British Sea Power

Not sure mentioning a South London location in passing is enough to be included in the Great Transpontine Songbook, but Carrion by British Sea Power certainly deserves an honorable mention:

Carry on inside of your heart
Under the brine you won't notice the dark
Can stone and steel and horses heels
Ever explain the way you feel?
From Scapa Flow to Rotherhithe,
I felt the lapping of an ebbing tide

Death of a Brockley Suffragist - or not?

Here's an odd story from the struggle for women's suffrage. First of all, a report from Votes for Women, paper of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) from November 21 1913:

Death of Suffragist Protester
'Death cannot kill what cannot die' - William Penn

With the deepest regret we have to record the death of William Edward Bethell, of Brockley, who, for bravely reminding a Cabinet Minister of the Government's duty to the women of the country, was so brutally injured on November 7 by the Liberal stewards who ejected him, that he has since succumbed to heart failure as a result of the treatment he received.

Mr Bethell's brother has more than once raised his voice at Liberal meetings on behalf of the women's cause, but last Friday week was the first occasion on which Mr William Edward Bethell determined that he too would join the band of brave protestors, who, although knowing beforehand what to expect, do not shrink from running the most serious risks to life and limb when they hear that a member of the Cabinet is to address a Liberal audience. So he was one of those who went to the North Camberwell Radical Club, Albany Road, on November 7, to remind Dr Macnamara, Secretary to the Admiralty, of the women's struggle for liberty that the Government are trying so hard to suppress.

A man and a woman, both of whom had dared to utter a Suffragist protest, were thrown out before him with considerable violence. Then his turn came. He rose to his feet and dealt his first and last blow in the cause of women's freedom. No sooner did he open his mouth to speak than he was set upon by a number of stewards, dragged out of the meeting, and so savagely assailed that his nose was broken and his knee put out.

The full particulars of what followed are not yet available, but it is known that he arrived home later in the evening, his knee and head in bandages, and was so ill that he was obliged to stay in bed all Saturday and Sunday. Being a bricklayer's labourer, he made an effort on the Monday morning (November 10) to go to work, but he rapidly became so much worse that he had to return home in the course of the day and again take to his bed. He never got up again. Last Sunday he passed away.

The report goes on to mention that his brother, whose address is given as 49 Hardcastle Road, Peckham, had been beaten up by stewards in a similar incident in August 1912.

But was the story true? A couple of weeks later The Times reported that police 'have been inquiring into the matter at Brockley and Peckham, but it is understood that they have been unable to trace the death of Bethell'. Furthermore 'Bethell's father, who lives at Coldbath-street, Brockley, states that his son William Edward went to Canada last year, and so far as he knows is still there'. The Times confirms that the North Camberwell meeting did take place, but reports Dr Macnamara's denial that there had been any violence (Times Dec 1 1913).

What's more a Bethell family history site shows that William Edward Bethell did indeed go to Canada, where he lived until his death in 1951 after an active life including being injured at the Battle of the Somme. It does confirm that he was a bricklayer when he arrived in Canada, and that his parents lived at 58 Cold Bath Street (now Coldbath Street, SE13).

As for the brother, Walter the source of the seemingly untrue story, the family history site states that he was born at 98 Foxberry Road, Brockley, and that in 1905 he was convicted of fraud. Was the suffragist death story an attempted fraud for financial gain? A mischievous or malicious prank at his brother's expense? Who knows...

Elephants

There are elephants all over London at the moment, more than 250 in fact, as part of the Elephant Parade to raise awareness of the endangered Asian elephant. These fine specimens are next to the river by County Hall .

My favourite is this one by More London (Tooley Street, SE1), decorated with a map of parts of London.

It is surely the only Elephant in the world - indeed the only statue of any kind in the world - with the words 'New Cross Gate' written above its mouth.

Community Action Lewisham

Community Action Lewisham is a new activist group, planning to tackle issues such as housing and racism in the local area. They meet on the first Wednesday of the month upstairs in the Amersham Arms in New Cross. Next one is on Wednesday 2nd June, 7.30 pm.

Thanks to them I just found out that there's also a Food not Bombs group locally:

'Bexley/Lewisham/Dartford Food Not Bombs is a group of volunteers who take good quality within-date food which would have been thrown away by businesses, cook it up, and distribute it to homeless hostels and day centres... We collect food from Kelsey's Farm, Ruxley Farm Shop and Swanley Bakery (Sidcup and Swanley branch), and then cook and serve it up at St Mungo's Pagnell Street, a homeless hostel near New Cross station'.

Joe Grind

More South London rap, this time from Joe Grind (think Giggs is his brother). Step Back features the Aylesbury Estate, Portland Street, Bells Garden Estate, Peckham Hill Street and various other Pecknam and Walworth locations.

Won't repeat what I said about Giggs here before, but same applies.

(thanks to B. for spotting this)

Walking SE1 (1): Trinity Church Square

Rambling a little further afield than the New Cross, Deptford, Brockley Transpontine heartland, the first in a new series of wanderings through SE1 (who knows maybe eventually I will get to wander all the streets in the SE postcode area, but that may take some time).

Anyway to start with here's Holy Trinity Church, in Trinty Church Square in Borough (historically known as Trinity Square). Built in the 1820s it has been out of use as a Church since the 1960s and is now the home of Henry Wood Hall, a rehearsal and recording space for the London Philharmonic and other orchestras. Among the musical luminaries who have used its facilities are Leonard Bernstein and György Ligeti.

The statue in the foreground has some interesting folklore. I have read the tale several times that it is the oldest statue in London, a medieval depiction of King Alfred the Great moved to the square from Westminster Hall. However an alternative theory has recently been put forward that it was in fact the work of the sculptor James Bubb and was made at a similar time to the construction of the church (i.e. 1820s).

The arguments are quite convincing, namely that it is the wrong shape and material to be one of the Westminster Hall 14th century statues. The 'oldest statue in London' theory seems to date back to the 1920s - a 1911 survey of Royal statues in London mentions it as the only London statue of an early English king, but makes no claims for its antiquity. Indeed it was stated at the time that the oldest statue in London was actually of Queen Elizabeth, in St Dunstans Church, Fleet Street (report of a lecture on London statues by FW Hill, Ottowa Citizen, 17 April 1911).

Trinity Square was developed at the same time as the Church by Trinity House, the body responsible for lighthouses. Indeed rent and other income from the square is a significant source of revenue for the lighthouse authority. The body had its origins in Deptford - indeed its full name is the 'Corporation of Trinity House of Deptford Strond'. But that's another story.

