February’s Miscellanea
Written by Peter | Filed under Development, History, Transport
A couple of calls for participation:
Camberwell Business Network and SE5Forum would like some feedback from you about local shopping; and the Met police are looking for witnesses to a very nasty hit and run on Champion Hill last week.
Quick bit of transport news: TfL asked Southwark Council for their preference of proposed extensions to the Bakerloo line, and the Council have said that Lewisham via Camberwell and Peckham is their choice. However, that’s very far from being a done deal, and even if it were we’d be looking at some 15–20 years away. Still, perhaps one day…
The Council recently posted some historic maps online, which are interesting to look at. Did you know The Fox On The Hill used to be The Fox Under The Hill? Not sure what brought him to the surface.
That is all for now. I’m still looking for more contributors. Show of hands, please?
“Did you know The Fox On The Hill used to be The Fox Under The Hill? Not sure what brought him to the surface”
I’m guessing 99p pints of beer courtesy of Wetherspoons…
When the old fox was under the hill no-one knew he was there, which wasn’t really good for business. So when fox hunting more or less disappeared in these parts an enterprising landlord changed the name of the pub. The rhyme that was displayed has long since gone but it used to read:
‘I am a crafty fox, you see,
But there is no harm in me;
My master he has placed me here
To let you know he sells good beer’
This is from “British History Online”
Old and New London: Volume 6
Author: Edward Walford
Published: 1878
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=45281
‘The “Fox-under-the-Hill” still remains a wellknown Camberwell sign, although the old tavern has been demolished to give place to one more in accord with modern ideas. That the neighbourhood was at one time the haunt of “Reynard” may be inferred from the fact that a thoroughfare close by is called Dog Kennel Lane. The tavern was formerly called “Little Denmark Hall,” there being at that time another house of entertainment known as “Great Denmark Hall,” which was subsequently converted into one or more private houses. The “Fox-under-the-Hill” was formerly the starting-point of the Dulwich patrol.
On things Dead in the Water; here’s a new shot on the Planning Application for Gala Bingo:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/markdodds/6917659395/in/photostream/lightbox/
Does anyone know if any Camberwell pubs do a Sunday vegetarian roast dinner option that is not nut roast (yuk)? I’m looking for all the traditional bits (yorkshire, veg etc…) but with something interesting and tasty instead of the meat.
In recent weeks I’ve tried George Canning (pasta option), Tiger & Phoenix (both nut roast). Thanks.
Is it the same fox thats in my garage
@john lewis, could it be
this one: http://bit.ly/xbxPCy
this one: http://bit.ly/yveUym
this: http://bit.ly/zKPofM
this: http://bit.ly/xDQZLD
or this one: http://bit.ly/wxSztn
?
Nothing wrong with Nut Roast. You’d be lucky to find a decent vegetarian meal in and around Camberwell. Let me know if you do.
Wuli wuli does a good range of dishes that just happen not to be made of meat.
I think the Bear does a good veggie option for sunday roast.
Anyone know about the Cambria? I’ve never eaten there, but sure I’ve heard others big it up on the veggie front.
Roasts at Cambria good — from memory when I went with a vege friend towards the end of last year there was a choice of several dishes in the roast range including (perhaps inevitably) nut roast but also vege sausages and burgers, plus there were the usual vege burger options for non-roasts.
Just remembered, the best veggie option I’ve had was at the Pheonix. I chose it over the meaty one. It was a sweet potato and goat’s cheese wellington. Blooming divine. But a few years ago now. Not sure what they have on now.
Sunday Roast subsitutes are not abounding but I’ll second Wuli Wuli on all fronts vegetarian such that I have repeatedly nagged Jay Rayner to do a review. He refused. Jay is mistaken.
Falafel is a long way from Traditional Sundays too but their falafel wraps and vegetable curries are exceptionally good — as are their shwarma and other meat dishes whether dressed with their sauces or not. This probably is the cheapest, best value, delightfully healthy food in Camberwell.
Silk Road has a number of excellent meatless dishes as well. Their Cabbage main meal, I can’t remember what it’s called, is the Best Cabbage dish in the Known Universe.
Separately from these endorsements:
Saigon, a Thai restaurant in Greenwich is worth the trip AND
E Mishkin’s non Kosher Jewish Deli opposite Drury Lane Theatre in St Catherine’s Street is brilliant. The latest in Russell Norman’s highly competent roll out of happy food places London has long lacked… Norman is a force for good on the London catering scene
The online questionnaire for the Camberwell Business Network is a bit odd.
It seems to be only about food shopping, though it doesn’t explain that at the start. For example, to complete the sentence “When you cannot buy what you need locally, you…”, one option is “grow your own vegetables and keep chickens”.
It mentions lazy businessmen in question 6. A bit weird to use “lazy”, and a bit dated to use “businessmen”? And then I can’t see how where you park your car is relevant (Q7).
Anyway, this is a long way of saying I did try to do my bit by filling out the form but gave up as I can’t see how it would be useful?!
St Giles are applying for a new license to reopen Jazz in the Crypt; here’s a request for help from the company who want to come back to run it again:
Thank you for all the messages of support and enquiries about re-opening.
Proceedings are underway to reopen the Crypt at St. Giles Camberwell as a Jazz venue with it being run by Jazz Umbrella.
Jazz Umbrella is a non-profit-making charity which has the objective of promoting jazz in London. They have been responsible for programming the music for most of the period.
It has now got to the stage of an application for a “Licence under Faculty”. This is the church’s internal planning procedure.
There is a public notice displayed at the Church asking for objections.
Just in case there are any it would be good if you could write in support.
You might like to say:
* How you have enjoyed the provision of good music at reasonable prices (over 14 years)
* How you praise the Church for its contribution to the Arts in Camberwell and London
* Etc etc.
Please write to:
The Registrar
Minerva House
5 Montague Close
London SE1 9BB
And head your letter “ St. Giles Church Crypt – Application for Licence under Faculty”. Unfortunately there is no email address so it will cost a stamp.
Please write now so that you letter is received by 1st March.
I think the Fox Under the Hill was further down Denmark Hill, roughly where the police are, near Costcutter. I believe it may have taken a hit during the war.
Here’s an interesting, topical for Camberwell, piece from the Times:
16 February 2012 by The Times
No 10 too soft on big business says Cameron ally
David Cameron’s pledge to create a “responsible capitalism” has already run into trouble after an ally complained of a “policy vacuum” inside Downing Street on tackling energy companies, banks and big business.
Zac Goldsmith, a former adviser to Mr Cameron, said that banks remained “too big to fail”. He named companies such as BP, Tesco and Costa Coffee as among those wielding too much power.
In a frank assessment of the willingness of No 10 to take on big business, Mr Goldsmith, who played a key role in rebranding the Tories before the last election, said that policies were “still being influenced disproportionately by vested interests”.
The Prime Minister, Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg have been competing to prove to voters that they are serious about reforming capitalism amid economic hardship, soaring energy prices and perceived rewards for failure in the City. All made speeches on the theme last month.
Mr Goldsmith is seen as an influential member of the new Tory intake. He was an early supporter of Mr Cameron, having advised him on environmental policy. His attack came in a public meeting only a week after the Prime Minister had promised to create “socially responsible and genuinely popular capitalism”.
Mr Goldsmith said: “I would say there is a policy vacuum when it comes to addressing these issues. The fact is, the really important decisions are still being influenced disproportionately by vested interests.
