After the silence

Some places have periods of silence all the time. I imagine that, say, Dulwich Village is pretty quiet in the middle of the night. Walworth Road is never quiet, so the two minutes of silence last Thursday for the victims of the London bombings felt quite eery - construction, shop and council workers standing on the streets, and the traffic gradually coming to a halt.

The day before, the London bombers' comrades in Iraq blew up 20+ children in a working class quarter of Baghdad. Hardly anybody mentions them, and nobody mentions the blood on the hands of some of those leading the silence. Never mind Iraq, who now remembers the civilians blown to bits by NATO in 1999 on a train at Grdenicka in the former yugoslavia?

As a humanist and internationalist, I don't value London lives any higher than anybody else's, but I recognize that there is a (self-centred) emotional charge to death on your doorstep. A city is daily traversed by millions of individual paths intersecting with each other. It is the fact that we can plot our own paths crossing those of the dead that reminds us of our vulnerability and enables us to idenitify intimately with the victims.

After reading acres of coverage of the London bombings, the detail that finally brought a tear to my eye was buried in a report of the life of Shahara Islam, killed on the no.30 bus. It wasn't the face of the pretty young muslim woman staring from every front page that got to me so much as the fact that she regularly stopped off at Patisserie Bliss at the Angel Islington on the way into work, just as I did every day for the three years I worked there.

Back to work after 120 seconds- bury them and be silent. The much vaunted stiff upper lip, business as usual attitude is wearing thin. It's one thing to say we're not going to let a few bombs stop us getting on with our lives, its another to order people to carry on as if nothing has happened. As Jon Eden at Uncarved experienced, most people weren't given the choice of not immediately returning to work.

After two minutes of silence, two minutes of critical argument with our friends, colleagues and neighbours would be a start. Why is the world in this state and what are the alternatives? Do we just have to accept living in a permanent state of global low intensity war? Discuss.

As Iain Sinclair wrote last week 'Random acts of terror are finite, the money wheel never stops turning'. Business as usual means more of the same. No thanks.

Tag:London Bombing

On the buses

In the aftermath of the London bombing there has been an almost delirious outpouring of rhapsodic prose about the city and its pleasures. Following Iain Sinclair's Theatre of the City piece, Laura Barton penned a hymn to London buses in yesterday's Guardian, apparently based on a day traversing the capital by random routes. As I sat on the 171 into work yesterday, I read her poetic observation that 'Londoners sail the buses, floating along its surface like the flotsam of the city, each passenger following their mystical routes as if by divination'.

Sinclair and Barton are in a line of double decker flaneurs. In 'The Nights of London' (1926), travel writer and journalist HV Morton included an essay 'To Anywhere' with the starting premise that 'Strange things happen now and then if you just take the first omnibus and sit there long enough'. He describes a journey that ends with him getting off the bus and wandering through a park by cricket matches, a political meeting and open air dancers. Only as the night closes in as 'Lovers drifted slowly under the moon' does he ask a policeman ''Where am I?'... He looked at me suspiciously, and replied: 'Peckham Rye''. Must have been a number 12.

See also: A Delaware County writer recalls a trip with a Deptford bus driver.

Tag:London Bombing

Walworth Jumpers

Philip Hoare's 'England's Lost Eden - adventures in a Victorian Utopia' is a fascinating exploration of the overlapping milieus of spiritualism, millenarian religion and utopianism in late-Victorian england. Of most interest to transpontinians is his account of the so-called Walworth Jumpers, a split from a group known as the Peculiar People who had a chapel in Gravel Lane, Kennington (they were later known as the Plumsted Peculiars- presumably they moved). There were rowdy scenes in a railway arch in Sutherland Street off the Walworth Road in 1871-2 as curious crowds gathered to watch the jumpers' ecstatic dancing, leading to them being compared to the similarly inclined Shakers in the US. After facing similar hostility at premises in Salisbury Row, Lock's fields (under the current Aylesbury Estate) and another railway arch near Waterloo, Mary Ann Girling and her followers moved to Hordle in the New Forest where they lived communally while waiting for the end of the world. The 1881 census record a number of south londoners still living with them, including the unusually named Emma and Elizabeth Knuecheles, the latter a 14 year old born in Camberwell.

In and around the New forest in this period there seem to have been various experiments in different ways of life, from the plebeian to the aristocratic, encompassing various combinations of dress reform, Bible communism, vegetarianism and celibacy.

Back in South London, we also hear of Captain Alfred Wilks Drayson, a spiritualist who claimed to have 'witnessed fresh eggs, fruit and flowers descend from the ceiling' of his quarters at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, and who held seances with John Ruskin (then living in Camberwell) and Arthur Conan Doyle. Peculiar people, one and all.

Spring Heeled Jack

Steve Ash gave a great talk to South East London Folklore Society on the Spring Heeled Jack phenomenon. In 1838 panic swept through the villages on the edge of London, with people apparently being accosted by a mysterious figure in a cloak able to leap great heights to avoid capture. A servant girl in Forest Hill was frightened out of her wits by a creature in a bearskin; horses panicked after Spring Heeled Jack lept over Streatham High Road...

Steve talked through some of the different explanations that have been put forward - was it all a prank played on gullible peasants by toffs? Was it mass hysteria linked to the stresses of urbanisation and disease? Was there some paranormal content? In true Fortean style, the mystery resists any single explanation.

Next SELFS on Monday August 8th features another dark creature of the night, with a talk on the folklore of the Black Dog. Upstairs at the Spanish Galleon pub, Greenwich, prompt 8 pm start.

Camberwell Shows

Lots of interesting and free art stimulation to be had in Camberwell last weekend. The Summer Show at Camberwell College of Art had some really good work. Our favourites were Hanna Park's melancholic sketches of London bus life (example here), rendered very poignant by recent events. Other Londonist work included a sound recording made in the Dragon Wok Chinese restaraunt opposite the college, and Cui-Li Zhang's exploration of traffic lights and other street signs, incorporating a video clip of New Cross Road, tapestries of signs and a fake aquarium of plastic fish and miniature signs. Its finished now, so look out for next year's show - for now there's still time (until 17 July) to see Saskia Olde Wolbe's short film 'Trailer' at South London Gallery, a short story to lush shots of cinema interiors and tropical flytraps.

Subterranean Sonic Women Artists take Greenwich

I've waited ages to write that headline and finally....I CAN! This came over the email today:

Local women tunnel under the Thames

Local Greenwich women are filling the Greenwich Foot Tunnel with sound on Saturday 16th July 2005. They have been working with London sound artist Jo Lucas to produce a sonic journey called 'Tunnel of Time' through the Greenwich Foot Tunnel. The project was set up by the Greenwich based media arts organisation Independent Photography. The installation brings together ambient sounds and spoken word by the artist and women created through intimate discussions amongst themselves.

A collage of voice and sound is immersed within the environment of Greenwich and woven together with 5 women's tales of fear and faith. The project explores a fragility and power within private experience that is often overlooked. The installation will run from 12pm - 6pm, with information, refreshments and a short presentation by the artist and women at 5pm at the tunnel entrance in Cutty Sark Gardens.

