Transpontine

Mary Quant: from New Cross (& Blackheath) to the World

2012-01-27T06:00:00.000Z

Mary Quant played a key role in creating the women's fashion look associated with 1960s 'Swinging London', popularising the mini-skirt and the bob haircut. Quant was designing and making her own clothes from an early age, and attended Blackheath High School, but it was via attending Goldsmiths in New Cross in the 1950s that she eventually managed to make a living out it, partly because it was there that she met her future husband and business partner, Alexander Plunkett Greene.

According to Shawn Levy 'The impetus to Quant's starting a revolution in quiet, arty Chelsea was her marriage to Alexander Plunket Greene [1932-1990], one of the very first old-line Britons in whom something like the spirit of the sixties blossomed. Born to a family of English eccentrics who included among their lovers, friends and acquaintances such diverse lights as Paul Robeson, Bertrand Russell and Evelyn Waugh, he was a teenage scene unto himself in the early ﬁfties, wandering through Chelsea in his mother's disused pajamas and slacks, hanging around Soho jazz bars where he aspired to play the trumpet, and showing up only when he felt like it to classes at Goldsmiths College, an art and technical school in New Cross, near Deptford, where he tried to further distance himself from his fellow student - as if it were possible or necessary - by walking about with a ﬁlm script under his arm. He was, in short, the sort of nutter one expected to ﬁnd in Chelsea, London’s nearest answer to Montmartre: moneyed, bred to leisure, artistically inclined - a deﬁnitive bohemian, if he said so himself'.

Alexander Plunket Greene

'Among the mere mortals who found themselves dazzled by Plunket Greene's antics at Goldsmiths was Quant, a pixie-size but blunt and strong-willed student who'd been raised variously, as her parents followed schoolteaching careers, in Kent, Wales and, after the war, in Blackheath, south of Greenwich, which would always be, in her mind, home. Quant, who was born in 1934, was attending Goldsmiths out of a compromise arrangement with her exasperated folks, who thought they could channel her penchant for designing and sewing her own clothes into a useful career: teaching art or some such. But she found herself swept into an exciting new way of life by Plunket Greene, with whom she became romantically involved, and she forsook the chance to get a teaching certiﬁcate for a life of gadding about with her beau and the ragtag bunch who came to be known as the Chelsea Set' (Shawn Levy, Ready, Steady, Go!: The Smashing Rise and Giddy Fall of Swinging London, 2003).

After Plunkett Green inherited some money, the pair opened a boutique called Bazaar on the Kings Road (Plunket Greene opened a restaurant and jazz club in the basement), from where Quant started to build her fashion empire. Like some other Goldsmiths notables, she never actually finished her course there.

Quant getting her hair cut by Vidal Sassoon, inventor of the modern bob
and sometime militant anti-fascist

Incidentally Quant didn't claim to have invented the mini, a look which came from the streets: "It was the girls on the King's Road who invented the mini. I was making easy, youthful, simple clothes; in which you could move, run and jump. We would make them the length the customer wanted, they would say "shorter, shorter" and we followed by command".

Twiggy wearing a Mary Quant dress

Quant later came to see her clothes from this period as embodying a kind of emergent feminism. In contrast to the the 'old attitudes' that 'a woman was daddy’s daughter until she became somebody’s wife. In the mid-1950s women started, without analysing it, to grab a time when they were their own person by moving out from under daddy’s roof and sharing a usually overcrowded, usually scruffy flat with other girls. The mini was part of that. The mini said ‘Look at me’. It was very exuberant, pure glee. Looking back it was the beginning of the women’s movement. Clothes always say it first, you know, then comes the effect. All those retro fashions of the 1970s betrayed the nervousness that was to come’ (Quant, 1982, quoted in The Great Fashion Designers by Brenda Polan, Roger Tredre, Berg, 2009).

Interesting idea of fashion prefiguring social change - in which case what do the clothes we are wearing now say about the near future?

Fuel Poverty in Lewisham

2012-01-26T13:00:00.000Z

It is a shocking fact that in Lewisham each Winter around 100 people die as a result of the cold. Many if not most of these deaths are preventable, with a signfiicant factor being fuel poverty. An increasing number of people simply cannot afford to keep themselves warm, with a direct impact on their health and well-being. According to the government-commissioned Hills Poverty Review, at least 2,700 people will die this winter in Britain as a direct result of being ‘fuel poor’.

Tomorrow evening (6 pm, Friday January 27th) there will be a protest at Lewisham Town Hall in Catford as part of the Fuel Poverty Action Winter Warm-Up Weekend 'to demand democratically controlled and accountable energy, decent fuel-efficient housing, and an end to deaths caused by fuel poverty'. Community Action Lewisham say: 'Poverty, poor housing, no insulation, social isolation, debts...all these conditions affect our ability to pay the bills. None of them are accidental. With six energy companies controlling 99% of our energy supply in the UK, giving us the 'choice' of over 400 different tariffs, whilst hitting us with price hikes of over 15% last year, it's clear we have no power to decide where our energy is sourced and how much it costs. This has to change. Access to warmth, decent housing, and health should be rights not a privilege. At the moment, government and energy companies are preserving the market over peoples' needs and our environment'.

The event will include 'a Peoples' Forum, a burning of bills to keep warm, and a sharing of tea and information on how to bring down the cost of heating. Fire Eaters are also expected' (facebook event details here)

Lewisham report

A report published by Lewisham public health in 2010 as part of the local Joint Strategic Needs Assessment explores the local extent 'of seasonal excess deaths, which relate to the difference between the number of deaths during the four winter months (December to March) and the average number of deaths during the preceding autumn and summer (April - November). These deaths are of those people who would not have been expected to die anyway due to illness or old age in the next few weeks or months. Many of these deaths are amongst older people, especially women, and those with underlying health problems. People living with underlying heart, circulatory or lung disease are at the highest risk...'

'Each one degree Celsius decrease in average winter temperature results in 8,000 additional winter deaths in England... However, these deaths are preventable; some countries with more extreme weather conditions than the UK experience fewer winter-related deaths. For example, Finland has 45% fewer winter deaths than the UK... In Lewisham there was an average of 105 excess winter deaths per year between August 2004 and July 2007. This equates to an excess winter mortality index (EWMI) of 18.9 for Lewisham (i.e. there was an 18.9% increase in deaths during the winter months'.

The report highlights that fuel poverty is a significant factor - 'Fuel poverty is when a household needs to spend more than 10% of its income on total fuel use to heat its home to an adequate standard of warmth. Fuel poverty frequently affects people from vulnerable groups that already experience a disproportionately higher level of general poverty and deprivation. These groups include older people, households containing children (including lone parents), households with large adult populations, vulnerable groups (including disabled people), and single person households.In Lewisham in 2007, an estimated 5.5% of households were at risk of fuel poverty. By ward, this varies from 4.9% in Blackheath to 6.3% in Catford South'.

Between 2003 and 2007, fuel poverty in England rose from 5.9% to 13.2 % of households, representing an increase from 1.2 million to 2.8 million households. The increase in fuel poverty since 2004 can be largely attributed to increases in fuel prices. The overall effect of fuel price rises since 2004 has far outweighed the impact of increasing incomes and energy efficiency'.

(Source: Lewisham JSNA: Seasonal Excess Deaths, Lewisham PCT, 2010)

South London from the Gherkin

2012-01-25T15:00:00.000Z

This picture is a detail looking South from an amazing gigapixel panorama, Sunrise from the Gherkin, at Spherical Images (click to enlarge; the full image allows you to zoom in to even greater detail). Obviously the Shard and to a lesser extent the Strata at the Elephant now dominate the skyline, but you can also make out Hays Galleria, Southwark Cathedral, the Heygate Estate and many other buildings.

London Anagram Map

2012-01-24T20:51:00.000Z

Like this London Anagram Tubemap - the South East London section includes No Screws (New Cross), Aleph and Tentacles (Elephant and Castle), Yes Quarry Us (Surrey Quays), Lame Wish (Lewisham), Wing Cheer (Greenwich), Fib Port Dredged (Deptford Bridge), and Blood Rending (London Bridge).

(full map is here)

Music Monday: Jamie N Commons

2012-01-23T06:00:00.000Z

Jamie N Commons is a singer who sounds a bit like he's from the Southern states of the US, but is actually based in our very own Southern Gothic homeland of New Cross. He was on the Q magazine 'Ones to Watch' in 2012 list, and got a similar treatment in The Guardian: 'Returning to the West Country at 16 with a skewed accent, he taught himself the brass tacks of the guitar and, aged 18, moved to London to study music at Goldsmiths in New Cross, a requisite for any modern musician: recent alumni include singer Katy B and electro-composer, and classmate, James Blake, "Although I didn't really know what he [James] did. It wasn't until the third year that suddenly he was off to meet Universal and it was like, oh." A graduate in the guise of Struwwelpeter, Commons certainly dresses New Cross: plaid shirt, tight-ish black jeans and felt Preacher's hat bought (alarmingly) from TK Maxx: "Not cool, nope, but I lost my other hat*."'

The video for his song The Preacher looks like it was shot in Dungeness, Kent, complete with 'True Blood' references.

* Was that the New Cross TK Maxx? I think we should be told. Anyway it's good to see the New Cross dress code (or one of them) getting national recognition. Hopefully we will see Kate Moss in an advert soon saying 'get the New Cross look'

Amy Lord's Takeaway Shop

2012-01-21T22:34:00.001Z

The Takeaway Shop is a project by Amy Lord at number82, the art space at 82 Tanners Hill in Deptford. Amy explains:

'What do you know about where you’re living, where you wake up every morning? Archives are often unruly, dusty masses of paperwork and words locked away to keep them safe. What if you learn about the most interesting bits straight away? And more importantly, be able to TAKE them AWAY with you? This will be a place for people to drop in and learn craft activities including book-binding and paper-making, and to collect real stories about the lives of the local residents, families and the history of the area. It will be a place to meet. People that come into the shop will learn how to create individual handmade books and be able to cut, paste and assemble their favourite bits of text, pictures, true stories, people and textures, to create THEIR own mini TAKE-AWAY archive.

I think it’s important to know the area you live in, it’s history, what came before it, and who lives here now. It’s the context in which you are positioning yourself, and your life'.

Amy Lord (standing) leads a book-making workshop

Essentially Amy has collated images and text relating to the history of Deptford and the surrounding area, from which people are invited to make their own selection. Materials and instructions for making your own books are provided.

The Takeway Shop runs until 27th January 2012, open from 12 noon - 5:00 pm on Sunday, 10:30am – 6:30pm weekdays (except Tuesday when it's closed), with a late night until 8 pm on Friday 27th January as part of South London Art Map tour. Workshop places are free, but you need to book in advance to be sure of getting a space at http://thetakeawayshop.eventbrite.co.uk/

The book I made

I enjoyed making a book, and was impressed by Amy's obvious knowledge. There have been a number of artist-based projects linked to aspects of Deptford's history in recent years, and sometimes they can be quite superficial appropriations. Amy has clearly put the hours in and developed quite a collection of material, much of it unfamiliar to me (and I've been studying this stuff for years). I think she is right that getting an understanding of the history of an area is a good way of orienting yourself in a place that may be new to you. That's certainly what got me started, and indeed Transpontine has been partly about sharing some of my developing understanding and learning more through interaction with commenters and other local bloggers. The Takeaway Shop approach is an innovative way of sharing material like this, encouraging people to chat and reflect on local history in a creative and comfortable context.

One of the images used in the Takeaway Shop - Pyne Brothers drapers store in Lewisham High Road (now Lewisham Way) in 1891. This stood opposite where Lewisham Arthouse stands today (previously Deptford Library)

Detail of above photo - note the windows advertising Costumes, Mourning, Drapery and Dresses. Note too an entrance through to the New Cross Public Hall, a major public building of the time which must have been behind the store (where among other things a Grand National Christmas Fair took place in 1884)

Big Garden Birdwatch

2012-01-21T17:54:00.002Z

Next weekend (28th and 29th of January) is the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch, when people all over the country are encouraged to spend an hour in a garden or local park noting which bird species they see and then contribute to a national survey. Last year more than 600,000 people took part and counted more than £10m birds. In London the top ten most numerous species were:

1. Starling
2. Woodpigeon
3. Blue Tit
4. House Sparrow
5. Blackbird
6. Feral pigeon
7. Great Tit
8. Robin
9. Magpie
10. Goldfinch

As part of this, the Friends of Hilly Fields are organising a birdwatch on Sunday 29th January, 10:30 to 12:30 (met by the Bothy, along from the bowling green off Hilly Fields Crescent). There will be materials for making bird feeders, bird puzzles and colouring/craft activities for children.

Unearthing South East London

2012-01-19T06:00:00.000Z

Coming up soon at South East London Folklore Society an interesting talk on 'Unearthing South East London’s Ritual Landscape'. Simon Webb, author of ‘Unearthing London: The Ancient World Beneath The Metropolis’ will be giving a talk on the ancient ritual landscape hidden beneath the streets of South East London'.

8 pm on Thursday 9th February, £2.50/£1.50 concs, at The Old King's Head, Kings Head Yard, 45-49, Borough High St, London SE1.

For information on ancient sites in the London area, check out The Modern Antiquarian.

Facebook events details here

Halls

2012-01-18T06:00:00.000Z

Halls has been generating lots of interest for his ethereal electronic sounds, being featured in Dazed and Confused magazine and recently described at Music OMH website as 'Electro-chillwaver... a boy in a bubble with a laptop, a self-effacing slip of a thing from New Cross'.

Halls is Sam Howards. Originally from Norfolk he moved to London to study at Greenwich University. His new EP, Fragile, was launched at Corsica Studios at Elephant and Castle last month. This week it gets released on vinyl by The Sounds of Sweet Nothing.

Links: Halls on Facebook; Halls Music.

South London Black Music Archive

2012-01-16T20:36:00.001Z

Opening tomorrow at the Peckham Space presents 'The South London Black Music Archive, an exhibition by artist Barby Asante that aims to celebrate, preserve and investigate South Londoners’ personal relationships with moments in black music history. Peckham Space will be transformed into an ‘open archive’ mapping objects which represent and explore the personal stories which comprise the fascinating history of the influence and evolution of black music in South London. Welcoming contributions from the public, this archive will include items such as books, magazines, concert tickets, posters, stories, records and CDs gathered and displayed with the reverence of museum pieces. Asante’s selected objects highlighting seminal moments in this history will share the same platform as visitors’ objects and stories depicting their own experiences through music and memorabilia [all donated items are returnable at the end of the exhibition].

One of the founding items of the South London Black Music Archive will be a ‘limited edition’ vinyl specially produced for the project as a result of the artist’s collaboration with young people from the Leaders of Tomorrow (LOT) mentoring programme. This artwork was created in association with Regeneration & Community Partnerships, Tate Modern with an exclusive record sleeve by graphic design collective Åbäke. Copies will be available from record shops across South London and at Peckham Space for the duration of the exhibition. It will feature Asante’s own take on the BBC’s ‘inheritance tracks’ for which members of LOT were asked to contribute songs that inspire them. Songs chosen include tracks by Adele, Michael Jackson, Edvard Grieg, Nigerian singer Prince Nico Mbarga, Bob Dylan and Lauryn Hill which will be represented as a soundscape alongside recordings of the young people telling the stories and explaining their selections'.

The South London Black Music Archive runs from 17 January – 24 March 2012 at Peckham Space, Camberwell College of Art, 89 Peckham High Street, London SE15 5RS (in the square by the library). Launch event 17 January 6-8pm, otherwise opening times are Tuesday-Friday 11am-5pm, Saturday 11am-4pm, closed Sundays, Mondays. Admission Free.

Other events include artists’ talk on 3rd February, 18.45pm at Tate Modern; Daytime Disco 10 March 2011 at the Ritzy, Windrush Square, Brixton. Further details on the website or call 020 7358 9645 / email info@peckhamspace.com

As a starting point, there's this great map 'a growing record of black music landmarks in South London from venues and record shops to street corners and radio stations'.

South London Black Music Archive Map (click to enlarge)

South London Black Music Archive Map - detail showing New Cross, Deptford etc.

South London Black Music Archive Map - list of Peckham. Brixton and Elephant places

I've got a few ideas about some things I could contribute to this exhibition, and some places to add to the map. Among places featured previously at Transpontine there's:

- St Pauls Crypt and lots of other places where Saxon Sounds played in early 1980s.
- Bob Marley and Johnny Cash in Peckham;
- Ariwa Gautrey Road studio;
- New Cross 1970s reggae shops;
- Amersham Arms and other 1960s clubs
- El Partido in Lewisham
- Dennis Bovell's Studio 80

Lots of other places too I haven't got round to writing about yet at Transpontine - the Lazerdrome in Peckham, Ram Jam in Brixton etc. Where else?

Urban Free Festival 1992

2012-01-14T18:48:00.000Z

'The Dewdrop Inn. Deptford. For all the old punks n freaks' is a great facebook groups with loads of photos of that pub from the 1980s and 1990s. The Dew Drop Inn was on the corner of Clifton Rise and Angus Street SE14 - sadly now converted to flats (I will do a post about it another time). As the pub faced on to Fordham Park it was the main drinking hole during the legendary Urban Free Festivals held in the park in the early 1990s, which attracted tens of thousands of people from all over London and beyond. I have taken some of the photos of the festival from the facebook group to give a flavour of it - hope nobody minds, this is priceless cultural history

I thought that the festivals ran from 1990 to 1995, but as this 1992 programme says Urban Free Festival III ('You can't kill the spirt') so maybe the first was actually in 1989.

The line up in 1992 included Back to the Planet, Brain of Morbius, The Seas, Sensor, Fat Dinosaur, Sidi Bou Said, Attila the Stockbroker, Moral Panic, The Rythmites, Levitation, Dr Phibes and the House of Wax Equations, RDF, Test Department, Co-Creators, Community Charge and many more. All this and the 'Free the Spirt Rave Big Top'.

Groups involved in organising the festival that year included South East Musicians Collective, SYLVIA (Support Your Local Venues and Independent Artsits), Conscious Collective, Dole House Crew (who squatted the Peckham dole office) and Sonic Relief with sponsors including The Dew Drop Inn, Music City, Catford TUC Centre for the Unemployed and Lewisham Council.

I believe these photos were taken by Seran Tahsin, who was not sure whether they are from 1991 to 1992. I think probably 1992, because there is a great bit of film footage from 1991 and the structures look a bit different.

Dancing in Fordham Park in 1993

I had some great times at those festivals will write some more about the later ones at some point. Any good memories or stories, leave a comment as always (and why was it the Deptford Urban Free Festival when it was plainly in New Cross?!)

Update: here's a couple of interviews with people remembering the festival (film was made by people from Deptford.TV Collective in 2007)

Peckham Rosicrucians

2012-01-12T06:00:00.000Z

'Why don't you join the Rosicrucians,

they can give you back your hope,

you can find your love with diagrams

on a plain brown envelope'

(Leonard Cohen, Dress Rehearsal Rag)

I've been intrigued for years by the Rosicrucian building in Waghorn Street, Peckham. According to Peckham History, the building was originally St Andrew’s Mission Church, 'built in 1903 to replace a temporary iron church on the site. It fell out of use in 1932 and was sold in 1948 to fund the restoration' of St John the Evangelist Church in East Dulwich Road, to which the Mission Church was linked. There's still a plaque on the building from when it opened which reads 'This stone was laid by Mrs Charles Ward, 7th January 1903'. The architect was J.Nixon Horsefield.

Today the building belongs to the Ancient and Mystical Order Rosæ Crucis (AMORC), a Rosicrucian order founded in the US in 1915. Rosicrucianism is a mystical current dating back, depending on what you believe, to the 17th century, 14th century or ancient Egypt. It has influenced secret societies (including branches of Freemasonry) and esoteric groups of various kinds. There are numerous Rosicrucian-influenced groups around the world, and it is common for them to claim that various philosophers, artists and scientists were members of the Rosicrucian order in the past, including Isaac Newton, Dante, Debussy and Francis Bacon - hence the AMORC building in Peckham being the home of the Francis Bacon Lodge.

AMORC describes itself as 'a non-sectarian body of men and women who study the elusive mysteries of life and the universe. Since 1915, hundreds of thousands of students have used the Rosicrucian teachings, carefully preserved by mystery schools for centuries, to find their inner light and wisdom. Delivered in a series of weekly lessons, the Rosicrucian home study course presents the collective wisdom of humanity on topics such as metaphysics, mysticism, and philosophy'.

I'm not sure when AMORC acquired the Peckham building, but I first noticed it about seven years ago. Some of the AMORC leadership had a dubious reputation in financial scandals in the 1990s, so I assumed it was simply a property investment. But it does seem to be in use as one of only two AMORC centres in Britain (the other is in Crowborough, Sussex), with free public talks taking place on the second Wednesday evening of every month.

Of course if you look around various dubious conspiracy theory sites, you will find allegations that the Rosicrucians are just a wing of the illuminati who secretly run the world (example from the very dubious Conspiracy Planet: 'Rosicrucian Illuminati have centres in the U.K. at places such as the Francis Bacon Lodge in Peckham, London') . Personally I quite like the idea that the world is actually being run from a Peckham back street - gives new meaning to the phrase 'South London run tings'

Deptford Lounge Opens

2012-01-11T06:00:00.001Z

In these dark times for public services, and libraries in particular, it is good to see something new opening. The Deptford Lounge, which opened this week in Giffin Street, is part of a bigger building project that includes shared spaces with the neighbouring Tidemill Primary School.

