Comments-a-go-go
Written by Peter | Filed under Eating & Drinking, General, Places
Wow… what a huge response to my last post! Let me just sift through and address a few of the comments…
First, eating out. We know Camberwell can support bars which serve food, and Indian and Chinese restaurants, and fried chicken and burgers, but it’s a shame there seems to be no demand for a restaurant along the lines of the deceased Espana — fresh, organic, tasty. My wife and I try to eat out in the area at least once a month, and we’re back down to a few small options again now our favourite place has closed. I think it was good for the area, but the area didn’t seem to think so.
There’s an article in today’s Telegraph about the upward mobility of Peckham. Of course, I’m not suggesting for one second that gentrification is the solution for the malaise in Camberwell — but what a difference it can make if your council gets behind the idea of regeneration. While Peckham has Bellenden Road and the possibility of opening up a public space around the station, we get the street drinkers moved on and a bigger bus garage.
Second, the SE5 Forum which Mark mentioned. Even though the site itself is terribly user-unfriendly, it’s worth registering if you want to get involved in ideas for Camberwell’s future. When the site is more interactive you’ll all go off there to discuss transport, and leave me to talk about curries and murder.
Third, Daneville Road; I thought they were just digging up the street to lay cable, but it seems there’s a lot more than that going on, with it being greened, cleaned, and possibly opened up to traffic. Typically, I can find no information whatsoever on the Southwark council website (which is, let’s be frank, next to useless in terms of communication) or on Camberwell Renewal. No doubt we’ll hear about it in a few months time as a great success story, but what a difference it would make to actually be informed beforehand.
Fourth, and finally, it seems like a few people are keen to meet up. So what is the mood like for the Second CamberwellOnline Blog & SE5 Flickr Group Meetup? A suggestion has been made for Sunday 23rd April at the Sun & Doves. Interested?
23rd April is St Georges Day… that probably calls for an ale somewhere
is it not amusing that the post which got the most responses was about restaurants and food?
Camberwellites are obviously gastronomes of the highest order
I think all of my greatest responses have been to posts about food… generally, the comments come in the form of the pros and cons of the New Dewaniam!
The first SE5 Forum public meeting is at 8pm
Thursday 11 May 2006 in
The Boardroom Kings College Hospital.
Use Main Entrance from Bessemer Road
(down the side of A&E off Denmark Hill)
the boardroom is on the right halfway
down the main corridoor
The “cleaning and greening” of Daneville Rd seems to have consisted of re-tarmacing the road and planting 7 (yes I counted them) trees in the middle of the road. Baffling.
Meeeetuupp!
Come on!
Defo up for the meetup. I suspect Ade/Gridrunner likewise.
I would definitely be up for meeting everyone again, however unfortunately my idiot boyfriend is running the marathon so i suppose i shall be in central London trying to look enthusiatic about loads of sweaty people running a stupidly long way for fun.
Hannah — he won’t miss you if you slope off for a couple of hours, he’ll be too busy.
I may well do!! As ou say he won’t notice — i could just pretend i was in the crowd!
Ben
Cleaning and greening: I’d like to know what the budget was for that, and who and how the decsions were made about what should happen with the money. How answerable the people are who made the decsisions and so on… Local people are qualified to make decsisions — liek arcitects and landscapers who live in the area. Effective consultation can’t be THAT difficult although I know Southwark has perennial problems communicating coherently with people in Camberwell.