Happy New Year to all readers (who conform to the Gregorian calendar)!
NYE was a three stage affair for wife and me: first a curry at the Khyber Indian restaurant in Stockwell; it doesn’t look like much from outside (or inside, for that matter), but the food was great. After that we went to a party at a friend of a friend’s house; we didn’t know beforehand that it was a party for the friends of Dorothy, so we felt a little out of place, but the hosts were very welcoming and their back garden afforded a nice clear view of the London Eye and the firework extravaganza.
Shortly after midnight we jumped on a bus back to Camberwell and dropped into the Sun & Doves to finish the night off; the place was still pretty full at 1am and there was lots of good music and frivolity. I believe the expression that the young people use is that it was “off the hook”.
A couple of news items: Carmen Lindsay, founder of the Camberwell After School Project (CASP), has been awarded an MBE; and a new scheme being trialled in Camberwell will allow community organisations to tell the court what projects they think criminal offenders who have been sentenced to community service should work on.
So what do we have to look forward to in 2007? Of most interest to me is the opening of the refurbished (and renamed) Church Street Hotel and Angels & Gypsies tapas restaurant / cerveccaria. I enjoyed the food there when it was Viva Espana, and I’m curious to know if it will be as good (or better) in its new incarnation.
Then there’s the transformation of BRB/The Grove into a Young’s pub; I’d imagine that it will keep the same name. No more pizza, but a more traditional menu instead.
I’ve a feeling that the Mary Datchelor development will be given the go-ahead this year, although I’ve no idea of how long it will be until we see a final result.
I’d love it if someone would open a Japanese restaurant here, but that’s just me being selfish. Oh, and a decent butcher or delicatessen wouldn’t go amiss. And a bookshop.
Was he starkers from waist down when he gave them to you? It sounds scary.
Let us not forget our own mighty Wetherspoons — the Fox on the Hill (149 Denmark Hill,SE5) which on the two or three occasions I have been in there I found not to be too bad.
In a previous job I was responsible for collating and analysing research into all aspects of alcohol from around the world. My understanding of the research was that pregnant women could drink 1–2 units (1 unit =half pint of beer or small glass of wine) once or twice a week with no effect and even at the government’s recommended limits for women’s drinking of 14 units a week there is still little chance of impact on the mother or foetus. It is only at the 30+ units a week level that there was a possibility of affecting the unborn child. Ultimately though whatever the research shows it is down to the potential mother’s opinion about whether she wishes to drink.
Dagmar — after years of going to the ‘secret Aldi’ not once have I been offered a free pair of trousers, you lucky person!
RAT records IS dead good. they know what treasures they hold tho’ i once saw an old Damned LP in there for £20!
As for Wetherspoons pubs, although i’ll occasionally go to the Fox On The Hill for a cheap beer, i’m generally put off by their policy of giving a percentage of their profits to the very, very nasty (although piss funny) United Kingdom Independence Party. Yeah, Kilroy-Silk’s lot!
My local deli is the Olive Shop, too. I trust their stuff, and their recommendations if I’m not feeling very inventive recipe-wise. It took me a couple of years but now I even understand what Mr Olive is saying!
Lidl is good especially for Cien brand toilet paper that’s from recycled paper and doesn’t dissolve into little knots and flakes. Has anyone tried it? I never got used to English-style loo roll, with or without puppies on it.
Never knowingly tried Cien — will look out for it.
Good small shops-wise: I’m glad we have Sugar Mama, roughly opposite Nandos. I bought a lot of my Christmas presents there for female friends and realtives. They have nice things (mainly jewelry and ladies clothes) at a fair range of prices, are very helpful and wrapped everything up nicely in tissue paper. Useful to have an emergency present shop in the locale, and not a city mum in sight.
Who of you lives in that town house halfway up Camberwell Grove that has a huge chandelier in its first floor hall? It is lined with red wallpaper and life-size copies of two of my favourite ever paintings on its walls: Caravaggio’s Doubting Thomas and Supper at Emmaus?