Hannah Baneth

Bob from Brockley notes the passing of Hannah Baneth, post-war Jewish refugee and Deptford housing activist, among other things.

6 X 6 at Six String Bar

6X6 is a mini-music festival happening at the Six String Bar (formerly Paradise Bar),460 New Cross Road this Saturday 16th July. It starts in the afternoon (3 pm) and goes on until 11 pm with a diverse range of musical talent including THE CROWD, NEBRASKA, CHARLIE BROWN and DEVIL IN MISS JONES . DIGITAL SNEAKERS will be showing their documentary film 'Rocklands - Live In New Cross' featuring Twisted Charm, Angular Records, Art Brut, Bloc Party and many others. All this plus DJs, pub price booze and good company. I will also being doing a short talk about Deptford Fun City, and probably playing a short set of Transpontine tracks (maybe a bit of ATV, This Heat, Band of Holy Joy etc.).

Its free before 5 pm (bar is open from mid day) after 5pm it's £4 / (£2 with a Music Tourist Board card/NUS). Come and hang out, watch/meet bands, play pool, read/write zines, watch visuals.

London healing

Avalon in London are holding an impromptu ritual of healing and protection for London, and all her inhabitants, and to celebrate her vibrant life force. They will be meeting at Cross Bones Graveyard at the north end of Redcross Way, close to Borough tube station, at 7.00pm on Friday 15th July.

They say: 'Please bring flowers and ribbons to decorate the gates, poems and London songs, objects that symbolise London to you, messages to be tied to the gates etc, bring candles to honour the recent dead, bring your love and your longing for change, bring your courage and your creativity, bring your passion for the city that opens her arms to all... Cross Bones Graveyard is an unconsecrated graveyard, dating back to medieval times, which holds the bones of the prostitutes and paupers of The Liberty, who were denied burial in consecrated ground or were too poor to afford it. The graveyard was closed in 1853 but was unearthed during the building of the Jubilee line. Each year a Halloween of Cross Bones graveyard event is held by John Constable and The Southwark mysteries and vigils are held there each month to honour the outcast dead. Over time it has become a place of deep healing and of hope for a better and more compassionate city, the city that is stirring beneath our feet as we walk her streets'.

A description of a previous London protection ritual has been posted at the Dragon Environmental Network site.

Tag:London Bombing

London belongs to me

Transpontine crew all believed safe and sound after yesterday's madness, though Skitster apparently went through Edgware Road station not long before the blast. Met somebody this morning who had been on the top of the bus that got blown up - after the explosion she looked round and most the seats behind her had disappeared along with the people on them. So it was no surprize when they said today that 13 had died on the bus, rather than the 2 originally announced. Miraculously she got away with perforated ear drums and shock. Some of the people on the bus had earlier been caught up in the bomb at Edgware Road a full hour before. This in itself calls into question the story of the super-efficient emergency operation swinging seamlessly into action, though who can say if any course of action would have made any difference by that stage.

Lots of schmaltz on the radio about indominatable London pulling together, spirit of the Blitz etc. Some of this a bit bogus, judging by the actions of hotels putting up their prices to take advantage of captive customers unable to travel home. Nevertheless there was obviously lots of mutual aid, and its interesting that in times like these people affirm their connection to the place we live in rather to than the imagined community of the nation - London not England.

It's over-dramatizing things to compare the situation today to the Second World War when millions were slaughtered on all sides, but it is notable that London was appreciated in similar ways in the 1940s. I recently picked up an old copy, from a Walworth Road charity shop, of HV Morton's 'London', a series of sketches of pre-war London life published in 1940. It has a touching hand written message in the front saying 'Another war time birthday. Here are happy memories of our beloved London. Just Chubb 11.6.41'. The book itself is full of London pride: 'London, once so aloof and so vast a mystery, has, in the anxiety of these times, become comprehensible in her danger, and Londoners by the thousands have ceased to be merely lodgers in London, and have found a new importance as helpers of London'. Similar sentiments can be found in Norman Collins' 'London belongs to me' (1945) and Noel Coward's London Pride: 'Ghosts beside our starlit Thames, Who lived and loved and died, Keep throughout the ages London Pride'.

Too soon for me to write much about the politics and to be honest I've found some of the internet comment a bit irritating with people trying to slot events into their favourite conspiracy theory (including usual anti-semitic crap) without waiting for even the basic facts to become clear. Suffice it to say that mass murder in London is no more, but equally no less tragic that mass murder in Iraq, whether carried out by Islamo-fascists or Imperial armies. Neither justifies, or even explains, the other - we need a world without both.

Tag:London Bombing

Freaky Friday

Sorry, that's the only subject line I could think of for hese two south-east London event. Maybe 'Fine Friday' or 'Fab Friday' would be more positive, these are both cool looking events, but, what the heck, everyone's heard of 'Freaky Friday'.

Anyway, I digress, in New Cross this Friday (8th) Fresh Films at Cafe Crema, 306 New Cross Road, are hosting an event called 'Rats and Roses' where they will be screening animated shorts from the 10th Brief Encounters Short Film Festival.

First up is ‘Jo Jo in the Stars’, The description of this award winning film is: ‘The heart wrenching tale of two unlikely lovers; Jo Jo, a silver plated trapeze artist and the nameless hero who worships her'.

This is followed by 'Dog Years’, winner UK Film Council audience award, ‘Ben, 39, castrated mongrel, needs love. GSOH essential’, as well as ‘London Fields are Blue’ and a film called ‘The Curse of Geoff’.

The films will be followed by music from George Leitenberger, singer songwriter and composer of film scores for cult german films of the 80s: including La Fuente Verde;Glasnost Junkies;Night Comes Falling.

Now, if you're like me and you've never seen or heard of these films, Cafe Crema helpfully lists George's influences and sound as "Bob Dylan, Tom Waites, Jacques Brel….Beautiful guitar, bittersweet ballads…drink and dream"

The cost is £5.50, including a meal, and Cafe Crema can only reserve a total of 5 tickets over the phone. To reserve tickets phone 020 8320 2317 during café opening times Mon-Fri 9.30-6.00.

Oops, actually, the Kosmische night is on Saturday 9th July, Friday 8th at the Corsica Studios, (Unit 5, Farrell Court, Elephant Road, SE17 1LB), which is under the arches of Elephant & Castle station, just off the top of Walworth Road is:

Friday July 8th - Shortwave Films 8pm till 2am, Entry £4/£3 concRunning order: Short films/videos by emerging talent from 9pm till 10pm Bands on stage from 10:30pm Following on from the films we have live music courtesy of Battant, Crack Village and The Hands. Battant are Chloe, Mole and Tim. Formed in November 2004, they produce a flurry of pop-dripping rampage. Laptop, drum machine, keyboard and electricguitarcomebass gang-bang the twisted corners of Chloe's mind as she spits out convulsively addictive mutterings. Quick on the path to success, these three will not stop til they've reached the far corners of Everywhere.First release is out on Firewire July 11th. Wait for it... Crack Village are building an enthusiastic and loyal fanbase with their irreverent brand of hip-hop, mixing in live brass, human beatboxing and punk rock attitude together with electro and breakbeats. They will be showcasing material scheduled for release on MAKE SOME NOISE RECORDS. The Hands are a crack four-piece playing wired-pop in the finest tradition. Formed 18 months ago, the quartet from south east London have taken inspiration from the everyday to create a quintessentially English sound. Built from keyboard, guitar, bass and drums, the songs go from thoughtful to throwaway in a beat: love, loss, work and play all feature in the big sound of their short stories. Joining the dots between audio and visual will be resident DJ’s Rob Wray and John Reynolds. Visuals come courtesy of Digital Mass.Email info@shortwavefilms.co.uk for guest list. For more info visit www.shortwavefilms.co.uk who can be contacted on 0778 869 2137

On Saturday, Kosmische, kraut-rock to the masses, are demonstration their exquisite taste by hosting their nineth Birthday party at Corsica Studios, Unit 5, Farrell Court, Elephant Road, SE17 1LB, which is under the arches of Elephant & Castle station, just off the top of Walworth Road.

