Camberwell Food and Drink Festival review

Written by Peter | 21 Comments.

The 20^th to 27^th of April saw another Camberwell Food & Drink Festival, and I missed almost all of it. Typical. Luckily my wife, Ana, was around, so here’s her report on the Food Fair that kicked it off:

The Festival started with a food fair on Camberwell Green where some of the best local restaurants, cafes and producers met and fed a crowd willing to spend the whole day lying in the sun — it was such a beautiful spring day. It attracted people of all ages, who happily shopped/ queued for food and sat on the green, surrounded by food stalls, just to chat, read, listen to the music and watch the colourful balloons against the clear blue sky.

Camberwell was represented by House Cafe, No 67, Falafel and Zeret. As much as I enjoy their food, I wanted to check the guys from outside our borders. I tried a delicious Orange and Ginger Marmalade from Thurstons Preserves and some really tasty cheese from Bath Soft Cheese. There was fresh meat, fish, vegetables and bread there too; if I was planning to go home after the event, I would have done my shopping for the month there.

Then I found Braziliana Cafe and I couldn’t resist having a coxinha and a Guarana — a fried chicken croquette and a soft drink that are very popular in Brazil, my country of origin. Later, the owner Mariana Camarotte prepared feijoada, a stew of black beans with beef and pork, in the demonstration kitchen. It was quite nice to see so many people taking an interest in Brazilian food and the live cooking session helped her to sell more portions of our most famous dish.

The idea of having a stall on the farmers market on Saturdays for each restaurant to showcase their dishes and engage with the community could work well.

There are lots more pictures of the Food Fair on the Flickr stream of Changify, an organisation aimed at helping to bring about social change at a local level. They ran an event, which I was able to attend, on the last day of the Festival. This event was to gather local opinion about food options and introduce people to some of the local amenities. The morning session had some talks, including one from the Glengall Wharf Garden, a community project in Burgess Park. Then we split into two groups to have a small taster lunch, one group at The Bear and the other (mine) at The Crooked Well, where they explained their origins and how they aim to source food locally.

My group then took a tour of some of the shops in the area, and The Secret Garden, run by Tom aka TomTom aka Monkeycat, of this parish. In the afternoon there was a further workshop, but at that point I had to leave.

It’s great to see people working to effect change, so I recommend you have a look at their website to see what it offers. If nothing else, they introduced me to the delicious crepes and galettes of Maloko, the new cafe opened in the former Paul’s Continental Olive Shop, run by some lovely and friendly guys who have a mission to provide healthy vegan food at low prices.

Food and drink festival, and more

Written by Peter | 36 Comments.

Stay in Camberwell tomorrow, because there are a few things happening: first, it’s Record Store Day, so Rat Records (Camberwell New Road) have DJs playing in store all day.

Second, it’s the opening day of the Camberwell Food and Drink Festival, and there’ll be a food fair with cooking demonstrations on the Green along with the regular farmer’s market. The Festival continues all week with all kinds of events and offers, so make the most of it. I, unfortunately, will miss the food fair as I’m already occupied. Gutted.

Camberwell Online in the Digital Universe

Written by Peter | 62 Comments.

This is… well, this is just astonishing.

As of April 6, a consortium of libraries — including the British, Bodleian and Trinity — will be given permission to archive the entire UK web. As promotion for this, they’ve curated a list of 100 websites that they think will be important for future generations to learn about life today. And on that list is this blog you’re reading.

And I’m amazed, and flattered, and humbled.

They say:

A community blog with lively comments section giving insight into life in South London today. In the future a blog like this could easily be lost, taking the personal insights of a community in 2013 with it.

And I think that the key words in there are “community” and “comments”. I started this blog in 2004 as a way for me to record my rediscovery of Camberwell, and never dreamed that it would be considered like this one day, and the fact that it’s happened is down to everyone who reads, comments, and otherwise gets involved in the discussions that go on here.

If you’re reading this in 2113, I just want to say that I’m sorry you never got to meet some of the great people I’ve met through writing this blog for the last nine years, and that I hope in your time Camberwell continues to be as vibrant and weird and grotty and beautiful and friendly and contrary as it is right now. Also, have you got a tube station yet? And please have a glass of future beer in the Hermits for me.

Sceaux Gardens fire verdicts are in

Written by Dave Lewis | No comments so far.

The inquests into the 6 deaths in the Lakanal fire on 3 July 2009 came to a close on Thursday 28 March, after almost 10 weeks of evidence. The jury arrived at a detailed narrative verdict in respect of each of the victims and the Coroner, Judge Frances Kirkham has issued guidance to Southwark Council, the London Fire Brigade and Eric Pickles, the Secretary of State for Communities & Local Government.

Southwark Council issued a response to the verdicts. The London Fire Brigade also issued a response.

The jury heard that a range of factors contributed to the loss of life in July 2009, some preventable, some not. The most important factors were;

• The under-window panelling used in a 2006 refurbishment were not fire resistant and allowed the fire to spread from one dwelling to another. Fire doors to escape balconies were also compromised with replacement doors being part-glazed.
• A suspended ceiling in internal communal corridors was not compartmentalised and was not itself adequately fire resistant.This allowed fire to spread to escape routes undetected until it collapsed and allowed corridors to ignite and fire & deadly fumes to trap those that remained on the 11^th floor of the building.
• The London Fire Brigade response on the day, whilst timely and well resourced, exposed a major lack of familiarity with the building. The firefighters exhibited tremendous bravery on the day and made multiple rescues of trapped residents, but the brigade now acknowledge that both the search and rescue operation and the advice given to residents to “stay put” was flawed.
• Southwark Council had not completed Fire Risk Assessments on the majority of high rise residential blocks in the borough at the time of the fire. A change in the law in 2005 transferred responsibility for these from the Fire Authority to landlords.

It remains to be seen whether lessons will be learned from this tragic incident. We will undoubtedly see greater efficiency on the part of the Council in record-keeping, but those that live in high-rise dwellings across the country will need reassurance that fire safety is now going to be taken seriously. Southwark were not alone in failing to risk assess their properties — it was endemic across the country (with only a few admirable exceptions).

Representatives of the bereaved families sat through the 10 weeks of evidence and were dignified throughout. Some of the evidence presented was harrowing and very distressing, some was shocking in exposing a disregard for the law. One of the witnesses summoned to attend ignored the summons and had to be arrested and escorted to the inquest by the police to present evidence. The families stood on the steps of Lambeth Town Hall when the inquests came to a close and made a statement. They reported that in the intervening 3 and a half years since the fire, not one body or authority had offered them an apology for what had happened and expressed doubts that any real lessons were going to be learned.

Both Southwark Council & the London Fire Brigade have now issued formal apologies to the bereaved and all those affected by the fire, including the 95 other families that were displaced from Lakanal and had to live in church halls and community centres for weeks after the fire. There were 6 victims of the fire, but hundreds of others also had their lives changed forever by the events that day — from the displaced residents to those who continue to live in Lakanal’s sister block (Marie Curie) and the firefighters and emergency services staff who took 999 calls or discovered bodies.  Several London Fire Brigade staff were off work for months after the fire, traumatised by the huge loss of life.

All our thoughts should be with the victims’ families and I hope that they can now put this tragic event behind them, to some extent.”