East East London

A great exodus from South East London yesterday on the first full day of the extended London Overground East London Line, celebrated by Brockley Central and others. I went to Columbia Road flower market in the morning and then back again to a party in Mare Street, Hackney later on. Left the party at 9:45 pm, took two buses to Dalston Junction and was back in New Cross Gate by 10:30. Others headed to Brick Lane and Spitalfields. Seemingly, as Diamond Geezer reports, many from the other side of London took the train south to check out what we have to offer. Must have been like this when the Berlin wall came down!

As I said here before, the Line could shift people's mental geography of the city to an East/West polarity rather than just a north/south divide: 'By directly linking Croydon and Hackney (or at least Dalston) via Brockley and New Cross it could generate a sense of East London that crosses the river. Today when people talk about East London they generally mean the Eastern part of the city north of the Thames, whereas in Victorian times for instance, Deptford was often described as being in East London'.

D.O.A: Canadian punk in New Cross

Canadian punk band D.O.A. toured the UK in 1990. Their last gig was in New Cross, and they split up soon after (though they later reformed). In his book 'I, Shithead: A Life in Punk', Joe Keithley from the band recalls the famous hospitality of the Venue's bouncers:

'Our last show of that tour was in London at the Venue in New Cross on JUne 7. The show was packed and we played a raunchy set. I was hoarse as hell. There was a shitty aspect to the show. The club had hired rugby hooligans to do securtiy. We couldn't see much from the stage, but Jay Scott had a bird's eye view of what was going on from the closed-circuit camera in the club's office. The bouncers were roughing up the punks at the door and bashing anybody who had been thrown out of the pit. One kid got really hurt, and somebody called the cops. Scott could see the bouncers running to throw their brass knuckles and the small truncheons they had been carrying into a bucket. The bucket was hidden in a back room before the cops arrived and the bar manager helped hide the blood evidence'.

Here's their 1980 anthem World War 3:

Goldsmiths Students Not Suspects

Students and staff at Goldsmiths in New Cross have been mounting a vigorous campaign against the new 'points based' system for immigration.

They say that the 'rules represent a serious threat to campus democracy and freedom of speech. They require non-EU students and staff to have biometric ID cards, involve demands on the financial background of applicants and mean that staff are obliged to report students to the UK Border Agency when they have not attended regularly'.

The Students not Suspects campaign has highlighted a number of cases where this bureaucratic nightmare has resulted in serious disruption to students' lives. The campaing has held a number of big meetings at the college and has produced some snazzy t-shirts for both students and staff. The staff version, below, states 'we are not border agents' - since the rules do in effect ask college staff to become an extension of the border police.

The latest initiative is a petition to Pat Loughrey, the new Warden of Goldsmiths, calling on the college managment to support the campaign:

'I am writing to express my grave concerns with the implementation of the UK Border Agency's (UKBA) Points Based System of Immigration (PBSI) at Goldsmiths. By imposing the UKBA's agenda of national security and border control on universities, PBSI has effectively turned students into suspects and staff into border agents. These xenophobic and reactionary tendencies run counter to the openness and free exchange of ideas necessary for research, teaching, and learning to occur.

Furthermore, the UKBA has transferred the financial and administrative burden of PBSI, which is considerable, onto individual staff and students, resulting in elevated workloads and stress. By increasing the cost and complexity of the visa application process, the UKBA has rendered universities less accessible and less welcoming to non-EU nationals, thus potentially damaging the reputation of higher education in the UK. The result will be less cultural and social diversity in higher education, to the detriment of Goldsmiths and the sector overall'.

You can read the full petition here - signatures are being collected until May 25th.

Given that this is an area with a high migrant population, it would be good too to link with non-students in the area who are also at the receiving end of Border Agency attention. For instance, in October 2009, the Bromley and Lewisham local immigration team raided homes across the area, detaining a Bolivian man in New Cross Road, two Turkish men in Pomeroy Street, a Nigerain woman in Catford and a Brazilian man in Forest Hill (Border Agency press release, 29 Oct. 2009; see also this raid in February 2009).

The Border Agency are sometimes to be seen out on force on New Cross Road, mounting joint operations with the Transport Police. The deal seems to be that if someone is caught with the wrong ticket or not enough money on their Oyster card they can then be questioned by the Border Agency and ultimately detained. A similar proposal in Arizona has quite rightly been criticised as outrageous, but nobody much seems to notice that it is already happening here. Perhaps next time this happens in New Cross, students and others should demonstrate against it.

Free Film Screenings at Broca

A couple of free film screenings coming up at The Broca (4 Coulgate Street, Brockley, London, SE4 ) courtesy of local author and activist Andy Worthington.

Thursday May 27, 7 pm: “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” (Dir. Polly Nash and Andy Worthington, 2009 ). This new documentary tells the story of Guantanamo, focusing on three British prisoners and providing a powerful rebuke to those who believe that Guantanamo holds "the worst of the worst."

Tuesday June 1, 7 pm, “Operation Solstice" (Dir. Gareth Morris and Neil Goodwin, 1991) - rare screeing of this documentary about The Battle of the Beanfield, on the 25th anniversary of this often-overlooked confrontation between travellers/political activists and the State (under Margaret Thatcher). I have seen this a few times and it is essential, if harrowing, viewing.

Both films followed by a Q&A with Andy who has written about both subjects. Copies of his books "The Guantanamo Files," "The Battle of the Beanfield" and "Stonehenge: Celebration and Subversion" will be for sale at these events.

South London Folk Blog

South London Folk Blog is written by Dick Philpott, a singer who put on an open mic night at the Nelson Arms in Wimbledon. As the location suggests, Dicks's focus is on the western lands of South London. Good to see that he has himself contributed to the ever expanding Great South London Songbook, as he has released an album called South London Stroll featuring a sad love song to the River Wandle entitled 'The River is Dead'.

Brockley Max 2010

Loads going on at the Brockley Max festival from May 28 to 5 June: music, dance, comedy, art... You can download the full programme here, so I'll just mention a few of the music events for now. It all kicks off with the opening night (Friday 28th) from 4:30 pm in the streets by Brockley station, with bands/performers including Anita Maj, Ben Travers, Jake Twyford, Matt Dolphin, Monkey Rush and Brand Nu, bands from the Felix School of Rock, Mazaika and the Montage Theatre street Jazz dance group (last year's opening party was fun in the sun). Later that same night (9 pm), local singer-songwriter Ceri James is at the Wickham Arms - nice guy with nice voice.

On Thursday 3 June, Brockley Central will be promoting a music evening at the Ladywell Tavern. No news yet on the line up, but their night last year was apparently really good.

2000 Troubled Teenagers

Ten years ago today - that is May 20th 2000 - I was at the Paradise Bar (now the Royal Albert) in New Cross Road for the legendary '2000 Troubled Teenagers' night. Well legendary for those who were there, as it was in the pre-blogging days of the early internet there's barely a trace of it online, so now is the time for a very late review!

