Late-Crouch End campaigner Stanley Marsden gets dying wish granted as engraving on ‘his’ bench will be finished
Stanley Marsden and the bench at the Cecile Park bus stop he campaigned for in Crouch Hill. Picture: the Marsden Family - Credit: Archant
Haringey Council has granted the dying wishes of a late Crouch End campaigner, who wanted his family to finish the engraving on “his” bench next to the bus stop he fought for.
Stanley Marsden, who died in 2003, campaigned for the bus stop in Crouch Hill Road in the early 1990s.
He sent a series of letters to the Hornsey Journal and Haringey Council urging them to put a new bus stop near the junction with Cecile Park, where he lived.
When it happened, he celebrated by buying a bench, putting it next to the bus stop and engraving “Stanley’s Stop - 1923” on it.
His daughter Lucy said he campaigned for the calling point after seeing elderly people struggling to walk up Crouch Hill to the nearest bus stop.
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“It was absolutely the sort of thing he’d do. He was always writing to the Journal and was very witty in his letters. I suppose when he heard it was going ahead, he thought: ‘Finally someone is listening’.
“He was very proud of it.”
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Stanley, with his wife Evelyn and his five children lived in a house in Cecile Park for 40 years. He spent years working for the General Post Office (GPO) and British Telecom, but was someone who often had the community at the front of his mind.
Lucy said: “When we were brought up, it was always with the community in mind. He taught children to sail in Tottenham, and was always helping other people.”
On the day of his funeral in 2003, the family gathered around his bench and celebrated his memory.
“We were all there, including my cousins. It was a part of celebrating his life on that day,” she said.
He is now buried next to Evelyn in Highgate Cemetery yards away from Karl Marx.
His family now want to finish the engraving on the bench, and add the year that he died which was a request of his. Lucy said: “My sister Helen still lives in the house, and she came across a copy of his will and he mentioned it as a request.”
A spokesperson for Haringey Council said: Stanley’s contribution to the community is fondly remembered through ‘Stanley’s Stop’ and we are very happy to speak to the Marsden family about exploring their request.
“We have now provided his relatives with a designated contact and look forward to hearing from them.”
