Drunks, closures, park

Bit of a palaver on Lyndhurst Grove last night, as a drunk driver rammed into a car, reversed, rammed it again, drove off when the victim got out of his car and told him to stop, then rammed two more cars before fleeing on foot. I saw the lot; it was both exciting and scary. Police arrived about half an hour later.

We were on our way back from il Giardino in Peckham, a place which should be recession-proof because its staff are so bloody nice that you’d never consider not going. One place which isn’t recession proof (segue!) is The Dark Horse, which as everyone must know by now has closed down. And on the subject of closures, we now have photographic evidence that Somerfield in Butterfly Walk will close on April 29th. I honestly can’t wait to see a Co-op in there; I was in Co-op today and it’s miles better.

Further good news about Burgess Park; as well as the £6m already pledged, apparently there is a further £1m to spend on the Chumleigh Gardens area. Looks like we’re on course to have a radical transformation; I’ll be first in the queue when the zoo opens.

I tried Amaryllis on Coldharbour Lane for the first time on Tuesday, as the wife wanted to watch Volver in the S&D and I wanted to watch Arsenal beat Hull in the FA Cup. It’s nicely decorated inside, and they serve decent Chinese food at reasonable prices — £3.50 for a plate of chicken in black bean sauce and egg-fried rice (I had rice instead of noodels).

Finally: Prince William was in Camberwell last week; our very own Eyechild has the report.

Enjoy the weekend, everyone.

Bumper news bag

Lots of Camberwell stuff in my Google News Alert this morning;

The news (reported in the comments, below) that Mayor Johnson has raised that old chestnut of extending the Bakerloo line, which may or may not pass through here. I’d like to see it, but I really can’t plan that far ahead.

A (very) little more background on Burgess Park, winner of a parks development pot.

19 pubs have closed down in Camberwell & Peckham since June 2007. The Bickleigh and Pharoahs are two is one; who can think of more?

And Page 3 lovely Zoe (link NSFW) is a Camberwellian. Never saw her name on the Wikipedia list. OK, that isn’t really news.

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