The St. John's Society

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The St. John's Society

A society for the residential community of St. John's in South-East London SE8, Deptford: Founded by residents in 1998 to save the local duck pond.

10/10/2026

We - The St John’s Society - literally would not be here without Ray Pennell.
Thank you Ray for all you did for our neighbourhood Ray.
Read more here (or link in bio):
https://st-johns-soc.org/in-memory-of-ray-pennell-1958-2026
Please do share any memories you have with us of Ray in the area snd we will make sure they get to the family.

09/10/2026

Here is an early look at the mural design selected for The Brookmill Rain Garden!

The mural will be painted on the walls and gates of The Brookmill Pub, directly facing Brookmill Road and Brookmill Park. You will see the selected artist, Ellen Rose, working away whenever the sun is shining from mid-October. Do stop and say hello!

Huge thanks to all the artists who sent their designs in.

Read more here: https://st-johns-soc.org/artist-ellen-rose-is-selected-to-create-the-brookmill-rain-garden-mural

About the Artist
Ellen Rose works across fine art, scenic painting, and muralism. After studying at the London School of Muralism in 2020, she has led and collaborated on numerous public and community art projects. Notably, she co-created the Love Over Gold mural on Creekside in Deptford alongside Daisy Allen and has painted murals for healthcare charity Hospital Rooms across the UK. Based in Lewisham, Ellen is passionate about transforming shared urban spaces and creating art rooted in community identity and environmental care.

27/09/2026

People have fought wars over new constitutions…our update was fuelled by tea and biscuits. Let us know your thoughts.
Full link our website, bio and here: https://st-johns-soc.org/why-we-have-updated-the-st-johns-society-constitution

20/09/2026

The crash claimed 90 lives, in one of Britain’s worst railway disasters, and until now there has been no memorial in St John’s to what was probably the biggest event to have happened here. For years members of St John Society and the community have been pushing to change that. On Saturday 19th September there was a very moving ceremony for the unveiling of a memorial plaque at St John’s station remembering those who died in the St John’s rail crash in 1957.
About 150 people turned out for the occasion, with beautiful music from the Deptford Community Choir and a trumpet solo by Josie Ashdown.
Local MP Vicky Foxcroft carried out the official unveiling and spoke of the strength of the current local St John’s community and how we were honouring the efforts of residents in 1957 who helped with the rescue.
The event included a speech by Steve Penfold, until recently the local councillor, a description of the emotional impact of the crash by local historian Tony Redding and a poem by the current councillor, Rotimi Skyers.
Tribute was also paid to the funders of the plaque – the Railway Heritage Trust and the St John’s Society.
Read the full story in our bio. And here: https://st-johns-soc.org/st-johns-rail-crash-plaque-unveiling

12/09/2026

There’s been real movement on the Friendly Gardens project! New funding has been confirmed, scope has been locked in with the council, and the first piece of on-the-ground work is about to begin.
Dive on into the detail here (and in bio):
https://st-johns-soc.org/friendly-gardens-latest-update-on-the-park-improvements

04/09/2026

Our next quarterly meeting is on November 17th at 8pm in The Brookmill Pub. All St John’s SE8 residents are welcome to come along and get involved or just to listen and contribute ideas.

Here are our notes from the last one: https://st-johns-soc.org/st-johns-society-q3-2026-meeting-minutes also on our website.

Huge thanks to all the volunteers of St John’s Society for pulling together these notes. And for the energy needed to make things happen!

31/08/2026

St John’s railway crash in 1957 remains one of the worst disasters in British railway history, with 90 deaths and many more injured. But until now there has been nothing to honour those who were caught up in the crash between two crowded trains on a foggy winter’s evening.

Thanks to the dogged volunteers of St John’s we now have funding in place to put up a memorial plaque.
All are welcome to come to the unveiling by our MP Vicky Foxcroft on Saturday 19th September at 12 noon.

So much thanks goes to the Railway Heritage Trust, who stepped in with a donation to help manufacture and install the plaque.
The St John’s Society and the St Johns station users group also had help from Southeastern in getting permission to use the railway wall for the plaque.

Read more here (link in bio):
https://st-johns-soc.org/memorial-plaque-unveiling-19-09-noon

railway_heritage_trust railway_heritage Railway Heritage

27/08/2026

Full house for the screening of the People's Emergency Briefing in The Brookmill pub. People travelled from Barnet, Hackney and Southwark to be there. It had so much interest we are probably going to do another screening.
In the discussion that followed suggestions to divest away from oil and gas supporting organisations were front of everyone's minds in terms of immediate action that could be taken.
Another person said ,“as this is so important - why can’t anybody just watch it on YouTube?” The answer came from the audience... “because they want make sure we learn these things in community spaces…so we act together, not go away and talk about it.”
You find out more about it here: https://www.nebriefing.org/peb

23/08/2026

A number of you were in touch with us about the sorry state of the memorial trees on the Brookmill roundabout. We have a plan! So please do mark Remembrance Sunday in your calendars - November 8th. And let us know if someone in the area should be invited in person to the placing of the memorial plaque and we will do our best to make sure they are there.
Read more here: https://st-johns-soc.org/memorial-tree-update

Address

St John's Vale
London
SE8 4EA

Website

http://www.st-johns-soc.org/

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