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Welcome to the Camberwell Online blog, a place for free and spirited exchange on anything with even a tangential connection to the South-East London district.
Camberwell Arts Festival
Published by Drew | Filed under General
Drew writing today, standing in for Peter, wearing my “Chairman of Camberwell Arts” hat [and high-visibility gilet]
Nelson Mandela is in London this week, and I offer Madiba an apology in advance for paraphrasing the song he hears most often — Nkosi Sikelele Camberwell [May the sun shine ever bright on Camberwell]. And I say without fear of sucessful contradiction that SE5 has a fine crumbling beauty in the summer sun…
Last week, for those of you who live in our environs, was Camberwell Arts Festival week, and what a week it was. On the preceeding Thursday we had the opening preview drinks at House Cafe gallery, bringing together the board, the artists, the volunteers, the sponsors, the local partners and big-wigs, and the gentlemen of the press to drink some wine and share scurrilous rumours.
On the opening Saturday I popped along to The Bear to take in the small show It’s Your Round in the new art space on the pub’s top floor. It was loosely on the topic of drinking, and rarely for an gradute art show, was very funny, in fact I laughed more than I have in an art gallery for a while, especially the exhibit with Buzz Aldrin’s shoe grit and Posh Spice’s pregnancy test. I was collared by one of the market testing evaluators on the walk down to The Sun and Doves, who asked me a series of increasingly complex questions about the perception of the arts in Camberwell. Only later did I discover that ‘Felicity Mukherjee’ was in fact local artist Lucy Panesar in a personal face to face performance questioning the perception of the arts in Camberwell. Fortunately I avoided the pitfall of praising the festival to the heavens with the exception of self-indulgent artists, having been taken in completely.
The big opening event was Pub Crawl, set across four venues, and examining the social interactions that come to play in the traditional public house; I made it in time for the second round of Yara El Sherbini’s multicultural pub quiz, which was packed out, and just in time to see the paticipants in the first round moving on to see the Dulwaich Ukeleles. The quiz was funny and pertinent, and although i did not recall the names of the chiuckle brothers, and didn’t know that isac newton invented the catflap, i did know that pakistani actor Art Malik played characters of various nationalities, simply because he is asian. Unfortunately this over-ran a little, so I turned up at The Castle just in time to see the Dulwich Ukes leave the stage in a packed and hipped up bar crowd.
Mrs Mishmash and The Wee Guy went to ‘Paint the Town Green’ on Sunday afternoon, and had a whale of a time, or should i say a dinosaur of a time, printing a self made stencil of a stegosaurus on a t-shirt, and then made an heirloom cast of his beautiful fingers. You just can’t beat sending kids home with something they’ve designed and made themselves. This event was sponsored by Cowling and Wilcox — if you haven’t been in there yet, you’re missing out.
I’ve been lobbying hard since I took over as Chairman to get more classical music in performance during the festival week; and on Thursday i went to the Music for the Mind concert in the Institute of Psychiatry. We heard some exciting contemporary compositions and a delightful Mozart piano quartet, and scoffed a delightful sandwich buffet; I counted easily fifty people there, all gently soothed and restored by Kate Halsall’s wonderful playing.
On Friday night I went to the Hermits Cave to join in CalumKerr’s Stone Cold Sober. This was conceptual situationism at its maddest; hardenened drinkers were asked to take a pledge, and this pledge was revealed to be a randomly chosen drinker’s aphorism [mine was Brendan Behan] and to invoke their name whenever we needed permission for another drink. All in the best possible taste.
So that was my Festival, and I have to say I enjoyed it immensely, more than I have in past years, and not only becasue I’m on the board. The one person above all others I would single out for thanks is the superb Director, Kelly O’Reilly, who seemed to attend everything in the whole programme; it is no exageration to say the Festival this year is largely down to her hard work. If you see her, buy her a well earned drink.
I’d love to hear from any of you who attended other events e.g. Perunika, Chutney 11, the Walks, Open Studios, In at the Deep End, films, and also anyone who has any suggestions for inprovements for next year, this being one of the obvious places to do so.
My apologies, Drew; I didn’t see this was waiting for me to publish. Many thanks for the post!
Anyone else want a go?
I went to the Arts College open day, mainly to check out some of the juicy young things I sometimes lech over in the Hermit. It was a nice few hours. Some real garbage on show, but some of the illustration / animation was impressive. Enjoyable.
I see SE London is in the national news headlines again today. Sigh.….
Drew. We didn’t get out as much this year but can I just say well done and thank you for what can be a thankless job. I believe the arts scene is a real bright spot ’round here and the increasing profile of the Festival is encouraging. Thank you.
On top of the New Cross story, this one:
Dee Willis, 28, was attacked outside a Lidl supermarket on Bellenden Road, just off Peckham High Street, south-east London, at about 11pm last night.
Nice post Drew. Makes a change from hearing about Peter’s hair cuts and lazy weekends
Note to SE5 dog lovers — please discourage your pooch from shitting right in the middle of pavements and at bus stops. That is all.
I’d second that one!!
On another note i see Boris has launched the competition to redesign the routemaster for 21st century use. Anyone fancy giving it a go? The prize is £25,000
I would say you would need to make them larger with space for more luggage and a place for wheechairs and pushchairs. Maybe the back could be a hydralic platform to allow disabled passengers to come aboard.
99p store in Butterfly Walk 100 poop bags. It is not about discouraging the dog it is about picking it up where ever it does it.
Routemaster design maybe it could be 2 single deckers joined in the middle with an accordion that plays a tune very time it goes round a corner. Or has that been done already.
On the spot £100 fine for dog fouling.
3 strikes then kill the dog.
Save the benders and redesign the roads.
Every other European city has them. Well loads do at least.
They are really buggy friendly.
As for the fare evaders then I have never seen anyone dodge their fare on a Camberwell bound bender who didn’t look like they needed to.
I reckon they should do a double-decker bendy bus that looks like a routemaster and you get on at the back.
Sadly have read more about the Arts Festival since it finished; needs more local publicity — outside the usual arty places — stuff through letter boxes then it might attract more locals (or isn’t that an objective? judging by some of the comments on the blog perhaps the Arts Festival is too inclusive).
