Farmers’ Market on Camberwell Green — Om Nom Nom
Written by Peter | Filed under Eating & Drinking, Shopping
According to the Urban Farmers’ Markets website, a new market will open on Camberwell Green ‘later this year’. This is good news, although I do wonder whether we can support markets in Oval, Peckham, Elephant, and now Camberwell too. Hope so.
September 29th, 2010
Yes there was a report in Southwark News last week about the review of markets carried out by the council. The review recommended the council investigate instigating a street market and an art market in Camberwell so hopefully thsi along with the farmers market will bring development of Camberwell town centre
Great news! What kind of art market? That sounds especially intriguing.
A walk-distance farmer’s market is what farmer’s market folk want. What kind of fart? Ghastly arse-fart art for vegetarians, probably.
The Elephant to Hollywood is out today, Michael Caine’s autobiography following his 1992 “What’s It All About?”
Caine was on Front row last night. He went for the James Booth part in Zulu orginally, before being offered Bromhead.
A Camberwell arts, crafts and farm produce market has been on the back burner for a long time. Years. SE5 Forum was behind two pilots on Camberwell Green. Forward movement with it got gobbled up in Southwark stuff ages ago. Now there’s a new administration perhaps past plans are being revisited.
Jim Hart’s Gemini played last Friday at the Crypt, as highlighted by Ben Gatt. They were, as always, great: http://www.flickr.com/photos/camberwellcrypt/sets/72157625061357706/
Tomorrow’s gig is Martin Speake Group. Give it a go…
Great blue-brown clouds of foul gut-gas, billowing over roads and roofs, creeping, aye, like a stealthy stray cat at dusk round the corners of the alleys in the shadows of old Camberwell.
Dagmar
I thought you were refering to the after effects of a full English breakfast at Rock Steady Eddies
Has anybody been there recently?
If I’m too lazy to do my own, I go to Johnnie’s Cafe — The refurbishment of that place has been quite spectacular…has the owner won the lottery or something?…not sure about the yellow bricks enclosing the patio out front — hopefully he can pull it back from the brink…
After a very promising start it appears as if things are starting to get a little over-elaborate!
I went to Rock Steady Eddie’s once after a recommendation on here; it was *revolting*. Filthy place, leathery & unpleasant food. I’d taken some friends there, and I was enormously embarrassed. Never again.
@eusebiovic. Hilarious! Thanks. Agree Sonny’s losing it with the improvised Texan ranch porch out front. I like indoors though and although some people tell me Jungle Grill is better, for me it’s Johnnie’s Best.
I went to Eddies. Once. When we were refurbishing The Sun and Doves. Was this time of year fifteen years ago. Eddie was on the floor then. Like a Turn at a working men’s club. It was difficult enough to swallow the food already and he kept barging into our conversation with weird interjections about his posture, doing exaggerated body builder poses, and talking in riddles I couldn’t begin to be bothered to even try to understand. He seemed to be trying to impress and freak us out at the same time. It sort of worked now I think about it. Never went back. Always wave to his brother Sollie though, when I walk by.
There’s this tonight (Friday 1 October):
“You cant ask for a much more perfect marriage between tradition and modernity than this collection of standards played by the swingingest cool-school band Ive heard in years. Speake’s alto saxophone sound triangulates Charlie Parker, Ornette Coleman and Paul Desmond.”
Phil Johnson, Independent on Sunday
Martin Speake Group at http://www.camberwellcrypt.com
Is there any way to remove that weird bit about the petition from the new camberwell crypt site? Or at least contain it in the about or some news section? It looks very unprofessional and is the first thing one sees when getting to the site. I say this because I wanted to send a link to the site to my manager who is a jazz aficionado but stopped myself as he wouldn’t be very impressed with that bit of dirty laundry and also it’s information completely irrelevent to him (being someone not on this blog or living in camberwell).
As the kids say it’s ‘way TMI’.
Blimey, Rosey, it’s gone. You people-powered it. That weird bit contained a new word, “nuture”, which is one of those fashionable portmanteau words like “chillax”. It means the future, the “nu” future. David Cameron, a Miliband or Clegg might say:
“You know, look, come on, we’re offering a nuture for everyone. The unemployed, they can go to the ping-pong tables in the park in the pouring rain. There are no bats or balls, but they can play, OK?”
Thus men march from Jarrow, the rain dripping down from the peaks of their flat caps onto their boots, to play air ping-pong in the parks of the capital.
Less sombrely, the new show opened at the South London Gallery last night. It’s good, better than the previous one. Text-based stuff always falls a bit flatulent.
An art car by Daisy Delaney was parked outside, designed for the Tate Liverpool biennial. It was a real street-racing rorty Mitsubishi Lancer, farting out a real animal roar from its cloacal tailpipe. Nice.
@Dagmar — you do seem quite preoccupied with bottom-burps recently. Is there something you need to tell us?
Camberwell in the news today with another shooting. *sigh*.
There are some remarkable flatulists in Camberwell. A new cafe has opened opposite the BP garage on the Peckham Road.
better out than in
Pffftt!
@St Giles: My uncle’s Flatualter Scale, developed through extensive research and feedback during tea breaks whilst On the Tools in the 1940’s, accommodates all comers:
Fob
Fizzy Fob
Bleak
Brattle
Tear-Arse
@Rosey: Thanks for that. The notice was on the site for a few days only. Fact is — quite evidently — hundreds of people believe that jazz is no longer being played at the Crypt. Or that the Crypt has been closed by the new management. Paradoxical but true. They have been led to believe that through being given misinformation.
There was WAY Too Much Misinformation.
Paaaarrppp! ffphhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
Apropos Zappa : Jazz at the Crypt isn’t dead… it just smells a bit funny.
I signed the petition to reinstate JU at the crypt. which can be found at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/jazzlive/ . The is nothing on it attempting to misinform anyone. The comments written reflect that hundreds of people really understand the petition as an appeal to the injustice of JU’s eviction, and many touching and thoughtful comments about the jazz, the vibe, and the people that built the club up. Also many comments expressed genuine concern about the motivations of the new management and the potential damage that could be caused by interfering with what was a good jazz club
Unfortunately I see that JU have had to temporarily conceal the comments, because Mark Dodds has been spamming it. Mark : if you don’t agree with the petition don’t sign it!, please allow everyone else their own opinions.
