community determined to make history and help end the devastation of dementia, once and for all.
Events also in Edinburgh, Southampton, Liverpool, Nottinghamshire, and Cardiff.
Secure your place today and together, we will walk for a cure.
Sutton Sings Out is a local choir that believes in the power of song to boost happiness, wellbeing and community spirit. Its
founder, Vicki Hodges, tells us more
BY MIRANDA KNOX
Whether you’re a gifted singer performing on stage to an audience of thousands, or simply belting out a tune alone in the shower, singing is scientifically proven to have some remarkably positive effects on happiness and wellbeing. Which is precisely why the choir group Sing Out Sutton was created.
A “fun, friendly and supportive group who believe in the power of singing to make yourself and others feel better”, its mission is to boost wellbeing, joy and community spirit.
Life coach Vicki Hodges, 31, is the founder and has been running the choir since 2016, when it was a research project aimed initially at supporting people affected by cancer.
Vicki, who lives in Croydon and studied music at Newcastle University as well as training as an opera singer in England and Italy, has a passion for bringing singers and self-classified “non-singers” together to make exciting music. She grew up singing, joining her first choir aged nine, and has been involved in choirs ever since.
She says: “My mum used to teach mother and baby singing groups, even though she originally thought she couldn’t sing! We went to the Choir Olympics when I was nine and a half, in Germany. Being part of something bigger than yourself, and communicating through singing and through song – it’s really special.”
The group was originally set up by Tenovus Cancer Care, where Vicki worked at the time as a choir leader, in collaboration with the Royal Marsden hospital and the Royal College of Music’s Centre for Performance Science.
The aim was to investigate the wellbeing benefits of singing for people affected by cancer, and the group met at the Royal Marsden
chapel initially, with 33 people coming to the first session. The numbers soon doubled, and within four months they moved to Chiltern Church, where they’ve been ever since.
By the time the research project concluded in 2018, it had become so popular that there were 60 to 70 people attending every week, and participants found there were multiple benefits, including reduced stress, anxiety and depression and a boost in immune function.
Vicki, who also works for the Royal Marsden in its arts and wellbeing team and runs choirs for staff and patients, says: “We found it helped combat loneliness and isolation and it helped improve feelings of depression.
“There was a sense of community too, and that’s where the research really came into its own and we were really proud to be a part of that.”
The choir was able to continue after the research project, thanks to additional funding – up until February 2020, and the arrival of Covid.
Vicki says: “I was furloughed and made redundant, and couldn’t get in touch with any choir members. At that point we were just about hitting 90 people a week.”
Thankfully though, the following year the choir was able to relaunch –into what it is today.
Vicki says: “We took a leap of faith, and as a freelancer I relaunched the choir in 2021, which is Sing Out Sutton as it is today.
“We have had a history as a cancer choir, but people have now stayed for their wider wellbeing. The community spirit element is what’s most important. The singing itself –it’s about telling a story through your voice, and your voice is part of you
It is so amazing to be able to share the choir with other people and share that sense of working together. Just knowing you can leave your troubles at the door –it’s catharsis at its finest
and part of your personality, and is so connected to your emotions, so the more in touch with that you are the more you can communicate. That’s where singing is really powerful.
“In terms of being in a choir, it is so amazing to be able to share that with other people and share that sense of working together. Just knowing you can leave your troubles at the door –it’s catharsis at its finest.”
Marina Reeves joined the choir in 2016 and says she’s made lifelong friends. She says: “I joined as I’ve always had a passion for music. The choir has been very supportive in so many ways. I remember when I had a bereavement in the family, the following week I decided to go to choir, and I’m so glad I did. The choir really helped me through, it feels like extended family.”
Sing Out Sutton became a charity in November 2022, and it meets every Thursday from 5.30pm to 7pm, with about 70 attendees each week. It has also remained free for all to attend.
The group sings approximately once a month at local events, including the Belmont Festival and Wallington Music Festival, and privately in care homes.
Vicki says: “We’ll be singing I Will Survive for the mayor of Sutton charity concert [27 April at St Andrew’s Church, Cheam] with a full band.”
What Vicki loves most about running choirs is bringing out people’s unique voices – and bringing the community together.
She says: “People find [singing, and the choir itself] a complete lifeline. We’ve had choir members meet through the choir, fall in love and get married. Many have formed lasting friendships. There’s a core network of people to check up on each other.”
Whether it’s enjoying a morning munch at Tim’s Cafe or a midafternoon macchiato at Tiempo Lounge, the cafe is an integral part of daily life on Sutton High Street.