The line-up is:

Fine Finnish drone-rocked Circle, Jean-Herve Peron of Faust (with guests), Delia Gonzalez & Gavin Russom (DFA synth genies), Amal Gamal Ensemble (Shock-Headed Peters/Cyclobe/Guapo/Alabama 3) and the always fab Now.

They also promise "Kosmische club djs, Barry 7 chamber, whacked-out films, liquid lighting by Lightning Rod from Bubble Vision, strangeness and surprises."

there are only 2 ways to get in:1. buy a ticket for £12 from WeGotTickets or email with the subject 'put me on the list'. It's £15 on door and you'll need ot be on the list.

Planet of the Apes, SE24

The search for obscure South London film connections continues. Further to our list of transpontine horrors, we have uncovered a link to the Planet of the Apes cycle in the personage of Roddy McDowall, who played chimp good guy Cornelius in the original movie (as well as several other simian parts in the follow ups). He was born in 1928 at 204 Herne Hill Road, London SE24.

It has also been brought to our attention that the photo we reproduced from the 1935 film Bride of Frankenstein features not one but two South London monster impersonators. As well as Lewisham-born Elsa Lanchester as the Bride in question, Frankenstein himself was played by Boris Karloff (1887-1969), born William Henry Pratt in Camberwell.

Spirit of '77

Tipped off from The Fall Message board about a gig on Saturday-

"The Phobics, are playing on Saturday 2nd July at The Birds Nest pub on Deptford Church Street, SE8 at 9pm. 2 sets of old fashioned Punk Slop - think Ramones meet Buzzcocks where The Dead Boys and the New York Dolls frolic.

They're a very friendly bunch. And it's absolutely free!

To get an idea of what fun to expect, look here: http://www.thephobics.co.uk/"

Do check out the site- It warms the cockles to know that people are still doing this kind of "old school" punk, as opposed to the later Exploited style rubbish...

I'd be there, if it wasn't for the fact I'm morris dancing in Northampton....

Graham Coxon at Goldsmiths

Ex-Blur guitarist Graham Coxon returns to his old college tomorrow night (22nd June) for a gig along with Lady Sovereign and The Idle Lovers. It all happens at Goldsmiths College Students’ Union. More details at Smiths

Mid Summer Fire

Solstice Sunrise at Hilly Fields, Brockley, 21st June 2005 by Steve Ash.

I shall be writing my thoughts on the Solstice sunrise in south-east London here when I get a moment, it was dead good there.

Records not bought

'beatnik boy' sleeve

The excellent new Saint Etienne album 'Tales from Turnpike House' includes on the sleeve a paen to the joys of jumble sales in Bromley by Jeremy Deller. Deller bemoans the shift from jumble sales to car boot sales in the course of the 1980s as a symptom of the time - 'where once you gave things away to be sold for charity you now sold it for yourself. Everybody was on the make'. Of course this is even more the case with Ebay, where more and more people fancy themselves as traders in the global market place. The car boot sale does at least still have elements of potlatch as well as pot luck, enabling, as in Dellar's youth, 'a parallel education where it became possible to buy books and records at random almost because they were so cheap'.

This morning I went down to the weekly car boot sale at Alwyn Girls School in Southwark Park Road (worth a look if you're in reach of Bermondsey at 11 am on a Sunday). I came away empty handed, but did find a couple of surprizes amongst the ubiquitous Whitney Houston and Phil Collins LPs. The first was a 12" blue vinyl original of Patrick Juvet's oft-sampled disco classic 'I love America'. It was though very scratched and I reluctantly pulled myself away on realizing that I was in danger of succumbing to pure vinyl fetishism (i.e. buying records even if the music is virtually unplayable). The second treasure was the Talulah Gosh 12" EP 'Beatnik Boy'. When I find something like this that I really like but already have I always want to grab somebody and say 'you've got to have this'. I couldn't see anybody nearby who looked like an 1980s twee indie pop afficianado, so that wasn't an option. Should I buy it anyway just to give it a home? Should I buy it and flog it on ebay? In the end, thinking of Jeremy Dellar, I moved it to the front of the pile and left in the hope that some curious passer by might decide to give it a go and in the process be opened up to a whole new galaxy of girls and boys with jingly jangly guitars.

London Bloggers

London Bloggers is a great resource for finding local blogs, grouping together sites by local train or tube stations. You can see the list for New Cross Gate here. We will get round to checking out and reviewing some of our fellow SE London blogs soon, but check it out yourself.

Film locations - more monster action

Just had confirmation from Lewisham Arthouse that the building was used as a set for the 1992 film Tale of a Vampire. The film, by Japanese director Shimako Sato, features Julian Sands as a vampire hanging out a lot in a library - which is what the Arthouse used to be in the days when there was a decent library service in New Cross (rather than a tiny one opening three days a week). So to recap here's our current list of SE London horror film connections:

- Tale of a Vampire (1992)
- Bride of Frankenstein (1935) - stars Lewisham-born Elsa Lanchester
- Shaun of the Dead (2004) - filmed in Monson Road, New Cross Gate
- Interview with the Vampire (1994) - partly filmed in Deptford, including St Pauls Church
- The Quatermass Xperiment (1955) - partly filmed at Deptford Creek
- Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) - stars New Cross-born Gary Oldman

In terms of other local film locations, we've got Gary Oldman's 'Nil by Mouth' (1997) and Patrice Chereau's 'Intimacy' (2000), both filmed in New Cross and Deptford, and 'Look Back in Anger' (1959) with Richard Burton as a Deptford market trader. Any more?

Camberwell to Ladywell Walk

Last Saturday's 'Magic, Mystery and Hidden History' was a great success, with a packed theatre upstairs in the Brockley Jack for this South East London Folklore Society event, all part of the Brockley Max Festival.

Talks included Alex Hodson on the battles against the enclosure of Sydenham Common and One Tree Hill, Steve Wilson on the Brockley Thing (the origins of the Woodcraft Folk), Chris Wood on the ancient landscape of Brockley, and Andy Worthington on The Battle of the Beanfield. It was all rounded offf with the runic singng of Kate Waterfield

I talked about Brockley Footpath, certainly an ancient track-way and possibly a route between the holy wells of Ladywell and Camberwell. Scott Wood's talk on 'Ghosts and Monsters of Brockley and Surrounds' also had some spooky stories about the same path.

