Stairway to Heaven Memorial Trust
Registered Charity Number 1118618
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Bethnal Green Tube Disaster 1943.
On 3 March 1943 a crowd of people entered Bethnal Green tube station which was used at the time as an air-raid shelter. After the searchlights went on and an anti-aircraft battery a few hundred yards away in Victoria Park launched a salvo of a new type of anti-aircraft rockets the crowd surged forward. Someone tripped on the stairs causing many others to fall. 300 people were crushed into the stairwell within a few seconds, 173 of them died and over 90 were injured. The worst civilian disaster of the 2nd World War. |
| Full planning permission has now been granted by the London Borough of Tower Hamlets for the Memorial to be built. Now all we need to do is raise the money.
Details of how to donate to the trust are given at the bottom of this page and on the 'Appeal / Donations' page. Details of other fund-raising events will appear on the 'News and Events' page from time to time. If you have any additional fund raising ideas please let us know. |
posted: 27 January 2010
Fun Race Night poster.
There is a poster for this event available for download on the Download page.
Saturday 20th February at the IRDSA Hall, Craven Gardens, Barkingside, Essex, at 7pm for 7.30pm start. Full details further down this page.
posted: 27 January 2010
Interview with Alf on Youtube.
There is an interview with Alf on Youtube that can be viewed
here.
posted: 14 January 2010
Plans for 2010
The next English's sale will take place on Saturday 13th February 2010 from 10.30am until 4pm ( more details further down the page).
On Wednesday 3rd March (the 67th anniversary of the Bethnal Green tube disaster) there will be a 'Rehearsed Reading' of a new play "A long Night in London" by Bernie C. Byrnes at Bethnal Green Library's upstairs hall. The library staff have very kindly agreed to come in on their normal day off, when the library would normally be closed, so we can hold this event on the actual anniversary day, so please give it your full support. They have comfy chairs and a stage and we will provide refreshments at the end.
There will be a free performance at 2pm for survivors and families of those who died with their friends. This will be followed by a Q & Q session, a sing-along and refreshments.
Then there will be another performance at 6pm for anyone who would like to come to see it, including the general public. Refreshments will again be available and the evening will finish at 8pm. Tickets are £7.50 each and must be booked in advance to ensure we do not exceed numbers in the hall. All proceeds will go to the Stairway to Heaven Memorial Trust.
Please book your tickets through the e-mail address on the website or phone Derek Spicer on 07722 162 168 or Sandra on 01474 702513 as soon as possible please. Tickets can also be purchased at the library which is in Bethnal Green Gardens where the Memorial will be built so just a short distance from the tube station.
There is no lift to the upstairs hall, but if you will have difficulty climbing the 24 steps (in 3 easy stages) then please let us know at the time of booking and we will make sure there are some strong guys there to give you a fireman's lift!!!
If you are unable to make the 3rd March then there will be additional 'rehearsed reading' performance dates at the Network Theatre, Waterloo, on 11th, 12th and 13th March at 7.30pm. Tickets for these dates will be £10 each and must be booked with the theatre directly at www.networktheatre.org. The theatre is situated at 246a Lower Road, Waterloo, London SE1 8SJ.
On Saturday 20th February we are holding a Fun Race Night at the IRDSA Hall, Craven Gardens, Barkingside, Essex, at 7pm for 7.30pm start. The hall is at the side of a big car park on the roundabout at the start of Barkingside High Street and behind the library. Fairlop underground station is very close by and many buses stop in Barkingside High Street across the road.
Tickets are £10 each to include a chicken or fish & chips supper, tea & coffee with the meal, plus a prize draw on the tickets. You can bring your own drinks and glasses and bets will be in multiples of 50p. If you would like to name and buy a horse please let us know when booking. The idea is to have lots of fun on the night and help raise some money for the charity. So please give it your support and book your tickets as soon as possible, letting us know whether you require chicken or fish for your support.
Tickets can be obtained from Derek Spicer 28 Priory Close, Pilgims Hatch, Brentwood, CM15 9PZ or by phoning 07722 162 168 or 01474 702513 ...
... or you can also buy and collect tickets at English’s 464a Bethnal Green Road during normal office hours Monday-Fri or on Saturday 13th Feb 10am until 4.30pm.
The 67th Anniversary Memorial Service to remember those who lost their lives or survived the Bethnal Green tube disaster will take place on Sunday 7th March 2010 at St. John on Bethnal Green Church at 2pm. The church is almost next door to one of the entrances to Bethnal Green tube station. There will be a wreath/flowers laying ceremony, across the road where everyone died, after the Service with a blessing. Refreshments will also be provided and an update on progress to date.