On the ground floor there is a spacious library, as well as plenty of study space including public ICT facilities. Technically it isn't a new library as it replaces the one previously located in Wavelengths on the same road, but it is a better space (OK I always want more books, but I like the old school random piles of musty tomes that deter all but the hardened biblophile).

There is a cafe - Unity Coffee - run by the Camden Society, a voluntary organisation 'to support the human rights of people with disabilities'. For the first week, hot drinks only cost £1 (a cappuccino will cost £1.85 from then on). I tried the coffee and it was good!

The Lounge has unusually long opening times - Monday-Friday: 7am-10pm and Saturday & Sunday: 7am-7pm.

Some people have argued that with the digital age, libraries will become a thing of the past. It is perhaps true that over time the role of borrowing paper books may diminish - though I can't believe it will die out completely. But what will always be needed will be social spaces where people can read, study, and access information and stories in a warm, comfortable environment without having to spend money. Not forgetting of course public toilets which will no doubt also draw people into the Deptford Lounge from the market and the high street.

Deptford Lounge is on facebook. See also reviews by Crosswhatfields, Brockley Central and Deptford Dame

Deptford Lounge and Tidemill School

Alongside the building of the Deptford Lounge, the adjacent site (the old Wavelengths car park) has been redeveloped as a new site for Tidemill school. Some of the facilities in the Deptford Lounge are designed to be used by the school when it is open and for wider community use in the evenings and weekends. Since building work started Tidemill has become an Academy school (from September 2011), despite a vociferous local campaign against this. The school now gets its funding directly from the Government rather than via the Council, and the Academies Act 2010 requires that when a school becomes an Academy the land and buildings have to be transferred from the Council to the Academy trust (the new company set up to run the school). In this case the land gets transferred from Lewisham Council to Tidemill Community Academy Trust via a 125 year lease (the land would transfer back to the Council if the school ceased to be an Academy on that site). All of this makes the sharing of Deptford Lounge facilities between the school, the Council and the wider community more complicated. Whether it will make much difference on a day to day basis remains to be seen.

Shaun of the Dead

2012-01-10T06:00:00.000Z

Yatkuu has made a fine lego model of the Winchester, the pub in zombie flick Shaun of the Dead. The exterior of the pub featured in the film is of course The Duke of Albany in Monson Road, New Cross (now converted to flats). As this pub was a well-known Millwall pre-match drinking hole, I assume that the lego guys holding various weapons are supposed to represent the Bushwackers - oh wait they're supposed to be zombie slayers [insert joke about West Ham or football team of your choice].

Racist Murder in SE London

2012-01-08T19:00:00.000Z

Everybody now agrees that the killing of Stephen Lawrence was a terrible racist crime. The conviction of two men for his murder last week made the front page of all the newspapers, with comments by politicians and senior police officers. Back in 1993 it was very different - Government and media indifference (with some exceptions) and police hostility to those campaigning against racist attacks.

It was a terrible time in South East London, when the borough of Greenwich was named by some as 'Britain's racist murder capital' (Independent, 12 June 1993). In February 1991, 15-year-old Rolan Adams was killed on the way home from a vist to the Hawksmoor youth club in Bentham Road, Thamesmead.

The Rolan Adams banner on a march to the BNP HQ in February 1992

In July 1992, 15 year old Rohit Duggal was stabbed to death outside the kebab shop in Tudor Parade, Well Hall Road. A white youth named Peter Thompson was later jailed for his murder.

Relatives of Rohit Duggal on a November 1992
demonstration to the BNP HQ in Welling

Then came the murder of 18-year-old Stephen Lawrence in April 1993, also in Well Hall Road in Eltham. As with the Adams and the Duggal cases, the police and Crown Prosecution Service tried to deny the racist aspects of the murder.

Stephen Lawrence's parents at a vigil in May 1993

There were other murders too elsewhere in South London. Ruhullah Aramesh, a 24 year old Afghan refugee, was beaten to death in Thornton Heath by a gang armed with iron bars in July 1992. In October of that year Sher Singh Sagoo, a Deptford market trader, was attacked and killed. And murder was just the tip of the iceberg - between August 1990 and May 1991, 863 incidents of racist attacks and harassment were reported to the Greenwich Action Committee Against Racist Attacks alone.

I went on many demonstrations at that time, usually led by the families of murder victims. There was the Anti Racist Alliance demo in June 1993 from Norbury Park to the scene of Ruhullah Aramesh's murder. There was the march against the British National Party demo in Thamesmead in 1991, provocatively called a few months after the murder of Rolan Adams in the same area where he was killed. The police mobilised their forces to stop the anti-racists who outnumbered the BNP ten to one (roughly 1200 to 120).

I remember seeing riot police baton people's heads out of sight of the cameras in a car park between housing blocks on the estate. I took a friend with a head wound to Kings hospital in Camberwell as we didn't think the local casualty department would be a safe place to go. Incidentally Stephen Lawrence (then at Blackheath Bluecoats School), took part on the anti-BNP demo that day too.

Welling demonstration, October 1993

Increasingly the headquarters of the BNP in Upper Wickham Lane, Welling, became the focus of demonstrations. The point wasn't that the racist murders were being explicitly organised by them, but that they were spewing out racist poison that was legitimising these attacks.

The biggest demonstration took place on 16th October 1993. Anti-fascist magazine Searchlight estimated 40,000 people attended, the Independent 25,000 and Socialist Worker 60,000. Either way it must have been one of the biggest demonstrations ever seen in South East London. The Unity demo against the BNP started off with a massive rally on Winns Common, before heading off towards Welling.

Auschwitz survivor Leon Greenman leads the march

According to Searchlight (November 1993), 'the marchers arrived at the crossroads where one road went to the nazi headquarters and the other [Lodge Hill] was the route imposed by the police. At this point the Unity banner at the head of the march was facing into the road leading to the BNP headquarters. The stewards and Leon Greenman, an 82 year old survivor of the Nazi death camps, tried to negotiate passage through the police line. When it was refused, some of the marchers sat down'. Riot police, including some on horseback, charged the crowd and there were riotous scenes with smoke bombs, flying bricks, snatch squads and 3,000+ police. At least 56 demonstrators were injured and 31 people were arrested on the day' (Sunday Times, 17 October 1993). Personally I didn't even see any of this until I got home on TV as I had been trapped in the crowd by Plumstead cemetery - like much of the crowd unable to move because the police had blocked both Upper Wickham Lane (towards the BNP HQ) and Lodge Hill (the route the police had earlier said the march would have to take).

One woman reported at the time 'I was sitting on a wall, just trying to avoid the police. A policeman pushed me off. The police charged from a side street. I tripped over a bush and four police just laid into me with truncheons. I was on the floor and one of them was kneeling on me, just hitting me. Later I saw a man in a wheelchair. The police charged again and again and just knocked him over. He fell out of his chair. My friend - she's 16 - tried to help him up and the police started hiting her' (Socialist Worker, 23 October 1993)

Anti-Nazi League chief steward Julie Waterson
bleeding after being batoned by police in October 1993

The BNP HQ finally closed in 1995, following action by Bexley Council.

See also: Bob from Brockley, pretty much summing up what I think about the whole affair; 853 - thoughts of a SE London contemporary of Stephen Lawerence, and a reminder 'that it was the community in Eltham who gave up the names of Dobson and Norris in the first place. It was the local Metropolitan Police who decided that the death of a black man wasn’t worth investigating properly, not the people of Eltham'; Ian Bone points out that one of the police officers who mismanaged the original Lawrence investigation is still a Croydon Conservative councillor - David Osland wrote to his superiors in September 1993 that 'Our patience is wearing thin on 3 Area (south-east London)... with the Lawrence family and their representatives'.

[update 11 January 2012 : 'The dad of Stephen Lawrence has passed potentially crucial new evidence on his son's murder to cops, he revealed yesterday. Neville Lawrence, 69, was told a suspect had now confessed to being at the scene of the murder.The development comes after two men were jailed for life last week for the gang murder of Stephen in 1993. Mr Lawrence said: "After the verdict, I met two people in Brockley, London, on Saturday who knew one of the guys that was part of the gang. They mentioned the boy confessed that he was there on the night. They gave me their names and addresses and I passed them on to the police." Mr Lawrence called on the racist pair to tell cops where the knife used to stab his son is hidden. He added: "There is forensic evidence on that knife to convict somebody else.". His plea came as a burger bar worker claimed Norris was involved in a brutal attack on him six weeks BEFORE Stephen was murdered. Gurdeep Bhangal, 41, said he confronted the yob after he banged on the window of the Eltham branch of Wimpy. He said: "I got hold of him and was stabbed by another person." No one was arrested, [The Sun, 10 January 2012]

As Bob from Brockley reminds us in the comments, while failing to find evidence against the killers the police were deploying resources in infiltrating anti-racist groups - and indeed a former police spy has admitted to taking part in attacks on police lines in Welling (see Bob's post on this affair).

Michael Gove bores New Cross students

2012-01-07T08:55:00.001Z

Education Secretary Michale Gove was in New Cross this week at Haberdashers' Aske's Hatcham College, making a speech attacking opponents of the Government's school Academies policies.

The speech on Wednesday was clearly aimed at the national media and the political class, rather than the school students who were presumably dragged out of lessons to provide an audience and backdrop. Not surprisingly many of them were bored to the point of sleep, as shown in a clip captured by ITN news which shows young women nodding off and playing with their nails as Gove waffled on:

Still Gove can be thankful that he only faced the passive resistance of non-engagement. Students at Askes have a tradition of more radical action, with groups walking out to take part in the student protests in November 2010 and in the 2003 anti-war demonstrations.

Some entertaining comments to this on facebook, e.g. 'Not easy to keep school children engaged is it Mr Gove. Perhaps you'll have a little bit more respect for the job we teachers do now?'; ' we were there for 2 hours that's why we have a reason for being asleep or being bored'; and 'i'm one of the girls in this video... this guy is a idiot so i should not be forced to listen to his crap'

'Motley Crew' riot in Camberwell on preacher's visit (1827)

2012-01-05T06:00:00.000Z

Camberwell Fair, held where the Green is now situated, was a source of conflict between the authorities and fair-goers until it was eventually suppressed completely. In 1827 there were riotous scenes as the police intervened to prevent a preacher addressing a crowd on Camberwell Green. Exactly what his message was, and why the local magistrates wanted to stop him, is unclear from the following account published in The Times, 21 August 1827.

'Riot at Camberwell

On Sunday, at two o'clock, according to previous announcement, Mr Smith, of Penzance, arrived on the ground where Camberwell fair is held, in a hackney coach, attended by an immense number of persons who had followed the vehicle all the way from town. The moment he alighted, a constable stepped up and told him that the Magistrates had given directions that he should not be permitted to hold forth on the Green. On receiving this notification Mr Smith demanded the names of the Justices who had issued such a mandate and upon being informed, he proceeded to take down their names in his note-book. He then called for a chair, intimating to the mass of people by whom he was surrounded that as soon as he was furnished with an article that would elevate him a little above the rest, so as to he heard by all his auditors, he should then explain to them the chief causes of the opposition manifested by the Magistrates against him. Having waited for some time, during which the shouts of the crowd were deafening, a parson was seen making his way towards the preacher holding up a chair; and having placed it down, the later was about to ascend when two or three constables approached and again reiterated their directions; but no sooner had they spoken than they were attacked by the mob, who were determined that Mr Smith should be heard.

A reinforcement of police, however, having come to the assistance of the constables, a general row took place, during which broken heads were given on each side, and in the midst of the affray Smith, like a skillful General, made a hasty retreat, and escaped, leaving one if his chief supporters, a man named Perring, in custody. In appeared Smith proceeded afterwards into the parish of Lambeth, followed by a crowd of ragamuffins, and having ascended the steps of a new building in Surrey New-road, he there harangued the motley crew, exclaiming most vehemently against the magistrates, and declaring that their names and conduct towards him should be published and go forth to the world.

The neighbourhood of Camberwell was a scene of noise and confusion the whole of the day; the mob, amongst whom were numbers of pickpockets, expecting the return of the preacher. Yesterday morning, Perring, who had been apprehended the day before, was taken before the magistrates and held to bail for assaulting the officers in the execution of their duty. He was anxious to address the magistrates on the subject of Mr Smith's visit to Camberwell, but the magistrates declined hearing anything, conceiving that Mr Smith's efforts were calculated to do much more harm than good at the fair'.

I am guessing that 'Mr Smith of Penzance' is George Charles Smith (1782–1863), known as ‘Boatswain Smith'. Originally from London - he was apprentice to a bookseller in Tooley Street - he was press ganged into the Navy before becoming pastor of a baptist chapel in Penzance. In 1817 he spread his activities to London, preaching in particular to sailors, river and canal workers. He opened a floating chapel in the Thames and established charities including the the Shipwrecked and Distressed Sailors' Family Fund. The practice of open air non-conformist preaching was initially met with official opposition, though it later became common-place.

A stag in Lewisham

2012-01-03T06:00:00.001Z

We featured the 'Lewisham Natureman' deer in Cressingham Road last month. Now another sighting of the deer has been made, next to the River Ravensbourne by Lewisham train station, where the animal appears to be taking a drink. Painting it must have involved waders or a boat (or maybe a harness).

You can see it from the bank of the river on Silk Mills Path, by the entrance to Tescos.

More pictures at Wildcornerz

London Song

2011-12-31T19:41:00.003Z

Happy New Year everyone, to get you in the mood here's London Song by French singer June Caravel. The song is seemingly made up of words from London street names, and the video features her singing by the relevant street signs from all over the city. South East London streets featured include Mint Street and Mermaid Court (SE1) and in Brockley, Darling Road SE4. The closing shot is in Greenwich Park.

(thanks to Mark B. for spotting this)

The 1981 Riots in South London

2011-12-30T14:02:00.001Z

Previously confidential Government papers released to the National Archives this week provide some fresh insights into the 1981 riots, which swept across England in July 1981. Included in the papers is some information on events in South London, which combined with contemporary press reports gives an idea of what happened in the area at that time.

Woolwich and Lewisham

Included in the documents is a briefing from the F4 division of the Home Office (responsible for links with security services, special branch etc) with details from the Metropolitan Police of disturbances on Thursday 9th July: ‘At 7:24 pm 100 black youths and 50 white youths were reported at Woolwich, but there was no trouble… at 8.42 pm disturbances broke out at Woolwich, with youths throwing stones and overturning vehicles. Serials had previously been deployed to the Woolwich area for the Anti-Nazi League meeting and these, supplemented by the Special Patrol Group and Urgent Response Units deployed from Operations Room, moved into the area to prevent trouble… At 10.35 pm disturbances broke out at Lewisham … During this time the disturbances at Woolwich were continuing’. Statistics from the Met’s ‘R’ district (Woolwich) showed that 37 people had been arrested in Woolwich, with four minor injuries to police, 8 windows broken and two cars overturned. ‘P’ District (Lewisham) reported 10 arrests.

The Times reported these events the next day: 'London police quickly quelled what threatened to be a riot early yesterday evening in Woolwich, south-east London. About 200 black and Asian youths ran through the town centre smashing 15 shop windows and overturning two cars. There was some looting. The youths were outnumbered by police who quickly dispersed them. 27 arrests were made… In Lewisham, eight youths were arrested after clashes in which goods were looted from Chiesman’s department store. About 100 black youths in Deptford threw bottles at a police car (Times, 10 July 1981).

The Woolwich events seem to have been provoked by rumours of a racist skinhead invasion to attend a gig at the Tramshed (a similar occurence had led to the riots in Southall in the previous week). According to the Deptford and Peckham Mercury (16 July 1981), people initially gathered on the streets to defend local venues thought vulnerable to racist attack - groups were reported at local Sikh temples in Calderwood Street and Masons Hill (where an Anti Nazi League meting was taking place), a mosque in Thomas Street, and the Simba project (an African-Caribbean community group). An (untrue) rumour that the skinheads were arriving on the Woolwich ferry prompted hundreds of mainly young people to run down Powis Street, and it was here that shop windows were broken and cars overturned, with a tobacconist shop being looted.

The same paper reported that on that night too, bottles were thrown at police by a crowd on Tanners Hill, Deptford (presumably the same incident referred to in The Times). In Balham High Road 'Around 35 shops were damaged in a wave of violence which started shortly after midnight when some 200 youths roamed the streets. Worst hit was the Argos Discount Store where hundreds of pounds worth of goods were stolen' (South London Press, 14 July 1981). On the following Friday night, two cars were overturned in Daneville Road, Camberwell (Mercury, 16 July 1981), while 'a 15 year old youth was arrested in Rye Lane, Peckham, for allegedly throwing a petrol bomb at police' (South London Press, 14 July 1981).

The trouble in Lewisham seems to have been fairly sporadic, prompting some self-congratulation from the police in the South London Press: 'Lewisham has escaped almost trouble free from a week of rioting in Britain's inner cities thanks to sensitive policing and public co-operation, a police chief said yesterday. Apart from a window being smashed at Chiesman's in Lewisham High-St, and a minor stone throwing incident in Sydenham on Saturday where three people were arrested, there have been no repeats of the mass looting and rioting which has hit many areas. Although many shopkeepers have taken the precaution of boarding up their windows and police have been issued with protective clothing and headgear, P District's acting commander Dennis Rowe said that he is "delighted" the borough has remained peaceful.

'Although many of our officers have been drafted into other areas where there have been riots and the ones left behind have had to work long hours, they are still endeavouring to remain patient and to police the area sensitively... I am aware that while we have to continue to remain firm and to make those arrests that are correct, we can still keep sight of the need to be understanding. Through a concerted effort by our liaison officer and home beat constables along with a tremendous spirit of co-operation by local community groups, youth leaders and the general public we have been successful... We are even getting a feedback from a number of black and white youths who are proud of their borough saying "This is our town and we don't want to smash it up' (SLP 17 July 1981).

Many local black people probably had a less rosy view of community-police relations, particularly in the aftermath of the New Cross Fire in January 1981. Indeed there was renewed controversy in July when police warned that a planned New Cross Massacre Action Committee fundraiser couldn't go ahead for licensing reasons at the Evelyn 190 Centre in Evelyn Street, Deptford ('Clash over fire victims' disco', Mercury, 16 July 1981).

Battersea Park

Battersea was another flashpoint: 'A gang of youths attacked four policeman on Sunday afternoon [12 July], striking them to the tarmac floor of the roller skating rink in Battersea Park. Two PCs - Robert Smith and Brian Tullock - were rushed to hospital with serious head wounds. PC Smith needed 13 stitches. "It all started when we answered a call saying a car had been overturned in the park, said Det. Con. Larry Lawrence, "Four of us were in plain clothes but as soon as we identified ourselves we were attacked by about 20 youths carrying hockey sticks and wooden staves. The blows rained down on PC Smith and PC Tullock was given a severe kicking". Mr Lawrence said a crowd of 200 stood watching. "The only human touch there was a girl who took off her cardigan and wrapped it around PC Smith's head as he lay bleeding". A crowd of youths carrying hockey sticks and wooden staves ran through the park during the early evening damaging two cars and throwing petrol bombs at the police'.

'Later in the evening three policeman were injured in Francis Chichester Way when 35 youths hurled missiles and fire bombs at police lines. The incidents followed outbreaks of violence on Saturday night when 17 arrests were made in Queenstown Road and Falcon Road area' (South London Press, 14 July 1981).

Brixton

The main Brixton riots occurred in April 1981, arguably setting off the whole cycle of 1981 uprisings. But in July there were two further outbreaks, first of all on Friday 10 July:

''Violence returned to the streets of Brixton this weekend, a few hours after Lord Scarman finished part one of his enquiry into the April riots. Large crowds clashed with police, cars were overturned and set alight, shops were attacked and looted only a short distance from Lambeth Town Hall where GLC leader Ken Livingstone was addressing an Anti Nazi League meeting. His audience had a grandstand view as officers fought looters... 31 officers were hurt and there were 157 arrests, mainly for looting and assaulting police.

Trouble started at about 4 pm when police arrested a Rastafarian called Maliki in Atlantic Road. A popular disc jockey and community leader Lloyd Coxsone (32) tried to intervene but was arrested for obstruction. Within minutes youths had set up barricades across Atlantic Road... Police reinforcements were quickly on the scene but at 4:30 a Panda car in Atlantic Road was overturned and set on fire. An unmarked car which came to its aid was also overturned and fired but officers escaped unhurt.

Outside the Atlantic pub [later renamed the Dogstar in the 1990s] black leaders used a loud hailer to appeal for calm. Mr Maliki told the crowd that Mr Coxsone had been released and urged them to disperse. But some youths had already taken advantage of the confrontation to start looting shops in Atlantic Road. Rattner's the jewellers were attacked at 4.30 and a mob then ran down Electric Lane to raid Curry's the electrical goods shop...

Police formed themselves up in squads of about a dozen men with a sergeant in command. They lined up along the main road, walking under cover of riot shields towards the crowds. They were apparently trying to disperse the mob along Effra Road and Brixton Hill... By 8.30 police had cleared the centre of Brixton' (Source: South London Press, 14 July 1981).

Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher visited Brixton police station in the early hours of the 14 July, following a meeting at New Scotland Yard where predictably senior officers lobbied for greater police powers and more riot equipment (the National Archives papers include a report of this meeting, and of arrangements to provide riot helmets and plastic bullets from the army to the police).

Burning police car in Brixton 1981 (not sure if this was in April or July)

Railton Road raids

Then on 15 July there was further trouble in Brixton following controversial police raids on Railton Road. The Government papers in the National Archives includes a detailed report of these raids, supposedly prompted by reports that petrol bombs were being stored there.

Eleven premises were raided, numbers 35, 37, 47, 52, 54 and 60 Railton Road under warrants obtained under Section 187 of the Licensing Act 1964 ‘suspected of being used for unlawful drinking’, and 50, 56, 58, 62 and 64 under section 6 of the Criminal Justice Act. Several of the properties were semi-derelict and due for demolition. 176 CID and uniformed officer were employed ‘to enter the premises and a further 391 officers were either held in reserve or employed in cordoning off the area’. The report admitted that ‘No evidence was found during the operation of the manufacture of petrol bombs or of premises being used for illegal drinking that evening. Seven people were arrested, all for minor offences’.

Details in the report do give some indication of social life on 'the frontline' (as that part of Railton Road was known) at that time: at 47 ‘a new record player and a small quantity of drugs were found’; at 54 Railton Road, there were ’25 to 30 people on the premises’; at 58 the police paid compensation for damage to a space invaders machine and a pool table; at 62 ‘The ground floor of these premises was used as a quasi-masonic temple and at the time of the raid two ceremonial swords were laid out on the floor and other items of regalia stored in a cabinet.’ (Report of Enquiry by Deputy Assistant Commissioner Dear into Police Operations in Railton Road, Brixton on Wednesday 15 July 1981).
This report downplays the extent of damage to people's homes, but locally there was intense anger at the way the raids had been conducted:

'Joseph Francis (17), who was asleep when the raid occurred, said his unlocked bedroom door was axed by two policemen. He said a woman and baby in the room were thrown to the floor when the mattress was dragged from under them and furniture was ripped open.
Mr. Gladstone McKenzie arrived at his shop, the Railton Free Off Licence, to ﬁnd the door and windows smashed and the back room ransacked. He said he had always had a good relationship with the police and was shocked by the extent of the damage. Some upstairs windows looked as though they had been broken from are inside as most of the glass was lying outside.

One of the houses wrecked during Wednesday's raid had just had £4,000 of Inner City Partnership money spent on it. No. 50 Railton Road is owned by Lambeth Council and leased to the Railton Youth Club...

100 youths were involved in running fights with police in Railton-rd. on Wednesday night. Petrol bombs, stones and bottles were thrown and 10 officers were injured. The trouble started just after 11 p.m. when two cars were set alight and a barricade of corrugated iron and timber set up behind them. But the police, drawn up in strength at the junction of Railton-rd. and Coldharbour-lane, made no move. Masked youths, one carrying a long stave, then charged the police lines, hurling missiles but were quickly driven back. A fire engine attempting to reach the burning cars was stoned. There was another scare when a convoy of eight powerful motorbikes ridden by white youths roared through the riot area.

At 11.45 police started cautiously moving up Railton-rd behind a wall of riot shields and sealing off side roads. Another large force was meanwhile approaching from the Herne Hill end. It was at about this time that the first petrol bombs were thrown. By 12.15 the barricade was being removed and police were in control of the area, though they remained on guard for some hours' (South London Press, 17 July 1981).

The left in Brixton

A briefing report for Ministers included in the National Archives papers highlighted the involvement in left-wing groups, particularly in the Brixton area: ‘There is considerable evidence of activity by extremist organisations that have been hit by some of the worst of the recent violence' though it acknowledged that 'It seems unlikely that in any major case extremists have actually instigated the violence’. The report doesn't say that the radical left seems to have been too fragmented into rival groups to co-ordinate any kind of large scale effective action, but it does provide evidence of this.

The report mentions the Labour Committee for the Defence of Brixton founded following the 1981 riots at the instigation of the ‘Militant Tendency’ and operating ‘from an address in Railton Road’; ‘the Workers Revolutionary Party has a books hop in Atlantic Road and a Youth Training Centre in Stockwell’; ‘the Revolutionary Communist Group has its headquarters in Railton Road’; ‘the Revolutionary Communist Party set up a Lambeth Unemployed Workers Group shortly before the Riots, and has since formed a South London Workers Against Racism group, similar to the East London Workers Against Racism which attracted some notoriety for organising vigilante patrols’; ‘the Race Today Collective has offices in Brixton. The edition [sic] of its magazine is Darcus Howe, who has been associated with campaigning in support of the H-block hunger strikes, the New Cross Massacre Action Committee’; ‘After the riot the Socialist Workers Party circulated a leaflet in Brixton in which it said “it was a magnificent way for Brixton to fight back"’ (Brief for a Debate on Recent Outbreaks of Civil Disorder in Great Britain).

The aftermath: riot training on Greenwich peninsula

As reported at Greenwich Phantom, following the riots the River Way Police Holding and Training Centre was created for a couple of years on Greenwich peninsula (Greenwich Council published a critical report in 1984 on 'Riot Training in Greenwich'). The map shows that this included a mock-up street and areas for petrol bomb, CS gas, water cannon and smoke grenade training.

Edit/Select

2011-12-30T06:00:00.000Z

Edit/Select are an energetic young SE London band. I saw them a few weeks ago at the Toe Jam Christmas party at the Bussey Building in Peckham and they were pretty good (Toe Jam is a club night that the band help promote, it started out at the New Cross Inn). Now they are looking for a new bassist:

'We are an indie / punk / reggae / ska / pop rock band. We have played venues such as IndigO2, Barfly, Scala, Dingwalls, Goldsmiths SU, Astoria 2, etc. We have supported Art Brut, Toploader, The Holloways and more. We regularly go on tours in Holland as we have a buzzing following out there and a lot of contacts. Currently making an album too!

We are looking for a bass player who is enthusiastic, experienced, someone who is up for having fun and really wants to make a go of this. Must be willing to work with image too! If this sounds good to you then drop me a reply!'

If you are interested you can contact them via their facebook page.

Here they are with their track Your Fire, the video seemingly filmed in the Old Police Station (Amersham Vale, SE14). Warning to would-be bassists - this was a couple of years ago and they've got more musically sophisticated, maybe bit more Vampire Weekend, bit less Hard Fi. So you will need to be good!

A death in the marshes

2011-12-29T06:00:00.000Z

A tragic story from 1877:

'At daybreak on Saturday morning a boy employed to frighten crows from a cornfield discovered the body of a gentleman up to the waist in water in the marshes forming a portion of Woolwich Arsenal, The body was subsequently identified as that of Mr David Darling, a pensioned officer from the Royal Arsenal, of 7 Amersham Grove, New Cross. The deceased was last seen alive at the grave of his wife in Plumstead Churchyard, and it is conjectured that in walking through the marshes he was overtaken by the darkness and got into a bog from which he was unable to extricate himself' ('Lost in a Bog', The Times, 5 March 1877)

The elements of Kent marshes, a churchyard and a frightened boy put me in mind of a story written not long before, albeit set further out in North Kent (believed to be based on the marshes around Cooling, beyond Gravesend):

'Ours was the marsh country, down by the river, within, as the river wound, twenty miles of the sea. My first most vivid and broad impression of the identity of things, seems to me to have been gained on a memorable raw afternoon towards evening. At such a time I found out for certain, that this bleak place overgrown with nettles was the churchyard... and that the dark flat wilderness beyond the churchyard, intersected with dykes and mounds and gates, with scattered cattle feeding on it, was the marshes; and that the low leaden line beyond, was the river; and that the distant savage lair from which the wind was rushing, was the sea; and that the small bundle of shivers growing afraid of it all and beginning to cry, was Pip' (Charles Dickens, Great Expectations, 1861)

In the Neighbourhood

2011-12-28T06:00:00.000Z

Ork Posters, based in Chicago, produce typograpic map posters of cities across the world. For London they do one for both London boroughs and London neighbourhoods (below):

Of course borough names and boundaries are prescribed and well-established, but neighbourhoods are more subjective and change over time. Here's a detail of the SE London section, featuring among others New Cross, New Cross Gate, Deptford, Brockley and Ladywell. No doubt there could be much discussion on what's been missed out, what shouldn't be there, and where the boundaries should be - that is the nature of neighgbourhoods, no two people carry the same map in their head.

Incidentally I found out about this map from Adventures of a Frogsbif - a bilingual blog documenting a French student's adventures in London while she studies at Goldsmiths in New Cross: 'London never sleeps. This city is never silent. I live next to a pub backyard, which means that I can hear people talking from noon to 1am, then there's the noise of people talking in my flat, or in the flat next door, or in the other blocks, or down on the green. There's also the constant roar of cars going by, rythmed by police cars and ambulances' alarms freaking me out every half hour. One would think the whole Lewisham population would be dead by now, considering how many people already called the cops these last days' (full post here).

See also her thoughts on British food, and lots of recipes with French alternatives!

Tribeca, Elephant and Castle

2011-12-27T06:00:00.000Z

'Yeah, I'm out that Brooklyn

Now I'm down in Tribeca

Right next to DeNiro

But I’ll be hood forever

I’m the new Sinatra

And since I made it here

I can make it anywhere

Yeah, they love me everywhere

I used to cop in Harlem

Hola my Dominicanos

Right there up on Broadway

Brought me back to that McDonalds

Took it to my stash spot

560 State street'

OK Jay-Z, enough. You see this isn't actually your Triangle below Canal Street. No, this is a new tower block being built at the Elephant and Castle. For some reason the developers have decided to call it after an 'aspirational' part of New York rather than something that bears any historical or geographical relation to the area it is located in. They've even branded it as New London, because of course everybody hates the Old London - that's why milllions of people choose to live here, and make there way here from all over the world. Still Jay, there is a McDonalds not far away on the Walworth Road, more like Brooklyn than Tribeca some would say.

(Note this isn't a joke - Oakmayne really are marketing this development as 'Tribeca Square, New London'. Image from Southwark Notes Gentrification Top Trumps - afraid this isn't the only South London major development with no 'intermediate' or 'social rented' housing)

Peter Saunders

2011-12-26T06:00:00.000Z

The Guardian reports the death last month of the painter Peter Saunders (1940-2011):

'The painter Peter Saunders, who has died of cancer aged 70, presented in his work a complex local history of the last 50 years in and around London. His subjects – always painted in series – included skateboarders at the South Bank, Borough market, the bleak landscape of Dungeness, Kent, Thames-side scenes at Deptford, the open spaces and skies of Blackheath through the day and night, Brick Lane paper sellers and the Whitechapel Bell Foundry...

It is in his last works that Peter's breakthrough really came. His work started to explore in great depth the human figures in motion he saw around him: dancing at the Rivoli Ballroom in Brockley and then at the tea dances at the Royal Opera House...His most recent exhibition, Dancing at the Rivoli Ballroom (Some Enchanted Evening), for Isle of Thanet Arts, in 2004, was introduced by a comment in the catalogue by the painter Frank Auerbach: "You are as ever taking on brave and exciting subjects that others only dream of." At the end of his life, Peter felt he had finally achieved his essential, personal vision.

Peter was one of five children, born into a working-class London family evacuated during the second world war to Bicester in Oxfordshire. Returning as a young child to south London he drew and drew (paints were in short supply in the 1940s) rather than spend time playing with other children. Later, at Camberwell School of Art, he learned to pursue the tough discipline of drawing in the manner of William Coldstream from mentors such as Euan Uglow'.

Images: above, 'Some Enchanted Evening' [detail], depicting the Rivoli; below, 'Skateboarding, South Bank' from 1980 (depicting a space still used for the same purpose 30 years later). I would love to see some of his other South London paintings if you come across them.

Christmas Straw for Deptford?

2011-12-24T23:20:00.000Z

Happy Christmas one and all, and God rest ye Merry Gentlemen and Women. But wait a minute, if you live in Brockley don't forget to bring some straw to Deptford tomorrow.

According to the book 'A collection of old English customs: and curious bequests and charities, extracted from the reports made by the commissioners for enquiring into charities in England and Wales' by H. Edwards (1842):

'By a decree of commissioners for charitable uses, dated 4th March, 6th James I [1609] it was decreed, that the owners of three parts of land, whereof one was called Lady Crofts, should from thenceforth for ever deliver and distribute, every Good Friday, amongst the poor people of Deptford, all the bread which might be made and baked of half a quarter of good wheat; and should likewise yearly deliver, at Whitsuntide, half a load of good green rushes, and at Christmas one good load of new grass straw, in the pews of the church at Deptford [St Nicholas Church].

The land charged is Brookley farm. By an order of vestry, 17 April, 1721, it appears that William Wilkinson offered 21s. per annum for the time to come, in lieu of pea straw and rushes, which offer was accepted, and since the year 1744, 10s. has been received in lieu of the half quarter of wheat. The two sums of 21s. and 10s. are regularly paid and distributed in bread'.

So it looks like some Brockley farmer swapped their straw supplying duty for cash during the 18th century. I'm not sure that will do - come on SE4 people get to your farm. The decree does say 'for ever' after all.

Solstice Parade

2011-12-22T19:37:00.000Z

This evening's Night of the Beasts Winter Solstice Parade in New Cross was a lot of fun with about 100 people of all ages taking part, many of them in improvised animal costumes. One contingent started out from New Cross library, joining up with the rest outside the Telegraph pub on Dennetts Road. From there the procession made it's way through Telegraph Hill Park and around the nearby streets, ending up at the Hill Station Cafe in Kitto Road for an impromptu party.

A bear enters the park

Mabel and Sam from Brockley-based Theatre/Puppetry Company Wooden Fingers

Music outside the Hill Station Cafe

(my camera was playing up so I didn't get pictures of some of the costumes, including the big ones at the front - if you've got any good pictures of them let me know)

There but for the

2011-12-22T06:00:00.000Z

Ali Smith's novel 'There but for the' (2011) is set in Greenwich, where a guest turns up for supper, locks himself into a spare room and refuses to leave. Middle class dinner parties are a bit of an easy target, and the hosts conform to every stereotype, talking of 'Upgrading to Blackheath...soon as the market picks up sufficiently' and being too worried about their vintage interiors to take decisive action like kicking the door down.

But not all the characters are so one dimensional or unsympathetic, I liked the wise-before-her-time child who wanders the streets of Greenwich bamboozling strangers with her intelligence. There's a discussion about the Cutty Sark which chimes with my concerns about the ersatz heritagisation of Greenwich: 'The child assures Jan that the ship will definitely be reopened to the public as soon as they remake it because nowadays you can do pretty much anything including remake something historic after it's burned down'.

Greenwich Park and St Alfege's church also feature in the novel, as does the foot tunnel: 'The Thames is brown and green today. It changes what it is every day. No: every minute. Every second. It is a different possible river every second, and imagine all the people under the water walking across to the other side and back to this side in the tunnel right now, because under the surface there is a whole other thing always happening'.

Night of the Beasts

2011-12-21T18:58:00.001Z

Tomorrow is the Winter Solstice, and there's going to be a Night of the Beasts Winter Solstice Parade in New Cross, starting out at New Cross People's Library at 4:30 pm or the Telegraph Pub in Dennetts Road at 5:00 pm followed by a procession around the streets ending up at The Hill Station cafe in Kitto Road.

If you can dress up as animal (or just bring a cuddly toy), carry a lantern or play a musical instrument so much the better. There will be an opportunity to sing songs celebrating animals or the turning of the year at the end.

Happy Hanukkah and Solstice to all Tranpontine folk, we'll get around to Happy Christmas later in the week!

(see here for an account of the Summer Solstice parade)

(update: for pictures of Night of the Beasts see here)

Roger Moore: South London James Bond

2011-12-21T06:00:00.001Z

Well a bit of excitement last week about Daniel Craig filming the new James Bond film in Deptford. But the real South London James Bond is undoubtedly Roger Moore.

As recalled in his autobiography My Word is My Bond, Moore was born in 1927 at the Maternity Hospital in Jeffreys Road, Clapham. He lived in Aldebert Terrace, then in Albert Square in Stockwell (number 4, then number 14). He went to Hackford Road Elementary (later Durand Primary) and then Vauxhall Central School.

As a teenager he hung out at the Astoria in Brixton and the Locarno ballroom in Streatham, snogging on Streatham Common afterwards. With his first wife Lucy Woodward (also known as Doorn Van Stein) , the daughter of a Streatham cab driver, Moore moved into a room in her family home at 16 Buckleigh Road, Streatham in 1946.

By 1952 Moore had started acting, and was invited to a party in St Mary's Mount, Bexley at the home of Dorothy Squires. At the time Squires was one of the biggest singing stars in the country, and 13 years years Moore's senior. Before long, Moore had divorced Doorn and moved in with Squires (Moore and Squires pictured below). Moore went on to star in the Saint as Simon Templar, then took on the role of James Bond in the 1970s - starting with Live and Let Die in 1973.

By this time Moore had long since moved on from South London. Squires - who he left in 1961 - stayed in Bexley until her mansion burned down in 1974.

Ed Gray - London Souls

2011-12-19T23:09:00.000Z

I went along to London Souls last week, an exhibition of prints by Ed Gray in The Crypt Gallery under St Pancras Church opposite Euston Station. Gray, who was recently interviewed on the Robert Elms show on BBC London, mainly paints London street scenes.

I had a quick chat with Gray - in fact he made me a cup of tea - and it transpires that he lives in Rotherhithe, worked for several years as an art teacher at St Thomas Apostle secondary school (Nunhead/Peckham) and is represented by GX Gallery in Camberwell. So unsurprisingly there are plenty of South London settings - Camberwell Green (pictured below), a nightbus in Old Kent Road, a Paddy Power bookies on Walworth Road, Brockwell Park Lido, London Bridge, Electric Avenue, Salsa dancing at The Loughborough Hotel (Brixton) etc.

Really though it's London people rather than buildings that are at the centre of the paintings, walking about, working, snogging, commuting, eating, drinking... all kind of Hogarthian but without a sense of any moral judgement.

London Souls is open until 22 December 2011, 10am-6pm, admission free (great space by the way, proper old crypt with piled up gravestones etc.)

South London Shellac

2011-12-19T06:00:00.001Z

My friend Richard Sanderson (Hither Green-based musician) shared his fine collection of 1930s records with me last week, with their sleeves historical documents of South London record shops in that era.

The Musical Box (proprietor G.H. Papworth) was at 254 High Street, Lewisham

Wallace was at 111 & 113 New Cross Road ('opposite free library')

L.R. Robin was at 96 and 98 East Street, Walworth.

Saunders & Fortescue had branches at 251 Rye Lane, Peckham and 135 High Street, Lewisham. They sold bicycles and prams as well as records.

Richard plays his records on this rather fine wind up gramophone.

He was using it as part of a sound performance at the 10th December lanch party for issue no.4 of the surrealist journal Patricide, held at Massive Little World. This is in one of the railway arches behind the Deptford Project railway carriage cafe.

The event included 'Richard Sanderson with an amplified toothbrush and wind-up gramophone, poetry by Daniel Lehan and Jazz Poetry accompanied by improvised trumpet, bass and drums'. It was concluded by Sonic Egg, which featured an egg being boiled to an improvised soundtrack including a man playing guitar with a mannequin's foot. Or as Patricide reported it 'the Elite were soft boiled in egg form before being dashed against a wall'.

(by the way Grace Pailthorpe, later a British Surrealist painter, worked in New Cross during the First World War, as previously discussed at Transpontine).

Band of Holy Joy at the Montague Arms

2011-12-17T06:00:00.000Z

The Band of Holy Joy are surely one of the greatest bands ever to have been associated with New Cross. In the late 1980s they were fairly massive on the indie scene with their lush Brechtian/Brelish/folk-tinged tales, but they split up in 1993.

Next week, on Thursday December 22nd, they are playing at the Montague Arms. Obviously if you loved them then you will want to see them now. But apart from nostalgia, why bother? Well since they reformed they have been putting out some fine new music - their new album How to Kill a Butterfly (Exotic Pylon records) got a 4-star review from Mojo.

I saw BoHJ several times in their heyday (including at both Town and Country Clubs), and have seen them once since they got back together, playing at The Windmill in Brixton a few years ago. I thought singer Johny Brown acually sounded better at the latter. Rather like The Pogues, their music was always 'mature' - back in the day they were young musicians singing as if they old men and women looking back on lifetimes of passion and regret. Now maybe they've grown into the songs!

'Flasher' in New Cross and Brockley

2011-12-16T19:13:00.001Z

There have been further reports of a man exposing himself to women in the Brockley and New Cross area. The Friends of Telegraph Hill Park report:

'The Friends of the Park committee has been notified by Telegraph Hill's Safer Neighbourhood Team (SNT) that a series of criminal offences have taken place recently in the Lower and Upper parks, as well as on Kitto Rd and Jerningham Rd [SE14], with a man exposing himself to both young and older women'.