On Sunday 26th June you can come with us and explore the path itself, setting off from outside St Giles Church, Camberwell at 2 pm and heading via Peckham, Nunhead and Brockley to Ladywell. Ancient taverns may well be sampled along the way.

You are here but why?

More interesting (and free) events coming up as part of the You are here but why? Festival of Mapping, happening in and around 56a Infoshop in Walworth. Tomorrow (Friday 17) promises a Psychogeography bunfight, while on Saturday at 6 pm there's a talk on gathering free food from the wilds of South London. It's followed by a cafe where you can sample some of the results. Should be good, judging by Mikey's elderflower cordial I sampled last week, made from flowers gathered in Burgess Park.

Last week, Andy Worthington's talk on the 1985 Battle of the Beanfield went well, and he was joined by one of the makers of the Operation Solstice film that documents the events. Then last Friday we had a discussion, 'History No! The Future', about some of our efforts (including Past Tense and Practical History) at using history in alternative ways to challenge the present and shape the future.

There's some cool maps to see in the temporary Map Room at 56a Crampton Street, SE17, including some South London radical history cartography. So get on down before the end of June.

Camberwell Now! (well, this Friday..)

A whole host of SE London alternative music types are performing on Friday 17th in what is described as "A one off contemporary music performance using a wide range of diciplines and attitudes in surprising and unusual contexts"

The Line Up includes ex This Heat drummer/vocalist Charles Hayward, Sean O Hagan (of the lovely High Llamas and sometime keyboard and brass arranger for Stereolab), Harry Beckett (venerable Brit-Jazz trumpeter), Pat Thomas (wild man of piano and cheap electronics), John Edwards (omni-present double bassist), Sharon Gal (vocalist with No Wave noise trio Voltage), Rob Mills, Ashleigh Marsh, Nick Doyne Ditmas and ...er..Chris Cornetto. There's also digital projections by Scopac (who's really known as Rob Flint and is a member of SE London based audio visual ensemble Ticklish).

I happen to know this lot have been practicing hard- so it won't just be an improv/noise explosion but possibly more along the lines of Charles Hayward's fondly remembered "Accidents and Emergencies" interventions.

7.30 - 10.30 PM,
Lecture Hall,
Wilson Road SE5
Tickets £5/£3.50 concessions.

as a curious side note- the organiser of this event is Martyn Simpson who works at the college. Some 22 years earlier, and 250 miles North, Martyn was the lead guitarist in my indie post-punk band "The Euphoria Case"....

On the team

Morning all! Just to announce that I'm now proud to be a member of the Transpontine team. I'm Richard, and I live in Hither Green, so I guess I'll be covering stuff around the Eastern End of the Transpontine remit.

One thing to start me off though. Meridian Line Markers. I'm fascinated by these things- there's one in the tunnel at Hither Green railway station, and one in a paving stone on Lee High Road- both of which seem fairly arbitrary. Are there any other less obvious ones? (like not in Greenwich Park...)

Bride of Frankenstein - born in Lewisham

At Transpontine we have uncovered various South London monster connections, incuding most recently Shaun of the Dead.

Thanks to Captain Normal, we can now reveal that Elsa Lanchester, who played both Mary Shelley and the Bride of Frankenstein in the 1935 film of the same name, was born Elizabeth Sullivan in 1902 at 48 Farley Road, Lewisham. She came from an interesting background - her parents, James Sullivan and Edith Lanchester 'were militant socialists, pacifists, and vegetarians who caused a scandal when, true to their free love beliefs, they decided to live together in 1895 without marrying. Edith's family was so outraged that they kidnapped her in collusion with a psychiatrist who committed her to a lunatic asylum. Her cause was taken up by fellow members of the Social Democratic Federation (she had been secretary to Eleanor Marx) and her release was secured when she was found not to be insane'. Elsa Lanchester maried Charles Laughton and moved to Hollywood. She died in 1986.

Dracula has been seen locally in various guises, with Gary Oldman (who played the Count in Bram Stoker's Dracula) born in New Cross, and parts of Interview with a Vampire filmed at St Pauls Church in Deptford. Bela Lugosi himself played Dracula at The Hippodrome, Lewisham in May 1951. We have also heard that the old library building in Lewisham Way (now the Arthouse) was used in one Dracula film, but we don't know which one - any ideas?

Thomas-a-Becket - No room at the inn?

Walking up the Old Kent Road today I noticed that another famous London pub is no more. The Thomas-a-Becket (on the corner of Albany Road near Tesco's) is now occupied by the office of a 'Property Consultant' - seemingly a landlord - with an art gallery upstairs. The site has been a place of refreshment for hundreds of years - Chaucer refers to pilgrims to Becket's shrine in Canterbury stopping off at St Thomas a Watering for a rest. This refers to the crossing of a stream near where the pub stands. In the past few years it has hosted a restaurant and bar, but no more refreshments there for the time being.

The building has a number of iconic connections. In the early 1970s, David Bowie rehearsed on the 2nd floor with the prototype 'Spiders From Mars', while James Fox trained in the first floor boxing gym for his part in Performance. Henry Cooper trained there and bizarrely Dave Prowse (the original Darth Vader) is selling photos of him meeting Muhammed Ali there. John Martyn also did a photoshoot there. Way back in 1888, a suspect in the Jack the Ripper murders was arrested after 'leaving a shiny black bag at the Thomas a Becket public house' containing 'a very sharp dagger, a clasp knife, two pairs of very long and vary curious looking scissors, and two preservers'.

We can only hope that the building itself will survive, unlike the recently demolished Gin Palace nearby.

Deptford Fun City - back on the streets

'Deptford Fun City: a ramble through the music and history of New Cross and Deptford' is back in stock at Morph Music. 64 pages of sonic and social history for only £2.50. Morphs is in the basement of Moonbow Jakes cafe, 275 New Cross Road (tel. 0208 691 9977). You can also order the pamphlet online at Past Tense Publications.

Happy Birthday Greenwich Pirate

Friday night was the first birthday party for Greenwich Pirate zine. The Montague Arms in New Cross was packed out. Free Repeater were a bit too epic indie for my tastes, but Snow White were a long fringed noise riot, reminding me at times of Sonic Youth in some of their thrashier moments.

You can read more about the Pirate crew in this recent interview in the South London Press.

Kidstock

Yesterday's official re-opening of Telegraph Hill Park in New Cross included a 'Kidstock' showcase for local bands graduating from the Brockley-based Felix's School of Rock. The idea is that kids are taught to play together and then form bands to play a gig at the end. So we were treated to early and pre-teen bands like Mint, Van and The Growth Spurtz bashing out cover versions of Green Day, Nirvana and Rage Against the Machine, as well as some of their own songs. It was cool but also slightly unsettling - can 9 year olds really be so alienated to sing 'Teen Spirit' with deadpan conviction or write a song called 'You're born, you live, you die?'. Apparently so.

Maxi and Mistri

'Why you are WRONG about Maxi Priest' is an interesting post over at Uncarved, where Jon Eden attempts to reclaim the only reggae star named after Max Bygraves from the charge of being just a diluted crossover sell-out. Maxi Priest was born in Lewisham and started out with south-east Lewisham's Saxon Studio International sound system. He went to the now closed Roger Manwood Secondary School in Brockley Rise, as did the late Arsenal and Leeds player David Rocastle (and presumably Ian Wright too as Jon says he went to same school as Maxi).