(programme cover - click to enlarge)

The event was styled 'An evening dedicated to the Scottish group Belle & Sebastian', and basically consisted of a packed bar of B&S fans dancing to lots of B&S with some tracks by The Smiths and various indie-poppers. I seem to recall some Japanese people playing B&S cover versions too. A whole night of B&S was not enough for some - I think some people had a picnic first on Greenwich Hill to get in the mood. Yes it was arguably the peak of B&S obsessive fandom, though I'd still say they are my favourite band of the 1990s (and indeed still made some great tracks in the noughties).

There was a competition to make plasticine models on a B&S theme, inspired by the line in the band's song Expectations about a girl 'making life size models of the Velvet Underground in clay'. It was won by a girl who made a sculpture entitled 'Fox with a Sombrero to Wear in the Snow' (referencing another B&S song, Fox in the Snow).

There were also some free gifts like this Isobel Campbell hairclip (picture from Bus Stop at Flickr).

I believe the night was mainly put on by DJs Joe Egg and Nervous Stephen Fowler. Joe also put on gay indie/retro nights at the Paradise Bar. I see from the programme that Harriet Vine and Rosie Wolfenden were also involved, the founders of Tatty Devine jewellery. The name of the night comes, inevitably, from a yet another B&S song, Beautiful: 'If you knew what's going on in her life, There'd be two hundred troubled teenagers to sit with her. And to talk to her'.

For Catalonia and St George

On St George's Day round Borough market last month there was a bit of Catalonia/England link up with food and music to remind people that it was also La Diada de Sant Jordi, when lovers exchange books and roses in Barcelona (a connection also made at Shunt this time last year).


The best thing was that it was a very sunny Friday and there were lots of people out drinking in the streets from lunchtime onwards.

Outside Southwark Cathedral (and elsewhere in the area too), the Lion's Part theatre performed a George and Dragon folk play.

Around the pubs there were also quite a few drinkers dressed up in various George and Dragon outfits. I started off the evening pondering whether, as Billy Bragg would have it, these stories and symbols should be actively wrestled from the BNP, English Defence League and co. who lay claim to them (on the same day the BNP launched its unsuccessful election campaign with a press conference where Nick Griffin was flanked by some bruiser dressed up as St George). By the time I'd moved from Brindisa, to the Market Porter and on to the Miller in Snowsfields I'd stopped pondering as my critical faculties dissolved in the drunken bonhomie.

Ask Johnny Dee

Transpontine got a mention in the Guardian's weekend Guide last month (24 April), on a list of London blogs in the internet picks of the week. Described as 'South-east blogzine on Deptford punks, Peckham rappers and the Brockwell Lido squatters' we were in good company with The London Nobody Sings, Jane's London, Boris Watch and Shady Old Lady.

The Guardian column is written by Johnny Dee, once immortalised in The Chesterfields 1987 indie pop anthem Ask Johnny Dee. I wonder if they ever played at The Fountain (now Noodle King), Deptford indie pop central in the late 1980s?

The Damned, Croydon and Deptford

The Damned were the first UK punk band to release a single (New Rose in 1976) and the first to get an album out (Damned Damned Damned in February 1977). The band had a strong Croydon connection. They played there first gig there, at a free festival, and bassist Captain Sensible (Ray Burns) was working as a cleaner at Fairfield Hall when he first met drummer Rat Scabies (Chris Millar).

But their early rehearsal studio was in Deptford. Their original manager was John Krevine, who owned the Acme Attractions shop in the Kings Road. The latter sold retro clothes and was a key hang out/breeding ground for early punk; Don Letts worked in the shop, playing reggae. According to Scabies: 'John Krevine saw this whole kind of group/punk thing going on and it was initially him who offered to manage us and it was him who had the warehouse down in Deptford that we used to go down and rehearse'. Captain Sensible recalled 'We rehearsed in Krevine's storage arch in Deptford which was an opportunity to purloin some of his retro garb while there'
(quoted in The Roxy London WC2: a punk history by Paul Marko).

So it may very well have been in a Deptford railway arch that one of my favourite tracks of all times was first written and rehearsed. For me the first 30 seconds of New Rose still constitute the most exciting introduction to a song imaginable - the opening quote from the Shangri-Las 'Leader of the Pack' ('is she really going out with him?') , the powerful drums, then Brian James's guitar chords, then the punctuating 'Ah' before the song takes off... perfection.

Burgess Park history

Burgess Park is such a huge, well-established green space that many people don't realize that it was once a densely populated area of housing, demolished by bombs and slum clearance (an area sometimes known as North Camberwell). If you want to know more about it, there a talk and slideshow on its history, entitled 'Bibles, Baths and Bombs' at East Street Library, 168-170 Old Kent Road, SE17 next Thursday 20 May, 6 - 7:30 pm.

Cuming Museum and Carnaval del Pueblo

The Cuming Museum on Walworth Road was fairly packed on Friday for its Museums at Night event, with a talk on its Lovett collection of urban folklore by Keith from the museum and Chris Roberts telling some Walworth tales.

There's a temporary exhibition on at the moment telling the story of Carnaval del Pueblo, the annual Latin American carnival held in Southwark, with costumes, masks and background information on display. Worth checking out, it runs until May 28th.

A Banquet at Crystal Palace, 1860

On a market stall in East Dulwich I recently came across a clipping from the Illustrated London News. It is undated, but various stories on it suggest that it was from Summer 1860. It includes an illustration and account of a banquet at Crystal Palace with guests including Gladstone (then Chancellor of the Exchequer) and 'many members of Parliament and eminent scientific literary men':

'On Saturday week Sir Joseph and Lady Paxton gave a charming fete at their beautiful residence, Rockhills, adjoining the Crystal Palace... After enjoying a promenade in the grounds attached to Sir Joseph's villa, the company, at seven o'clock, proceeded to the north wing of the Crystal Palace, where an elegant dinner was served, covers being laid for 350 persons. After the banquet a ball was improvised, and at ten o'clock the whole upper range of fountains in the Crystal Palace gardens were set in motion, and illumined with various coloured lights, the effect of which upon the falling water was singularly beautiful'.

Quite a party evidently.

During this period too, the Crystal Palace became a key theme in Russian literature, as Sarah J Young (a CP based lecturer in Russian) discusses at her blog. Essentially the argument was between the writers Chernyshevsky and Dostoevsky. The former, active in revolutionary politics, used the Palace on Sydenham Hill as an image of utopia in his novel What is to be Done? The latter, who wrote about a visit to the Palace in 1863, saw the Crystal Palace and indeed the whole utopian impulse as a doomed attempt at a rationalisation of human life that could never banish the human taste for doubt, suffering and chaos.