“The banks are too big to fail. It applies to energy companies. BP funded $20 billion in compensation for [the Deepwater Horizon] oil spill and yet it didn’t make any slightest bit of difference in the medium term to the value of that company. They are on a scale that it is almost impossible to imagine. It also applies to the high street. It’s now the case that one in every £7 spent in retail is spent in Tesco.
“Now in a situation like that, it is impossible to maintain any kind of balance of power — it is impossible for communities, elected councillors, independent shopkeepers and so on to exert any kind of pressure, which has perverted the entire process.”
He said that despite promises from Downing Street to give citizens more power through the Localism Bill, he was not seeing evidence of major changes. He gave the example of a local Costa Coffee shop opposed by residents and councillors, which was still given planning approval.
“We have allowed a situation where our banks have grown too big to fail, single supermarket firms control nearly a third of the retail market and distort policy, political decisions are taken at a level that ordinary people can never influence, and industrial– scale agribusiness is tearing up the planet,” he told The Times later.
“The issue of scale is of paramount importance and relevance. If we are looking for a paradigm shift, I think scale must be at its heart.”
The Government’s Localism Bill was a “step in the right direction” but “it doesn’t live up to the promises that preceded it”, he said. Key elements, including the creation of local referendums, had been taken out of the legislation.
“There are few things more disempowering than whole communities and their elected local representatives being steamrollered by remote planning authorities, and that was supposed to be addressed by the introduction of local referendums.
“That clause was first watered down in the Bill so that the results would be non-binding, and then deleted altogether. It’s a fundamental issue in my view: either we trust people to make these decisions for themselves, or we don’t.”
This article first appeared in The Times, on Thursday 16th February
Author: Michael Savage, Political Correspondent for The Times
Costa Coffee are opening a branch in Brixton in the old Sanders jewelery shop underneath the railway bridge…
I’ll still be drinking my coffee in any number of independent outlets in the Indoor Markets and up the Stockwell Road (not all of these are considered trendy either)
Still, I’m absolutely sure people will like the shiny new sign and the quality of coffee which not too long ago would have been rejected for fertiliser.
Jazz in the Crypt, now there’s a church worth going to. A stroke of genius, Jesus!
(He was always such a cool guy. Shh… don’t tell him!)
Let us respond as in Peter’s post above and get the Crypt going again.
Some photographs of the Skanska development on Coldharbour Lane, Lambeth, managed by Nottinghill Housing Association on an ‘unaffordable homes’ basis.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/markdodds/sets/72157629445904527/with/6780424416/
This is all I can bring myself to comment on the prospect of there being jazz at the crypt
I hear that the Sun and Doves has been squatted. Not sure how I feel about this.
I am broadly in favour of responsible squatting, but also think that you should only be allowed to squat until the owners genuinely have a plan to reuse the building.
@ Monkeycat
I don’t think the owners have a credible plan
Why don’t we set up a pop-up people’s pub there selling free beer to the workers?
The new moon over Camberwell has a misty halo around it which indicates a superb spring and fabulous summer.
Once again, Camberwell has come up trumps against the odds!
Got planning permission letter over the weekend for the little toiletty thing in Bruswick Park — conversion to A3 (cafe).
Looks like someone may have finally taken the council up on their offer to use it.
Over the weekend my road (Northlands Street) and several nearby residential roads (Vaughan Road, Harbour Road etc) that run off Coldharbour Lane had speed bumps erected and 20mph speed limit signs painted on them. The bumps are the gentle sloping type across the whole width of the road that don’t really work effectively (nowhere near as effectively as the smaller, higher raised bumps that you can position your wheels either side of, as found on Southwell Road for example).
The council polled local residents on whether they wanted this a while back but to my mind they are utterly pointless — I have never seen a car speeding on these roads, and they are so short that a car would really have to try pretty hard to get up to 30mph from one end to the other anyway.
I believe they are a poor use of council funds — am I wrong? The new traffic islands by the old Green Man Pub/ Loughborough Junction rail station on the other hand are long overdue and will definitely improve safety at a dangerous junction.
@Ben
February arrives and councils usually try and spend any excess funds they have before april to ensure that they get the same amount or more for next year. There is always a lot of tarmac resurfacing of perfectly drivable roads around this time of the year for precisely the same reason.
It’s about budget and contracts not neccessarily about whether the speed bumps are needed or whether that money could be better spent on much more vital services.
This is the modern world — But, it’s not right and needs changing.
@ Ben, yes, we too had a ‘speed hump’ put in last week in Bavent Rd. I’ve lived here for 12 years and never seen an accident in the street. We’re in front of Kings which is already a 20mph zone, and the only people driving down here are looking for somewhere to park, so are only travelling at 10mph max. I don’t remember the council polling me or any of my neighbours regarding this and find it an atrocious waste of money. The pathetic little white arrows that were sprayed on have already all but gone, and some of the tarmac is also collapsing (less than a week after it was laid!) Lambeth Council need to be transparent on who decided this and who got the contract!
Go Mark GO!
Ben, Victor and Mark: Shameful waste of scarce cash. Utterly stupid dumb ridiculous.
Now if they put the same money into Sinusoidal Humps that would be a different matter. Wouldn’t it?
Oh? They did already?
That’s Lambeth.
In Southwark they are turning a tiny bog into a cafe. Huh. Genius
What is this about feeling bad?
Mine Got — is it me or does it suddenly sound like the East Dulwich Forum on here.. next it’ll be demand for an M&S simply food and reports of suspicious foreign looking leaflet droppers.
The ‘pathetic spray-on arrows’ are only temporary until they come round with the proper paint…
Mein Gott Nick … where do you get all this notion that here is like East Dullwich forum from?
Sorry for the atrocious spelling in my last entry, thanks for the subtle corrections Mark. In answer to your question — the speed hump debate and the bollocks being trotted out as fact is mildly annoying, thats it.
That’s it.
Waitrose syndrome.
The quality of langoustines…
The quality of mercy is not strain’d,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest:
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.
Camberwell doesn’t need an M&S or Waitrose…we live between Brixton and Peckham so all the fruit and veg is catered for as well as the (reasonably) fresh fish and meat.
However, a community arts centre located here would make perfect sense…if it had a cinema and the library was relocated there — even better.
That’s all we really need to make us fly!
Nick has a point — leave the flying to the 4x4’s who go over them too fast and ruin their suspension.
- seriously though, it is an annoying waste of council funds
You can’t get Percy Pigs in Peckham.
( You wan’ goat? )
No I might-a kill I queen
( Try de beef nuh? )
I no check fi no grass weh green
( Wha’ bout fowl? )
What’cha know is time fi a change
( Mere fish ? )
Got children out a dat range
( How ’bout de steak? )
What’cha know, me no sight me rate
( Try tripe? )
Bu’n me belly when I pull me pipe
( What about de pork then? )
Hush your mouth man, me brethren hear
Sell I a pound of dat t’ing there
Was it just me, or did Camberwell smell vaguely of farts this morning? Especially around St Giles Church …
Not sure about farts, but there is a new Chinese opening opposite the House Gallery.
It’s called Well Mix Oriental. Not sure if it’s in the Silk Road / Wuli Wuli vein or more of the Noodel City line.
Fingers crossed for the former.
So some good news and bad.
Bad first. Planning permission was granted last night for the old bingo hall to be given change of use to a church. The way in which this was done and the downright dodgy practice from several councillors is shocking but not at all surprising. They are supposed to limit the capacity to 1200. However, it will be up to members of the public to report any failure to do this and the council would then act on this information. Based on previous form from the planning department, this basically gives the church free rein to do what they want.
