The Commons

The 1805 Ordnance Survey Map shows some of the unenclosed common land of SE London. Peckham Rye Common covered a much larger area than the current park. The land to the south of what is now Lewisham Way, between Deptford and Brockley, was Deptford Common.

The Well to its South East was presumably the Lady Well (hence obviously Ladywell). Oh and the Folly in Peckham was 'Heaton's Folly' on what is now Heaton Road, about which I'll have to write another time. The dotted line down the middle marks the Kent/Surrey border I believe - Surrey to the left, Kent to the right.

Those commons were enclosed and largely built on in the 19th century, notwithstanding some remaining parks and green spaces. Are their different kinds of commons today, and indeed new forms of enclosure? That is something that is being explored by New Cross Commoners, a new group looking at 'commoning' in the local area (something they describe as 'a process of coming together and doing things together that differs from the private and the public/State controlled ways of doing things'). They are meeting and discussing contemporary theorists of the common, such as Massimo De Angelis, as well as having excursions to possible examples of common practice such as Sanford Housing Co-op and the Creekside Houseboat community.

Here's a map some of them started on during a workshop at New Cross Learning (the old library) - presumably in this schema Fordham Park and Sandford represent some kinds of common but the Supermarket (Sainsburys) represent some kind of enclosure. Some interesting ideas, though with their own contradictions. For instance does replacing a properly funded and staffed library, run by the Council, with a volunteer led project llike New Cross Learning represent enclosure (the loss of a public service) or commoning (the creation of a new kind of common space)? Or a bit of both? Is a common future prefigured only in 'alternative' spaces or in the social labour of the supermarket where people from all over the world encounter each other and the products of global human effort (albeit in the context of a profit-driven corporate supply chain)? Discuss!

Check out their blog for information about future activities.

If contemporary radical theory is your thing you might also be interested in a talk coming up at Goldsmiths in New Cross on on 19 March 2013, with  New York-based wrtier Jodi Dean introducing her book 'The Communist Horizon' which aims to chart 'the re-emergence of communism as a magnet for political energy following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the stalling of the Occupy movement'.

The event takes place  in Rm 309, 3rd Floor, Richard Hoggart Building, 19:00 – 21:00 (organised by Centre for Cultural Studies, free, all welcome).

Subterranean Greenwich: Spooked Out?

[make sure you read to the end of this post for the updates which explain what really happened]

Subterranean Greenwich is (or maybe was) a fascinating site documenting the history and geography of tunnels, caverns and other hidden underground places in the Greenwich and Kent area. It has been posting regularly up until last week. Now it has vanished.

It you go to its address today (http://subterraneangreeenwich.blogspot.co.uk/) you get a 'blog not found' message (no I didn't mis-spell it - for some reason the url has three e's in Greenwich):

Shortly before the blog went down they posted the following 'On 24 July 2012 the Subterranean Greenwich blog was targeted during a five and a half hour assault by the UK Government's FTAC (Fixated Threat Assessment Centre). The attack started at about 9.50am and ended at 3.20pm - with continuous viewing of dozens of blog posts in this time window...

The FTAC is a special unit staffed by both police officers and forensic psychiatrists/psychologists; its main aim is to pre-empt and prevent attacks on high-profile public figures (including the royal family) by obsessed individuals.

It's sad that the government prefers to sneak in via the back door rather than contacting us directly to ask us about our research - which we're happy to discuss. Why we should be regarded as such a threat remains a complete mystery - although it's likely to be associated with the 2012 Olympics, specifically the events in Greenwich Park'.

Previously Subterranean Greenwich had issued the following: 'Statement on 2012 Olympics: Here at SubG we don't really have any opinion one way or the other on the Olympics; it will soon be over. For some time our hit counter has shown intense research on Greenwich Park coming from the secure government Internet backbone; we have unwittingly become involved in Olympic security. Maybe that's inevitable given the fact that we know more about what's beneath the Park than anyone else alive. What would be nice is a donation (official or unofficial) from the Olympics people to help us with our future research - the blog entries on the Park and environs are the fruit of thousands of hours of unpaid work'.