Similar incidents came to light at Brockley Central in October of this year, with Siobhan reporting:

'I live on Breakspears Road in Brockley and I just want to raise awareness to anyone who lives in the area and walks home late at night. Over the last 3 months myself and my friends have experienced 3 very similar incidents of two men walking Breakspears road and exposing themselves to us. We have reported each incident to the police but I was shocked when my Landlady mentioned that it had happened to someone she knew 2 years ago'

This led to a flurry of reports of similar stories:

'I had a similar incidence on Gordonbrook Rd in Ladywell late Friday night about a year ago. The man in question was on a bicycle'.

'Happened to me and a friend too, a couple of months ago, at the bottom of Upper Brockley Road'.

'About 6 months ago a couple of friends and I were flashed twice while walking home from New Cross, about 1 or 2am I think. First on Barriedale and then, a few minutes later, on Millmark Grove'.

'A couple of months ago I was flashed at repeatedly by a man from his house on Harefield Road'.

'I've seen people flashing on Breakspears road on three different occasions, all on friday nights/saturday mornings at 3.30am approx. Its the same two guys each time. One man (looks average height, white, 30's, carrying weight on his belly) is always lying on the footpath with a hat covering his face and his trousers and underwear at his ankles (this has happened three times now and it has been at the Lewisham way side of breakspears road). There is a second guy (tall, slim, arab, 30's), once seen him totally naked with just runners and a hat on and he followed me and my friends up the road to our house and waited outside and watched us go in. Last Friday night, as it was quite cold out, he was dressed in a tracksuit, with a peaky hat covering his face but he had the whole crotch of this tracksuit bottoms cut out so he was totally exposed. He walked straight past us, didn't look at us but seem quite shifty and not very confident in what he was doing. This is not a spontaneous/in from the pub, bit tipsy looking for a laugh/practical joke. If anyone is considering walking Breakspears late at night, be in a group and prepare yourself for the flashers'.

Eastlondonlines has also reported on this:

'Megan Constable, 20, a student at Goldsmiths College, has experienced the same man exposing himself to her twice. She said: “I encountered the flasher once on Jerningham Road and again down Millmark Grove. We were walking down the road when we noticed this man laying in a front garden bollock naked with just a hat on. We were a little stunned but assumed it was just some man passed out. When we turned the corner he came running down on the opposite side of the road to us in just his hat and an anorak jacket waving his willy at us. I felt threatened and intimidated, I was also afraid to say anything in case he turned violent or had a weapon handy. I think this man is disgusting, he gets his kicks out of being an exhibitionist and intimidating young people at night'.

It wasn't until after Brockley Central broke this story that the police got round to releasing a press release about it. As reported in the Newsshopper (2 November 2011):

'Detectives are appealing for help in finding a man who has indecently exposed himself to young girls. Officers have released an e-fit of the suspect who they say has indecently exposed himself in the Ladywell and Brockley area. The first reported incident was on July 18 at around 4.30pm.

There have been further incidents with the latest on October 27 at around 5.20pm when he exposed himself to two young girls. He is described as white, between 5ft 6in and 5ft 10in, sometimes wearing a dark coloured beanie hat and carrying a dark coloured sports bag... Anyone with information should contact Lewisham CID on 0208 284 8340 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111'.

Another incident has been reported on a train from Hither Green to New Cross over the summer, as a result of which this CCTV image was released by police:

Presumably not all of these incidents involve the same man (though the pictured men look similar). Sadly there's more than one or two blokes who think this is OK.

That Joke isn't Funny Anymore

Mention of flashers usually provokes a lot of puerile Benny Hill jokes about raincoats, or even apologetics ('well they haven't actually done anything wrong', 'it's just a naked man what's the big deal?').

What's wrong is the implicit threat of sexual violence in men acting like this -'flashing' is part of a continuum of sexual aggression and if not all flashers become rapists some certainly do. Here's another account from the comments at Brockley Central:

'My friend and I were coming home on Thursday 10.11.11 and a man passed us with his genitals hanging out, he then followed us to my front door as we ran inside and he masturbated himself in the front garden'

Does that sound like a joke?

updates:

This from Twitter - 'horrible. sounds EXACTLY like the loser that flashed me and my friends on jerningham rd in june'

This in comments: 'When we were in a ground floor flat on Jerningham Road, I had a man press his genitals against the window of our front room one night, then bang on the door - something other neighbours also experienced in 2009 (we all reported it to the Met.) Very distressing experience when home alone'

[13 January 2012 - a friend informs me that there was an incident in Kitto Road at about 7 pm last night, with a man exposing himself]

Ukemania in New Cross and Brockley

2011-12-16T15:59:00.001Z

Way back in early 2008 Corrie, a then barista at Broca cafe in Coulgate Street (SE4), invited a few regulars to join her for a ukulele jam session in the cafe. Who could have predicted then that before long the uke craze would sweep like wildfire across the area?

From that session came Brockley Ukulele Group, spin-offs like Post-Puke and more. Among the early strummers was a teacher and a couple of parents from John Stainer Primary School. Before long the school had acquired its own set of ukes and children were being initiated into the mysteries of the one finger C chord.

Edmund Waller Primary School in New Cross has followed suit in arming its kids with those affordable and accessible stringed instruments.

In another ukeist coup the newly appointed vicar of St Catherines Church (junction of Pepys and Kitto Roads SE14), Rev. Sheridan James, is also of the four stringed persuasion.

It was at her instigation that last night there was a mass outpouring of ukemania at the Hill Station Cafe (next to the church) for the Ukulele Carol Jam. Over 100 kids and their parents squeezed into the cafe for the afternoon children's session, followed by about 20 adults in the evening strumming and singing along to Silent Night, Good King Wenceslas etc.

Meanwhile back at BUG...

Brockley Ukulele Group is having an open practice day this Sunday, 18th December at the Amersham Arms (just over the road from New Cross station). If you are over 18 (sorry, pub has strict admissions policy) and fancy joining in with some songs all you need to do is bring yourself and a ukulele. They'll be there from 5pm until 7pm in the upstairs room (stairs lead up from the corridor between the front and back rooms).

BUG also report: 'Due to an ongoing baby boom in the band, we are looking for at least one new female band member - ability to produce tuneful sounds from mouth more important than ability to produce tuneful sounds from uke (though willingness to work on the latter is desirable...)'. For more information email brockleyukegroup@googlemail.com

New Cross 13 by The Blackstones

2011-12-15T06:00:00.000Z

Nice new soulful reggae track from The Blackstones commemorating the New Cross Fire in 1981: 'New Cross 13, perish in a fire, 30 years ago and still nobody knows'. The track was co-produced by Sir Collins whose son Steven died in the fire.

Steven was a DJ, part of the Prophecy sound system crew that started out in Lewisham in the late 1970s from the merger of The Mighty Observer and members of Hi Jah Fi sound system (Papa Levi was also with Prophecy before joining Saxon). They played at venues including Lewisham Boys Club, the Grove Centre in Sydenham, Platform One in Forest Hill and the Black Bull in Lewisham (more info at Mr Shorty's site). As well as Steven Collins, two other members of the Prophecy Crew died in the fire,Gerry Francis and Lloyd Hall.

'New Cross 13' is released on Strike Force records.

Riot research

2011-12-14T06:00:00.000Z

The Guardian has been reporting in the last few weeks on some of the ongoing Reading the Riots research into the summer riots, with some interesting material on what happened in South East London.

Gangs?

'....Gang members were certainly present in many of the disturbances. In some cases they may have played an important role, though there is little indication that they were responsible for orchestrating the riots. Most importantly, the suggestion that 13% of people involved in riots were gang members – based on "intelligence" from those arrested – is almost certainly an overestimation. Rioters said they only occasionally saw people involved who they knew to be affiliated to gangs; in the main, respondents were struck by the breadth of people from all parts of their community who joined together. That sense of unity also affected the small numbers of gangs involved. They suspended rivalries for the duration of the disturbances. For those used to local hostilities – sometimes defined by postcode – it was an unprecedented sight...

The irony did not escape some of those involved. "You know it was the one time everyone was helping each other out. It had to be robbing Foot Locker!" said one 17-year-old who looted in Brixton. "I saw people from Brixton, different areas who would have literally hated each other but they was literally sticking together when they was going in there, like holding the doors for each other, like going in there getting stuff. I was thinking it was, 'What? I swear you don't even like each other and yet you're helping each other out?'" She added: "In the sickest way possible it felt good."

26-year-old Croydon man described seeing a crowd of young men from miles away arrive in the area. "These youths actually came all the way from New Cross," he said. He described his feelings as they got involved. "'I know that we are beefing, yeah, but for this moment in time, let's eat together.' Let me elaborate. Eating means, let's go and take advantage of this situation." (Guardian 6 December 2011)

Violent arrests in New Cross

"Around 3.30pm on Monday 8 August I was aware that things were starting to happen. I think I went on Twitter and had a look and there seemed to be a bit of stuff and I saw some mention of Peckham. What really alerted me: there was a massive amount of sirens, like I've never heard before. So I went out on my bike. I must have noticed that there was something happening in Lewisham. Just to see what's going on. To bear witness to it, as much as anything.

I met someone walking up and they said: 'You don't want to go down there; it's all kicking off.' There's a road, I think it's Lewisham High Street, that goes off from the town centre towards Catford. There was a line of police; they were just saying: 'You don't want to go down there.' There is a jeweller's right opposite the fire station in Lewisham and I saw some people trying to break the shutters – I think unsuccessfully. But they were trying quite hard. They were calm.

There was a few pockets of people who weren't involved in it at all. It was just sort of quite a good place for them to be, I think. Then a few people were attacking a bus that was trying to turn round because the police were stopping it going through. There was somebody attacking the window of the driver's side and … I sort of walked down and I tried to, rather than saying anything directly to anybody, I tried to say generally: 'That's probably not a very good idea. The bus driver's probably not the person you want to be attacking.'

On Lee High Road there was a group breaking into a small off-licence type shop. There was people going in, grabbing a two-litre bottle of Coke, walking out, putting it down, realising he didn't have something to go with it, so went back in, got a bottle of Lambrusco. And I'm thinking: 'Do they really need that?' … Again, not covered up, but there was no police in sight.

So I cycled back along New Cross Road and as I was going further along here, just by the Sainsbury's, suddenly there was a couple of vans with lights on. Instead of carrying on and turning right I thought I'd cut through the Sainsbury's. There was a young black man being arrested who was lying face down, cuffed, with one officer on top of him, completely motionless. So this man was lying on the ground, face down, and this other riot officer basically jumped on the back of his head with his knees. And he screamed. It was quite painful, obviously. I saw a stream of blood coming down. So I was absolutely incensed. And another one standing who was being arrested. And he was screaming about how he had been hit on the legs and he was in pain because he had been hit on the legs with a baton. So the officer arrested me for obstruction...' '(A self-employed man, 39, who was arrested for obstruction and remanded in custody, Guardian, 8 December 2011)

Women in the riots

'On the third night of riots, two 20-year-old women made their way from Brixton to Peckham, egged on by friends and pings on their BlackBerrys. Once there, they saw an abandoned police car. Within minutes a petrol bomb was sailing through its window."One of my friends … just said: 'Let's fuck it up,' because there was no one there, there was nothing to be seen, and all our faces were covered as well," said one of the women, who lives in Westminster. "We kind of just went in on it. And then one of my [male] friends came at the last minute and just petrol-bombed it. So, quite satisfying."

The women stood watching as flames engulfed the car. "It felt good, that police car, it felt really good," she said. Asked why she had attacked it, her friend, from Lambeth in south London, said: "We just thought like it was kind of, not for a good cause, but in the beginning it was to protest about the [ways] we're being treated by police and that nowadays."

...The young woman who had delighted in the anarchic moment when the abandoned police car in Peckham had been petrol-bombed, who felt "the government needed a waking call … they deserved it" said she felt no remorse about what they had done, hoping the "message" they had given would not be ignored.

"It felt like all us youths were pulling together, like just trying to make a point really. It's sad it got to the point where it did riot, where something had to be done for us to be kind of heard," said the 20-year-old from Lambeth. She added: "There were other ways we could've gone about it – it did get a bit out of hand at the end – but still, I think we were still heard. We were still recognised, like, and I think it was worth it." (Guardian, 9 December 2011).

In other local riot news, a 32 year old woman from Clapham was convicted last week of being a getaway driver for people taking a TV from Currys in New Cross during the riot. Three young men from the New Cross area, and another from Catford were previously jailed for burglarly in relation to the looting of that Currys.

update 19 January 2012: a 25 year old woman from Casella Road in New Cross has been jailed for attempted burglary for hitting the window of the Joseph Annell Beauty Salon (Lewisham) with a metal pole during the riots. A 31 year old woman from Downham was jailed for 13 months for the same incident (more details at East London Lines)

Did you ever have a dream?

2011-12-13T22:30:00.000Z

There aren't many songs that mention Penge to my knowledge, let alone ones by great songwriters. But in 1967, on the B-side of his single 'Love you till Tuesday', David Bowie recorded a song called 'Did you ever have a dream?'. Not one of his best maybe, but that little corner of SE London does get a mention.

...And did you ever have a dream or two?
Have you ever woken up one day
With the feeling that you'd been away?
If the girl that you dreamed of last night
Had the same dream, in the very same scene
With the very same boy, hold tight
It's a very special knowledge that you've got, my friend
You can travel anywhere with anyone you care
It's a very special knowledge that you've got, my friend
You can walk around in New York while you sleep in Penge
I will travel round the world one night
On the magic wings of astral flight
If you've got the secret, tell me do
Have you ever had a dream or two?
Have you ever had a dream or two?

(more Bowie in South London stuff at Transpontine)

Telegraph Hill Skate Park... Again

2011-12-13T06:00:00.002Z

Last year there was an almighty row (or if you prefer, a healthy democratic debate) about proposals for a skateboarding facility in Telegraph Hill Park in New Cross. Eventually a compromise was agreed of locating it next to the existing football tarmac area at the Pepys Road side of the lower park (the area shown fenced off below), as this would have the minimum impact on green areas. The decision to go ahead was signed off by the Mayor of Lewisham a year ago in December 2010.

A couple of weeks ago, notices appeared stating that the work was finally starting, and the fencing was put up around the site. But the works have not yet started, with contractors apparently called off following a letter objecting to the work sent to the Council by some people involved with the Friends of Telegraph Hill Park.

They are claiming that the planned works are for a larger facility than that agreed previously, cutting further into the bank. For the Council, Martin Hyde (Green Space Regeneration Manager) has responded that while it is larger than the proposed skate park project first discussed last June, it is a similar size to the scheme supported by the Telegraph Hill Assembly in September 2010 and then approved by the Mayor.

The matter will be discussed at a Friends of the Park meeting at 7.30pm tonight - Tuesday 13th December - at the Hill Station (Kitto Road, SE14).

In any event, the Council have stated that having undertaken appropriate structural surveys, they are reassured that the bank's stability will not be affected by the works and that the works programme will be going ahead as planned. Hopefully work will be able to start again soon so that by next spring there will actually be somewhere to skate rather than endless talk about it.

[update 14 December 2011: contractors are back on site and work is continuing]

Christmas Comes to Brockley

2011-12-12T06:00:00.001Z

It's cold, it's dark. it's December. There is a full moon above, and mulled wine to keep you warm. Yes it's officially that time of year, and in case you needed any reminding there was the Brockley Christmas Market in Coulgate Street (last Saturday).

Music was in the crisp winter air courtesy of, among others, my old strumming companeros Brockley Ukulele Group. Their seasonal fare included 'It's cold outside' (it was) and a fine version of Half Man Half Biscuit's 'Its Cliched to be Cynical at Christmas' - 'Make a noise with your toys, and ignore all the killjoys' (quite right too).

James Bond in Deptford & New Cross

2011-12-10T10:19:00.001Z

Film crews were out and about in New Cross and Deptford yesterday and last night, with various road closures. What were they up to? The clue was in the car being filmed - an Aston Martin DB5 of the kind featured in 1964 James Bond film Goldfinger.

Yes, they were filming the new James Bond movie Skyfall, and Daniel Craig was spotted behind the wheel. Judi Dench has also been spotted. Filming has been reported by the Sainsburys on New Cross Road, and on Childers Street/Arklow Road in Deptford. Seemingly the film crew are set up in the car park of the Den (Millwall FC).

Bond fan site MI6 has pictures and more detail. Looks like they are going for the gritty South London railway arch vibe. Filming is continuing so watch out over the weekend.

117 Lewisham Way

2011-12-09T21:24:00.000Z

At Utrophia (120 Deptford Hight Street) this month there's an exhibition/series of events called Deptford Soil 'an exhibition of work by local artists whom have an affiliation with the McMillan Herb Garden, a non profit making organisation who run creative workshops for young people in the Deptford area.The exhibition celebrates differing aspects of Deptford culture and illustrates the personal creative processes born from residing in SE8'.

Tomorrow night (Saturday 10th, 7 pm start) they are showing some films with live music, including:

- Hide and Seek - a 1972 Children's Film Foundation production set in Deptford and starring a young Gary Kemp.
- Deptford's 'Jack in the Green' 2006-2011
-'Gone House Ghost House/117 Elegies' 2005 - a split screen with live sound track from RABBIT.

Free entry.

I saw Rabbit performing live with the '117 Elegies' film at the Old Police Station in New Cross back in March (pictures below are from that performance). The film documents 117 Lewisham Way, a Victorian villa demolished in 2006 and known in its last period as 'The Elephant House' when squatters living there decorated it with an elephant art work salvaged from Goldsmiths.

The film was made by David Aylward and Tom Scott-Kendrick, the musicians in Rabbit. The duo rehearsed at the house, as it was Tom's family home when he was growing up. Essentially the film consists of shots of various details around the house - the staircase, the windows, the door handle, rust, crumbling brick. It's quite poignant, a record of years of labour and living that had created a space soon to be swept away.

The house was built in 1849/50 on what had previously been grazing fields rented out to a farmer (Samuel Shepherd) and owned by Augustus Hamilton. It was originally known as Durham Cottage, and its first occupants had moved in by April 1850. This was a family, Mr Jabez Garrett, his wife and their son and two daughters aged between 1 and 7. There were also two servants, aged 23 and 14. Mr Garrett was a 32 year old warehouseman (wholesaler) in Woolwich and had been involved with the business since his early twenties. By 1861, the Garretts had moved out and Elizabeth Hawkins, proprietor of houses, moved in with her 18 year old son, Henry Young, a lighterman (operating small boats to offload merchandise from large ships onto shore).

Ten years later, in 1871, the house was lived in by a family made up of Mary Jennings, 45 and wife of an unnamed civil engineer, with her widowed sister Frances Harley, 50, one young niece still at school, Mary Ann Spicer, and another niece it would appear, also called Mary Ann but with a different surname and possibly a servant. By 1888, the house was occupied by Andrews William, a tobacco pipe-maker.

Four years later, in 1891, a larger family moved in, with 47 year old Herbert Tiffin, a Solicitor’s clerk, his wife Eliza, daughter Florence (24) and sons Charles (22, also solicitor’s clerk) and Herbert (17, clerk to a grocer). There were also four smaller daughters, aged 10 and up. Ten years later, in 1901, Mr Edward Berryman, 45, printer engraver and stationer, had moved in with his wife Sandra, of the same profession, their 13 year old daughter and their one servant. During this time, the Cottage was renamed Withdean Lodge, probably after a place in nearby Surrey.

In 1907, a Miss Pearce moved in, possibly with William A Brunfield, whose entries appear regularly over the next few years, and possibly with a Frederick Pearce, furniture dealer, who may have been her son as his first entry in the records only appears in 1925. At roundabout this stage, the house was divided into two units, 117 and 117a Lewisham High Road. Up until 1930, 117a was occupied by Agar Francis, FRHS, seed merchant but additional entries also appear for Alfred Alvarez (1910) and, subsequently, Arthur Edward Brown and Robert William Anderson (1921).

In 1930, the entries for 117 disappear and one must assume that the house was left unoccupied for a short while. 117a disappears for good and there is no more suggestion thereafter that the house was divided into two. By 1931, Walter and Minnie Jane Booth moved in with Ada Janes, and two additional entries were recorded in 1938 for Giles Winnifred and, in 1947, with Walter apparently gone (war casualty?), two lodgers, Frederick Sibley and Eleanor Vanner.

For a period in the Second World War, the house was used at the South East London Synagogue when the synagogue in New Cross Road was destroyed by a Nazi bombing raid (see earlier post).

Michael and Rosemary Scott moved in in 1953, and had a succession of student lodgers over the years. Tom tells me that these were often art students from Goldsmiths, as his mother was an artist herself. He thinks artist Bridget Reilly may have stayed there for a while, and the Lewisham-born painter/forger Tom Keating is reputed to have done some of the decorating.

After the family moved out, it fell into further disrepair having a final flurry as the squatted ‘Elephant house’. Most people didn’t realise what they were losing until they saw it being demolished in November 2006 – replaced with a block of flats (see pictures at Brockley Central). But you can at least see it on film on Saturday night.

