John Constable is an English playwright, poet, performer and activist, author of The Southwark Mysteries. He is also known as John Crow, the urban shaman of Cross Bones.
John Constable was made an honorary fellow of the University in 2010.
South Bank Polytechnic staff
David Grayson was made an Honorary Doctor of Laws of the University in 2005. He is a former chairman of the charity Carers UK championing the role of 6.5million Britons caring for a loved one; and of one of the UK's larger social enterprises and largest eldercare providers, Housing 21 during which the organisation made corporate history by becoming the first-ever not-for-profit successfully to acquire a publicly quoted group of companies. David received an OBE for services to industry in 1994 and a CBE for services to disability in 1999.
Anne Owers was made an Honorary Fellow of the University in 2005.
Dame Anne Owers DBE was the first woman to be appointed to the post of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons. But more significantly, she was one of the most renowned campaigners for human rights and law reform.
Anne Owers was educated at Washington Grammar School County Durham before going on to study at Girton College, Cambridge from where she graduated with a degree in History. From 1968 to 1971 she taught in Zambia undertook research for a PhD in African History. For four years from 1981 she worked as a researcher at the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, and then she held the post of General Secretary there until 1992.
During her distinguished career she has chaired the Board of Trustees of the Refugee Legal Centre between 1993 and 1996. She was a Member of the Lord Chancellor's Advisory Committee on Legal Education and Conduct from 1997 to 1999 and after that a member of the Home Office's Task Force on the Human Rights Act for two years. In addition, she served on the Legal Services Consultative Panel from 2000 to 2001.
However it was as the Director of the human rights and law reform group Justice from 1992 to 2001 that she gained national recognition as a Human Rights campaigner. Under her, Justice (which boasts 300 judges among its members) produced reports urging reform of the law in many important areas: investigating miscarriages of justice, life sentences, juvenile justice, and asylum law. Justice supported key cases in international and domestic courts, for example, to remove Ministers' powers to determine the length of detention for individual life sentenced prisoners.
Many believe that Anne's background has labelled her an "outsider"; a status she believes is an "advantage", allowing her a fresh perspective on her work. The plight of prisoners was one of Justice's main concerns. Perhaps her greatest achievement during her time at Justice was to help secure the setting up of the Criminal Cases Review Commission which was created to investigate more effectively possible miscarriages of justice.
Anne's reports on the conditions and treatment of inmates in prisons and immigration detention centres have shed light into these hidden places. Building on four key tests – that prisoners and detainees should be held safely, treated with respect, allowed to engage in purposeful activity and prepared for release – she has succeeded in improving conditions in individual prisons, and highlighted the effects of prison overcrowding. She has drawn particular attention to suicides in prison, the treatment of children, the extent of mental illness among prisoners, and the need for effective rehabilitation. Under her, the Inspectorate has developed human rights based criteria which are accepted internationally, and have been used outside England and Wales. Using the same approach, her reports into immigration detention facilities have exposed shortcomings and achieved some improvements.
Anne Owers has contributed much to the cause of human rights through her work both in the past, and in her current role as Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons. She has raised the profile of prison reform and contributed to the protection of the human rights of all detainees in this country. She has also maintained her commitment to issues of diversity which she first became involved with in the 1970s as part of the Race Relations Commission in the diocese of Southwark.
Garth Crooks was made an Honorary Fellow of the University in 2007.
In May 1981, Garth Crooks was the first black player to score in an FA Cup Final. By the time he retired from the game in 1990 he'd scored more than 200 goals. His broadcasting career began in 1982 when he joined the BBC sports team as a television pundit, and his services to Association Football were recognised in 1999 when he was awarded the OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours list.
Professor Miriam David has a BA (Hons), Sociology from the University of Leeds 1966;, and a PhD from the University of London 1975.