In other (good) news, I read somewhere that the old convieniences in Brunswick Park are to be made into a cafe.
Here are a few plans and the documents on the planning website. I think I like it. I will be sending an email to support it.
planningonline.southwarksites.com/planningonline2/DocsOnline/Documents/209422_1.pdf
planningonline.southwarksites.com/planningonline2/DocsOnline/Documents/209419_1.pdf
http://planningonline.southwarksites.com/planningonline2/AcolNetCGI.exe?ACTION=UNWRAP&RIPNAME=Root.PgeDocs&TheSystemkey=9542738
Can anyone advise on the best type of secondary lock to have on a communal front door (burglary last week, locks need changing).
I want something that involves zero effort for the other tenants as they are infuriatingly too lazy to lock with a key (or even, I suspect, to turn a knob). And that can be opened without a key from the inside in event of a fire.
Something that engages a deadbolt as you pull the door shut like my Ingersoll SC71 top lock (but doesn’t require you to have a key in two separate locks at once to get in), is there such a thing?
@ Nick W.Yes, Lambeth really need to be spending this money at the moment, and, just to keep you in the loop, they came back yesterday, and spray painted the ‘pathetic white arrows’ again.….
So thats why they are handcarving all the paving stones in Westminster — and theres me thinking it was for the Olympics
I don’t know about the arrows, but I do wonder if the council have actually identified a need for the speed bumps; if so, they should probably communicate that to the residents.
But as a former council employee, I can confirm that sometimes these decisions are taken to use up budgets before the start of the new financial year.
Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupidity. Everywhere.
The Brunswick BOGS are too small to make into a cafe. Stupid.
Planning department. STUPID. STUPID. STUPID.
DEMOCKRACY
Being interviewed by the FT today for an article about the end of community pubs.
By CAMRA next week for a film about the differences between tied and free of tie pubs.
And today the Guardian announces they are looking for publicans to contribute there
http://m.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/feb/28/future-local-pub-pubcos?cat=commentisfree&type=article
Looks like there may be some uptake of interest about the devastation that pubcos are imposing on Britain’s culture and heritage.
Better sooner than later eh.
What’s going on with the newly imposed parking restrictions west of Vestry Road. All it seems to do is push everyone Eastwards, causing chaos and I guess, eventually the need for restrictions throughout the borough.
Does it make any sense to anyone? Who dreams these ideas up? Guess it is just a way of extracting more money from everyone.…
I’m quite intrigued by this Brunswick toiletty business.
If you can have a club in an old loo ( http://www.timeout.com/london/bars/venue/2:20445/cellar-door ) why not a cafe?
JK
I think what protected the area from parking restrictions was the desire of Council employees to park for free. Now they’ve (largely) moved away, I think the restrictions will creep eastwards down Lyndhurst Grove. It is as you say increasingly a bugg3r to park around there.
Brunswick cafe sounds great. You don’t the need the paraphernalia of a “bar/kitchen”, like a chest freezer for expensive, irradiated langoustines, to serve tea. That park has many friends. A cafe, that is that, a cafe, will be nice.
Many of us are small people in Camberwell, some very small — ours are currently deliberating between Yale and Harvard, true, but that’s as far “upscale” as we go at the moment and it’s only a light-hearted jokey thing to do to pass the time in Lucas Gardens.
A cup of proper coffee at Mary’s Cafe on the Walworth Road, a popular and long-lived place, costs 80p. Perhaps, at the new cafe in Brunswick Park, two cups of tea may be bought for the price of the Financial Times, which is £2.50.
The conversion of Vestry Rd, etc, into a controlled parking area was breathtaking in its audacity; within days of the council moving operations from the town hall, the restrictions came in. It used to be their unofficial car park. Fantastically cynical.
I seem to remember that last year they did a “consultation”, claiming that any introduction of controlled parking would be of benefit to local residents. At the time there was no problem with parking, even with the added numbers of council employees. However, it has made parking pretty much impossible, and the roads that are now permits only are a ghost town. Vestry and westward is usually almost completely without cars these days — it seems to not only to be a cynical act, but one that does not work.
Do they need to do consultations to enact further restrictions? it is surely detrimental to the whole area.…certainly not in anyones interests
I am coming out in speed bumps at this show of bourgeois tizzy.
I live in the EC parking area and can honestly say that the area has become a much nicer place to be. Before the restrictions were introduced one would have drive around for extended periods trying to find a place. Ironicly I now rent a garage so parking is not a problem so I get the best of both worlds.
When a CPZ was introduced around Kings College Hospital I was initially against it.
With hindsight it has improved the area hugely. Although I pay quite a lot for the privilege I can now be fairly sure of a parking space within a reasonable walk from home.
Restrictions don’t apply at weekends though, so if I use the car I have no chance of being able to park anywhere near home.
And before you ask, how else would I get all my organic veg home?
Just as a declaration of interest, I don’t have a car so don’t care about the CPZ. I just found the actions of the council quite incredibly brazen.
Let’s not be beastly to Southwark Council. That is Oedipal.
@Dagmar
Of course, ever the voice of reason & understanding, you are quite right…
To show our appreciation, let’s dedicate a song to them instead:
Substitute the first line for “Follow Canal Walk down to Burgess Park”
Camberwell Green Farmers Market tomorrow Saturday 3rd March 10am to 2pm
Message just in from Barbara Pattinson, SE5 Forum Chair:
Visit SE5 Forum’s stall tomorrow at the Camberwell Green Farmers Market; pick up your FREE Camberwell SE5 shopping bag, your FREE Camberwell walks map and be among the first to have a look at the reports on the Revitalise Camberwell consultation.
Look forward to seeing you there.
With all good wishes
Barbara Pattinson
That’s good, Dodds, well posted, a positive end to a somewhat depressing week of grim news.
The giant church will happen at the old cinema, the neo-American church of greed and belief but no faith, braying about its own fabulous self-worth. Self-worth seems to be a big feature of urban culture — ego-based is Godless. Don’t they get it?
stopped into a church
I passed along the way
well, I got down on my knees
and I pretend to pray
you know the preacher likes the cold
he knows I’m gonna stay
Also the grim news of the riot two, who robbed the beaten-up Malaysian student, getting convicted today. They waltzed away from his pools of blood, puffed up with pride.
They will get elite, five-star treatment like the Preddies who killed Damilola Taylor — thousands and thousands of pounds spent on their welfare and self-worth.
What a week for Dereck Chisora, who fought a blinder, then fell for the charms of panto dame David Haye… Neither of them are a Mohammed Ali, let us face it, who chose to go to prison rather than kill Vietnamese people.
Anyone looking at Britain from the outside this week would say this is a shit country full of pathetic urban narcissists. You get me?
Then the copper who was blinded by Raoul Moat — hero of the white chav culture of the North East — hangs himself.
Dagmar
Stop reading the papers / listening to the news — its just bad news all the time. Its all designed to bring us down.
Good things happen every day — its the small things that give our lives meaning — look around and you will see good deeds everywhere. Karma takes care of everything else
Have a great weekend
The SE5 Forum stall on the Green will be a good place to start the weekend, true. We should be solid together in Camberwell. But the urban self worth culture is bad news every day, it is written on the subway walls, John Lewis’s, it is dead in the water of life, it is toxic.
