Saturday saw the official reopening of Camberwell swimming pool with various events at the pool — it was reported on the BBC website and on Harriet Harman’s website and on the Southwark Council website flickr set but look out I guess for more pictures of the event in Thursday’s Southwark News or Friday’s South London Press. I’m pleased to say that the refurbished swimming pool is a great improvement on the previous pool. See the pool timetable for opening hours and other information.

In other Camberwell news the author of Camberwell through time will be talking about his book at a Peckham Society meeting on 17 April — more information on the Peckham Society website

As has been mentioned in the comments on a previous post the regimental football of the Royal Irish Rifles has been on display at their head quarters on Flodden Road — more about the football on the D Company (Irish Rifles) website

And finally Guardian journalist Dave Hill passed through Camberwell recently in his training for the London Marathon

The book shows old photographs of Camberwell and compares them with a contemporary photo of the same location. This is a really interesting concept; it’s great to see views I recognise now look vastly different — such as seeing the former St George’s church on Wells Way with the canal running in front of it — and places that no longer exist, like the mansion that used to stand at the end of Wren Street.

The main problem with the book is that the modern photographs aren’t as good; they’re not great quality, a few are slightly out of focus, and some are taken from angles which hide much of the subject. Luckily this isn’t a huge drawback because we already know what the locations look like today!

The author’s obviously very knowledgeable about the area and provides plenty of references to other sources, so I can recommend this if you want to know more about your local history.

Moving on to a different subject, last weekend the wife & I ate at Zeret Kitchen, the Ethiopian restaurant, for the first time. I’ve been meaning to go there for literally years, but always managed to avoid it somehow; that was my loss. It’s unassuming both outside (you have to cross the concrete precinct of the Wyndham Estate) and inside (a few tables and chairs, not much in the way of decoration), but the food and service belie the appearance.

The manager is Taffe, who gave us a really warm welcome and helped us through the menu. When the food arrived she brought a small plate for herself and showed us how the food should be eaten, even feeding us pieces as a sign of friendship! There’s no cutlery, you eat using a special kind of flat bread called Enjerra (or Injera).

We had the Zeret Special which is a huge plate, like a sampler, of many different kinds of dishes. The spicy lentils (misir wot) and chopped beef (kitfo) were my favourites. The food is very different from West and Central African, and shows more of an Arabic influence, although it isn’t quite like that. Anyway, it was really good, and Taffe was wonderful, and you should all go there; don’t wait as long as I did.

Adopted as the emblem of Samuel Jones & Co., a print merchant based near Southampton Way, in 1919, as a demonstration of the technique of printing multiple colours on a piece of paper, and prominently placed on their factory — too prominently perhaps, as it was said that German bombers used it as a landmark on their bombing raids during the second world war.

(The cottage in the foreground of the next photograph still stands on the corner of Southampton Way and Peckham Grove, so you can see where the factory once stood).

The firm moved out of the area and the factory was demolished in 1982, but the Camberwell Beauty survives today on the side of the Lynn AC Boxing Club building (formerly a public library and baths) on Wells Way.

Lynn AC is Britain’s oldest continuing amateur club, formed in ‘The Sausage, Potato and Onions Café’ in Borough High Street in 1892. They moved to their current premises in 1981 — just before the Samuel Jones factory was demolished, and so probably gaining the Camberwell Beauty as a welcome to the area.

Camberwell band The House of Love used a photo of the mosaic on the cover to their self-titled 1990 album.

The butterfly continues to represent Camberwell, including at the entrances to Burgess Park.

And, of course, in the shopping parade, Butterfly Walk (and the Butterfly Pharmacy next door).

Samuel Jones & Co was integrated twice into other companies, but recently came back into business as a private company, Samuel Jones Ltd — and still with a butterfly logo (albeit a different butterfly).

The Camberwell Beauty is no longer found in Camberwell.

Thanks to Phil G for pointing out the The House of Love cover.

(Photo taken last week prior to opening)

I feel that this is a positive addition to the local shopping scene — maybe not clothing to everyones taste but I’m sure useful for lots of people. The best thing is that its increases the diversity of shops available in the town centre and it is not another fried chicken, betting, nails or off licence shop — not that I have anything against these shops but we do seem to have several of these types already.

In other news whilst walking to Sophocles bakery today I see that a new Polish delicatessan is due to open on Camberwell Church Street approximately opposite the Jungle Cafe — this I hope will be a useful addition to the area.