Much as I loved the Routemaster I can’t see it returning, nor do I have much confidence in Johnson doing much about public transport in inner London, already the cross Thames tram looks on its way out. Bendy buses, especially the 436, are a boon for fare dodgers, TfL flood other routes, e.g. the 29 and the 73 with ticket inspectors but rarely the 436. On the one occasion I’ve seen them board a 436, about a third of the passengers quickly got off the bus. They caught one guy — on crutches — who refused to pay and two young Polish men who said that they’d been told bendy buses were free as the travelling conditions were so much more inferior than other buses.
Bendy buses should be free and should run between poor areas and central London.
Wait a minute.…
Alan Dale £100 on the spot fine 3 strikes then kill the owner not the dog.
Who looks after the dog?
If the owner does the shit then maybe.
Whoever or whatever is shitting in our streets needs to be destroyed or at least permanently removed.
Arts festival I agree I found out more on this blog about what had happened rather than what was on, the website for the arts festival was rubbish! a calender of events would have been better. And definitely a leaflet would have been good. I did go to open studios because one was on my street and the other was an exhibition by a friend.
I’d bring back dog licenses and compulsary lessons in animal care for all owners.
Let’s put in a entry from Camberwell for the bus competition and share the winnings on a bumper night out in Camberwell!!
Looking at the specifications all you would need to do is take a regular London Bus and create a boarding platform at the back.
I don’t see how you can better eyechild’s suggestion of a “double-decker bendy”.
Image those suckers ploughing through Camberwell junction loaded up with free-riding poor people.
Butterball, well done for provoking an outburst of concern for quality of public space locally, although dog shit is by no means the most offensive thing to be found on pavements in these parts…
Went passed the Cambria last night and it is definitely closed as the windows have had a lick of white paint
. Anyone know what’s happening? And where am I gonna watch the footy now?
Officially no pubs in LJ now, not ones that are open anyway.
Reg when did you last compare your objectives as an online participant to your results?
As long as your objective is to annoy people and get cyclists, shop owners and tory voters a bad name then you’re doing great. I worry that you may not be aiming for that though.
My own objective is to increase house prices in SE5 relative to the rest of the UK.
The rest of the country is in turmoil but here there are two bed houses for sale for nearly £1m.
Perhaps I should give you some coaching?
joedamage @21
re: The Cambria
It’s having a refit as new owners have bought the place and all the people who were renting upstairs have moved out, perhaps they will re-develop the upstairs as private flats? Or perhaps, shock,horror even live there?
Apparently the rumour was that they wanted to turn it into a family/gastropub minus the live football
I think that would be a disastrous business decision — but the previous owners have told them so and no doubt all the locals will too when they re-open — there’s never been any trouble because of the football there, it’s a nice down to earth place
As you say it’s the only pub left in the Loughborough Junction area — but I have a feeling they will bow to public pressure and keep the footie especially when they take a look at the profit margins
I saw lots of old anaglypta wallpaper being scrapped off the ceiling the other day — I hope that they leave the wood pannelling well alone though…maybe remove the cream paint and re-varnish it
If they are not vulgarians, that is
SAFA food review.
Hopes were high for this place as it is one of few presentable places in Camberwell that don’t double as a pub and also look smart.
Nice service, good decor, poor food. Starters were tiny and overpriced. OUr fish stick things were forgettable and thin on flesh. The rice was good, but so what. Curries all seemed to come from the same tomato soup-like base. We got one dish where the meatballs were raw and sent it back. Quite a relief actually as we then ordered something totally different which broke the tomato soup monotony. This was a jalfrezi and was OK, but not a patch on an average takeaway.
So, nice place, rubbish food. Won’t be going back. So many good Indians about, why bother with this?
Now Chatkhara at Elephant — that is AWESOME.
popped into eroma today.
Must say, the sandwiches look really good. It’s about time Camberwell had a decent fresh sandwich bar — and now we have two (including caravaggio, I mean.)
I agree with the new bus designs. Simply slice off the back of the bendy buses and put underground like barriers on them, so that people HAVE to swipe in or out.
And make it exit only at the front and middle, entrance only via the back.
and that last comment wasn’t meant to be a gay one
eusebiovic@23
Damn, I used to watch footy at the Grove and enjoyed eating nice pizzas there, then that turned into a gastro pub and I haven’t been back since. I always quite liked the food at the Cambria too, not brilliant but decent pub food.
At least it looks like it will remain a pub.
and alan@24
Want to buy a 2 bed flat in Camberwell for £600k? Relatively speaking it’s a bargain I’m sure you’ll a agree. Especially if prices in Camberwell continue to rise, which, of course, they will. Roll up, roll up.
That new pub on Coldharbour Lane, the Amaryllis(?), shows football, I believe. Not sure how long it will be open, though. Otherwise, you’re down to The George Canning (no volume, though), The Hermit’s Cave (minimum spend for big matches), or The Cadeleigh Arms — my local, and still the best in the area for football.
Re: New Routemasters; the potential timesaving of the jump on/off platform at the rear will be negated by the wait required to pass through the metal detectors.
The old Routemasters are a design classic, sure — that is, unless you have children / shopping / impaired mobility / any requirement for a reasonable amount of space. They’re too small and poky for modern London. Bendy buses are a better solution, they just need to be managed better.
Drew: re: publicity for Arts Festival. We got loads of info. It was in Southwark Life and on your website and several others. Time Out even had it. And lots of leaflets in local places. Of course you can always do more but it is common for people to say they didn’t hear anything even if they did and just ignored it. Folks — it happens every year and these volunteers work hard so do a little quick research and you’ll find out about it.
@22 Alan good to have you back. That made me laugh. A little coaching might help.
Newroad I did look at the Camberwell Arts Festival website and I thought it was difficult to get an overview or understanding of what was going on.
And some of us live in Lambeth not Southwark so don’t get Southwark Life.
I am sure that great events happened I however only found out about them after they had happened. I went to a lot more events the year before because the information about what was on where was much better.
Alan, how’s your house price campaign coming along? Seems to have hit a speed bump, no?
It is true, though, that this area is undervalued relative to other parts of London. And it’s a great place to live.
Got to agree with Gnomee — the Arts Festival website would really have benefitted from having an overall calendar of events.
Denmark Studios’ Open Studio during the Arts Festival had interesting photographic scenes of people in Rye Lane, crafted from rubbish, to be found at http://www.nickcobb.co.uk
If anyone has not yet got their art fill, check out the summer MA show at the art college. There is some really impressive stuff on display.
