(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.

On the table next to us a boxing trainer/manager and a couple of his lads were signing up another fighter. First fight should be late October sometime. The trainer is apparently “the best in the business”, trained a couple of British title winners. Didn’t know him, myself (it wasn’t this guy).

Then off to the Sun & Doves for a couple of pints of cold cider and a read of the papers. The customer service in there is a world away from this time last year; now they pay attention, and even provide proper table service. A real winner.

Anyway, enough of my nouveau middle class lazy weekend updates; what’s going on in Camberwell? Honestly, I genuinely don’t know. I bought a copy of the Camberwell Quarterly this weekend, but haven’t read it yet and I don’t know where it is now. So… the most ill-prepared post I’ve ever written (and it’s up against some stiff competition).

Here’s an interesting article on the history of the Odeon cinema on Denmark Hill. When I find my CQ I’ll write more.

Update: OK, to stop this being the worst post ever, here’s some news from CQ; Denmark Hill station is set for major changes in the next couple of years. The derelict houses nearest the station are to be opened as an assisted fertilisation centre by Kings (so I guess they weren’t bought in auction), the old stationmaster’s house has been granted funds for refurbishment, and the station itself is to finally receive stair-free access and many improvements to access in and around — including, possibly, a new entrance on Champion Grove.

Plans have been mooted to have the station redesignated ‘Denmark Hill for Camberwell’, ensuring we finally get a bit of recognition on the transport grid. All of this should happen just as the number of rail services gets cut. That’s Camberwell.

Across the road, Redstar is getting ready to open again. It will have two bars and is requesting shows for its first-floor art gallery. According to its Myspace page:

Redstar is about to provide a major jolt to wake the South London club scene with a shudder.

Which is nice. They have a website too, but I won’t link to it as the code offends my web developer elitist tendencies (and there’s nothing on it anyway).

The former Cube bar is reopening as a bar/diner called NIA (I think; I should have written it down), with the downstairs area Club Couture. Quite the clubbing mecca we are becoming.

As you may be aware due to Mark Dodds’ spamming enthusiastic promotion, a 30-day season of live arts performances begin at the Sun and Doves tonight. I might go along to see what kind of people have formed a Lloyd Cole tribute act.

I had a bit of an existential crisis as I got on the 436 bus yesterday; it was like one of local boy William Blake’s illustrations of Dante’s Inferno. The 436 outside of commuter hours is the unfortunates shuttle. My misery ended when I arrived in Lewisham, as a drunken teenage girl vomiting on the pavement outside McDonalds at lunchtime reminded me that Camberwell’s not so bad.

Although having said that… a story in the SLP says that junkies’ discarded needles have been found in Lucas Gardens. I confess to being surprised by that; I’ve seen one or two drunks in there, but never any smackheads. Dagmar probably knows better than I (due to the amount of time spent in the park; I’m not making any implications of drug use).

But it’s not all bad news, as I found out this week that Camberwell has its own Cockney royalty, in the form of East Street-born Pearly King Jim. God bless ya, and all the best of Cockney luck.

After writing all this, I realise I’ve forgotten to mention the results of the local shopping poll have been released. In a nutshell: people want more varied shops, and shop owners have an unrealistic idea of how many customers travel by car. This deserves a post of its own, but I’m not going to write it now.

Tucked away amongst the images of South London life was the old coat of arms of the Metropolitan Borough of Camberwell, with its now cheerfully ironic motto “All’s Well”:

While on the subject of Camberwell’s history, some pictures turned up over the weekend showing the streets which were knocked down to form Burgess Park in the early 1980s. Interesting to think of what was there before.

I also strayed across the border on Saturday night, visiting Peckham’s new bar/dining room, The Montpelier. Nice, although a little barn-like; big empty spaces and plain walls. The table service was welcome, although the food was a couple of quid overpriced for my tastes. Selection of beers wasn’t great, either. Over all it was pretty good, but didn’t give me the urge to rush back there.

Like always, I’m sure I had something else to comment upon, but I just can’t remember it now. I really should keep a list.