Sort out Camberwell and win £100
Published by Peter | Filed under Development, Shopping
Camberwell Renewal are asking for opinions on shopping in Camberwell; fill in this survey to give yours. If the chance to give your opinion isn’t rewarding enough, you could also enter a draw to win £100 to spend in your favourite (participating) shop.
Imagine that: £100 worth of fried chicken or booze!
November 23rd, 2007
I’ll take the chicken n’ booze for the baby please.
Just the booze for me.
Mark: “you can’t give a baby booze!”
Why not the only reason I can participate is because I have given my children a mix of calpol and whisky. but the don’t get the good malt!
It’s the booze what got me through sea sickness when I was a baby
Sorry but it’s a scam this survey.
The Council keeps throwing out ‘research’ as a scam to bide their time on actually doing anything to improve Camberwell. How many reports are floating around out there now? All say the same thing. One more survey means they are buying more time.
Shirley has a point. There is one Billion surveys / consultations/ reports about Camberwell already.
One survey proved that so many surveys had been done in and about the SE5 area that 68% of people resident in the Camberwell area have developed ‘survey blindness’ ‘consultation despair’ ‘report aversion’ and they are so jaded that their answers / opinions cannot be used for consultation purposes.
The remaining 32% are middle class and therefore statistically insignificant in any kind of surveys that have relevance to SE5.
I’d spend my £100 in the 99p shop.
on cashew nuts I think
there really aren’t many shops in camberwell I would want to spend £100 in. maybe that’s one of the problems they should look at.
The Deputy Leader of the Labour Party,
our MP, Harriet Harman, has been talking about the loss of two discs containing the child benefit details of millions of people. She was asked on the Daily Politics if the Chancellor knew — when he addressed MPs this week — that a senior person in Revenue and Customs knew about the decision to send the discs through the post. She replied…
As far as what the allegation that’s been made by ..by Edward Leigh, the
chair of the Public Accounts Committee, about the level of seniority of.…..
the decision making in terms of sending out those cds .….that is.….one of
the things when sudden problem arises.… that you have to do is.….you have to
find out what actually did go on and there’s a number of suggestions of what did
and didn’t go on.… and who said what to whom and when… and… .. Alistair
Darling the Chancellor has appointed Keiron Pointer, the head of PWC to look
into that, he’ll do a quick investigation and report back to the House.
Glad that’s clear, then.
Priceless gibberish.
Warms the cockles of my heart.
Walked up Lordship Lane today. That was nice.
I thought Maigret’s post made absolute sense, in that the sense it made neither sense nor that sensimilia means what its says or not.
We should move on.
The elephant in the room is the tooth fairy, Ruth Kelly, ruthless to the last, lash, cor! The lash! Rustless to the lash her to the mast, arr, har, arrgh! Master her, me hearties!
Your posts are always good, Marge. JohnnyM is also jolly good, blah good if you ask me, what? Their Lordships need the talcum poofed from their wigs every now and then.
The 99p shop is great. The charity shop next door — is it cancer? — is the best bookshop for miles under the random law of rambling hangover drowsy book browsing — what the hell is this I bought yesterday or what is today?
If you really need shops, you go to London or Bluewater. Bluewater is near Thong, Stone, Green Street Green and Gravesend, Northfleet and Ebbsfleet.
Stone church is amazing — the tower is massive and covered from top to toe in flint. You can see for miles fom there.
But Bluewater is not for everyone.
If you want to mingle, instead, with effete new fathers who dote on their children by weekend — indeed are triumphalist about them, just as their spawn exude alpha and boss the locals around from day one — but who wind up, manipulate, con and sack people the rest of the time, you go down Lordship Lane.
Ebbsfleet beat Stafford yesterday, I see — goals by Purcell and Stacy Long. Well played Purcell! Stace — you scored again! This is good stuff in the age of stuffed England, a country englanded with stuff, swollen with pride.
Myself, I am a big fan of north Kent, though I have little knowledge of the Gillingham area. Grain and Sheppey are special. As the containers on trains rumble past Warwick Gardens, I envy their trip to Thamesport.
Gravesend was always a bit of a dour brand name, even as Gravesend and Northfleet — “That winger, ‘e’s got two norf feet.”
Now ‘e ‘as webbed feet.
If the England ‘ad ‘ad webbed feet at Wembley then they wouldner been so trembly would they?
The paving in Gravesend leaves a lot to be desired
What a beautiful, enigmatic first line, Mark, it’s like the caption to a Millais painting.
Why thank you Dagmar. I was falling asleep at the keys. The Poetry muse must have overcome me.
I think it’s a shame Harriet Harman is M.P for Camberwell — She likes to portray herself as a champion of the ethnic minorities but ultimately Camberwell and Peckham are stuck in reverse or simply treading water due to unregulated free market economics — so ultimately she isn’t really helping the vast majority of that community who live here either — despite her posturing
We need to give Labour a kick up the backside and vote in order of preference the Greens, Lib Dems or heaven forbid Conservatives — Anything to shake them out of their complacency
My personal preference would be for an Independent Community Party for Camberwell and Peckham ward to contest the next general election — I seem to remember Charlton Athletic supporters forming a political party to restore the club back to The Valley — When Greenwich Council denied them the opportunity to return there despite the fact that it had been their home for over 80 years — They won 3 seats on the council and argued their case ensuring the club returned to it’s rightful home, then disbanded when the job was done — Perhaps we can do the same to address the issues we face here?