Tonight at The Petit Parisien, The brilliant Gareth Lockraine is playing. Lucky Camberwell.
Ben Gatt@
I just don’t know what your problem is…
Well I can suspect but I’ll keep that one to myself…
As Peter is always and forever telling us
“Do not feed the Trolls!”
Aye
Alan, how’s our application to join the London cycle hire scheme going?
Bicycle clips.
http://www.camberwellcrypt.com/
http://www.facebook.com/JMarkDodds?ref=profile#!/CamberwellCryptJazzClub?ref=sgm
There is a fab bike workshop — a workshop where they fix bikes and teach how to do it — opposite the Green on Camberwell Road, Mondays only, 3-6pm but going on longer. They sort of have a magic touch when sorting your bike out, amazing. No charge, donations only.
@Ban Gatt — I’m not looking for a fight here, but I do think you are being a little short sighted when it comes to the misinformation being published by JazzLive. On the front page of their website it reads…
“JAZZLIVE @ The Crypt, WE HAVE MOVED TO LE PETIT PARISIEN BRASSERIE IN GROVE LANE AFTER CHURCH AUTHORITIES GAVE US 7 DAYS TO LEAVE — MORE INSIDE.”
If I read that, I would surely think there was no more jazz on Fridays at the Crypt. They have not moved “Jazzlive@thecrypt” to the Petit Parisien, but “Jazzlive” the former promoters at the Crypt, are no longer promoting the Crypt, instead they are promoting jazz at the Petit Parisien. There’s a big difference, and one that visitors to their site, who might have no insight as to the happenings, could not be expected to decipher. If they then go to the petition, it says a “pub company” has taken over the operation. As far as I can tell, this is a bit of a white lie too, as I believe two of the new team have a separate business that is a pub, but that it is not tied to the Crypt in any way, and the other member is a jazz musician. This doesn’t make them a pub company. Many of the comments on the petition clearly indicated people thought the venue was lost, closed, kaput. It’s as if jazzlive intentionally want to damage the gig attendance now that they have lost it, even though the success of jazz gigs throughout the area, could only be mutually beneficial.
I was down there on Friday, and it was a very poor turnout and so I spoke with one of the new management team and to a couple of the band members. It was absolutely clear to them that people are misinformed about what is happening there. One band member said he didn’t think his gig was happening after looking at the Jazzlive website on Thursday, as it looked to him like the venue had closed, and he had to phone the bandleader to check it was on. He also said that this was the most publicity he had seen for the venue in a decade, and it’s negative. I think it’s a shame that jazzlive didn’t produce this level of marketing/effort when they were still in the venue… maybe then they might have avoided this situation in the first place.
I think this venue needs positive publicity right now to inform people of what the situation really is, rather than all this negative campaigning, to ensure the musicians who rely on playing there still have an audience. After all, aren’t they the reason this place exists?
That’s good to know. Get help to fix your own bikes. People powered by the community!
Riding around on a Boris Bike is so embarrassing.
Alan, no need to continue with the application. Could you instead make sure there are enough community bike mechanics around to help out the noobs?
Thanks.
On second thoughts, I still need a way to get home after a few drinks up in town.
Maybe we do need subsidized cycle hire after all.
get a tricycle, gabe!
or a horse.
Has anybody seen one of those really strange looking cycle buses?
From what I can see…It’s a cycling contraption which looks like it’s made for 10–12 people…who face each other like the long seats in a tube carriage — and whilst peddling they can listen to music and I think drink too…and there is a chap at the front who manoevres the whole contraption — presumably he is sober…
Wierd
Yeah, I saw one in Shoreditch recently. It was pumping out some awful music and everyone was drinking and cheering and pedalling. It was weird.
@jerry
Here’s that rainy day, again
Steve Corbett, Mark dodds, Nicky Francey. That’s 3, or Nicky you just there to do the cleaning?
thats a company of publicans or I’m an alto player.
Reintroducing the beleaguered John Hoare the one musician in the SKOB constellation. Hasn’t he suffered enough already at Jmark’s hands running the ill fated, underpaid music nights at the Sun and Doves. You reckon its going to be better this time John?, What you up to?.
Musicians know stuff, can’t be in JU’s interests to close the club down, It was their baby + probably just don’t want it to be strangled . Says as much on their website
Not great this takeover. Crypt was always packed before, didn’t need nu condem strategies and nu media campaigns to find an audience.
Still, better looking candles normally = a price hike in bar prices + tickets + lowering of musicians fees. story sounds familiar enough.
@ben gatt you heard Zappa reading Burrough’s “talking arse”?.
rude old man.
At the risk of feeding the flames (I’m getting as bored of this as everyone else) a lot of people — friends of mine included — were (and still are) under the impression that Jazz at the Crypt ended, due to the email that was sent out to all the subscribers on the Jazz Live mailing list. If they genuinely care about the bands ‘they booked’ getting paid, it would be in their best interests to clear up that misunderstanding, wouldn’t it?
@eusebiovic
Saw one of those contraptions in Vilnius many years ago — very popular with stag parties (no, not on one!) apparently — idea is to get as pi**sed as possible while pretending to sight-see.
Johnny Edgecombe died recently, the jazz promoter from Antigua “who fired the shots that started the Profumo affair”. His story is in the Guardian obit. He was an interesting character, quite unusual for the jazz world. “I am not a black man,” he said. “I am a man who is black.” He has loads of such sayings, the obit says.
He reckoned his relationship with Christine Keeler was too much for the times. His published account of the whole thing must be worth a look. He didn’t like the version of himself in the film “Scandal”, so wrote his own not long ago.
Probably, “Made in Dagenham” could well rip off the truth of events there, too, to powder the fluffery of campy media doo-dah over the Bennite simplicity of the simple sword of truth.
In Greenwich Park, the stags are calling for the rutting season to start. “A deer is a mummy and a reindeer is a daddy,” says a Dagmarette over the explanation of the reproduction process.
Over by the Royal Naval College, Johnny Depp is expected. The long filming continues for the latest Pirates of the Caribbean. There are whole real roads of mud and loads of extras in period gear. It’s been going on for weeks.
Thank God the gricers aren’t bickering here, Peter! They are right bitches!
@paul b thanks for the invitation to use technology to promote something.