Over the years Saxon has functioned as a finishing school for emerging reggae talent - as well as Maxi, Smiley Culture, Papa Levi, Tippa Irie and DJ Mistri all performed with them. The latter, famed for a thousand car stickers, 'was born in St Giles Hospital and raised in Camberwell & Deptford, South London... His first public experience as a disc-jockey started with Saxon Sound System at the age of 17... Mistri studied drama & dance at Goldsmiths University, and ballet, jazz and contemporary dance at Laban' (in New Cross).

Maxi Priest played on Jamaica Unlimited's 'Rise Up', recorded to support the Reggae Boyz Jamaica team in the 1998 World Cup. There's an interesting article discussing this whole phenomenon, 'Lions, Black Skins and Reggae Gyals' on the Goldsmiths site.

Help required for local festival

Help is required for some of the nights of the Brockley Max festival, which is in full-cry at present, check out the me at or Moira (the grande-fromage of the festival).

The line-up for the closing night is:

Comedienne Charmain Hughes has been shocking, charming and winning audiences with visual puns and verbal slapstick. Mixing sharp observation with joyful flights of fancy of surrealism - this is comedy with heart.Chris Lynam the infamous iconoclastic clown and unstoppable titan of humour with the multi-faceted operatic diva Kate McKenzie in Eric The Fred.

SOAN ALONE Martin Soan, Time Out comedy award winner 1991, reveals characters from history, literature, the world of the unknown and some that are not known at all, places, objects and an array of various animals. Sometimes it’s surreal, sometimes it’s just silly; colour, mood and music all coming together at an alarming rate to leave you feeling “What’s coming next?”.

Also Ska Daddy – “Who’s the Daddy”, a dynamic mix of imaginative retakes of classic ska standards with contemporary material - to end the festival with as bang. Also raffle prize draw. (advance tickets from Moonbow Jakes and Toad’s Mouth Too)

Joining in is fun and rewarding and you could make friends.

Magic, Mystery & Hidden History

The South East London Folklore Society have put on a program of talks on Magic, Mystery and Hidden History for the Brockley Max Festival. Those taking part either live in or around Brockley or have something to say about this part of south-east London. This set of talks will run from 3pm to 7.30pm on Saturday June 11th at the Brockley Jack Theatre, above the Brockley Jack pub, Brockley Road, Brockley, SE4 2DH.

A map can be found here, directions are at the bottom of the page.

Magic Mystery and Hidden History is also part of the excellent festival of mapping YOUR ARE HERE but why?

The event is free. The running order below is, like all things, subject to change. Please contact SELFS with any questions or to reserve yourself a place.

3.00pm: Doors Open

3.10: Alex Hodson: Down With the Fences: The Battles against the Enclosure of Sydenham Common and One Tree Hill.
Local people have a 400 year history of fighting to preserve open space against development and destruction. Some they lost... but some they won!

3.30: Neil Gordon-Orr: Brockley Footpath - an ancient track-way?
South-east London Historian Neil Gordon-Orr traces a possible sacred path to and through Brockley.

4.00: Break

4.15: Scott Wood: Ghosts and Monsters of Brockley and Surrounds.
SELFS organiser combines two of his favourite things in a talk on supernatural beasties in south-east London.

4.35: Steve Wilson: The Brockley Thing.
In the mid 1920s The Woodcraft Folk broke away from the Kibbo Kift, Britain's first modern working class pagan group - over "The Brockley Thing". What was this thing? What sort of thing was it?

5.10: Break

5.30: Chris Woods: Merriton and Brockley - The town in the marsh and the clearing in the wood.
A possible prehistory of the landscape of Brockley and Deptford Bridge from the Iron age to the Middle ages, "common greene" to Brockley Common.

6.00: Andy Worthington: The Battle of the Beanfield.
The local author of “Stonehenge: Celebration and Subversion” remembers, twenty years on, the events of the Battle of the Beanfield, the bloody end of the Stonehenge Free Festival.

6.30: Break

6.45: Kate Waterfield: Runa Megin.
Kate Waterfield discusses and performs pieces from the Runa Megin; an evocative exploration of the musical possibilities of ancient runes is rich with echoes of an Eastern European folk heritage and an experimental "extended technique" vocal approach.

A "musical delight to the ears" says Pentagram Magazine and who am I to argue?

The Brockley Jack is served by Brockley Station, Honor Oak Park Station and Crofton Park Station.

From Honor Oak Park Station turn left and walk to end of the road. Turn left at the traffic lights into Brockley Road. The theatre is situated 500 yards on your left. (Approx 10 minutes walk).

From Crofton Park Station turn left out of the station, then cross the road at the pedestrian crossing. The Jack is 200 yards on your right. (Approx 2 minutes walk).

Buses: 171, 172, 122 and P4 (stop in front of the theatre).

Battle of the Beanfield

Next Tuesday (7th June 2005), South London Radical History Group will be looking back 20 years to the infamous 'Battle of the Beanfield'. Brockley writer Andy Worthington, author of 'Stonehenge: Celebration and Subversion', will be talking about this infamous police riot when the state was mobilised to put a stop to the Stonehenge Free Festival, which a year earlier had attracted thousands of people. A film of the events, 'Operation Solstice', will also be shown.

It all takes place at the the Pullens Centre, 184 Crampton St Walworth SE17,
7.30pm, Admission Free. Its only 5 minutes from the Elephant and Castle (see map here

This event is part of the YOU ARE HERE BUT WHY? Free Festival of Mapping

Brockley Lovers

Lover's Rock 

According to the sleevenotes of The Lover's Rock Story, Lover's Rock had its origins in Upper Brockley Road where label founder Dennis Lascelles Harris owned a record store called Eve Records, complete with recording studio in the basement. The label of course gave its name to a whole reggae genre: the sleeve above is from its first 12", 'Reggae Woman' by George Williams (1977). (thanks to Thomas K. for this tip).

Strive to Survive Causing Least Suffering Possible: Flux of Pink Indians in Forest Hill

 

Part of the Transpontine mission is to document the various byways of music in South London. In this spirit, and courtesy of Graham Burnett's 'Anarcho-punk archives' [site now defunct], we bring you this treasure from Forest Hill, circa 1985. The teepee belonged to Steve Ignorant of anarcho-punk legends Crass, and was in the garden of the house where members of fellow punk pacifists Flux of Pink Indians lived. Flux put out their first (and in my view best) LP, 'Strive to Survive Causing Least Suffering Possible' in 1982. I even had the  'All the arms we need' poster from this on my bedsit wall.

Derek Birkett of the band later formed One Little Indian records, putting out lots of cool stuff by Bjork, Alabama 3, Kitchens of Distinction and many others. In fact, Bjork was interviewed at  what Sounds described as 'the One Little Indian HQ, Forest Hill' for Sounds in 1987 (read it here), when she was still in the Sugarcubes.