No speed bump DMAN.
A national correction is exactly what’s needed to redress the imbalance between Camberwell values and elsewhere. Remember it’s relative increases I’m looking for. A small decrease here outweighed by huge decreases elsewhere is a net gain for me. Not that I actually believe there will be any drop locally. Solid gold in the hills and valleys of SE5.
I’ll soon be able to trade my two bedroom ‘cottage in the village’ for a farm, a cottage and probably a real village in Lincolnshire. I can then organise tours to see the seals at Donna Nook and rent out huts to countryside shy cockerneys like my daughters.
Of course I’m not going to do that until the SE5 Forum have solved all of Camberwell’s ‘problems’ and driven out the car owners, supermarket shoppers and yam pushers.
As for the 600k 2 bedder joedamage then I recommend you speak to Wooster&Stock. Alan Dale’s Agent of the Year, 2005, 2006 and 2007.
Alan@22 — I would not rule out some coaching from you. Although, as I do recall advising you last year to invest in Scotland where prices have risen steadily in actual not just real terms, perhaps it could be a two-way coaching session.
I have a few objectives — one, raising cyclist safety and issues of quality of public space I have done successfully. I am not concerned with any temporary backlash based on pre-existing mythologies of lycra-clad cyclist do-gooders, as these would self-perpetuate in any case, well-watered by the motoring lobby. At least issues such as pavement parking and local shopping infrastructure are now thought, and talked about, often for the first time, including at Executive local government level.
Splendid post Alan. There’s an old cockney saying, “Yams in rows like puppies, ghastly deterrent to yuppies.” Let’s hope the St George building work is completed, the place is filled with the well paid and that as King John said, “By George, it’ll all come out in the Wash.”
The MA show is in the Wilson Road annex till Tuesday so anoraks on the rain tomorrow, eh, and let’s mingle, frown, pout and stroke our beards.
I remember your advice about Scotland. Very good. Proof that it’s often easier to advise others than it is to adress your own issues. That’s why there are so many parasites making a living as ‘life coaches’.
I agree that you have raised these issues on people’s agendas. I personally am an advocate of many of your parking and speed limit policies, and feel I have learnt a lot from your posts although I now find them a little wearing. I also fear that at times you create a situation where people would not support campaigns they agree with because they find you so irritating. Perhaps some sort of soft skills course could help.
yawn — can we just have ONE blog thread, just one, where there is no mention of property prices, poor transport or rising crime ????/
Has anyone been to the new bagel shop where (I think) the Cyprus Bank used to be? I walked past on Saturday and it looks interesting
Could bagels be made with yam flour? I think they could.
What would you like to talk about sg? Or are we supposed to guess?
By the way crime, like property prices, is falling.
I got the bus to Waterloo this afternoon and later I got the bus home again.
Takeaway from Buddha Jazz tonight. Ever tried the ribs sg? Want to talk about that? To be honest I’m at a loss.
Why are we here? How should we live? How much for a two bed-room cottage with a garage and off-street parking?
Re: new bagel shop. Is it my imagination, or was a bookies scheduled to open there? Anyone know if they had their license declined, or if I dreamt the whole thing?
An application for change of use to betting shop was put in but it was rejected.
Bookies, offies, yams shops, fat-food takeaways, plunging property prices, poor transport, rising crime, crime caked cornflakes, cornflaked toilets, cream-caked toy corncrake… Now Gordon Brown tells us to eat less. That is a charismatic leader thing to say!
@ 44
What did you think of Buddha Jazz, Alan? I had dinner there the other night and thought it had gone down a little bit. The Singapore noodles are still great, though.
Had the Sunday Roast in the Grove yesterday and it was surprisingly good, as were the starters we had.
I’ve never tried Buddha Jazz but Sing noodles is a dish that I use to benchmark places. If they get it right then it’s ace, but it can go greasy and nasty v easily.
Will try Buddha.
He said waste less. Not eat less. He really just can’t get his message out can he?!
Assuming we agree that the overconsumption has to be tempered then should we be taxed on what we buy or what we waste?
Brilliant Norman. Ribs were cracking. And I cannot tire of fresh rolls and their associated dipping sauce.
Paused pre collection in the Canning. Lovely pub. It’s so ace in Camberwell that sometimes I forget to breathe.
Must give Buddha Jazz a go.
Anyone know what the pub above Denmark Hill station is like these days?? I used to enjoy the frulli there.
The Phoenix. Pretty good. Particularly nice to have pint on the steps at sunset on a warm day.
My mum likes Frulli.
Fox On The Hill was great until it became a Wetherspoon…
I won’t go in there on principle — not so much for anti-capitalist reasons
It’s more a case of them being just plain shite — that what offends me more than anything…
I hope they do a decent refurb job on my local — The Cambria
Keep the live footie, that’s what I say
See Alan, everyone likes talking about ribs and Buddha.
I’m sure Gordon will be thinking of us all — when he’s tucking into his Scottish Game Banquet at Christmas this year…In the only Conservative seat in the whole of Scotland
He’ll be toasting us all when he’s drinking the finest single malt and smoking the smoothest of cuban contraband cigars rolled on the silkiest of female thighs
I’m certain of that…
So — now Ray Lewis, the Mayor’s deputy for youth affairs is not going to face an investigation because it would be “an inappropriate way to spend public funds”. At this rate, his replacement is likely to be Walter Mitty. Two advisors gone in so many months! Now, there’s a track record, Boris!
… and speaking of inappropriate ways of spending public funds: Porsche are to receive £400,000 of London taxpayers’ money.
Next Saturday is Comber Grove Summer Fair No dodgy funds gathering there!
The Jonathan Swift spin on things, Alan, when a politician says waste less food, is to illogic that to say he means eat less. Swift’s “Modest Proposal” was that the Irish should eat their children, if they were so hungry, and since they had so many children. Food wastage is as much a matter of transport and storage as proligacy — the more sophisticated the methods of bulk transport and chilling, the greater the variety and availability of foodstuffs at a lower price. government from on high will argue that the only real way to stop wastage is to stop eating. Many a time in the pub pissoir has one fellow turned to another to wheedle in a tiny voice and as though the jest was being heard for the first time ever in the history of pubkind, “It’s all money darn the drain, innit?”
Rising food prices will see more people clutching at the underside of eating economics, rather than surfing the surplus. That’s what happened in the 1950s, it was simple, you were always a bit hungry.
