I wish you all a good afternoon. Just a flying update, this:
As I tucked into a satisfying ‘almonds & apricots with yoghurt coating Eat Natural’ bar the other day, I took a look at the company information on the back and was surprised to see the legal address: 95 Camberwell Station Rd, London SE5 9JJ.
Yes, ‘the UK’s fastest-growing snack bar’ (doesn’t that make it sound like Frankenstein food?) is made right here in SE5. And not in a factory or a bakery; no, this snack is made in their — wait for it — Makery. We have a Makery here!
(Whilst I’m being snarky, is it really necessary to advise consumers of an ‘almonds & apricots with yoghurt coating’ bar that it contains nuts?)
A quick reminder that the AGM of the SE5Forum will take place next Wednesday at the Institute of Psychiatry (you don’t have to be mad, etc). This is a bit of a reboot of the Forum, so it’s a good time to go along. Chelsea fans will be unable to attend as that night sees them play Everton, but to be honest we’re better off without them anyway. Ooh! Football humour!
Went to the Peckham Farmer’s Market again yesterday. There’s a new goat’s dairy stall and a smaller vegetable stall with lots of different types of cabbage. Here’s wishing them success.
Nice to know that posh snakc are being made on Camberwell station road along side the garages, ice cream van storage and the bus station. They must keep their “makery” fairly anonymous as livign in the vicinity i walk down Camberwell Station Road very frequently and i’ve never noticed them at all!
I dont think they are actually made in Camberwell — its more the marketing of the snacks. The company behind the Eat Natural brand is Multiple Marketing Limited which is based in Camberwell — http://www.sunmagic.co.uk/aboutus.htm. The actual food production is carried out by its Multiple Marketing’s parent company RM Curtis — http://www.rmcurtis.co.uk/
No, I’m pretty sure they’re made here, in a Wonka-like Makery of unimaginable delights.
However there are quite a few catering companies based in and around Camberwell Station Road and Denmark Road — including the Admirable Crighton- a rather posh catering firm — so the idea is not as odd as it sounds.
There are some rather odd and unexpected companies based in Camberwell — for example the strange Tower Heritage on Denmark Road
Posh snake sounds good, Hannah. Are you the one on Camberwell Station Road that looks like Eve? Cor! You don’t ‘alf brighten up that road, sashaying down there.
Otherwise, it’s just car bits and the crazed Rastas at the end selling separatism and flags.
Boy, are we pleased to see you, on our way to collect our parcels from Her Majesty!
There’s often a lot of very good soup smells around Camberwell Station Road. Never figured out where it emanates from. 5 Star caterers are along there but I think they do ice cream vans and stainless steel drum barbecues. Admirable Crighton are just round the corner.
Think Mumu’s right with Multiple Marketing. Natural Cardboard.
Posh snacks? Shop local.
http://tinyurl.com/yqp9qc
Excellent find R Soles
In Camelford, Cornwall, where the wonderful bicycle museum is, there is a machine hire company called R. Sleep.
I am wondering if Camberwell should seek twin-town status with Camelford.
Is Cranford already twinned?
Does anyone else have ideas of with whom Camberwomb should be twinned with?
I think we should at the very least twin with our namesake in Melbourne, Australia. It seems like they have a very nice market there. And a cinema.
Welcome to Camberwell — twinned with Camberwell. That’s a good start.
Thanks, Mark. But, please, call me Robert. No, really, please do call me Robert.
“Never knowingly undersoled.”
That would be Freeman, Hardy and Willis. We had one of those once as well.
Robert. Very good find. Are we to believe there was a Waitrose in Camberell in 1921 then? Selling teas and coffees? Or perhaps a central warehouse for distribution of fine comestibles to the rest of London. Seriously anything more might be an interesting lever for persuading John Lewis to venture here again sometime…
Speaking of Central Warehouses. I’m not familiar with SALES techniques when shopping. A frined pointed out that Shoe Fayre’s CLOSING DOWN SALE is not due to the shop in closing Camberwell but because the Central Warehouse is closing.
Twinned with Camelot. Slogan — “Perhaps Arthur’s last restin’ place is ‘ere”.
Is this the most tawdry, blatant and unlikely pitch at creating a local tourist industry in recent inner city London history?
Perhaps. But if TfL can agree to give all Camberwell amenities a 20mph zone for adjoining sections of red routes, it could work; Waitrose too.
Hmm.. let’s take a closer look at which mayoral candidate would be most sympathetic to the idea.
And Jude Law’s sister lives in Camberwell and loves it.. anyone see that in London Lite last night?
London Lite really is an amazing source of interesting stories.
PS My sister lives in Margate and loves it.
Wot, Natasha?
She studied at Camberwell I hear.
@16 regenguru you seem a bit obsessed with this 20 mph zone. I watched Newsnight the other night and Martin Cassini was on campaining for abolishing traffic lights, street signs and road markings http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/video/default.stm
I have been interested in his approach for a few years which enables everyone to think about everyone else.
Perhaps Camberwell could opt for this solution and turn the crossraods at Camberwell Green into a lovely piazza type thing.
