There is no new thing, and no sun

Just a flying post, more to provide new space for comments than anything else. I have a touch of ennui about Camberwell at the moment, and need something new to give me my groove back. The new meat & fish shop on Denmark Hill doesn’t count, unless someone tells me it serves better quality than it appears to serve.

Latest casualty in our shopping mecca seems to be Duraty electronics. I noticed the last time I went in there that it had changed hands, and on the two occasions I’ve passed it since then, it’s been closed up. On the bright side, that frees up space for another pound shop to open. Update: Apparently still open. One less thing to be cynical about.

Sunday saw the Olympics come to Camberwell Green, only I can’t find any coverage of it bar this brief reportage from our own Dagmar on the SE5Forum forum. I was away, as usual. Update: Here’s a brief report; is that our very own Drew Mishmash in the first photo?

I saw the ‘million moron march’ walking along Peckham Road yesterday afternoon, with their police escort, apparently walking to Notting Hill for a rumble. Spare us from bored, aggressive, baby gangsters.

I’m still looking for guest contributors; anyone feel they have anything to offer?

North is pretty, Green is vile

I’ve changed my route to work in the morning, now cutting across Burgess Park and down Portland Street. I’d never realised how nice it is down there; behind the Aylesbury Estate there is a mass of social housing built, if I’m not mistaken, at the beginning of last century, and all beautifully cared for. Also lots of little parks and gardens. It’s a really pleasant street to cycle down, much better than the Walworth Road route I’m used to.

In stark contrast, however, is the bottom of Denmark Hill and around the Green. On the bus back from Brixton last weekend* I noticed that the whole area’s getting scruffier; a few more of those open-fronted yam shops and a few more stalls selling cheap tat starting to spring up, plus the ugly metal grill on the front of the former Kennedy’s and the empty units scattered about. Really, it’s dying on its arse. It’s quite sad to see. Every month sees a decline in variety and (perhaps) quality; anyone who thinks high street chains are going to open here is likely to be disappointed. It’s becoming fragmented. I’m sure this is a subject that deserves more analysis, so please feel free.

But all is not lost! Away from the centre we still have lots of social diversity, and pretty soon we have Camberwell Arts Festival 2008. You should have received some lovely leaflets and guides through your door recently which explain all the events, but if not you can visit the Camberwell Arts website and decide for yourself what you’d like to attend. It all kicks off on the 14th June, which is next Saturday, and goes on until the following Sunday. I will most likely not be attending anything which could loosely be described as performance art, as it makes me grind my teeth.

On an admin note: first, I’ve just updated the software that powers the site, so if anything behaves weirdly please let me know. Second, I haven’t had the time to keep the site updated as frequently as I’d like, owing to work and some potentially interesting developments therein. If anyone would like to help me out for a little while (or even permanently) by writing here, you’d be very welcome. No salary is involved, but you will have the opportunity to take a load of personal abuse from tossers who think they know all about you, despite having never met you. Sound attractive?

* I went to the Ritzy to watch Indiana Jones; it was… um…

New Camberwell Road? Plus lots more!

It must be very hard indeed to do business in Camberwell if even Cash Converters has closed down. To be honest I don’t know if the whole chain went under, or if it was just this branch. That whole row of shops at the top of Camberwell Road looks closed (or maybe it was just when I passed); they are all owned by a firm of property speculators, so I wonder if the owners are getting ready to knock it down and build new houses there, to capitalise on the new Mary Datchelor development. This could be absolute rubbish, of course; the invention of my fertile imagination.

Across the road, Redstar is getting ready to open again. It will have two bars and is requesting shows for its first-floor art gallery. According to its Myspace page:

Redstar is about to provide a major jolt to wake the South London club scene with a shudder.

Which is nice. They have a website too, but I won’t link to it as the code offends my web developer elitist tendencies (and there’s nothing on it anyway).

The former Cube bar is reopening as a bar/diner called NIA (I think; I should have written it down), with the downstairs area Club Couture. Quite the clubbing mecca we are becoming.

As you may be aware due to Mark Dodds’ spamming enthusiastic promotion, a 30-day season of live arts performances begin at the Sun and Doves tonight. I might go along to see what kind of people have formed a Lloyd Cole tribute act.

I had a bit of an existential crisis as I got on the 436 bus yesterday; it was like one of local boy William Blake’s illustrations of Dante’s Inferno. The 436 outside of commuter hours is the unfortunates shuttle. My misery ended when I arrived in Lewisham, as a drunken teenage girl vomiting on the pavement outside McDonalds at lunchtime reminded me that Camberwell’s not so bad.

Although having said that… a story in the SLP says that junkies’ discarded needles have been found in Lucas Gardens. I confess to being surprised by that; I’ve seen one or two drunks in there, but never any smackheads. Dagmar probably knows better than I (due to the amount of time spent in the park; I’m not making any implications of drug use).

But it’s not all bad news, as I found out this week that Camberwell has its own Cockney royalty, in the form of East Street-born Pearly King Jim. God bless ya, and all the best of Cockney luck.

After writing all this, I realise I’ve forgotten to mention the results of the local shopping poll have been released. In a nutshell: people want more varied shops, and shop owners have an unrealistic idea of how many customers travel by car. This deserves a post of its own, but I’m not going to write it now.

Photographic memories

Let me begin with an apology to any members of the SE5Forum who may be reading this; I had every intention of attending the AGM last night, but life interfered and I found myself unable. Sorry. If you’d like to report back on it, please leave a comment or drop me a line and I’ll be happy to post it.

Something a little different today: photo updates.

Beverley Carpenter projection

Last weekend, Beverley Carpenter projected some images onto Camberwell Magistrates Court.

Peckham Farmers Market

Peckham Farmers Market was very busy on Sunday. They had some delicious English apples.

Kennedy's Sausages

And reader Alan Edwards has put together what is surely the definitive tribute to Kennedy’s Sausages & Pies, now closed after 130 years.

A change is as good as a rest.