We all have our favourite place to grab a quick caffeine fix, enjoy a leisurely coffee and a newspaper (perhaps the latest issue of this publication), treat ourselves to
lunch with friends or settle in with a nice cup of tea and watch the world go by.
Our photographer went down to the high street to capture some of these popular places on camera, including the aforementioned spots in addition to LA Cafe, Peckish Cafe and Tazza Coffee. Here are the results.
Interestingly Different is a unique shop selling an impressive range of beautiful handmade gifts, homeware and lovingly restored furniture. Its shelves are stocked full of high-quality products made by, or to support adults with learning disabilities or autism.
The shop was set up by Elena Nicola and Nick Walsh, the founders of Nickel Support, an organisation that offers holistic training and employment opportunities to adults with learning disabilities from Sutton and the surrounding areas.
Up to 95% of adults with learning disabilities in the UK are currently unemployed, Nick tells me as we sit down to chat. He believes fear and a lack of support play a major role in this statistic.
“I think many employers don’t have much contact with people with disabilities, and don’t realise that they could transform their workplace in a really positive way,” he says. “Ultimately we want to change this number and help people into work who maybe haven’t had that opportunity.”
Elena nods in agreement. “We want to raise awareness and build a platform for people with learning disabilities to show that, with the
right platform and guidance, we can bring that percentage down,” she says. “Rather than sitting here and moaning about it, we decided we wanted to take action.”
So, after working for years in the learning disability sector, the pair formulated a business plan, quit their jobs and founded Nickel Support.
Their hard work has paid off and Nickel Support has gone from supporting just one adult with learning disabilities to 117 current “trainees”, as they are known to the team.
The organisation offers a wide range of training opportunities, including upcycling workshops where trainees learn how to turn tired pieces of furniture into something beautiful, as well as culinary and retail workshops.
The furniture, gifts and food products they make in their sessions are then packaged up by the trainees, ready to be sold in the shop. At Christmas the team also put together gift hampers, a project they hope to expand in the future.
I ask about the products on offer in the shop. “As well as the beautiful products made by our trainees, we currently work with 33 partners from across the UK,” Nick says. “We buy products from different social projects, made by a range of people.”
Products on sale include beer from Ignition Brewery in Sydenham,
We want employers to see what we’re doing here and see the positive impact that people with disabilities can make in the workplace and the community
which employs and trains people with learning disabilities to brew and serve beer.
“We love that we’ve made these connections with other enterprises and have this beautiful network,” Nick says.
Some trainees may not want customer-facing roles, so the organisation also offers jobs behind the scenes, including packing orders for online customers. “Doing it this way means that the trainees experience a whole variety of jobs,” Nick explains.
As well as supporting trainees into different forms of employment, Nickel Support offers holistic sessions covering topics such as health and relationships. “If you’re unable to have successful relationships, that will affect your employment. If you’re not in good health, that can impact work and relationships,” Elena explains.
This page and opposite: Nickel Support trainees, Interestingly Different’s striking shopfront and its equally enticing interior
“Some people also don’t want paid employment,” Nick is careful to mention, “so we offer a whole range of support and guidance.”
The Nickel Support founders have carefully built up a specialist staff team to support their trainees. “Every
single member of staff cares about every single trainee,” Elena says. “They’re never just a number. We take a human approach and understand their needs.”
Elena says they want big employers to see the change they are making in Sutton and to be inspired. “We want them to see what we’re doing here, see our trainees in action and see the positive impact that people with disabilities can make in the workplace and the community,” she says.
As we finish our chat, Nick asks if he can give a shout out to the parents of the trainees they work with.
“Parents and carers of people with learning disabilities often feel ignored and isolated,” he says.
“They’re amazing people and it’s hard to navigate having a child with disabilities and to find the right support. So, I want to give them a shout out. We want to show them that there is a future for their adult children.”
Elena agrees. “I’m in awe of them.”
Interestingly Different is open Monday to Saturday, 10am to 5pm at 15 The Parade, Beynon Road, Carshalton
When the Sound Lounge found itself on the brink of closure last year, an extraordinary effort by its supporters helped save the spaceBY LAWRENCE DIAMOND
The Sound Lounge, Sutton’s muchloved music venue and community hub that is owned by the singersongwriter Hannah White and her musician husband, Keiron Marshall, is one of those places you feel truly fortunate to have on your doorstep.
The first carbon-neutral grassroots music venue in the UK, it has offered its space for free to more than 100 charity events, while running outreach programmes for those less well-off to learn sound engineering and get involved in music creation. It also puts on an exciting and varied line-up of live music nearly every night, and has provided a platform for more than 500 artists in the past two years alone.