And perhaps allowing everyone to use common sense and cooperate with each other. Instead of the pedestrians hate cyclists hate car drivers hate buses threads that often turn up on this blog. I would vote for any mayoral candidate that supported Cassini’s ideas, TFL did not want to take part which is a shame.
Gnomee — I saw the report. Interesting and imaginative, especially the challenge to TfL to look at the pavement and street scape as part of surrounding architecture, as I have argued elsewhere.
Here’s the simple reason it would not work:
Drivers who knock down pedestrians on the Continent are punished far more severely than in the UK. Some here think that’s OK because “anyone c’d ‘ave an accident”. I say that drivers should bear the same legal responsibilties to their victims as air traffic control or commercial pilots.
Meanwhile, cyclist boxes at traffic lights are a useful means of asserting the right — which some dispute with violence — of cyclists to use the road.
PS, I am trying to stoke interest in a mayoral debate. Some forget that TfL is not an independent behemoth, but purely the creature of the Mayor. The culture of TfL will always tend to reflect the personality of the incumbent Mayor.
The putative mayors are now in pledge mode and you can debate their merits on http://www.se5forum.org.
Regenguru, I disagree it is because everyone is put into different boxes that we get conflict with different road users (including pedestrians)this creates the idea that I have a right and I am going to defend it attitude.
I think it would work as everyone will have to go slower to see what is going on rather than obeying the lights and defending your right to go regardless of everyone else. Maybe I am just an idealist but I have seen it work in Denmark and Holland. Most importantly it could increase air quality as it should get rid of standing traffic.
TFL seem to have a vested interest in creating more traffic controls at junctions over the past 5 years, reminds me to check who is donating to the mayoral campaigns
Mark. Who knows? It’s a sad day when you can’t believe everything you read on a box of matches but there’s no mention of it anywhere else. We’ll see what Waitrose have to say.
Remember this?:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/markdodds/370765844/in/pool-camberwell_se5
“Quality Never Goes Out Of Style”
On traffic a few things:
1. look at Kensington High street — a good example of an imaginative road scheme- it works too!
2. It’s worth remebering that TfL can only do so much — they only have responsibility for red routes not all of Londons roads.
3. I would advocate everyone being forced to retake their driving test every ten years — part of the problem is that London in particular is cursed with some shockingly bad drivers — and pedestrians — i despair when i see people at the traffic lights by the Silver Buckle running in front of buses and cars. It seems the traffic light filtering system around Camberwell Green is far to complicated for most Camberwell drivers and pedestrians to comprehend ‑perhaps we need to revive the Tufty club but include adults!!
I also dispair at the traffic lights outside the Silver Buckle and in fact all around the Green — they have been designed with the interests of motorists and buses to the fore not the interests of pedestrians in what should be a vibrant town centre. Due to the huge four lane road both sides of Denamrk Hill feel cut off from each other having to be crossed in two or three stages, similarly Camberwell Road feels totally cut off from Church Street. What is need is for TfL to take a lead and re-engineer the junction so that it is more pedestrian friendly.
Removing all the railings would be a start but they shouldnt stop there — they need to make the pavements wider so that the road is clearly prioritised as a pedestrian road, narrow the road down to one lane and yes implement a 20mph speed limit. They should also look at the junction with Coldharbour Lane outside Nandos. We should get on to our GLA member Valerie Shawcross — she is politically close to Ken in this election year hopefully would be willing to give undertakinsg to do something — afterall her majority of 6,000ish could be vulnerable
Gnomee — I think the UK’s different cultural and legal approach to motoring accidents (non-implementation of EU Directive on motorist insurance liability for cyclist accidents), alcohol and climate change, compared to Germany and the Benelux, gives a clue to difficulties with Cassini’s approach, which would definitely require a 20mph limit around junctions.
Mumu makes an excellent point that streetscenery is designed exclusively around the motorist. Why? There’s no evidence the motorist contributes more than the localist pedestrian to the London economy, yet we know of the socio-economic damage done by high throughput of motor vehicles. The lazy myth that the economy is centred around cars continues to be perpetuated without proof.
I would agree with Hannah that TfL are not the only culprits, although clearly the streets and pavements they control in SE5 are the most important in Camberwell.
Take the opportunity of the Mayoral Elections to ask all of the candidates — including Ken as I do believe in Damascene conversions — what they would do for Camberwell if (re)elected.
And whether the candidate would be willing to recognise, through institutional change with funding, the social and economic aspects of pavement stewardship, for the first time since the Mayoralty in its current form was incepted.
It’s a known fact that Ken doesn’t care much about South London.
Err… i guess if more people raised the issues, they’d more attention from the authorities.
Peter are you aware of this:
http://londonist.com/2008/01/london_bloggers_1.php
Theres been another stabbing in the ‘hood — http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23432827-details/Girl,+13,+knifed+in+playground/article.do
this time a 13 year old girl.
I read about that this morning, and was trying to think of a way to write about it without getting furious. It’s so sad;
“A girl of 13 was stabbed twice in a school playground in a suspected gang attack linked to drugs.”
That’s such an incongruous sentence.