Sarah has also started exploring wider depictions of the Crystal Palace area in literature. Some of them I had heard of, but I had no idea that 'Lawrence Durrell’s The Black Book (1938) is set at the Queen’s Hotel (in the novel called the Regina) on Church Road, Crystal Palace'. More to come apparently.

Bob Marley in South London

Robert Nesta Marley died on this day (May 11) in 1981.

Back in 1999, I was playing three-sided football in Kennington Park with the Association of Autonomous Astronauts (a long story) and somebody told me that Bob Marley had played football of the more traditional two-sided variety there.

I filed this away in my brain and then remembered it today - prompted via twitter that this was the anniversary of the great man's death. A quick google search shows that this was apparently true. In fact the wikipedia entry for Kennington Park states that in 1977 Marley frequently visited the Rastafarian Temple in St Agnes Place, next to the park, while he was in London recording the Exodus album, and that 'He also enjoyed playing football with friends in the park'.

According to Bob Marley Archive, he also played a number of South London gigs including:

1972 - July 22 - Grand Midnight Dance, Commonwealth Social Club, Croydon.
1972 - August 27 - The Telegraph, Brixton.
1973 April 29 - Mr. B's, Peckham.
1973 -May 13 - Mr. B's, Peckham.
1980 - July 07 - Crystal Palace Bowl (some photos of that below)



Can anybody out there truthfully say they were at any of these, or have any other South London Tuff Gong stories?

Fierce Women and some more Southwark folklore

This Thursday May 13th at South East London Folklore Society, storyteller Janet Dowling talks on Fierce and Fearlesss Women in traditional stories: girls and women who go on adventures, get into scraps, and don't need rescuing! 8 pm start at The Old King's Head, Kings Head Yard, 45-49 Borough High Street, SE1.

The last SELFS event I went to was the excellent Southwark Lore back in March at the Old Mayfair Carpet Gallery (301-303 Borough High Street, SE1), a pop up gallery that has since popped off. That night featured a glittering array of south london mythologists including John Constable performing parts of the Southwark Mysteries (subsequently performed in full at Southwark Cathedral last month); Nigel of Bermondsey singing songs including one about Crossbones cemetery; Scott Wood performing his story The Temple of Bacchus (imagining pilgrims visiting the off license of that name in Camberwell in the hope that it is an ancient site), accompanied by the electronica of Richard Sanderson; Vanessa Woolf-Hoyle and Niall Boyce telling chilling tales of Bermondsey in the Blitz and time travel at the George Inn respectively; Chris Roberts extolling the wonders of Walworth and...er....Neil Transpontine, talking about the Lovett collection of good luck charms, held in the Cuming Museum.

On the latter subject, this Friday May 14th sees an evening of Superstition and folklore , 6pm - 8pm at the aforementioned Cuming Museum, The Old Town Hall, 151 Walworth Road, London, SE17 1RY (admission free). As part of Museums at Night 2010 there will be a chance to get up close and hands on with some of the museum's stranger objects and the Lovett collection of charms and superstitions. A chance also to share your own superstitions, stories and charms - bring them along if you have them!

They fell asleep - a Nunhead cemetery song

Written especially to be performed at this year's 'Nunhead & District Museum and Art Gallery', 'They fell asleep' by 'The Nunhead Cemeteries' (featuring one Neil Transpontine) is a song made up of lines from gravestones in Nunhead Cemetery:

The darling, the tender
Devoted and treasured
Who fell asleep
Who fell asleep

Beloved, departed
The deeply regretted
Who fell asleep
Who fell asleep

The fair and faithful and the bright
Alive at noon but dead at night
Who fell asleep
Who rest in peace

The angel, the mourned
Whose time was too short
Who fell asleep
Who fell asleep

True friend, only son
Life’s race well run
Who fell asleep
Who fell asleep

Left behind the sorrowing
Death divides, memory clings
They fell asleep
Their end was peace

Loved and Lovers
Daughters and Mothers
Together blessed
In peaceful rest

Who fell asleep
Who fell fell asleep

Download here: They fell asleep - The Nunhead Cemeteries

May Uke Box

Brockley Ukulele Group are putting on their next monthly Uke Box session at the Amersham Arms in New Cross this Sunday 8th May. Admission free, 8 pm start. Great flyer!

Music at Cafe Crema

Coming up at Cafe Crema, 306 New Cross Road, SE14:

Sat 8th May: The Lucky Strikes plus Reverend Jim Casy. The Lucky Strikes are a blues/Americana five piece delivering tales of outlaws, desperadoes and chain gangs in 1930s Mississippi. Heavy guitars, impassioned vocals, and bluegrass fiddle and banjo. They hale from Southend but dress like the James Gang. Reverend Jim Casy are honky-tonk-rockabilly preachers.

Sat 15th May: Tina Pinder plus New Orleans New Cross Honky-Tonk Acoustic Jam. Tina plays 'swamp music from the Lea Delta'. Her smoky voice and guitar picking bring you blues-riddled songs of heart-stopping drama, in a Tom Waits-meets-Melanie chocolate-and-gravel concoction. Followed by the monthly-ish jam around the old piano.

Both shows, doors open 8pm, admission £3.

Stories and Songs for South London

This is happening on Sunday May 16, 7: 30 pm onwards:

'Stories and Songs for South London at the New Cross Inn SE14: London dreamtime will tell tales of monsters in the Blitz, Nigel of Bermondsey will sing lovely songs including One Eye Grey, This is How it Feels and Maximum Wheelie. Stu will play the dulcimer, Chris will do an acoustic set and Jackie will read her own true story of children on fire from "Smoke" magazine'.

Don't know all these folk, but Nigel has a lovely voice and this sounds right up Transpontine street. £2 in.

Lord Haw Haw of Dulwich

Did you know that Britain's most famous Nazi was once a Dulwich-based young Conservative?

William Joyce, was born in New York to a Southern Irish loyalist family. According to Martin Pugh: 'After his family settled in Dulwich in 1923 he joined the Junior Imperial League, the youth organisation of the Conservative Party, but he felt betrayed by the British establishment for abandoning the Union with Ireland. Increasingly consumed with hatred towards Catholics, Communists and Jews, he saw fascism as the best means of prosecuting his crusade against his and the nation's enemies' (Hurrah for the Blackshirts! Fascists and Fascism in Britain between the Wars).

Pugh states that Joyce joined the British Fascists in December 1923, though he seems to have been active in Conservative politics for longer. After becoming prominent in Mosley's British Union of Fascists (a different organisation from the earlier BF), Joyce left for Germany in 1938. From there he famously broadcast Nazi propaganda, earning the nickname Lord Haw Haw. He was executed in 1946 for treason. So his youthful ambition of becoming the Conservative MP for Chelsea was not to be realized!

A number of sites refer to the story that his family home at 7 Allison Grove, SE21, was one of the first hit by a German bomb in the early days of the Blitz. Whether this is true or folklore I am not sure.

See also: Pro-fascist Tories in 1930s Lewisham

BNP Thug Life

One of the alarming aspects of a potential increase in votes for the BNP on Thursday is that this could be accompanied by an upsurge in violence from emboldened racist/fascist thugs.

There have been several attacks in South London during the election campaign. Yesterday, Cormac Hollingsworth, standing as a Labour candidate for Council in South Bermondsey, was leafleting an estate in the area 'when he was punched three times in the face and kicked. Meanwhile the attacker kept up a stream of insults and shouted pro-BNP slogans' (full story at TMP online). South Bermondsey is the only Southwark ward where the BNP is standing a candidate in the election, represented by Nigel Seary of Nelson Square, SE1. I suppose there's some comfort to be taken that they couldn't get anyone to stand who actually lives around the South Bermondsey/Blue Millwall heartland.

Meanwhile David Clarke, the BNP candidate for Heathfield ward (Croydon Council) was convicted last week of two separate assaults on anti-racist campaigners who had been giving out leaflets outside East Croydon station. Full story at Croydon Advertiser.

Room at the Top (of Pepys Road?)

The 1959 classic film Room at the Top is 'a savage story of lust and ambition' set in Yorkshire. However, according to film location site Reel Streets the closing shots were actually filmed in Pepys Road, New Cross. Looking at these, I think they are right. The car seems to be heading up to the junction of Pepys and Musgrove Road (on the left).

What do you think?

Kit and Cutter May Day Special

Kit and Cutter's May Day special at the Deptford Arms last night was really special. It was packed, as indeed it should have been for the presence of one of the most important figures in the last 50 years of English music - Martin Carthy. His two sets were great, a mixture of some of the finest played guitar tunes you are ever likely to hear with awesome folk songs. As a nod to his South London audience he sang Georgie, a song about poaching and gallows on Shooters Hill. A few years ago I sang this on Shooters Hill at the start of a South East London Folklore Society walk. Let's just say his version was better!

But his was not the only good voice on display. Keith Kendrick and Sylvia Needham were a revelation to me, they sounded amazing. Highlight for me was Ball O'Yarn - a song that begins 'In the merry month of may, when the men were making hay...' is followed by a predictable end nine months later.

Club hosts Kit and Cutter also sing beautifully - would like to see them do a full set some time. The Belles of London City coped admirably with the small and crowded stage to perform some high energy morris dancing (they recently explained it all to Paul Morley - check video here).

So obviously it was a great privilege for me to share the bill with this lot. The Neil Transpontine contribution was a short talk/slideshow giving a quick history of May Days in South London (will post up the talk later in the week).

That was the last Kit & Cutter at the Deptford Arms, as the pub looks set to be bookiefied. I am sure putting on a folk club there with its smelly toilets and noisy drunks in the public bar has been a bit of a challenge, but it's great to see this kind of music filling rooms in high street pubs. Hopefully they will find another venue soon not too far away.

(see also review at Crosswhatfields?)

Brockley 1941: Every Day Like Sunday

I spent some time in the reading room at the Imperial War Museum recently, and came across a poignant couple of handwritten letters sent by a father to his daughter. From the Second World War comes a letter send from 101 Tressillian Road, SE4 to 'Ella Kay' from 'Dad'. He informs her: 'Here we are back in the old home, what a mess too... The front room is smothered in dust from the houses being bombed in Breakspears Road (about 70 of them down)... Everywhere around here seems deserted and Brockley and Lewisham looks every day like Sunday nobody about as most of the houses which are not down are deserted by their tenants. There is practically no shops left in Lewisham High Street'.

Sent to Ella Jones at the same address from 1919 is a postcard, also from her father, but at a time when he was serving in France with the British Expeditionary Force. The card, dates 13 April 1919, is signed off 'don't get too old before I get back'.

I also read a First World War letter (19 March 1917) from Joe Hollister, who was living at 31 Hunsdon Road, New Cross, in which he mentions an explosion at a munitions factory. This was the infamous January 1917 Silvertown explosion in West Ham, in which 73 people died. The explosion caused damage across a wide area, seemingly including New Cross, as Hollister states 'about a dozen houses down the road had windows broken and shop windows as far out as Brixton (six or seven miles away) were blown in'.

It also felt like a privilege to visit the Imperial War Museum reading room in its last weeks within the dome of the building, in what was once the chapel when the building housed the Bethlem Hospital. The reading room there has now closed to allow it to be relocated to more accessible space on the ground floor.

Old Deptford Photos

JeanyPee at Flickr has some great old Deptford photos (as well as some good new ones too). Although they are family photos (the Peterson family mostly), they are also of great historical interest to people like me so hope she won't mind me reproducing a few here. Check out the South London threads, 40s/50s Style!

Deptford Teddy Boys 1955

Outside Speedwell House (now demolished), 1952

Outside Watergate House, Watergate Street, 1940s

Deptford stables in Murrays alley off Comet St, Deptford, 1950s. Passersby were charged 6d to view the animals that Billy Smarts Circus used to stable there, while they set up on Blackheath.

(just noticed some of these pictures are also on the Lewisham Family Album blog - no posts there for a couple of years, but worth checking out. I always find it sad when at Deptford Market you come across old family pictures, presumably left over from a house clearance. I agree with Lewisham Family Album that 'The residents of Lewisham and their ancestors have come from every corner of the globe. Most images of these people have yet to be seen by the wider public. Unfortunately, in a few years, many precious, historic images will be dust, especially the mass-produced colour images of the 1970's and 80's. It is important that they are preserved, and publishing them online is one way of doing so, and sharing them with the world'. So if you have any old pictures lying around, why not scan them and put them on flickr or somewhere. Otherwise Transpontine or one of the other local blogs would be happy to put some of them up)

Brockley Soul

Friday night, 30th April, sees the launch of the new Brockley Soul night at The Wickham Arms (69 Upper Brockley Road, SE4). It promises a night of Northern And Rare Soul, Funk, Crossover And Modern 70's Soul until 2am.

Worse case scenario it will be a nice drink to some top tunes, but it looks like it could be much better than that. DJ Ollie Lailey already puts on Crystal Palace Soul at the Alma, SE19. There's even a Brockley Soul mix you can download to get you in the mood.

Anyway, planning to give it a go and hopefully have a dance.

Puts me in mind of Deptford Soul City.

May Day

Lots of great stuff going on locally on Saturday May 1st. I am most excited about the Kit and Cutter May Day Spectacular at the Deptford Arms on Saturday night, featuring the legendary Martin Carthy, as well as floor singers and 'dangerously sexy morris dancing' from the Belles of London City. I will also be doing a quick talk/slideshow whizzing through the history of May Day in South London. Tickets priced £8/£5 from: http://www.wegottickets.com/event/64878

It looks likely to be a farewell to the Deptford Arms for this folk club, due to proposals to turn the pub into a bookies. We can only hope that they are successful in their search for another local venue. Here's some footage of their last event in March featuring singer Alasdair Roberts:

Alasdair Roberts live from The Wire Magazine on Vimeo.

Earlier in the day the Deptford Jack in the Green will be out as usual, doing a tour of pubs around Borough and Bankside. The itineray will be as follows:

10.00: Greening the Jack at The Rake, 14 Winchester Walk, London SE1 9AG. Bring some flowers and help decorate the Jack.
11.57: Depart to Clink Street and then Bankside to:
12.15: the Founders Arms, Hopton Street, London SE1 9JH,
13.00: Cross the Millennium Bridge to:
13.15: The Centre Page, 29 Knightrider Street, London EC4V 5BH,
14.00: Return to Bankside across the Millennium Bridge, then Hopton Street, Great Suffolk Street and Union Street to:
14.15: the Charles Dickens, 160 Union Street, London SE1 0LH,
15.00: Depart via Union Street and Southwark Street to:
15.15: The Wheatsheaf, 24 Southwark Street, London SE1 1TY,
15.45: Depart via Stoney Street to:
15.55: The Rake.

Later in the month, on Friday 21st May 2010, Sarah Crofts from Deptford Jack in the Green will be speaking about Thankfull Sturdee and Fowlers Troop (the original early 20th century Deptford Jack) at the Lewisham Local History Society.

Finally on May Day weekend there's Foxfest 2010 at The Fox & Firkin (316 Lewisham High St), with an incredible 40 bands/singers performing on two stages throughout Saturday and Sunday - all for a weekend £10 ticket .

365 days of Live Music

Hugo Simms has finally finished his epic exploration, 365 Days of Live Music in London. As he recounts in an article in The Evening Standard (16 April 2010), last April he made a vow to experience live music every day, taking him on an odyssey of streets, pubs, churches, concert halls and various improbable venues. All of this written up in his blog, and one day to be a book.

As Hugo lives in Nunhead, a lot of the performances were in South East London. The Birds Nest, New Cross Inn, Amersham Arms, Jam Circus, Old Nun's Head and Ivy House all get visited. There were several posts where I cursed that I hadn't heard about the gig beforehand - I mean, seeing Viv Albertine of The Slits at the Glad in Borough?

Hugo's effort should serve as a reminder of just how important pubs are for the culture of low key musicking - which is why it is quite right to get agitated at things like the threatened closure of The Deptford Arms.

Case - Croydon Oi and the oldest graffiti in New Cross (?)

We've previously considered some of the ancient graffiti of South London (notably the now painted over Cold Blow Lane tunnel), those spectral traces of lost bands, social movements and love affairs. At that point where the Old Kent Road becomes the New Cross Road, under the railway bridge just past Ilderton Road if you're heading South, you can still see a few letters of a word that by my reckoning must have been painted getting on for 30 years ago.

The word is 'Case' - to those in the know a punk band from Croydon in the early '80s associated with the Oi scene, to those not in the know a band best known for their prolific graffiti campaign. At least one of their efforts still remains, as we can see. I think I need to do a proper feature on Oi in South London, an oft-misunderstood working class punk/skin scene famously championed by journalist Gary Bushell at the time.

Of Case, Bushell says: 'And when great Oi-influenced bands did break through in ’83 they all fell at early fences. Croydon’s Case were cracking – they specialised in a ballsy brand of high-octane pop fresher than Max Miller chewing polos in a mountain stream and were fronted by the exceptionally expressive Matthew Newman. Case attracted acclaim from most quarters (including the Daily Mirror and Radio One) but fell apart when Matthew swapped the stage for domestic bliss with Splodge co-vocalist Christine Miller'. There's another South London connection there as Splodge were from Peckham, but that can wait for another day.

In 1981, Punk's not Dead zine wrote: "CASE: One of the most invigorating moments of my life this year was wandering into the Woolwich Tramshed to be whacked wide awake by an experience more invigorating than the kiss of my life from Pamela Stephenson. That experience was a shower, not of cold water, but a motley one from Croydon name of Case who specialise in fast, boisterous new wave rock that's catchily uncategorisable. There's some Ruts in there, even a touch of the Beat, pushing pumping power, red hot and hard-driving, and the punks and skins in the audience were going seriously bonkers. Case are fronted by cropped Matthew Newman (picture) who is incredible to watch. One minute he's Buster Bloodvessel, the next Ronnie Kray. A clown and a criminal, a nut-case and a hardcase all rolled into one, leaping into the audience and rolling round the floor with a snatch of enthusiastic punky punters. I've never seen a face that says so much and for forty minutes it's physically impossible to take yer eyes of him . . .".

Not much of their stuff online as far as I can see, but you can listen to their ska infused track Oh on youtube.

Gautrey Road Style

Anybody want to buy a London cultural landmark? I noticed that in Nunhead there's a for sale sign outside number 42 Gautrey Road, SE15, opposite the Golden Anchor pub. As mentioned here before, this was at one time Mad Professor's Ariwa Studio. The original Ariwa Studio was launched in 1979 in Neil Fraser's family home at 19 Bruce Road, Thornton Heath (Neil Fraser being the Prof's real name). It moved to the basement of Gautrey Road in May 1982 and remained there until 1986. According to David Katz:

'The material to emanate from Gautrey Road is really the sound of Ariwa finding its feet: Johnny Clarke’s aptly-titled ‘Yard Style’ album retained a Jamaican sensibility whilst also incorporating a range of international influences; Pato Banton’s debut album showed the Birmingham-based toaster was equally capable of humorous ditties and politically relevant material; Sandra Cross’ recasting of the Stylistics’ ‘Country Living,’ first adapted in reggae by the Mighty Diamonds, was a particularly strong example of the UK lover’s rock genre, grafting soulful vocals onto lilting reggae beats. Professor also notes that he also made an important connection during this era, cutting his first set of recordings with Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry at the same address: "He came down with Winston Edwards and Joe Gibbs in September 1984 and Scratch said he wanted to do some work, so I said “No problem.” He voiced “Judgement Inna Babylon” in my studio and when he finished with his tracks, he then ended up voicing a load of tracks for me as well and a lot of them came out on ‘Mystic Warrior’, which wasn’t released until 1988, but there was at least another two albums’ worth left that never came out"'.

