Over the course of Saturday and Sunday 11am — 7pm there is music, dance, food, displays, a flower show, farm animals, charity stalls, owls and all sorts of other things all in the heart of inner London.

Further information is on the Lambeth website including the programme of events.

Update (by Peter): Also it’s the College of Arts MA Summer Show this week; it’s open to the public from tomorrow (Wednesday) until Saturday; details here. And huge apologies to Hannah at the CCA for forgetting to tell you all about the private showing.

Update 16/7/2010 There is also the fabulous Urban Art Fair on Saturday and Sunday on Josephine Avenue, SW2 near to Brockwell Park.
London’s largest annual open air contemporary arts fair will have around 2,000 pieces of work on display from 150 local and international artists. As well as art displays there will be foodstalls, refreshments and a sound stage featuring a mix of local musicians. This is the kind of art event I would like to see Camberwell in the future
www.urbanart.co.uk

Verdict on The Bear: Good. Not excellent, but good. An alternative to the Dark Horse if it’s faffy food you’re after. They’ve done a good job on the decor and the staff were attentive, but it’s quite far from my house and didn’t quite have enough to tempt me over there on a regular basis. Nice if you live nearby, though.

Saturday morning, and the sun shining through my bedroom window told me it was time to get the mop cut. So I headed on over to Cube — except, as I approached, I got a rather nasty shock; it isn’t Cube anymore. I began to fear the worst as I got nearer and saw that it’s now called Teamwork, and advertises braiding and other services; could it be that my hairdresser had joined the multitudes of Afro-hairdressers in Camberwell? I needn’t have worried, as the staff and owner haven’t changed; only the name has. Inside it’s the same. I wanted to ask what prompted the change of identity, but my hairdresser was the stern Eastern-European lady who intimidates me into silence. A good haircut, though.

Afterwards I met the wife in the rear courtyard of Seymour Bros, where we basked while enjoying a late breakfast. Then a walk up to Ruskin Park, where we sat and watched the ducks for a while, and noticed that work is going on at the former bowling green; does anyone know if it will be flower beds, or something else? To cap off a capital sunny day in the Capital we went to the Sun & Doves for iced cider in the garden.

On the way home we thought about buying a plant for a friend’s birthday, so stopped in Pesh Flowers. The wooden boards and the medley of aromas makes this one of the nicest places to pass a little time, away from concrete and cars. Unless you have a pollen allergy, I suppose.

And that was my weekend in Camberwell.

As you can’t have failed to notice, the Mayoral elections take place this week. I’ll be voting for Livingstone; not because I’m a dyed-in-the-wool socialist, but because I think he’s done a good job in the last eight(?) years, with some truly bold attempts at sorting out the transport problem. He’s not perfect — which politician is? — but I think he’s better than the alternatives.

Johnson is not a Londoner, and the peak of his experience is running a magazine, not one of the largest and richest cities in the  world. Add to this the fact that his policies don’t add up; there are lots of promises, but few mentions of how they are to be funded or implemented. Paddick suffers from the same problem everywhere except on crime, which he understands better than transport or housing.

On top of this, there’s the fact that I’d love to bloody the nose of the Evening Standard, who have run one of the most negative, biased campaigns I’ve ever seen, against the current mayor. But hey; that’s just me. You go ahead and vote with your conscience. But if you do vote for Johnson and he does get elected, you’re never allowed to make jokes about Americans electing Bush ever again.

First a bit of a Burgess Park mini-special. Somewhat late, I watched the final episode of BBC series Ashes to Ashes. The location of the explosive key scenes looked familiar to me, and this photograph confirmed that it was, in fact, our very own Park that played host to the scenes of the car bomb. As I passed through the park recently I noticed that the old William the Fourth pub has been transformed, by the use of some meshing, into a work of art (low quality photograph here); also, the area around Chumleigh Gardens is to be landscaped, and there will be a public consultation this Saturday (19th) if you want to get involved.

I haven’t written anything about the informal meet-up a few weekends ago. I have to confess that my poor organisational skills and freakishly nice weather led to it being under-attended compared to previous meetings. So poor, in fact, were my skills, that I forgot to leave an identifier for the members of the Flickr group, which resulted in two disparate groups of people wondering where the others were! Still, thanks to everyone who made the effort, it’s always nice to meet new faces. If you still want to meet your fellow residents, there’s a proposal for a picnic in Burgess Park this Sunday (weather permitting). I may or may not make this one; waiting to hear about something else. There’s also an SE5Forum board meeting on Wednesday, but I’m not sure if that’s public or not.

My contacts at the Cadeleigh told me everything about the raid on the illegal DVD factory; apparently a rival gang phoned police and told them someone in the flat was armed, hence the heavy police presence. Shenley Road and arround was cordoned off for two hours or more. I was at the London Aquarium with my sister’s family, and missed it all. I did get to stroke a ray, however. Oh, the Cadeleigh lot also confirmed the location of the porn studio on McNeil Road. Louie, how did you know all this? Are you a local there too, along with D-MAN and myself?

Lots of new & refurbed bars and cafes in the area now, as is traditional every spring. How many of them will last until next year? On the subject of development, Councillor Peter John has an update on the Camberwell Grove bridge changes.

I’m feeling a little flu-ey today, so forgive me if I wrap up for 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.

I had wondered if the Walworth Road was named after William Walworth, fishmonger turned Mayor, who ended the peasants’ revolt by stabbing Wat Tyler in the neck at Smithfield. Turns out the area pre-dates the man, and has a fascinating history all of its own.

The story of the Wilson roads is equally interesting.  Who else has stories of their area’s history to tell?

Elsewhere in Camberwell Renewal they have a photographic retrospective of the year gone by. The new toilet on Camberwell Green gets mentioned rather prominently, which shows how little real renewal has happened. I think I should start planning my year-end review soon.

Reader sg has suggested a meet-up soon, perhaps around the roaring flame-effect of the Hermit’s Cave; anyone else interested, or is the festive season occupying your time now?