Gordon Brown is praised by many for the detailed way he handled the national purse strings and is now criticised for fiddling with the minutiae of national governance. It’s the world economy around him, stupid, the stupid world economy which is perched on insane discrepancies, that ironically will do for Gordon Brown and hit this trade-based country relatively hard.
The Kentish Drovers in Peckham near the library is a Wetherspoons where one may sated for a tenner in the kind of pub atmosphere that is disappearing along with its tobacco-stained denizens and their enormous tax gift to the nation.
@58 — disgusting behaviour from Porsche. They’ve ridden Ken’s gas-guzzler policy largely for publicity benefit and received the kind of Top Gear commercial goodwill that ad space can’t buy. Having got the policy they want they should not have punished Londoners for their place in the electoral cycle. Boycott Porsche (I guess that just means the sunglasses and key rings for most of us).
I would have expected Mayor Johnson to negotiate a better settlement, failing which he could have let the case ride, and Porsche would have lost because it is up to the Mayor to decide policy. There’s no human right to go 0–60 in town in 3.5 seconds at cost.
Yams are high in oestrogen, which complements the local water supply very well.
No sign of the majority of bloggers, grumpy men, turning into ladies yet! Why should 4 x 4s have been penalised? That was a political style thing, which would have been unfair to a vast array of owners. The black Hummer often seen near Rye Lane — “What ees eet?” “Eet’s a Hummer!”- was parked in Walworth the other day. The 4 x 4s sure are daft — they were a sort of post 9/11 panic buy, spurred on by the popularity of the new generation of Toyota pick-ups driven by the Taliban — biggest automotive TV advert ever.
Kentish Drovers – a prime example of the genre.
I’ll wimp out, though… my preferred pubs in Peckham are Bar Story (younger hipster crowd) and The Gowlett (30-something hipster crowd).
That bar above Denmark Hill station. That’s where my local, local friends used to go and served booze aged 15.
It’s been re-tooled a few times since, with ambitions (delusions?) of going up-market. It’s kind of worked.
Alan Dale’s got it right – it’s best to get a beer and catch a few evening sun rays on the steps.
Back to politics & house prices… the best way to get a re-rating of house prices around here is surely to help the poorest and most disadvantaged through investment in community projects and public spaces of all kinds.
Relative gain is certainly achievable for property (part) owners in and around Camberwell.
Reg, I’m generally against increasing housing density. The place is crowded enough as it is. So for that reason, Dulwich residents did the right thing.
If history tells us anything, the last thing we need is government planning, aided by bent developers, of more housing estates in Southwark.
4x4s on the walworth road, WTF?!
D-MAN@65 re Dulwich residents — sure they did, and as a result they have a healthy quotient of amenities to residents.
But we didn’t. And it was a good time for Camberwell representatives to protest at the Dulwich double-standard. The result is that, because each Council must build a certain number of homes per year, they will get built in areas already largely overcrowded and amenity-poor if considered in terms of existing residential density, such as Camberwell.
My solution would be to immediately bar any developments containing car parking spaces, to block all conversions away from retail and leisure uses, and to compulsorily purchase shops converted to flats in order to let them at true market rates to independent traders. And, of course, dedicated free short stay parking on-street, which is what has helped Herne Hill a lot.
Speaking of Dulwich, did anyone see the story about English Heritage’s newly-updated list of listed buildings at risk? SE22 has a few, as we also do here in SE5.
The English Heritage website has a searchable database — Southwark brings up about 35 at-risk places. In SE5 they include the scaffolding-covered tower on Wells Way (“Chimney attached to former public baths and wash house built 1902 by Maurice Adams… Condition: very bad”) and the Georgian house on the corner of Addington Square — which, last time I looked, was being refurbished.
But the one I was most intrigued at is over the SE22 border, a crumbling, neo-Gothic near-mansion at 549 Lordship Lane. I’ve never seen it but will have to take a look:
“House built in 1873 by Charles Drake of the Patent Concrete Building Company. Mass concrete walls, rendered, with artificial stone dressings and slate roof with crestings. Serious structural problems. New build works on the site have breached planning permission and local authority has issued Compulsory Purchase Order and a Dangerous Structures Notice. Public Inquiry pending.”
Apparently it is believed to be England’s only surviving example of a 19th century concrete-built house.
Any local eccentric millionaires with a taste for heritage out there?
It’s our Harriet minding the shop at Prime Minister’s Questions again today. I missed this, but apparently after her last (sort of) storming performance against William Hague, SE5’s (well, SE24’s) finest has been talked of as a possible replacement should Brown fall on his sword/get stabbed in the back. Really? Well, it’s in today’s Sun.
Political pundit Andrew Rawnsley makes this very sage point: “You know things are bad when Harriet Harman thinks she’s got a chance.”
That crumblig gothic grange on Lordship Lane is a hell of a sight. Fantasy amounts of money would have to be spent on it to get it right, unless it is kept as it is with some ghost train mechanical bats installed and owl hootings broadcast at night. Interesting, PeteW. That gothic parliament on the other side of the river ditto.
‘Twas crumblig and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe…
And the mome raths outgrabe. Didn’t they?
But I think that was in Brixton, Not here.
Will this recognition by the Tories of the harmful effects of built-in advantages be in time for Camberwell’s outerlying shopping areas, which are being eroded by the day?
Did anyone go to the South London Gallery opening night of the new show about play?
No
H Harman looks like Delia Smith. Both are quite fit, in a MILF sort of way.
However, I’d rather Delia was running the country than HH.
Sadly with HH’s majority in our ward there’s almost no point voting against the cow.
@Phil G
.……Because we all vote on the basis of how “fit in a MILF” (no idea what that means, I’m afraid) “sort of way” the candidates are. Suddenly, universal suffrage (look it up!) doesn’t seem such a great idea after all. I could look up “MILF” as well, I know, but I don’t think I’d like the answer.
It means “Mom I’d Like to Fuck”. The word comes from American porn as viewed by pungent adolescent boys. PhilG is being vulgar. Honestly, people from East Dulwich read this website, looking up to us for our organic verbiage, eclectic intellect and high-mindedness. I think Missy deserves a big hurrah and e-hug for her somewhat courageous report from the front line.
amusing bendy bus story to share -
yesterday, I caught the 436 from Victoria to the Green. As normal, it announces each stop just before you reach it.
