Category: Politics

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.

Bear and hair and unfair

On Friday evening my wife wanted to go out to eat fish, so we took a walk over to the Dark Horse. They only had Salmon on the menu, however, which she didn’t fancy, so we kept on walking to The Bear. We’d been in there for a drink before, but this was the first time we would eat there. I chose Wood Pigeon with lentils and bacon, she went for Trout and peas (with something else that else that escapes me right now). It was pretty tasty. I’d never eaten Wood Pigeon before, and I felt a bit sorry because I think they’re pretty birds; but the weight of millions of years of omnivorous behaviour overcame that guilt.

Verdict on The Bear: Good. Not excellent, but good. An alternative to the Dark Horse if it’s faffy food you’re after. They’ve done a good job on the decor and the staff were attentive, but it’s quite far from my house and didn’t quite have enough to tempt me over there on a regular basis. Nice if you live nearby, though.

Saturday morning, and the sun shining through my bedroom window told me it was time to get the mop cut. So I headed on over to Cube — except, as I approached, I got a rather nasty shock; it isn’t Cube anymore. I began to fear the worst as I got nearer and saw that it’s now called Teamwork, and advertises braiding and other services; could it be that my hairdresser had joined the multitudes of Afro-hairdressers in Camberwell? I needn’t have worried, as the staff and owner haven’t changed; only the name has. Inside it’s the same. I wanted to ask what prompted the change of identity, but my hairdresser was the stern Eastern-European lady who intimidates me into silence. A good haircut, though.

Afterwards I met the wife in the rear courtyard of Seymour Bros, where we basked while enjoying a late breakfast. Then a walk up to Ruskin Park, where we sat and watched the ducks for a while, and noticed that work is going on at the former bowling green; does anyone know if it will be flower beds, or something else? To cap off a capital sunny day in the Capital we went to the Sun & Doves for iced cider in the garden.

On the way home we thought about buying a plant for a friend’s birthday, so stopped in Pesh Flowers. The wooden boards and the medley of aromas makes this one of the nicest places to pass a little time, away from concrete and cars. Unless you have a pollen allergy, I suppose.

And that was my weekend in Camberwell.

As you can’t have failed to notice, the Mayoral elections take place this week. I’ll be voting for Livingstone; not because I’m a dyed-in-the-wool socialist, but because I think he’s done a good job in the last eight(?) years, with some truly bold attempts at sorting out the transport problem. He’s not perfect — which politician is? — but I think he’s better than the alternatives.

Johnson is not a Londoner, and the peak of his experience is running a magazine, not one of the largest and richest cities in the  world. Add to this the fact that his policies don’t add up; there are lots of promises, but few mentions of how they are to be funded or implemented. Paddick suffers from the same problem everywhere except on crime, which he understands better than transport or housing.

On top of this, there’s the fact that I’d love to bloody the nose of the Evening Standard, who have run one of the most negative, biased campaigns I’ve ever seen, against the current mayor. But hey; that’s just me. You go ahead and vote with your conscience. But if you do vote for Johnson and he does get elected, you’re never allowed to make jokes about Americans electing Bush ever again.

The Times, it is a‑changin’

What do I see in yesterday’s The Times? Why, it’s Hannah, Dagmar, and PeteW, defending our Harriet! My criticism of HH comes not because she wore a stab-proof vest, but because she’s a Nu-Labour yes-(wo)man, always voting just the way her party tells her. Come on, Harriet; be a rebel!

This is just an interim post; more tomorrow.

Update: The Goldfrapp video filmed in Addington Square is available to watch now. Quite funny to see that bus stop, telephone box, and fruit & veg stall there. Thanks to Matt for finding this.

Some days you just can’t get rid of a bomb

This morning I had to go to the dentist (Camberwell Dental Care; recommended), but as I brushed my teeth I realised that I’d run out of mouthwash. Not wishing to visit Dr Asad without a minty-fresh mouth, I decided to buy a bottle on the way, and give my mouth a rinse before I got there. So I bought a bottle from the Spar on Vestry Road, took a good big swig and carried on my way.

Having finished my ablutions, I looked around for a drain to spit it into; that was when I realised that the streets were full of kids on their way to school. I didn’t want to look like a crazy man, spitting a gob-full of foaming liquid into the gutter in front of the children, so I had to walk on with a mouth bulging with mouthwash.

Every turn I took, there somebody was; children and parents doing the school run, commuters late leaving the house, dog-walkers; it was like the Batman film from the 60s, where he’s desperately trying to get rid of a bomb but is thwarted by nuns, children and a family of ducks. It was only on Camberwell Grove I finally found a ten-second window to rid myself of my load. Still, I think Dr Asad appreciated it.

So, dental hygiene aside, what’s the news? Camberwell Baths, the Cuming Museum and Livesey Children’s Museum are all set to be hit by budget cuts, and could close. Apparently health and culture are not high on the list of priorities for Southwark Council. The website of the Livesey Museum has some links to online campaigns to keep them open; I’m slightly wary of the effectiveness of online petitions, so I would urge you to raise this issue with your MP also.

The Camberwell Grove railway bridge is to reopen, with traffic lights and barriers installed until the bridge is replaced completely. There’s another online petition to sign if you want Network Rail to do that sooner rather than later.

There was something else I was going to mention; I may update when I remember what it was.

Doing the Windsor walk. Oi!

Alan Dale’s fixation on interest in property prices has led to a rather welcome discovery: the fine terrace of houses along Windsor Walk is up for sale. They’re too good to be standing empty and, along with the approved plans for the old Mary Datchelor school, form part of a little property revolution in that area of South Camberwell (or North East Dulwich, as the well-heeled new residents could be wont to call it).

The new inhabitants of Windsor Walk will hopefully still have the train line to London Bridge, as the online petition closes in on 1,000 signatories. The public consultation closes in a few days, so if you haven’t signed it (and you agree with its premise) please go ahead and do so. I’m not sure who set the petition up, but I hope they remember to send it to Network Rail. I emailed the lovely Ms Harman about the topic, but have received no reply.

The BBC were in town at the weekend, with their RaW roadshow; there are some photographs available here. It looks like it’s an attempt to improve child literacy, which is an estimable aim. I’m not a child and I’m already literate, so I didn’t go.

And Channel 4 were around recently also, filming Dispatches: Immigrants: The Inconvenient Truth, which purported to be a fair study of the economic impact of immigration. There were interviews with some of the area’s Somali community (at least I assume so; there were some establishing shots of Walworth Road), and also focused on Nigerian staff at King’s. It was pretty interesting, although focussing purely on the economic impact doesn’t tell the whole story.

Onto a more pressing matter: food. The wife & I went out for dinner on Friday, to the Dark Horse. It was pretty good; not as good as we’ve had there before, but certainly not bad. I can’t escape the feeling that it’s a quid or two overpriced, however. Anyway, it was very busy, as was The Grove — which is something I’ve never seen before.

Rumour has it that Angels & Gypsies will open this month. Can it really be true?