Mr. Henning is one of Southwark Council’s most senior tenants, and was recently visited on his special centenary by Stella, one of Southwark Council’s housing officers, to wish him a happy birthday with cards and gifts on behalf of all the housing team who know him.
Mr Henning, who was born near Old Kent Road and has lived in Southwark ever since, said: “I’ve made lots of friends in Southwark and have a good support network.” He said the housing and other staff who check on him every day, including the estate cleaner who always says hello, are ‘wonderful’ to him.
In 1925, when Mr Henning was born, it was still 40 years before Southwark Council would be officially ‘born’ itself. At the time, the Old Kent Road area, near to where Mr Henning arrived in the world, was a hub of industry, with the Grand Surrey Canal network running under the bridges. The legacy of George Livesey – Camberwell and Peckham’s first public library, would still have been open in the local area and the R Whites Lemonade factory, open for much of William’s life, would also have been making fizzy drinks for distribution down the canal.
Much of what Mr Henning would have been familiar with in the area as a child in Southwark was destroyed during the Second World War, by which time William was serving for four years as an aircraft engineer, repairing fighter planes. Mr Henning’s wife, Ivy Lilian, sadly died 14 years ago. Ivy Lilian and William moved into their council home, where he still lives, just after they were married, and they have a daughter.
Councillor Sarah King, cabinet member for council homes, said: “This is what makes council housing so special - it’s such a huge privilege to learn about Mr Henning’s long life in the borough – what incredible changes he must have seen in Southwark over the years.
"The kindness and care our staff have for the individual people they get to know is just wonderful and I’m proud both of them, and our amazing residents like William, who are part of such a fantastic community in Southwark. I wish Mr Henning a very happy birthday!”
Hakeem Osinaike, Director of Housing at Southwark, said: “As a social landlord, our jobs go beyond managing tenancies and this visit to Mr Henning on his birthday, demonstrates a deep understanding of this.”