Does anybody know why the blog has now gone? Did the authors just take it down because they were feeling the pressure? Or did the authorities lean on Google/blogger? What was the nature of the cyber 'attack'? A site being viewed many times wouldn't constitute an attack as such, unless it was designed to somehow limit viewing by other people, but maybe there's more to it. 

Targeting a site like SubG in any way would seem a massive over-reaction, if that is what happened. In the unlikely event that somebody was planning an attack on the Olympics events in Greenwich Park they would presumably have done their homework by now. And no doubt the police will have considered such possibilities. Recent posts have covered subjects such as the death of miners in Plumstead in 1817 and dances in the Blackheath cavern in the mid-19th century - hardly a threat to anybody. Let's hope the blog returns soon.

Update 30 July: Google to blame? I wrote this story because somebody sent me an email telling me that the site was down following above posts. My first reaction was to check on google. Searching under 'subterranean greenwich' the result that came up was http://subterraneangreeenwich.blogspot.com/  (3 e's in Greenwich) - this is still the case (see below accessed just now). Following the link still takes you through to the 'blog removed' message. But if you go to http://subterraneangreenwich.blogspot.com/ the blog is there, albeit with no mention now of unwanted attention from security services. Not sure how google can make a spelling error, but was the site there all along? It's still curious, but not suggestive of a conspiracy. Anyway glad to see the site's there.

Update: 31 July 2012, pm - OK have heard back from Dominic at Subterranean Greenwich and here's the real story - some funny business, but more cock-up than conspiracy:

'Originally I made a very silly mistake in spelling "Greenwich" in the blog title - I used 3 "e"s. I only noticed a few months ago, and built a complete mirror blog with the correct spelling title, and updated both addresses continuously. Google grabbed the wrongly-spelled one and indexed it. A few days ago I pulled the plug on the wrongly-spelled one, which is why the blog appears to be down. It's actually fine - just go here:

http://subterraneangreenwich.blogspot.com/

I'm currently building a brand new home for the blog with a proper domain - it's already up and running, but I'm still in the process of transferring all the old blog posts onto it. You're welcome to go and have a peek. All the posts should be on there within a few days - I'm working several hours a day on it right now.

www.subg.org.uk

It's true that FTAC were sniffing around my ankles - very unpleasant. But they didn't pull the (mis-spelled) blog, I did. Why were they interested? Two possibilities - either because they thought Per and I know too much about tunnels in Greenwich Park and are a danger to this week's multiple royal visitors to the equestrian events there, or because they thought my "campaigning spirit" was spilling over into insanity. They're wrong on both counts'.

Groombridge Place

One of my favourite places to take kids is Groombridge Place Gardens and the Enchanted Forest near Tunbridge Wells in Kent. It's about an hour's drive away from New Cross/Brockley, but has a couple of signficant local connections as we shall see.


Really there's two parts to it. The Enchanted Forest is a child-centred woodland walk, with walkways, animals (including pigs and peacocks) and best of all some giant tree swings.

At different times there are various other activities, such as facepainting, storytelling, birds of prey displays etc.

Then, with the kids probably too tired to run around anymore, you can visit the formal gardens of Groombridge Place. The moat dates back to an earlier manor house which from about 1400 to 1600 was the home of the Waller family. The poet Edmund Waller - after whom a school is named in New Cross - was descended from this family, but did not (contrary to what I once thought) live at Groombridge as it had been sold by the time he was born.

The current house itself was built for Philip Packer in 1662, and his friend John Evelyn helped him design the gardens. Evelyn of course lived in Deptford at Sayes Court, with its own famed gardens.

Some of the features of Evelyn and Packer's garden remain (see detail at London's Lost Garden)

A number of trees also remain from the 17th century garden, including this mistletoe-bearing apple tree.

Groombridge Place has featured in a number of films, most notably the 2005 version of Pride and Prejudice (with Keira Knightley) and Peter Greenaway's great 1982 film 'The Draughtman's Contract'

Tip: take a picnic and eat in the fields outside before you pay to go in, there's plenty of space. Obviously you don't have to have kids to go, the gardens are worth a visit. Peaks season it's £10 in for adults, £8.45 for children (prices include admission to Enchanted Forest and formal gardens) so it does work out quite expensive if you are in a big group - though there are some family ticket deals and children under three are free.