Update March 2024

Flux of Pink Indians lead singer Colin Latter has recently discussed this photo on Insta:

 'I remember this day in 1985 so well but never knew a photo existed of when Steve Igs of Crass came over to the Flux flat in Forest Hill to set up a tipi in the garden. Steve and I are crouching down on the left, both wearing whitish t shirts (I know, not black!). I came across the photo on the South East London Blogzine 'Transpontine' and the photo was taken by Graham Burnett of the excellent New Crimes fanzine who had popped up from Southend to visit us along with some friends. First thing Steve said to me was that it will take an hour or two to set up but we'll get it looking like it's up in 15 minutes. Otherwise the other members of Flux, who were watching us from the balcony, will start ribbing us if it looks like we're struggling. 

 It was just down from the station and just off the South Circular. It was a block of four ex police flats that have since been knocked down I believe... in Westbourne Drive'

The flat in Westbourne Drive was apparently part of a housing co-op, it seems through the same co-op they moved to a house  at 3 Fransfield Gove SE26 that became the One Little Indian HQ. That is the record label address given on releases from 1985 to 1987, so presumably here that The Sugarcubes came... just a few years afer A-ha were living round the corner!

Tales from the Crypt

Just got word of another Made in Deptford event, this time taking place on Sunday May 22nd. The venue is the Crypt at St. Pauls Church on Deptford High Street, Deptford. Its called Le Spectre and is a collaborative dance and music event featuring seven contemporary dance companies, live bands such as former local tango-goths Fantasmagoria, Dead Eye and Tim Whiteheads Jazz Ensemble. Film screenings by The Invited Cinema.

Doors at 5pm, tickets £7.

Find the Lost Club

New Cross musical and performance art group The Lost Club will be bringing their "rolling revue of poetry and music" to Cycliart, 308 New Cross Road, New Cross on Saturday 21st May. Start 8pm until late, £3 or £2.50 with a spiffy Lost Club badge.

Along with their house-band The Dirty Pins, No Star Hotel and Spawn of Maus* will be playing to the New Cross masses with Jukebox Jo spinning the discs.

LEft out of New Cross Gate, cross the road, right out of New Cross, corss the road. Buses: 36,436,53,178.

*Speaking of bands with odd names, not that there's anything wrong with Spawn of Maus, I couldn't help but notice there's a band called 'Chickenhawk' playing the Amersham Arms at some Rock night soon. If you're interested, be careful about doing a web search on the name, it's equivalent would be an American band playing somewhere on the edges of LA or New York called “Kiddie Fiddler” or “Nonce”. Very funny.

I Swear the Swear are There

New Cross punk-totty The Swear are celebrating the release of their new EP "Repeat it, Repeat it" with a number of gigs, I've just seen that I missed them last night at the Fox 'n' Firkin but they're having a launch party at the Par, the Six String Bar next Friday, 20th May.

It's £3 after 8pm with a happy hour (enjoy them while you still can) from 6pm-9pm. The Crowd, Good Shoes and Cut Throat DJ's are playing too. The boy memebers of The Swear have a bit of a glint in their eye at the moment it seems, dropping "rumours of spin the bottle with the swear boys for the first 10 through the door" and offering their (in their words) "sexy Irish guitar player Andrew will be auctioned off at >the end of the night to the highest bidder/s".

Oh to be young and musical in spring time. The Six String Bar is at 460 New Cross Rd, SE14, 5 minutes from New Cross and Deptford Bridge station. Many buses.

Film in Deptford

Café Crema and Fresh Films are hosting three events for the Made in Deptford Festival (More events of interest will appear as they come our way).

Fri May 20th has an outdoor screening (if the weather's good) on "terrible cult" film Withnail and I starring those two almost Doctor Who's Richard E Grant and Paul McCann. A good film, the lack of women in it not doubr being more than made up for by the burlesque usherettes dressed by squat haberdashers to the pretty things of New Cross PRANGSTA. Time is 8 until late, the screening starts at 9.00, entrance £6.00 including food (probably not cooked in a Withnail & I style. "Here hare here.")

On the Saturday (May 21st: 5-7pm) there is a free night of short films by local filmmakers. Café Crema opens from 4.30-9.30 pm for meals and drinks. Sunday (May 22nd) has live music by Belleville, and I quote a "mighty soul voice plus guitar, harmonica and sampled beats". The PRANGSTA usherettes are back, dress in your finest, the cost is £3.00 and attendees are advised to dress up.

Café Crema can reserve a total of 10 tickets over the phone (020 8320 2317, Mon-Fri 9.30-6.00.) Café Crema, 306 New Cross Road. Close to New Cross and New Cross Gate tube stations on the East London Line.

End of an Tasty Era

Many eras have ended recently, the John Peel era, the Arthur Miller era and, more happily, the "Doctor Who not being on" era.

Another sad one hit me last night when, tired and uninspired, I rang the Raj Bhojan for my dinner. After dithering over two of the veggie Balti's, the fruit, lemon juice and nut Nobrathon Balti Whala and the chick-peas in spicy sauce Kubli Balti Whala I settled on the zingy delights on the former.

Dinner arrived, along with two more onion bhaji's than I'd paid for and a complementary bottle of Cobra and the chirpy delivery chap handed me, as casual as anything "Our new menu".

And gone was the Nobrathon Balti Whala, gone the Kubli Balti Whala, gone too were the other veggie Balti's I never, in my lack of foresight, got to try. Not potato balti, alas, no cheese balti. The change was immediate. What should have been a tasty treat of a Nobrathon was an passable vegetable curry. Luckily we’d gone for side orders and the saag bhaji was up to its usual standards.

I am thinking of handing in my Raj Bhojan 25% eating in discount card in protest. I need tasty curry and I need it as near as possible. Ideally within lunging distance of a decent pub, I need suggests, my fellow Transpontinians and I need them before my next curry craving comes. Otherwise, this could escalate to a level the like of which hasn’t been seen since Chinese Takeaway to the gods Uncle Wrinkle close for a few months.

Help.

Blurt Out

Our own post-punk Morris Man Richard Sanderson has been in touch to let us know that post-punk jazzer legends Blurt are playing (the utterly not post-anything) Monteque Arms, 289 Queens Road, Peckham, SE15 2A, with Bulbous plus Bert Shaft tomorrow, that's Friday 13th May.

This'll be a good gig, I have "A Fish Needs a Bike" going thorugh my head right now, which may not help my hangover.

The Monty is left out of Queen Road, Peckham, walk for ten minutes to get there, right out of New Cross Gate, walk for about 10 minutes.

Wild Walworth Walk

The next South London Radical History Group event is planned for: TUESDAY 10th MAY.

Come on down to "A WILD WALWORTH WALK" (a packed but shortish circular tour) to hear about: How the British Union of Fascists were driven off the streets in 1931...
How the cops were attacked by giant baked beans in the '90s!... Pirate radios, crazy characters, squatting frenzy, victories & defeats...

Starting off with refreshments at 7.30pm at (the lovely & revamped) 56a Infoshop, 56 Crampton Street, London SE17. Tube/buses/trains: Elephant & Castle or Kennington

The Unofficial Greenwich.