(thanks to Claude St Arroman for sending the historical research on the house's history of occupation. The two house photos were sourced from Flickr so long ago I can't remember where I found them. If they're yours and you would like a photo credit let me know)

Elephants on the rampage in New Cross

2011-12-08T06:00:00.000Z

There are many hazards today in the New Cross Road, but being attacked by elephants is no longer one of them. Not so in the days when the New Cross Empire music hall stood on the corner of Watsons Street and New Cross Road (more or less opposite Addey & Stanhope School), as these two stories show:

‘Seized by an Elephant’

'Mr Thomas Race, of Speedwell Street, Deptford, who is 62, was walking past the New Cross Empire last night when an elephant which was to appear in a turn there and which was standing in a passage seized him round the waist with his trunk and threw him to the ground. Mr Race was taken to the Miller Hospital, Greenwich, and detained’ (Times, January 10 1934)

‘A Trunk Call'

'A five-year old elephant escaped from the New Cross Empire in south-east London yesterday. It was recaptured by circus hands in New Cross post office. An assistant at the post office said: ‘We had quite a queue of old-age pensioners. There was a loud trumpeting, and through the swing doors appeared an elephant. Our queue disappeared like magic into telephone boxes and on, to and over the counter. We didn’t lose even a stamp’ (Times November 16 1951)

Incidentally there are some fantastic 1930s family photos from Deptford at Lewisham Family Album, as I have mentioned before. There is mention there of circus animals sometimes being kept at Murray's Alley stables off Comet St, Deptford - either for circuses up on Blackheath or for the New Cross Empire. Somebody commenting there recalled 'Circus Elephants were once taken through the grounds of Speedwell and Comet House from the Murrays Alley Stables, I think to the New Cross Empire for the stage circus. One Elephant charged into the New Cross Post Office and a person was tragically injured. I think that was in the late l940's. Most of the children in the flats followed them through the grounds'.

Lewisham Natureman Mural

2011-12-07T06:00:00.001Z

I love this mural which popped up recently at the end of Cressingham road (SE13), by the railway bridge. Intriguingly it says underneath 'To the legend of the Lewisham Natureman'. Anyone know what that refers to? Nice little detail, there's a Lewisham crown logo at the bottom with a daisy growing out of it.

At his Wildcornerz site local artist and psychogeographer Jack Thurgar refers to 'The mysterious city explorer, specimen collector and shaman Solomon Wild... Both online and in real space i look for any trace of him. He is thought to be connected in some way to a strange old legend of 'The Lewisham Natureman', thought to have its roots in South East London's local graffiti scene. The Lewisham Natureman has never been seen and is only represented by a small carving, that can be found [normally hidden] in the wastelands, train sidings and rivers of the borough. This has given way to the belief that this character is not human at all but actually a spirit of the wild; a contemporary Green Man or Hern the Hunter, wandering in the wild, no-mans lands of south london. Some say Solomon is studying / hunting this legend, others say they are the same character'.

I suspect that Solomon Wild and the Lewisham Natureman are alter-egos springing from the artist's mythopoetic imagination (or shamanic journeying if you prefer), rather like Southwark's John Constable/John Crow. But that's all good. There's loads of interesting stuff at that Wildcornerz site, including films of wandering up the River Quaggy and this piece filmed on last June's Summer Solstice in wasteland off Baring Road, SE12:

Led Zeppelin exhibition in Greenwich

2011-12-06T06:00:00.000Z

The Flood Gallery is a newish shop/gallery in Greenwich Market that specialises in music and cinema posters. At the moment they have an exhibition entitled 'IV at 40' to mark the 40th anniversary of the release of Led Zeppelin IV, with a series of specially commissioned posters inspired by tracks on the album.

Must admit I'm not big on Led Zep or heavy rock generally, and I will spare you my pro-feminist critique of the 1970s rock art aesthetic. But this is very well-executed and if you do like Led Zeppelin you'll probably love it.

As an owl enthusiast I was obviously drawn to this image by Chicago-based artist Dan Grzeca inspired by the track Four Sticks (yes, the song does mention an owl).

Updated : by coincidence on the same day I posted this I received notification that Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones is going to be in Greenwich this Thursday 8 December 2011 receiving an Honorary Fellowship from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. Jones went to boarding school at Christ's College in Blackheath, and sang in the choir in the Painted Chapel, Greenwich when he was at a school - where the ceremony takes place on Thursday morning. Choreographer Matthhew Bourne, who attended Laban when it was still based in New Cross, is also receiving an award.

The Fellowship Inn

2011-12-05T06:01:00.000Z

In comments to an earlier post on 1960s mod venues in South London, a few people mentioned the Fellowship Inn in Bellingham (Randlesdown Road, SE6). The pub, which is still open today, has an interesting history.

A pub for the future

The pub was built to serve the London County Council's Bellingham Estate, which was developed in the 1920s. Both the estate and the pub were seen as examples of a new kind of modern urban living, as this report of the pub's official opening in makes clear: ‘In an effort to evolve an ideal public house, a big brewery firm has opened a “fellowship inn” at Bellingham, which is the first of a group of inns intended to serve alcoholic beverages and to cater to the social wants of all classes and particularly of families. The inn’s sign was painted by Sir Arthur Cohe, member of the Royal Academy. Inside the inn there is a large hall where music, dances, concerts and lawful games may be enjoyed. The inn has its own band and its own entertainmennts and the customers sit at small tables in the continental café style, consuming tea, coffee or ale as they prefer. The opening ceremony of the inn was attended by several society people as well as by county council officials who are watching the experiment of those new inns with interest. The cooks and waitresses of the new public house have been instructed at a school instituted by the brewery company whose chair claims that the liquor problem cannot be solved by prohibition, government control or local option, and suggests his way – fellowship – is the right one’ (Spartanburg Herald, 6 July 1924 - how this came to be reported in a US local paper I don't know)

In 1930 the council of the International Federation for Housing and Town Planning (including German, Dutch and Austrian delegates) visited Bellingham Estate and heard tell of its ‘two churches, two schools, and a licensed refreshment house, Fellowship Inn’ (Times 29 September 1930). Still business couldn’t have been that great because in 1933 the pub’s landlord, Mr T. Croker, was declared bankrupt at Greenwich court (Times, 16 September 1933).

During the 1940s and 50s, jazz bands played there including the River City Jazzmen. The South London Jazz Club put on events at the Inn.

Henry Cooper

Boxer Henry Cooper, who died last year, grew up on the Bellingham Estate. In 1963, he lived and trained at the Fellowship Inn in preparation for his famous fight with Cassius Clay (later Muhammed Ali), as reported in the American magazine Sports Illustrated (July 1 1963):

'at the Fellowship Inn in Bellingham, in southeast London, the menfolk munched pork pies and lifted their nightly pints of lukewarm bitter in salute to the doggerel posted over the bar by one of the regulars. It made the point that Humble Henry would soundly thrash Gaseous Cassius "and once again prove that very old adage:/Action speaks louder than strong verbal cabbage!"

At the end of the week Macmillan and Clay were still in command of things and the "Ode to our 'Enery" had been quietly unpinned at the pub. It was about all the men of Bellingham could do for their friend after his brave and ghastly fight. Just as Clay had promised, Cooper went in five. For weeks he had lived at the Fellowship, taking his meals there, training in the back room when a wedding reception or tea party did not interfere. He was among friends and did not seem to mind that Clay was all over London calling him a cripple and a bum ("He's building up the gate, and I'm on a percentage just like he is")'.

Henry Cooper training in Bellingham in 1963 from Daily Mirror -
pretty sure this was taken in the pub

The hall at the pub seems to have been hired out for churches as well as dances. Mary Bastable has recalled a childhood in the Jehovah’s Witnesses in her story Sister Jessie: ‘On Thursday nights and Sunday afternoons we met at the Kingdom Hall. We rented the dance hall behind the Fellowshop Inn pub at Bellingham. It was Henry Cooper’s pub; boxer, mate of the Krays. He lived there, and would lean out of the upstairs window and wave to us after the meeting on Sunday… The Fellowship Inn’s piano wasn’t up to much’ (published in Second Degree Tampering: writing by women, 1992).

Music and Mayhem

The large hall at Fellowship Inn was used for gigs. Fleetwood Mac played there on 25 September and 23 October 1968, part of a mammoth tour that also took in the Zodiac Club in Beckenham, The Star Hotel in Croydon, The Shakespeare Hotel in Woolwich and the legendary Fillmore West in San Francisco!

Bob Farrow, who used to work there in the 1960s, has been in touch with some great memories of the place: 'I used to work there helping out the guy who ran the Disco there. He was John Hoppy.- he also ran the Surrey Rooms by the Oval, The Falcon in Falconwood too. This was an evening job for me as I was at school still. This job (for me) was the bees knees. Good money (30 bob a night), free beer, tons of girls and great music - primarily Motown. I had to open up in the evening and my first job was to get the UV Flourescent lights working. When they were first turned on they would just flicker. The trick was to wipe them with a wet mop whilst turned on - life on the edge eh?'.

Bob also used to give out tickets outside local train stations. Here's one from August 1968. 'Non stop dancing in the intimate Night Club atmosphere. Every Wednesday. Disc Show with 2 DJs'

Bob recalls 'Wenesday was gig night. Fleetwood Mac (Pete Green era - the best) were there a couple of times. The Blues Breakers, Yardbirds and many other great bands. After '68 Wednesday became disco night along with Friday and Saturday. This was Motown, Ska and Reggae - the typical kind of mix those days.

For a short time the club opened on Sundays for a non-disco disco. The regular DJ whose name I have forgotten had a night off and a progressive DJ came along but it flopped and was stopped after about four Sundays. Shame for although I love all music in particular Motown etc I had long hair (what I thought was) whilst the club was 90% skin heads and as I recall suedeheads'.

Another commenter at the earlier post recalled that they 'Used to play Ska music and we wore tonic suits. Lights were ultra violet so any white clothing would glow in the dark'.

This was a time when the mod look was developing into a distincut skinhead style with very short hair (but not to be confused with the 1980s post-punk bonehead revival look). Bob remembers the clothes, and the fights they sometimes caused in the cloakroom:

'The period I worked there was what I think of as the skinhead era. Most guys would be in tonic suits, Ben Sherman shirts, slipovers, def no flares!!!! Crombies for the poor and expensive sheepskins for the well to do skinhead. Though to be honest we had the odd donkey jacket in the cloakrooms on a cold night. Girls all in tight short skirts, Ben Shermans too!!!!! Horrible denim jackets plus the occasional sheepskin (often matching their boyfriends)'.

These were times of much 'aggro' as it was referred to and trouble was rife every night pretty much. There were a minimum of five bouncers every night. The boss John, despite being a small guy, was not the kind of guy you argued with. Though he was great to me I must say - others who upset him lived to regret it. I heard a story from my previous incumbent that some chap had been seriously injured on his involuntary way down the extremely long flight of stairs leading up to the club. The bouncers were a lovely bunch of ex-boxers who I spent many an hour chatting to. One exception was little (he wasn't) George who was a county Karate something or another and drove a mint American Hotrod. Another George was was indeed a regular sparring partner of Henry Cooper.

There were always lots and lots of fights. Particularly at closing time when everybody was trying to get their coats from the cloakrooms. This is when, without fail every night, somebody would lose their ticket and point to a nice sheepskin hanging up. 'That's mine mate'....... 'Sorry no ticket no coat - see George the bouncer'. Who settled disputes.

"give me my f****g coat c**t ' I actually had a mega memory in those days and made a point of remembering sheepskin owners - in particular the regulars who I got to know and would hand over their sheepskins to me like they were the crown jewels. There were more fights in the cloakrooms than at any other time and summers were a blessing. Many a time well before closing somebody would come in and ask me to throw their coat out of the window to them - we were on the first floor. He could then leave discretely without some 'bas***d' seeing him who had promised to sort him after! This was a regular happening.

Also, after somebody had been ejected by one of the bouncers they would manfully shout out 'I'm coming back with a mob!!!!' All regular everyday utterings. Though one night it happened - it had to eventually. Shortly after closing as I was helping clear up there was a noise downstairs of the doors being forced open and what sounded like a herd of angry Gorillas shouting and rushing up the stairs. Fortunately there were a lot of stairs and (as a civilian and coward) I dived through the nearest door - the Ladies - and locked myself manfully in a ladies cubicle. I emerged some time later and holding my head high emerged to a scene of carnage. Bodies and broken furniture everywhere, John the boss had a bloodied face but was clutching his briefcase to his chest and smiling 'great fun, great fun he was saying'. Yea rather you than me.

I think the disco was shut down in '72 - drugs being the main reason. The Landlady of the Pub itself apparently had some role to play in closing the disco and one of my lasting memories is of John the boss pouring a pint of beer over her head. Not easy - he was 5ft nothing and she was about six feet tall'.

1974 photo of the Fellowship Inn (from Ideal Homes

Thanks for the memories Bob. Always interested in any memories people want to share, especially about South London nights out, clubs, discos, music etc. Email transpontine@btinternet.com

If you liked this you might also be interested in:

- Mods in South London.
- 1960s ska and soul clubs in South London.
- 1960s jazz and r'n'b in Blackheath (Green Man).
- The Mistrale club in Beckenham (1960s and early 70s)

Christmas on Telegraph Hill

2011-12-04T08:52:00.001Z

Various seasonal events coming up at and around the Telegraph Hill Centre (next to Saint Catherine's Church at junction of Pepys and Kitto Road, SE14).

On 15 December there is a Ukulele Carol Jam, a chance to strum/singalong to Christmas Carols. Beginners welcome as there will be instruction in simple chords, and even some spare ukes for those that need them. Families and Children 3.30- 5pm, Adults 7.30pm. More info from revsheridanjames@gmail.com

Guess it will be this kind of thing (though this is from Australia):

On 22nd December there willl be a Winter Solstice 'Night of the Beast Parade': ''Everyone is invited to dress as an animal, wear a beasty headdress or mask, or hold an animalistic sculpture, bring a cuddly toy or walk your pet dogs or polecats, and bring your lanterns and your musical instruments. Meet at the Telegraph pub at 5pm, a cheer at 5.30 pm at the moment of the turning of the year, then set off for an illuminated musical parade around the streets, ending at the Hill Station for wassailing, eating and drinking...To make sure lots of amazing animals will show up, artists are invited to gather and show people how to create masks, headdresses, furry costumes, beasty lanterns, or other wondrous creations. Feel free to drop in to this workshop. This will be 11.30-4.00 on 17th December in the Art Room (behind the Narthex) in the Telegraph Hill community centre'. For more information, contact bridgetmcknz@gmail.com

In the New Year, on 6th, 7th and 8th January there will be Jack and the Beanstalk Panto in the Centre: 'Thrill to the gripping story of a community fighting back against cuts to the community centre’s budget. Kindly Dame Trott and her trusty Jack are aided by pretty Penny, Dozy Den, Dame Dollie and Daisy the faithful cow in a brave fight against Giant Pickles' axing of the community budget'. Details including tickets at Bold Vision.

Millwall Executive Suite (plus George Formby Sr in New Cross)

2011-12-02T06:00:00.000Z

I was in Millwall FC Executive Suite recently - they hire it out in the week for conferences and meetings. Yes they do have a lion carpet, and lion tinted windows.

There are lots of great old historical photos of past players on the walls, and at the moment an exhibition put up last year to mark the 125th anniversary of the club. Sadly, I only had my not very good phone camera with me last time I went so the picture I took of a 1910 programme didn't come out. So you will have to take my word for it that it included an advert for the New Cross Empire, the local music hall, with appearances coming up by George Formby.

George Formby Sr. at the New Cross Empire

At the George Formby Story website, there is a New Cross Empire programme for October 1910 advertising 'George Formby, the popular comedian, in all his successes, including his latest'. I got a bit confused here, and assumed this was the uke-toting star of the 1930s, but a commenter to the original post has helpfully pointed out that it was actually his father George Formby senior, who was also a big music hall comedian and singer.

Also on the bill was 'Male Impersonator' Rhoda Paul, and 'Lady Mimic' Ray Wallace - cross dressing was clearly all the rage - as well as 'Continental Gymnast' Azella Wilson and comedian Fred Kitchen.

So did the now more famous George Formby jr ever play in New Cross in his music hall career? More research needed.

(Fats Waller also played at the New Cross Empire in 1938)

The Big Strike in South London

2011-11-30T19:50:00.001Z

Busy day not working due to the huge November 30th strike by public sector workers. The main issue was pensions, but there is a wider sense of grievance against having to work longer, be paid less, and then end up with a poorer pension - that is if you make it that far in a climate of permanent job insecurity.

There were walkouts at schools, colleges, hospitals, Government departments, councils and many other workplaces across South London, and of course across the country.

At Goldsmiths College in New Cross there was a big 100+ picket, with lectures cancelled. South London Solidarity Federation had been marching with a 'mobile picket' of 30-odd people between picket lines across Lewisham offering biscuits and solidarity, and their arrival at Goldsmiths was the spark for people to block the road (Lewisham Way) for 15 minutes or so before being cleared by police. Incidentally the 'Capitalism is Crisis, Goldsmiths is a symptom' banner was hung up from the roof of Richard Hoggart building overnight before being removed by security.

At Elephant and Castle there were pickets out in force at the London College of Communications...

...where this banner was on display:

At London South Bank University on London Road there was a Strike HQ and Strikers Canteen supported by Southwark Trades Council, with free tea and cake to keep people going.

There were some great Simpsons-placards on display there:

Staff and students from South Bank University were joined by striking Southwark Council workers.

London South Bank Students Union had made their own N30 All Out t-shirts especially for the occasion:

After an Assembly meeting of strikers and supporters, about 200 people set off on an impromptu march up Waterloo Road and over Waterloo Bridge to join the main, and very large, London-wide demonstration from Lincolns Inn Fields. On Waterloo Road we passed the pickets outside London Ambulance Service and there was some mutal cheering.

Later, activists staged a protest at the headquarters of mining giant Xstrata in Panton Street (near Leicester Square), whose CEO is believed to be the highest paid in the country. According to Xstrata's annual report CEO Mick Davis, received a pay and free share package worth £17.7m in the last financial year. We're all in it together? Yeah right.

Updated 1 December:

My day out on strike has some nice photos and reflections, including of various Lewisham pickets, including the one above from Lewisham Hospital: 'physios standing up for pensions'.

Bob from Brockley's thoughts: 'We urgently need to re-assemble the value of solidarity, to re-boot our politics, and to start crafting an alternative. Still, we can be proud of what we did on November 30' (pretty much what I think).

Some pictures from Occupy Goldsmiths.

East London Lines: reportage and photos.

Martin Powell-Davies reports on teachers striking locally, including this fine banner from Sydenham School:

Workers Liberty Reports: 'Went to Unison's rally at Lewisham hospital. About 150 people present - all blowing whistles, so it was hard to hear the speakers. Some of the people on the rally were going back to work afterwards. Most Unison members in the hospital were not out for the whole day. Branch sec blamed this partly on large numbers of members regarding themselves as essential for patient care, though they don't seem well organised enough to have had a proper exemptions system. I had been told this was a joint rally with Lewisham local government branch, but no sign of them there. However, there were quite a few physios members of CSP there who said almost all physios were out 5 working to provide an emergency service. They said likewise almost all OTs were out. There was a student nurse who was organising people to go up to St Thomas' and join a health worker's feeder march there. She also said she'd heard 75% of London Ambulance staff were on strike. There were a few RCN reps who had come on their day off, they said they were planning to ballot if there's been no progress on pensions by December. Despite what seemed to me largely ineffective action, the people at the rally were all very enthusiastic & public support was high, with horns going from passing traffic almost continuously. Overall, I don't think the staff there expect this dispute to be won by today's action, but I think many of them would be willing to go out again. Many of these people have never been ballotted before, if anything I think today's action has increased their confidence'.

Dissident Chickpea at Indymedia (with sound recordings) reports on pickets at Lewisham hospital, Lewisham Job Centre and 'Lewisham Town Hall... I was pretty pleased to see a happy-looking, vibrant crowd of picketers wearing at least three different union bibs (a nice bit of cross-union solidarity and organising going on - GMB, NUT, Unison, Unite...) and a good percentage of women in the crowd of about 30 people. Cars, buses and lorries passing by honked and waved in support every half a minute on average and many pedestrians took the literature that was being handed out... Jane, a social worker and family therapist, candidly discussed how the pension cuts would effect her: "I'm here today primarily over pensions...I've done the calculation as to what these changes would mean for me, it means over the next three years I will be paying 100 pounds a month more for 100 pounds a month less in pension so it's really significant...I think women are really effected by this because they work part-time to look after children, they take maternity leave...The average pension for women is about 4,000 pounds a year.'

London Subterranea

2011-11-30T06:00:00.000Z

London's Lost Rivers: A Walker's Guide

An interesting talk coming up next week at South East London Folklore Society on London's Lost Rivers, featuring the author of a new book on the subject:

'When people think of London's river, they think of the Thames. But the city was built around many other rivers too - and traces of these still remain for those who know where to look. A secret network of underground rivers snakes beneath the capital. The rivers predate the city and its people. The rivers may be buried, but they still flow underground. In some places they can be seen and heard. By rediscovering them, and tracing their courses, the way we see London is transformed. Using the visual and aural clues left in the streetscape, we can burrow down through layers of London history to river level, revealing the city as it once was. Tom Bolton is a researcher and writer, the author of London’s Lost Rivers: A Walker’s Guide: a series of ten walks tracing these hidden routes across London published by Strange Attractor'.