@ eusebiovic
Mmmm. Not sure about that one. Though not a Labour Party member, I have always voted Labour and the idea of single issue politics doesn’t really appeal to me, personally. Harriet Harman is not perfect, but believe me, there are many other constituency MP’s that are infinitely worse. She does work very hard and is accessible through her regular surgeries. All politicians are prone to bluster and prevarication and in some cases, lie through their teeth. I don’t pick that up from Harriet, though. Whilst she might keep her eye on the good of the Party, I can’t see her actually lying on an issue.
I’m hoping I don’t live to regret that!
Mushtimushta’s right about Harriet I think. What Harriet needs, I think, is some very straightforward approach from people in Camberwell who know what’s not right and have a vision of sorts for what should be happening here.
I don’t thing she gets that at all from local people generally or the local party at all, who seem mostly deferential, polite and just very pleased to know such an elevated person.
18 & 19
Perhaps I was a little harsh on Harriet then…
From what you both say she’s probably a little like Simon Hughes M.P for Bermondsey and Southwark — I have met him a few times when I lived in North Southwark and he always struck me as a genuine chap who is responsible and takes his job seriously — I thought the media (particularly The Sun toiletpaper) treated him rather shabbily during the Lib Dem Leadership election — so what if he may or may not be gay? — There have been rumours amongst his constituency for years but that hasn’t stopped them voting him in for the last 25 Years! — Which is no mean feat for this part of London…
Well i completed the survey!! My main issue was not with the local independent shops many of whom are great — i particualrly like Butterfly Pharmacy and Camberwell superstore (the men at the DIY counter have helped me out on many a light bulb or screwdriver query!) but the poor service we get from most of the chain stores many of which are understaffed, badly run and poorly stocked.
Sadly i could quite happily spend £100 in Superdrug (yes really, that was my store of choice to spend the voucher in!)
I chose Bob’s Cycles, perhaps perversely, knowing that John Ruskin Street isn’t considered part of Camberwell by many that speak of its needs.
Harriet replies to correspondence. There isn’t much she can do beyond put visible moral pressure on local authorities, and perhaps influence the Labour TfL. But even central government might find that a task too far.
I have done the survey too…
I nominated Great Expectations because I have a rather fine poverty map of London (1890’s) which I got from the Museum of London which I would like to frame!
Ahh — you see i am now shamed by my shallow greed for £100’s worth of Make up and perfume, however if i do win i may selflessly get £100’s worth of soap to give out to the random smelly people that frequently populate public transport in Camberwell thus benefiting many more people in Camberwell.
I also have a lovely 1820’s map of London and five miles around that i would like to have framed.
I did the survey and nominated Whole Food on Denmark Hill to spend £100 in. How very Guardian-readerish of me. I had to think for qute a while of where I would want / could spend £100 in Camberwell. Nominating Superdrug made me chuckle! I didn’t think of them.
In my answers on the survey I stressed the lack of decent food shopping and the need for some kind of ‘whole picture’ planning for Camberwell town centre, a Town Manager or something.
I chose Duraty Electronics on Denmark Hill, because the guys in there are the most knowledgeable and helpful in SE5, and probably the rest of London. It’ll go towards a new telly.
Oh i didn’t think about Duraty — i need a new hoover! Or even the dIY store just down the road from it as we desperately need a new step ladder so we can change the lightbulbs in the hallway.
I stand by Superdrug as a choice thoguht — i am continually distressed at how much a spend in Superdrug!
Eusebiovic, you will need that £100 voucher and more if you go into Great Expectations. They quote absurd prices for framing. I got a film poster framed at a professional film poster-framing shop in Soho for half of what Great Expectations quoted me.
Duraty are great. Always have been.
Norman Maine @28
Thanks for the tip…Maybe subconsciously I’ve always thought that may be the case which is why I have never enquired and am still in possesion of a rather lovely but unframed map of London…
In my map our local area is surrounded by lovely green fields…Peckham is known as Peckham “New Town”!
Can I pipe up in support of Great Expectations? They are, admittedly, not a bargain frame shop but the things they’ve done for me they’ve done extremely well.
Their frame recommendations were very good. Plus the staff are all very charmingly bonkers.
Seeing as I’m being so positive, I’ll add my voice to those recommending Caravaggio. Their bruschetta is a work of genius. And all for under four quid.
Another totally off-topic post from me, I know I make a habit of it but I hope you don’t mind on this occasion .…..
OPEN PUBLIC MEETING AT SOUTHWARK TOWN HALL
7PM TUESDAY 4TH DECEMBER
If you live in the streets around Brunswick Park and would like to help us form a Residents Association, please come along to this meeting.
We are hoping that by forming this Association, it will give our community a stronger voice on local issues that affect us all when working with the Council and various other groups.
Issues such as parking, planning, the environment, safety, security and the park itself.
The meeting is open to all who live in the streets surrounding the park, including:
Vicarage Grove
Samsom Street
Benhill Road
Elmington Road
Brunswick Park
Brunswick Villas
St Giles Road
Ada Road
Havil Street (evens)
Gables Close[/li]
For more information, contact
sg@funnelweb.net
sg Get that association going and get into SE5 Forum on the committee.
Seriously.
Innit.
Needed.