As it approached the Green, it announced “Camberwell Green”. Fine.
Then followed a second announcement: “Please have your tickets ready for inspection at the next stop”.
I swear I haven’t seen people move so fast. As it happens, I was getting off anyway but I nearly got knocked over in the rush.
I shook my head and laughed — and then thought “damn, even more reasons not to swipe my oyster card in future”. I mean, if they’re going to give you advance notice.
Is this part of TFL’s policy to cut down on fare dodgers — simply telling them to get off so they don’t have to fine them.
Classic!
It should be free.
Let’s dance to joy division… we’re so happy!
They call me blood, they call me rude boy, they call me oy, they call me mate. That’s not my name!
I was on the top floor of a double decker last week and heard the same “Please have your tickets ready for inspection at the next stop”. announcement; my heart skipped a beat; no one else stirred; and there was no inspection. Does this mean something?
THE POLITICS SHOW midday BBC1 today Sunday 13 July. Should be interesting. I was interviewed for a piece looking at the plight of pubs in Britain (currently closing, never to reopen, at a rate of about four a day).
Methinks the Cava was out last night, Alan?
Hat tip to Mark D for pointing the way to watching the Politics Show; it was an interesting piece on the future of pubs in the UK. Worth checking out “The decline of the English pub” by Christopher Hutt, if only because it was published in 1973 and some of the issues in the early 70’s were similar to the issues of today. (If anyone’s interested I can put my copy up for sale on ebay with a hefty reserve price
So has anyone visited/ will be visiting the launch of the Camberwell Grove development http://www.camberwell-grove.co.uk/ this weekend?
Much of the Dagmar family has lurked in Camberwell Grove visitor centre like ghosts of urchins past, showing an interest and making encouraging noises to the sales execs. We had an invite to the launch weekend but could not face sharing the same room with cava-drinking tumbleweed. What a sod that the new development comes post-crunch.
Camberwell is funny. If you have the recession dread, you always see lots of people in crutches in the town centre. But there really are always lots of people on crutches in the town centre, like ghosts of crutch people past, who still seek the well.
Never mind! There was an interesting documentary on Ian Curtis and Joy Division on the box last night. Or was that last year?
Anyway, the Martin Creed artwork of people running down the main hall of Tate Britain is really good. It really is a local must-see and is free.
Once we were there and this nice lady in one of the rooms suddenly started singing beautifully, “This is propaganda, you know it is, you know it is.” That was dead cool.
Tate Britain is dead cool, so is Dodds for going on the box to support the small pubs. If there was a nuclear attack announced, what would we do? Have sex? No, we’ve be too uptight. We’d go down the pub.
Thank you Dagmar. Been sticking my neck out in private for a long time now. Thought an opportunity to go public should not be missed.
I think this may be a link to the politics show
HOW wrong that link is. Sorry. This is the link then click on “latest full programme plus London’s show” at top right for the video.
No, I’d never vote for HH no matter how fit she was. Her work at the then DCA was deplorable and thank God her own party had the sense to water down her bats “equality bill”. Just what the country needs right now. Still, I’m sure you love her Mushti. Turkeys don’t vote for Christmas and all that.
SG — great bendy bus story.
Those new bus announcements — I see the point of them, almost, but they’re just so loud!
@SG (79): Did they inspect tickets at the next stop, or was it a bluff?
hi Pete — I don’t know as I was getting off anyway.
I could see a few inspectors standing at the stop on the other side of the Green though, so maybe.….… mind you, I don’t think there were many people left on the bus
@92 Phil G
OK — cards on the table — I did vote for her, yes. But I too did not like the sound of that “Equalities Bill”, because it aimed to positively discriminate in favour of women, ethnic minorities, etc in employment law and I think that would actually damage the working reputations of those very people. I don’t think there’s an easy way to equality in employment. I wouldn’t go as far as saying I love her and don’t be so hard on yourself, calling yourself a turkey!
+ URGENT + URGENT + URGENT + URGENT + Does anyone know of a washing machine engineer in the area?
Jack Billings 020 867 10813 v. good if he’s still going…
Many thanks, Merrick. Is that last 5 figure number correct?
Slightly OT — does anyone have a good and trustworthy cleaner that they can recomend? I need someone to come in about once a week for an hour or two to clean and iron. please let me know. I would rather not go through an agency.
thanks
Kia
Has anyone had experience of “1st Call Washing Machine Repairs” on the South London Press website?
Does know if “1st Call Washing Machine Repairs” on the South London Press website?
Dagmar, sorry number correct, spacing wrong!
My spacing’s been wrong for a long time. The horizontal hold — doesn’t.
@99 Kia Blue re cleaner greener: email me at mark@sunanddoves.co.uk
EROMA
Here’s a potentially interesting news item — the Co-op group has just agreed a takeover of Somerfield. It’s costing them £1.56bn, of which the Camberwell stores must have accounted for at least £150 or so.
I hope this means our local Soviet-era temples of misery will be rebranded and revamped. I’m not that up to speed on the Co-op shopping experience, but even if they’re crap at least they’ll be ethical and crap.
While I think Co-op are slightly better than Somerfield (although that’s subjective), that now means that the three supermarkets within the SE5 boundaries will all belong to the same chain. I thought capitalism was about choice?
Co-op is clean, serious, ethical and basic, always with very local staff and no cheery ASDA greeter. This post-crunch consolidation will mean Co-op will have to fend off the European multinational discounts stores Aldi, Lidl and Netto who have already invaded Poland, are looking to expand in the UK and have replaced the Co-op as the people’s choice. Or, they could go upmarket ethical and take on Waitrose. They may sell Camberwell to Waitrose, which will be a good move for Waitrose if the St George Camberwell Grove development takes off — but will it, or at least as quickly as planned for?
Morrisons may get it, though. What most people in this area will need is a cheap supermaket they can walk to, as their basic bills rise and their shopping budget is dictated by none other than Big Brother.
Peter@106 — I agree with your general point about choice, and your concept of Camberwell locality as being within walking distance for most SE5-ers. The difficulty is that planners will take the view that Sainsbury’s is “within a local drive”, thus impacting on choice for the majority of Camberwellians.
Co-op are quite good at adapting to locals’ real needs although this does not reflect fully in sales figures, as supermarket shoppers invariably buy the next best thing for want of choice.
