Friday, April 30, 2010
Brockley 1941: Every Day Like Sunday
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.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Old Deptford Photos
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)
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Brockley Soul
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.
Monday, April 26, 2010
May Day
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.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
365 days of Live Music
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.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Case - Croydon Oi and the oldest graffiti in New Cross (?)
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.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
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.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
General election in Lewisham - racism rears its head
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).
Monday, April 19, 2010
Deptford Arms: historical notes
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.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
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
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.
Friday, April 16, 2010
Fair Betsy of Deptford
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.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Malcolm McLaren 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:
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.
Giggs and Paul Morley
Here's the video for his most recent single, the excellent Don't Go There, which cuts back and forth between Peckham (especially round by the library) and New York:
Morley is keen on 'keeping it real' and seems to imply that Dizzee, Chipmunk and co. have somehow sold out by moving away from gritty urban realism to 'pop' - a somewhat surprizing stance for someone who has always argued persuasively for the wonders of pop. As someone who lives a little bit closer to the impact of the Peckham Boys and their ilk, I can both recognise that Giggs is good, defend his right to tell it like it is, and hope that through his music he can move himself and some of his mates out of that reality. If, as Morley suggests, some people want to keep young black people 'in their place' by stopping them making the move from crime to music, it is also true that the expectations of some music critics and fans also subliminally want to keep them in their place by suggesting that they are only 'real' when they talk about guns, gangs and life in 'the hood'.
Another young man shot at the end of my road last week, another kid I've seen grow up from a baby in and out of the nick for gang business. Park yuh guns, badboys - keep it unreal.
(Update: since I wrote this post there have been two more local shootings of teenagers - making three in the last week, two in Brockley, one in Peckham right near where the Paul Morley walkabout was filmed. Fortunately nobody killed this time)
Monday, April 12, 2010
Stop the BNP at Lunar House in Croydon
'We have just found out that the BNP will be holding an anti immigration protest outside the Home Office, Lunar House, Croydon – THIS THURSDAY [15th April]. Lunar House management allowed the BNP to protest last year, however, this year they have bowed to anti fascist and union pressure and said that this year they can not demonstrate. However, it is now the police that are refusing to stop the event going ahead as they say that Lunar house is public property.
The protest will be on the afternoon of Thursday 15th at 2pm at the front of Lunar house - at a time when many families will be waiting to speak with staff in the Home office. This is of course unacceptable and the South London Anti Fascist Group will be supporting PCS comrades in the counter demo. Please join us from 2pm at Lunar House'
Lunar House is tough enough for migrants queueing up to make their way through the Borders Agency lottery without the added hassle of a demo by racists, so get along if you can.
Fighting Fascists in Peckham, 1937
Fascists and Communists Clash at Peckham (Mercury, September 24 1937)
'Sir Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists and National Socialists, was given a warm reception when he arrive with 300 of his followers at the Triangle, Rye Lane, Peckham on Wednesday evening. He had come to address an open air meeting and to introduce his prospective parliamentary candidate for Peckham, Miss Olive Hawkes.
Fascists assembled at the Triangle, which is a public speaking place. There was competition for the pitch from other political organisations when it was known that the BUF intended to march there from Kennington Oval, and the Fascists decided to get in first. Sir Oswald Mosley, Miss Hawkes and the marchers arrived with a large loud speaker van and sharp at half past eight the leader climbed up a ladder to the top of the van, to which were fixed two microphones. He was wearing a grey suit with a black shirt. Before he spoke a sergeant and twelve policemen pushed through the crowd to the front.
Immediately Sir Oswald started to speak there was pandemonium. Whatever he was saying was utterly drowned in shouts, boos, cat-calls and songs and it was not fro over five minutes that this 'audience' of about tow thousand could hear a word that he was saying... for every hand raised in the Fascist salute there were two or three upraised clenched fists of Communists and Socialists.
... The Fascist leader spoke for about half an hour, during which time his opponents, in clusters of a dozen or more sang the 'Internationale' , the 'Red Flag', 'It's a sing to tell a lie', and occasionally shouted 'We've got to get rid of the rats' through improvised megaphones manufactured from evening papers. 'Tell me the old old story' was the song which greeted Sir Oswald's next audible announcement.
... Anti-fascist demonstrations were increased when Sir Oswald Mosley introduced his candidate. Miss Olive Hawkes. She was greeted with the singing of 'She was a dear little dicky-bird' and 'Daisy'. Miss Hawkes introduced herself as a South Londoner and a Briton 'born and bred'. She ended her remarks by giving the Fascist salute and prepared to climb down the ladder again. Just then , however, a colleague whispered something in her ear and she spoke into the microphone again. She announced that her party claimed the Englishman's privilege and would sing the National Anthem. The National Anthem and the Internationale were sung simultaneously.
Mounted and foot police, who had been stationed in the crowd throughout the meeting, became active when the Fascist speakers prepared to leave. The audience was told to 'keep on the move' and those who declined to do so were assisted to comply with the request. Despite the noise and the large anti-Fascist representation there was no serious disorder and no arrests were made. The general impression one gained was that most of the audience had come to South London's 'Tower Hill' to see a bit of fun. If they expected a baton charge and other exciting episodes, they were sadly disappointed.
When Sir Oswald Mosley's first South London march and demonstration had ended anti-Fascists, including Social Credit 'greenshirts' carried on a meeting in a street further down Rye Lane'.
