Month: March 2005

Oh my gosh

Twice! Twice my fucking browser’s crashed on me while I’m at the arse-end of a post with lots of links. Argh! Think yourselves very lucky to be reading this post, as I could have given up.

*Breathes out while slowly counting to ten*

So, I made a very exciting discovery yesterday: Camberwell has more than one celebrity resident (not including reader Guy Gooberman and his appearance on Heartbeat). That’s not exciting because I’m some Heat-obsessed secretary whose mundane life is only lightened by second-hand revelations about the behaviour of third-rate actors and musicians, but because the newly-discovered residents are people I actually like: Basement Jaxx.

I thought they were Brixton-based, but turns out they’re not. They started their career in Camberwell, and now live here. They’ve even written songs with Camberwell themes: Camberwell Skies, I Live In Camberwell and Camberskank. The latter two are available on the limited edition of their Singles CD, or for download from RecordStore.co.uk. The former can be downloaded from KarmaDownloads.com.

But so happy am I to bathe in the reflected glory of our cool co-habitees, I’m going to offer one of their songs for download here for free. It’s in WMA format (take that, iPod owners), 128k encoding (if that means anything to you), and strictly for a limited time only. Please right-click and choose ‘Save As’ rather than streaming online. If you like it, please consider buying other material from them.

Here it is: Camberskank — as the name suggests, a Jamaican-influenced dancefloor stormer. Nominally themed around Camberwell. Enjoy.

Ben Patio special

Regular reader Ben Patio has trumped me with a series of exclusives recently.

He is right that the Apollo video library has just sublet half the store and is still open.

He revealed that a new Child Development Centre is going to open on Peckham Road (although, in fairness to me, I did notice that something was going on there, and almost wrote about it yesterday).

He also made the claim that Blake House was a front for laundering drug money, so today I passed by there to see if I could find any evidence; I’m not sure what I was expecting to see, perhaps two shaven-headed men exchanging a briefcase for a cardboard box. Anyway, I was disappointed.

I went to get a haircut at Cube and was fortunate enough to get a hairdresser who has lived all her life in Camberwell, so we had a good chat about the area. She told me that the Cube club (58a Camberwell Church Street, SE5 8QZ, no connection to the hairdressers, and I’ve never been there as I don’t trust bars with no windows) has been sold, and that her boss knows the owners of Blake House and thinks they just went bankrupt due to lack of business. Probably because of their measly portions.

So that’s two hits out of three for Ben Patio, which is better than I usually manage so I hope he never sets up a rival Camberwell blog.

In other news, my wife and I went to The Phoenix yesterday for lunch. The food was shit; it came out of the kitchen in about five minutes so had obviously been microwaved, and my sandwich had about half a jar of mayonnaise on it and was virtually inedible. Still a great place to have a drink, though.

Also, St George have appealed against Southwark Council’s decision to turn down planning permission for the Grove Lane development. It seemed to be a fairly emphatic refusal, so the appeal could be futile; however, big money has a way of getting what it wants.

I bought a copy of the Camberwell Quarterly yesterday so I’ll mine some stories out of that. Also, I’m giving serious consideration to going on a guided tour of the church next Tuesday. This offically puts me on the path to being elderly.

London’s best pub?

The Castle has made it into the finals of the Evening Standard Pub of the Year award. I’ve only been there a couple of times, and only for the late license, but I was really impressed with it and I keep intending to go back there at a more reasonable hour, but never do.

Anyway, you can vote for it by buying a copy of the paper (I don’t recommend that), printing a form and sending it by post or by sending a text message with the code ES01 and your name (eg ‘ES01 cam burwel’) to 86025 (there’s only a 25p charge for that). You could win £500 to spend there (don’t forget to invite me if you do), boost Camberwell’s profile and reward the staff and management of a decent boozer.

On the subject of boozers, the Redstar (319 Camberwell New Road, SE5 0HQ) has a special guest DJ on Friday, April 1 (assuming it’s not a joke): former Happy Mondays spare part now ‘reformed’ drug muncher, Bez. I’ve never been to Redstar and I’m not a great fan of talentless has-beens, but if that’s your cup of tea then get yourself down there.

Why doesn’t Camberwell have a videogames shop?

A tale of three libraries

A quick update to my previous post.

Camberwell Library is only closed for refurbishment; it will open again in mid-April. That’s good news; maybe they will actually have some new books as well.

But what has closed down is the Apollo video library on Camberwell New Road. The old video library on Coldharbour Lane (that I can’t remember the name of) closed down recently, so that only leaves the small selection in a shop on Camberwell Church Street. Where do people in Camberwell rent their DVDs from? I get mine sent through the post, but surely not everyone does that. Does everyone go to the Blockbuster in Peckham? Or do people just not rent anymore?

Closing Down, Everything Must Go

More casualties in Camberwell.

The Rock‑8 Tapas Bar is gone. I suspected it when I passed a month ago and it was closed, but as it was a Monday night I thought it may have just been their night off. But I passed again last week and the For Sale signs are up. It’s a shame; I liked that place. Now the only Tapas is at that dodgy-looking Marbella, or Viva España, or whatever it’s called, on Camberwell Church Street. I’m being unfair; I haven’t been there. It’s just the huge red neon sign that puts me off.

Also out of business is Camberwell Library (17–21 Camberwell Church Street, SE5 8TR). That came out of nowhere, as I hadn’t read any advance notice of it’s closure, and it went without a word of protest (as far as I saw).

With no movement at the former Blake House, Bee’s Auto Bits or 4 Real We’re D Best (I love saying that name), there seems to be an awful lot of vacant property in Camberwell centre at the moment.

With so many options available, let’s hope we don’t get any more fried chicken takeways, off-licences or mobile phone shops. A Japanese restaurant and a decent butcher/deli would be very welcome.

Anything else? Hmmm… oh, they’ve finished the little refurbishment at The Bickleigh Arms. They’ve removed the old curtains and taken the pool table out, and that seems to have had the effect of making it lighter but less welcoming (hard as that may sound).

I realise that’s not a lot of updates, but it’s been too cold to leave the house recently (plus, I got an X‑Box).

Crime News: A Camberwell woman has been sentenced to life imprisonment after killing an innocent bystander with a machete after a feud with her neighbour got out of hand. You can read the full story of the attack (which happened days before I moved back to Camberwell) at the ICSouthLondon website (with the longest URL I’ve ever seen).

I love the reporter’s dramatic style:

But how could a petty squabble between friends snowball into devious criminality and ultimately cold-blooded murder?

Devious criminality? She rushed her neighbours with a machete, that’s not exactly devious.