@Dagmar
Aye, we live in a world which absently-mindedly conforms to a more insiduous, camouflaged form of fascism…where the insecure threatened egotist thrives.
The vast majority haven’t caught up …the smell is yet to reach their nostrils.
@John Lewis
Karma is a great thing which I believe in but I see no sign of it showing it’s face in my lifetime — well assuming I’ve got another 35–40 years!
The simple things in life like food,film and music on the green are a great way to feel slightly better about this mortal coil — which co-incidently is the name of a great band — 4AD records rule!
Article in the Financial Times today about pub closures. The Sun and Doves and I feature: http://on.ft.com/w6r3g3
And last week there was a call in the Guardian for people concerned by the loss of a pub in their community or pubs in general http://on.ft.com/w6r3g3 John Harris, the journalist, is asking people affected to contact anywherebutwestminster@gmail.com with their concerns and thoughts for take up in further articles.
How do you embed an image or a video here?
Like this.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/mar/02/good-samaritans-malaysian-student-riots-convicted
?
That’s a link Dagmar. You’ve posted a couple of videos before that have embeded in your post so that passers by can see an image in the thread.
My post above had a Filckr image grab in it but it doesn’t register — only ‘How do you embed an image or a video here?’ is published.
Everything should be embeded rather than digitalised. I love those early mediaeval manuscripts with the pictures, colours, enamel, beading and text all done by hand. Good old Bede.
Just as pleasing are the brilliant little SE5 Forum badges being given out yesterday at the farmers’ market. They are very discreet but effective.
Thus Camberwell rises above London inch by inch on its way celestialwards. Well done, the Forum, a very friendly and welcoming stall.
Apparently everyone at the Joiners Arms yesterday was wearing a new SE5 Forum badge, thus subtly asserting their SE5 credentials. Let us all “join”!
Hmmmm…
Cause and Effect dudes, Cause and Effect
Make the connection!
celestialwards is where the camberwell north of camberwell church street is going indeed!
Lucky you! x
I want to join your church. It sounds good. And quick. x
I’ve been looking at Burgess Park a little more closely than I’ve had the chance to previously. I can feel a growing upswell of anger possibly about to become furious. £6million is a lot of money to spend and still leave parts of the park untouched… dilapidated and abandoned. What do I know? Common Sense? Will reserve judgement until more is completed. Behind schedule of course. Whatever really DID happen to the Trust that was set up to manage the park’s development?
Just WHO, REALLY, is in CHARGE around here?
Some more pics added to the set of Skanska / Notting Hill Housing buildings on Coldharbour Lane: with large fencing art commission by Gethan and Myles. http://bit.ly/AD6BJk
Interesting piece on BBC TheOneShow tonight about betting shops. Camberwell/Peckham had their 15 minutes.
Nice to know everyone knows it’s wrong; nobody gives a shit.
What did they say about ‘Well?
70+ betting shops just in the Borough of Southwark alone with a significantly noticeable above average concentration in Camberwell/Peckham/Walworth…
ditto — Junk Food Outlets/Off Licences
For those who have never had the unique pleasure to attend a Camberwell Community Council meeting and excercise your democratic rights and work out WHO REALLY is in CHARGE around here — this is a brief sample of what you have all been missing…
no, no, these are all allegations!!! you clearly do not work in the planning department, none of you! oh, honestly!
Southwark Council don’t “plan in” betting shops or African churches. These concerns have the money to take over property. Property is very probably some kind of social theft, so is definitely not a charitable matter, it’s part of business and part of globalization.
Any local authority will collapse if it becomes derelict in the marketplace. Remember Liverpool:
“You end in the grotesque chaos of a Labour council, a LABOUR council, hiring taxis to scuttle round the city handing out redundancy notices to its own workers.”
A developer told me today, in response to me saying ‘Camberwell needs a shot in the arm’ “Southwark’s a tin pot borough, the worst in Britain, planning department terrible. They never tell you what they’re doing, they just spring it on you and it’s always a rejection, without explanation. Nightmare’.
We know it’s not true don’t we.
http://bit.ly/zLBCdc
In all honesty.
ALL I have EVER heard about Southwark planning department is allegations of incompetence, double dealing, skulduggery, mercurial blankness, impenetrable silence, unresponsive, surly, rude communication.
Clearly when a new political regime gets in NOTHING changes. Must be the TUPE protection.
STOP PRESS. No more ranting please!*
Orchard is saved, for now. And the library will not be built in front of the Court.
http://londonist.com/2012/03/reprieve-for-camberwell-orchard-as-council-backs-down-over-library.php
*Though I do agree that the planning department are corrupt at best, incompetent at worst. Or is that visa versa?
How depressing. Another successful campaign to persuade the Council to spend their money elsewhere. Well done all!
@Julian: Problem is with this council is that they decide first to spend money, then “consult”. Since what they want to spend money on and what people actually need rarely meet, you do end up fighting against it. The library was a great case in point. At no time did the council ever give people the chance to say where they would like to see the library move to. We were only asked if we liked libraries and if we use them, which is a pretty stupid question if what you plan to do is move the library.
Also, and you may not realise this, last year the plan was to make the orchard and the area into a playground. Not sure why since there seems to be one on the green already.
Both of these schemes have had lots of money spent on them, consulting and planning, but at no stage were people asked what they wanted to happen to the orchard. It was simply a question of “this is what we are going to do, now what do you think?”.
So, yes. I agree with you, but disagree with your despair about the decision. Also, from the Londoist report it seems that they are still going to build a library, but look at other areas. That’s still good.
This library — the one that has just been cancelled — was going to built this year. Now it won’t be. And unfortunately no other library is going to be built either. You insisted on getting something better than you were being offered; but you have ended up with nothing. And so have we. Thanks.
@Julian: Much as I would like to believe that politicians at Southwark Council listened to the views of some people, I very much doubt that the campaign for the orchard was in itself the reason for dropping it. There will be another reason, as hinted by the Londonist.
Good to have you on board Julian. Now that you’re here, how about some clarity?
What are YOUR solutions? Come on Julian! Give it your best shot. What are YOUR ideas for Camberwell?
‘WE’ are all ears.
And WHO are the people YOU refer to as ‘you’ and who are the ‘WE’ you’re talking about?
Still trying to reach the dizzying heights of ‘embed success’ already reached by others here. If this works, you may already have seen it. A strong moving message about Joseph Koni, Ugandan Child Killer:
KONY 2012 from INVISIBLE CHILDREN on Vimeo.
Oi Mark!
Don’t scare off the new people! Give them room to speak! NO INTERWEB SHOUTING!
Hello by the way. Long time no see.
Hello.
The orchard will be slow on growth but at least it will have some, tended by the big society. The library prefab effort was probably cut anyway, so we can’t blame the trees for that.
The solar flares are affecting us all. Some people’s sort of natural satnav seems to be affected.
THE LIBRARY
As vice chair of SE5 Forum I was, along with other ‘Stakeholders’ in SE5 / Camberwell such as people from Camberwell Society, asked by Southwark about the plans to move the prefab building from one council site onto the Magistrates’ court piazza to be used as a temporary library space.
When I asked what plans were afoot for final relocation of the library at the end of the temporary period the Officer indicated there were no plans.