Official Greenwich is easy to spot. The Cutty Sark, the perfect green of the Royal Park, the trinkets and object-d’art of the markets and the museums dedicated to Naval might built on the site of palaces built for Monarchs and masters. Seemingly everywhere one goes there is the crush of tourists streaming through the place, except for the one place they were all meant to go, the giant pimple of the Millennium Dome that sits quivering at the end of Greenwich peninsular.

Which is all good, well, mostly good but it is not the whole story. The Greenwich that gets me excited is the weird trinket stuffed beside the tat and toss at the market, the old paperback, the postcard from a place I’ve never heard of. The museum is a fantastic display of history but it is also a place where the dead still walk. The park is also the site of a pagan temple to Diana, bronze-age barrows and the home, some say, to a frost Goddess. It’s also the site of the UK’s only ever anarchist act of terrorism, loopy folk events from the past and a possible sighting of a sickly green spirit.

Geraldine Charles, the archivist of the National Maritime Museum, will talk at SELFS on 'Trails of the Unexpected in Royal Maritime Greenwich' from 8pm on Monday 9th May.

This talk will cover folklore, ghost stories and earth mysteries in and around the sites of the Palace of Placentia, Queen's House, Greenwich Hospital and more, which is the site now occupied by Greenwich University and The National maritime Museum. The talk will be illustrated with photographs.

Geraldine is a registered archivist working at the National Maritime Museum, she is also a biologist with a special project on Pythons & Boas, a parasitologist (squirrel’s gut and rectal content), an expert in the Victorian and Egyptian Symbolism of Abney Park Cemetery, a published poet, a founding Trustee of the Families in British India Society, trainee bongo player and sings in the ‘world music’ group Songlines. Our kind of person.

SELFS meets every second Monday of the month (except this August) upstairs at The Spanish Galleon, 48 Greenwich Church Street, SE10 9BL. Talks start at 8.00pm and costs £2.50 / £1.50 concessions.

Greenwich Mainline & DLR: Turn left from the main exit, walk about 5-10 minutes, the Galleon is on your right, at the cross-roads.

Cutty Sark DLR: Turn left from the station, right when you get to the road, the Spanish Galleon is across the road. Buses: 177, 180, 188, 199, 286, 386. Contact SELFS.

Pirates have sauntered, gut-girls have belly laughed and, very recently, Morris men have danced badly. The Deptford Jack-in-the-Green paraded through there last year, mitten crabs creep about the place, the church of the High Street is linked in with Old Nick Hawksmoor and his possible mad plans and the site of the Millennium Dome is said to be haunted by George Livesey. The pub SELFS meets at, the Spanish Galleon, has secret tunnels allegedly linking it to the Maritime Museum and a sailor’s uniform was found walled up in the cellar.

Local Story-teller and GreenSpace Guide Rich Sylvester is running a series of two-hour story-walks “[e]xploring the Stories of Greenwich Peninsula from Vikings to the Dome”. The first is this Sunday, 8th May, meet at 2.30 pm at the top of the escalator North Greenwich Tube, the route is from the Dome to Greenwich. “It all happened here!” says Rich. “With a few facts, several stories and many myths we will shine a light on Viking kidnappers, Elizabethan pirates [phworr, pirates], convicts, Ship-builders and Entrepreneurs of the Greenwich Peninsula.”

For Friday 20th May meet at 6.30 pm and do the same route as the above, but widdershins, so meet at the Cutty Sark to walk to the Dome. It being Friday night there will be a 20 minute break for liquid refreshment.

Sunday 22nd May is back from the top of the escalator North Greenwich Tube and is a circular ramble called "Shades of Green". Rich says: “[a] blend of stories of the past while we "keep 'em peeled" for sightings of the surprising Wildlife of River and Peninsula."

Tickets are £5 (£4 concessions) and advance booking (which is recommended) from Rich at 07833 538143 or email Rich from here. Buses to North Greenwich: 108, 422, 188, 161, 486. Tube to North Greenwich: North Greenwich.

Troublesome Things

With our taste in all things supernatural, we're pleased to report that The Fairies Band are playing a Live in Rocklands event at the Amersham Arms, 388 New Cross Road, Rocklands (that’s New Cross, bless their psycho-geographical hearts), SE14 on Wednesday 11 May, 8pm-midnight with The Violets, Shard, Empty Vessels (there's a band name that's not been properly utilised, "bloody odd" says the Rocklands website, "hurrah for that" says Transpontine). There's also DJs Unemployable Welsh Scum + Dirty Sound

Entry £5 on the door (£3 concessions), the Amersham is opposite New Cross train/tube and right near New Cross Gate and Deptford Bridge docklands light rail.

May Day

Various May Day bits and pieces going on tomorow. As well as the Jack in the Green in Borough (see below), there's the May Day demonstration from Clerkenwell Green (12) to Trafalgar Square, with music promised at the end, plus a surpize EuroMayDay event at a location to be announced at the last minute.

Tomorrow night there's some kind of May Day social at Moonbow Jakes in Brockley. Not sure exactly what's happpening, but it will include the Strawberry Thieves Socialist Choir and I have been asked to come along and say a few words about the origins of May Day. Starts around 8.

There's also a May Day anti-racist music night in Catford at the Power-league Sports Club, Canadian Avenue with Eternity Sound System.

If you don't mind heading even further South and East on Monday, there's a May Day festival in Whitstable complete with May pole, jack in the green, etc.

Brixton Prison Blues

Doing a talk at South London Radical History Group on 'Brixton Prison Blues - the history of Brixton Prison and some of its illustrious inhabitants'. It all happens on Tuesday April 26th 2005, 7.30 pm at the Pullens Centre, 184 Crampton Street, SE17. Admission free.

Come along and hear about hunger strikes, escapes, war resisters and various other rebels and find out which songs and which books were written there.

Spring Celebrations in South East London

Beating the Bounds is an English tradition where the boundaries of a certain area, parish, town or county, is marked out, sometimes by bouncing people off of boundary markers, more often by whacking the boundaries themselves. The general idea is that without maps and road signs, folk in the past would need some pretty clear reminders of exactly where one place starts and the other ends.

Giving the boundaries of Lee the thrashing it richly deserves is the Dacre (women’s) Morris Troop on Saturday 23rd April. They’ll be starting at their namesake pub the Dacre Arms, Kingswood Place, SE13, 10.30am for an 11.00am start, processing along the boundary of the old Dacre estate before calling at the Duke of Edinburgh at about midday and the Woodman at about 1pm (both pubs are along Lee High Road) and finishing at the Dacre at about 2.30-3.00.

All are welcome and the Dacre web page is here. Information and directions (you’ll need them) to the Dacre are here

Another tradition that emerges locally at this time of year is the Deptford Jack-in-the-Green, who some of us followed around Greenwich last year and the jolly green giant is going around Borough this year. If you have not seen the Deptford Jack before, and not made it to the Hastings or Rochester Jacks in the Green, there is nothing more evocative of spring than seeing a bunch of tipsy people in fancy-dress coming up the road at you, one of whom is dressed as a tree.