They are good streets in Brunswick area. I am myself very fond of Brunswick Park and the environs. Even the nearby blocks of flats are named after Racine and Voltaire — the francophone Africans, too, are well impressed. Mind you, I am a big fan of Wm Blake the anti-rationalist, even though his name rhymes with fake and he is well over 250 years old.
Brunswick — the north-south divide we have in Camberwell is best demonstrated by the Lancia Flavia 1.8’s on Bushey Hill Road and Benhill Road. The one on Benhill is far tattier than that of Bushey Hill, but has those Corsica rally stickers on it that makes it worn and road-rough for those of us who like that gritty style.
Mind you, the dark blue Bushey Hill Lancia, you’d prefer to be seen in that on the Corniche in Nice or on the Mulsanne Straight at Le Mans, in preference even to a Rolls or Bentley named thereafter.
Blah blah blah.
Eusebio — you have a point about Harriet. Camberwell should have a Camberwell sort of MP. We should adopt Oona King. She is genuinely good. She is great. Who were those daft eastenders who voted last time for that moustachioed blah-blah, look-at-me Scotsman instead of her? She has the vision for Albion they all talk about, but don’t have.
Harriet is a good sort and has always been consistently good (or god as Tony would say) in a good-sort sort of way, but does not reflect the Camberwell brand, more the E. Dulwich brand, funnily enough.
At least such New Labour, look-up-to people have seen off the Tory hedge-your-money.
But a simple thing like secondary schooling in the Camberwell area — oh, yes, we must raise this — if we can bomb Iraq and Afghanistan, we can chuck millions at Camberwell schools.
With good money, if the boys are naughty at school you just beat the hell out of ‘em till they’re not. It’s called education.
You go at it 1–2-1 till it’s good. That takes money. It is possible.
WE CAN BUILD JERUSALEM IN THIS GREED AND PLEASURE LAND.
An MP, though, is not just a localist and Harriet has fought against a lot of bollocks in the New Labour Party under Tony and whatisname. Denmark have not qualified for Euro 2008 despite beating Iceland who are excellent, but I take my hat off to Harriet for being lofty, elevated and poshty.
At home, though, it is futile to tell poor teenage boys who are horrible, not to kill, while you are dropping bombs willy-nilly abroad on the foreigner. It is the wrong message.
I losing my drifty. The Polish beer from the Tigris Supermarket over the park for 5 pounds for 6 cans is formidable.
No. 37 Bushey Hill Road has an amazing bush filled with white, starlike flowers at the moment. Well done to that house. It is an amazing sight at night, made even better the light-pollution streetlamps.
Dagmar, are you alright? I’m worried.
A VISION FOR CAMBRWELL: Everyone who’s interested in Camberwell’s development please have a look at this posting by Jezza on the SE5 Forum site:
http://www.se5forum.org/forum/index.php/topic,686.msg3404.html#new
The Forum and Jezza have done work together and invited him to post there to try to firm up a Vision that people can grab onto and perhaps get firmly behind in making it happen…
Sorry chaps that link above should be this one: http://www.se5forum.org/forum/index.php/topic,686.msg3403.html#msg3403
If I win the 100 pounds I will donate it to Harriets campain fund.
Under a different name of course!
Who would have thought it that we would be discussing H-Harriet h-here the very day before she gets h-hung out to dry by the elephant in the room, h-himself.
Odd survey. agree regeneration of the Green must unlock some of the problems around regeneration. Ground work southwark to take it over? 100 pounds would be nice, particularly as I think Rimworld is on the se5 bit of walworth road and must qualify. camberwell dog grooming parlour too. much of camberwell is effectively cut off if you rely on walworth road buses. Gridlock both ways yesterday afternoon. strangely peaceful if weaving through on a bike. But not if festering on a no. 12. Bendy buses have detracted from the quality of life in se5. the demise of routemasters a grim public policy mistake. Does anyone know when the works are due to finish?
Nostalgic bus rubbish.
Great story in Times on bus adventures. They ought to come here. It’s a jungle.
http://travel.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/travel/article2900602.ece
perhaps. I used the 38 and 73 routes this chap writes about (hackney/islington). routemasters were terrific and suited bus travel in inner london (both practically and aesthetically); their replacements grim and 20% slower into town. didn’t use the routemasters here.
routemasters were narrow and didn’t have enough capacity. newer double deckers are better than bendies, but should have conductors.
Bendy buses are OK, but all london buses are slooow. It’s painful.
D-MAN has a point — the delays to London buses and honest public transport commuters are costing the London economy billions each year. I just can’t work out what is slowing them down, though.
My only consolation is that citizens retain the right to make that essential private motor car trip for a pint of milk at the hypermarket, just a 10 minute drive away and so considered local under the “London Plan”.
Long live libertarianism!
fewer stops would speed buses up and help ease congestion. most buses stop every 200m or so. unnecessary on commuter routes. And double-decker buses with conductors, as peter says. We could call them routemasters 2000.
I’ve seen a few ‘X’ services recently; there should be more of those in addition to the regular services, which pick up from only key interchanges; an X12 could go from Camberwell Green to Elephant without any stops on the Walworth Rd, then direct to Waterloo, then straight to Trafalgar Sq, for example.
I was on a 12X the other day. It seemed to stop at every stop the same as a regular 12. Is there meant to be a difference, because it wasn’t apparent to me?
Plus, the X68 should stop at Camberwell.
