It’s a Wonderfull Life

An article in the Southwark News about the closure of Wordsworth Books just confirms what we already knew. Manager Eugene Wolstenholme says:

It’s a difficult time for customer spending. All the big chains are discounting wildly and selling books at half price, which makes it hard for us.

Then we have websites like Amazon who sell for cheaper. But on top of all that there’s been work on Butterfly Walk for eighteen months that were supposed to be finished in February, yet they’re still ongoing.

It’s really affected our passing trade badly.

The shop is to close on January 14, with a closing-down sale starting today. I wonder if we could have changed anything had we found out sooner?

Onto other news. Apparently there was an ice-rink on Camberwell Green the weekend before Christmas. Did anyone see this? I never heard anything about it. Was it advertised anywhere?

A man was shot in the arm last week as he slowed down to let two men cross Love Walk. Police think the men were angry as they thought he hadn’t slowed down quickly enough. That’s the best reason to shoot somebody, I think.

How was your Christmas? I didn’t go to The Castle on Christmas Eve, so apologies to anyone who was waiting for my personal appearance. Instead, I met a friend in The Phoenix. It was very quiet, which was nice because I am getting older and quiet things please me.

Emergency Appeal from Ben Patio

The developers proposing the redevelopment of the Mary Datchelor site have submitted revised drawings to Southwark Council. It’s not much to write about — it seems they’ve pretty much ignored the concerns of everyone, including the Camberwell Society. They’ve made a token reduction in the number of flats from 138 to 134 and there are some associated changes to the elevations.

Cynically, they’ve made the changes just before the holiday period so that as few people as possible are around to formally object. The new scheme still fails to meet the requirements of the Development Brief prepared by Southwark; it would demolish the fine 1926 building on Grove Lane; and (worst of all, as far as I am concerned) it is dressed up in an atrocious hotch-potch of faux-Georgian and neo-traditional architectural styles that will make a mockery of the fine buildings in the area.

Comments from the general public really do make a difference and are essential if Camberwell is to get the development it deserves on this site. You can object by writing to Sonia Watson at planning.​applications@​southwark.​gov.​uk quoting application no. 05-AP-1695 — but make sure you do it by 27 December.

Update: As Ben pointed out, this is a really shitty trick; setting the deadline for comments to December 27 pretty much ensures that fewer people are around to have their say on the development. You’d think that Southwark would have a decent web presence for such a major decision, but all I can find on their website is the latest planning application and a few documents from last year. Poor show. It’s almost like they don’t want people to know what’s going on.

A whole bunch of stuff

Last night I was flicking channels when I caught the tail end of someone talking about demolishing the Aylesbury estate. The programme was Demolition on Channel 4, but on their website I can find no mention of the Aylesbury. Can anyone elaborate?

While we’re on the subject of property, last night I noticed some lights on in a few windows of the boarded-up buildings on Windsor Walk. There seemed to be a parafin lamp hanging in one window, while another had full electric lights and I could just see someone’s head in there too. Has it been squatted?

Moving on… I’ve had a few comments saying that the New Dewaniam restaurant on Camberwell New Road has just expanded and now sounds very cool. In fact, I get so many positive comments about the New Dewaniam that I’m beginning to suspect the owners read this blog; if they do, I’ll be happy to give you all the free publicity you want in exchange for a meal for two. Yes, I’m that easily bought.

Local artist Mark McGowan has made another high-profile protest, this time against the protest exclusion zone around the Houses of Parliament. He walked backwards around Parliament Square repeating the slogan on his t‑shirt, “this is not a protest”.

Meta: I’ve made the first, stumbling steps in setting up a CamberwellOnline Wiki. Obviously the design needs a lot of work, but if anyone’s interested in helping out by providing and editing content please go ahead and take a look. If you need help beyond the documentation, leave a comment here. Also, this blog is now open for registration in case anyone wants to help out by adding more news about the area. I still have editorial control for now.

Finally, there are a whole bunch of new contributors and photos in the Camberwell SE5 Flickr Photo Pool. Please keep them coming.

In case I don’t make another update before the weekend, have a great Christmas, everyone. Remember to keep it local where possible, and support independent retail. The best Christmas present would be a change of heart by Wordsworth Books. Look out for me in The Castle on Christmas Eve — I’ll be the drunk one.

Wordsworth books in peril

My first job when I left school was working in a bookshop. The shop was called Claude Gill, it was part of a small chain, and after I’d worked there for a year or so it was taken over by a larger chain called Dillons. Dillons were campaigning strongly against the Net Book Agreement (NBA); this was code amongst bookshops, stationers and publishers that books would always be sold for the printed price on the cover unless agreed between everyone concerned; it was created to protect independent bookshops and publishers from larger rivals being able to sell at unfair discounts.

Of course, in the free market this is unacceptable. Dillons wanted to be able to provide heavy discounts and ‘3‑for‑2’ offers and they organised a petition against the NBA, and as a Dillons staff member I had to promote the petition to customers. Inevitably, the NBA was abolished and a whole new era of bookselling began; dominated, of course, by the big chains and multinational publishers. Once the supermarkets got involved, the writing was on the wall for the independents. Dillons, by the way, were bought out by Books Etc; they, in turn were bought by the American chain Borders.

So what does this have to do with Camberwell? It seems that Wordsworth is closing down. An already difficult market has been made impossible by the never-ending refurbishment to Butterfly Walk. Unable to offer 50% discounts on the new Harry Potter novels like the supermarkets and online retailers, offered no help from the publishers due to their low levels of buying, hamstrung by their landlords, they will be closing down after christmas.

That will leave no alternative in Camberwell. No booksellers. The nearest retailers will be WH Smiths in Peckham, Brixton or Elephant; if you want a book that’s not in the current bestsellers list you’re out of luck. If you want to attend talks by local authors or about local issues, you’re out of luck. If you want to ask informed staff about their recommendations, you’re out of luck. It is, as Ben says, a disaster.

Is there anything we can do? If it’s not too late, help them out by buying. Accept the fact that you’re going to spend a couple of quid more on the latest books and justify it with the knowledge that you’re keeping the heart of Camberwell alive. Tell people about what’s happening and ask them to spend their christmas pounds locally. Petitions won’t work, but market forces can go a long way.

Everyone seems to accept that part of the reason we like Camberwell is the fact that it isn’t the same as everywhere else; that is, dominated by the same old High Street names. Losing Wordsworth would be a terrible portent for independent retailing.