February’s Miscellanea

A couple of calls for participation:

Camberwell Business Network and SE5Forum would like some feedback from you about local shopping; and the Met police are looking for witnesses to a very nasty hit and run on Champion Hill last week.

Quick bit of transport news: TfL asked Southwark Council for their preference of proposed extensions to the Bakerloo line, and the Council have said that Lewisham via Camberwell and Peckham is their choice. However, that’s very far from being a done deal, and even if it were we’d be looking at some 15–20 years away. Still, perhaps one day…

The Council recently posted some historic maps online, which are interesting to look at. Did you know The Fox On The Hill used to be The Fox Under The Hill? Not sure what brought him to the surface.

That is all for now. I’m still looking for more contributors. Show of hands, please?

Author: Peter

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

159 thoughts on “February’s Miscellanea”

  2. I live in the EC parking area and can honestly say that the area has become a much nicer place to be. Before the restrictions were introduced one would have drive around for extended periods trying to find a place. Ironicly I now rent a garage so parking is not a problem so I get the best of both worlds.

  3. When a CPZ was introduced around Kings College Hospital I was initially against it.

    With hindsight it has improved the area hugely. Although I pay quite a lot for the privilege I can now be fairly sure of a parking space within a reasonable walk from home.

    Restrictions don’t apply at weekends though, so if I use the car I have no chance of being able to park anywhere near home.

    And before you ask, how else would I get all my organic veg home?

  4. Just as a declaration of interest, I don’t have a car so don’t care about the CPZ. I just found the actions of the council quite incredibly brazen.

  6. @Dagmar

    Of course, ever the voice of reason & understanding, you are quite right…

    To show our appreciation, let’s dedicate a song to them instead:

    Substitute the first line for “Follow Canal Walk down to Burgess Park”

  7. Camberwell Green Farmers Market tomorrow Saturday 3rd March 10am to 2pm

    Message just in from Barbara Pattinson, SE5 Forum Chair:

    Visit SE5 Forum’s stall tomorrow at the Camberwell Green Farmers Market; pick up your FREE Camberwell SE5 shopping bag, your FREE Camberwell walks map and be among the first to have a look at the reports on the Revitalise Camberwell consultation.

    Look forward to seeing you there.

    With all good wishes

    Barbara Pattinson

  8. That’s good, Dodds, well posted, a positive end to a somewhat depressing week of grim news.

    The giant church will happen at the old cinema, the neo-American church of greed and belief but no faith, braying about its own fabulous self-worth. Self-worth seems to be a big feature of urban culture — ego-based is Godless. Don’t they get it?

    stopped into a church

    I passed along the way

    well, I got down on my knees

    and I pretend to pray

    you know the preacher likes the cold

    he knows I’m gonna stay

    Also the grim news of the riot two, who robbed the beaten-up Malaysian student, getting convicted today. They waltzed away from his pools of blood, puffed up with pride.

    They will get elite, five-star treatment like the Preddies who killed Damilola Taylor — thousands and thousands of pounds spent on their welfare and self-worth.

    What a week for Dereck Chisora, who fought a blinder, then fell for the charms of panto dame David Haye… Neither of them are a Mohammed Ali, let us face it, who chose to go to prison rather than kill Vietnamese people.

    Anyone looking at Britain from the outside this week would say this is a shit country full of pathetic urban narcissists. You get me?

    Then the copper who was blinded by Raoul Moat — hero of the white chav culture of the North East — hangs himself.

  9. Dagmar

    Stop reading the papers / listening to the news — its just bad news all the time. Its all designed to bring us down.
    Good things happen every day — its the small things that give our lives meaning — look around and you will see good deeds everywhere. Karma takes care of everything else

    Have a great weekend

  10. The SE5 Forum stall on the Green will be a good place to start the weekend, true. We should be solid together in Camberwell. But the urban self worth culture is bad news every day, it is written on the subway walls, John Lewis’s, it is dead in the water of life, it is toxic.

  11. @Dagmar

    Aye, we live in a world which absently-mindedly conforms to a more insiduous, camouflaged form of fascism…where the insecure threatened egotist thrives.

