Welcome to Gay Camberwell month! It’s a month of events organised by the impressively efficient Roz (and partner — oops!) – sometime contributor to this blog and owner of GayCamberwell.com – including club nights, film and theatre. The full launch schedule is available here. The S&D will be showing four films about the love that dare not speak its name (and serving a special pink cocktail), The Castle will play host to the launch party, and The Cambria to the closing party.
I finally went to The Cambria last weekend; it was very, very busy on a late Sunday afternoon. Food looked great, although we didn’t eat there; we had a pint in the lovely little back garden. Inside is very nice, although a bit chandelier‑y for my taste; I guess that comes from the gay owners (a little stereotyping never hurt anyone).
Last night the wife and I strayed over the Peckham borders and went for dinner at Il Giardino, the Peruvian-run Italian restaurant with substantial Brazilian clientele (at least it was last night, and the super-friendly waitress said that it’s pretty common). The food was nice and reasonably priced, the place was busy and the service awesome. Earns an official COB recommendation.
Before Il Giardino we went to The Montpelier for a drink; it’s a nice pub, but they’ve still got bare walls which makes it feel empty and half-finished; surely someone there could use a bit of nous and get some local art students to display something there.
This morning as I walked to Peckham Rye I saw Olivia Colman (from my favourite comedy, Peep Show). This confirms the gentrification of Bellenden Road, now that we have film stars living there. Yesterday I saw Una Stubbs in Muji, Long Acre, but that’s not really relevant here; I just wanted to tell someone.
As a final note, and related to this month’s theme, I’ve enjoyed the story of the Gay Sex Ordeal in (Camberwell) Doctor’s Surgery; not because I find sexual molestation enjoyable, but because of the victim’s claim that he “fell into a trance” while being massaged (yeah, right!), and “when he came to he found the doctor holding a massaging machine in one hand and the patient’s private parts in the other”. The doctor is accused of “massaging a patient without either consent or gloves”.