“Her boyfriend is in a gang and another gang came to get her. That’s what they do — they get the people you love because it hurts more.”
Fucking baby gangsters.
“This is neutral territory where all the gangs from Brixton and Peckham come to fight”.
Yep. That’s Camberwell.
Terrible news.
This stretch of red route is part of NEW Camberwell, that part of Camberwell which has never received strategic attention, neither from public nor third sector, and whose only hope lies in praying for London-wide changes in policy by getting red route communities onto the debating agenda of the Mayoral Election 2008.
Red Route:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/markdodds/379737417/
Sacred Heart:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/markdodds/379740739/
@1 & 2etc Camberwell Station Road and Multiple Marketing:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/markdodds/2199929081/
On the subject of marketing, and mulitple, I had a meeting with Mark McGowan this evening (http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=2199939387&size=l) and it’s finally confirmed (we’ve been talking since late last summer) that he’s doing a project at The Sun and Doves which runs from 20 March to 18 April 2008. Broadly, at 8pm every night for thirty nights a performance piece will take place in or around the pub. Every night will feature a different artist, a different medium, a different slant. No two performances will be the same length, they will wrap around films quizzes, music and anything else we do on a regular basis. Many very well recognised artists, curators, authors writers and performers have agreed to take part already. The diary isn’t finalised yet. Will be by early February.
The performances and appearances will be recorded, photographed, drawn and filmed, broadcast and stuck up on the walls during the month, making a growing, changing show that customers and artists will respond to as it evolves and develops a life of its own.
‘SE5 SCENE’ Meant to remind here earlier in the week that Beverley Carpenter & Karen Lois Whiteread are projecting onto Camberwell Magistrates’ court at night this week 6–10pm. Don’t miss it tomorrow 18th or Saturday 19th January.
Good night!
It’s a very good school by all accounts, despite the red-route. So Neo-Camberwell isn’t without hope: it has the area’s best secondary.
sorry I don’t know this, but where’s the magistrate’s court, Mark?
other thing sounds great too.
It’s not a bad school, really — You can be sure that they will come down like a ton of bricks in true Roman Catholic authoritarian style (it’s o.k I’m allowed to say that) on the perpetrator and that he will never darken their doors again…
The Plough opporsite S&D is starting to look very swish with it’s new paint job…
Is it a still going to be a pub or are they converting it into a restaurant?
@39 Tanera; Magistrates courts: Red Star end of Camberwell Green, at the far side of the green from Camberwell Road there is a piazza with trees and the courts beyond as here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/markdodds/399602759/
The road running down the right side of the bulding is D’Eynsford. The projections are on that side of the building.
Well worth the effort going to see if it’s not cats and dogs. Even then will be spectacular but you will get wet.
@eusebiovic. The Plough. Going to ask the builders now.
@ 41 yes the Plough has been taken on by Nice & Spice and is going to be a restaurant. Jamaican leaning I presume.
Anyone tried the portugese custard tarts from Caravaggio. They are called ‘natas’.
Give them a go.
Looking forward to a weekend of decorating. I will be buying paint and the like from Camberwell Superstore so maybe I can duck into the Hermit’s. Maybe..
I posted a whole PhD yesterday about the Sacred Heart incident but static got the better of the modem and my whole electronic micro-civilisation collapsed.
Weirdly enough, what saved me yesterday from being as splutteringly angered as Peter by the stabbing was the cone in the road just by the Plough pub aforementioned by Eusebiovic, etc, I was cycling home past Sacred Heart — mounted police, many more at great public expense combing a grassy knoll looking for the weapon — and saw the big hole in the middle of the road in which contractors or the council or whoever had carefully, neatly placed a traffic cone. That made me laugh.
Mark @ 42⁄43 — Thank you sir,
Ahhh! Nice and Spice… I’ve bought the odd pattie or two there on occasion and the bakery always smells good when I walk past, especially in winter
I wish them the best of luck with their endeavours we need more places like that along Coldharbour Lane and Loughborough Junction — especially the latter…
Sounds good! I’ll look forward to trying it. I agree the Nice and Spice already smells great however i am always a bit confused as to what to order so haven’t been in there yet. I should take a leaf out of Alans book and just go in and ask!!
I got the name wrong it’s Spice and Nice. Having been recommended the Jerk chicken by several people. I bought the Jerk chicken and it made me feel very sick.
I arks you, what a jerk -
Mock, erm jerst havin a jerk -
Am livin in a town
Where th drugs dont werk
They cut each other bout LSD
wernt like tha in mah dee
am trine t speak
urban, see
Ah heas yo rap Dags babe; ahs stayin in tinite cos mi man’s a willin and ahm a gonna be chillin wid mi woman in mi crib.
Actually she’s out having a good time with friends and alcohol and cigarettes and I’m having my own good time boy sitting.
Beverley Carpenter at the Courts:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/markdodds/sets/72157603747961363/
Everyone invited to the last night from 6–10pm. There’s a mobile fish and chip shop there tomorrow night from 7 o’clock. Come along and take some English food at its best and a few snaps of a little bit of hsitory being made.