In other words, it’s exactly the kind of place our community should have access to long term – and its
existence needs to be supported and protected in a way that acknowledges it is trying to do far more than simply make money.
The people of Sutton and beyond made a very clear statement that this was the case when, earlier this year, they raised more than £35,000 in less than 24 hours on a crowdfunding platform to keep the beloved south London venue’s doors open –catapulting Hannah and Keiron into the national headlines in the process. By mid February the crowdfunder had finished, and had raised a total of £46,590 from 1,242 supporters.
As I sit down with Hannah on a cold, windy afternoon to get the full story, it’s clear that it’s a turn of events she can still barely believe. “At the end of 2023 there was a moment where we realised we couldn’t keep the doors open into the new year
without a substantial injection of cash,” she says. “We sat down with the accountants and went through everything and suddenly went, ‘This is so much worse than we thought.’ At that point I thought, this is probably game over.”
Sadly the predicament they found themselves in is all too common. There were 960 grassroots music venues in the UK in 2022, but that number fell by 125 last year, with about half of those closing altogether and the other half no longer hosting live music, according to a report by the Music Venue Trust.
Faced with an uncertain future, as a last shot Hannah and Keiron decided to try crowdfunding in an attempt to raise the money they’d need to keep the wolves from the door in the short term and build a sustainable model for the venue moving forward.
They gave themselves six weeks to hit their total. Even as it went live, Hannah had serious reservations. “I just felt, there’s a cost of living crisis on and it’s such a lot of money, we can’t ask people to do this. But I also thought, OK, we’ve got six weeks to try this, and if it fails then this is a good way to say goodbye, to sort of say, ‘Thank you for everything.’”
We started to get thousands of messages from people going, ‘This is what the Sound Lounge means to me. This is how it helps me, this is what it does for me’
She needn’t have worried. The crowdfunder didn’t just reach its intended audience in the local community, but went viral among music fans nationally. Hannah and Keiron were interviewed by the BBC, the Independent and the Evening Standard, while charity groups saw the campaign and reached out to help them take the next steps to keep the venue open long term.
Hannah still sounds incredulous as she recalls the experience. “People say we got the money in 24 hours, but it was less than that. It was at £20,000 before I even went to bed.
“But it wasn’t just the money. We started to get literally thousands of messages from people going, ‘This is what the Sound Lounge means to me. This is how it helps me, this is what it does for me.’ And I guess we were just blind to it because we were so busy paying the bills and cleaning the toilets!”
But perhaps Hannah shouldn’t have been surprised, for since its arrival in Sutton (having moved from a temporary venue in Tooting in 2020), the Sound Lounge’s offering of regular quality live music, a 100% plant-based kitchen and a wide selection of local beer, ale, coffee and cake – not to
mention the Union Music Store, an independent record shop based inside the venue – had already brought it a dedicated following.
From the volunteers (“They’re complete angels!”) who help run the bar, to the regular who donates additional produce from his allotment to the venue’s kitchen, the community support is everywhere.
One patron even takes home any broken furniture to fix it for free –often without Hannah noticing. “He comes in and he sees our worn-out furniture and every now and then he just takes a piece. Then he’ll bring it back and it’s all restored and looking so beautiful. I barely notice it’s gone ‘cause I’m just running around doing a million things. Then when I try and buy him a coffee to say thank you, he’s like, ‘No! No chance, go away!’”
And it’s not only those people who give their time and skill that have made Sound Lounge special. Sometimes it’s simply the stories of the regulars for whom the place has become a hub where they feel safe and seen.
Hannah’s energy and care for her venue and the people who frequent it is obvious. And when she tells me of patrons dealing with housing issues, or mental health challenges, who were trying to shove the spare cash from their pockets into her hand as they’d heard the venue was at risk of closing, it hits home how important what she and Keiron, and their amazing team, have created is. It seems the crowdfunder and all that came with it was just what was needed for them, and Sutton at large, to realise that.
“It sounds really like a cliche or just a bit airy fairy, but there really are quite a number of people who have told me how much the Sound Lounge has saved their lives,” Hannah says.
“And that’s what I try and explain to the team – when they’re going, ‘Oh, we’re just making coffees’, I’m like, ‘You’re not just making coffees. You’re really changing people’s lives. You don’t know what it means to have a place that’s really friendly. That’s really warm. That makes people feel OK.’”
The crowdfunder has also helped to get the message of what the Sound Lounge is doing out to a wider audience. “Since January ticket sales are up and more and more people are coming in saying, ‘I’d heard about this place but I hadn’t visited yet’ or ‘I’ve just heard about it through the crowdfunder or heard you on the local radio’, so that’s been incredible.”
