This was my birthday and I had originally agreed to book it off but this event was so important I agreed to go at the last minute.

Once we had done the silence the meeting slowly formed into a more typical meeting of the type which Anthony King had been holding on Friday morning all summer. I made the mistake of telling him it was my birthday the day before and he got the whole room to sing Stevie Wonder to me. It was slightly embarrassing but really touching and was so powerful. There were representatives from all aspects of Croydon's heritage there and they were all singing together!