Camberwell Market is back for the Summer

After a successful launch last year, Camberwell Market (not to be confused with Camberwell Farmers’ Market) is back on the Green this Sunday, 23rd April, from 11am to 5pm. There’s a mostly new line-up of stalls, including (descriptions provided by the market management):

  • Serious Hashbrowns—a brand-new venture from Daniel Mntungwana of Love Walk Cafe, serving up Gourmet Hashbrowns (from a converted horse box!)
  • Daddy’s Japan Soul Food—scrumptious, authentic Japanese street-food.
  • Meltsmiths—mouthwatering grilled cheese sandwiches.
  • Books-Peckham—beloved and hugely popular book stall returns!
  • Fashion Clicks—playful, fun, quirky, inspired vintage/retro fashion.
  • And many more.

It’s great to have the market back for the summer. I still think, however, it would be good if the Saturday and Sunday markets could merge—it would make for a much better destination. I’ve heard there are regulatory reasons why they’re separate, but I’d still like to see it.

Author: Peter

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

30 thoughts on “Camberwell Market is back for the Summer”

  1. Great post — thanks. I heard that the farmer’s market won’t allow hot food to be sold, hence having two markets — is that true?

    1. The people who run the farmers market are adamant that hot food should not be served! I think they have shot themselves in the foot a bit there.

    1. Can I go off topic ? Tried to visit , look at , see if I want to join ..the new gym at the green …does anyone know how to get in ?

  2. Camberwell’s looking a bit knackered at the moment, quite a few closed up premises. Anything going to happen ever at the old Peacocks site? Or the old HSBC? Or the other boarded up shops? And what’s happening to the post office?

    1. Old Peacock’s seems to be in development hell. Was long intended to be a gym upstairs, shop units down, but have seen no progress there for a while and in the meantime another gym has opened. Will check the planning register later to see if there are any updates. Ditto HSBC.

      The Post Office is having a refit, finally, although was only supposed to be closed for two weeks in January, so god knows what’s happening there.

    2. Work on the gym / conversion in the Old Peacocks was apparently stopped because they demolished the existing building without planning permission. They’ve applied again, retrospectively, and a decision on that is pending.
      Owners of the former HSBC have applied for permission to change from a single A2 (the bank) to two A1 — that is, shops—plus two flats above. Decision pending also.
      As long as you know the postcode, you can look this stuff up on Southwark’s planning website, if you have the time or inclination (I sometimes do). http://planbuild.southwark.gov.uk:8190/online-applications/

  3. This is great! Very happy to have this blog to help keep up with the ever-changing Camberwell community! Thank you

  4. Also, work seems to have started on the rest of the old library (next to Nape) — anyone know what it’s going to be ? It looks like the whole building is being renovated.
    Ditto with the old chippy.

    1. New chippy

      @FladdaSE5 . New Chippy opening in Camberwell soon. From the Team behind Fins & Trotters. Obsessed with Fish & Chips since 2012 .

    2. Owners of the former library have been granted change of use from library to financial/professional, plus permission to turn upstairs (was offices, storage I think) into flats. Heard a rumour that a ‘high street’ estate agents plan to open there.

  5. The new show at the South London Galley is a bit so so after the last one which was brilliant. It consists of paper mâché and A4 photocopies. Perhaps they should have a competition to attract something more cutting edge.

    Should we have some sort of promotion to attract (reach out to) new Camberwellonliners? A cheese and wine evening, for instance? When the blog first launched, it was the latest thing, cutting edge, on trend, achingly cool.

    However, the time is right for new people to get into it. The political malaise means people will seek to make their own lives without everyone else having to vote on it.

  6. Also, Queen’s (on Church Street) have closed down “for the time being”. First time I ate there it was fantastic, second time they had a few problems with service, but someone there was quite rude to me when I commented about it on Twitter (despite also praising the quality of their ingredients) and I hadn’t been back for a while. Sadly, looks like I won’t get the chance now.