But there’s a danger that TfL would consider it had “done” Camberwell then, in terms of its social obligations. I’d rather explore whether they are getting control of the inner city rail stations including the former Camberwell Station.
Remember, the only reason that our station wasn’t reopened, according to Network Rail, was that as a commuter line it would make Loughborough unviable *bu115hit*. It wasn’t too expensive or impractical.
But what if the proposition was freight and off-peak travel, outside rush hour?
I’ve never seen a 12X, I thought I’d made that up. According to the TFL website there was a 12X on just for the Notting Hill carnival; if you got it on another day, perhaps the driver changed the sign on the front by mistake.
What would be great would be a bus that ran to all major tube and train stations nearby; a bus formed of many carriages, that ran on rails, underground.
I’ve seen 12Xs about three times recently. I thought it was a new thing. How careless some drivers are with their signage. It didn’t take me anywhere near any sort of carnival, unless you consider Walworth Road to be a carnival of, erm, life.
I’m in two minds about bendy buses.
I used the 38, 19, 73, 36 and 12 routemasters all frequently and was gutted when they all disappeared. However they were all very overcrowded bus routes and i don’t think anyone can deny that the bendy buses have greater capacity so waiting up to 30 mins on Oxford st for a 12 is a thing of the past.
However i think Bendy buses have been put on the wrong routes. Bendy buses are great for quick commutes — we’ve all used them at airports etc.. and they make sense. So maybe they would be great for connecting stations — there’s one that goes between Victoria and Waterloo which seems to work very well.
But, as everyone knows routes such as the 12, 36 and 73 go through some of the poorest areas of London and people use them not just to commute from a mainline station to work but to go about their daily business — taking small children in pushchairs, bags of shopping, elderly grannies on walking sticks, huge suitcases of clothes to got to mainline stations etc.. and bendies are just unsuitable for this — ever tried getting four bags of shopping on an overcrowded bendy? It ain’t fun!!! And despite their much vaunted disabled friendliness i certainly wouldn’t want to use one if i was elderly or unstable on my feet.
Also ever used a bendy night bus? — don’t would be my advice!!
I think “normal” double deckers with low floor access and conductors would be the way forward.
Lastly yes 12X and 36X are carnival buses!
I went to a conference about accessible transport only this morning. They had pics of people in wheelchairs with “good riddance to routemasters” placards. Doubt you would be so nostalgic about them if you were in a wheelchair (or used a buggy!).
I fully understand the access issues that routemasters had — I personally felt that a combination of routemasters and low floor acess buses on busy routes is the way forward.
However the point i was making is that bendy buses seem to be just as bad for diasble passengers and parents with buggies due to their over crowded nature, their tendancy to swing wildly around corners and lack of accessible seating. May times i have seen wheelchair users or parents with buggies simply unable to get on these buses where as the conventional double deckes with low floors are easier as people do not tend to congregate around the doors as much and the drivers seem to be able to keep better control over people on the bus — also more able bodied people can use the top deck leaving the bottom decks for those with less mobility.
Another problem with the bendies, as has been pointed out many times, is the fact that they are used as free transport by fare dodgers — when responsible users might have to pay £2 for a short hop.
I wonder if it wouldn’t be more cost-effective to have conductors on bendies; the amount gained in fare revenue would probably pay the conductor’s salary twice over.
I think I’ve seen two teams of fare inspectors since the bendies were introduced, years ago.
I agree with Hannah — some of the double-deckers are wheelchair accessible now, so that doesn’t have to be a reason to keep bendies.
Have you not seen the fare-dodger crack squads, Peter. I’ve seen them quite regularly (although not in the last couple of months admittedly). There’s always at least three of them get on the bus, one at each set of doors, whilst a team of Community Police Officers and others wait on the pavement. I have wondered whether for the amount of people involved in these operations they couldn’t employ conductors.
MelR — teen gang members travel in packs on these buses, and regard it as their right not to pay. I don’t think one conductor could be expected to deal with these. Perhaps two, with police powers.
But I would put fare-dodging pickpockets who break wind just after each bus stop on a par with passengerless motorists in private motor cars during rush hour, in terms of the overall anti-social aspect.
You’ve got to take the wider view.
And there you have it. The broken record accusing all your drivers out there with the anti-social teen gangs who would just as soon beat you to a pulp. That’s the type thinking driving forward a true vision for Camberwell. Join up!
The bendy buses suck. I hate cycling round the oval cricket ground towards Camberwell when a Bendy is in front of me. There is no safe way to overtake them on that stretch. They cause so much congestion, are horrible to travel on and hardly anyone pays.
I actually had a group of kids laughing at the fact that I swiped my Oyster last time I used a bendy. Unless I’m in a real rush, I always wait for the next double decker if I can.
I liked Routemasters, but they had to be replaced with newer buses (pollution / access etc). No need for bendy’s though.
Shoe horning a moan about cars into every / any topic is getting a bit dreary.
I wouldn’t put them on a par with teen gangs (which I didn’t actually mention), but I’d agree that passenger-less private cars in rush hour are as anti-social as fare-dodgers.
JohnnyM — I don’t recall saying I was speaking on behalf of the Forum.
If you deny that a motorist can possibly commit an anti-social offence, as distinct from an illegal one, then I disagree with you.
I did not compare rush hour drivers to violent teen gangs, although there is certainly more violent behaviour on the roads than inside the buses.