Clearly, for real choice, local authorities need to wait for the residential property market to bottom out and then compulsorily purchase empty and converted shops to return them to their previous use let at fair market rates to local traders.
Three co-ops in SE5 does give them the opportunity to sell one. Holloway Road has a Waitrose so it’s certainly plausible.
So that’s it. You heard it here first. We are getting a Waitrose in the Butterfly Centre and and M+S food in the empty units opposite the 99p shop.
Great! Thanks St George. Thanks Dagmar!
Apparently up to 100 Somerfield stores will have to be sold for competition reasons, so I’m guessing at least one of our local ones will be hived off. My bet is a Morrisons, although I’m not sure whether the (relative) proximity of the Peckham behemoth will scupper that.
Whatever happens I’ll cheer loudly the moment the Somerfield signs come down. I’ve never had a more miserable, gloomy shopping experience, and that includes the state-run Friendship Store in Beijing.
There is no Tesco in SE5…
The Coop in Belford, Northumberland, is better stocked — wider range of goods — than the one in Camberwell New Road, SE5. They can do it — they have to know it can be done. Waitrose say the demogs don’t stack up for them locally.
Mark — what if Lambeth and Southwark offered Waitrose a one mile radius zone with only free short stay parking allowed on-street, thus guaranteeing them local custom and fulfilling the Waitrose mission of co-existing with local businesses at the same time? I guess the appetite might also be whetted by the reopening of Camberwell Rail, right next to the site. Imagine the reputational benefit redounding to Waitrose of being credited with improving local infrastructure, a fact not to be lost on their sophisticated management teams.
Residents would need to vote to approve this of course, in a CPZ consultation like no other. Wonder what the majority would say. Sounds like just the kind of cross-border project which the Forum was set up for …
I read somewhere that decent local food shops fear Waitrose above all supermarkets because they aim at the deli frequenting classes. Ocado delivers round here, so no need for a waitrose. A Tesco Metro’s what we need, to inject a little capitalistic competition.
SE5 Forum Board meeting tonite. Observers welcome! This is the last chance to shape the website upgrade before the £5k spend is approved.
116
At last! there is a god after all (or a dog at the very least)
A bunch of shiesters like Somerfield don’t deserve to remain in business…
Hopefully the Co-op will keep their store well stocked and well staffed as well as offering better value for money than the over-priced Somerfield…
I think that Waitrose in SE5 is wishful thinking — I’d love to see it happen though — maybe the Camberwell Grovers can lobby hard for it
Lidl or Aldi taking over the Somerfield next to Abbey is a more likely bet me thinks…
Perhaps we can campaign for Carla Bruni to open the new supermarket — she’s that singer who’s with Sarkozy. The Guardian reckons that Somerfield’s investors (Robert Tchenguiz, Apax, Barclays Capital and Mason from ASDA) have doubled their money in 3 years. Staff and customers were hung out to dry in that time, though. Let’s hear it for the staff at Somerfield, who’ve had to grind on all this time, for they are people, too. I will never forget you, Salome. To pass through her till was to enter an El Dorado of good-humoured wisdom.
Visited the St George’s development sales centre today on my way to Sainsburys.
There was something rather bizarre about it all — there they were, trying to sell £1 million apartments and they had the sales door locked from the inside, I guess to keep “undesirables” out.
The woman looked terrified through the glass at me — and I’m not that scary, honest! Once she realised I lived in Camberwell, she let me in and explained all about their development — stages, dates, etc.
She looked like she had stepped straight out of Foxtons on the Kings Road (if they have a branch there, which I’m sure they do).
So maybe she was just in unfamiliar territory — or have you guys all been in there shouting at her
?
M&S or Waitrose will get the Somerfield unit in East Dulwich…
You heard it here first
I heard Iceland are going for the Camberwell site.
sg, maybe there have been abusive incidents already at the St George sales centre. The lady I have met with large architectural hair is very pleasant and ideal for the job of (a) selling posh dwellings (b) in Camberwell © at the start of a world economy perfect storm.
She is a sitting duck for (1) class war folks who are confused now that there are so many peoples and castes in Camberwell (2) drink & drugs folks who have taken too much confusant and (3) aggressive aggressors.
We should all support and be friendly towards the visitor centre. They are going to be there a long time.
Iceland… reminds me of that on ad on TV where the fat lady is shifting batches of chips around her kitchen in a wheelbarrow.
Then she taps the back pocket of her jeans (humongous arse, natch) and says “ooh, look how cheap all this gak is at Iceland” *sparkly smile* “Every little helps.” *cheeky wink*
Lambeth country show tomorrow!
Omar and Aswad headlining..
Somerfield. Next time you’re in the Butterfly Centre one take a good look at the meat fridge. Bend forward and look at the back of the shelves. Last time there was a ton of blood and a dried red bit of God knows what. Honestly, it was a shocker.
Iceland. Surely advertising standards should do something about the “mums shop at Iceland” slogan. If my mum had brought me up on that trash I’d sue her.
Still, I like the way everything is a quid or 50p. Simple like. But not as good value as it seems.
My Mum brought me up on that trash. And I’m 19 st of rippling attitude as a result. Will Omar be whistling “The Farmer in the Dell”?
I went in Somerfield the other day and they didn’t have ANY garlic. Lame.
King Tubby features heavily at Lambeth Country Show which surprised me a little, but it is the UK sound system of the same name. Aswad are the last act on Sunday at 6.20.
Shine! shine like a star, shining so bright like the star that you are.…..
is that Aswad?
kING tUBBY. dO YOU KNOW THE hEPTONES AND THE cONGOS?
lol@Dagmar 120
“large architectural hair” — I know exactly which lady you mean, lol.
A sign of things to come, perhaps? Could we be in for the delights of big hair and terrified faces coming to a street near us soon??
the eyechild @127
Garlic — That’s what you go to Cruson for…
Yes Genfink. ‘They said I’d never make it. I found strength from within.’
Their other big one was ‘don’t turn around’..
awesome!
I’m definitely going
@132
Yeah that’s where I did go…
Top tip: the yam shops are often very good for garlic. Much cheaper than supermarkets, and fresh. Just check it’s not sprouting.
http://londonist.com/2008/07/art_review_games_theory_south_londo.php
SLG’s in Peckham apparently and “worth braving Camberwell” to visit.