It takes place on Thursday December 8th, 8 pm start at The Old Kings Head, Borough High Street, SE1 (facebook event details here). Price £2.50/£1.50 concessions

All Cities have Magic

On a related theme of the matter of London and its subterranean secrets, South London 'writer, record collector, DJ and Voodoo witchdoctor' Stephen Grasso has his text Smoke and Mirrors serialised at Bang the Bore:

'All cities have magic. You just have to find it. For some, London is a mechanistic urban grind. A compassionless engine powered by seven million dreary and disillusioned lives that trudge back and forth across the city in their tremendous rush hour waves. Spilling out of holes in the ground each morning to labour at deskbound servitude or whatever menial task has been allotted, moving paper around for unknown masters, tinkering with abstract systems, selling anonymous product, keeping the machine well greased and oiled. Whatever you can do to keep the slow trickle of funds coming in. Whatever you can do to stay afloat...

The tunnels of the underground trace a boorish path through boneyards, plague pits and thwarted resting places for the dead. The air is thick with spirits down here. London is built on two thousand years of corpses, the sedimentary remains of the dead piled atop one another like a ghoulish layer cake of fossilised lives and forgotten cities that once were. On the tube, you are never far away from a skull or a rib or a thighbone. Spirits abound on the London Underground. Dead Roman centurions trying to puzzle out the implications of the East London line extension. Regency swells unwittingly trapped forever on the circle line, unable to breach its magical barrier. Victims of blitz, and fire and homemade bomb howl through the endless tunnels, snared in their death rattle, nothing left of them but a scream in the dark. Lonely suicides pack the platforms of their demise, hoping for a fleeting glimpse of the loved ones they left behind. A thick soup of spirits caught in the gap and pleading for blessed release. But to the Londoner, these old ghosts are just another nuisance trying to take up more of your valuable time. Sorry mate, got somewhere else I need to be. Keep on walking. It’s somebody else’s problem, but somebody else never comes'.

The text comes with a nice dubby mix for you to download to accompany a drift around the city.

The Lost Figures of Lewisham

2011-11-29T06:00:00.000Z

On Robert Elms' BBC London radio show last week there was some discussion of the 'lost figures of Lewisham'. Back in the 1980s there was a clock in Lewisham shopping centre featuring these figures, which apparently were revealed on the hour.

The figures represented 'Characters of South East London' and were designed by the artist Sam Smith (1909-1983). Not sure exactly when the clock was removed, but on the radio show a couple of people came forward and revealed that they had independently salvaged a couple of the figures - if more can be found maybe there can be a reunion in the shopping centre!

Robert Elms' show is one of those threatened by cuts to BBC local radio. I can't imagine any other radio show running an item like the above, but the point is not just about keeping Robert's show going. The issue is whether BBC London is going to have any meaningful London content at all. Cheap generic shows are no substitute for programmes knowledgeably informed by what is happening in London, its history and its present - and reflecting the fact that London is not just Westminster and the City but places like Lewisham and New Cross.

There is a Save BBC Local Radio day of action on December 1st, including a 6 pm protest at Broadcasting House.

(photos courtesy of Robert Elms' facebook page, posted by listeners)

Kit & Cutter Winter Warmer

2011-11-27T19:48:00.001Z

Kit & Cutter are doing another of their lovely folk nights at The Old Nuns Head (Nunhead Green, SE15)on Saturday 3rd December 2011. The Kit & Cutter Winter Warmer has the cutest possible flyer too.

'So we were thinking… what would we all really enjoy to ease us into December? It’s a bit murkish and foggy outside so what further delights could our musical adventures together offer up? After some mulling the answer floated into our minds all of a sudden: psyche tinged trad folk and a steel pan band! A steel pan band? – Yes! It was obvious!! And maybe the Sacred Harp choir could come back and do some Christmas songs? And so we have a very special show lined up with some extra seasonal trimmings…

Rapunzel & Sedayne: From Lancashire (where women die of love, as Balzac would have it) charming husband and wife team, Rapunzel & Sedayne play traditional arrangements alongside their own compositions with a gentle eccentricity, spontaneity and lovely floating fluting vocals. They specialise in a variety of ancient and traditional instruments including kemence, violin, crwth, flute, kaossilator, 5-string banjo, lap-top harmonium, frame-drum and drones. We don’t even know what some of those are....

John Thomas Steel Pan Duo: In the winter what better to lift our spirits than the sultry tones of Trinidad and Tobago? John has been performing all over the world since 1976. He has performed on the same bill with folk greats Diana Ross, Liza Minelli and has performed live on stage with Blondie. As well as being an illustrious performer of the steel pan, he is also a sought after teacher with a great deal of knowledge about the history and development of the instrument.

Let's get December rolling with Carols, free Xmas buffet, Extra Special Festive Tombola, some rousing Sacred Harp, and as yet undreamed of wintery delights to surprise you with… And in case it was all getting a bit too cheery for you, your hosts will serenade you with THE WORLDS MOST DEPRESSING CHRISTMAS SONG'.

Doors 7.30pm, £7 entry. Wonder what the 'most depressing Christmas song' will be? My bet is 'Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis' by Tom Waits - surely hard to beat on the miserable scale.

Opposing privatisation and cuts at Rivoli & Goldsmtihs

2011-11-27T07:00:00.000Z

A couple more moments in the unfolding movement against cuts and privatisation:

Lewisham SOS NHS

Lewisham SOS NHS, which is campaigning against privatisation of the health service, is holding a benefit gig tonight (Sunday 27 November) at the Rivoli Ballroom in Brockley Road. They say: 'We have a really great bill of locally sourced comedy and music - local bands The Grey Cats, Delta Detour and the T Men will be compered by Dulwich's very own Stephen Frost, ably abetted by the comedy of Charmian Hughes, Luke Sorba and Niall Ashdown with added musical humour from Pippa Evans ( check out her forthcoming Radio 4 series )'.

Pippa Evans' characters include country singer 'Loretta Maine', check out some of her songs here.

Tickets are £15 and have to be bought in advance here.

Goldsmiths Occupation

I popped down to the Goldsmiths occupation yesterday, and gave a talk on New Cross radical history.

This is the third occupation there in the last year. In March there was a short occupation of the old Deptford Town Hall buiding in the lead up to the big anti-cuts demonstration, and the library was occupied last December. This time around they have occupied the Whitehead building.

They say: 'We are an open heterogeneous group including Goldsmiths staff, students and many others who believe the university is a public resource that should be open to all. We stand with all those affected by the privatisation agenda and against those who profit from its misery. Goldsmiths is now occupied in solidarity with the UK-wide strike on November 30th and the global occupy movement. We are here because we reject the privatisation of the university, symptomatic of the neo-liberal agenda that permeates all aspects of life. For this reason we have strategically occupied the building housing Goldsmiths’ finance offices, responsible for executing the cuts and the privatisation agenda.. All groups on and off-campus are encouraged to use this space to host meetings, events, and planning sessions for actions on November 30th. Where the current government agenda not only encourages, but enforces the transfer of public resources to private hands we join people worldwide in taking them back!'

The Lord Wolseley

2011-11-26T19:03:00.001Z

The great Dead Pubs site has this picture of the Lord Wolseley pub (76 Upper Brockley Road), showing a charabanc outing gathered by the pub in around 1920. The pub, which stood opposite the Wickham Arms, closed in the 1990s and was converted to flats - pictured below:

Tom Pearce - Drawings of Things

2011-11-25T06:00:00.000Z

Tom Pearce studied at Camberwell College of Arts and has done lots of drawings 'inspired by the area of London from Vauxhall to Waterloo and around Camberwell, Herne Hill and Peckham'. You can see some of them at his webiste, Drawings of Things. Here's one from the area around Camberwell Grove entitled View to Sky.

Strike video shot in New Cross

2011-11-24T06:00:00.001Z

Less than a week to go until the biggest strike in the UK for many years, with public sector workers walking out on November 30th to defend their pensions. The basic arguments are set out at the Pensions Justice site: 'Public sector pensions are under attack. The government wants to make people pay more and work longer for a lot less... Few understand all the detail of pensions, but the issue is simple. Most public sector workers are modestly paid. Their pay has been frozen while the price of basics is shooting up. Now they are expected to pay an extra £3 billion a year for much worse pensions, by a government that cancelled the banker’s bonus tax that raised almost the same. It’s wrong to make public sector workers pay an unfair contribution to reducing a deficit they did nothing to cause'.

'Let's Work Together' by The Workers is a track put out in support of the campaign by a group of public service workers. One of the singers is Viv Gosden, a student midwife at Guys and St Thomas’s Hospital in South London who says: 'As health care professionals we spend our time caring and being advocates for others. As I am at the very beginning of my career in the NHS, I realise that we also need to be advocates for ourselves. I hope that people will understand our point of view and support us in what we believe to be the right choice'.

The video for the single was partly shot in the New Cross Gate area, the first half of it featuring street scenes from Camplin Street and Kender Street among others (I think the later scenes are somewhere in north London, round Highbury and Islington).

Locally there will be picket lines on the 30th at Goldsmiths College in New Cross from 8 am, and no doubt elsewhere.

(apparently Goldsmiths students last night occupied the Whitehead building in New Cross, where the finance offices are based. This is one of a wave of occupations in colleges around the country in the build up to the strike. Further report to follow).

John Betjeman and Lewisham Town Hall

2011-11-23T06:00:00.000Z

The current Lewisham Town Hall in Catford (above) was built in the late 1960s to replace an older building on the same site. The older Lewisham Town Hall, designed in a Gothic Revival style by the architect George Elkington, was built in 1875 and was a grand affair:
The Town Hall was joined in 1887 by Saint Laurence's Church (to the left of the Town Hall in the following picture).

It actually ceased to be the Town Hall in 1932, when a new Town Hall building was officially opened by the Duke of York (Times, 23 June 1932). That building, which still stands as the Broadway Theatre, was designed to complement the old Town Hall, hence some of its gothic details.

The old Town Hall and the Church were both demolished in 1968, the former despite a campaign to save it that involved, among others, the poet John Betjeman:

'At the age of 13, William Norton, the son of a police sergeant and a Post Office worker, wrote to John Betjeman warning him of the impending destruction of Lewisham’s Victorian Gothic town hall. In no time Betjeman put William on to the recently founded Victorian Society, urged him to organise a petition, wrote him several long letters alerting him to other fine churches in Lewisham and Catford and then turned up at the town hall to be photographed with the boy. Despite all this, Lewisham town hall was demolished. It was still 1961, after all. England still slept. Betjeman at the same time was vainly battling to save the Euston Arch and the great glass rotunda of the Coal Exchange. Who else would have turned aside from those gruelling national campaigns to help an obscure schoolboy in one of London’s dimmest quarters to try and save a grimy town hall by George Elkington (no, I hadn’t heard of him either — his town hall in Bermondsey has been demolished too)? [Ferdinant Mount, Review of Betjeman: The Bonus of Laughter by Bevis Hillier, Spectator, 13 Novemeber 2004).

Betjeman spoke of the campaign in a television interview, and is pictured below with William Norton outside the Town Hall:

Wonder what William Norton did when he grew up? If you're out there Willliam, it would be interesting to hear your memories of that time.

Two First World War Stories

While researching this post, I came across two local stories from the First World War, both rather sad and involving women workers in or around Lewisham Town Hall:

'Woman Omnibus Conductor Killed: Louisa Rushen, aged 22, a woman omnibus conductor, employed on one of the South London services, in walking round the front of her omnibus on Sunday night near the Lewisham Town Hall, was knocked down by a passing motor-car. Miss Rushen, whose home was at Fort Cottages, Westerham, Kent, died in the Miller Hospital’ (Times, 25 January 1916)

'German’s Daughter Sentenced: At Greenwich Police Court yesterday Emma Ada Clements, 23, clerk, was sentenced to six weeks’ imprisonment without hard labour for stealing a small sum of money from a cloak-room at Lewisham Town Hall, where she was employed as a temporary clerk. It was stated that her real names was Klemm, and that she was the daughter of an unnaturalized German, and that she had twice, when applying for work in Government departments, stated that her parents were British-born' (Times 29 November 1917).

Deptford Red Rector on Channel 4

2011-11-22T06:00:00.001Z

Deptford's own Red Rector, Father Paul Butler, was on Channel 4's 4ThoughtTV on Sunday giving a short opinion piece on the Church, capitalism and the Occupy protests:

‘For me Christianity and a radical view of society are integral. I would describe myself as a communist. I am Father Paul Butler, the Rector of St Pauls Church, Deptford, and the co-convenor of the Society of Sacramental Socialists. I believe, along with Jesus, that you cannot serve God and capital…

What the Occupy movement has done is that it has focused all our attention on the fundamental questions about how we now live and how we might live differently’

You can watch the whole thing here.

In his previous job as vicar of St Dunstans Church in Bellingham, Father Paul apparently played a role in getting the short road to the vicarage named Gramsci Way - a little patch of SE6 soil in memory of the Italian communist who died in 1937 after a long spell in Mussolini's prisons.

New Cross State of Mind

2011-11-21T06:00:00.001Z

New Cross is better than New York is an entertaining new blog by the people who make those 'I Love New Cross' bags they sell in the London Particular cafe. As they rightly point out:

- They've got Macy's, we've got TK Maxx;
- They've got Studio54, we've got The Venue;
- They've got Carnegie Hall, we've got Lewisham Arthouse;
- They've got Brooklyn, we've got Brockley.

Glad I'm not the only one who enjoys subsitituting New Cross for New York in songs, or indeed as they say 'substituting the word “Brockley” for “Brooklyn” in Beastie Boys songs. “No Sleep Til Brockley” is particularly good on the night-bus home'. 'Brockley we go hard' by Jaz-Z also does it for me.

My current favourite is New Cross State of Mind by Alicia Keys:

Grew up in a town that is famous as the place of movie scenes
Noise was always loud, there are sirens all around and the streets are mean
If I can make it here, I can make it anywhere, that's what they say
Seeing my face in lights or my name on a flyer in Deptford Broadway

Even if it ain’t all it seems, I got a pocketful of dreams
Baby, I'm from New Cross
Concrete jungle where dreams are made of
There's nothing you can't do
Now you're in New Cross
These streets will make you feel brand new
Big lights will inspire you
Hear it for New Cross, New Cross, New Cross!

On the old A2, there ain't never a curfew, ladies work so hard
Such a melting pot, on the corner selling rock, preachers pray to God
Hail a dodgy cab, takes me down from Brockley to Deptford Bridge
Some will sleep tonight with a hunger far more than an empty fridge

One hand in the air for the big city,
Street lights, big dreams all looking pretty
No place in the world that can compare
Put your lighters in the air, everybody say yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Rye Books Opens Tomorrow

2011-11-18T06:00:00.001Z

Contrary to the doomsayers predicting the death of the bookshop, there's actually a new one opening in South East London this Saturday. Rye Books is in East Dulwich at 45 Upland Road, SE22 9EF - up towards Peckham Rye if you head up North Cross Road and keep going. To celebrate the opening there will be music from around 2:30 pm with Dulwich Ukelele Group and Flame Proof Moth.

I believe that the people behind it run (or more probably ran) the very good bookstall on North Cross Road market, from where I have sourced many esoteric treasures.

Back to '92 (or is it '91)

2011-11-17T06:00:00.001Z

Back to '92, as all the old skool ravers say. And thanks to a rupture in the space-time continuum people passing under the railway bridge at Brockley Cross could do just that this week, where the removal of a hoarding under the railway bridge on Brockley Road has unveiled a gallery of fading posters from twenty years ago.

Our finest Transpontine subcultural archaeologists have dated these artefacts from very late 1991 and/or very early 1992, with the most likely date being November or December 1991.

Malcolm McLaren's The Ghosts of Oxford Street, the soundtrack to his film of the same name,
was released on 2 December 1991

The Pogues with Kirsty McColl, Fairytale of New York, was a hit in 1987,
but was re-released for Christmas 1991

Steamin! Hardcore '92, a compilation of dance hits, was released in late 1991

Poster for Christmas and New Year Funfair on Blackheath, opening on Boxing Day 1991
with 'free mammoth firework displays' on 4 January 1992

Just to get you in the mood, here's one of the tracks from Steamin' Hardcore '92 - DJs take Control by SL2.

Cuts and Crisis Meetings

2011-11-16T06:00:00.001Z

With momentum building up to the public sector strike on November 30th, there's are couple of big events coming up locally:

Goldsmiths Assembly of Resistance

'Goldsmiths Assembly of Resistance: We are the 99%' will take place on Thursday November 17th, 6:30pm - 9:30pm in the Ian Gulland Lecture Theatre (Whitehead Building) at Goldsmiths College in New Cross.

The meeting has been called by staff and student unions (Goldsmiths UCU, Goldsmiths SU, Goldsmiths GMB) as well as Coalition of Resistance and Education Activist Network. It will feature a 'mixture of speakers and assemblies and working groups to build for the 30th November and continue the fight against austerity, in universities and also across the public sector'.

Speakers include:

- Ken Loach, filmmaker;
- Owen Jones, author of "Chavs - the demonisation of the working class";
- Seamus Milne, Guardian journalist.

(Facebook event details here)

No Cuts Cabaret

The No Cuts Cabaret takes place on Thursday 24 November (7 - 9 pm) at the Rivoli Ballroom, 350 Brockley Road, Crofton Park. Hosted by the unions Unite and Unison, the event will feature music, comedy and speakers including Labour London mayoral candidate, Ken Livingstone (who was incidentally spotted drinking in the Royal Albert in New Cross on Monday after a meeting in Deptford).

The main focus of the event is on cuts to frontline child mental health services in Lewisham. According to Unite:

'Already this financial year, there has been nearly £500,000 of cuts – with more expected in the next two years. Other cuts to children and young people's services in Lewisham have included the ending of the Connexions service which provides advice on employment issues for 16-to-19 year olds.

Unite regional officer, Richard Munn said: ‘A Save the Children study revealed that one in five of children in Lewisham live in poverty which itself brings adverse impacts on child mental health. Early intervention in childhood helps prevent longstanding problems in adulthood. The evening we are staging is aimed at bringing the whole community together to highlight these pernicious cuts and give a morale boost for the campaigners in the fight to save even more services under threat.’

Cuts by South London and Maudsley NHS Trust and Lewisham Borough Council have already totalled almost £500,000 this financial year (20011/2012) for Lewisham Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), which is based at Kaleidoscope, Lewisham Park and Mercia Grove. The axe followed budget reductions from Lewisham Borough Council and NHS Lewisham (formerly Lewisham Primary Care Trust). More cuts, as yet unspecified, are planned in the next two years.

Services affected have included the schools’ service, CAMHS social workers, forensic services, refugee and asylum seekers, and looked after children. A number of longstanding and very experienced staff have been forced to leave the service. This was a reduction of almost 25 per cent of the entire service and will lead to fewer frontline workers and longer waiting lists for children and young people. This was an essential service which was commended in various government inspections'.

Amnesty Booksale this Saturday

2011-11-15T19:01:00.001Z

Sometimes at Transpontine I get asked to publicise things and I think to myself - 'yes but do I really want everybody else to know about this?'

This crossed my mind this week when I got an email about the annual Amnesty International Book Sale in Blackheath, near the top of Blackheath Hill if you're walking up from Deptford or Lewisham Hill if you're walking up from Lewisham. I have been before and it is quite simply the best book sale I have ever been to. Imagine a whole church packed with books in every pew. Not just a load of Jeffrey Archer paperbacks either, but all kinds of surprizes old and new, including obscurities academic and otherwise. It is always very busy, and now I've told you too there will doubtless be a few more people to squeeze past. But hey, here's the details:

'Quality books at knock-down prices: Amnesty International Book Sale

10am-4pm Saturday 19th November, Church of the Ascension, Dartmouth Row, London SE10 8BF

The Blackheath and Greenwich Group of Amnesty International is holding its annual fund-raising book sale on Saturday 19th November at the Church of the Ascension, Dartmouth Row, London SE10 (10 minutes walk up Lewisham Hill from Lewisham BR, DLR & Bus Station). Doors open at 10am.

The local group has collected thousands of books from a variety of sources, including publishers and book reviewers as well as individual donors. The quality of books – many of which are brand new – is exceptionally high, and there will be plenty of bargains to be found, from second-hand paperbacks to review copies of recently-published novels.

The book sale – now in its 37th year – is established as Amnesty International’s most successful local fundraising event in the UK, raising over £200,000 over the years.

Amnesty International works worldwide for the release of prisoners of conscience, fair trials for political prisoners and an end to torture, extrajudicial executions, disappearances and the death penalty. The Blackheath and Greenwich group has done a lot of campaigning work on Human Rights in China and stopping violence against women and meets at 8pm on the second Tuesday of each month at St. Margaret’s Church, Lee Terrace, Blackheath.

For more information regarding this, contact Tom 07823 322871, tom.devine@btinternet.com'

Thames Tunnel in Deptford

2011-11-15T06:00:00.002Z

There's a public meeting tonight (7:30 pm, Tuesday 15 November) of the campaign against the use of a green space on Deptford Church Street as a worksite for the construction of the Thames Tunnel 'Super Sewer' system. The meeting, with Thames Tunnel representatives present, takes place in the Salvation Army Hall on Mary Ann Gardens, Deptford. There are also Thames Water consultation events later in the week at the Creekside Centre on Creekside (Thursday 17 November from 2pm to 8pm; Friday 18 November from 2.30pm to 8.30pm; Saturday 19 November from 10am to 4pm).