The original of the first hangs in Potsdam’s Sans Souci, the second here in the National Gallery.
It was all lit up as if for a ball when we walked past last night. The most amazing thing to stumble across.
Happy New Year, SE5ers…
Maybe, just maybe, I’ll actually, really, physically move back to Camberwell in 2007. I’ve been hanging on since August for someone else’s solicitor to pull their finger out. There’s only so much longer I can continue waiting outside McDonalds for the nightbus home. Must… Escape… Clapham…
But damn, I’ll miss those BRB pizzas. They’re the best thing about BRB, IMO. And yes, a Japanese restuarant would be most welcome.
Yes, I love the BRB pizza with pepperoni and fresh green chillies – I am addicted to fresh chillies. I just can’t get enough of them.
Heard a rumour that the new owners of the Castle used to run a Beefeater. Explains a lot.
I have always found the pizzas in Mozzarella e Pomodoro to be excellent so I would recommend going there for pizza once BRB has shut (obviously I realise that the ambience is a bit different it being a restaurant rather than a pub and all that)
Dagmar,
do you have any contact details for Nick Edwards — I also need a window rebuilding.
Glad to hear about winter-flowering cherries — there’s one in full bloom in Denman road which has been freaking me out till now!
On the shop front of course you cant beat Crusons for fruit and vegetables, so much better than Somerfield
Yeah Cruson always manage to get their hands on some nice juicy Lemons — I got some today…Although the last time I went there I got some Limes and they were a bit dry — I told him and he put a couple in with the lemons for nothing!!! — You don’t get such kind gestures in a faceless supermarket…
Dickdotcom, Nick Edwards is in Vanguard Court but I’m trying to get hold of hold number or email for you.
I buy a lot of plants at Crusons. My gardenia from there is now huge and having flowers.
Guess what…I need a window too! Where’s Vanguard Court, Dagmar?
Promise to wait my turn when we track him down 🙂
We buy a lot of food from the Chinese Supermarket. It’s more expensive then the stores in China town, but it’s local. They have a great selection of fresh vegetables, herbs and spices.
reagrding Somerfield, it is terrible, can’t we petition for another supermarket to take over at least one of the stores? ‑Why do we need two Somerfields in Camberwell?
As others have said; it comes down to demographics. As there is a large Sainsbury’s on Dog Kennel Hill there is no market for anything other than a “budget” supermarket in Camberwell.
Unfortunately the sad fact of the market is that if you can’t afford to get to the Sainsbury’s you’re not going to spend enough money to support a quality supermarket.
Sash Window News. Vanguard Court is just past the registry office on the Peckham Road — a cobbled street leads to it. Half the artisans in Camberwell work there. Bruce, the car mechanic there, is the best in the world — he is an artiste, too, he knows ze soul of a car.
My emails has been blocked by my brother sending mobile phone photographs of a soccer match, so I will get Nick’s details when the email is unblocked. In the meantime, Vanguard Court is where Nick is.
The Chinese supermarket is good for fish, and generally pretty fresh – though they will ocasionally try and sell you the scrag-end if that’s all they’ve got left.
Somerfield is rubbish. Any time they sell something I like they generally end up discontinuing it, and they’re not even very cheap
I don’t know if anyone remembers, but a couple of years ago when Morrisons purchased Somerfield, there was talk of Morrisons being taken to the monopolies board (can’t remember the correct terminology). They then sold them back to Somerfield. Surely, if we as the local community made a fuss about our lack of local shopping choice, could we not get one to close, and have it replaced with a mini Tesco or some such? They are so expensive! It’s cheaper to buy loo roll in my local paper shop, and the marmalade I like is 60p dearer than Waitrose!
Cheers for the info Dagmar. It sounds nice down there. I’ll take a wander.
