Friends celebrate Salter Centenary
‘This wonderful couple devoted their lives to the environment, housing and public health. They transformed a deprived inner-city area into a healthy green oasis.’
The Salter Centenary steering group has developed a plan to create a green wildlife walkway next to Wilson Grove, the garden cottage estate built by Ada Salter.
The action is just one of many projects to mark the anniversary since Quaker Ada Salter became mayor of Bermondsey and husband Alfred Salter was elected MP.
According to the Salter Centenary website, which has recently gone live, ‘This wonderful couple devoted their lives to the environment, housing and public health. They transformed a deprived inner-city area into a healthy green oasis.’ The Quaker actor Judi Dench has agreed to be the patron for the Salter Centenary group, which is celebrating the Salters throughout 2022.
Sheila Taylor, co-ordinator of the steering group, told the Friend: ‘We have a variety of projects and events taking place during 2022, the Salters’ centenary year.’
These include the planting of 100 new street trees by Southwark Council to mark the area where Ada’s greening of Bermondsey began. People can also take part in ‘The Ada Tulip Walk’, which is the culmination of a two-year project in which J Parker’s Bulbs donated 20,000 tulip bulbs to individuals and groups across Bermondsey and Rotherhithe.
Other initiatives include a new children’s orchard at St James’ churchyard to complement a new slide; and guided walks celebrating Ada’s heritage of trees in Bermondsey. The Salter Centenary Project is also producing a free unit of work for primary schools about Ada and Alfred Salter. Meanwhile, Quaker historian Graham Taylor has written The Salters of Bermondsey: A new perspective specially for the centenary year. There will also be a new play about Ada at Southwark Playhouse, and a Remembering Ada docu-drama by film-maker Nicolette Burford, as well as events celebrating her summer birthday.
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