The aim of the Thames Tunnel project is to put in place a major new sewer to tackle the problem of overflows from the capital’s Victorian sewers into the River Thames. According to Thames Tunnel, 'The site would be used to connect the existing local CSO [Combined Sewer Overflow], known as the Deptford Storm Relief CSO, to the main tunnel via a long connection tunnel, known as the Greenwich connection tunnel' (full details of Thames Tunnel plans here).

If the proposed works go ahead the land will be a construction site for at least three and a half years, and afterwards there will permanently be sewer vents and a work “kiosk” for Thames Water on site. Don't Dump on Deptford's Heart say: 'This public green in Deptford’s town centre lies between Deptford Church Street, Coffey Street and Crossfield Street. It is one of the few leafy open spaces in Deptford’s urban environment. A lot of money and time is being spent on making the centre of town a better place to live and work but undertaking construction works by building a shaft 45 meters deep and 17 meters in diameter to the sewers on our park and leaving us with sewer vents and a Thames Water work “kiosk” would only detract from these improvements'.

As a project, the Thames Tunnel sounds like A Very Good Thing and clearly the construction sites have to go somewhere. But Bill Ellson makes some interesting points at Deptford Misc about 'Environmental Justice', the argument that polluting industries tend to get disproportionately located in poorer areas: 'Here in Deptford the previously preferred bore site near Borthwick Wharf, where spoil could have left by river, has been replaced by a site in Deptford Church Street, where spoil will leave by road. According to Londonist a bore site at Barn Elms, Barnes has been replaced as the preferred option by a site at Carnwath Road, Wandsworth. The picture is not entirely clear, but it is hard not to suspect that what has actually happened is that sites near middle class riverside developments have been replaced by sites in poorer areas'.

I had similar thoughts over the summer when I walked over Bridge House Meadows in New Cross (once the site of the New Cross Stadium). This green space has been turned into a massive spoil heap for the London Overground extension between Surrey Quays and Clapham Junction (pictured below). Again a socially useful engineering project, but you can't really imagine something like this being dumped in somewhere like Dulwich Park or Clapham Common without a massive row.

A campaign to prevent King's Stairs Gardens in Rotherhithe being used as construction site seems to have been successful for now, though it remains a reserve site.

A Little Birdhouse in Your Soul

2011-11-14T06:00:00.003Z

'I have seen a kestrel flying over the Deptford gasworks, and I have heard a first-rate performance by a blackbird in the Euston Road. There must be some hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of birds living inside the four-mile radius, and it is rather a pleasing thought that none of them pays a halfpenny of rent' (George Orwell, Some Thoughts on the Common Toad, 1946).

'The London Wildlife Trust and Café Crema present an afternoon with bird specialist Diane Wallace, wildlife educator from the London Wildlife Trust. This workshop teaches you all about the fantastic variety of birds in urban gardens and how you can attract them to your garden:

- Dos and don’ts on feeding birds
- Make your own mini bird-feeder
- Build your own bird box, all materials provided

Families and children welcome. Please note for safety reasons, children must be accompanied by an adult for the bird box making in the garden at Café Crema. Free tea and coffee and light refreshments provided for participants. Free, all welcome.

Sunday 20th November, 12-2pm at Café Crema wildlife garden and secret orchard: 306 New Cross Road, SE14 6AF (020 8320 2317). Please call or email freshfilmscafe@hotmail.com to reserve a place'.

1938 picture of pigeons by E.H. Windred, the famed pigeon painter of 352 New Cross Road (lots more of his paintings at this gallery.

City of Roses

2011-11-13T20:32:00.002Z

Nice short film from people linked to South London's Youth Animation and Media project. In 'City of Roses' (directed by Boris Furlong), a masked figure spray paints a rose on to a wall- I think by Waterloo.

Bookshop News

2011-11-11T19:30:00.001Z

A couple of bits of news from two of the best shops in South London - obviously the fact that they're both bookshops gives them a formidable headstart in my view.

The Bookseller Crow in Crystal Palace (50 Westow Street, SE19) has a night with Mark Steel on Friday, 25 November 2011 at 7:30 pm, celebrating the publication of his new book 'Mark Steel's in Town'. It's free, but booking is recommended here.

Kirkdale Bookshop in Sydenham (272 Kirkdale, SE26) has its Winter art exhibition starting tomorrow. They've also just taken stock of a new book 'A Time and a Place: Near Sydenham Hill by Camille Pissarro' by Kathleen Adler (Yale University press, £12), a short book about the impressionist artist's time in London and in particular his painting 'Near Sydenham Hill'.

Lewisham MP calls for 'gang' video ban

2011-11-10T21:00:00.000Z

Lewisham East MP Heidi Alexander this week introduced a Private Members Bill in the House of Commons 'to give courts the power to order internet service providers to remove certain material which incites gang violence; and for connected purposes'.

Speaking in Parliament on 8 November she said:

'I am introducing this Bill because I am appalled by the proliferation of online videos glorifying gangs and serious youth violence. The police, via the courts and internet service providers, need to be given explicit power to get these videos taken down or to get access to them blocked. These videos act as a recruitment mechanism for gangs. I believe they lead to an increased number of young people in our cities who feel the need to carry a knife for protection and they terrify any ordinary human being who watches them.

I first came across these videos last year, when a constituent contacted me after his son had been the victim of a gang-related mugging. He sent me links to a video that was up on YouTube of the gang that had robbed his son. The video was filmed in broad daylight in a car park in the heart of Catford. It contained images of 10 to 15 young men—perhaps I should say boys—rapping, swearing and waving knives around as if they were cigarettes. The video boasts about violence; it is menacing, sickening and frightening. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of these sorts of videos on the internet, not just on YouTube, but on sites such as Spiff TV. If someone types “Brixton gangs”, “Hackney gangs” or “Lewisham gangs” into any online audio-visual search facility, they will find these videos. Not all contain images of knives, but the narrative is the same, “Mess with us and we’ll stab you.” These videos have been viewed tens of thousands of times each—sometimes hundreds of thousands of times'.

(full speech here)

While not wanting to belittle the problems of gangs and violence, I question the response of censoring the internet to deal with them. There all kinds of complex social and economic reasons why gangs exist, and it is all too easy to blame social media. In the aftermath of this summer's riots there has been an escalating panic about them - but people have been rioting, robbing and stabbing each other since long before any of these things were invented.

Some online videos might be interpreted as promoting gangs, but banning them isn't going to make gangs go away - it might just hide the reality. I have looked at some of these videos. My first thought was that I would rather be able to see for myself what some of my neighbours are up to, whether I like it or not. It is also obvious that there is a great deal of posturing and bravado - who's to say what is genuine violent intent and what is just some kids showing off? Really serious career criminals don't tend to provide police with the obvious intelligence helping hand of showing their faces on the screen (I know some of them are masked, but it's not hard to recognise people if they're known to you). You don't see many 'hey hey we're the mafia' videos do you?

Likewise who's to draw the line between glorifying gangs and creative musical expression? A lot of DIY rap and grime videos could be victims of a catch-all ban like this. Similar arguments were made in the early 90s about banning 'gangsta rap' for glorifying violence - apart from denying people from around the world from hearing some of the most innovative music of the period, this ban would have simply swept under the carpet depictions of a world that many people would prefer not to think about but exists nevertheless. Music is also one route out of the limited horizons of gang culture - some of those kids boasting about how they run 'their endz' might go on to greater things - see for example the success of Peckham rapper Giggs.

Here's an example of the kind of thing which I think the MP has in mind. From last year, it's Ruff Man and Y.Affecta's 'My Neighbourhood', filmed it seems in Taylor Close, Deptford (next to Lapwing Tower) - though it also refers to 'Brocktown - that's my neighbourhood' (or Brockley as some people insist on calling it). It talks about the Ghetto Boys (New Cross/Deptford gang), and I must admit if I bumped into some of these guys masked up in the street when I was walking the dog I would be decidedly wary. At one level, yes, it could be viewed as bragging about gangs. Maybe some of the people in this film have been involved in dodgy business of one kind or another - though of course the police already have countless laws to deal with that.

I do think though I should be able to choose for myself whether to listen to this kind of music and make my own mind up about such films. Even if you find it abhorrent, maybe it's telling you something you need to know about the city you live in.

Heidi Alexander's Bill is also supported by Joan Ruddock, MP for Lewisham Deptford. It is though unlikely to become law, as few Private Members Bills get granted the time to get through Parliament.

As soon as this pub closes

2011-11-09T20:04:00.000Z

As I've said before, when a pub closes a whole lot of possibilities close with it. The combination of people, drink and conviviality has sparked all kinds of cultural, musical, social and political movements. Even the most unpromising and unfriendliest of boozers can be the launchpad for some fantastic adventure when a group of people get together and say 'hey let's put on a club here/ start a football team / hold a meeting about some cause or other'.

So I was intrigued to find a mention of one of my local pubs, The Brockley Barge, in an account of a radcial political gathering over the summer. Seemingly, the Platypus Affiliation Society, a Marxist-humanist current, were meeting in the bar with the guests including their Chicago-based leading theoritician Chris Cutrone. An associate of Principia Dialectica, a magazine/website influenced by the Situationists, turned up and seemingly didn't greatly enjoy the conversation:

'Brockley, South London, mid August. It’s a balmy evening and the sun is just setting a beautiful shade of red. We have arranged to meet the Platypus London collective. In the Brockley Barge, a more bucolic setting is hard to imagine, but upon arrival our spirits drop when we realize our destination is in fact a typical Wetherspoons boozer, replete with the familiar royal blue ash-tray franchise coating. It looms up to dominate the high street with its tarty but severe wedding cake outside decor. It doesn’t look much fun. We descend into its jaws. We are soon relieved, however, to find that it is an affable local. The general blitz spirit fug of ‘we are all in this together’ has yet to lift in this particular post-riot London settling of spit and sawdust.

The Platypus group leader is in town, over from Chicago, having been engaged in tentative kisses and cuddles with one of the British Communist parties. I have opted to come down to south London and shake the Chairman’s hand and buy him a drink. The Chairman has been a student of Moishe Postone at Chicago university, the author of the seminal (and much banged on about at Principia Dialectica) Time, Labor and Social Domination. I want to see where it all went wrong. How could the Chairman be so well read, well taught, but still, as they say in south London, well stupid? The plot would be unraveled. We descended lower and lower, into the eerie depths of the Barge. Our eyes gradually accustomed to the dank light . It didn’t take long to find them – they had a poster of the Platypus group logo on the wall to help people like us find our way in the gloom...'

(see full account and Cutrone's reply here)

Not completely sure how this all ended up in the Barge, but probably had something to do with the fact that Cutrone had been giving a talk at the Communist University held at Goldsmiths.

Can't think why but this somehow put me in mind of Alex Glasgow's old socialist song 'As soon as this pub closes' ('the revolution starts').

William Blake Again

2011-11-08T22:38:00.000Z

For many years William Blake was a somewhat neglected artist and poet, but now scarcely a week goes by without something Blakean going on somewhere in London. Here's a few connected to South London:

- the Blake Society were involved in planting an 'angel oak' on Peckham Rye on September 18th, to mark the supposed scene of Blake's childhood vision of angels in a tree. Here's a report on it from Here Be Angels.

William Blake tree planting minicast by HereBeAngels

The newly planted Angel Oak on Peckham Rye,
(near the entrance opposiste Harris Boys Academy)

- as part of the Woodland Wonders event in Nunhead Cemetery in September there was a performance called 'Day of Angels and Fairies' by The Blake Poets (not sure exactly what this entailed, did anybody see it?).

- CoolTan Arts is having a Blake-themed Largactyl Shuffle guided cultural walk from Tate Modern to Bunhill Fields (where Blake is buried) - Saturday 19th November 2011, 12 noon start.

- dancers from Laban in Deptford are involved in developing a production called The Blake Diptych centred on the boyhood visions of William Blake. The company has a blog documenting their creative process.

I've explained about Blake's South London connections here before (with picture of the mural on Goose Green) - briefly the source for the Peckham visions story is a posthumous biography, but he certainly mentions Brockley and Camberwell in his poems.

In Hercules Road in Lambeth, where Blake once lived, there is now a William Blake Estate with a plaque on one of the buildings.

New Cross Fire Book Launch

2011-11-07T20:00:00.005Z

Earlier this year there was a series of events to mark the 30th anniversary of the 1981 New Cross Fire, when 13 young black people died in a fire at a birthday party (for background information see this earlier post).

Back in January there was a major commemorative evening at the Albany in Deptford, a church service, and the unveiling of a plaque at the scene of the fire (439 New Cross Road), attended by several hundered people.

Later this month, there's a launch coming up of the book The New Cross Massacre Story: interviews with John La Rose. The book was first published in 1984 by the Alliance of the Black Parents Movement, Black Youth Movement and Race Today Collective. John La Rose was the Chair of the New Cross Massacre Action Committee, which mobilised the black community in the aftermath of the fire. The reprint by New Beacon Books and the George Padmore Institute contains a new prologue by Linton Kwesi Johnson and an epilogue by Gus John that explore the significance of the period, the event and subsequent developments. LKJ is among those who still believe that the fire was caused by a racist attack (a view some of the victims' families now dispute) - he writes:

'The most significant date in the history of the black experience in Britain during the second half of the twentieth century is the year 1981. It began inauspiciously in the early hours of 18 January with a racist arson attack on a sixteenth birthday part in south-east London, which resulted in the deaths of thirteen young black people and twenty-six revellers suffering serious injuries. The response of the police, aided and abetted by sections of the media, with the implicit approval of the government, was to use their power to deny justice to the survivors of the fire, the bereaved and the dead. The shock, sorrow and outrage felt by black people throughout the country found expression in concrete political action. On 2nd March, some six weeks after the fire, the New Cross Massacre Action Committee, chaired by the late John La Rose, mobilised 20,000 people for a march through the streets of London. That Black People’s Day of Action was an unprecedented demonstration of black political power. It was a wake up call for the authorities, a watershed moment that signalled a paradigm shift in race relations in the UK. Moreover, with the Day of Action came a leap in Black British consciousness of the power to bring about change...

The New Cross area, in particular the London borough of Lewisham, was notorious as a hotbed of National Front activism and racist arson attacks. In 1977, the Moonshot, a black youth and community centre, was fire-bombed. That year Lewisham also witnessed street battles between National Front supporters on the one hand and anti-racists from the Anti-Nazi League, supported by black youths, on the other. In 1978, the Albany Theatre in Deptford was fire-bombed in a suspected racist attack, as was the Lewisham Way Centre in 1980. The New Cross fire was, therefore, not an isolated act of barbarism, but the latest and most devastating in a history of racist terror.

There were two inquests into the New Cross fire, both of which returned open verdicts. If the first, held with indecent haste just three months after the fire, was a travesty of justice where crucial evidence was suppressed by the coroner, then the second inquest, held in 2004, was a farce, as no new evidence was produced. However, on both occasions the police failed to convince the jury that the fire was the result of ‘black on black’ violence... '

Th book launch takes place on Thursday 17 November at 6.30pm, George Padmore Institute, 76 Stroud Green Road, London N4 3EN. The New Cross Massacre Story is available from New Beacon Books price £5.99; [£7.00 including p&p].

Film Events

2011-11-07T06:00:00.001Z

Sad that there is no permanent cinema in whole borough of Lewisham, but as we've said before, there is a vibrant film culture. As further evidence, here's a couple of new initiatives:

Cinetopia

'The Telegraph Hill-based film club, Cinetopia, will shortly be bringing their winning formula to the Hill Station [Kitto Road, SE14]. Our mission is to combine the magic of great movies with the warm conviviality of the pub quiz and add a touch of mystery. Each Cinetopia event includes a quiz based around the theme of the film being shown plus hot food and a bar. To add extra frisson to the experience the audience do not know what the film is until they turn up. In other words, always expect the unexpected. Each evening will feature a film from a particular city and our first destination is Paris. So, get your berets on and come up to the Hill Station for an evening of Gallic cinema and a little je ne sais quoi!

The mini season will start on Friday 18 November at 7.00pm and run monthly until March. Tickets will be sold in advance at £10 and include film, quiz and food. There will also be a fully licensed bar. To book tickets and for further information contact cinetopia@hotmail.co.uk. You can also find us on facebook and at our and blog http://cinetopiafilm.wordpress.com/ '.

New Cross Free Film Festival

'Would you like to help start a New Cross Free Film Festival in 2012? Then come along to an informal start-up event - Tuesday 15 November, 8pm onwards, New Cross House, 316 New Cross Road, London SE14 6AF. We're teaming up with our friends at Goldsmiths College, the Cafe in Telegraph Hill Park and Deptford Film Club to see if there's interest in starting a New Cross Free Film Festival in 2012. This follows the success of community-run free film festivals in Peckham and Nunhead in 2010 and 2011.

Come along to this initial gathering to find out more about what makes Free Film Festivals so special - and how you could help set up a New Cross Free Film Festival next year. If you can't come but are still interested just email info@freefilmfestivals.org'.

Blackheath Fireworks

2011-11-06T22:27:00.004Z

Had a good night out at Blackheath fireworks last night. The pyrotechnics were obviously pretty good, but it was also an awesome social event. Don't think I've ever seen so many people on the streets of South London at one time, outside of Blackheath train station the road was packed with thousands of people before we even made it to the heath. The actual fireworks only lasted about half an hour, but then there was also the fair and some music (they played 'There is a light that never goes out' by The Smiths shortly after the fireworks), and people streaming off in all directions to fill the pubs for miles around. Ended up in the Greenwich Union.

The only downside was that somebody stole the spare wheel off my car, which I'd parked in Cade Road at the edge of the heath. So the free fireworks ended up being quite expensive.

(853 has photos, videos and local politics - the display used to be a joint Greenwich/Lewisham Council event as Blackheath is on the border of the two boroughs, but Greenwich no longer fund it).

Brockley Drug Service - Just Say Yes!

2011-11-05T08:50:00.001Z

Lewisham Council is proposing to open a new drug and alcohol treatment service in Brockley Cross. They say:

'Lewisham Council and NHS Lewisham jointly fund a drug and alcohol treatment service. The service is currently based at New Direction, 410 Lewisham High Street. This is backed up by a service for users in the south of the borough at Dartmouth Road, Forest Hill. Many service users will also get regular services - such as repeat prescriptions and needle exchange - through their local GP or pharmacist.

The service has had some real successes but we think we could achieve much more if our sites were better located - so that service users from the south and the north of the borough were better able to access them. In particular, we have many service users in Brockley, Deptford and New Cross that would benefit from a site more local to them.

We are proposing to establish a new treatment site in Shardeloes Road, Brockley. This new site would be the main service site for users in the north of the borough and, together with the Dartmouth Road site in the south, would mean service users from all over the borough would be able to travel easily to access the service. The New Direction site would become the main site for after-care, helping improve the overall service further by reducing the numbers of service users who relapse. We welcome your views on this proposal.

As we want to cover a larger area of Lewisham to help more people access treatment, we aim to have a treatment service in the north of the borough. Most areas of the country have drug services based within local communities and Brockley has been identified as being in need of services to provide help and support to local people.

The building is on the main road and has good public transport services. The railway station is close by, and bus services are frequent. It is therefore an ideal location, making the centre accessible to local residents. The building is appropriate for drug and alcohol treatment, as it offers space for the kinds of services and interventions required'.

(see consultation here)

The proposal has generated some strong support and some strong opposition, as indicated by the arguments in the comments threads of Brockley Central.

I am in favour of this project because there are plenty of people with drug and alcohol problems round here and they need support. Substance users are not some kind of contagion threatening to invade and pollute Brockley, they are already here. People are being shot on the streets of Brockley in conflicts that are partly about the drugs trade - this trade is supplying a local demand (I'm not saying that it's worse in Brockley than in say New Cross or Deptford, but no reason to think it's significantly different).

Drug and alcohol problems are widespread at all levels of society, and there but for fortune could have gone - or maybe still will - some of the many other people who have used drugs or had periods of heavy drinking during their lives (no doubt including some of the objectors as well as supporters).

If the services work (which they certainly do for some), they actually make the area safer as well as improving the lives of the service users. One of the problems with services like these is that the people who need them most are often not highly motivated to travel to access them, or to put it another way those living nearest to the service are more likely to use and benefit from them. So arguably the people who are concerned about the behaviour of some substance users should be happy that the ones living in their area will be more likely to get support if there is a local facility.

Shardeloes Road

The proposed site is the former bank building at the Brockley Cross end of Shardeloes Road.

Personally I would love to see a nice new, spacious, purpose-built facility but that seems unlikely right now. In terms of location though, Brockley Cross is as good a place as any. Services in a densely-populated city can never be far from residential areas - and if they were they would probably be inaccessible. But nobody will be living next door to this centre - it has the timber yard on one side, and a church on the other. Shardeloes Road becomes residential further along but you have to go quite a way before you come to anybody's front door. The horrors of the Brockley Cross traffic junction act as a formidable barrier between the proposed centre and homes elsewhere in the area.

