ianVisits

Just over 250 years ago, the first circus opened in the UK, and now an exhibition tells the history of the circus and how it all started in South London.

The first circuses weren’t travelling affairs but were fixed locations, and the one generally considered the first in the UK was at a site in Westminster Bridge Road where St Thomas’ Hospital now stands. Opened in 1770 by Philip Astley and his wife Patty Jones, it was a show of trick-riding displays, sword work displays, rope acts and tumbling, and later animal training.

This is a weekly round-up of London’s rail transport news…

London Underground

Revealed: London Underground stations and Tube lines with highest crime levels Standard

Nearly two years ago, scaffolding was quickly erected at Willesden Green tube station following concerns that stone might fall off it — and the scaffolding is still there, blocking the pavement. ianVisits

A man has been taken to hospital after a stabbing at Goldhawk Road Underground station. Metro

Today’s London news round-up:

Twice as many people are sleeping rough on Islington’s streets since this time last year, the latest data reveals. EC1 Echo

Plans to demolish parts of the Lewisham Shopping Centre and replace it with an open-air market have been submitted to the Council. Local London

Jamaican teachers who were recruited to work for a chain of academy schools in London are being failed says the leader of a top teaching union. The Voice

There will be substantial closures of the railway network in South London over next month’s Half-Term period as Network Rail closes the line to carry out signalling upgrades.

The upgrades taking place between Crystal Palace, Tulse Hill and Peckham Rye are part of a £400 million programme of investment in track and signalling upgrades that Network Rail is delivering in South London.

On Saturday 31st August, hundreds of cinemas across the UK will come together to celebrate National Cinema Day, offering cheap entry to see many of the films being screened at the moment.

Participating cinemas are offering all tickets to most shows for a set charge of £4. Note, though, that some screenings will charge a small premium for major films or have online booking fees. Many cinemas are showing a mix of recently released films and much-loved classics, many of which may not have been shown on the big screen in many years.

Next month, there will be opportunities to enter the crypt underneath St Leonard’s Church in Streatham or climb up the bell tower.

Two tours of the crypt will be held on Saturday September 7th, as part of the Lambeth Heritage Festival. Local historian John W Brown will take a small group into the depths of St Leonard’s Church’s dark and dank crypt.

There are two tours, and both are free of charge.

Note that access will be via a steep staircase.

Sitting next to Streatham High Street is a pocket park that likely owes its origins to attempts to save it from development when this part of London was still largely fields.

According to one report, there was an attempt to enclose the green in 1794 as private property, but the Vestry asserted popular rights to common land. There’s also a suggestion that the village green was once home to the local lock-up to house prisoners overnight, although it’s likely to have been little more than a small brick shed, somewhat similar to this.

Two new lifts have recently been installed at Streatham station in south London, giving step-free access from street to platform, and they’ve been installed quicker than expected.

The station’s main entrance is on a bridge over the railway, with stairs down to the station’s two platforms. There is step-free access to Platform 1 (Croydon bound trains), but it’s via a rather long footpath, and there used to be a similar option for step-free access to the London-bound platforms, but that was removed in the 1980s when a supermarket was built on the former coal yard and car park.