Let’s sue!
Have a good weekend. See you at Brockwell Park.
Lottie Child’s idea at the SLG exhibition is interesting, sort of human guerilla gardening. Her street training session on 3rd August will be a must for anyone wanting to turn the impending urban austerity into free imaginative recreation.
Bonkersfest, then, that was a good gig. What a hotpot of whatnot, a bouialbaisse of brouhaha. Many curious people there this year. Well done the organisers.
‘They said I’d never make it’. Quite prophetic. No Aswad in the end.
Missed Omar on Saturday too because the kids were getting tired.
It was an excellent country show nevertheless. Managed to sneak in a couple of pints of real ale and some jerk chicken between trampolines, train rides, sheep shearing and jousting displays.
Only annoying thing ‚Aswad aside, was the paramedics posing on quad bikes and getting in people’s ways. Makes you empathise with tory complaints about Labour money wasting on public services..
Ignored rumours of gang fighting and met families refusing to surrender to a life in doors. We’re not scared nor should we be.
Saturday a friend was at the show with his children and they got caught up in a bit of gang activity and the park was closed prematurely at 6.45pm.
Psycho Buildings great exhibition.
We also got ‘caught up in gang activity’. A group of thirty teenage balck lads, with a few wearing matching bandanas, being followed by loads of police in stab vests.
Nothing happened other than the propagation of the current culture of fear.
The police were right to be out in force but at the same time it’s easy to see why these lads can feel demonised and disenfranchised.
I don’t have the answer but I’m certainly not going to stay away.
Was a good if blustery day at the country show on Saturday. Wandered into the walled garden about 5sh for a change of scenery, and it was awash with colour. Very pretty at the moment !
The gang activity reminds me of my youth in Newcastle suburbs. And of my time at Southport and Manchester in the late seventies. And of friends accounts of growing up in the Norfolk Broads.
Which walled garden?
I discovered HOVERFLY the new radio controlled toy shop on Queenstown Road at the weekend. “Much less boring” than Psycho Buildings my boys concluded. Fantastic place we’ll be going back.
My woman was not amused though.
Roads are quiet, must be summer. Or maybe because I skipped out early.
Great weather. Sunshine and the wind behind me on the ride home.
Police is a difficult issue.
Even though there are fleets of police around for these big events, they’re generally all out-of-towners, with no real feel for the area and its people – this maybe makes things more difficult for everyone. Not sure.
That’s why I like the community warden concept – they’re local people.
Good point D-MAN.
I was there Sunday and it all seemed pretty chilled.
This whole gang/surrogate family thing of course does makes sense. Them choosing to try to hijack something like the Lambeth Fair for their face offs does piss me off though. Just restarts/reinforces the whole police-yoof-poverty-gang-black-white-where’s-a-role-model-when-you-need-one never-ending debate. I remember talking about this very same thing after last year’s Carnival del Pueblo. Just around the corner…
The fact is they get a kick out of it. They love it. How can a council run youth club compete with that for adrenaline?
The great British public mood is swinging. Once more suspect of police, we now are siding with them and demanding punks be given a swift kick up the arse. Same for benefit. Overwhelming acceptance of rules requiring claiments to bear a bit more responsibility for incapacity and job seekers. I’m proud to be one of the majority on this and think it’s been a long time coming.
Instinctively, the mood of the “great British public” is something to be wary of.
We had a punk group of kids attack a neighbour walking home from work recently. We all heard the noise and almost everyone was quick out the door onto the street.
Instinctively, I was with my neighbours, all stopping the punks and helping the victim. My little microcosm of the Great British Public.
You can side with the punks and we can just agree to disagree. You’ll be happy to know they got away with his wallet.
Ugh. ‘Either you want to lock them up or you’re on their side’; a false dichotomy. Nobody was saying they’re happy that your neighbour got mugged.
Sigh. Reasonable people have always been against mugging your neighbors, and will help each other out.
This is not especially a trait of the “great british public” but true of people everywhere.
I think you’re doing the tory troll thing. Lot of ‘em about.
More seriously, respect for going out to help. I like to think I, and my neighbors, would do the same.
‘Ugh’s’ and elitism won’t win your argument, which may prove the right one. You all on the far left are losing badly in winning hearts and minds. If you’ve the better argument, perhaps you need to take a different tact in getting your message across. I’m no Tory, but stranger things could happen.
Aside from me, the polls aren’t looking good for your dwindling side. ‘Reasonable’ people have had enough.
i have to say that I seriously doubt the inhabitants of my street would come to my aid if I were being attacked on the street.
(
Worrying thought
Far left? Dwindling side? ‘Unreasonable’?
Why are you trying to polarise the debate?
Police must have been wrong. Ugh. ‘Reasonable people’. Tory troll.
Polasrising indeed.
genfink, don’t know what street you live on, but you might be suprised. the large majority of people would want to help, and some may actually do so, even with the risks involved.
I was enjoying a Thameside drink in a very posh bit of London the other week. In the space of an hour two bizzie cars passed slowly by in an intimidating way, 2 pairs of useless overweight “PCSOs” plodded past, and all the while a CCTV camera swivelled uselessly in front of us, meaning that some prick was playing with a joystick in a control room somewhere. All this on a sunny day while boring white folk had a bit of cider. It was unreal. What have we created here? There’s nowhere like it on earth.
If that was my neighbour I’d have been on the street helping him.
Perhaps I’m still a bit shaken. And I’m not a fan of a police state or thinking all kids need locking up. But we did feel much better when the police showed up. I think a lot of us, even those of us like me who have always leaned left, are just tired of all the blame going to everyone but the punks. And yes, I know the root causes are very complicated.
Newroad, yeah, have to say, in that situation I’d have been glad the filth showed up too.
Unless they were overweight PCSOs of course. Honestly — what is the point of them?
@newroad, it seems like we agree more than we disagree. The vast majority of us is horrified at violent behavior and wants it minimized.
The bit I disagree with is where you say “all the blame going to everyone but the punks.” That’s just not accurate.
Kudos again to you and your neighbors for going to help.
Agree. Peace.
The people in most Camberwell neighbourhoods are the finest around. All colours, religions, orientations, ages, etc..and all fine neighbours. I suspect they’d all do the same.
