Bermondsey’s Stanley Arms pub is holding a fundraising night for the annual Pensioners’ Christmas Day Dinner next month.
The pub in Southwark Park Road supports the annual Christmas bash each year, with the last event raising around £1,900 for Bermondsey Care for the Elderly.
Starting at 8pm on December 10, everyone is invited to come along for a £5 entry, to take part in a raffle supported by local businesses.
Natasha Nicholls, one of the organisers, said: “On the day they [the pensioners] get picked up on Christmas Day by a mini bus and are taken to Guy’s Hospital Tower for a three course meal, a present and music.
“We raise money for them each year doing a raffle. It’s for the elderly who otherwise would not be with anyone on the day. It’s nice to get them out.”
This year’s Pensioners’ Christmas Day Dinner marks the end of founder Coral Newell’s time in charge, after she set it up and ran it for the last 40 years.
Coral, of the Beormund Community Centre, has led the free festive meal – which feeds 150 lonely pensioners on December 25 each year – in the Robens Suite on the 29th floor of Guy’s Hospital Tower after seeing a lack of events for them in 1977.
Now after the birth of her first great-grandchild, she wants to spend the day at home to spend some time with her family.
The event has grown in popularity over the years where the pensioners are treated to a slap-up meal of a seasonal soup, a traditional turkey main with all the trimmings and a Christmas pudding, as well as entertainment.
If anyone would like to donate to the pub’s raffle, please drop by the Stanley Arms or contact them on twitter: