Chinese protest posters in New Cross

A series of protest posters have appeared around New Cross with the hashtags #FreeChina #EndDxicatorship (referring to  Chinese leader Xi Jinping who has just had his position extended to a third term)

'No obedience, no patriarchy, no police violence'

Support for Peng Lifa, who was arrested after staging a one person banner protest in Beijing last week

'No more fear, we can do this'

These photos were taken on the streets of SE14, CNN has featured similar posters put up at Goldsmiths College

Update 8 December 2022 (all from Goldsmiths):

#thepostermovement

'we stand with Uyghurs; we stand with Iranian women'

'Stand with uyghurs, stand with tibet, stand with hong kong, stand with taiwan, stand with iranians, stand with ukraine, stand with all peoples resisting dictatorship oppression and violence'

'we want freedom, we want food on our tables, we want to breathe, we want art, we want democracy, we want to love, stand with chinese people'

 

Green Guide to London: vegetarian food & bikes in 1990

 Being vegetarian/vegan back in 1990 wasn't quite as easy as it us today. Supermarkets had restricted  options, and many cafes and restaurants were similarly limited. Enter 'The Green Guide to London' written by Bill Breckon and published in association with Friends of the Earth. The 'comprehensive handbook for all environmentally aware Londoners' included, among other things, vegetarian and wholefood friendly shops and eating out places.  

Here's a few extracts from the Inner South West and Inner South East sections of the book.

Few of these places are still there with Brixton Wholefoods and Fareshares Food Co-op in Crampton Street SE17 among the survivors. Many more are fondly remembered.  The Brockley Bean has been mentioned here before, but who recalls Bean Thinking in Greenwich, Well Bean in Blackheath,  Nosebag Wholefoods SE18 or  The Veggy Table/Veganomics in Lewisham? What about Cross Currants in New Cross Road, Nunhead Deli and Wholefoods in Evelina Road or Full of Beans in Rushey Green?  Seemingly there were a lot of beans to be had! I was very fond of the vegetable patties at the Jacaranda Garden by Brixton Rec.

Bike shops were also listed:

South West London bike shops 1990

South East London bike shops 1990

Come Dine in Blue

'Come Dine in Blue'  at hARTslane Gallery in New Cross (next to Sainsburys) is a participatory art project created and produced by Tisna Westerhof & Cristiana Bottigella. As part of the Lewisham Borough of Culture, more than 100 participants of all ages, from 8 different Lewisham based community groups took part in 'a year-long art programme aiming to investigate and bring to light the diversity of cultural heritage in Lewisham, giving voice to five different communities of people who left their country to find new homes in the UK: the Asian and the Latin-American communities of New Cross; first and third generation African and Afro-Caribbean Lewisham residents and Middle Eastern refugees'.

The outcome is a 'Blue and White dining room installation telling stories of identity and belonging' centred around a dining room table with ceramics as well as tea towels and other works. It really is very moving with objects embodying people's memories and journeys.

'No one can take away the dances you've already had'

The exhibition continues until 6 October 2022. If you miss it try and get hold of the excellent book that accompanies it.

Enough is Enough

In our latest round up of radical messaging from the streets of SE London it's no surprize to see the cost of living crisis taking centre stage.

'Don't Pay' stickers and posters have been ubiquitous recently, as the movement to encourage people who can't/won't pay their rocketing energy bills steps up. 

Don't pay poster in Catford shopping centre

Don't pay sticker in SE14

As part of a national day of action on October 1st (a day also marked by rail and post office strikes), Don't Pay Lewisham organised a burning of energy bills by Lewisham Town Hall in Catford:

'Trickle down is a lie, profits rise while people die'

The tax cuts for the wealthy mini-budget in September has also prompted opposition from local cats..

'F**k the fat cats', phone box in Jerningham Road SE14

'Liz Truss - tax cats for the fat cats' in New Cross

'Liz Truss wants the poor to pay'

'say no to Tory tax cuts' - Wonder if Liz Truss will notice this road sign on New Cross Road on her way from Greenwich to Westminster?
(interesting use of vinyl lettering and cat cut outs)

'Billions wasted on inadequate ppe contracts and track and trace to his mates, an insulting 3% rise to NHS staff' (posters in Brockley seemingly dating from the Boris Johnson days)

'Enough is Enough - General Strike Now' - on Bermondsey Cycleway 10

Of course the climate crisis isn't going away either - an upside down Penelope Cruz seems to be lending her head to 'Just Stop Oil' thanks to this poster on film poster montage in Queens Road, Peckham.

The far right might be on the rise in many parts of the world. but London Anti Fascist Assembly are on alert in SE14:

Update 12 November 2022:

A new Prime Minister but not much else has changed. The New Cross Road sign has been through several iterations with its ongoing commentary on the political landscape. Latest is 'General Election Now' ('Rishi Sunak has too much money' underneath in smaller lettering).

'Tax the rich' outside Goldsmiths

'the Tories are dismantling the NHS'

See related posts:

Ukraine Crisis on the Walls of London 2022

Recent Radical Street Art 2021

Covid South London Street Art 2020

More Covid South London Street Art 2020

Black Lives Matter in South London 2020

Millwall Murals and nearby street art 2020

Brockley stickers 2019

Radical Posters and Stickers in New Cross 2014

Lewisham Diggers 1968

Browsing through the interesting Reveal Digital 'Independent Voices' archive I came across mention of the 1960s Lewisham Diggers, inspired by the counter cultural San Francisco Diggers who were in turn inspired by the Diggers of the 17th century English revolution.

A 1967 notice in the international Equality journal from Mike Malet of Lewisham Anarchist Group talks of plans 'to return the land and its wealth to humanity, to people. We will repeat the the process - modified for a modern, technical urban environment - by declaring a "Free Place" (a house and garden maybe), the produce and responsibility of which is free and communal'.

A later update from January 1968, 'News from Lewisham Diggers', suggests that about 50 people were interested in the plan for a community with hopes of purchasing a site. In the mean time 'There was a suggestion of a summer migration to our west coast for the summer where we hoped to dole out free soup and have a make shift campsite'.

I wonder if the plans for a Lewisham commune every went any further? Did the trip to the west country come off? Maybe the worldwide revolutionary events of '68 put such plans on the back burner. Malet seems to have continued as the Lewisham Anarchists contact from his address at 61B Granville Park SE13 before moving to Dundee in the 1970s and continuing his radical activities there.

Would love to hear from anybody involved.

 

Contacts in Freedom,  17 February 1968

See also: The White Panthers and the 1970s counter culture in Abbey Wood.

Falkor the Dragon spotted in SE14

Wolfgang Petersen, director of the Neverending Story, died last week. Is that why Falkor the dragon was flying over New Cross yesterday? 

Swimming at Birchmere Lake, Thamesmead

Going for an outdoor swim at Thamesmead hasn't been top of my bucket list, but when the opportunity arose this weekend for a dip at Birchmere Lake I thought I would give it a go and I am glad I did. PTP Coaching, who run the lake swimming at Beckenham Place Park, were putting on sessions with support of Peabody to try out the lake with a view to possibly making it an ongoing swimming venue in future.

The lake is mainly used for fishing at present, but it is a big body of water with plenty of room for swimmers and anglers to co-exist. Yesterday there was a 500m swimming circuit completely separate from the area where people were fishing, with lifeguards and a sloping entry point for easy access to the lake. On this very hot day getting in to cold (actually lukewarm) water was a treat, and this could definitely work as a regular swimming spot. With outdoor swimming become increasingly popular there is a need for more such places - at present apart from Beckenham Lake and the lidos (Charlton, Brockwell Park, Tooting Bec) there is very little in South London. 

 

Malcolm Hardee sets himself on fire as a teenage DJ

The famed South London comedian Malcolm Hardee made his name in the 1980s, including opening The Tunnel comedy club next to the Greenwich entrance to the Blackwall Tunnel and then Up the Creek in Creek Road, Greenwich. He went on to the run The Wibbley Wobbley floating pub in Greenland Dock, Rotherhithe, near to which he sadly drowned in 2005.

Born in Lewisham Hospital in 1950, Hardee grew up in Grover Court, Loampit Hill SE13. By all accounts he had quite a wild youth of petty crime interspersed with DJing under the name Wolfe Hardee. This story from the Daily Mirror (30 October 1968) feature 19 year old disc jockey Wolfe Hardee of Blessington close, Lewisham, whose party piece was dowsing his clothes in methylated spirt and setting himself on fire.

'The next number from DJ Wolfe is a real sparkler' (Daily Mirror, 30 October 1968)

One of his DJ gigs in this period was at Club Tighten Up above the Ordnance Arms in York Road SE1 (later the Jubilee Tavern), a dance club sponsored by the staff association from the nearby Greater London Council building - as mentioned here.

Music Monday: Saint Jude 'No Angels'

 

 

Forest Hill based Saint Jude (Jude Woodhead) has been putting out music for a few years now and gradually getting more attention in terms of critical interest, radio plays on BBC6 Music etc. A couple of his tracks have over  a million plays on Spotify. I am sure it's only a matter of time before he goes to the next level and I wonder whether the breakbeat driven 'No Angels'  is going to be the song to do it. It certainly should be, and comes with a great video featuring scenes around SE23, Corsica Studios and elsewhere.

The music and video are partly inspired by Covid 19 urban wanderings, as explained at Slow Dance:

 '“The message in ‘No Angels’ is about more than lockdown specifically,” Jude says of the track. ‘Community and solidarity is the most important thing, and will always be in conflict with the forces of capital and money.’ With knowing nods to sonic movements that are so deeply associated with the capital’s working class neighbourhoods, the track’s chorus hook says it all in its simplicity: “you say the money doesn’t matter too much / you say the love for your people is enough.” Savage Messiah, Laura Grace Ford’s graphic novel about London outcasts and psychogeography within the city, provided inspiration during the single’s incubation period'.

Bethlem Museum of the Mind/Bethlem Gallery

The Bethlem Royal Hospital in Beckenham (Monks Orchard Road) is one of the world's oldest mental health institutions. Starting out near Bishopsgate in the City of London in the 13th century,  it moved to Moorfields in 1676, and then to St George's Fields in Southwark in 1815, now site of the Imperial War Museum.  It moved again to the spacious grounds of Monks Orchard in 1930. The word 'bedlam' derives from its name.

It has in short been a place of much suffering and some healing over many years, a history that is covered in the Bethlem Museum of the Mind located in the hospital's former admin building.

The stairs to the museum are guarded by two statues which for centuries adorned the gates to Bethlam at its former locations.

'

The museum  aims to record 'the lives and experience and celebrates the achievements of people with mental health problems' as well as providing an overview of the history of their treatment, much of it cruel.

The well lit and contemporary designed museum also features original work by artists and former patients such as Richard Dadd and Louis Wain (famous for his cat pictures), while the Bethlem Gallery on the ground floor is an exhibition space for art by current service users.

On my recent visit I took part in a community Cyanotype Workshop Drop-in at Bethlem Gallery with Melanie King. The technique involves laying objects on solution treated paper and exposing in sunlight, leaving images behind. In my example below this included a fern, a feather, some Chinese coins and a small Kuan Yin figure.

Mad Pride sticker on Bethlem car park sign

The Museum/Gallery is free and is open Wednesday - Friday, as well as some Saturdays  (check website for details).

 

'F*ck Covid Hoaxers'

'F*ck covid hoaxers - they're antisemitic dickheads'

Nunhead, July 2022