This Friday at the Crypt; The totally cracking Basil Hodge Quintet:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/camberwellcrypt/5055441256/lightbox/
Sign up to the new mail list here:
http://www.camberwellcrypt.com/
A good few suggestions for getting back from town after a few drinks. They each have an an appeal, but…
Cycle bus — you’d need to be a community organiser just to nip off to the shops. Prob not for me.
Tricycle — nice idea, it would help with uprightness. But isn’t it a bit like roller blades are to real skaters?
Horse — hmm, I had considered that. Someone keeps a horse over to the other side of Burgess Park. Not for me though.
Re: “Made in Dagenham” — Anyone seen it? Is it any good? I have heard it is.
I used the London Overground Tube to visit some friends in Dalston Junction yesterday.
I was impressed — Can’t wait until they extend it through to Clapham Junction and it stops at Denmark Hill. I had to get a P4 to Honor Oak Station and then got a train from there…
Not sure the majority of Camberwellians have realised just how useful this is going to be for us — YET
@gabe hehehehehehe does my face look bovvered? gets me from one place to another that’s all i care
Kudos to tricycle riders. Can I have a go?
you’re more than welcome — a few cyclists who tried tricycling on my one found it really strange, guess it takes some getting used to
Denmark Hill this morning saw a Range Rover hammering up the hill past the hospital accompanied by a couple of Police outriders. This is the second time in a few months I’ve witnessed this. Anyone know who’s the VIP? Have Charles and Camilla moved to Tulse Hill. Or is it Harriet Harman’s Ocado delivery. I need to know.
Gabe
i suggest the best way to get home after a few drinks is walk, bus or taxi.
Quite rightly the rules for being drunk in charge of a bicycle are the same as that for a motor vehicle. The Licensing Act 1872 makes it an offence to be drunk in charge of a bicycle (or any other vehicle or carriage) on a highway or in a public place.
This also includes being drunk in charge of a horse I believe. I have been stopped for this when I was 20 but thankfully not charged!
Can the Jazz Spat stop now it is dull…
@Florian — the quickest route from Westminster to Biggin Hill airport takes you up Denmark Hill, down Red Post Hill and through Dulwich…
@Gabe — Made in Dagenham is a nice feel good film.
Florian, that’s Andrew.
This is such a brilliant year for Liberty Cap mushrooms. They are everywhere wherever there is a scrap of land round here.
Remember the first Thursday of every month is Magnificent Sevens?
http://us2.campaign-archive1.com/?u=6cf21c87e064af8d41b7d63b5&id=c2742c4906
I notice it’s British Pub Week soon. I believe the CEO of the British Institute of Innkeeping is going to do an shift at The Sun and Doves to keep his hand in on the pulling power of the pint.
@Gnomee
“This also includes being drunk in charge of a horse I believe. I have been stopped for this when I was 20 but thankfully not charged”
Do elaborate.
@Dagmar: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thesunanddoves/5060449236/#/photos/thesunanddoves/5060449236/lightbox/
Stew on this:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/markdodds/5056749829/#/photos/markdodds/5056749829/lightbox/
@gnomee:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/4400618/Man-fined-185-for-being-drunk-in-charge-of-horse.html
A few days now of warm weather — the Liberty Cap mushrooms will probably march on Parliament. There have been few autumns in Camberwell as bountiful as this one — apples and such everywhere on the ground.
Yesterday was beautiful now look at this morning. England Oh! England.
Still. It’s dress-up day at Comber Grove.
Turned out nice alright. Days like this at this time of year a sublime.
Yes, it’s good, the season of mists and fruitfulness and all that jazz. Pregnant women look so appropriate at this time of year.
Battersea Park Road has some nattily named shops and restaurants” “Pizza Experts” (with a picture of Big Ben), “Feedwell Cafe”. There is a sort of interesting book called “The Battersea Park Road to Enlightenment” by a woman who should really live in Camberwell.
Coming back from a semi-awayday in Battersea, it is clear that Camberwell is divided into quarters at its crossroads and is mysteriously not a place at all.
As the autumn mist says, there is more to this than you can see.
When the doyen of philatelic journalists, Fred. J. Melville, died in January 1940 the world of stamp collecting suffered a great loss.
Philately will get you nowhere.
@Gnomee I wasn’t entirely aware of The Licensing Act 1872, but point taken. I guess it mainly applies to horse riders?
In other news I saw in Southwark Weekender that Manu Chao is playing at the Coronet on October 23.
That’s one activist, benefit gig not to miss. £15 tickets are advertised for £50 on the Internet after-market, which doesn’t do much to support Columbian orphanages.
Does anyone know anything about Futura paperbacks who used to be at 110 Warner Road SE5?
@Dagmar: perhaps the current occupiers know something about Futura Paperbacks… you could ask Pete:
http://www.thumbprinteditions.com/default.htm
Ah-ha, many thanks, Mark Dodds, Dodds, thanks indeed. Futura became part of Macdonald Futura which is now part of Time Life. Everything else is owned by Hachette. How times change.
A pleasure Dagmar. Thumbprint are part of the underlying fabric of excellence that is Camberwell.
By the way word on the street, I mean on Warner Road of course, is that Damien is tarting up next door to 110 to be something like a workshop/studio/exhibition space.
I’m researching drinks packaging at work and came across this interesting bottle invention originating in Camberwell: the Codd-neck bottle used for popular Japanese soft drink Ramune.
The closure has a round marble that you push into the bottle to drink — it rattles around, and you need to learn a special knack for drinking it without the marble rolling back into the neck and stopping the flow of liquid.
From Wikipedia:
In 1872, British soft drink maker Hiram Codd of Camberwell, south east London, designed and patented a bottle designed specifically for carbonated drinks. The Codd-neck bottle, as it was called, was designed and manufactured to enclose a marble and a rubber washer/gasket in the neck. The bottles were filled upside down, and pressure of the gas in the bottle forced the marble against the washer, sealing in the carbonation. The bottle was pinched into a special shape, as can be seen in the photo to the right, to provide a chamber into which the marble was pushed to open the bottle. This prevented the marble from blocking the neck as the drink was poured
Soon after its introduction, the bottle became extremely popular with the soft drink and brewing industries mainly in Europe, Asia and Australasia, though some alcohol drinkers disdained the use of the bottle. One etymology of the term codswallop originates from beer sold in Codd bottles.[5]
The bottles were regularly produced for many decades, but gradually declined in usage. Since children smashed the bottles to retrieve the marbles, they are relatively rare and have become collector items; particularly in the UK. A cobalt coloured Codd bottle today fetches thousands of British pounds at auction[citation needed]. The Codd-neck design is still used for the Japanese soft drink Ramune and in the Indian drink called Banta.