And I read in the South London Press last week (and its been mentioned here) that the Antic Pub Co are considering opening up a microbrewery in  the Tiger Pub. This would be fantastic news for the local area — imagine sipping a pint of Camberwell Tiger as you watch the world go by.  A quick google shows (see the results here) that in olden days (ie 19th century) the Camberwell Brewery Company established in 1860 and owned by Mr Richard Ray was located on Camberwell Green producing beer for the local market — it was taken over in 1895 by the company that eventually became Marstons and closed at some point but it may have even stood on the current Tiger site?

And in other Camberwell news I have just come back from a very sunny Glastonbury Festival where Camberwell’s own Florence and the Machine played an amazing set to 50,000+ people.

And finally do not miss the Big Dance at various locations across London this weekend — including events in Myatts Fields and Ruskin Park. See the latest edition of Lambeth Life (available online or pick up a copy at any Lambeth library or council office) for further details.

The Grand Union opened last week to generally favourable reviews. I went along on Friday and the place was the busiest I’ve seen it for years; here’s hoping that continues. The refit has been positive; it’s a little fussy for my tastes, but it feels cosy.

Small quibble: food is pretty much burgers or nothing, and while there’s lots of variety of burger, you’d think for somewhere gambling on a single food item that it’d have to be perfect; unfortunately, while the meat itself was tasty and well-cooked, my blue-cheese sauce tasted more like mayonnaise.

Still; teething problems, I hope. I’ll certainly be going back to try them again. I still wish they’d kept the Grove name, though.

Names brings me on to George Canning; did you know he was the last British Prime Minister to take part in a duel? And with the Secretary of State (for War and The Colonies!) no less. His namesake pub has been refitted and reopens this weekend; the bar on Friday 13th, the kitchen on Saturday 14th.

No major changes inside (although I hope they’ve replaced the toilets, which were among the worst around); the bar and kitchen are in the same locations. The George Canning used to be a fine little bistro a couple of years back, so I hope they aim to get back to that.

The Silver Buckle has been taken over by Antic, owners of the East Dulwich Tavern (and others), and is to reopen as The Oberon. To remain a traditional pub, from what I hear.

And finally: the Angels & Gypsies Tapas y Cervecceria, long believed to be a myth, is advertising for staff and so likely to open soon. It’s been, what — three years since the hotel opened? They’re going to have to live up to high expectations, at least from me. But I really can’t wait; Camberwell needs something like this.

Fingers crossed that all the new arrivals thrive here.

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

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

A gazette in 1868 said:

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

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

Would make for an interesting psycho-geographical study.

Okay, let’s move on to lighter topics.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Get out there and enjoy the long evenings.

Right, I don’t want this to turn into the Le Petit Parisien blog, I just wanted to say that I went there for dinner on Saturday and had a delicious lamb shank, while the wife enjoyed a really good steak. Definitely worth a visit, even though I think they’ve set their price point a little high; but then, I think that of almost everywhere I eat.

If I could make one small suggestion to them: get some more typical French specials on. I’m a huge fan of hearty classics like boeuf bourguignon, so seeing something like that would have made my night.

On to other matters: I may just have come up with a plan to recapture the faded glories of SE5; let’s bottle and sell Camber Well water! The famous restorative nature of the waters would go down a treat with today’s health-conscious, work-hard play-hard middle classes.

By the way, those aforementioned faded glories may well be represented in the Lost Southwark exhibition at The Cuming Museum. If topic for debate should ever be required, try this: my contention is that no post-WWII building in SE5 has added positively to the area’s character; discuss.

Camberwell Library is Southwark Council’s Library of the Month! There’s a series of events on throughout June, although it’s almost the 10th already so you’ve missed some of them.

If I may move on to housekeeping matters briefly:

First, I may try out a new commenting system shortly. Nothing radical, but it should allow for more flexibility in discussion. I’m sure you won’t be timid in letting me know your feelings about it.

Second, I am still looking for contributors, no matter how occasional. Mail me (peter@camberwellonline.co.uk) if interested.

Enjoy your days off, anyone who is using the tube strike as an excuse not to go to work.

Second, the Maudsley are holding a series of public workshops regarding the future of the hospital. The first takes place this Saturday, and there will be three more in the following week; see the SE5Forum.org Calendar for dates.

I’d really like to get some guest posts on here; I’ve emailed the team at GayCamberwell.com to see if they want to tell us how it’s going / it went, but either they haven’t received my email or they’re too knackered to respond. If anyone else wants a go, do let me know.

Now: on to the pictures.

There’s a nice set of photos showing the kids of the Lettsom estate painting a mural in the Tenant’s Association Hall.

A photo from 1965 of the contentious Brunswick Park Primary School. Ben Patio (formerly of this parish) even suggests that it may be time to knock it down.

Map showing bomb damage to Camberwell in WWII. There are a couple more.