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    • Tooting Tapestry

Celebrating the Changing Face of Tooting High Street

Explore the Tooting Tapestry
The Tooting Tapestry celebrates a year of intergenerational collaborations between local residents. Memories and pictures were shared, and personal histories researched to form a picture of the unique heritage of Tooting High Street. Each patch has been made by the hands of one or more participants in the Sugar & Spice project. The patches celebrate Tooting as we knew it and we know it now.

SOUTH ASIAN TOOTING

TOOTING MARKET

PAST & PRESENT SAREES

THE SANKOVA BIRD

TOOTING GIRL

FLOWERS OF TOOTING

TOOTING LIDO

VIBRANT TOOTING

CINEMAS OF TOOTING

ST GEORGE'S HOSPITAL GODDESS

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Cinemas of Tooting

Made by Penny Briers

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Borough Archive Reference Photo
"My patch shows 74 years of Tooting Cinemas, 1909-1983. It has a row of embroidered outlines of the cinemas, giving an idea of the varied and changing architecture. Below them is a row of figures to suggest a cinema queue ‘through the ages’. At the start I didn’t realise how many cinemas there had been – I knew about the Granada but only the Classic was still open when I moved to Tooting in 1980.""The couple in the centre are based on a photo of my parents from 1953.”"I found photo references for styles of clothes online, including one from 1915 in the borough archive, of my own road – the two girls on the left of my patch are here."

"My piece includes Tooting's floral past and its link to the present. The green leaves represent Mitcham mint and the daffodil 'The Daffodil King' plus both link to my cafe which is on Mitcham Road and not far from the plaque in Garratt Road, where I also lived for a while. The word 'Community' because I feel Tooting has a strong sense of community spirit."

FLOWERS OF TOOTING by Yeter Incedal

My original knitted patch was to show the daffodil connection with Tooting, Peter Barr travelled so many countries bringing back different daffodils, apparently years ago there were fields full of daffodils in Tooting before it became so built up, it must have been a wonderful sight. Mitcham Lavender was famous right next door to Tooting, there were lavender fields close to Tooting so I thought I would include lavender in my knitted patch."

FLOWERS OF TOOTING by Jill Hopkin

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Sarah Williams

Saris and South Asian Community

"This patch represents the vibrancy of Tooting especially within the South Asian community. I love sewing but had never made anything in patchwork before. The rainbow effect reminds me of all the different people and cultures in Tooting that come together to make one beautiful community.

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"I have always been captivated by the lido's blue water, colourful doors and it's history. So I tried to capture it through David Hockney's eyes as I love his painting A Bigger Splash."

LIDO SPLASH by Siri Mahroof Heyer

"Celebrating over 100 years of Tooting Bec Lido (opened 1906). Fantastic to think my Dad swam there in the 1920s , I swim, and my daughter too. Our happy place."

TOOTING LIDO by Jane Clark

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Tooting Market

Made by Kirsty Warwick

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"My patch is a mix of multimedia, fabrics, appliqué and embroidery (stitches include stem, chain, satin, back, long and short, and French knot) and I’ve tried to source everything from within the market or upcycle where possible. I hand drew my design before stitching, glueing and sewing. And of course no Tooting Market would be complete without cats.""I was inspired to do a patch of Tooting Market as it’s such a strong pull for me. I live just outside the area in Wimbledon but have come to Tooting market for years for haberdashery, fabrics, and, increasingly enjoying great food and drink with family and friends. And through the project it’s built even more of a community connection for me.

"Chelsea Girl on the corner, opposite the station was my lasting memory of Tooting in the 70s and 80s. My older sisters would travel from Wimbledon to shop there in the 70s and I followed suit in the 80s."

TOOTING GIRL by Trudy Mitchison

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St. George's Goddess on the Common

"My patch is largely a tribute to St. George's Hospital, but there are some other meanings and references in there too that I'd like to be left to interpretation."

Emily Ash

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Vibrant Tooting

"The thistle represents my heritage. Tooting is a vibrant, colourful town and I didn't realise how colourful it was until lockdown came, and all the shop shutters were down and everywhere looked so grey. Now out of lockdown, and everything is back to normal, my work is a celebration of how diverse our town is."Made by Winnie Hall
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"Past and Present of the saree. "In the olden days women wore sarees after marriage, but now it's for fashion. 'The transition has gone.' When you wear a saree you cover all of your body, covering your head out of respect and it was compulsory after marriage. They are now made of 6 yards of material, before it was only 5 1/2, people are larger now. Women never cut their hair and wore gold bangles after marriage. If you became a widow you only wore white sarees and no bindi. Sarees were made of cotton which was easy to wash, quick to dry and kept you warm. Once a year at Diwali you'd buy a very good quality one, else everyday ones were worn. After a saree is worn out they make very good covers and pillow cases."

PAST AND PRESENT SAREES by Ramila Shah

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"The Sankofa bird in West African legend can look backwards and forwards in a single glance and carries an egg - the seed of the future tucked under its wing. Sankofa led our wonderful Tooting Trashcatchers Carnival around the town in July 2010 and her spirit of re-inventing the future is still wiith us today."

SANKOVA BIRD by Lucy Neal

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3-Night French Riviera Tour from Milan to Monaco

Leave Milan and follow the lead of the jet set crowd to the south of France! The 3-night tour takes a route through north Italy, passing San Remo, as well as the glittering French Riviera (Côte d'Azur). Discover the highlights of Monaco on a walking tour; get to know the celebrity-studded towns of St Raphael, St Tropez and Cannes; and fall in love with Provence during visits to Saint-Paul de Vence and Grasse.

Monaco

EUROPE

WEATHER ON THE WEEK

28°C

22°C

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Tooting Tapestrylauren2022-07-28T12:38:26+01:00

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