    The vast majority haven’t caught up …the smell is yet to reach their nostrils.

    @John Lewis

    Karma is a great thing which I believe in but I see no sign of it showing it’s face in my lifetime — well assuming I’ve got another 35–40 years!

    The simple things in life like food,film and music on the green are a great way to feel slightly better about this mortal coil — which co-incidently is the name of a great band — 4AD records rule!

  15. ?

    That’s a link Dagmar. You’ve posted a couple of videos before that have embeded in your post so that passers by can see an image in the thread.

    My post above had a Filckr image grab in it but it doesn’t register — only ‘How do you embed an image or a video here?’ is published.

  16. Everything should be embeded rather than digitalised. I love those early mediaeval manuscripts with the pictures, colours, enamel, beading and text all done by hand. Good old Bede.

    Just as pleasing are the brilliant little SE5 Forum badges being given out yesterday at the farmers’ market. They are very discreet but effective.

    Thus Camberwell rises above London inch by inch on its way celestialwards. Well done, the Forum, a very friendly and welcoming stall.

    Apparently everyone at the Joiners Arms yesterday was wearing a new SE5 Forum badge, thus subtly asserting their SE5 credentials. Let us all “join”!

  21. I’ve been looking at Burgess Park a little more closely than I’ve had the chance to previously. I can feel a growing upswell of anger possibly about to become furious. £6million is a lot of money to spend and still leave parts of the park untouched… dilapidated and abandoned. What do I know? Common Sense? Will reserve judgement until more is completed. Behind schedule of course. Whatever really DID happen to the Trust that was set up to manage the park’s development?

    Just WHO, REALLY, is in CHARGE around here?

    Some more pics added to the set of Skanska / Notting Hill Housing buildings on Coldharbour Lane: with large fencing art commission by Gethan and Myles. http://bit.ly/AD6BJk

  22. Interesting piece on BBC TheOneShow tonight about betting shops. Camberwell/Peckham had their 15 minutes.
    Nice to know everyone knows it’s wrong; nobody gives a shit.

  24. 70+ betting shops just in the Borough of Southwark alone with a significantly noticeable above average concentration in Camberwell/Peckham/Walworth…

    ditto — Junk Food Outlets/Off Licences

    For those who have never had the unique pleasure to attend a Camberwell Community Council meeting and excercise your democratic rights and work out WHO REALLY is in CHARGE around here — this is a brief sample of what you have all been missing…

  25. no, no, these are all allegations!!! you clearly do not work in the planning department, none of you! oh, honestly!

  26. Southwark Council don’t “plan in” betting shops or African churches. These concerns have the money to take over property. Property is very probably some kind of social theft, so is definitely not a charitable matter, it’s part of business and part of globalization.

    Any local authority will collapse if it becomes derelict in the marketplace. Remember Liverpool:

    “You end in the grotesque chaos of a Labour council, a LABOUR council, hiring taxis to scuttle round the city handing out redundancy notices to its own workers.”

  27. A developer told me today, in response to me saying ‘Camberwell needs a shot in the arm’ “Southwark’s a tin pot borough, the worst in Britain, planning department terrible. They never tell you what they’re doing, they just spring it on you and it’s always a rejection, without explanation. Nightmare’.

    We know it’s not true don’t we.

    http://bit.ly/zLBCdc

  28. In all honesty.

    ALL I have EVER heard about Southwark planning department is allegations of incompetence, double dealing, skulduggery, mercurial blankness, impenetrable silence, unresponsive, surly, rude communication.

    Clearly when a new political regime gets in NOTHING changes. Must be the TUPE protection.

  30. How depressing. Another successful campaign to persuade the Council to spend their money elsewhere. Well done all!

  31. @Julian: Problem is with this council is that they decide first to spend money, then “consult”. Since what they want to spend money on and what people actually need rarely meet, you do end up fighting against it. The library was a great case in point. At no time did the council ever give people the chance to say where they would like to see the library move to. We were only asked if we liked libraries and if we use them, which is a pretty stupid question if what you plan to do is move the library.

