A VIEW FROM THE CHAIR
Introducing your Chairman
Hello and welcome to my first Chairman’s Blog! But who is John Baker, the Chairman of the Beckenham and Bromley National Trust Centre and what do I plan to do?
I consider myself a Yorkshireman, although I have lived in Bromley for 32 years originally I am from a Hull family. We are so Hull, in fact, that, if I was famous, the BBC travel budget for ‘Who do you think you are’ could be managed in local bus fares. It was my banking career which brought me to London and then Bromley and, despite my northern roots, I have grown to love the local area and am proud to live in London’s Greenest Borough.
Just under two years ago I retired. When the alarm didn’t go off on 1st September 2024, I didn’t lie there and wonder, how am I going to cope with this? I leapt out of bed excited to face the world, knowing that I had the rest of my life ahead of me to do what I want to do with it.
It was my decision to leave so I had a few months to think about it and I had a plan, didn’t I? Well yes, but the best piece of advice I was given was to ‘keep it flexible, don’t tie yourself to a long list of objectives, after all you’ve been doing that for 37 years!’
There were three things I knew I wanted to do – watch more sport, write some history and to get involved locally. I sorted out my Bromley FC season ticket and Surrey CCC membership (my grandad would turn in his Yorkshire grave). I’ve been a member of the National Trust since 1987 so it was with the third of these in mind that I turned up at 1917 Chill Café on the third Thursday of one month and joined a small group enjoying a morning coffee.
By the time I had finished my latte I had agreed to write for the newsletter and now, I’m Centre Chairman and Newsletter Editor! It’s an exciting opportunity but not without challenges.
Last year we celebrated the Centre’s golden anniversary but now we need to rebuild. The years have severely depleted our numbers but I see hope for the future. the National Trust strategy is to restore nature, end unequal access and inspire millions to engage with us (nationally not just in Bromley!). I spoke to Bromley Council for the newsletter and was impressed by their desire to invest in the rivers and trees of the borough. We need to align.
This summer’s magazine has a feature on local Centres and I am keen that over the next few months we develop the centre to meet the needs of our local National Trust members together with those (members or not) who would like to support keeping Bromley as the greenest London borough.
I will write this blog regularly, to talk about plans, activities and my thoughts on events, what we can do and how we can expand. Next time I will talk about the purpose of the Centre, how that fits with the 10 and 25 year National Trust plan and how we can attract new people.
I hope you enjoy reading it and please leave comments, whether you agree with me or not and whether you like what I have written or not. Let me know what you would like me to cover. Debate and discussion are the variety we need to keep moving forward.