When I asked what plans were afoot for re-letting the shops and above accommodation where the library is now the Officer indicated not a lot of thought had gone into it. I seem to recall maybe Costa Coffee being mentioned. That’s when I asked if anyone at the council had considered asking local people, residents and existing cafe owners, whether they thought YET ANOTHER coffee shop was a good idea — and why did Fusion have a Chain Coffee outfit from Leicester (? I think they are based there) doing their cafe rather than a local being invited to run the concession and why were there plans for ANOTHER cafe in the new library to be put on the piazza when it’s completely unclear as to what is NEEDED locally.
When I asked if the council thought putting a library, temporary or not, on one of the rare open spaces in Camberwell, a project I guessed MUST be at least £1.5million, when there are obvious opportunities to get developers to pitch for putting the library into a local project (such as at the JobCentre site, which is due for being vacated before June 2012) the Officer said ‘Look, you should be getting behind this project and asking your networks to get behind it too. We know there’s support for a new library, this has been signed off already and frankly if Camberwell can’t get behind this it’s the last chance it’ll get and there won’t be another chance to get any investment here in the foreseeable future’.
I paraphrase the quote, I did not have a recorder running, but assure that this reflects accurately the tone the statement was delivered — it was intended as a threat. That’s not what ‘Stakeholder’ involvement demands: ‘We’re doing this, what do you think? By the way, you better LIKE IT or bloody well LUMP IT MATE because it’s ALL YOU LOT ARE GOING TO GET’.
I encouraged the Officer to encourage the Council to have the courage to open up a discussion with people rather than telling them what is going to happen. This suggestion got a harrumph and the ‘stakeholder contact’ broke down into an awkward rest of meeting only smoothed over by my making light of what had happened. Pathetic.
I’ve kept quiet about that comment publicly until now out of a misplaced sense of duty toward our elected representatives. But my point is that this was a clear insight into the culture of ‘community engagement’ so enthusiastically adoptedand adhered to by Southwark administration and so beloved by the Serfs who are victim of it. It’s public body arrogance beyond belief and what the notion of Localism is meant to combat. Where IS democracy?
I’ve seen so much profligate nonsense and waste and utter aimlessness in vision, policy and strategy around Camberwell for so long now I find it increasingly difficult to keep my fingers away from the keyboard.
Monkeycat.
Julian can stick up for himself he doesn’t need you tiptoeing around for him.
There’s not enough shouting around this manor. And, Dagmar, it’s NOT the SOLAR FLARES.
OK, it’s the mental flares when straightleg is in.
That’s exactly what I thought about the flares. How many buttons in the waistband?
Thanks for the comments on vege Sunday lunches above (apologies for the delay in responding). The Cambria do amazing lunches but I’ve only had the pleasure twice. Every other time we’ve tried we’ve been reminded that you have to make a reservation — and we’re just not that organised.
I will keep looking…
I live in the Lucas Garden CPZ. I also commented in favour of it during the consutlation. Parking was very, very difficult around here between the hours of 8am to 5pm. So if you are a typical commuter (leaving in the morning and coming home in the evening) you wouldn’t necessarily notice there was a problem. However I work unusual hours and it was perfectly normal to end up parking four or five streets away from my house. I am ashamed now that the streets are practically empty during the day as it seems a waste. In the consultation I suggested that the council implement a 12–2 resident’s parking zone like the one on Ferndene Road above Ruskin Park. That deters the commuters but means that shoppers, visitors, electricians etc…can use the roads. The option we ended up with is clearly not appropriate.
Secondly, for us personally implementation of the zone has been incredibly frustrating. We paid for our resident’s permit a week before the zone came into force but we didn’t receive our permit. Two weeks in, we called the company who run this for Southwark to tell them and they promised to hand deliver it the next working day. Didn’t happen. We subsequently received five parking fines, which we have of course challenged. Today we received a letter saying they REJECT our challenge, leaving us with 5 lots of £130 fines to pay! How can that be in the slightest bit logical? We had paid for a permit, they didn’t deliver it to us, we told them of their mistake and yet we’re still in the wrong for parking in front of our own house.
I am mostly angry because the council (or whoever the subcontractor is) are wasting my time sorting this out. Life isn’t supposed to be filled with this sort of dull nonsense.
Apologies for such a long, boring rant.
This is the best rant for months on this site, Corner House.
We were at a local authority leisure centre recently for a children’s party. Small kid wanted plastic princess from a machine for a quid. Quid went in, no princess. Jobsworth leisure centre bloke said not their problem. Different provider. As in, “They do plastic princesses, we nasty. Your kid can go to hell. So can you.”
You have had that x 650.
People round our way, Corner, do not all own large flashy cars, they are not all African churchgoers with loads of money. The streets like Vestry Road are empty of cars in the day — and in the evening. You are right. You have been robbed good and proper. How totally pathetic of the parking office and their dodgy stakeholders.
Stakeholders! Added value! Shareholder value!
Corner House — you ought to write to Barrie Hargrove, in case you don’t know, he’s Southwark, Peckham Ward councillor; Cabinet Member for Transport, Environment and Recycling. He’ll be interested to know about your experience.
You could copy in the Leader of the council Peter John as well and ought to think about including Harriet Harman too — it’s their patch proper and none of them will know just how these things affect people on the ground.
barrie.hargrove@southwark.gov.uk
peter.john@southwark.gov.uk
HARMANH@parliament.uk
They need to know what happens in their manor on their watch.
I’d like to raise the topic of schools in Camberwell/Peckham.
As far as I can tell there are very few good or even acceptable primary schools in the area.
My eldest will be entering reception next September. Our nearest primary school has been under special measures and seems to be failing badly. We also live near Cobourg, which I quite like, and Oliver Goldsmith, which I don’t.
Everyone tries to get their kids into Michael Faraday. Not many succeed. My neighbours recently got their fourth choice school for their little boy, and are agonizing over whether to stop working and home school him instead, as its reputation is so bad.
So do we gamble on getting a place at Cobourg or Michael Faraday, go private, or move away in the hope of getting a place at a reasonable state school? None of these is an appealing option.
What do others think, and how have other parents dealt with the lack of good schools in the area?
What about Brunswick Park Primary School? Apart from Gloucester Road, which is the school in special measures, aren’t all the primary schools in north Camberwell and Peckham rated fairly highly by Ofsted?
Hi Amanda — It can be diffcult because you have to go to a nearby primary school, so you get what you get, more or less. If you’re lucky there are some very good primaries around here. To some degree, it depends on your expectations and preferences as to what you think is good or bad. If you can try and visit the schools and make your opnion on that rather than Ofstead.
Secondary schools are worse. At risk of sounding uptight, the local schools just do not seem to have anywhere near the level of academic stimulation and achivement kids need. It is a shame because that is what would get kids to university, and then into jobs, and would pay back into the community over the longer term.
We had this discussion a while back on here.
On the other hand, maybe we over-think it and worry unneccesarily.
Pitch for Cobourg and Faraday and have a private option (Villa, Herne Hill) as a backup maybe.
Amanda! Parents deal with it with immense anxiety. Plunging your small kid into a school of children whose parents do not take naturally to the gentle parenting of young mammals is an extremely worrying thing to do.
However.
Our first went to a weird nursery where other kids were called things like Tyrant and Ziggurat. These kids were programmed by their parents to be selfish and incipiently cannibalistic, thinking that they could ingest their victims’ qualities simply by eating them.
Our first took it in her stride, kept her counsel, didn’t moan, said she’d been OK and had dealt with the day, told us who she’d played with when we picked her up. When a place in a better nursery turned up after some months surviving in this compound, we took her out and she absolutely flew in the new, better circumstances. We thanked the teachers and politely left.