Mad Professor and Jah Shaka later produced an album together, Gautrey Road Style - though by this point Ariwa had moved to 34 White Horse Lane in South Norwood.

So whoever moves into the Gautrey Road flat take note - some of the reggae greats have been through that door.

General election in Lewisham - racism rears its head

Not planning to spend too much time on the election at Transpontine, and certainly steering clear of party politics. However, I cannot let some of the disgraceful comments attributed to candidates in the Lewisham Deptford consituency pass without comment. In a feature on immigration at BBC News (19 April), the parliamentary candidates of all the three major parties come out pretty badly. Of course they may have been misquoted - in which case let's hear them back pedal pretty quickly.

Worst of all was... can you guess? They 'said areas like Lewisham could not sustain high rises of immigration because standards in services like schools, housing and hospitals had fallen "well below par". She added: "In the past 13 years, Labour has operated an open door policy on immigration, with the UK seeing the largest sustained rise in our history. I'm still surprised every time I knock on someone's door and find that despite living here most of their life, they can hardly speak English." '

No this wasn't the BNP candidate, but Gemma Townsend who is standing for the Tories. The comment about people's language is nonsense - how does she know how long they have been living here, if they can't speak English? Maybe I am underestimating her, perhaps she is polylingual and is able to converse with them in Bengali, Somali, Spanish and Polish about their personal histories. The comment about the open door policy is also nonsense, unfortunately. Try telling that to people locked up in detention centres or dragged on to planes for deportation. But the suggestion that there is some link between migration and falling standards in public services is plain racist in so far as it seeks to blame migrants for totally unconnected social problems. Whether standards have actually fallen is a moot point, but in what way could migrants be held responsible for failings in health care? In London, the health and social care system is largely dependent upon migrant labour - far from damaging it, migrants are keeping it going. As for education, are migrants really dragging down standards? In many schools migrant children do at least as well as their English-born counterparts.

As for housing.... well, over to the Liberal Democrat candidate, Tamora Langley: 'People are frustrated by seeing immigrants placed in council housing when they, or their children, have been on the waiting list for years. Particularly in Lewisham Deptford, where the Labour-run council has lost money that should have been ours to spend on upgrading social housing, people feel let down, and some wonder if immigrants are getting a better deal'. Of course there is a shortage of social housing, partly because of the 1980s Tory policy of selling off council homes and partly because Labour then placed a moratorium on building new council housing. But to talk of immigrants jumping housing queues is again pandering to racism. It a BNP-fostered myth- a study last year by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) found that migrants are actually under-represented in social housing - only 1.8% of social tenants are immigrants who have moved to the UK in the past five years. Of course many of the British-born people who live in social housing are black, which is actually the subtext of a lot of complaint about 'foreigners taking our housing' - racism from people who think that only white people really 'belong here'.

What of the Labour candidate? Joan Ruddock avoids saying anything negative and talks about her constituency work helping community groups 'access grants and establish self help groups '. This may be true, but tiptoes around actually saying anything about policy. I sometimes wonder how someone like Ruddock sleeps at night knowing, for instance, that her party's immigration policies are leaving children locked up in prisons, sorry detention centres.

Green Party candidate Darren Johnson does say "I support an amnesty for migrants who have been here for a number of years". In the context of national politics this seems almost unthinkably radical, but is actually the Strangers into Citizens position that is supported by Boris Johnson as well as the previous Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone. Lots of migrant organisations are supporting this call, though others have wondered whether this could be used as an excuse to be even more intolerant of those who don't fit the criteria for an 'amnesty' - is it 'regularisation for all' or only a minority? This is the real debate about immigration that we need to have - how do we best recognise the reality and humanity of the hundreds of thousands of people living, working, loving and having kids in London regardless of what papers they hold? Everyone knows, including the Borders Agency, that most of these people are here to stay.

One of the rarely commented on positive results of mass migration is that it undermines the electoral success of explicitly racist politics. It may be true that in some areas the perception of an influx of migrants can be manipulated to create a racist backlash - as the BNP have done to a certain extent in Barking and Dagenham. But the bottom line is that once migrants and their descendants reach a critical mass beyond a small scapegoated minority, it is very difficult for openly racist candidates to get elected. Apart from anything else only a tiny number of immigrants and 'non-white' people are likely to vote for explicitly racist candidates which means that the latter could only be elected if a very high proportion of 'white British' voters support them. In the 2001 census, one third of Lewisham residents were defined as 'non white'. In Lewisham Deptford today the proportion is probaby higher - suggesting that playing to the racist gallery in elections round here is flirting with political suicide. Time will soon tell.

(Update - shortly after posting this, Lib Dem candidate Tam Langley commented at this post that it is not her view that immigrants are jumping the housing queue - in the BBC story she was reporting the perceptions of some voters, not her own perspective. It is true that her statement on immigration on her blog is much more positive. Taken on their own, TL's comments in the BBC article appear to acknowledge but not challenge the perception that 'immigrants jump the housing queue'. Of course the BBC journalist put their particular slant on the story, and may have left out other comments that make this clearer).

Deptford Arms: historical notes

With continuing uncertainty about the future of the Deptford Arms, I've been looking into its history. Searching at Google Books, there are a couple of references to 19th century travellers stopping off at the Deptford Arms. But this is misleading, as the present pub at 52 Deptford High Street has only been called by that name since 1965 (I am guessing that the older Deptford Arms must have been on the Broadway).

There's some more information at the useful Dead Pubs site, which has a historical list of local pubs, inns and taverns. Here it clarifies that the current Deptford Arms was previously known as the Duke of Cambridge. It includes census information from 1881 which shows that most staff in the pub were living on site at that time - in addition to the landlord Richard T Stringer and his wife Matilda, three barmen, a potman and a servant were living there, as well as a wet nurse (presumably for the Stringers' baby son).

The pub was something of a radical meeting place. In the Deptford Infidels, Terry Liddle's short account of SE London secularists, we are told that in July 1871 'at a meeting in the Duke of Cambridge, Deptford High Street, a Mr Bishop lectured the Advanced Liberal Association on taxation and expenditure' and that in '1874 the National Reformer was advertising meetings of Deptford Radical Association in the Duke of Cambridge'.

According to Liddle, the Greenwich Advanced Liberal Association 'formed in 1869 at a public meeting of 500, wanted independent working class representation in Parliament, and so found itself in conflict with mainstream liberalism. A leading member the secularist William McCurly stated: "It was now time for the working classes to think for themselves and manage their own affairs"... Following a local agitation in support of farm labourers, members of GALA formed the Deptford Radical Association'. Jim Connell, who famously wrote the socialist anthem The Red Flag, was a member of the DRA.

As well as a meeting place, the pub has also been a music venue at various times. As mentioned before Squeeze had an early residency there in the 1970s.

