A Roehampton institution bringing together older residents in the area

Founded over six years ago and run by long-time local resident Pam Harris, it is supported by volunteers and offers classic café fare at very reasonable prices.

With dance classes taking place afterwards, and a Wandsworth Care Alliance-funded footcare specialist in attendance, the café also functions as a hub for people to find out about what activities are going on locally. Free transport is provided for those with mobility issues.



72 year old Dene(pictured above), of Minstead Gardens, has been a local resident since 1954, and worked for Queen Mary’s Hospital. She said: “Roehampton Lane was a very thin, tiny road, if you had one bus going up you couldn’t get another one going down, that’s how narrow it was. We had one red bus an hour, one green bus an hour.

“There were very few shops in the village, if you wanted to go shopping you had to walk to Putney, and there were a few shops down the bottom of Dover House Road. There was a furniture shop because you had everyone moving in at the same time and they needed furniture. On Roehampton High Street there was a baker, a hardware shop, and White’s newspaper shop – he used to go out taking photos of the village and put them on postcards, photography was his hobby.

“It’s a friendly place, some say it’s not, but people are entitled to their opinion.”

Maureen, 79, lives in Clarence Lane, and has been coming to Over 60s Café since it opened. She enjoys bell ringing with friends in the Methodist Church, and line dancing in the Minstead Gardens club room over the road, the latter organised by the council’s sheltered housing community development team.

She said: “There’s lots going on! We’re very, very lucky - it’s a lovely, green place.”

Gwen, also 79, is from Danebury Avenue and has lived in Roehampton for 30 years. She said she thinks the area is lucky to be quite well served by buses, and would like to move to one of the sheltered housing bungalows in Minstead Gardens.

Jan, 60, moved to the estate three years ago, living at Highcross Way, and takes part in a local community choir and ‘knit and natter’ sessions in Roehampton Library. She said: “I find everyone is so friendly, it’s the friendliest place I have ever lived. There’s an awful lot going on around here.”



The Over 60s Café takes place on Thursdays from 11am in the Roehampton Methodist Church, Minstead Gardens, SW15 4EB

May 24, 2018