    Also, and you may not realise this, last year the plan was to make the orchard and the area into a playground. Not sure why since there seems to be one on the green already.

    Both of these schemes have had lots of money spent on them, consulting and planning, but at no stage were people asked what they wanted to happen to the orchard. It was simply a question of “this is what we are going to do, now what do you think?”.

    So, yes. I agree with you, but disagree with your despair about the decision. Also, from the Londoist report it seems that they are still going to build a library, but look at other areas. That’s still good.

  32. This library — the one that has just been cancelled — was going to built this year. Now it won’t be. And unfortunately no other library is going to be built either. You insisted on getting something better than you were being offered; but you have ended up with nothing. And so have we. Thanks.

  33. @Julian: Much as I would like to believe that politicians at Southwark Council listened to the views of some people, I very much doubt that the campaign for the orchard was in itself the reason for dropping it. There will be another reason, as hinted by the Londonist.

  34. Good to have you on board Julian. Now that you’re here, how about some clarity?

    What are YOUR solutions? Come on Julian! Give it your best shot. What are YOUR ideas for Camberwell?

    ‘WE’ are all ears.

    And WHO are the people YOU refer to as ‘you’ and who are the ‘WE’ you’re talking about?

  37. Hello.

    The orchard will be slow on growth but at least it will have some, tended by the big society. The library prefab effort was probably cut anyway, so we can’t blame the trees for that.

    The solar flares are affecting us all. Some people’s sort of natural satnav seems to be affected.

  38. THE LIBRARY

    As vice chair of SE5 Forum I was, along with other ‘Stakeholders’ in SE5 / Camberwell such as people from Camberwell Society, asked by Southwark about the plans to move the prefab building from one council site onto the Magistrates’ court piazza to be used as a temporary library space.

    When I asked what plans were afoot for final relocation of the library at the end of the temporary period the Officer indicated there were no plans.

    When I asked what plans were afoot for re-letting the shops and above accommodation where the library is now the Officer indicated not a lot of thought had gone into it. I seem to recall maybe Costa Coffee being mentioned. That’s when I asked if anyone at the council had considered asking local people, residents and existing cafe owners, whether they thought YET ANOTHER coffee shop was a good idea — and why did Fusion have a Chain Coffee outfit from Leicester (? I think they are based there) doing their cafe rather than a local being invited to run the concession and why were there plans for ANOTHER cafe in the new library to be put on the piazza when it’s completely unclear as to what is NEEDED locally.

    When I asked if the council thought putting a library, temporary or not, on one of the rare open spaces in Camberwell, a project I guessed MUST be at least £1.5million, when there are obvious opportunities to get developers to pitch for putting the library into a local project (such as at the JobCentre site, which is due for being vacated before June 2012) the Officer said ‘Look, you should be getting behind this project and asking your networks to get behind it too. We know there’s support for a new library, this has been signed off already and frankly if Camberwell can’t get behind this it’s the last chance it’ll get and there won’t be another chance to get any investment here in the foreseeable future’.

    I paraphrase the quote, I did not have a recorder running, but assure that this reflects accurately the tone the statement was delivered — it was intended as a threat. That’s not what ‘Stakeholder’ involvement demands: ‘We’re doing this, what do you think? By the way, you better LIKE IT or bloody well LUMP IT MATE because it’s ALL YOU LOT ARE GOING TO GET’.

    I encouraged the Officer to encourage the Council to have the courage to open up a discussion with people rather than telling them what is going to happen. This suggestion got a harrumph and the ‘stakeholder contact’ broke down into an awkward rest of meeting only smoothed over by my making light of what had happened. Pathetic.

    I’ve kept quiet about that comment publicly until now out of a misplaced sense of duty toward our elected representatives. But my point is that this was a clear insight into the culture of ‘community engagement’ so enthusiastically adoptedand adhered to by Southwark administration and so beloved by the Serfs who are victim of it. It’s public body arrogance beyond belief and what the notion of Localism is meant to combat. Where IS democracy?

    I’ve seen so much profligate nonsense and waste and utter aimlessness in vision, policy and strategy around Camberwell for so long now I find it increasingly difficult to keep my fingers away from the keyboard.

