A vision for Camberwell

Note: This was sent to me just now by email.

For any of you who have struggled with the congestion and dirt of Camberwell Church Street, are fed up with traffic dominating our town centre, or have had to negotiate your way from one side of Denmark Hill to the other to do even basic shopping, this meeting should interest you.

Camberwell Community Council meeting
Town Hall
31 Peckham Road
Camberwell SE5 8UB

Monday July 27th 2009
7 to 9pm

The main item on the agenda will be ‘Transport and Highways Improvements’ and Jeremy Leach of Southwark Living Streets will present ‘Vision for Camberwell – Improving Streets and Public Spaces in SE5’. The report sets out in detail some ideas as to how to make Camberwell more pedestrian and cycle friendly and obviously at the same time make it economically more prosperous. It brings together many of the ideas that local people have had over the years into one document.

See the SE5 Forum website, or alternatively southwarklivingstreets.org.uk.

Camberwell, 1086

Reading Camberwell history lately; here’s our entry in the Domesday book:

Hamo himself holds Cambrewelle. Northmann held it of King Edward. It was then assessed at 12 hides; now at 6 hides and 1 virgate. There is land for 5 ploughs. In demesne are 2 [ploughs]; and 22 villans and 7 bordars with 6 ploughs. There is a church, and 63 acres of meadow, [and] woodland for 60 pigs. TRE it was worth 12l ; afterwards 6l ; now 14l.

In the register of Bishop Edington at Winchester there’s a commission dated 1346, for “reconciling Camberwell church, which had been polluted by bloodshed”.

A gazette in 1868 said:

As one of the most pleasant suburbs of the metropolis, Camberwell contains many seats of the gentry and residences of wealthy merchants and citizens.

And did you know that Coldharbour (as in, the Lane) appears to be a corruption of the German ‘kalte herberge’, a mediaeval inn? It was literally a ‘cold shelter’, a place for travellers to rest but with no food or fire. Also linked to Colde Abbey, a nearby manor (long gone).

Would make for an interesting psycho-geographical study.

Eating our way around the world

I considered starting this post off with a bunch of links about the fire at Sceaux Gardens, but so much has been written and said that it seems somewhat redundant. Here’s London Fire Brigade’s official statement. I notice also there’s a benefit gig in the Arts Bar (above the Funky Munky) on Thursday; does anyone have further details? Update: details here.

Okay, let’s move on to lighter topics.

My personal campaign to get a zoo opened in Burgess Park received a boost when I found out that there used to be a zoo in nearby Walworth. With this kind of historical connection, it can only be a matter of time until we have bears back in South East London.

Speaking of bears, I went to The Bear (ha!) a couple of weeks ago and had a fantastic Scottish beer called Trade Winds. The wife said it was the best beer she’d ever tasted, so we went back again this weekend for more. Unfortunately, they don’t sell it any more. A shame; you would have liked it.

Speaking of return visits, we tried out FM Mangal, the new Turkish restaurant on C. Church Street, after hearing so many people speak highly of it. They weren’t wrong; nice big portions of tasty meats cooked on their charcoal grill, and fairly priced. I had grilled lamb kebabs with yoghurt, which was great. They have their own bread in there as well, which comes free with the food and good enough to eat on its own; we almost ruined our appetites on it.

It was so good that we went back for a takeaway two nights later, on the way back from the pub.

Speaking of food (I know this sounds like we eat out all the time, but it’s just because I haven’t written about it for a while), we went for dinner at Pasha, the Kazakhstani hotel/restaurant on Walworth Road. It was crazy. First of all, you walk down a really, really long corridor through the hotel until you arrive in the restaurant at the back. This has a river in it, with fish and a turtle, and a little footbridge which you cross to get to the tables (you can sit on cushions on the floor, if you prefer).

Throughout the meal there was a guy on keyboads playing (what sounded like) Russian soft rock ballads; he was later joined by a lady who sang, then a woman who sang and played bazouki, and finally a belly dancer. When we asked for the bill at the end of the meal, the waitress asked that we wait a little longer as they wanted everyone to get up and dance. They weren’t joking; the belly dancer started a conga chain around the restaurant and literally dragged me from my table. I had to dance (not alone) to Hava Nagila (YouTube link) before they’d let me sit down again.

It was an awful lot of fun, and the staff were super-friendly. The food was ok. I recommend you go there on a Friday night to get the full experience.

Get out there and enjoy the long evenings.

Normal service will be resumed

Thanks to everyone for keeping the last post on-topic. I’ll be back to regular updates shortly, but thought I’d add this one quickly to give people a chance to comment on other stuff.

For example, I went to FM Mangal last week and it’s as good as everyone says. So good, I went back for a takeaway two nights later.

More to follow.

Update: Back to the fire for a second; Southwark Council are accepting cash donations to help victims.