Stuart — my main point above addressed Camberwell Train Station, not cars; but debate on anti-social behaviour in the wider sense is valid. Everyone has their hobby-horse. Johnny’s, for example, is crime, and he rarely deviates from the subject. But it’s good to specialise.
The Bendys: much reveiled whipping boy of the London Transport system..
It’s true that people do tend to regard them as ‘The free buses’ which is why they’re always so rammed. And yes, I think you’re right, conductors would be a good idea. They do do the spot busts with inspectors reasonably frequently, but I’d imagine any profits they recoup from this being swallowed up by the cost of paying the police to provide backup muscle (I presume they pay anyway).
Lots of buses stink as well. Rubbish and half-eaten food everywhere. It’s pretty disgusting sometimes. And yeah the bendys are worse for this.
Your MP is about to resign, because if she doesn’t she will have broken the law, a law which she and her party introduced.
And all you can talk about is buses!
BTW she’s the daughter of an Earl which makes her even posher than Cameron.
Who hasn’t occasionally hopped a bendy bus without paying? No point stressing about it. That’s the beauty of them.
It’s worth remembering that these buses carry *lots* of people around London. There’s got to be some value in that… even if it does take forever to get anywhere.
Jack Dromey, the husband of our MP has just told reporters that there was “complete concealment” from him about the Abrahams donations. He is the Labour Party Treasurer. This is the second time he has been kept in the dark. The last time he pleaded total ignorance was about the loans for honours affair. Courageously he blew the gaffe on that. What is the point of him remaining in position if he hasn’t got a clue what is being done in his name? He’s proved that he can’t impose systems to stop this sort of thing happening. He ought to resign. Like Gordon Brown, he’s not cut out for the job.
I think the blog would be lost without JohnnyM and Magwitch Thatcher. They are a breath of air.
I had a great day — Wm Blake was born 250 years ago today. The Bob Dylan of his day.
By the way what are you planning for New Year’s Eve…
I have an alterior in mind of course
I am not a teen gang, but I fare-dodge at every opportunity. If you are going from Camberwell Green to the Oval, or from Camberwell Green to the Elephant, you will never get caught on a bendy-bus. Inspectors only get on after the buses have passed the Oval or the Elephant.
I also think it’s hilarious the amount of posts this subject has received, when we actually have a Mad Axeman in our midst –
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uklatest/story/0„-7109510,00.html
Actually, Mark, I’m open to offers for NYE; what’s on the table?
£2 for a single bus journey is a lot. Doubled in the last five years. And discriminates against the Oyster poor. Reading the Ken runes, it looks as if he’s backing away from BBs, saying recently they are “still on trial”. so there may yet be a Harman link.
Have you seen the Blake mural near Goose Green Playground Dagmar? I wonder what he’d make of the new cafe on Peckham Rye. Very good I hear. Best park in SE London Peckham Rye.
How does £1 for a single bus journey on Oyster discriminate?
I am right, no? £1 on Oyster?
@66
Mark what’s your idea for NYE? I’d love it if your pub did something fun and chilled out.
Otherwise I’ll be trekking to the banks of the River Thames to watch the fireworks and then not be able to get home til Jan 2nd!
There’s no need for anyone to pay £2 on the bus — just get an Oyster card! They aren’t hard to get and you only have to put £5 a time on them if cash flow is an issue.
So we have another mad axeman on the loose then — is he the same one that killed someone outside McDonalds last year or a new one?
90p on Oyster I think. But occasional users and poorer people are less likely to have Oysters than, say, commuters. And thereby it discriminates. Where else would people who want to use cash to transact be discriminated against in this way? No-one seems to give a damn, but I think it’s a disgrace. Privacy is an issue too. Bah
But there’s not reason not to have an Oyster card if you are an occasional user as the money doesn’t go away!
Also if you are on income support you are now entitled to half price bus travel.
Yeah i understand about the privacy thing but seeing as my journey is only Camberwell to Aldwych and back again twice a day i’m not sure what the forces of evil will do with that!! On the plus side that manged to catch a bloke who mugged me this year cos he used my oyster card to get the bus afterwards and they identified him on CCTV — so a good thing all in all.
Although overwhelmingly convenient once you get into it, Oyster is another aspect of the transactional charges which keep the poor poor, and below the organisational poverty line.
Like the bank charges which dwarf the tax credits in low income households in Brown’s Britain.
The Oyster monitors citizen whereabouts, so could easily collect information on which areas have most cash fares.
From this, TfL could build a map to implement programmes to return this money to the local community, through better local planning, design or policing.
Hannah, the McDonalds axeman was arrested and convicted, I seem to remember, although I think he may have ended up in a secure hospital rather than prison.
I’m also shocked that the police investigated your mugging to such an extent. I thought they didn’t bother with muggings and burglaries anymore.
You can always have an anonymous non-registered Oyster, as I do. Of course, it means that if I lose it I can’t reclaim the credit, but it’s my personal blow against the Big Brother, CCTV state etc etc, blah blah.
Having said that, it’s all largely irrelevant given that I can be tracked more or less 24 hours a day via my mobile. Payphones don’t really offer a viable substitute.
Quite right too PeteW — I can’t imagine anyone i’d feel less comfortable having vast amounts of personal info than the filthy thieves at TFL.
