Sunday, October 01, 2023
La Discotheque/Bouncing Ball/Kisses/Chicago's in Peckham
Thursday, September 21, 2023
Looking History and other walks
Tuesday, September 19, 2023
South London Street Art Gallery, September 2023
![]() |
Refugees Welcome - Nettleton Road SE14 |
![]() |
Refugees Welcome - Nunhead |
![]() |
'Now playing Stereolab Parsec' - Station Passage SE15 |
![]() |
'Stop lying' - Peckham |
![]() |
'South London is Anti-Fascist' - Peckham High Street |
![]() |
'Edelweiss Piraten' sticker, Nunhead (name of underground youth subculture in Nazi Germany) |
![]() |
Multilingual radical posters Bellenden Road SE25 |
![]() |
'Transphobia belongs in the bin' - sticker, Brockley |
'Justice for Chris Kaba', New Cross Road (shot dead by police in Streatham in September 2022) |
![]() |
'Black Lives Matter' - Choumert Grove Car Park, SE15 |
#
![]() |
'Black Lives Still Matter' by Aliyah Art from her exhibition 'Anime through Black Eyes' at Peckham Levels (OK not actually street art, but thematically linked) |
Wednesday, September 13, 2023
New Cross Gate Rainbows
Monday, August 28, 2023
Kick Out Cars in Croydon (1973) and the Croydon Libertarians
The action was advertised in the anarchist paper Freedom (7/4/73, notice above) to take place on Saturday 7 April, but it seems that it actually took place the day before on Friday 6 April. Perhaps this was a cunning plan to get a step ahead of the police who were no doubt aware of the planned action. Unfortunately the police knew exactly what was going on as there was an undercover officer from the 'Special Demonstration Squad' ('spycops') infiltrating the Croydon group, known as Michael Scott. He was presumably responsible for the Special Branch report of the demo which was revealed in the ongoing Undercover Policing Inquiry:
'On Friday 6 April 1973 at 11 am in Church Street, Croydon, a demonstration was held which was intended to alert public attention to the need for that particular road to be made into a pedestrian precinct. It was organised and executed exclusively by members of 'Croydon Libertarians' and took the form of a length of chain being suspended across the road and secured at either end by padlocks. In the event the road was closed for little more than five minutes and disruption of traffic was light. It was not quite clear even to the participants why it failed, especially as the event had not been publicised outside the immediate confines of those involved. The participants did not wait to see the immediate effect of their protest but disappeared, to return a short time later to find the chain so longer in position. It was therefore assumed that padlocks had not been securely fastened or that an unsensitive lorry driver had been responsible for sabotaging the event. Police were absolved from blame as they had not been in evidence'. Plainly the attempt to close the road had been derailed as a result of the undercover police operation. The report named 5 people who took part, though their names were redacted in the report disclosed to the Inquiry.
Croydon Libertarians were one of a number of similarly named groups around the country in this period. An interesting 1989 article on this movement by Max Farrar describes their politics as follows 'What were the libertarian movements of the 1970s? In the late 1980s a clear distinction has to be made between libertarians of the left and the right. Today, the expression has been hijacked by people around Margaret Thatcher, and has been thrust into the headlines by young conservatives who champion a form of complete ‘freedom of the market’ which would include the legalislation of heroin. In the seven- ties, those of us on the far left used the term to distinguish ourselves from Leninists and Trotskyists. It ran alongside the word ‘Liberation’ in the Women’s Liberation Movement and the Gay Liberation Front; it identified us with the historical critique of authoritarianism in the conventional marxist parties but it consciously distinguished us from the antiquated and male-dominated practices of English anarchism'.
The Croydon Libertarians were up and running by 1969 when a notice in Freedom (12/7/1969) said that they were meeting on the 2nd Friday of each month. The contacts given were Laurens and Celia Otter, 35 Natal Road, Thornton Heath, CR4 8QH and Keith McCain, 1 Langmead Street, West Norwood, S.E.27. The Otters were lifelong radical peace activists - he died in 2022 aged 91 (see Guardian obituary) and she died in 2014.
The Croydon Libertarians co-operated with other radical groups locally, including Suburban Press (which the late Jamie Reid was involved in) and the White Panther Party- more to come on that.
That late 60s/early 70s political generation is getting elderly and many have passed, we would love to hear from any people involved in groups like this and the various radical community papers in South London at that time.