The latest news on the pub, incidentally, is that Lewisham Council has given planning permission for a change of use from a pub to a bookies, but has refused planning permission for Paddy Power to make changes to the front of the building, including putting up a sign. This doesn't mean that the bookies won't go ahead though - Paddy Power may appeal, or come up with other plans. The pub will be staying open for a while longer at least, and will definitely still be open for the Kit and Cutter event on May 1st with Martin Carthy. Meanwhile, there is a similar issue in Peckham where Paddy Power are also planning to convert the last pub in the road, The Hope, into a betting shop.

Gallop

A very productive Saturday in Deptford. In the market I stumbled across a book about New Cross in the 1920s that I didn't even know existed - more to come on that. Bumped into the always good to see Fred and David Aylward outside the Deptford Deli. Then I had my first coffee/cake in the Gallop space coffee shop at 198 Deptford High Street. A very pleasant space decorated in lots of old London tiles, run by friendly people. They also have a tiny hidden 'cinema booth' - actually like being in a cupboard with a laptop. It's currently showing Tristan Shorr's Thames, composed on Super 8 film on journeys up and down the river.

At present, the cafe is only open on Saturdays and Sundays, though they are considering extending the hours.

More South London Blogs

A couple of new (to me) South London blogs.

Free South London - move over Wolfy Smith and the Tooting Popular Front, Wolfgang Moneypenny has seemingly launched the campaign for transpontine independence via his 'FreeSouthLondon Anarcho-Situationist Commune'. Yes there's even a new flag. Some entertaining reflections on his childhood too, like his 1995 memories of being a Man. Utd fan at Crystal Palace on the night of the famous Eric Cantona 'kung fu' incident. How he squares his South London pride with supporting United you will have to read for yourself.

Southwark Notes is dedicated to the critique of gentrification around the Elephant & Castle and elsewhere in Southwark. Lots of information and some interesting historical material, particularly Jam Tomorrow: Some history and notes on the regeneration and gentrification of North Southwark + Bermondsey.

Fair Betsy of Deptford

I have mentioned before the song Pretty Betsy of Deptford Town (aka Fair Betsy of Deptford), as part of the ongoing tracking down of South London songs. Bill at Deptford Misc has gone one better and found the complete words, which start off:

Come all you pretty fair maids of every degree,
I pray give attention awhile unto me
The story of a fair maid to you I will unfold
Pretty Betsy of Deptford and her young sailor bold...

(full lyrics here at Deptford Misc)

All we need to do now is to put a tune to it.

Malcolm McLaren in New Cross

The recent death of Malcolm McLaren got me digging out my notes about his time at Goldsmiths College in New Cross.

Malcolm McLaren was a student at Goldsmiths in the late 1960s and spent his time there perfecting the skills as a cultural provocateur that he was later to put to use as the manager of The Sex Pistols. In 1969 he had his first go at ‘the Great Rock’n’Roll Swindle’ when he advertised a summer free festival at Goldsmiths with claims that Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones and John Lennon were ‘awaiting confirmation’. Naturally they didn’t turn up, but thousands of people did. The local paper reported the event with the headline ‘Free festival, free beer, free shambles’ and made much of the presence of ‘dolly birds’ and ‘girls [that] seemed to strut about with an ‘I’m groovier than thou’ expression’. There was some music, including ‘Local folk singer and guitarist Gordon Giltrap’ and ‘local folk trio the Strawbs’ (Kentish Mercury 10/7/1969). A debate featured radical psychiatrist RD Laing, the Scottish writer Alexander Trocchi and others, as recalled in this critical account:

'The day before the Free Stones Concert in Hyde Park we stuck up stickers in Goldsmiths college saying simply, "Riot! – Hyde Park tomorrow!", which I’d written in felt-tip markers. We’d gone along partly to help a Punfield and Barstow striker make a speech and collect money for the strikers, who weren’t getting strike pay. At Goldsmiths that day there was a teach-in partly organised by Malcolm McLaren, later of Sex Pistols/Richard Branson ad fame. He’d collected a motley crowd of male star rebels, many of them media hate figures. These included the former Notting Hill rent collector for Rachman, Michael X, whom everyone was supposed to support because he’d re-modelled himself along Malcolm X lines and had got a lot of hassle from the cops, getting arrested for contravening the Race Relations Act. Also, the dockers leader, CP shop steward, Jack Dash, and Alex Trocchi, former member of the SI and low level promotor of heroin chic along William Burroughs lines. All of them were considered heroes by the underground press such as IT and OZ.

I remember on that day the student union hacks – "I’m a moderate!" – were preventing non-student union members from going into the free festival-cum-teach-in: our little group opened up a side-door and told everybody how to get in. In fact this was far more interesting than what was going on on the stage, which was little more than just a radical version of a chat show. When a group of radical womens' liberationists disrupted the whole thing, and were treated in a blatantly patronising manner by the stage, we felt we had to support the women, though, quite honestly, I remember feeling that everyone was a bit on show, including the women. At the end of the day, a few cops came into the college, and were met with indifference by everybody. McLaren was furious, rightly, but none of us did anything to attack them - well, no one got arrested, despite the hash smoking. We used the free student facilities to print a leaflet for the Stones concert' (Anon, 1969: Revolution as Personal and Theatre).

In his book, ‘Lipstick Traces: the secret history of the 20th century’, the US music critic Greil Marcus makes a great deal of the influence of the Situationist International in the conception of The Sex Pistols. The SI was a revolutionary organisation whose highest point came in the May 1968 uprising in France, when Situationist-inspired slogans such as ‘take your desires for reality’ and ‘beneath the paving stones the beach’ appeared on the walls.

Malcolm McLaren and Sex Pistols sleeve designer, Jamie Reid, were on the fringes of the English pro-situationist group, King Mob. Whether the Sex Pistols represented the application of the situationist critique of culture, as Marcus would have it, or its recuperation as a money-making exercise is open to question - I would say a bit of both. But what’s all this got to do with New Cross? Well living in New Cross in the late 1960s was one Fred Vermorel, a friend of McLaren’s who had been in Paris in 1968. In his book ‘Fashion and Perversity: a life of Vivienne Westwood and the Sixties laid bare'’ he writes: ‘I introduced Malcolm to situationism at the 36 bus stop, just outside Goldsmiths College in Lewisham Way. Goldsmiths was where he had enrolled in October '68 in his continuing quest for a grant. I produced two copies of the SI magazine... Malcolm reacted in the way many others did. He was nonplussed and irritated, yet anxiously excited'.

I don't believe McLaren ever lived in New Cross - I think he was living with Vivienne Westwood in the Oval and then Clapham in this period - though Fred Vermorel told me that Malcolm was a frequent visitor to his flat in Jerningham Road.