Speaking of thieves, I’m glad to hear your mugger was caught Hannah. I hope the forces of justice cut his right hand off?
mishmash
NYE:
The Sun and Doves is doing something like this:
8pm to 3am
DJ’s, widescreen art film projection and funky lighting.
Goody Bag each for the 50 people who arrive before 9pm (includes limited edition commemorative signed screen print by Tony Lee, worth £85).
Complimentary glass of bubbly for everyone at midnight.
Hog roast in the garden (got to pay for that)
Two heated covered areas with armchairs, sofas & blankets, ideal for smoking / getting fresh evening air
The friendliest down to earth good fun ambience anywhere in south London — verifiable over more than a decade of customer experience.
Prize for the best dressed couple
Free entry.
What do you think?
Sounds good. Hog!
I have bought an axe, in Croydon. It has a bright yellow plastic shaft, which is rather gay. The recent cleaver artist had a cleaver, not an axe.
Hannah, that was so good the bugger was caught with the Oyster, great thing to hear.
Stuck record, Johhny. Another corker! No, you said broken record, you mean stuck record. Forgive me.
Hannah — “I am in two minds about the bendy buses” — they are in two sections, like some ‘orrible insect. It is good, your humour! It always cheers me!
Even on the lower deck of a Routemaster you could see more. The road trains, as someone called them here, are not quite suited to London, which is a double-decker sort of place, with narrows streets. Johnny what did you say, “Nostalgic bus rubbish.” Another cracker! You are a punk lyricist, surely. “Hippie bus rubbish.” “Posh shit shite.” You wouldn’t get such quality vitriol on an affected, effete East Dulwich site.
Was in Myatt’s Fields today with our giant baby — the swings are all piled in a heap. Men have dug the tarmac up. The sandpit with the finest sand in the world has gone. This is all part of the £3m refit of the park. This playground will have a world theme, presumably so that kids will know that they’re in Camberwell — the old swings, paddling pool and sandpit were simple and great, all the world that children need, apart from each other.
Nostalgic park rubbish. Blah blah blah.
Johnny — the police certainly do bother about muggers — i had my bag snatched at about 4am and 20 mins later two coppers turned up and spent the next hour interviewing me and my flatmate and i was assigned my own detective constable. Luckily all he got away with was my Oyster card, a mobile phone i was about to replace the next day, a bit of make up and a purse of some sentimental value.
It must have been really easy to catch him then, Hannah! A man, made up to the nines, on a (very out of date) phone and travelling around on bus/underground/tram with an Oyster Card.
Hang on there — I retract that!
Dulwich Hamlet v Eastbourne Town on Tuesday 4th Dec at 7.45PM.
Support your local team and have some rather fine drinks at a reasonable price in their homely,impressive bar overlooking the pitch…if it gets too cold or wet for you! — They have some very young players who need some encouragement and vocal support
Come on! — you know you all want to…
Genious! This will be a good game — they are good at this level, much better than people think.
Come on, you Hamlet. To beat or not to beat, that is the question. I am very tempted to come along, with my vociferous thighs and ever more frayed denim miniskirt.
Anything with a Danish connection is right up my street.
I had a strange day, today, I went to Canary Wharf for the first time in a long time. It ‘s like the world’s biggest school, with everyone shut in from morning till home time.
I pedalled out of the vast compound back towards Tower Bridge and saw a black-as-you-like mum with her daughter, who was maybe 7, in full school uniform. “Thank God,” I thought, “humans!” It’s like Heart of Darkness, but opposite, Canary Wharf.
On the way I was told off, here in Camberwell, for pedalling through a red light, by an uptight white mum, even though she went through a pedestrian one too with her kid. I know the lights there — you have to wait hours, I knew what I was doing.
Then tonight I was barged into by a member of a big gang of black youth heading for the main drag, the sort of thing he’d never do in a million years on his own
Balls to them both. Up the Hamlet! That is where the life is.
Passive aggression will kill you. All that anger turned inward or disguised as humour. Swipe away Daggie. It may be your (or should I type you\‘re to give you more ammo?) downfall.
…and relax…
That’s another thing. The swipe card they gimme, in the big company building that stole the sky, didn’t work, leaving me looking like a dubius interloper.
I went on the beach and ruminated. The sand is exceptionally good. There at low tide I found a plastic baby which I stuffed in my backpack and brought home.
I can’t bear seeing plastic babies lost on the beach. We are trying to name the baby in the Dagmar household and find it some decent clothes. Call me bitter unt tvisted, but that plastic baby will run a big company one day, with the right nurture now, despite the slings and arrers of outrageous fortune.
C’mon, you Hamlet!
The front runner name for the plastic baby was Mohammed, obviously, but the plastic baby is a girl. Favourite at the moment is Moses. Suggestions for a name for a plastic baby rescued from the beach in the shadow of Canary Wharf gratefully received.
steve bell drew a yuppie family in the eighties with three children called market, choice and lifestyle; appropriate given the child’s provenance.
The plastic baby be called Mary? The type which, when grown up would be worthy of display in one of the many Lourdes supermarkets.
Cabot, Frobisher, Franklin…
Johnny M — I’m intrigued — you appear to to direct a lot of your postings towards Dagmar, as if she represents Camberwell OnLine. You’ve even started picking up a dictionary to make sure that you can correctly mis-spell a word. This is very strange.