  39. Monkeycat.

    Julian can stick up for himself he doesn’t need you tiptoeing around for him.

    There’s not enough shouting around this manor. And, Dagmar, it’s NOT the SOLAR FLARES.

  42. Thanks for the comments on vege Sunday lunches above (apologies for the delay in responding). The Cambria do amazing lunches but I’ve only had the pleasure twice. Every other time we’ve tried we’ve been reminded that you have to make a reservation — and we’re just not that organised.
    I will keep looking…

  43. I live in the Lucas Garden CPZ. I also commented in favour of it during the consutlation. Parking was very, very difficult around here between the hours of 8am to 5pm. So if you are a typical commuter (leaving in the morning and coming home in the evening) you wouldn’t necessarily notice there was a problem. However I work unusual hours and it was perfectly normal to end up parking four or five streets away from my house. I am ashamed now that the streets are practically empty during the day as it seems a waste. In the consultation I suggested that the council implement a 12–2 resident’s parking zone like the one on Ferndene Road above Ruskin Park. That deters the commuters but means that shoppers, visitors, electricians etc…can use the roads. The option we ended up with is clearly not appropriate.
    Secondly, for us personally implementation of the zone has been incredibly frustrating. We paid for our resident’s permit a week before the zone came into force but we didn’t receive our permit. Two weeks in, we called the company who run this for Southwark to tell them and they promised to hand deliver it the next working day. Didn’t happen. We subsequently received five parking fines, which we have of course challenged. Today we received a letter saying they REJECT our challenge, leaving us with 5 lots of £130 fines to pay! How can that be in the slightest bit logical? We had paid for a permit, they didn’t deliver it to us, we told them of their mistake and yet we’re still in the wrong for parking in front of our own house.
    I am mostly angry because the council (or whoever the subcontractor is) are wasting my time sorting this out. Life isn’t supposed to be filled with this sort of dull nonsense.

    Apologies for such a long, boring rant.

  44. This is the best rant for months on this site, Corner House.

    We were at a local authority leisure centre recently for a children’s party. Small kid wanted plastic princess from a machine for a quid. Quid went in, no princess. Jobsworth leisure centre bloke said not their problem. Different provider. As in, “They do plastic princesses, we nasty. Your kid can go to hell. So can you.”

    You have had that x 650.

    People round our way, Corner, do not all own large flashy cars, they are not all African churchgoers with loads of money. The streets like Vestry Road are empty of cars in the day — and in the evening. You are right. You have been robbed good and proper. How totally pathetic of the parking office and their dodgy stakeholders.

    Stakeholders! Added value! Shareholder value!

  45. Corner House — you ought to write to Barrie Hargrove, in case you don’t know, he’s Southwark, Peckham Ward councillor; Cabinet Member for Transport, Environment and Recycling. He’ll be interested to know about your experience.

    You could copy in the Leader of the council Peter John as well and ought to think about including Harriet Harman too — it’s their patch proper and none of them will know just how these things affect people on the ground.

    barrie.​hargrove@​southwark.​gov.​uk
    peter.​john@​southwark.​gov.​uk
    HARMANH@​parliament.​uk

    They need to know what happens in their manor on their watch.

  46. I’d like to raise the topic of schools in Camberwell/Peckham.

    As far as I can tell there are very few good or even acceptable primary schools in the area.

    My eldest will be entering reception next September. Our nearest primary school has been under special measures and seems to be failing badly. We also live near Cobourg, which I quite like, and Oliver Goldsmith, which I don’t.

    Everyone tries to get their kids into Michael Faraday. Not many succeed. My neighbours recently got their fourth choice school for their little boy, and are agonizing over whether to stop working and home school him instead, as its reputation is so bad.

    So do we gamble on getting a place at Cobourg or Michael Faraday, go private, or move away in the hope of getting a place at a reasonable state school? None of these is an appealing option.

    What do others think, and how have other parents dealt with the lack of good schools in the area?

  47. What about Brunswick Park Primary School? Apart from Gloucester Road, which is the school in special measures, aren’t all the primary schools in north Camberwell and Peckham rated fairly highly by Ofsted?

