Eating, drinking, house prices — business as usual

First of all let me say a huge thanks to reader Joanna, who pointed out to me that the site feed* had stopped working a few months ago; I hadn’t spotted it myself, and no-one else had raised it either. Joanna is a long-time reader of this blog, including during the two years she spent in Rwanda. Now that’s dedication.

Thanks to someone I can’t remember, I’ve recently found the blog of local councillor John Friary, of the Camberwell Green ward. It’s very useful for local news; for example, his latest post mentions that the future of the Baths / Leisure Centre is not as rosy as it could be —  survival depends on Southwark being able to get £2m Government funding from a pot of £50m — which 200 other local authorities have also made bids on. News on the future of the Town Hall there as well.

The latest installment of My Middle-Class Weekends saw me and the wife check out the Saturday farmer’s market in Oval (which we can probably just about squeeze into Camberwell, as it’s at the very end of Camberwell New Road). It’s bigger than the Sunday market at Peckham, with more food actually cooked and served there. Peckham’s still great for picking up the basics, but for something a little more tasty — such as the delicious venison and mushroom pie we had for dinner — it merits a trip on the 436. And I don’t say that lightly.

Earlier that day we dropped a few items off at the PROS bring & take event at the Synergy Centre. Hope that went well.

Later we thought we’d try The Cambria, which everyone has been raving about, but after cycling over there we realised that a) neither of us had any cash and b) all of the outside tables were in the shade. It looks beautiful inside, but we’ll have to go back another time to review it properly. Instead, we wrang out the last few drops of sunshine in the Sun & Doves garden.

To close, some gossip; my mate at the pub says that the Camberwell Grove development isn’t selling well at all. After having to scale back their plans considerably (due to the opposition of the Camberwell Grove Society) they decided to make up their profits by charging more for the properties. Obviously the current financial climate has seen prices tumble, but St George have yet to follow suit; hence, slow sales. As with all gossip, I cannot vouch for its veracity.

If St George would like some free publicity, I will gladly sing their praises here in return for a one-bedroom flat. For a two-bedroom flat, I will also renounce my dislike of the Vauxhall Bridge development.

* In case you don’t know what feeds are, the BBC have a good overview; they’re much more convenient than visiting loads of sites every day. While on technical matters, the 30% of people who visit this site using Internet Explorer 6 should really consider updating to a modern browser; IE6 is old, slow, and potentially insecure. Ask a web-savvy friend if you don’t know what this means.

Author: Peter

Long-time resident of Camberwell, author of this blog since July 2004.

99 thoughts on “Eating, drinking, house prices — business as usual”

  1. i had a strange eperience in the old Apollo video store this weekend. I noticed that they have started displaying some of the old DVD boxes (although most of them are just stacked in one corner of the shop). I chose a dvd took it to the counter where the shop assistant reacted in a really strange way. She said “they used to be for sale or rent, but well…its diffcult…how can i explain”. She appeared slightly flustered. How could it be diffcult to explain. Either they are available or they are not. But if they are not availble why are they on display as if they still trying to imply the are DVD (albeit rather crap one). And come to think of it they have made no effort to reomve the Apollo Video store shop sign.

    Not being very up on licensing laws, does anyone know if licence for a shop could be issued with the condition of it making DVD’s availble as the shop had previously? i just can’t understand why a shop clearly wanting to be another convience store would fill valuable wall space up with DVD’s which aren’t actually available to rent or buy.

    This may seem a bit pedantic, but just so disappointed to see yet another conveniance store offering more or less exactly the same stuff as many other camberwell stores. And how long before it starts to sell alochol like all the other ones too.

  2. An honest drink store ought to be called C2H5OH, the formula for ethanol, or grain alcohol, sometimes called “drinking alcohol”.

    The time has come for truth.

    Peole thinking that Camberwell’s beauty, Jenny Eclair, and her husband drive round in a Rolls-Royce should know that the car is in fact a Bentley T2, sharing the same 6750cc V8 with the Silver Shadow of the 1977–80 production period and with the added advantage over the previous Shadow of rack and pinion steering.

    Did anyone see Martin Carthy at the Hamlet on Friday? What a hybrid of venue and artist! The Hamlet is a great bar, really well run, fun and functional.

  3. Great news heard yesterday — seems the English National Ballet is re-working their proposal to include the pool at the Leisure Centre. Once again well done working group.

    And to my list of said group, the Camberwell Society and both Councils who are getting things done, I now add the GayCamberwell group. I’d not read much about it until I visited their website yesterday. Wow! Seems with few resources whatsoever they have produced an oustanding resource overnight complete with a launch month worthy of a well-funded, huge community group. Hope they will get a Peter special entry for this. Impressive.

    1. Re ENB: That’s good news and practical thinking on their part.

      A swimming pool turns out to be a necessity for the community. Speaking to other parents school-gate style, there’s massive support for keeping the pool. A letter writing and lobbying campaign is well underway.

      Where else will local kids learn to swim?

  4. A surveyor was measuring up the Baths last Thursday for a “25-year plan”, he said. If we can get the gym-pumped heft of Gay Camberwell behind ENB’s bid, as well as the ale-fuelled brawn of the ballerina-fanciers, then Angelina Ballerina will be in a Camberwell scene, eh?

  5. Helen Craig does the Angelina Ballerina illustrations. I used to trim her bushes and roll her paths in Buckinghamshire in a previous life.

    It would be nice to have a public swimming pool in the middle of a national ballet company’s main training school.