Interesting! I remember seeing this kind of bottle when I was very young, although I don’t remember where.
I’ve got one on my window-sill… I didn’t realise it might be valuable…
We can now berate each other using the word “codswallop” with complete regional authenticity. Excellent, Ben. The Dualit website has a picture of their Camberwell factory in 1952. Does anyone recognise where it is located today?
Dagmar
I thought that the Dualit factory was on Old Kent Road…Not totally sure however…
Back in the day all Southwark had were the docks (workers were not employees as such, merely paid by the day) the pub, the church — oh and Millwall FC…but that was about it…
However Lambeth was quite a different kettle of fish…Mainly because there were not any docks as such, this resulted in a lot more entrepreneurs setting up in the area…producing a whole range of different innovations and products — which meant there were a lot more shop floor workers and a lot more clerks too…which led to Lambeth becoming quite a unionised borough when the benefits of the socialist era kicked in…
Camberwell was very much in the Lambeth vein of things — rather than the Southwark way — As we can see today, Camberwell is still more or less the nearest part of Southwark plugged into Brixton and is in close proximity to Lambeth Town Hall…
Which probably explains Southwark Council’s total neglect of this place ever since it amalgamated with
Camberwell Borough Council back in 1967…
One of many reasons…But quite a good historical perspective on it all
For this ex member of the Trent Valley Bottle Collector’s Club, the fact that Hiram Codd was a local is really fascinating. For a bottle collector, the thrill, at the end of a long dig, of unearthing a codd bottle is hard to explain. They are rare (ish) because children used to break them for the marble. And the term “codswallop” does indeed derive from this bottle. Poor beer was derided as being “codswallop” — so no better than lemonade, which tended to come in codsbottles.
Some are quite valuable. Look out for a cobalt blue lip.
I had a nice intact White’s (of Camberwell) lemonade bottle from the Thames but it broke, I don’t know how, but it did, like everything in life, really, eventually, inevitably, clumsily, finally.
It’s good those miners were freed from the Hermits Cave today, wasn’t it? Been there for weeks. Very moving footage. All that cheering, waving, them a bit unsteady on their feet.
Surely there must be a film of it soon, with surround fungh-o-smell and Technicolor 3D athletes’s foot?
Dagmar
Scratch ‘n Sniff Cards?
Another big controversy drops on Camberwell on a Friday night. Which is the coolest car in SE5? There are two outstanding candidates on the shortlist: the black Mini Mayfair on a J plate parked by the Little Parisian (Man), or the white — well, whitish — Hyundai Sonnet on an L, up Shenley Road.
The black Mini has no horrid plastic wheel covers, just its bare black steel wheels. It is a wonderfully formal mini limousine, reminding many older people of the old metal dodgems at funfairs which gave a proper whiplashing bump — the black one was always the most regal to ride in, like a Wolseley police car or the Mayor’s black Humber.
The Hyundai Sonnet, however, which has a steering wheel held together by sticky tape and often makes terrible, grinding drive-shaft noises, has a less pretentious, less made-in-the Midlands name — the Sonnet, lovely, “Just going to the shops in the Sonnet, dear!” appended to which is a delightful “x 2″, the Hyundai Sonnet x 2, modestly pointing out that the car is two-wheel drive rather than a 4 x 4. What a selling point! “This car has basic, cheap-to-produce front-wheel drive transmission.”
So whilst the Mini has (evidently) been to Glasto and the Sonnet may scarcely, by the sound of it, career along Nine Elms Lane to Battersea Park, the Award of Coolest Car in SE5 goes to the car from Korea and all who sail in her frail, oxidising, Mini-mimicking subframe.
A thorough analytical framework there Dagmar. You should be in consulting.
Delighted to heat Le Petit Parisien has given a home to the previously active Art’s Bar — great news. They open on the 19th with an art show. The private view is on the 21st 6–12 and I see all are invited to celebrate the Art’s Bar’s new home.
@Gay Camberwell: Brilliant! Will be there.
Meantime Brass Volcanoes are playing TONIGHT>
Fantastic. Though having just updated the Gay Camberwell calendar ( http://www.gaycamberwell.com ) I have found surprisingly few events, other than a profusion of art and a helping of fine jazz, scheduled for SE5 in the coming months. Am I missing some events? Do let me know if you know of anything happening that I’ve missed!
@gay camberwell there’s a whole bunch of really interesting council meetings next week
plus there’s the really important protest to save public services from the cuts on wednesday 20th in front of town hall, 6pm (or, if you can get to central london, 4pm at downing street)
also, as it’s time for planting bulbs, there’s a few of those events happening, i posted a brief info about the mid-term gardening club on brandon 3 (forget what the date is), friends of burgess park agm is early november, can’t think of anything else at the moment x
The Brass Volcanoes were, truly, brilliant. Great fun!
Hoopers in Ivanhoe Rd has got a real ale festival for the next two weeks for all you beer lovers
27 October-14 November is Real Ale & Cider Festival at all Spoonses. Still, the Ivanhoe is a great pub, is the Ivanhoe. A wonderful crisp day of high pressure and bright sun greets the Sunday morning denizens of Camberwell. As Browning said, “God’s in his heaven and Millwall won.” They beat Crystal Palace yesterday. The ‘Wall fans can be seen jogging brightly round Dulwich Park already!
Great News. The Vale pub, down the bottom of East Dulwich, has been sold to Wetherspoons. Roll on progress. WE tried to buy the lease three years ago, thinking it would make a wonderful second pub (free of tie) to The Sun and Doves. The leaseholders , who just sold it, wanted £600K for the remainder of the lease.
Having been to The Vale a couple of times, I think the clientele will be ideally suited to a Wetherspoons. A pub with two bouncers on a Saturday evening that have to search the women isn’t really a good sign.
Good news about the Spoons. Nice to see a bit of de-gentrification in overrated ED. It could easily have turned into ‘The Truffling Pig’ or something and become a pricey gastropub (though ED could use one). Or perhaps it could’ve been broken up into shop units selling baby clothes or mindless ‘gift’ tat.
So, go Spoons!