With the future of the Sound Lounge secured, Hannah and Keiron are focusing on creating the governance to turn the venue into a charity while expanding their offering
People need to hear about good things in their local area. Everyone’s so fed up with the bad news – it’s inspiring to see there can be a good outcome sometimes
of music education opportunities to those who traditionally wouldn’t have access.
Hannah also feels that the Sound Lounge could be a template for other venues in Britain that are struggling. “I want to develop a template for other music venues, because I believe that if you’re doing all this extra stuff, or even if you’re just involved in helping create culture at your own cost, then it’s a charitable objective. And I think other venues could use this route, because it will reduce your business rates, it will reduce your VAT on utilities, and it will give you access to funding.
“The crowdfunder really helped us turn a corner in so many ways and I just hope that we can now be part of a wider campaign.”
If you’ve ever spent any time in the Sound Lounge, you’ll know that
communities across the UK should have access to such places on their high streets – not just the lucky people of SM1 and its surrounds.
I suddenly realise I haven’t had a chance to talk to Hannah about her award-winning music career or the excellent line-up of live music coming up at the Sound Lounge in 2024. But today it’s about telling the heartwarming story of a local venue saved by its dedicated owners and loyal patrons. A feel-good story at a time when they seem harder and harder to come by.
As Hannah puts it: “People need to hear these stories and hear about good things in their local area. Everyone’s so fed up with the bad news, so it’s inspiring to see that there can be a good outcome sometimes.”
Here at the Sutton Storyteller, we’re happy to spread that good news.
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Book classes on our website www.oruspace.co/ sutton/yoga-classes or via the Momence app
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After lying in storage for years in a barn in Kent, the groundbreaking work of pop art pioneer and actress Pauline Boty was rediscovered to great acclaim. We take a look at the Carshalton-born artist’s legacy and life, which was tragically cut short at the age of 28
BY LUKE G WILLIAMSA forgotten heroine of the worlds of pop art and acting, Pauline Boty is finally attracting the renaissance her formidable talents deserve – albeit 58 years after her tragic death.
A major exhibition of Pauline’s work was recently on display at the Gazelli Art House in Mayfair, while a documentary about her life and career is nearing completion and hopefully set for release this year, thanks to the south London writer, filmmaker and general renaissance man Mark Baxter.
“I love a 1960s story and I love telling the story of an underdog –someone who has been forgotten or slipped through the cracks, and that’s the case with Pauline,” Mark says.
“A few years back I heard a radio play about Pauline written by Vinny Rawding – it was very powerful. I knew Vinny so I got in touch. We got together and worked with a company called Channel X. We’ve been researching and interviewing ever since.
“We’ve interviewed about 16 to 20 people covering all aspects of Pauline’s life – family, fans, friends, contemporaries, a lot of them are in their 80s now. There’s not a lot of archive material out there but we’ve found several things that have been buried for a while. It’s just been a case of piecing it all together.”
Born in Carshalton on 6 March 1938, Pauline’s background was one of unremarkable, middle-class Catholic respectability; the youngest of four children, her father was an accountant while her mother had nursed artistic ambitions in her youth that had been thwarted by familial disapproval.
Pauline excelled at Wallington Girls’ Grammar School, which she attended from 1949 to 54, winning the senior art prize and a scholarship to Wimbledon School of Art.
While studying at Wimbledon, some of her work was accepted into the 1957 Young Contemporaries show at the RBA Galleries in London. Pauline’s striking blonde looks also won her a legion of admirers, and the nickname “Wimbledon’s Brigitte Bardot”.
On graduation from Wimbledon in 1958, Pauline was accepted into the Royal College of Art, where she studied stained glass. During her three years at the college, she took on a dizzying array of other work –including serving as the secretary of a group of architectural activists known as the Anti-Ugly Action group. She also regularly had work accepted into
exhibitions of rising artists, including Modern Stained Glass in 1960.
It was 1961 that proved to be Pauline’s breakthrough year. In November she exhibited more than 20 works in the groundbreaking exhibition Blake, Boty, Porter, Reeve at London’s AIA Gallery, with her pop art collages that incorporated influences as varied as Superman comics and Gertrude Stein winning acclaim.
Then, at a New Year’s Eve party at Chelsea School of Art, a chance meeting with the TV producer Philip Saville set Pauline on the path to an acting career. An appearance in an ITV Armchair Theatre play titled North City Traffic Straight Ahead in July 1962 represented her professional debut.
The next year, her role at the cuttingedge Royal Court Theatre in Day of the Prince won her rave reviews, with one local paper declaring: “As a comedienne, she’s top of the class.”