  48. Hi Amanda — It can be diffcult because you have to go to a nearby primary school, so you get what you get, more or less. If you’re lucky there are some very good primaries around here. To some degree, it depends on your expectations and preferences as to what you think is good or bad. If you can try and visit the schools and make your opnion on that rather than Ofstead.

    Secondary schools are worse. At risk of sounding uptight, the local schools just do not seem to have anywhere near the level of academic stimulation and achivement kids need. It is a shame because that is what would get kids to university, and then into jobs, and would pay back into the community over the longer term.

    We had this discussion a while back on here.

    On the other hand, maybe we over-think it and worry unneccesarily.

  49. Pitch for Cobourg and Faraday and have a private option (Villa, Herne Hill) as a backup maybe.

  50. Amanda! Parents deal with it with immense anxiety. Plunging your small kid into a school of children whose parents do not take naturally to the gentle parenting of young mammals is an extremely worrying thing to do.

    However.

    Our first went to a weird nursery where other kids were called things like Tyrant and Ziggurat. These kids were programmed by their parents to be selfish and incipiently cannibalistic, thinking that they could ingest their victims’ qualities simply by eating them.

    Our first took it in her stride, kept her counsel, didn’t moan, said she’d been OK and had dealt with the day, told us who she’d played with when we picked her up. When a place in a better nursery turned up after some months surviving in this compound, we took her out and she absolutely flew in the new, better circumstances. We thanked the teachers and politely left.

    We are midway between Oliver Goldsmiths and Lyndhurst and dreaded Goldsmiths — it was totally inappropriate for our kid who whilst being a bit of a Brit has a gentle, floral name and is not named after a machine gun or supercharged GT car.

    (The “Chrysler Crossfire” — pity it’s not called the “Dodge Crossfire”, Dodge being a Chrysler brand — the “Dodge Ram” — the pick-up truck for men with little willies — “For men on the pick-up with other men” — don’t get me started, Amanda.)

    Anyway, she got into Lyndhurst which is the most mixed, interesting, well run and happiest primary school in the universe, if not in Camberwell.

    We were dead lucky.

    My advice is try for the best, take the risk, then don’t get worried when the child gets sent to an inappropriate school.

    If you are strong at home — naturally loving, just because that’s just how you feel — then your nipper will survive, learn fast and learn a lot without losing his or her own nature.

    Then you will have time to take your bearings as well as realise that your possum is dealing with it a lot better than you.

    I have to tell you now…

    That plopping your kid in a white middle-class goldfish bowl is almost certainly not the answer to your prayers.

    When you see the kiddies using their parents’ formula of “How are you?” (meaning I don’t want to know how you are, that’s not at all what I mean) and “I haven’t seen you for ages” (meaning I avoid you, get out of my sight you subhuman) on YOU, let alone your offspring, then all will become clear.

    People thinking of home-educating are a screw short of a modest modicum of humility.

    If you are solid with your children, if you are a good unit together in this world of smarmy successful people (“My dad sacks people”; “My mum is a marketing director for a shit brand”) and of people from failed, corrupt and institutionally depressed and desperate states brought in to prop up the talentless posh establishment, then you will be men my son and hold your heads high.

    It is great that in Britain all kids grow up really British — in France, a rather racist country, it is hilarious how all kids grow up ever so pouty and French despite the zenophobia. That is a credit to French culture.
    Howevah.

    Crap parents and their troubled children get elite treatment in Southwark schools, did they know it. But ten billion teachers cannot do what two parents should naturally want to do.

    Anyone would think that being a parent is an ideal, when in fact you are fucking lucky!

    Always support the teachers. Do not act special. Do not get scared in front of your kids, let them deal with it.

    75% of the Nigerian government budget is spent on the government itself. That is in an oil-sodden country where people hack open the pipelines to fill their scooters and get incinerated.

    Just going out into the street in Britain is great, especially in Camberwell where there are so many different types of people. It makes Chipping Norton look boring.

    Look at our Florian. He took a sentence to say what I mean. Genius.

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