The Eyechild and southmark are right — our Somerfield isn’t just crap, it’s expensive too. Catering for the lower earners, pah! Maybe we should suggest a new “brand” for them. East Dulwich has “Somerfield Market Fresh” ours could be “Somerfield Landfill”.
I think this psychological need for visiting a supermarket each weekend in some way supplants the old community instinct to go to Church.
Privychka, nam svyshe dana
zamena schast’iu ona
(Habit, given to us from above, is a substitute for happiness) — Pushkin.
Can’t see a rational reason for it, with the abundance of better quality and cheaper goods available at local independent shops.
According to the Somerfield website “You might have noticed a few changes to your local Somerfield — and if not, you will soon. We’ll be making changes to many of our stores over the coming months, adding products that are right for customers in each locality and installing new signage to make it easier to find the products you want. There will be a better layout and a wider choice — with hundreds of new lines.”
I have emailed Somerfield to ask when the Butterfly Walk shop will be undergoing these changes. I will keep you posted…
The Somerfield near where I work on Edgware Road (another former safeways) underwent the changes about a year ago and it did lead to an improvement in the shop
One thing that impacts on Somerfield is the fact that Butterfly Walk closes at 8 each night and there is no other entrance to the shop — most of the other supermarkets around (well Denmark Hill and Vauxhall Sainsburys and Kennington and Brixton Tesco that I know of) shut at 10 instead so maybe the site is not desirable for other supermarket chains?
Southmark, I think you may be refering to Safeway which Morrisons bought. Tesco or any other business will not open a store because you ask them, they will do it for profit. With a massive Sainsbury’s dominating the local market why would tesco et al open up?
Those of you who use the Somerfield should ask yourselves how much you spend there a week. Does your expenditure (as an average) justify the costs of opening the store (including all set-up costs: esate agents fees, legal fees, shop fitting, technology, supply chain re-distribution, staff training etc) and maintaining it to the same standard as the Sainsbury’s?
“The essence of being is never conclusively sayable,” said Heidegger. Puskin was right about habit, Regeneru, and you are right I’m sure about today’s supermarket worship of bounty and fruitfulness.
In the same place on Cobourg Street where the man gave me his trousers, I found a paperback book, “Heidegger: A Beginner’s Guide.
North Camberwell is fascinating. The houses are modest, but the space of Burgess Park is really something. I was intrigued by the St Marks Little Army 1914–1918 memorial on the side of the church buliding — the church has been a mosque since 1980.
Well Somerfield have got back to me answering my query — see 75 above. Their reply is
Thank you for your recent enquiry, which we have passed to the relevant department for their attention and consideration.
Unfortunately, at this moment in time, our Camberwell store is not scheduled for a refit.
Yours sincerely
Nick Derbyshire
Customer Service Administrator
So it looks like things arent going to improve in the near future
What I bought before Christmas in Somerfield Denmark Hill:
Tropicana Orange Juice
Copella Apple Juice
Yogurts x 4
French Stick
Olive Oil
Salmon Fillets
Total £14.91
What I bought in Marks and Spencer Walworth Road this week
Orange Juice
Pineapple Juice
Chipolatas
Humous
Ciabatta x 2
Sun Dried Tomatoes
Chicken Breast Fillets
Total £15.17
Both lists are more or less identical and M&S were only 26p more expensive — So in what way is Somerfield catering for a poorer demographic/ person — I can’t really see that they are making much of an effort with their prices for anybody and what they offer is of a far inferior quality…
How can you say ‘more or less identical’?????
The list are very different.
Generally, Olive oil is a very expensive product.
Isn’t that the point. Poor people always get ripped off.
Eva — You are most correct
Rubbish!
Coppela Apple Juice:
Tesco > £1.81 / bottle TBC
ASDA = £1.81 / bottle
Lidl = £1.74 / bottle (2 for £1.50)
Aldi < £1.74 / bottle TBC
You need to compare like for like!