But the highly populated estates are bad news. And yes, I feel for the many many people there who’ve no choice. And yes I believe the strategies of ghettos from years’ past are much to blame. But the highly comustible, overcrowded estates of poverty are dangerous places spilling over. And we have more than most. It’s our biggest challenge. Not just for getting Waitrose, but for having peace on our streets.
Piss poor architecture and town planning have a lot to answer for…
Of course people have to take some responsibility for their own actions but if the conditions have been created to arrive at the situation we’re at now — then it is what it is and nothing else
The quality of the new Elephant and Castle architecture doesn’t fill me with an enormous amount of optimism — the rendered finisheS on the Green and Purple buildings behind the old Shell Petrol Station on Walworth Road are already showing signs of wear and tear
Could they be repeating the same mistakes again?
The North Peckham Estate won a whole raft of Architecture awards when it was built and we all know what happened to that don’t we?
It seems to me that they are just making the same mistakes again
That’s what I think whenever I hear “the private sector has sorted out (or is sorting out) Elephant & Castle”; those new flats by the side of the railway look decidedly cheap and run down already; is it not possible that someone has gone for the fast, cheap option rather than thinking long term? The private sector is just as capable of making cock-ups as the public sector.
@164 Here here Peter
Peter @164
Exactly, if the will isn’t there to do the job properly then it doesn’t matter whether it’s public or private sector
There are plenty of examples of fantastic social housing which are still doing the job they were designed for to this very day…It’s not just the private sector that can get this right
Channelbee is an online TV channel from the old soccer am crowd..The lads on this dating show live in ‘between Brixton and Camberwell’. One of their dates is very scathing about Loughborough Junction but the footage makes it look good.
http://channelbee.com/move/double-date#412
Quite funny — esp like ‘why glamour?’ when the girl says her nickname is glamour pig.
The private sector operates in its own interest. Not necessarily a problem at a macro level, as Adam Smith showed. Which “sector” builds it is irrelevant. The disgrace about most social housing thrown up in the last 50 years is that it was sanctioned by elected public bodies, ostensibly in the public interest. The social policy catastrophe of our time. The social housing going up now is a lot better and sympathetic to the needs and aspirations of the people who live there (see the current housing in north Peckham). But most urban areas are blighted by the legacy, both socially and aesthetically.
Did anyone see that young lady in the wheelchair who was protesting in front of a bus last night around 6pm near Sophocles? The traffic was backed up to Peckham!
@ Alan Dale (167) — Is it safe to ask why you’re watching internet dating shows?
Alert!! Avoid Kamera Obscura dress shop on Camberwell New Road. Hello?! This is Camberwell not New Bond Street. Too pricey and hardly worth it. And rude to boot. Price to fit your market!!!
Anyone know where I can get a nicely made dress for a wedding at a reasonable price?
Fine Peter.
I used to go out with that girl Larissa featured on the show..
Elneedsadress there’s a great big Top Shop at Oxford Circus. That’s where I get my wedding frocks..
Mrs Robinson is East Dulwich is having a sale.
Fenton Walsh on bellenden road can be good. designery, hipster type stuff. stock changes quite often.
not sure it’s cheap exactly, but it’s friendly. there’s often a sale.
Hello, EIneedsadress. Please could you give me further details of your complaint at info@kameraobscura.com and I will investigate it further. We have never had any complaints about friendliness before, and pride ourselves on the level of personal attention given to each client.
I believe the pricing is fair given that the designs are all unique to us and made on the premises from the pins up, rather than adapted. Dresses are made by or under the direct supervision of the designer.
Most New Bond Street stores sell ready-to-wear dresses which are then adapted, for which the price could be the same or even greater due to the central London location.
Was she the one with the boobs or the gob Alan?
Elneedsadress — tried Odie & Amanda? They design and make their own stuff. And they’ve put some faith in Camberwell.
169 Phil I did see on Monday afternoon the result of a recumbent trike going under a bus, outside Marks and Sparks in Brixton. Nasty, but it occurs it might have been a non-standard wheelchair; if I was forced to take such risks with the traffic daily I’d be up for protest too. You heard anything ‘guru? Drew
Drew — haven’t been in Brixton for a while, but my views on the general standard of urban driving are well known…
I wasn’t on one of my rare ventures into the Green yesterday evening, but from PhilG’s description the incident sounds interesting. Camberwell is so intimidating for wheelchair users that a protest was well in order. The only apparent consideration for the disabled by local planners thus far is the toilet on the Green, and no more need be said about the very public nature of business done there, with vantage points along major thoroughfares to North South East and West.
I did however see a cyclist cum pedestrian cum lorry accident on the New Road this morning.
Credit to Newroad for getting stuck in back there.
Drew,was it a recumbent bike or trike? If bike, I wonder if it was the chap you see going down Coldharbour lane every day around 5sh. He’s been around for 5 or so years!
A large dirigible has passed over Walworth again today. There has been filming outside a house on Camberwell Grove. The Freightliner Class 66 “Hamburg Sud Advantage” passed through. Hamburg Sud is a shipping line. These engines have 3,300 horsepower and weigh 127 tons. Only a few are named. One is called the Drax Flyer. So unapologetic are Freightliner, that it is listed on their website as “Tha Drax Flyer”, tha knows.
Odie & Amanda — good call. My wife got some wedding gear there. Not xactly cheap, but it is local.
180 southmark — it had three wheels and a seat rather than a saddle so either a recumbent trike or maybe a ‘dragster’ wheelchair. either way it wasn’t looking repairable.
having said that there was no terrifying pool of congealing blood like there was when i saw a motorcyclist killed near oval last month, so maybe this critter got away with his life.
i used to cycle the A23 to work in croydon [which was bad enough…] but i stopped because the drivers were just all too murderous.
The lady I saw was, I think, in a regular electric wheelchair. Didn’t seem to be an organised protest. She had just parked in front of a double decker and was refusing to move. It was mad. Big crowd. Long tailback of traffic. People videoing it on the phones, etc. An interesting protest. Wish I knew what it was about. That stretch of CWell pavement near DRINK STORE is near impossible for wheelchairs and prams etc.
By all accounts, a lot of motorist-sponsored carnage locally, outstripping knife crime casualties. Refreshingly, for once, the Courts haven’t watered down a driving charge. Murder — like so many too often charged as dangerous.
Why not campaign for mandatory custodials for all careless and dangerous causing death and serious injuries, plus driving bans for life? Start by writing to your MP.