The proximity to the nursery round the corner has been mentioned by some, but is not really material. Obviously children there are safe and have no contact with people on the streets except travelling to and from the nursery. It is a daycare provision (8 am to 6 pm), which means most children are being dropped off and picked up at the ends of the parents' working day, outside of the times when the drug and alcohol service is likely to be busiest.

If the service is run properly by the very experienced CRI drugs charity any problems should be minimal and outweighed by the benefits. If there are difficulties, I have no doubt that the very vocal Brockley Cross Action Group will be able to make its views known and sort it out with the Council.

You can give your views to Lewisham here.

Old Clem! Blow the fire, blow the fire

2011-11-04T06:00:00.000Z

Interesting talk coming up at South East London Folklore Society next Thursday Thursday, November 10th, with folklorist Paul Cowdell speaking on some rowdy Saints day customs:

'November 23rd is St Clement’s day. The patron saint of blacksmiths, his day was celebrated by processions, dinners, effigies, poetry and appeals for money. The day was celebrated at village forges and – with rather more rowdiness – at the dockyard smithies. It also merged with similar celebrations 2 days later for St Catherine, the patron saint of ropemakers. This talk will look at the saints and their celebrations, taking in along the way Dickens, doles, the docks, and, indeed, dynamite'.

No doubt Woolwich will get a mention, as ironworker appprentices at Woolwich Dockyard were famous for their Old Clem's Night celebrations. And of course St Catherine is the patron saint of Telegraph Hill! (well the church at the top is named for her).

SELFS meet every second Thursday of the month at 8pm at The Old King's Head,
Kings Head Yard, 45-49, Borough High St., London SE1 1NA. Nearest stations are London Bridge and Borough. All welcome, £2.50/£1.50 concs.

Deptford presents...

2011-11-03T20:43:00.004Z

Deptford is... 'a group of local residents who want to ensure that the redeveloped Convoys Wharf offers the best for Deptford and its future'. Along with other local bloggers including Deptford Dame, Crosswhatfields?, London's Lost Garden and Shipwrights Palace, they are developing a formidably detailed critique of the proposals from News International and Cheung Kong to redevelop the riverfront at Deptford. They are also developing some interesting alternative ideas, and there will be an opportunity this weekend to consider and discuss some of them.

Deptford presents: Alternative visions for the King's Yard takes place on Friday 4th November (6.30pm - 10pm; presentation at 7pm) and Saturday 5th November 9.30am - midday at The Master Shipwright's House, Watergate Street, SE8 3JF. They say: 'This exhibition is a showcase for local responses to the development opportunity at Convoys Wharf, the former King's Yard at Deptford. A large portion of this forty-acre stretch of the Thames has been closed off to the public for the last five centuries, but now it is to be developed into a new neighbourhood with a range of homes and spaces for work and play... Suggestions include building a Restoration warship using a combination of traditional and modern ship-building skills, and recreating the historic garden as an innovative and productive public open space'.

It will be worth going along just to see The Master Shipwright's House if you haven't been there before, a great 18th century building next to the Convoys Wharf site. If I recall correctly, it also features as a location in the 2003 film Sylvia (starring Gwyneth Paltrow as Sylvia Plath).

Nell Gwyn of Peckham?

2011-11-03T06:00:00.003Z

Much of the publicity for the new National Portrait Gallery exhibition, First Actresses: Nell Gwyn to Sarah Siddons, has focused on a recently rediscovered topless potrait of Nell Gwynn painted by Simon Verelst in 1680.

'Pretty, witty Nell' (as Samuel Pepys described her) was one of the first female actresses to take to the stage, ending the period when all female parts were played by male actors. In her short life (1650-1687), Nell Gwyn became an early London superstar famed for rising from selling oranges around the inns of Covent Garden to becoming the mistress of Kings Charles II. She seems to have lived most of her life in central London, ending up at a house on Pall Mall and being buried at her death at St Martin-in-the-Fields.

So why is there to this day a Nell Gwynn Nursery School in Peckham, next to the police station on Meeting House Lane? The legend that Nell Gwyn had a connection with Peckham goes back at least 200 years, and seems to be based on the story that she was accustomed to entertaining the King at a house in the area. John Gorton's 'A topographical dictionary of Great Britain and Ireland' (1833) states that in Peckham there 'extends a branch of the Surrey Canal; and at a short distance from the basin connected with it formerly stood a house, where it is said Charles II was accustomed to visit his mistress, Nell Gwynn'. The canal basin was in the vicinity of the current Peckham Square, by the library, and was indeed the location of the Peckham Manor House belonging to Sir Thomas Bond - an associate of the King (after whom Bond Street is named, apparently).

Old and New London (1878) states in its entry for Peckham that 'A local tradition says that King John, hunting at Peckham, killed a stag, and was so pleased with the sport, that he granted its inhabitants an annual fair of three weeks' continuance; but no charter to that effect has been found. Another account says that it was granted, at the instance of Nell Gwynne, by our "merry monarch," on his return from a day's sport in the neighbourhood to the residence of Sir Thomas Bond... There was in the High Street a theatre, at which, says tradition, Nell Gwynne sometimes performed, and her royal paramour attended the entertainments'.

There was also a play published in 1799, entitled 'The Peckham Frolic; or, Nell Gwynn: a Comedy, in three Acts' by Edward Jerningham which dramatised these South London goings on.

However, the Peckham Society has acknowledged that the 'author of Nell Gwyn : A Biography (Macmillan, 2005), Charles Beauclerk, has found no reference to Peckham or Sir Thomas Bond' in records relating to Nell.

So the connection with Nell Gwyn and Peckham is perhaps rather slender - but hey she may have visited!

(Note that her name is variously spelt Gwyn, Gwynn, or Gwynne. Updated 4 November 2011)

Local road deaths

2011-11-02T18:37:00.005Z

Sad to hear that a man died last week, having been hit by a van while crossing New Cross Road. According to Newsshopper:

'Police are appealing after a man in his 20s was killed in an accident. Officers were called at 1.11am on October 24 to an accident involving a white Ford van and a pedestrian. It happened opposite the Sainsbury’s on New Cross Road at the junction with Jerningham Road. The man was taken to a London hospital with serious injuries. He died one week later on October 31. Police say the driver of the van stopped at the scene and there have been no arrests. Anyone with information should call the Collision Investigation Unit at Catford on 020 8285 1574'.

Another man has died as a result of injuries in an accident a few hundred metres away from this on Queens Road, SE15 (strangely the police incident report mistakenly identifies this as being in Rotherhithe):

'Officers were called at approximately 05:35hrs on Friday, 2 September to reports of a car in collision with a motorcycle in Queens Road, near the junction with Astbury Road, SE15. A Honda Civic car was in collision with a BMW motorcycle next to temporary road works that were in place at the time. The London Ambulance Service attended and the rider of the motorcycle, a 67-year-old man, was taken to a south London hospital for treatment to his injuries. He was discharged but readmitted to hospital on 8 October where he subsequently died. A post mortem took place at Greenwich Mortuary on 11 October and gave a formal cause of death as pulmonary embolism'.

Come to South East London...

2011-11-01T18:02:00.002Z

Lovely new video from Goldsmiths promoting the joys of South East London life - Deptford market, Greenwich Park, Telegraph Hill Park, the New Cross House, Royal Albert, London Particular, Cafe Crema, Utrophia, Panda Panda, Birds Nest, Blossoming Together cafe etc all feature.

I like the fact that it doesn't try and put too much of a 'wow it's such a creative arty area' gloss on it, rather it shows that what people appreciate is living somewhere with its own identity and community.

Back to Front

2011-11-01T06:00:00.000Z

Fran Cottell's house-based art installation BACK to FRONT was open for a weekend last month. If you missed it there are a couple of additional openings on 6th November (1.30 - 3.30) and 10th November (11am and 2pm). It's at 18 Woolwich Road , Greenwich , London SE10 0JU.

The project is in association with CGP London.

The Mistrale club in Beckenham

2011-10-31T06:00:00.001Z

In the 1960s and early 1970s, the Mistrale club in Beckenham was a top nightspot for South East London, hosting internationally known bands and introducing people to the sounds of young America and the Caribbean. It was located at 2-4 High Street at Beckenham Junction.

Before it became the Mistrale it was the plain old Beckenham Ballroom. Peter Frampton, who grew up in the area, played early gigs there with his teenage band, and bands like The Yardbirds performed (May 1964). Bill Wyman of The Rolling Stones later recalled: 'We would also go to dances at the Beckenham Ballroom, where drainpipe trousers were banned'.

It seems to have become the Mistrale in 1968. I have come across two flyers online for the club in that year. The grand opening on 17th April featured Manfred Mann and was followed by others including The Alan Price Set (24 April), Ike & Tina Turner (1 May), Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band (3 May) and Marmalade (8 May 1968).

In October 1968, artists perfroming included PP Arnold (11th October), and T.Rex with The Pretty Things (18th October). Ska was obviously popular with The Skatelites playing on 20 October 1968 and The Pyramids (who wrote Skinhead Moonstomp) in April, May and October. There was also a twice weekly Rock Steady Disco - according to George Austen this was put on by Little Lee and The Savoy Sound who also played at the Penthouse Club in Bromley and the Amersham Arms in New Cross ( a flyer for the latter in 1968 promises 'Ska, Soul and Tamla Motown' from Lee).

Other gigs included:

- Black Sabbath, 25 September 1968.
- Kaleidoscope, 29 Novemeber 1968 (advert below).
- Isley Brothers, 20 December 1968.
- King Crimson on 11 July 1969; guitarist Robert Fripp recorded in his diary: 'Mistrale, Beckenham. Bad, but they know how to clap: faster, baby, you’re slowing me down. £50'.
- Genesis, 2 March 1970.
- Mungo Jerry, 31 Decemeber 1970.
- Mott the Hoople, 9 April 1971.
- Fleetwood Mac, 23 July 1971.

There's some good discussion about the place at Beckhenham History Forum. Seemingly there was a Rolls Royce on the way in where people paid their entrance money. Mike Loveday was the owner. One regular recalled: ''In the days of the Mistral the club was on 2 floors. The resident DJ used to play downstairs and guests – e.g. DJs like Emperor Rosko & Johnnie Walker and acts like Jimmy Helms - used to play upstairs. After you paid your entrance fee to the lady in the Rolls Royce you walked past a games room that had a pinball machine and table football before turning right to go past the bar and into the main (downstairs) dance area. In 1973/1974 the biggest night of the week was Friday night, with lots of good Soul music played. Saturday was not as busy and was a bit more “commercial”... the upstairs part of the club always used to close before the downstairs - which meant that the final few dances were always downstairs. Closing time was 2am, and the last record played at 1:55 am every night by the resident DJ (whose name I think may have been Lee) was "Goodnight My Love" by Jesse Belvin - a classic!'

Some of the DJs who played out at the Mistrale were national big names. Don Moss is named as 'popular DJ' for the 'opening of our Discotheque' in April 1968, presumably the same Don Moss who was a BBC radio DJ and one of the presenters of 60s TV pop show Thank your lucky stars. Emperor Rosko and Johnnie Walker were both DJs in the early days of Radio One.

In around 1974 it became Tites Disco - Lee was still a resident DJ along with Rocking Richard and Dave Mitchell. The central ceiling between the ground and first floors had been removed to create a single floor warehouse-like club.

Later still - in the 80s - it became Langtrys and then its latest incarnation, The Bridge Bar.

If you liked this you might also be interested in:

- Mods in South London.
- 1960s ska and soul clubs in South London.
- 1960s jazz and r'n'b in Blackheath (Green Man).

(always interested in memories, flyers, photos of SE London nightlife from any period - contact transpontine@btinternet.com)

Deptford Pudding and Flying Pickets

2011-10-30T16:37:00.002Z

Deptford Pudding is a newish blog with tales of food and more. Did you know that there actually is dessert called Deptford Pudding? This blog has the recipe, plus stuff about SE London beekeepers and memories of the local music scene in the early 1980s (Squeeze) - including this 'Today Deptford, Tomorrow the World' T-shirt obtained from the Albany in 1980.

The same t-shirt was worn on Top of the Pops at Christmas 1983 by Brian Hibbard of The Flying Pickets when the band went to number one in the singles charts with their cover of the Yazoo song 'Only you'. The Flying Pickets played regularly at the Albany and the Duke in Deptford before their success, and indeed gave a gold disc to the landlord of the Duke, Erich Höfer. The band was originally formed by actors who had been involved in the radical theatre company 7:84 ('7% of the population own 84% of the wealth'). They had a 1982 live album 'Live at the Albany Empire' and also performed a track called 'Last Round-Up in Deptford'.

Deptford Reach

2011-10-29T10:24:00.004Z

Deptford Reach is a drop-in centre for adults over 16 years of age who are vulnerable through homelessness, mental ill-health, loneliness, social exclusion and severe poverty. They support more than 70 people each weekday through a programme of courses, workshops, activities and advice sessions. It was founded as Deptford Churches Centre in 1979 and is based on Speedwell Street.

A new short film features some of the people who go there talking about their experiences.

Kate Bush: the Brockley demos

2011-10-28T07:34:00.005Z

Kate Bush's Brockley years have been covered at Transpontine before (as has her time using Wood Wharf Studios in Greenwich).

In the latest edition of Uncut magazine (November 2011), there's a feature on the greatest bootlegs of all time, with 'The Cathy demos' by Kate Bush at number 12:

'Between signing to EMI in the summer of 1976 and recording her debut album, The Kick Inside, a year later the 19-year-old Bush spent 12 months dancing by day and writing by night in her top floor flat at 44 Wickham Road, Brockley, London. The results are captured on this home-recorded collection of 22 voice/piano demo. Five songs - including 'Violin' and 'Hammer Horror' - later appeared on albums but the majority have never been heard since.

The haunting 'Something like a Song' is one of her finest early piano ballads, more intriguingly on Organic Acid her brother John recites an erotic poem about mutual mastrubation while Bush demurely trills the chorus. Also known as the Phoenix demos after the Arizona radio station KSTM' (which first broadcast the tapes).

You can find various tracks from this on Youtube and elsewhere.

At one of the many Kate Bush fan sites, there's some more detail about this period. Seemingly, not all the neighbours were appreciative:

'I'd practice scales and that on the piano, go off dancing, and then in the evening I'd come back and play the piano all night. And I actually remember, well, the summer of '76 which was really hot here. We had such hot weather, I had all the windows open. And I just used to write until you know four in the morning, and I got a letter of complaint from a neighbor who was basically saying "Shuuut Uuuup!" cause they had to get up at like five in the morning. They did shift work and my voice had been carried the whole length of the street I think, so they weren't too appreciative'.

And yes in March 1977 she wrote Wuthering Heights on Wickham Road, on a piano bought from a second hand shop in Woolwich:

'I wrote in my flat, sitting at the upright piano one night in March at about midnight. There was a full moon and the curtains were open, and every time I looked up for ideas, I looked at the moon. Actually, it came quite easily. I couldn't seem to get out of the chorus - it had a really circular feel to it, which is why it repeats. I had originally written something more complicated, but I couldn't link it up, so I kept the first bit and repeated it. I was really pleased, because it was the first song I had written for a while, as I'd been busy rehearsing with the KT Band' (Kate Bush Club Newsletter, January 1979).

(local photography blogger Danielle Waldman has recently made a pilgrimage to the house)

Peckham Space OPEN 2011

2011-10-25T07:11:00.002Z

Peckham Space is the newish gallery in Peckham Square (near to the library). It is part of Camberwell College of Arts and has the aim of increasing access to and participation in contemporary art.

Peckham Space's second OPEN exhibition will take place from 29 November - 17 December 2011 and showcase artworks that have a connection to Peckham.

Artists who live, work or study in SE14, SE15 or SE5 are invited to submit work on Saturday 19 November 2011. Works will be selected for inclusion in the exhibition by a panel including representatives from Space Station 65, Camberwell College of Arts, Peckham Space and Tate Modern.

The work must be two dimensional, ready to hang and have a thematic connection to Peckham.

Further details here. For all enquiries relating to Peckham Space OPEN email info@peckhamspace.com or call 0207 358 9645.

Anti-fascists jailed after Welling incident

2011-10-24T06:00:00.000Z

Six anti-fascists have been jailed following action against a neo-nazi gig in Welling, south-east London. The gig took place on 28th March 2009 at the Duchess of Edinburgh pub in Upper Wickham Lane and was organised by notorious racist promoters Blood and Honour.

After the gig there was an altercation between a few of the antifascists and two fascists on the platform of Welling train station. According to Anti-Fascist Prisoner Support:

'Seven people were arrested on the night, and a further 16 were arrested in a series of dawn raids a few months later. Every antifascist the police could place in the vicinity of the fight was picked up. The police lacked enough evidence against almost all of those arrested to support an assault charge, but wished to pursue the cases against all of the accused for what we can assume were political reasons. 23 people therefore ended up being charged with conspiracy to commit violent disorder, although charges against one person were dropped before they reached crown court.

The first 11 anti-fascists went on trial on 6th June 2011, two or more years after their arrests. After 17 days, seven of them were convicted and four acquitted. Of the convicted, four were immediately sentenced to 21 months in prison. Another two were later sentenced to 18 and 15 months. The seventh was given a suspended sentence.

The second nine anti-fascists went on trial on 12th September 2011. The cases of two people who would have been in the second trial were dropped one working day before that trial commenced. All nine people in the second trial were acquitted. The trial was over two weeks long, but the jury took less than one hour to come to their unanimous verdict. They delivered it with pleasure to a cheering courtroom.

Whilst six of our comrades remain in prison we will give them all the support we can, and urge you to do the same'.

Killed and Killers are our Neighbours

2011-10-22T07:06:00.003Z

A Deptford man was jailed this week 'after murdering the wrong man in a roadside execution. Michael Ofori was shot shortly after midnight on June 23 last year in Oslac Road, Catford, as he sat in the driver’s seat of his car'. Nicholas Allon-McVytie, aged 23, of Vanguard Street, Deptford was convicted of being the getaway driver for the gunman. The court 'was told of a rivalry between the defendants and their intended target which led to a number of shooting incidents in Sydenham and Brockley' (report in Newsshopper, 21 October).

Meanwhile the trial started this week of four teenagers from Peckham and New Cross accused of the murder of 17 year old Sylvester Akapalara 'a member of Herne Hill Harriers athletics club' who was shot dead on the Pelican Estate in Peckham in December 2010 (BBC News).

In another current trial, a teenage girl from New Cross is accused of going out in her school lunch hour to buy knives used to kill 15-year-old Sofyen Belamouadden, stabbed to death at Victoria station last year (Telegraph).

I don't feel personally unsafe walking round here most of the time (touch wood), but we shouldn't get into a mindset of an 'acceptable level of violence' as long it doesn't immediately impact on our family and friends. Killed and killers are our neighbours.

SE Londoners robbed of 8 years of life

2011-10-20T18:38:00.007Z

The Office for National Statistics this week released their latest 'Geographic analysis of life expectancy statistics'. The good news is that life expectancy continues to rise - people are living longer. The bad news is that inequalities in life expectancy are growing. It's bad enough that accidents of birth can determine how wealthy people get to be, it's worse that richer people actually get to live significantly longer. This is reflected too in the differences between life expectancy in different parts of London.

A male child born in London between 1991 and 1993 had a life expectancy of between 70.6 (Tower Hamlets) and 75.9 (Harrow), a gap of 5.3 years. The gap for a boy born between 2008 and 2010 is more than nine years , from 76 (Islington) to 85.1 (Kensington and Chelsea). Greenwich and Lewisham are both near the bottom, with average life expectancy of 76.7 years. So a child born in David Cameron's part of Notting Hill can expect to have a good nine years more to enjoy their life than a child born in New Cross or Woolwich.

Girls have a higher life expectancy overall, but the pattern is similar, with Lewisham (81.3)and Greenwich girls (81.8) born in the last couple of years having a life expectancy 8 years behind their counterparts in K&C (89.8 years).

So is there something nasty in the water that's killing off the SE London locals? No it all comes down to class. According to ONS: 'The social class of an individual has been shown to have an effect on life expectancy. In a recent study by Johnson (2011), it was shown that the greatest growth in male life expectancy at birth between 1982–86 and 2002–06 was experienced by those in the lower managerial and professional class (such as school teachers and social workers) at 5.3 years. The least growth was experienced by those in the two least advantaged classes (semi-routine and routine occupations), at 3.8 and 3.9 years respectively. At age 65 the gap in life expectancy between men in higher managerial and professional occupations (18.8 years) and those in routine occupations (15.3 years) was 3.5 years in 2002–06. Similar results were found for females... area-based income deprivation largely explained geographical variations in life expectancy'.

In other words, average life expectancy is lower in areas like Lewisham and Greenwich because a higher proportion of poorer people live here.

Blurt at Bird's Nest

2011-10-19T18:41:00.002Z

Flyer of the week award definitely goes to this one from the Birds Nest (32 Deptford Church Street, SE8) for a free gig on Friday October 28th, featuring Ted Milton & Blurt, Isambard Kroustalion and Pnak.

Blurt go way back to the early days of Factory records, contributing tracks to the legendary (to me at least) 1980 Factory Quartet album along with Durutti Column, The Royal Family and the Poor and Kevin Hewick.