We are midway between Oliver Goldsmiths and Lyndhurst and dreaded Goldsmiths — it was totally inappropriate for our kid who whilst being a bit of a Brit has a gentle, floral name and is not named after a machine gun or supercharged GT car.
(The “Chrysler Crossfire” — pity it’s not called the “Dodge Crossfire”, Dodge being a Chrysler brand — the “Dodge Ram” — the pick-up truck for men with little willies — “For men on the pick-up with other men” — don’t get me started, Amanda.)
Anyway, she got into Lyndhurst which is the most mixed, interesting, well run and happiest primary school in the universe, if not in Camberwell.
We were dead lucky.
My advice is try for the best, take the risk, then don’t get worried when the child gets sent to an inappropriate school.
If you are strong at home — naturally loving, just because that’s just how you feel — then your nipper will survive, learn fast and learn a lot without losing his or her own nature.
Then you will have time to take your bearings as well as realise that your possum is dealing with it a lot better than you.
I have to tell you now…
That plopping your kid in a white middle-class goldfish bowl is almost certainly not the answer to your prayers.
When you see the kiddies using their parents’ formula of “How are you?” (meaning I don’t want to know how you are, that’s not at all what I mean) and “I haven’t seen you for ages” (meaning I avoid you, get out of my sight you subhuman) on YOU, let alone your offspring, then all will become clear.
People thinking of home-educating are a screw short of a modest modicum of humility.
If you are solid with your children, if you are a good unit together in this world of smarmy successful people (“My dad sacks people”; “My mum is a marketing director for a shit brand”) and of people from failed, corrupt and institutionally depressed and desperate states brought in to prop up the talentless posh establishment, then you will be men my son and hold your heads high.
It is great that in Britain all kids grow up really British — in France, a rather racist country, it is hilarious how all kids grow up ever so pouty and French despite the zenophobia. That is a credit to French culture.
Howevah.
Crap parents and their troubled children get elite treatment in Southwark schools, did they know it. But ten billion teachers cannot do what two parents should naturally want to do.
Anyone would think that being a parent is an ideal, when in fact you are fucking lucky!
Always support the teachers. Do not act special. Do not get scared in front of your kids, let them deal with it.
75% of the Nigerian government budget is spent on the government itself. That is in an oil-sodden country where people hack open the pipelines to fill their scooters and get incinerated.
Just going out into the street in Britain is great, especially in Camberwell where there are so many different types of people. It makes Chipping Norton look boring.
Look at our Florian. He took a sentence to say what I mean. Genius.
* That should read “Anyone would think that being a parent is an ordeal,” not an ideal, sorry. Got my knickers in a twist about the whole thing.
These solar flares!
@Corner House. Have you taken the case to arbitration? Southwark council (and Lambeth) will almost always reject any appeals made directly to them in my experience (3 or 4 times and counting). They are hoping you give up and send you letters that sound very scary.
However, the moment you take say you are going to arbitration and fill in the forms, the case would probably get dropped. Unless they have a very watertight case they will not bother to go through with it.
Do not be put off by the language used in the forms. You would only be charged for costs if the arbitor thought you were wasting time. Which you clearly are not.
It doesn’t take that long to fill out the form and the more written evidence you can provide, the better.
I have not had to pay any of the fines I was supposed to pay, including accidently driving in a bus lane, when I opted to go to arbitration.
Great post Dagmar.
Heart felt but perhaps a bit cruel about the posh lot.
Didn’t Harriet Harman go private?
It is also much easier to be positive about Camberwell primaries once you get in to Lyndhurst or Dog Kennel Hill though.
Harman sent one kid to the Oratory and another to a grammar in Kent. So technically state. She went to St Paul’s girls, the best private school in the land.
“Oratory & a grammar in Kent”
The first only really a state school by past historical reputation…the current reality is slightly different…
As for the grammar, I know & understand that many people from that particular generation were glad when they were abolished from London — but I strongly suspect that the frustration was almost certainly entirely with the last of the old guard, gin soaked, buttoned-up empire throwbacks who used to run these places and was not, in principal with the actual basic sound idea of the grammar school.
Imagine what the next generation of forward thinking modern teachers would have achieved with such potentially sound foundations to build upon? This has been achieved elsewhere in the country with huge success. I work in the education & schools dept. at the Tate Gallery — I’ve seen the difference and know which school I’d have preferred to attend.
Camberwell had 2 excellent grammar schools — Mary Datchelor & Wilsons) — now rather than a few bright kids from the wrong side of the tracks (me included) getting a half decent education — NOBODY got one at the Southwark Education run comprehensive that I went too!
Is Camberwell better off with what now exists here?
The mind boggles…
Comber Grove is great. It has a more difficult catchment than many other schools but has a good strong community feel to it, the children are very well socialised and it gets results well ahead of what one might expect… The playground is a pleasure to be in at drop off and pick up.
Primary Schools are pretty difficult to make a pig’s ear out of — although many headteachers with a plethora of certificates but no heart manage to valiantly succeed.
It’s the secondaries that need atention — especially around ‘ere innit?
Dulwich Village excluded — but then they already know that…
Like PUBS? Like your community? WATCH THIS. You’ll love it:
http://vimeo.com/37276986
http://www.peoplespubpartnership.org
Would you mind passing http://vimeo.com/37276986 around if you like it?
Jamie Wright, the film maker, deserves great credit for this.
Spreading this little film far and wide might be a bit of a career boost such talent clearly deserves.
@ J Mark Dodds
Nice film — I will pass it on (or pay it forward)
@Dagmar
Was your earlier post referring to this by any chance?
@Corner House (and indeed anyone who ever gets a parking fine, anywhere)
There is a quite remarkable forum called Peipoo which will almost certainly be able to help you appeal your case.
http://forums.pepipoo.com/
The outstanding people on this forum take great pleasure in helping others who have received a parking ticket get off — on a technicality, or inadequate signage, or mitigating circumstances of all kinds.
They have helped me appeal several tickets successfully, and are thoroughly good eggs and top bananas all round. Create a forum post with your story and you will receive several excellent pieces of advice off exactly how to avoid paying a penny. And if you are anything like me you will greatly enjoy knowing there are people out there willing to help fight unfair parking charges with such rebellious relish.
@Ben
I thought that THIS was a quite remarkable forum…
Damn It!
There are few parts of the capital with such fine magnolias as those seen in Camberwell in spring. They reach up to the new, blue sky of the year like the arms of Millwall fans when a goal has been scored.
The magnolias are fabulous, aren’t they
Yes and they are more apparent and abundant than the latter in the above simile.
The camellias have put on a good display this year too.
Innit.
Then camellias came early this year, but then don’t they often.
Good spots for crocuses (croci?) are Brunswick Gardens and the front gardens at the bottom of Grove Lane.
Grove Lane has finished, alas, so bright, so new and gone in a flash.
The camellias always look a bit synthetic to me, whilst the magnolias are like waterlilies opening in the sky.
Dagmar you are Alan Titchmarsh and I claim my £5.
You cheeky Chunters! Think a younger, more curvy Carol Klein! x
Hello all,
I live just outside the Lucas Gardens CPZ on Shenley Road and have been lobbying the Council to moderate the operation and coverage of the CPZ, which seems to have been over-engineered and has displaced parking pressure into surrounding areas. The consultation and design took no account of displacement (by design — Southwark’s approach to parking entirely lacks a strategic appreciation of wider local context).