Lawrence Hadley was born in London in 1925, and evacuated to Minehead at the outbreak of the Second World War. On his return to London he became an apprentice with a mechanical engineering contractor in central London. During his apprenticeship he studied at the Borough Polytechnic between 1941 and 1946, including the heating and ventilating engineering intensive course in 1944. These courses became the foundation of the National College of Heating, Ventilating, Refrigeration and Fan Engineering when it opened in 1948.
He wrote 60 years later: “I recall my main tutors then being Mr Harwood and Mr Cowan, who managed to keep our attention in spite of the regular flying bombs overhead. I don’t recall the class ever retreating to the shelters – just a quick duck under the desk.”
After completing his apprenticeship he joined Donald Smith and Partners, Consulting Engineers, the forerunner of DSSR. In a letter dated July 1946, confirming his appointment as a draughtsman, Donald Smith himself wrote: “We trust you will find your work for us congenial and can assure you that you will have ample opportunities for enlarging your experience”.
Laurie Hadley’s relationship with DSSR lasted 41 years. He was a partner for 30, and senior partner for six. He rapidly involved himself with a number of committees, sub-committees and working parties for professional institutes and learned bodies. He became a council member of the Association of Consulting Engineers, a member of the Institute of Healthcare Engineering and Estate Management in 1972, and later a Fellow, and became involved with a number of other engineering institutions, including the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers.
He became a liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Plumbers in 1976 and was the livery company’s senior steward from 2002. In 1977 he was chairman of the National Joint Consultative Committee for Building, and in 1978 president of the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers. He was elected president of IHEEM for the years 1983-1985 and to the same role at the International Federation of Hospital Engineering for the years 1998-2000.
In 1986 he was awarded the OBE for services to hospital engineering, and even after retirement he continued to support professional engineers - finally stepping down from the IHEEM Journal Committee in December 2006 and the Institute’s International Committee in January 2007. He died in 2008.
Wandsworth Road building was purpose-built to house South Bank Polytechnic's Faculty of the Built Environment and Vauxhall College of Further Education. The foundation stone was laid in 1970 and the buildings were in use by 1973, although was not officially opened until 1975. In 2003 the building was sold and has since been converted to private residential flats.
New Kent Road Halls of Residence at 83 New Kent Road, Southwark were built in 1905 on the site of a large villa. The building originally housed the Morning Post Embankment Home and also the Borthwick Teaching Training College. The site was purchased by the Polytechnic to house Rachel McMillan College's Education courses. The Polytechnic's nursery was briefly housed there until it moved to the George Overend Building on Keyworth Street (now the site of K2). During 1989-90 the building was converted into halls of residence and is still in use.
Eileen House is a tower block comprising a basement, ground floor, and seven upper floors. It was leased by the University from Southwark County Council until 2012 and housed the Human Resources, Staff Development and Building Services teams.
The University has had sports facilities in Dulwich from very early on. The Borough Polytechnic initially rented a field at Red Post Hill from the Governors of the Dulwich College Estate as a space for athletics. As the Institute grew the field became insufficient and in 1909 a larger field of nine acres was leased at Burbage Road and Turney Road. and the first sports ground was built on by William Penn School. In 1933 the playing field was extended by an additional eleven acres and in 1938 a pavilion was built, which was used during WW2 by the Army for barrage balloons.
The Stanley Gymnasium was used by female staff and students of the Borough Polytechnic Institute and was opened in November 1904. By the 1970s it was no longer used as a gymnasium and was known as Stanley Hall. It was briefly used to house the Borough Road library from 1975 until it transferred to the new library in London Road Building.
The hall of residence at 282-302 Borough High Street was built between June 1999 and September 2000 and was named after David Bomberg who taught Art at the Borough Polytechnic from 1945-1953 and is today recognised as one of the most notable British painters of the twentieth century.
McLaren House Halls of Residence at 1 St George's Circus, Southwark were officially opened in May 1994 and named after Christopher McLaren, the then Chancellor. The building stands on the site of the former Royal Eye Hospital.