How would you visually represent SE5? One of the students at the College of Arts has had a go.

As reported in comments on the previous post, part of Lucas Gardens has been saved from being sold off to developers, as the College is said to have bought South House. I went to a Halloween party in East House on Saturday night; apologies to the neighbours.

Here’s something topical: Camberwell post office (“grungey and dispiriting”) used as an illustration of why bonuses are not always deserved.

Also topical: the murderer of a man who was stabbed to death near his home, on Coldharbour Lane, was sentenced to a minimum 30 years in prison last week. He sounds like a proper nasty bastard, so: good.

Has everyone taken a look at NickW’s proposal to split traffic around Camberwell Green and pedestrianise the end of Church Street? There doesn’t seem to be much there to argue about, IMHO, and it’s good enough to at least serve as the start of a conversation.

Finally, I have a special offer for everyone; my first ever, I believe. The Grand Union are set to open in the former Grove this week, and are having a launch party on Thursday 5th (there will be some free drinks, I believe).

They’re keen to get the hyper-critical readers of this blog on their side, so have offered me the following deal: anyone who presents a print-out of this blog post to the manager gets 2-for-1 on main meals — and this deal is valid for the whole of November. That’s pretty good, right? I’m sure there should be some terms and conditions to this deal, but there don’t seem to be, so knock yourselves out.

I wish they’d kept the Grove name, though; a pub’s name is its heritage.

The news (reported in the comments, below) that Mayor Johnson has raised that old chestnut of extending the Bakerloo line, which may or may not pass through here. I’d like to see it, but I really can’t plan that far ahead.

A (very) little more background on Burgess Park, winner of a parks development pot.

19 pubs have closed down in Camberwell & Peckham since June 2007. The Bickleigh and Pharoahs are two is one; who can think of more?

And Page 3 lovely Zoe (link NSFW) is a Camberwellian. Never saw her name on the Wikipedia list. OK, that isn’t really news.

Speaking of news, I’ve set up a way for interested parties to receive latest blog posts by email, so you never have to miss out on exciting content like this again. Just fill in your email address on this form, and you’ll be sent new posts on the day they’re published. You can, of course, unsubscribe whenever you wish.

Seen on SE5Forum.org (and here!).

Update: More information from yesterday’s Metro (thanks to Robert Waller for the heads-up).

The ticket office at Loughborough Junction train station has recently been reviewed by First Capital Connect, who have decided to close the office after 12.45 noon and at the weekends. Their reason for this is reduced ticket sales in the afternoons. Unlike at other stations where the ticket offices are proposed for closure, Loughborough Junction will be left completely unmanned when the office is closed.

We are very concerned that this proposal will inevitably make the station attractive to criminal activity, affecting public safety and will lead to increased general vandalism. Users of the station including elderly and children should expect staff to be available to advise and provide support at all times the station is open. The station platform is also a very isolated place high above the streets below.

Please offer your support for the station and anyone that uses it by signing our petition.

http://www.petition.co.uk/staffing_at_loughborough_junction_train_station_sw9

As this affects so many locals, I would very grateful if you could inform your friends and neighbours too!

Thank you for your support

Nick and the Loughborough Junction Action Group

For more information please visit the Loughborough Junction Blog.

I had a pretty strong feeling this would happen, as soon as they began the ‘public consultation’ — a sop to regulators when a decision has already been made. Network Rail accepts that the proposals contain “significant passenger disbenefits”, but doesn’t care.

Second bit of bad news: A report on the radio says that a woman has been stabbed to death in County Grove. Can’t find any details, or indeed any confirmation, of that yet, so know idea what’s involved. It’s far too early to draw any conclusions yet, or to make any connections with any other crimes in the area, but at the very least it’s an unneccessary loss of life, and more ammunition for those who’d like to paint the area as a crime-ridden slum.

Update: Some more detail about this incident; seems to have been a domestic rather than street crime. Exactly why I was cautious about jumping to conclusions.

Anyway, do enjoy the rest of your day.

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.

Having finished my ablutions, I looked around for a drain to spit it into; that was when I realised that the streets were full of kids on their way to school. I didn’t want to look like a crazy man, spitting a gob-full of foaming liquid into the gutter in front of the children, so I had to walk on with a mouth bulging with mouthwash.

Every turn I took, there somebody was; children and parents doing the school run, commuters late leaving the house, dog-walkers; it was like the Batman film from the 60s, where he’s desperately trying to get rid of a bomb but is thwarted by nuns, children and a family of ducks. It was only on Camberwell Grove I finally found a ten-second window to rid myself of my load. Still, I think Dr Asad appreciated it.

So, dental hygiene aside, what’s the news? Camberwell Baths, the Cuming Museum and Livesey Children’s Museum are all set to be hit by budget cuts, and could close. Apparently health and culture are not high on the list of priorities for Southwark Council. The website of the Livesey Museum has some links to online campaigns to keep them open; I’m slightly wary of the effectiveness of online petitions, so I would urge you to raise this issue with your MP also.

The Camberwell Grove railway bridge is to reopen, with traffic lights and barriers installed until the bridge is replaced completely. There’s another online petition to sign if you want Network Rail to do that sooner rather than later.

There was something else I was going to mention; I may update when I remember what it was.

According to the SLP, discussions are underway to bring the East London Line extension forward to 2010. This would extend from Surrey Quays station to Clapham Junction, passing through Denmark Hill. There are a planned four trains per hour (does this mean four per hour in each direction, or two in each direction for a total of four? I think the former).

It’s not all good news, however, as the same article says the London Bridge — Victoria service could be cut five years later. While a connection to Clapham Junction would be very welcome, I would use connections to London Bridge and Victoria much more frequently.

Decisions are to be made shortly.

More details on the proposals at the blog of Councillor Fiona Colley, and news of a petition on the site of Councillor Peter John. Send your views to southlondon.rus@networkrail.co.uk by October 26th.

Update: You can sign an online petition in support of this campaign. Further methods of action in the comments.

I was quite looking forward to seeing it inside, so we arranged to meet them in their room before going out for a drink afterwards. I have to say, it’s very impressive inside. Painted throughout in strong Mediterranean blues and reds, the Spanish theme is continued with lots of religious iconography. There are candles and icons and similar decorative touches throughout the hotel.

Their twin room was small but very pretty; they were enchanted by the complimentary chocolates and hot sauce (caution: we ate some last night and it’s extremely hot) and soaps, shower gels, etc. The bathroom was shared but so nicely decorated that they took a series of photos of it. Cousin and friend said it was the best hotel they’d stayed in on their two-week trip around Europe.

It wasn’t cheap — £89.99 for a twin room with shared bathroom — but they loved the decor, the ambience, and the breakfast and services, and declared themselves more than satisified with the whole experience. I have to admit, I fancy a stay there myself now. Can’t wait for the bar and restaurant to open.

We went for a drink at the Dark Horse, which was reasonably busy. I had Addlestone’s while we persuaded our guests to try different beers. We wanted to eat some bar food while we drank, but the kitchen had closed while we vacillated so we had to make do with some wasabi peanuts and a charcuterie (which in my day used to be called a cold meat platter).

The wife and guests then went for a drink in The Castle while I went to Waterloo to meet my mum from the train; we waited an hour and 20 minutes for a taxi while making polite small talk with some drunken Finnish businessmen.