Hopefully that will free up “The Fox On The Hill” to revert back to the traditional family pub it should be…
I won’t be holding my breath though…But I still think that site is far more worthy than a mere Spoons or flakey ill-conceived Gastropub
The Vale. It’s an awful waste of a truly great site.
Has anyone been to The Recreation Ground yet?
Not yet; I was thinking of going this weekend.
Agree with you Dino, the bouncers say it all. Perhaps the Vale will revert to its old name, the Hamlet Inn, to attract the many thespians in the region who rush down the road, from alighting at East Dulwich railway station, their silk kerchieves flying, panting pell-mell towards Lordship Lane.
Spoons’ attempt to gentrify that no-man’s land between the Dog Kennel Hill estate and the tragic roundabout should be applauded. However, they may still need the doormen on Saturdays. The local Spoonses, the Fox on the Hill, the Kentish Drovers and the old cinema in Forest Hill are jolly places, it has to be said.
The music shop opposite the Vale pub is truly barmy, packed to the ceiling with musical scores and humming with the feng shui of a Stockhausen suite played by chimpanzees clashing dustbin lids — but the staff are charming. We must patronise this vestige of eccentricity.
Doesn’t legend have it that Ronnie Biggs had a celebratory drink in “The Vale” once back from his train robbin’.
That was Lord Lucan, wasn’t it? Or Jack Spot. Maybe it was the Richardsons. Billy Hill. Dick Turpin. Paul Gascoigne. Wayne Rooney. Spring-Heeled Jack!
Has anyone tried Recreation Ground? View London certainly seems to like it: http://www.viewlondon.co.uk/pubsandbars/recreation-ground-review-67277.html
I went into RG two Fridays ago. Good sound system at the back where the loos used to be. Needs more stuff on the walls. Too cavernous as is.
Speaking of shit, later today or perhaps early tomorrow I shall be shitting out the results of one of Camberwell’s latest eateries.
That’s right, it’s your friendly friend with a scoop review of the overlooked yet convenient CHICKEN COOP.
First up, I used to have a bit of a fried chicken addiction and have spent far too long in Morleys for my liking. Tasty Hut, Favorite, Tennessee Chicken, PFC, KFC you name it I’ve been there.
I’ve missed out on making the Coop because — weirdly for a fried chicken place — it seems to close at 11pm.
But I had an early finish the other night, and the Coop was quite quiet as I shambled home after seven or eight pints or so. I don’t remember it totally clearly, but the staff seemed friendly, without the tired jadedness of the Morleys crew. There was seating inside and the place was bright and freshly lit. The menu was a bit confusing — I seem to remember a massive and garish poster of £2 options, though I may have dreamt that bit.
I went for the £2 two pieces of chicken with fries. Pricewise it’s nothing special. You should be able to get a piece with fries for £1 in South London. But I was hoping for quality. The guy asked if I wanted breast or drumsticks — a nice touch.
I can’t remember much about the chicken taste but it was OK. The skin in these places is never KFC thick, but sometimes it hangs very loosely off the overcooked meat, especially if it’s been under the lamps awhile. Not the case here I am pleased to report. The fries were especially fresh and crisp, lacking in the sogginess that often blights them.
I shall explore the other Coop options and report back, though I don’t touch the oversweet ribs in these places any more.
To conclude, the Coop seems a safe bet but its opening hours are unfriendly and its biggest drawback is that I have to walk over the busy road and back to get to it.
But maybe this is one chicken worth crossing the road for. Boom boom.
@Phil G: You should write for the Southwark Weekender.
Cheers Peter. I’m going to follow it up with a review of Camberwell McDonalds soon.
And one day a return to Noddles.
Ah, I can feel a shit coming on. Here comes the Coop…
I feel obliged to point out that Phil G exhibits high standards as a raconteur with powers of graphic honesty. This in itself confers upon him an automatic debarring from the fraternity of journalism.
Ever thought of writing a novel Phil?
@markD
Any chance of a non-flash version for mobile cryptinfo access? I’m an apple whore so can’t view anything
We need to get Southwark and Lambeth to do this. This would effectively put camberwell smack dab in the MIDDLE of the council rather than in between the two…
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2032bfcc-ddb2-11df-8354-00144feabdc0.html
Also, like RG /alot/, very very friendly and accommodating staff. Re: the decor, I think because it’s such a massive space they definitely need some massive murals on the walls and tables of all different heights in the main area.…more bar stools and the like up front. perhaps raised booths along the sides like how they’ve done up the Victoria Inn in peckham. lovely space though and the snacks were good, haven’t had a full meal there yet but will soon!
Browning said, “A minute’s success pays the failure of years.” That’s how it feels, anyway, eh, Phil?
Hmm bit waspish at times over matters literary Dagmar, I’ve noticed. But no, nothing can make up for the waste and failure that is my life thus far.
I’m just another journeyman on the internet. They’re everywhere. Bloggers and such. I’ve thought of a novel, but have neither discipline nor good ideas. Not that there’s no inspiration. Perhaps a short whimsy about a wrongly spelled Chinese restaurant sign.
Look forward to the Rec Ground. I’d have bought that moose or bison head from The Castle if I could.
Browning, Phil — that was the joke.
Also, “A minute’s success pays the failure of years” was referring to the effort one makes on the throne, not on the page.
“But no, nothing can make up for the waste and failure that is my life thus far.” That is fab, like Rimbaud or Verlaine.
You go from strength to strength, Phil, on the page, on the throne, on the blog.
Naw, there’s nothing to live for. Ahead there’s only death. And hotwings.
The pigeons flying over hell plummet, drawn into the inferno, their frizzled wings torn off even as they fly, scoffed into the gobs of Camberwellians who revel in the roar of juggernauts and in the wailing of sirens.
Phew, Phil, it’s like Dante. It’s pouring out of you. Those restaurant reviews of yours are ace. Ace of spades!
Full moon tomorrow. There will be the second hate crime vigil in Trafalgar Square 7-9pm. There is a discreet sign in the window of Master U, the mesmerisingly discreet leather fetish shop in Vauxhall, saying so.
Thus we glide towards All Hallows Eve on the last day of this month, when the veil between the two worlds at last falls away.
@St Giles — non flash of the Camberwell Crypt Jazz Club website; YES but we have NO money. I think I’ve looked at it on my Mac at work, and John Hoare, our music man and web designer MADE it all on a Mac too.