Also, a football match on Saturday in May between the Vicars and the Undertakers. It should be a fun afternoon with a barrel organ, lots of stalls, music, food, etc. So if you have something to sell and would like to rent a stall or if you can just come along to cheer on the boys, enjoy some refreshments or man a stall for an hour or two, we'd love to hear from you. Hopefully the location will be a football field near Bethnal Green Road and the tube station, so you can always combine it with a shopping expedition to the market if you wanted to. More details will be available soon.
If you need more information please e-mail me at info@stairwaytoheavenmemorial.org or ring Derek Spicer on 07722 162 168
Please put all these dates in your diary and let us know if you want to order tickets for any of the above events either through the e-mail on this website or to the addresses or phone numbers provided.
posted: 27 November 2009
Our Christmas Fair was a great success
Our Christmas Fair on 7th November was a great success, so a big thank-you to everyone who helped out on the day and all those who donated goods and of course everyone who snapped up the bargains and participated in the tombola. Everything had been donated so, as usual, there were no costs to deduct from the money collected on the day and I'm sure you will be delighted to know that we raised a magnificent £1,161.
Our thanks as always go to Terri & Den Fitzpatrick (and their grandchildren) and David & Sue of W. English's, funeral directors, 464a Bethnal Green Road. They all work so hard to organise these sales days on their days off and the Christmas Fair was a particularly long and hard day of being on our feet, putting everything out and then clearing everything up at the end. This now brings the total raised by English's for us in the last 12 months to over £11,017. So we are extremely grateful to them all for such a wonderful effort on our behalf.
Sales days will resume on Saturday 13th February 2010, so think about buying your Valentines Day bargain presents there. In the meantime please don't throw anything away!! If you receive any unwanted Christmas gifts, clothes or other items that we can sell please take them along to English’s in the New Year including Christmassy things for next year's Christmas Fair. Just pop in to English's during the normal working weekday hours with any good quality items you have to sell and leave the rest to us. Thanks again for all your help and support this year.
posted: 27 November 2009
Canary Wharf collection day
The station collection at Canary Wharf station was a long one too from 6.30am until 8pm on Wednesday 18th November, but we had the help of Rhonda and her work colleagues at Canary Wharf who kept us plied with coffee and food, so a big thank-you to them. It was all worth the effort though as we raised £572 (and a few foreign coins) so we were delighted. Our thanks also go to Lynda and Alf who helped on the early shift (Lynda came along before work at 6.30, so that was brilliant) plus Babs, Joan, Tom and Dan. Their help was invaluable as it is a very busy station. Also thank you to all the people who came through the station and put donations into our buckets. It was a super effort all round. Thank you.
posted: 27 November 2009
Alf Morris's dance night
Alf Morris's dance night at the Hornchurch Conservative Club on 20th November was very successful. It was a great evening for those who were there and Alf, Vera and their daughter Linda, worked very hard with the catering and organisation and the event raised £900, which was really brilliant. So well done and thanks to them and to everyone who went along and joined in the singing and dancing. Remember to book your tickets early next year so that you won't be disappointed.
REMEMBERANCE BOOK FOR SALE
The Civil Defence Association generously produced and presented a beautiful Remembrance Book to St. John on Bethnal Green Church for permanent display there. The hard-backed book contains a description of the tragedy and lists the names, ages and last known addresses of all those who died, along with details of their parents or spouses. Thanks to Tim Essex-Lopresti and Ian Pell, the Association has produce copies of the book for sale, which will be a wonderful memento for families to keep and hand-down to future generations. There are pages at the back to place photographs and other personal details in. We still have some copies left for £30 each (plus p & p if you are too far away to collect a copy from one of the committee members). However if you would prefer to purchase copies online you can do so through Amazon or Nielsen Bookdata for £40. The charity is making a very small profit on this as we feel it is more important for families to have the opportunity to own a copy for their family history records than to raise funds this way.
Please phone 07722 162 168 or e-mail info@stairwaytoheavenmemorial.org for more information.
FUTURE EVENTS
If you have any ideas or would like to run something for us please get in touch.
Coffee mornings, raffles, sponsorship events, jumble sales or basically anything you can do to raise some money, then let us know. It can just be a one-off event, you don't have to commit to doing something on a regular basis.
Remember - every little helps!!
posted: 14 August 2007
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has sent a letter of support.
Click here to read it in full.
HOW TO DONATE TO THE MEMORIAL APPEAL.
Now that we have our Registered Charity number we can accept on-line donations.
If you have any queries about fund raising please contact Derek Spicer, Fund-raising co-ordinator, tel: 07722 162 168 or 01277 372 938
info@stairwaytoheavenmemorial.org
Please make your cheques payable to "Stairway To Heaven Memorial Trust" and send them to:
Alf Morris.
56 Grosvenor Drive,
Hornchurch,
RM11 1PN
Telephone 01708 444 154