For those who may be interested, the Council’s own data show that:
1. Permit takeup has been 26% (#permits/#households)
Apparently this is higher than the borough average for CPZs of only 10%. [ONS data for Brunswick Park ward indicate that 50% of households have access to a car, which suggests lots of residential parking has been displaced out of the CPZ.]
2. Assuming an average car parking space, the number of permits issued equates to 56% of available parking space inside the CPZ. This is lower than the borough average of 67%.
[Taking 2 and 3 together suggests that the LG CPZ has a relatively large amount of parking space per household]
3. Daytime weekday CPZ area parking occupancy, measured by ‘spot survey’ for the Council, has fallen from 115% of ‘safe occupancy’ in Nov 11, to 50% in Jan 12 (after 1 week) and just under 40% in Feb 12 (after 6 weeks).
The same analysis suggests that parking occupancy outside of the CPZ has gone from 92% to 105% to 90%. [My personal view is that parking pressures outside the CPZ are still significantly higher than pre-CPZ.]
I have tried arguing that the hours of operation should be reduced, and have been told by the council officer responsible that his professional opinion is that this would not make a difference to those of us outside of the CPZ.
I have argued that, for example, the eastern side of Vestry Road, where there are no houses and now almost no parked cars, should be removed from the CPZ. The officer told me this was not consistent with ‘best practice’.
My final pitch will be to suggest that selected parts of the CPZ without houses fronting the road could be changed to ‘permit holders only or [e.g.] four hours’, to continue to deter all day commuter parking but allow some flexibility for shorter stay visitors, trades etc.
If anyone wants to also take any of this up, Cllr Ian Wingfield (Brunswick Park and Deputy Council Leader) has been quite receptive and has indicated that he is keen to hear from local residents.
The Senior Engineer responsible for designing the CPZ is Tim Walker.
Both are firstname.surname@southwark.gov.uk
For the record, I am opposed to any extension of the CPZ if possible, and believe that a more equitable distribution of parking pressure is a reasonable objective, while recognising how bad the situation was pre-CPZ for car owners living in the zone.
I understand from Ian Wingfield that the Lucas Gardens CPZ will be discussed at the next Camberwell Community Meeting.
Cheers,
Gavin
@Gavin and all:
Some well structured involvement in local affairs by people who think clearly and have a broad vision would make democracy work and create a better environment for everyone.
It would also create effective local change quickly along with massive savings, make local communities work better alongside and around each other and bring Camberwell to life.
Instead: Look forward to more of the same, traditional Camberwell nonsense: obligatory left turns, no go zones for shoppers in cars, residents unable to park in their own streets, more pawn brokers, licensed gambling and betting shops, nail bars, takeaways (chicken; not necessarily halal) Yam and Battery shops, increased housing densities with fewer and more and more stretched local amenities, cloth ears and dimmed eyes of the local authority, impossible routes to isolated parking facilities, closed shops and filthy broken pavements.
Oh but don’t worry. Camberwell has been sidestepped for Peckham in not getting the Mary Portas fund, a neighbourhood enhancing shot-in-the-arm Eighty Grand, while the local Olympics Legacy Fund is going to transform Church Street Living Realm in the form of a massive £50K to splurge around bringing sunshine and cheer all around. OR: not enough to pay for the Health & Safety Impact Assessment needed to take a railing out of a pavement.
Hooray! 2012 the International Year of the Cooperative
Well collated, Gavin, absolutely excellent. Those of us east of Vestry Road are being driven mad by the parking pressure while the Lucas Gardens side of Vestry Road is extraordinarily empty day and night.
The slight adjustment you recommend is easily effected. Will email the engineers.
Many thanks — proper job.
Has anyone seen this in today’s Guardian. It is very well put together and explains the pub thing clearly so that even we can understand.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/video/2012/mar/16/pub-closures-pubcos-landlords-punch-video
Hello all and thanks for your interest.
On the CPZ, Cllr Ian Wingfield has seemed keen to press for a consultation on extending CPZ coverage to include Shenley and other roads. I have made the point that before such measures are considered the LG CPZ should be got right first (there was no real problem with parking on Shenley pre-CPZ), but it may be that a consultation goes ahead anyway.
I have separately started a thread about the CPZ on the East Dulwich Forum if anyone is interested in contributing there: http://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/forum/read.php?20,854069
On a bit of a tangent, related to Council decision making:
Concerned about speeding on Shenley and other local roads, I have separately asked the Council if they would consider sticking up a couple of extra 20mph signs around the area. In my experience, relatively few people are aware of the 20mph zone.
In essence, I was told that before they could do anything the Council would have to undertake a speed survey using 20 data collection points, and only if funds were available and the project was deemed of sufficient priority.
As with the CPZ, references were made to ‘best practice’, which appears to be a euphemism for cost and stubborn inflexibility over economy and a little bit of common sense.
Cheers,
Gavin
The area is speed-bumped and congested, so few drivers can reach 20 mph up Shenley, Crofton, Bushey Hill & Talfourd. However, Lyndhurst Grove/McNeil sometimes has severe speeding, usually young men mesmerised by their own fabulousness and coolness, not looking where they’re going. Such princes!
It certainly is somewhat daft that the council slaps tax and anxiety on their own manor, so to speak, so soon after leaving it (the town hall).
Southwark employees used to really clog the streets with cars, presumably rather than take public transport. It was always nice to see them, though. They were always well dressed and professional and brought some aspirational dash here.
CPZ stuff, though, is presumably another cash-earner to get money from legal-minded people. The number of no-tax no-insurance drivers is huge in south-east London. They are often pulled over. When you see drivers pulled over, it is often for this reason. You can safely blame the police for this.
Thanks for that invitation Dagmar.
I blame the police.
Just been to the Peak District Derbyshire which appears to be without sleeping policemen or CPZ’s or broadband internet connection.
You went to have a peak?
Hello Camberwell, long time no see. Springs a beautiful time for being in Camberwell. What’s happened to the Buckle? The baseball caps hang out in the Dispensary, right?
Buckle now The Tiger, great pub. Dispensary is White Trash Central, if you like that sort of thing, which I do on occasion. It basically got the Buckle’s entire clientele.
Anyone been in The Kennington (formerly Black Sheep) yet? I only noticed it had changed when I passed by on the bus.
The Kerfield looks different.
Not long now till the Lyndhurst Primary School Summer Fair which is on SATURDAY 7 JULY. There will be a carousel full of ostriches, etc. and a traditional “trad” New Orleans jazz band pomping out happy sounds.
Of course, cutbacks may affect the offering. A new austerity is in the air. The ghost of Stalin stalks the children of Camberwell.
But being children, they will find ingenious ways of sprouting through the cracks of concrete of misery laid down for them by their miseryguts meeting-room elders.
BEWARE THE PIED PIPER OF HAMELIN!
@John: in case you don’t know, the Kerfield became Blakes and closed. Became Dark Horse and shut, became Le Petit Parisien and closed and now is The Crooked Well — by far the best incarnation and deserving of custom.
It’s a good case study of pubco churn. it’s had four incarnations that never registered as ‘closed pub’ and as it’s still trading it never becomes a statistic in the catalogue of damage the beer tie, as administered by pubco’s, has done and is doing to Britain’s cultural heritage and our sense of place.
Before
corner house…DO not under any circumstances pay those fines — take it to the parking tribunal or Barrie Segal at appealnow.com– they are in the wrong
Come again, J-Mark?
I found a Financial Times on a tube seat. It says a company that runs pubs is going to try to “penetrate the food market”. I wondered why pub grub tastes so funny.