See previously:
White Panthers in SE2 - Abbey Wood and the 1970s counter culture
Saturday, August 19, 2023
The Village charity shop, Nunhead Green
Tuesday, August 08, 2023
Kender Street killing
Thursday, August 03, 2023
Shirkers Rest SE14
They have beers (and cider)
Wednesday, July 26, 2023
New Cross House closed (temporarily)
Saturday, July 22, 2023
Firefighters' car wash at New Cross
Firefighters at New Cross fire station (Waller Road SE14) were offering car washes today using actual fire engine hoses. A bargain fee of £5 and all proceeds to firefighters charity.
Thursday, July 20, 2023
Jerry Dammers at Deptford Dub Club
Monday, July 10, 2023
Music Monday: Three Wize Men, South London Hip Hop 1988
Three Wize Men were an early UK hip hop trio, putting out an album and several singles on Rhythm King records between 1986 and 1988. This New Musical Express interview from 1988 situates them very much in South London:
'Sarff London!! Sarff London!! In the best traditions of the Hip Hop Nation this was the lip curl message growled out by the Three Wize Men as a prelude to Refresh Yourself, the band's second single released last year by Rhythm King... For the Wize Men (AJ, Jemski, Danny D along with Fil Chill aka DJ Cybertron) it's a matter of fact that South London exists somewhere along a line that links Deptford to Peckham Rye and the the Rve to the convoluted sprawlings of the Gloucester Road housing estate that provided the subject matter for their first single. 'Urban Hell'. A mass of stairwell towers and walkways from which a thousand flats branch off. its fortifications were intended to keep out the noise from a planned Europe-London motorway. The road never came. Now Gloucester Road lacks only the battlements to be a proper castle at war with an outside world, at siege from within. It was Danny D who once lived there, but AJ tells the stories of kids he'd find comatose over glue bags and cheap skag. The police avold the place and owners Southwark Council despair at their own creation. South. London... It was the WIze Men's appearance in a support slot to Big Audio Dynamite that in August '86 lured Mute Records boss Daniel Miller, alongside newly formed Rhythm King, down to Jemski's Deptford flat'
![]() |
'Three Wize Men' pictured on their album 'GB Boyz' |
![]() |
'Gloucester Grove Mix' of Urban Hell |
Saturday, July 08, 2023
'Jews in Lewisham Fight': a 1936 punch up with Hitler fans
Monday, June 26, 2023
Music Monday: Speakers Corner Quartet
South London's Speakers Corner Quartet started out around 2006 as the house band of the Speakers Corner spoken word/hip hop night held at Brixton Jamm. Their album 'further out than the edge' (June 2023) features an impressive range of guests including Kae Tempest, Shabaka Hutchings and Sampha. A great start to the summer album - not in a banging holiday anthems kind of way, more 'it's too hot to do anything but listen to soulful sounds'.
South London poet James Messiah features on Hither Green: 'whether blue whether green, whether Highbury Fields or Hither Green, whether north or west or south or east, I'm still the same G', while Lewisham-based singer Coby Sey sings 'On Grounds'.
Saturday, June 17, 2023
'No Nazis in East Street' (1979)
![]() |
Wednesday, June 14, 2023
Hilly Fields parkrun 500
Hilly fields parkrun celebrated its 500th event last Saturday (6/6/23). Since it started in 2012 nearly 12,000 separate individuals have run or walked three laps around the park on a Saturday morning to complete a 5k. The combined distance covered by all those who have taken part is around 480,000 km – that's equivalent to running a couple of time around the world, then running to the moon and running a couple of times round that too.
The free, volunteer run event started out from a meeting at the Ladywell Tavern, where Stephen Robson (pictured) agreed to be the event director. Having reached 500 events he stood down from this role on Saturday but will continue to be involved - thanks to Stephen and all the other volunteers who have kept this event going. Stephen and some of the others involved in setting it up had previously taken part in Bromley parkrun. Hilly Fields has gone on to spawn other events locally, with runners from there going on to set up Hilly Fields junior parkrun (for children on Sundays) and Peckham Rye parkrun, among others.
Hilly fields parkrun has had a big impact on me since I first took part in 2013. It was the first organised running event I had taken part in since leaving school, and from that I really got the running bug. Parkrun led me on to get active in Lewisham based running club Kent AC and taking part in lots of races. But Hilly Fields parkrun is where I have run most and like many others I have developed an intimate knowledge of every twist and turn, every incline and descent. My running has declined due to injury in the last year, but it was great to attend at the weekend and I hope that as long as I am able to keep moving I will return there on Saturday mornings.
![]() |
Olympic gold triathlete Alex Yee leaves us all behind at Hilly Fields parkrun in 2015 |