  6. Ha! I didn’t see that one Peter. Hopefully you’ll give ’em one.

    Another positive community effort re: rise in youth crime/knives, etc. Enough London (Southwark a big part including Camberwell) launched this past week and my neighbour is quite excited about it. If such matters concern you, then I’d say this group is a good option for starters.

    http://www.enoughlondon.com

  7. Camberwell Passage, the alley between Camberwell Road and New Road behind Jono’s Snooker, has interesting, old stone paving slabs whose irregular pattern would digitalise well into a computer to produce a rhythm and melody totally unique to Camberwell.

  8. The Camberwell Green doctors’ surgery is housed in the old National and Westminster Bank, designed by A. Williams in the Edwardian baroque style and opened in 1899. Those of us lucky enough to go to the basement (for various reasons) will notice the huge safe where the medications are now kept. On the exterior of the bank, a partially clad couple recline extremely voluptuously. Both the young man and woman are exquisite. They obviously keep fit and well and have enjoyed some of the medications as well as each other.

    1. Shame that nobody who works there can ever be bothered to polish up the brass name plaques on the exterior. Thought about doing it myself guerilla-style in the middle of the night…it would make a difference.

  9. Quick one — anyone know a good and inexpensive cobbler? I have several pairs of shoes which need a new heel

  10. @Kia Blue — there is one inside the dry cleaners near Safa on Church St.
    It is next to the horrible crowded bus stop where Church St and Camberwell Green meet.

    The chappy does heels there and is cheap and effective!

  11. many thanks markb.. I shall pop in there on my way home.
    I work in town and RipOff TIMPSONS want to charge me £6.75 for a reheel. tut tut

  12. I’ll second that he did me three reheelings and a complete re sole of some leather soled shoes the other day and charged me about £18.

  13. Well spotted all and I’ve had similar good experience — our shops may be grotty and the crowds manic but we benefit from better value. Beat that East Dulwich!

  14. although East Dulwich does have a very good bespoke shoe maker that can do more complicated repairs .. at a price of course!

  15. The well-heeled of Camberwell. There is a new book by Steve Roud, a local historian of Croydon, called “London Lore” which has several pages on Camberwell, particularly the Camberwell Green Fair, which is well known to have become a source of ne’er-do-well-ism and scoundrelsry.

    Tonight is when the veil between the two worlds is at it thinnest.

    There is a gathering to be found at http://graveyard.at (assemble Canary Wharf tube).

  16. The Halloween soiree at the Peckham squat, the Spike, last night sounded good. Headjam played. Very cold, there, though. Brighton rained on Millwall’s parade today. Hoopers, the old Ivanhoe, has a jolly atmosphere on Fridays these days, with hand-crafted live music and exceptionally good value food going down.

  17. I’ve noticed that at weekends, the blog goes REALLY quiet. The sound of tumbleweed is very eerie!

  18. went to the SLG at the weekend. Kind of liked it but i am easily pleased.

    They missed the enviro-hipster memo. The place was roasting hot and the doors were wide open. The exhibit is sponsored by an airline.

  19. It was roasting hot when we went, strange in these times of cutbacks and fuel bills. The attendant told me it was embarrassing every time someone went upstairs in the installation because he had to follow them to make sure they didn’t stand on the metal bowl and fall through the floor

  20. Thanks for the tip guys. 2 pairs of shoes rehelled for £9.50. Had a good old browse into the 99p shop while I was waiting, it really is hit and miss in there. Bought a few boxes of splenda which cost 3.48 in Somerfield just next door. They really do sell the most random items in there though. I guess that is the idea of an overstock shop, you get all sorts. I see the Tesco Express on Walworth road is coming on well. Are they planning on taking over the CoOp on CNR by any chance?

  21. On the subject of 99p/Pound Shops, I heard from a friend of mine that the most commonly asked question in Pound shops is.….…you’ve guessed it.….“How much is this?”.
    The Hermit’s Cave got a mention on the Robert Elms BBC London show today. A customer e‑mailed in a recommendation that it be awarded “Best London Pub”.

  22. I’ve been predicting for months that the Hermit’s Cave will, sooner or later, be breathlessly profiled in some kookily-typographed style magazine or other as the centrepiece of the ‘Camberwell scene’.

    It does boast that curious mixture of arty trendiness, monosyllanic bar service and edgy yet unthreatening regulars that lets the in-crowd think they’ve uncovered something ‘real’, as with Tracy Emin’s favourite boozer, the now insufferable Golden Hart in Spitalfields.

    It’ll add precisely 0.02 percent to SE5 house prices, just you watch.

  23. ‘Rehelled’ shoes is a pure gem of a typo. Particularly apt for round here perhaps. At least the way I fell at the moment but this time of year does that for me always.

    I believe that, after Butterfly Pharmacy, and a few other shops owned by individuals locally, like Paul’s continental and a handful of others, 99p shop is the best shop in Camberwell.

    Tesco are not likely to take over anything remotely in the near future beacuse Co-op have the two Somerfields and whatever happens to these as a result of competition issues (obviously nothing happened under Somerfield’s tenure did it?), then Tesco might get a look in on one of the sites. But do not hold your breath because that won’t be for a couple of years AT LEAST.

    Hermits is a bastion of proper solidity. Monosyllanic bar service works well in that context. On pubs, someone told me that Dark Horse was shut over the weekend. Which sounds final. Is this a rumour or verifiable?

    On pubs and the community and the American election — The Sun and Doves’ Gay Film Season starts tomorrow night with Brokeback Mountain, followed by a live screening of the American Election — we invested £300 on a new aerial on a 4 metre high mast for this and if it doesn’t work to show Barack Obama winning history I’ll die of shame.

    Incidentally there’s a lot of new cocktails being devised for this season, the most immediate of interest is the ‘Burning Bush’ and the most attractive is Silk Chains for the Baby Boomer.

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