Here’s the flickr site which had a lot of info on it:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/camberwellcrypt
And the normal site: http://www.camberwellcrypt.com
Josephine Davies’ Quintet last night were TIGHT!
i just wanted to be a round number
Hello there all you photographer FRIENDS
The Jazz Club at Camberwell Crypt is looking for a volunteer stand in photographer to come to the club on Friday 29th October to take pics of Timezone. Our “In House” photographer’s in the far north following up other commitments and can’t be there.
Funds are limited but entry, dinner and drinks would be on the house to the enthusiastic volunteer, and free entrance for up to three friends as well. Does that sound reasonable?
We need 20 or more photographs suitable for publication as a set, like this:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/camberwellcrypt/sets/72157625098954479/
in the club archive which would be accessible to anyone, particularly band members, to use for their own purposes, with Creative Commons License; Attributable Non Commercial; this means the photographer gets credit for the pics if they are used, for example on the band’s website or MySpace pages, but will not be paid for their use. You will, of course get full credit on the set and links to any of your other work if you’d like that in there as well.
If you fancy doing this, you’ll be liked big time for a LONG TIME, and are guaranteed a pretty good evening in return…
Any takers?
Please email both Mark and John on mark@camberwellcrypt.com and john@camberwellcrypt.com to take it on! (email both of us so we don’t miss you in the rush of offers by mistake).
X
Mark
By the way we discourage Flash because it’s too distracting for everyone.
“The Cave” is an interesting play by Mervyn Peake currently being world-premiered at the Blue Elephant Theatre on Wyndham Road till Saturday 6 November.
At the same time, casting has started for the movie about the rescue of the miners from the Hermits Cave. Brendan will be played by Sir Alex Ferguson and Moire by Karen Brady. The search has now begun for who will play Sir Alex and Karen.
Popped in to the Recreation Ground on Friday night for a quick drink. Staff were very friendly, decent selection of drinks and bar snacks were above average for a pub — had a very tasty homemade sausage roll.
Would have to agree with Mark about it being a bit cavernous, so with the place not being very busy while we were there it was lacking a bit of atmosphere. Maybe it gets a bit busier later on as I think they have a late licence?
Think I may have spotted Erin O’Connor in there having a quiet drink.
internet ate se5 forum?! or are they just uploading the new website? x
Good point Lili. Another thing to look into tomorrow.
Here you are:
“We have a confirmed data centre outtage that is currently affecting your website.
I will keep you updated here as I hear from them.”
That’s the problem. Feel better about it now I know what the problem is. The site is back now but the Discussion Board is not.
ah, data centre outtage…?!?!?!!?
x
Teacher booted out of Camberwell school for daring to speak up.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/oct/26/katharine-birbalsingh-tory-teacher-interview
Sweden sounds nice, but not this time of year.
One confused woman there. She has a point or two to make but also doesn’t seem to have any answers. Maybe her data centre had an outtage? Voting Tory was not a solution to her frustration although, given the story, it would appear to have been a solution to the immediate direction of her career. Sweden or not Sweden? Perhaps heading up a Private School would settle her disquiet. She could rub up next to her new blue rinsed friends.
St Michael & All Angels has a poor reputation apparently.
Not a lot of people know this because, as I’ve been promoting for years, the pub industry as a body cannot organise a pissup in a brewery but NEXT WEEK — that’s this Saturday 30 October to Saturday 6 November is British Pub Week.
There is a lot happening at The Sun and Doves — it’s all, well, most of it is, here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thesunanddoves/sets/72157625104450973/with/5118605655/
On Monday evening Sky News (I know, I know) will be at The Sun and Doves reporting on the week. Neil Robertson, the CEO of the British Institute of Innkeeping is doing a stint on the bar alongside the Regional Director of Punch Taverns who’s a very charming Irish man I’ve met but I can’t remember his name right now and Inez Ward, who’s Chair of British Pub Week and founder of Justice For Licensees — she set up a bit before the Fair Pint Campaign that I am involved with.
Why not come along on Monday (there’s a Private View of an exhibition a rather good trio of musicians fiddling and guitarring a la Manouche. It’ll be fun and we’ll be on Private Television too!
I’m concerned about secondary schools around here, but don’t think that teacher helped much, it at all. It’s obvious there are challenges.
The Evelyn Grace Academy looks like it might hold some hope.… featured on BBC news recently http://www.evelyngraceacademy.org/
Secondary schools. They are immensely better now than a decade ago when our first child was born and half the parents from antenatal class moved to the Home Counties or out of the UK altogether — to escape the terror of the lottery of secondary school placing for their children — ten years down the line which is where the ones who remained in Camberwell are now. Perhaps six of the families we got to know then decided to stay and make a go of it rafting in inner London’s educational white waters. I’ve been to see a LOT of schools recently; it’s a frantic, somewhat exhausting mission fraught with concerns about the continuing unfairness of the education system’s lottery.
London Nautical
Pimlico
Charter
Kingsdale
COLA — City Of London Academy
Haberdashers
I’ve got pics of most of them because they are interesting places and I wanted to post them up as a helpful visual guide to others who haven’t had the chance to get around the schools but I have not had any time at all in the last month to edit any of them… I can say they all have clear merits, they all get pretty good results, they all would do a decent job for any young person who got in. It’s also evident that, if you live in Camberwell, you will fall well OUTSIDE the catchment criteria of all save London Nautical (no girls allowed) and Kingsdale. As it happens both these schools are the ones we liked most — by a long margin but we are in the position of applying for a place to two hugely oversubscribed schools and the likelihood of our son getting in seems remote, even though I remain always optimistic. The situation has caused disagreement on strategy in our household and a lot of tension among friends who all feel their lot in Camberwell is undeservedly bad.
We did not visit:
Walworth Academy
Harris Academy at Peckham
St Michaels and All Angels
Evelyn Grace
Largely I think because we are prejudiced against our son going to any of them… even without knowing, really, what they are like. I have heard good things about Walworth and Peckham and Evelyn Grace but nothing good about St Michaels and All Angels from any quarter — even from teachers.
We have friends who are at Evelyn Grace and it is described as being run like a Boot Camp. They get good results but it’s a tough regime for kids who don’t need to be treated military fashion to concentrate their mind.
I also heard that THAT woman from St Michaels & All Angels started there in September whereas on the face of it I assumed she’d been there a long time and had deep experience of the school — and the story about parental permission to use images and names of children is NOT as she described. And that a book is somewhere in the offing for her already. IN as much as I am led to believe she had already written the thing.