M&S rip you off by charging you for their marketing…
And we poor people have our environment polluted for our own good! I have only recently started to take the bus down the Walworth Road again after a few months of exile in SE14 and was shocked to have my top-deck daydreams and views of Burgess Park winter trees interrupted by scarlet and green vinyl banners hung from the lamposts reading “I’m ready and willing; make me dirty’ and ‘Keep filling me; I can’t get enough”. These purport to come from the Keep Britain Tidy group. I thought it was basically a socially conservative group — but here it is imposing visual clutter on an already crowded streetscape and sexual innuendo on an already porn-punned out culture. Southwark Council must have colluded with KBT. And will they be lining Green Park or Hyde Park with this marketingmantrash? Hey! great adverts! I’ll throw my rubbish in the bin because it’s… like… the sexy thing to do. Does anyone have any inside info on these banners?
Eleanor — I found those banner really loathsome too…No doubt another idea thought up by people with a degree but the social skills of a mosquito…
Peckham Lodge is still a hotel. It’s also used for patients with mental health issues who also have accomodation problems. and is used by Southwark Council as B&B for their clients with accom problems. It used to be the HQ of the EETPU electrical workers union
I don’t really like those banners on the Walworth Road either but seeing as dropping litter is one of my persistent bug bears about London — i honestly don’t understadn why people think this is an acceptable way to behave i’m prepared to tolerate them.
Keep Britian Tidy is a campaign not a group. It is run by a Charity called Encams who as far as i know are a perfectly respectable environmental charity with no social agenda beyond encouraging people not be such grubby little oiks and use litter bins. They do a lot of work with Local and National government on clean up campaigns and education etc.. As i said ss far as i know their only agenda is to get people to use litter bins, not dump rubbish etc… but i could be wrong!
Also you are right you wouldn’t probably see banners like this lining Hyde or Green park — firstly cos Royal Parks wouldn’t let you get away with it and secondly i assume Hyde park probably doesn’t have the same persistent litter and rubbish dumping problems that the Walworth oad and most of Southwark suffers from.
It reminds me of my Physics teacher who though that constantly referencing sex would make us perk up and listen to his lectures. It didn’t work, if anything it backfired — confirmed him as a nerd lacking credibility.
Re sign — agree with above comments. Obviously those banners are another uglification of our streetscape, although thankfully not permanent, unlike the silver spiked “Welcome” signs from Southwark.
This tends to happen to places designated from on high as “transit communities” in low income areas.
A simple logo of someone putting rubbish in a green bin should be enough, and would achieve bigger impact on the entrance doors of buses.
I am in agreement re the creative on the banner, but I suppose whoever dreamed up the copy would probably argue:
“Well at least it’s got you talking”
No publicity being bad publicity etc.
It is slightly annoying that it’s on vinyl banners that are there for an indefinite period, rather than ads that have a specific duration
I’m australian and moved to Camberwell 9 months ago. Having lived in Camberwell in Melbourne, Australia it would be a great idea to rekindle the link between the two suburbs. Patricularly seeing as Camberwell in Melbourne are rich as hell.
Not sure that would be a good idea. According to http://www.whatsincamberwell.com/index.php there are more Medical Practitioners than anything else in Cabberwell,VIC. Clearly the place is full of ill people or hypercondriacs!
Hi all. Can any of you good people recommend a mother and baby group in Camberwell?
Mrs Patio takes the nippers to a variety of places. Most frequently the one at the Sally Army place on Lomond Grove / Elmington Rd, Tues Wed and Thurs mornings (“not too heavy on the religion”). Then there’s Little Fishes at the church on Camberwell Grove, which as the name might suggest is “a bit more churchy” — Wednesday mornings. Also there’s one at the United Reform church at the top of Denmark Hill by Red Post Hill — “a bit unfriendly but good activities”, Wed morning. Outside Camberwell, the one at St Faith’s at the bottom of Red Post Hill, Monday mornings, is “well structured”. Apparently you can just turn up to any of them and there’ll usually be space.