Meanwhile, Pauline’s artistic career was going from strength to strength. Her position in the vanguard of the pop art movement was rubberstamped by her role in Ken Russell’s documentary Pop Goes the Easel for the BBC’s Monitor arts strand, alongside fellow artists Peter Blake, Derek Boshier and Peter Phillips.
As Pauline’s profile soared, she was granted her first solo show in September 1963, which was mounted at the Grabowski Gallery in Chelsea and featured 12 of her major paintings.
By now, Pauline had a husband, having married the literary agent Clive Goodwin after a whirlwind 10-day romance. Meanwhile her art was becoming more political, referring to events such as the assassination of John F Kennedy, the Cuban revolution and the Vietnam war, as well as sexual and gender politics.
With her work appearing in Life magazine and in high-profile shows, the art world appeared to be at her feet, but then tragedy intervened.
Pauline’s philosophy of life was an inspiring one – based on living in the moment and seizing every opportunity.
“I think of the present, not much of the future,” she told Nell Dunn for the 1964 book Talking to Women.
Eerily foreshadowing the events of the next two years, she then added:
“I [find] myself sort of living my life as though I’d probably only got a few more years to live.”
In June 1965, Pauline became pregnant and during a routine prenatal examination she was diagnosed with cancer. Consumed with love for her unborn child she refused an abortion,
or even chemotherapy, in case the foetus be harmed.
Her daughter, Katy Goodwin, was born on 12 February 1966 and Pauline died less than five months later at the Royal Marsden hospital.
Tragedy sadly stalked Pauline even after her death – her husband Clive died of a brain haemorrhage in 1978, and her beloved daughter, who later assumed the name Boty Goodwin and
proved a talented artist in her own right, died of an accidental heroin overdose in 1995, aged just 29.
For years much of Pauline’s work lay in storage in a barn on her brother’s farm in Kent, her impact forgotten, her legacy uncertain. However, gradually her work has been rediscovered.
Mark Baxter sees Pauline’s legacy as inspiring, albeit tinged with tragedy.
“She was doing incredible work at a young age and was the only female artist really in the British pop art world alongside the likes of Peter Blake.
“Interest in her work has been growing – there’s been the recent exhibition, there’s a new book out about her [Pauline Boty: British Pop Art’s Sole Sister by Marc Kristal] and her work has been selling for a lot of money at Sotheby’s and Christie’s.
“She struggled at times – it was very hard for women to get into the Royal College of Art through the painting school, she had to take a stained glass route instead. But what’s significant about Pauline is she never gave up – she kept going and going and was determined to break through.
“She was a real force of nature across several fields who was tragically cut down very young. She left behind a really good body of work – but who knows where and what she would have gone on to do and achieve had she lived.”
6 ACROSS is a local place.
NAME: RON FEARON POSITION: GOALKEEPER BORN: 1960
Ronald Fearon was born in Romford, east London. He made 115 appearances in the Football League as well as 47 appearances in the Major Indoor Soccer League for the Wichita Wings.
After playing football at Dover as a youth, he began his senior career at Reading in 1980, where he stayed
for three years. He played for Sutton United between 1983 and 87. In 1989, the coach of the Wichita Wings, an indoor soccer team based in Kansas in the United States, called Fearon and invited him to a trial. He signed with the team in October that year.
After two years in the US, Fearon returned to England for two more spells at Sutton – in the 199192 and 1992-93 seasons – before playing for a variety of other teams including Southend United, Ashford Town, Leyton Orient and Dover Athletic.
(10)
Area, 13 Neglectful, 15 Leap-frog, 17 Enraged, 19 Ward, 20 Shandy, 23 Off.
aight,Str 24 ounded.Conf DOWN: 1 Grocer, 2 Sweetheart, 3 Law, 4 Composer, 5 Table Mountain, 6 Cheetah, 7 Overestimated,
ACROSS: 6 Carew Manor, 9 Bleached, 10 Sparse, 11 Enter, 12 Handshake, 14 Ophelia, 16 Garment, 18 Newcastle, 20 Scrum, 21 Adrift,
The Sutton Heritage Mosaic is a large mural on Sutton High Street, which depicts aspects of Sutton’s heritage.
The centrepiece is Henry VIII’s Nonsuch Palace in Nonsuch Park. Surrounding this are the heraldic beasts of the coats of arms of the historic local families of Carew, Gaynesford and Lumley.
The mural also features buildings such as Honeywood House and All Saints Church in Carshalton, and the Old Cottage and Whitehall in Cheam. Also shown are a River Wandle mill, the early railway line and a Handley Page “Hannibal” biplane, which used the former Croydon Airport.
VISIT WESTFIELD SQUARE