No Mushy, just the opposite. While back I spoke the truth about dear Dag (she? ummmm) but s/he doesn’t reply to people. Instead s/he bullies them via their ‘amazing prose that must moves me’ (i.e. I don’t undertstand it but it’s perfectly written and hints at love for the poor souls over big business so it must be genius..er genious)
I see you are joining his/her brigade by following bully rule on the internet no. 6: when you can’t argue facts, criticise spelling.
Be fair, Johhny, it’s the women’s mag cliches like “passive aggression” that are grubby, not the dodgy punctuation or spelling which everyone does from time to time or the spellcheck improvements makes us say something less.
Did you get that joke? That’s a spellcheck joke. Sense of humour required to live in Camberwell, in fact it’s quite handy anywhere, otherwise you start to fall apart.
What name should I call our plastic baby, John?
Come along, let’s “move on”, bickering here is “unacceptable”. Johhny — be good.
I think my sense of humour, as well as my children and their sense of humour too, is the only thing that keep me together here. And there are days (like today) when I feel like I’m falling apart.
Whenever it rains heavily I am stricken by fear of flooding at S&D — as this morning — and with justification too — the call came at 11.45 ‘there’s been a flood, what do we do?’ fortunately this flood was not so bad as to interrupt business — we’ve been shut for a day three times in the past two years as a result of inundation. This is a matter that can only be sorted out by a structural change to the building — New bigger diameter downpipe which Scottish & Newcastle, the Freeholder, has been telling me for a decade, is not structural, is a maintenance issue and my responsibility to sort out.
That’s a real downer.
It never rains but it pours
In more exciting news, the girlfriend and I dined at the Dark Horse on Tuesday to take advantage of their early bird menus (available til 10.00pm Monday and Tuesday) and what a feast it was! The starters were great but the real treat was the pork belly main course. An enormous slab of pork belly sitting atop a tomoatoey sauce that contained not only chorizo but lardons AND black pudding! A truly scrumptious meaty feast! And keenly priced too!
Nice one!
Anyone know what’s happening to the Jack Beard’s on Coldharbour Lane? It says closed for refurbishment so I’m hoping it goes the way of the Bear. Currently I think it’s pretty much the only pub in Camberwell we haven’t tried…
Is that the Plough? The Plough is absolutely ok.
Glad to hear good things about the DH.
I was in the Buckle last night after pints in the Phoenix and the Hermit’s Cave.
Popped into the Monkey too but didn’t stay.
Camberwell seems fairly busy recently. Must be seasonality..
The sight impaired guy did two songs on the karaoke last night. Whenever he finds himself just a bit too blind to read the lyrics he just shouts woo hoo. Highly recommend the show.
I drove back to London this afternoon from Tower Bridge. If, in the unlikely event of me breaking the speed limit, I had been stopped by the Police and had told them that it had been “unintentional” do you think they would have said: “that’s alright, sonny, just don’t do it again”? But that’s exactly the defence being offered by Harriet Harman and Wendy Alexander. And it won’t wash.
Harman’s campaign treasurer, Baroness Gale says he was told by the Registrar of Members’ Interests that she didn’t need to register Harman’s mortgage extension. She was “therefore under the impression” that she did not need to register it with the Electoral Commission either. To the outsider that may seem a reasonable assumption, but it simply is not.
The reason Wendy Alexander clings to office is because if she quits, Harman will have to go too. Both have undoubtedly broken electoral law. Their end is merely delayed. Meanwhile, the eletorate will enjoy the spectable of their political careers deservedly swinging in the wind.
I am writing to complain of the way some people in Camberwell throw away their hospital crutches when they have finished with them instead of gratefully taking them back to King’s. If they do not need the crutches any more they can patently walk and hence therefore can take the crutches back with a thank you to the keyworkers. I saw yet another pair of NHS crutches stuffed into a wheelie bin today — it is a disgraceful spectable.
Margret — are you more angry about the Abrahams situations than at the £26,000,000,000 loan by taxpayers to the ‘Rock to bail out the shareholders and keep the housing bubble nurtured by Brown artificially pressurised, which would burst in a normal market atmosphere in a nanosecond?
Than at a sixth terminal at the ‘throw, rampantly rising rail prices, starvation of rail network infrastructure and a massive subsidy for the most gargantuan road-building programme for a generation, taken directly from honest taxpayers’ income tax as motorist tax can cover only the merest fraction of it?
Or the guaranteed risk-free profits of PFI profits, locking us into future tax rises even higher than now, as private companies borrow less efficiently than government could have, and furthermore spread much unmerited gravy?
Just curious. How do you find the 20mph Tower Bridge? Traffic flows smooth ‘n’ calm there. A true driving pleasure.
Dags I was coming on to complain about the gang violence on Old Kent Road and stabbings etc. But then I read the Margret was DRIVING a CAR. Now that is criminal! Far worse! Not only that, you driving probably CAUSED the gangs to stab. How dare you.
*Yawn*
I am not arsed about Harriet Harman. We need to get back to the sort of middle class chatter that drives up house prices.
Have you seen that Sainsbury’s are going for Abel and Cole’s jugular. You can get bags of assorted British seasonal vegetables. They are cheaper than A&C’s con boxes, more diverse in choice and you can get them as and when you need.
Death knoll for the pioneers of enviroveg..
Excellent pun, Alan; a grassy knell was probably the sound of foreboding for the occupants of that comparatively small veggy patch controlled by A&C. But I think they can adapt.