Is she just a self promoting opportunist?
Great post Mark. Sounds like you’re a few years ahead of us. The catchment area seems to rule out many of the okay-to-better schools. Be lucky.
Fwiw, I’ve heard from kids who go there that Kingsdale and Aske’s are alright. Lot of people used to go to Pimlico, but less so now.
I’m not big on too much discipline, but what do I know.…
How does it work? The schools in your 1st list are good but you are very unlikely to get into them because they’re further away, and popular?
And the schools in the 2nd list are worse, but you could get into them because they are local? Sounds mad to me. What a mare it must be for parents.
If I ever had kids I wouldn’t school them round here beyond the age of 7 or so. I am sorry to say that.
COLA is a great name for a school though.
Peckham Academy is a fantastic amenity.
@Phil you suggest moving to Beckenham or Seven Oaks? Could you handle that?
So far as I understand, what you said in terms of preferences seems to be how it works.
I’m not sure what the answers are but, sadly yes, I guess my options would have to include moving further out.
Perhaps the answer is to not worry too much. Evidence suggests it can be advantageous to send children to a poorly performing local school rather than a more distant school:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7256628.stm
http://www.open.ac.uk/socialsciences/identities/findings/Reay.pdf
And this trend might become more pronounced if universities continue to be under pressure to meet targets for taking more children from deprived postcodes and schools without a strong history of sending children to university. Middle class kids in areas like Camberwell will help the universities meet their targets even if this does little to promote social mobility.
Easy for me to say though, as it’ll be at least a decade before I have to worry about it.
Interesting article James. Thanks.
Education is somehow becoming defined as a middle class pursuit and an identifier of a middle class person or family. I’m not sure why that’s happened since the desire to learn is common across the income scale.
@Gabe I blame the parents.
@James. I’m inclined to agree with you but I seem isolated in this. Most people I know will not listen to reason when it comes to the destruction of their childrens’ future.
ALL the schools have improved hugely in ten years so none of this is as bad as it used to be but it’s still a long way away from offering every child a good education that is appropriate to that child.
Most of the schools have improved so much they are massively oversubscribed to the extent they could actively pick and choose their pupils if they wanted. This is not allowed in law so they find ways to narrow down their task of narrowing down the intake to suit the school’s taste in children. Charter, for instance, has strict distance criteria (these criteria generally are after things like sibling policy and special needs). Demand to get into Charter is so high from the immediate catchment to the premises that each year they have been reducing the distance that children are allowed to live from the school street by street. Now it’s down to 1.7 kilometres and shrinking. This puts the school out of reach of pretty much every ordinary household in Camberwell. We live 2.8 kilometers away and we’re sort of on the right side of town for the school — even if we’re on the wrong side of the tracks when it comes to car insurance — I just found out today that Fortis, the firm I’ve been insuring with for a few years, no longer accepts premiums in the post code where I am — they rejected renewal (I’ve never made a claim against them, the broker says it’s very unfair) — and the company I’ve now gone to is £300 more than Fortis. Anyhow. That ought to be the subject of yet another line of investigation and campaigning I should get into about living and being in Camberwell…
Until two years ago Pimlico was taking kids from SE5 but no longer.
Haberdashers is a closed shop when you’re SE5 far away. The other schools take applications from further afield on different criteria, criteria I’ve been unable to fully digest but fortunately my partner is a teacher, she understands better than I do.
Kingsdale, which ten years ago had a reputation for pupils being held up at knifepoint by fellow pupils for dinner and pocket money has an open lottery policy backed up by a 15% entry on scholarship for excellence at Math, Sport and Music. After that there is some form of Banding which overall makes it a more open school for getting into than others in the list above. It’s also the one which impressed us most and we have friends there who LOVE it. At one point during the open day I began to well up I was so moved about the place — wishing my Grammar school had been like that. Kingsdale was the first Foundation School, I believe, and has become the school all others hope to emulate.
After all this my partner is absolutely convinced the only place our son will be offered is at St Michael’s All Angels etc. She says we should put him in for private school entrance exams. This is anathema to both of us – well, clearly not anymore for her now the grist is against the mill but hey when the chips are down true colours come out. I say if he doesn’t get in where we want him to go we ought to look at the other state schools closely – you know, the ones we haughtily excluded from our open day visits. This is on the grounds that 1) we really don’t know what they are like (we’ve started asking) because we are snobs and didn’t bother to find out and 2) a year at a poor state school when you have supportive, caring parents is likely to be a lot better than a year at a poor private school your parents cannot possibly afford.
She says ‘You don’t care about his happiness. You don’t care about the welfare of our child. You think it’s OK to experiment with his life?’ Well; Not exactly. But I do have a problem about private school – even when the crunch comes and it’s our own child’s future we’re on about. This is a MASSIVE problem for me. I’d rather home educate than private educate. Still, at this juncture I’m hoping he’ll get into Kingsdale or London Nautical in which case other parents in Camberwell will be going through the awful mangle and we’ll be OK. IF he’s not lucky enough to get through to where he deserves to?
Well – I’ll report back.
Power to you Mark. Good luck. No parent should have to deal with this lottery. Take your point on the private school, though it may end up being the best choice.
It’s an important stand though — since we’re all bled like pigs for taxes why should we spend another £10K or whatever it is a year for education services we’ve supposedly already paid for.
Phil G thank you. My own belief is that if we were properly serious about our children as a society we would put the right amount of resources into our Civil future and provide a good education for ALL children and break the back of social problems once and for all. Double the education budget concentrate on early years early up to secondary and socialise and civilise all at which point the majority of young people would be on the path to wanting to self learn and the rest could go and do national service. Everyone would rub shoulders with everyone else in the area they grow up in and learn that everyone else is, actually, OK.
Make state education so good and there would be no need for private education other than for rich people to keep their kids away from the stinky breath, smelly clothes and bad habits of the Hoi Polloi.
Remove choice from rich people and the well off middle classes, make their children attend local, well resourced schools that are part of the community and watch how suddenly they take a very concentrated interest in their local schools and their immediate area instead of living in ‘gated’ communities on exclusive streets and excluding themselves from the oiky neighbours.
Exciting events in the far north where I am for three days to find this happening:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-11656851
Funny thing is that internet service up here is so crap anyway the folks assumed it was just their connection that had failed. A bit like some parts of Camberwell still are almost off grid, by my own experience and other’s various accounts.