The dressing of the Jack will take place on Saturday 30th April at Horseshoe Inn, Melior Street, SE1 (which coincides with a Star Trek meeting so, ha-har, come see when minority interests collide) and the Jack and co head from the Horseshoe from 12.30pm on Sunday May 1st before setting out to the following pubs (at approximately the following times):

12.30pm at the very latest: Leave from the Horseshoe Inn, Melior Street,
1.00pm: Royal Oak, Tabard Street,
1.30pm: Lord Clyde, Clennam Street (this is possibly the shortest street in London - it is just off Marshalsea Road)
2.00pm: Founder's Arms, Hopton Street, Bankside (near Tate Modern)
3.45pm: Market Porter, Stoney Street
4.30pm: The Horseshoe Inn, Melior Street,all in the Borough, London SE1 area.

Sarah Crofts, who organised this fantastic event, says "All of the these stops are confirmed, but between the Founders Arms and the Market Porter, we may venture on to the Millennium Bridge and cross to the north side of the river to the Centre Page, Knightrider Street, near St. Paul's. This depends entirely on the weather; Jack does not like high winds and as it is very exposed on the bridge, it may not be possible for him to make the crossing.

Everyone is welcome on both Saturday evening and Sunday. Most of these pubs do food on Sundays, but the longest stop around lunch time will be at the Founders Arms. The Horseshoe also does food if you want to have something to eat when we return."

The Sunday parade/pub-crawl coincides with the monthly folk session at the Horseshoe Inn. A map to the Horseshoe is here: http://tinyurl.com/4bgks

For more information on the Jack and the Lee Beating of the Bounds, contact Sarah. For more information on this honest working class, urban tradition, go to Sarah’s website.

The Loaf has Risen

Use Your Loaf Centre for Social Solidarity has risen from the grave. Their squatted bakery on Deptford High Street was evicted last year, but the collective are starting a new project at the Ragged School, Hales St, Deptford SE8. This time they have negotiated with the owners to use it until the builders start work, which could be quite some time. There will be a regular Friday night cafe starting next week (22nd April) from 7 -12. Other activities will include:

Tuesdays: Capoeria 5-7pm, Dance 7-9pm and Solidarity Federation (fortnightly) 7pm onwards.
Weds: Dance 7-9pm Capoerira 7-9pm
Thurs:Capoeira 7-9pm, Yoga 7-9pm.
Fri: Capoeira 5-7pm, Use your Loaf cafe 7-12pm.

Other plans include setting up a darkroom. There is plenty of room for projects to happen and exhibtion space as well, so if you've got any ideas come along to the next collective meeting on Weds 20th April at 5pm or email useyourloaf@btinternet.com

I go out on Friday night

Friday night (that's Friday 15th April) is looking like a busy one, looks like I'm never going to get to see the last episode of Fingersmith that I've got glaring at me from the video I've put it on.

So, the Para, err, Six String Bar at 460 New Cross Road, New Cross (left out of New Cross station, right out of Deptford Bridge) has the Metro Riots, Crash Convention and DJs Duckie Music, C:B D:Js and Dirty Sounds. £0 before 8pm, £3 after. (from looking at the band url's, it looks a bit rock for my tastes, mind but then many do love rock.)

Angular Records are back in the Venue's beautiful basement bar with a night of "PUNK ! : Old / New / Post / Art / Sex / Delicate" (hooray!) featuring The Violets, Twisted Charm and The Phobics. Time is 9pm until 2am, the Venue, if you didn't know, is on the New Cross Road, SE14, though you'll need to go down the side, Clifton Rise, to get into the basement. The bouncers on the main door look a bit confused when locals turn up there.

The Venue Price is left out of New Cross Gate station, right out of New Cross, £3 or £2 with a hand stamp from folks the Lava Club night.

Eclectic Electric are doing their thing at the Montague Arms, 289, Queens Road, New Cross, SE15 2PA. Expect plenty of danceable "electro(nica), d&b, hip-hop, dub, funk, global ect." (got to love the 'ect.', cowards) tunes from 8-12.30, a pie-eyed and pretty crowd dressed up to the nines, installations, fire dancers and some frantic bongo-playing. Entry will be around £3 and just sitting in the cob-webbed wonder that is the Montague Arms is something worth paying for.

The Montague Arms, Transpontine's number one magical pub in south-east London, is right out of New Cross Gate, left out of Queen Town Road. There's loads of buses.

A Spell in Time

Story Telling in the Hope is a monthly story-telling club for adults who meet 7.30pm at the Bob Hope Bar, Wythfield Road, Eltham, SE9.

Their April session is on Sunday 17th and is ‘Tales of Hidden Bulgaria’ by A Spell in Time, who are the “only Bulgarian myth and folklore storytelling and performing arts group in the UK” apparently.

I heard some utterly captivating traditional Bulgarian music on Resonance a few days ago and Spell in Time will be performing music with their story-telling so it should be another excellent, wombling event. If you don’t want to take my word for it, their patron is none other than big Ron Hutton who says “Primal theatre from the heart of Bulgarian myth and folklore... A brilliant blend of storytelling, ritual and music combined with divine Bulgarian singing”

Story Telling at the Hope is £5 entry, £3 concessions, email Tony Aylwin for more details.

Great Horned Beasts

Possibly in celebration of all things frisky and spring like, the Lewisham Art House is exhibiting the painted driftwood of Charlie P! on the theme of “Minotaurs, Unicorns and other Horny Beasts”. The blurb describes these works as the artist examining “Greek and Pagan Myths with his usual eclectic mix of rich oil painting and found objects.”

I saw Charlie P!’s (that ! isn’t a typo) last exhibition, Angels Descending, at the Art House last year, which had quite a few pictures of male pop-stars like Tupac and Michael Stipe looking winged, wanton eyed, angelic and available and, sure enough, this exhibitions offers “Musician Tricky appears as the Green Man of Pagan Myth and a drop-leaf table top is transformed into a triptych opening to reveal a Garden of Earthly Delights.”

Which is all fair, there are plenty of pictures of goth girls and waifs done up like S&M vampires, ragged pixies or some other saucy mythical creature out there for straight boys* so it’s only fair some gents get the same treatment. The exhibition is free and runs until the 1st May. Lewisham Arthouse, 140 Lewisham Way LONDON SE14 6PD, the website is here. Opening Times are Wednesday to Sunday from 12pm till 6pm

*so I’m told.

Spring Rites!

The sap is rising, trees are unfurling, daffodils are swaying gently in the breeze as fat and furry bumble-bees buss by. Blossom, well, it's blossoming, isn't it? It's Spring and it is in my step.

In keeping with the season, my fellow Transpontinian, Mr Neil Gordon-Orr is speaking at the South East London Folklore Society (SELFS) on Spring Festivals in South London on Monday 11th April. Neil is a local historian particularly interested in forgotten and radical history. In the run-up to May Day and Beltane, he will discuss spring rites from Pagan times to the present day, concentrating on rituals and festivals in South London

SELFS meets every second Monday of the month upstairs at The Spanish Galleon, 48 Greenwich Church Street, SE10 9BL. Talks start at 8.00pm and costs £2.50 / £1.50 concessions.

Greenwich Mainline & DLR: Turn left from the main exit, walk about 5-10 minutes, the Galleon is on your right, at the cross-roads.

Cutty Sark DLR: Turn left from the station, right when you get to the road, the Spanish Galleon is across the road.
Buses: 177, 180, 188, 199, 286, 386.
Email