Agreed — the Abrahams situation is far less relevant than PFI subsidies, relative roadbuilding and railway track investment budgets, the sixth terminal and the Northern Rock debacle.
JohnnyM Said:
Dags I was coming on to complain about the gang violence on Old Kent Road and stabbings etc. But then I read the Margret was DRIVING a CAR. Now that is criminal! Far worse! Not only that, you driving probably CAUSED the gangs to stab. How dare you.
Do you know you’re an idiot?
Someone should tell him.
What is good is Mark Wallinger winning the Turner Prize which in turn should contribute to an upturn in property prices here — Chigwell, Chelsea, Goldsmiths, Camberwell is his journey, as they say. He bought a race horse, in a syndicate, which they called “A Real Work of Art”. A 1994 piece had a caption which definitively defined his Camberwell credentials:
Mark Wallinger
31
Hayes Court
Camberwell New Road
Camberwell
London
England
Great Britain
The World
The Solar System
The Galaxy
The Universe
Congratulations Mark! The Stuckists may be stuck, but we Camberwell situationists salute you!
Does anyone know of a friendly pub with a pool table and a juke box anywhere nearby?
The Joiners Arms has a pool table and jukebox.
It’s reasonably friendly I suppose..
Thanks Dagmar — I had no idea he was one of ours.
@96 The Plough / Jack Beards — has been taken on by Nice and Spice’, I think they’re called, the West Indian food place further along Coldharbour Lane on the corner of Valmar Road.
Mark Wallinger once was a regular.
Now it’s Mark McGowan. And he’s not that frequent.
Congratulations to Mr McGowan, a true testament to the creative forces of NEW Camberwell which could be unleashed with the appropriate costless local authority policies.
Wallinger, that is.
we could set up a grim protest camp on the green and get a guy with badges on his hat to shout at passing councillors?
Councillors wouldn’t necessarily notice anything different about a rough-looking guy on the Green shouting at passers-by.
I wish I had picked Edwardes to spend my £100 shopping voucher on. I need a new rain jacket.
Further to my earlier off-topic post, people might be interested to know that last night we voted to form the Brunswick Park Neighbourhood T & R A.
Hopefully, our new chair, Jason, will post something on the SE5 Forum about contact details etc.
It was truly amazing to see so many people turn up to the meeting last night. Not only the handful of people who had been involved to date in preparing for it and planning last night’s meeting but we also had at least 30 people who either heard about it by word of mouth, saw our posters or received a flyer about it.
People from various ethnic groups, and of different ages and backgrounds.
The spirit of Camberwell lives on. I’m now going to hug my cat.
Does anyone know what is going on in Camberwell on New Year’s Eve?
Mark — you mentioned something about the Sun and Doves..?
Hugging the cat, marvellous. The whole Brunswick area of Camberwell has Cranford fever. A typical scene in Cranfordwell:
FIRST MAN: Wassup, man, watcha been doin’?
SECOND MAN: Just huggin’ the cat, man, just huggin’ the cat.
FIRST MAN: Cool.
SECOND MAN: … so hot.
Old Caroline of Brunswick enjoyed huggin’ the cat, in fact she nearly brought the government down with it. Maybe that’s why Brunswick area is so happenin’ — hats off to the citizens there!
@dagmar, indeed
Whilst on the subject of christmas and chilling out with cats, are we going to have a christmas drinks gathering of us Camberwell Bloggers one evening soon??
It would be nice to meet you all (or to see you again in some cases).
Perhaps in the Hermits Cave beside their fire, or perhaps in the S & D??
XMAS SHOPPING STOP PRESS: the main Somerfield is selling a Spanish wine with a screwcap called Castillo de Liria at 12.5% for £2.50. It is excellent, the red made from Shiraz and Bobal grapes — I have never heard of the Bobal. There is a white, too.
The heavy 14% wines are no good for us at this dark time of the year when we’re not getting enough vitamin D. This young Spanish wine, though, is just the thing.
The Butterfly Walk charity shop is stacked with excellent books for Xmas presents. I bought a copy today of Dorling Kindersley’s ISLAM by Paul Lunde for 4 quid. Did any local donate this?
Trust old Dorling Kindersley! Soon after 9/11 they publish a damn fine book complete with maps and real photographs explaining Islam to the cowering suburbans craving for understanding.
In the recycling bins, I got a copy of THE THIRD REICH by Burleigh for nowt, though I nearly died ‘angin’ on the old barbed wire trying to get it.
It is good for the fire, being a foot thick, though as the German poet Heine said, a society that burns books will soon enough burn people. Actually, I’ll look his name up in the index first. If he’s in, the book is reprieved and I’ll put it on the kindertransport to the charity shop.
Does anybody know what was happening on Peckham Road this morning?
Talking about Xmas shopping…Clockwork Studios on Southwell Road (off Coldharbour Lane) should be selling some rather arts and crafts/design type stuff again this year…I have had no flyer yet, but last year was quite impressive if any of you want a non-mass produced piece of artisan design for the seasonal festival of even more Christ!!!
Celebrating Christ is in bountiful supply at all times of the year in Camberwell, we hardly need any extra encouragement
Its on the 15th — 16th December — I’ve just noticed!
Clockwork studios is open Fri 14 th Dec from 5–9, Sat 15 from 12–6 and same for Sunday. The address is 38 Southwell Road