Have fun.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c37090b6-6c53-11e1-8c9d-00144feab49a.html#axzz1ptLE1erf
Anyway it says the pub company called Punch Taverns — must be rough places! — is going to close most down and penetrate people’s grub.
What do I know? I am an old Kerfield man.
Labour have sent us a letter saying we may be out of the country when the Mayoraerial Election takes places on 3 May.
Why?
What do they know that we don’t?
They include a badly xeroxed form from Her Majesty’s Department of Are You Away on Election Day? This is surely forging Her Maj’s literature.
Val Shawcross, you sure make us cross with this missive, missus.
What a Pinky and Perky, Punch and Judy thing the whole Ken and Boris Show is. No wonder they think we are all going to leave the country to avoid the election.
Much more importantly, Dulwich Hamlet are poised for promotion to a more senior Blue Square Betting Shop Division. There are just a few games left in the season. Why don’t we support them?
Soon, they could host Manchester Town, Chelsea Football Club and FC Rinaldo. Our manor would be the flavour of the soup, or whatever they call it in the Crooked Well.
We could welcome our neighbours Millwall for a local derby. It would be all over the pavements, I mean papers.
Thanks for your support and useful advice on my multiple parking fines (received while waiting for my paid-for resident’s permit to arrive). I have finally found the time to finish assembling all the facts and I’ve emailed the council and those additional people you suggested.
I’ll let you know how I get on. Nothing they can do can give me back the last two hours though. erghhh.
@john. Thanks for the link. Punch don’t have a cat in hell’s chance of getting ‘their’ food up to 40% without INVESTING £millions in improving their pub estate’s cooking capabilities.
Let alone the training of two thousand publicans to become chefs who know how to serve food, on top of their existing 70 hour week.
*they are clueless*
Corner House I had a similar problem with Lambeth receiving a parking ticket when I had a permit. Again this went on for ever and took up my time. I billed them at a £120 per hour or part thereof for time spent responding to their letters. I enclosed this with my response.
Upshot is they didn’t pay my £240 bill but they dropped the fine.
Has anyone noticed the scaffolding has come down on the Noodels City/Golden Grill block next to the Tiger? The cleaned up building looks terrific and English Heritage have provided ‘heritage’-style shop signs for Noodels, Golden and Bet Fred. Great stuff.
@Julian — I noticed that this morning — if only that could be applied (along with a lick of paint) to all of Camberwell’s frontage …
Saw the scaffolding come down, haven’t seen the new signs yet. Have they kept the heritage spelling of Noodels too?
Sadly not!
Dagmar
Yes, the Hamlet are on the charge. Went to see them on Saturday. Will they pip the Bugg3rs of Bognor to the league? It’s gonna be close.
There are three home games on 7, 14 and 21 March against Chipstead, Whitehawk and Faversham Town.
The diners amongst us may wish to go to the away game at Whitstable on 31 March. That would be a connoisseur’s fixture. Football, Shepherd Neame ale, oysters…
Where’s Eusebiovic when you need him for the lowdown on the Hamlet? Down at Benfica tonight, perhaps. Florian, can you explain to the viewers the non-league tables the Hamlet have to negotiate?
By my reckoning, they go from the Ryman to the Blue Square South, yes? But I am confused by the Evo Stik and other tables.
AFC Wimbledon have done it, gone up through the ranks. Soon the Hamlet could be playing Lincoln, Mansfield, Grimbsy, York and Darlington.
The last game is away at Burgess Hill — could that be a Camberwellonlineawayday?
They’re in Ryman South . Next is the Ryman. Then it’s Blue sqr South then BS Premier. Then of course it’s the professional league. They were last in the Ryman ten years ago.
The football there is very immediate — very close to the crowd. You can hear the hooves! It’s good, very fit and fast players — best place to show live football to children, too.
Noodel City is dead. Long live Noodle City.
Radio 4’s Today show had an interesting piece on schools/discipline/youth and society this morning as seen from the “Camberwell District of London”.
One of the local secondary school headteachers and Camila were the two expert interviewees.
Camila rocked, as always. The teacher was big into discipline, but I suppose you’d have to be, wouldn’t you?
I haven’t seen the new improved Noodels City sign seeing as now i live in Peckham and my commute to Blackfriars takes me via the Old Kent Road rather than Camberwell now. However fans of Noodels fear not there is a new place near Tescos on Old Kent Road — Noodel Bar!!
Men at Bluewater wear t-shirts saying “Super Dry Motor Oil”. Better check it, yer dipstick, I always think.
The New Sunrise Cafe on Camberwell Green sounds equally contradictory, John — a sunrise is by definition new. But this reflects the saying of the great Heraclitus, “The sun is new every day,” a slogan you find on thoughtful t-shirts.
The head of Sacred Heart came over as a bit of a brusque, “robust” yob, sort of an educational Bob Crow, but when you read what he said in the Guardian recently, he’s very good:
‘I always get upset with quick-fix ideas. It’s how you bring up a child on every level that counts, and just setting boundaries and gaining their respect, helps them feel they’re achieving something. If they think you don’t care about them they will rebel. If you provide excellent teaching and children see this, it sorts out a hell of a lot of discipline. They pick up quickly which teachers care about them.
As soon as they spot a teacher that doesn’t care, they switch off. Go to the naughtiest kid in the dodgiest school and they always say they like strict teachers. It’s because there are high expectations in the lessons and, as a result, the kids get interested and forget to misbehave. If the power in the classroom lies with the teacher, the kids don’t show off to their mates.
We provide support. We have our own school counsellor and we are sympathetic to certain things that go on in the estates and at home. We know the pressure these kids are under. They live next to drug addicts, there’s violence, and they get mugged for their phones. Boys respond to power and money and if we can’t provide role models in school and at home they’ll find them elsewhere among the gang leaders who will then start recruiting.
The bottom line is they’re not bad kids and people need to be more positive about them without the trendy “let’s give you a cuddle” when they’re completely out of order. The biggest thing that they dislike is failure. If they misbehave they move down a level.”
I bet he wants to give Camila Batmanjelly a cuddle, really!
A good excerpt, Dagmar. I got the impression that was the attitude he wanted to convey on the radio.
Still, is the urge to discipline not an example of the “quick-fix”?
I guess it’s probably circular. As he noted: “If you provide excellent teaching and children see this, it sorts out a hell of a lot of discipline”.
Part of “zero tolerance” and “broken windows” theory, which Sacred Heart kinda follows, is that it shows you care. Camila Batmanjelly shows she cares in a different way. As Bob Dylan says:
It’s a restless hungry feeling
That don’t mean no one no good
When ev’rything I’m a-sayin’
You can say it just as good.
You’re right from your side
I’m right from mine
We’re both just one too many mornings
An’ a thousand miles behind
I don’t think I will be voting for the Boris and Ken show…but at the very last minute perhaps the temptation to doff my cap, show my gratitude, cross the ballot and fully participate in demockracy might be too much to resist even though the system clearly isn’t working.
A much better option would probably be to make a pot of tea, stick a sexytime film into the dvd player and masterbate yourself silly until ones palms have gone all hairy…
Why?
A) It’s More Honest
B) At least there would be a tangible end product
Dulwich Hamlet are flying — they deserve some support! As Dagmar says get down there before the season has finished…a fine community asset and no mistake.
I have a navy blue and pink scarf and a mug for my tea…I guess that makes me a fanatic