    1. The crowdfunded places don’t seem to stick around long. Pigeonhole Cafe original owners sold up, Queens gone already…

  7. Problem with Queens was it just took so long to get started. Then it was open for a few hours and then only in the evenings . It because a destination place really and not part of the daily community …it was just a bit too precious about itself .
    The same with Nape . It does the best toasted sandwiches in Camberwell ..if not South London ..but is only open in the evening and doesn’t do coffee …again its very niche and cant see how it will survive but really hope it does as they are so nice in there.
    Really miss Holly and George at Pigeon Hole which was the best cafe ever.

  8. I notice that the benches on the green, just in front of the Peabody Estate have been removed. This is great news as they were being used by street drinkers which caused much litter and fag ends all over.

  9. I found some really weird anti-convulsant and so on drug packaging there this week, Chunters. Someone had taken the lot and chucked the broken blisterpacks and cartons all over the grass, a grim reminder of the lives addicts live.

    However, the rest of the Green is a success, in my view, and well worth the effort and money. It really is a green, placid space. I read the memorial to the Wright family of September 1940, an extraordinary story that gets more mind-boggling and affecting every time you read it. I referred the “Mail Online” and Canadian telly to it at the candlelit vigil for the Westminster Bridge atrocity in Trafalgar Square.

    “Why are you here?” asked “Mail Online”. “Because it’s near,” I said. “Camberwell is two miles THAT way and Millwall two miles THAT way.”

    The real discovery for me, though, on Monday, was the quiet intensity of the new library. You go in thinking it’s almost empty and only after a while do you realise it’s packed with people totally concentrating. A lot of them seem to know each other — it’s like a secret, thinking community. Everyone gives each other maximum leave-alone room for peaceful study, remarkable. The staff clearly know more than they reveal, you can tell by their body language and glances.

    I feel sorry for the dossers, but the Green and Library are serene and wonderfully meditative without them. Monday-morning Camberwell, for those who never see it, is amazingly quiet and green for an inner city crossroads.

    Zippo’s Circus rumbled slowly past, as though carrying (long-gone) elephants in the lorries.

    1. I think that’s right. Society has all kinds of people and some how we have to accommodate all of us. Street drinkers are part of society and part of the reasons for living that life in public is to be noticed.

  10. I have recently discovered The Southwark Gymnastics Club based next to Brunswick Primary School.

    It’s basically all the stuff you used to do at school as a kid, but for adults.

    http://southwarkgymnastics.co.uk/

    I’m not quite ready to go tumbling yet so have been going to the yoga classes.

    Unlike most yoga classes they are a bargain, at £5 a session and held on Wednesdays at 6.30–7.30 and Saturdays from 10–11am.

    Apparently the Saturday class is popular but I went last week for the first time to the Wednesday class and I was the only student. So just wanted to drum up a bit of support for an excellent teacher.

    You can book online through the website or pay on the day.

    Enjoy.

    1. Thanks for the Pilates info. The leisure centre has a class on weds at the same time, I wonder if there would be better patronage for a non competing day. I know Id be interested in something later in the week or even a weekday.

    2. Good plug MonkeyCat. That’s a good price for a yoga session these days. Cheaper than a pint of keg IPA in the Storm Bird.

      Our kids went to Southwark Gymnastics for years. And, yeah, it’s a really good club. One of their sessions used to run right before adult gymnastics. Be warned: the adults that go are not your average people, they were mostly pro-dancer types looking for some extra training. Way out of the ordinary person’s league.

    1. The Grand Union is OK, but it has the scent of a chain pub. It could be much better as a free house.

  11. The idea of Young’s Ordinary at a quid a pint in a bare-boards, spare interior is great. The red refit a few years ago was spectacularly sumptuous and lavish, like a New Orleans brothel, but its “Watney’s red” velvetette doesn’t seem to have worked. At one time the Grove was the place to be — I met someone recently from a band of that time, who said all kinds of musicians and art scene people used to meet there. It would be great to have a pub-themed pub again, not some posh noshery, but the likelihood is it will be highly priced whatever it is. Some imagination, though, would bring a lot to Camberwell.

  12. A pub-themed pub with punk bands and art-scene people would be the thing to have. Or go to New Cross and Deptford.

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