Incidentally, this is some of the best bread I’ve ever eaten:
http://www.greatnorthumberlandbread.co.uk/index.html
totally utterly random: time out london tweeted a reminder to londoners that the clocks are going back tonight. i think this may be happening in the whole country, not just london?
re education: ‘in my country’, the first eight years (primary school) were obligatory. as for the secondary school, at least the first two years were obligatory. nobody i knew did not finish the full four years of it. few chose not to go to uni, some didn’t get in because of their grades. all of it, including university education, was FREE. education is a right, not a privilege.
@Liliana: Correct. The English class system doesn’t recognise this.
Commendation to Time Out for remembering at all. WE are not like THEM.
It’s not 11.25 by the way. No. It’s 10.25
i have the time written on a piece of paper.
But Liliana, it changes every second. Some say it changes within the little seconds, even.
nope, it’s eight o’clock where i am
That’s a good system.
It’s still eight o’clock in my mind. Is that OK?
yes to both
Regarding the education debate…
We are just following the U.S.A masterplan which incidentally was the original British masterplan (pre-1865)
New topic. This week I got through my letterbox a proposal from Lambeth council about turning the whole Ruskin park area into a 20 mph zone.
The bit I live in is the northern tip of the zone on Northlands Street, but it involves putting speed humps on all of the streets on the south side of Coldharbour Lane from Kings down to Loughborough Junction (Caldecot, Cutcombe, Northlands, Vaughan, Harbour, Cambria, Padfield).
Then further south (away from Camberwell) there are loads more street humps and several road closures planned.
I’ve not seen much evidence of a speeding problem anywhere round my road (Northlands Street is short enough that drivers can barely reach over 20mph anyway) but what do you all think? To my mind it seems unnecessary but I’m not dead against it.
Do 20mph zones work? Does anyone who lives in the area feel speed is a particularly bad problem here? What do 20mph zones tend to do for property prices?
The boundary of the zone is Coldharbour Lane, Milkwood Road, Herne Hill, Denmark Hill.
@eusebiovic — really stupid thing is we just don’t learn from hundreds of years of observation that we don’t learn. Logically coalition government would tend to prevent wild ideological swings and produce a progressive, moderate outcome. Instead we have extremists in power for the first time in thirty years.
@Ben — really stupid thing is we just don’t learn from… Sometimes I pause at sinusoidal humps to consider the stupidity of a civilisation that contrives to exhault and promote use of private transport to the extent that roads become very dangerous places for people who are not in a steel machine and the people in the machines cannot stop themselves from being a serious danger to others that WE have to spend £millions on lumps bumps humps and other paraphernalia trying to make the roads as safe as they were before we extolled and promoted and…
And please don’t mention Betting shops and Commercial Churches. PAH!
Ben
I live in the area you mentioned (Cambria Road) it’s already a 20mph zone and no it doesn’t need any speed humps whatsoever…
We’re heading towards the end of March 2011 and councils are having to spend their budget to get at least the same (or more) next year — or that’s the so called “logic” which they tend to use…
The only thing the roads around here need are resurfacing…but speed humps are completely superfluous
But that’s not really the point…is it?
talk about superfluous — we have a nice bunch (at least 20) totally unnecessary knee-high bollards scattered fairly randomly around the estate grounds. designed and placed to stop cars from parking? people from walking? children from playing? nobody knows.
we suspect it was the bollard-gnomes who planted them all in the middle of the night.
or the amateur stone age crop-circlists.
Yeah, mental aren’t they, these road furniture cretins from ‘local government’. God knows what they dream of at night. Bollards, rumble strips, bumps, humps and ‘calmed’ streets.
I see the works near Denmark Hill station have now lifted up another gear. Ripped up the (perfectly OK) tarmac at the end of the road and are now bricking it up. How much did that cost? And why? WTF for?
I’ve yet to come across a single person who supports the road humps idea in streets around Ruskin Park… but someone must have campaigned for it. Am I missing something here, is there a genuine speeding problem in this area that can’t see? Anyone ever seen anything?
Only speeding I’ve seen is down Coldharbour Lane, particularly at that slightly dangerous bend the cars hurtle round by the Green Man job skills place. And which is outside the zone, as a main road.
I don’t want to object to this 20mph idea if there’s a reason for it I haven’t experienced yet, but from what I see in my own street it’s entirely pointless.
I sense that a lot of road calming measures are put in place because local authorities ‘think’ that local people will ‘think’ the local authority is ‘doing’ something because they fear that without doing road calming measures the local population would ‘think’ the local authority is ‘doing’ ‘nothing’ for the area. WHICH; much of the time, the local authority is not doing. ‘Anything’ that is. i.e. the local authority tends to do nothing for the area because the local authority often lives outside the area and has not a clue about what would make it better for people who live there.
Humps and bumps and lumps are what seem to get noticed. “well at least the local authority is looking after road calming measures for us”.
Actually on my street what gets noticed is double shootings and hit and runs.
Resident parking was introduced around the Ruskin Park zone last year despite it being totally unnecessary…
The reason the council noticed it as a place on their radar was because of a few numptys complaining that they couldn’t park their car right in front of their house and had to suffer the indignity of walking 200 yards from their front door…
Hence — pointless resident parking and now pointless street calming measures…
Hello everybody
Does anybody agree with me that the successful regeneration of Granville Arcade in Brixton could work in Camberwell too? It’s proving a huge success and bringing new money and confidence into the area — we could do with a bit of that.
I remember there used to be an indoor market space just by the green on Camberwell New Road but it seems to be blocked up now. Can anybody think of any appropriate spaces that could house start-up food and retail businesses?
The agent for change in Brixton was Spacemakers, who were approached by Lambeth and collaborated with the landlords.
The Southwark Cabinet Member for Regeneration is Fiona Colley, fiona.colley@southwark.gov.uk. She may be a starting point.
ps. Does anybody have news about the future of the Sun & Doves site?
Yes, Sara, you’re right, that market was great. I bought a second-hand, metallic-light-blue, proper old Claude Butler there. You have an excellent point. A low-overheads, hand-made and unique, one-off market would do Camberwell a power of good.
There was talk recently of the parade of shops on Camberwell New Road, where Kamera Obscura is, clubbing together is some way to make a feature of their patch.
That would be one place to start.