Olive Hawks (not Hawkes - the paper spelt her name wrong) was a leading woman member of the British Union of Fascists. She became the party's Women's Organiser in Lewisham in 1934 and its national Chief Woman's Organiser by 1940. In 1937 she was announced as the BUF's prospective parliamentary candidate for Camberwell (Peckham) and "in line with the BUF's Jew-baiting, in June 1938 she was applauded by the fascist press for her role in preventing Lewis Silkin, 'Jewish MP', from opening the new Odeon Cinema in Peckahm High Street by writing letters of protest both to Silkin and the Press". Lewis Silkin was the Labour MP for the area. Hawks and her boyfriend Frederick Burdett (appointed District Leader for the Peckham Branch of the BUF in 1937) were both interned as Nazi sympathisers in 1940 (Source: 'Making Reputations: Power, Persuasion and the Individual in Modern British Politics' by Richard Toye and Julie Gottlieb, 2005).
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Woofah Issue 4
Friday, April 09, 2010
Down and Out in Deptford
The video ends with them disappearing into The Birds Nest, which is appropriate as they are playing a free gig there next Saturday April 10th, 9:30 pm onwards.
Thursday, April 08, 2010
Death of the Deptford Arms?
Recently it has hosted the Kit and Cutter folk club, with a gig last month by Scottish singer Alasdair Roberts and a planned May Day event with Martin Carthy - let's hope the pub at least lasts that long. Back in the 1970s, Squeeze had an early residency at the pub.
The pub has recently come under pressure from the local police, who initiated a review of the pub's license by Lewisham Licensing Committee following a police raid to close down a music event with underage drinkers in November 2009. The Committee imposed a new license condition that the pub should supply police with details of any event at least 14 days in advance.
In other local pub news, Simon Nundy - landlord of the New Cross Inn - is standing for the Tories as their candidate for Mayor of Lewisham. Funnily enough there's been a close connection between the NX Inn and the Deptford Arms - for a while they had a joint facebook group and the same promoter (Tristan Scutt). Are they owned by the same people?
Wednesday, April 07, 2010
Haunted Pubs Talk
Venue: The Old King's Head, Kings Head Yard, 45-49 Borough High Street, London, SE1 1NA. Talks start at 8.00pm£2.50 / £1.50 concessions.
Meanwhile SELFS convenor Scott Wood has started posting on Forteana at The Londonist, including this nice local tale from 1948 of the dancing ghost girl of One Tree Hill.
Pro-Fascist Tories in Lewisham
Sir Philip Dawson (1866-1938) was Conservative MP for Lewisham West from 1921 until his death. He was chairman of the Anglo-Italian Parliamentary Committee and a great admirer of Mussolini. After visiting Rome in 1933, he wrote a letter to the Times entitled 'Italy under fascism: ten years of progress'. Arguing that 'Italy affords an amazing example of the genius of constructive statesmanship' he talked glowingly of fascism's 'benevolent influence on every phase of Italian public life' (Times, 4 May 1933). A 1938 signed photograph of the Italian dictator dedicated to Dawson was recently offered for sale by an autograph company. He was among the Conservative MPs who argued for restrictions on Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany (Harry Defries, Conservative Party Attitudes to Jews 1900-1950, 2001 p.127).
Meanwhile in Lewisham East, Lieut-Colonel Sir Assheton Pownall was Conservative MP from 1918 to 1945. He was one of 22 Conservative MPs who were members of the Anglo German Fellowship, which promoted friendly relations with Nazi Germany. In 1937 he wrote an article for the local paper, The Mercury, describing a little visit:
'I was this year invited by the German Government to come as its guest for the Annual Nazi Party rally held each year in Nuremburg in Bavaria... On Sunday we saw 110,000 (the figure is suprising but quite accurate) of the SA and SS, the former in brown, latter in black uniforms, all defile past Hitler - it took four and a half hours - each contingent played past by its own band and marching the celebrated "goose step" before Hitler, many thousands of colours included in the procession - how tired we got of saluting them [oh dear, a bad case of stiff right arm fatigue! - Transpontine note].
... We were presented to the Fuhrer - as Hitler is usually called - and I had the chance of a short talk with him... The week was a most interesting one. The German hospitality was abounding and one came away with a great regard for the powers of organisation, and of mass appeal shown, and conscious of the reawakening of national spirit in a great nation' (Mercury, 24 September 1937).
OK so it was the 1930s! But perhaps a timely reminder that the liberalish platitudes of Cameron & co. can't entirely erase the party's history as the home for all manner of racists, foxhunting toffs, homophobes, and enthusiasts for the 'flower of a nation's boyhood' marching in strict military formation...
Tuesday, April 06, 2010
Fire at Hatcham Temple Grove School in New Cross
According to the London Fire Brigade earlier this afternoon: 'Ten fire engines and around 50 firefighters have been called to a fire in a school on Monson Road, New Cross. It is thought the building is under refurbishment. A large part of the building’s roof is alight. The Brigade was called at 1513. Firefighters from Lewisham, Greenwich, Peckham, Forest Hill, Brixton, Southwark, Old Kent Road and Deptford fire stations are at the scene. The cause of the blaze is unknown at present'.
Haberdashers took over running the primary school a couple of years ago. They have already announced that the school will be closed until further notice and that 'Plans are currently underway to ensure provision is provided from across the Federation sites for all children returning on Wednesday 21st April'. I guess they could put some modular buildings up on their playing field in St Asaph's Road, Brockley, if necessary -though that would take time.
It's too early to assess the damage, but I would be surprized if the school fully opens again this school year, or even this calendar year. The school was originally built by the London School Board in 1882.
(heard about this via Brockley Central twitter - I can just imagine the conspiracy theories that would have flourished among some BC commenters if the fire had been at Gordonbrook primary school, focus of a bitter dispute between the Brockley Society and advocates of a new building there)
Monday, April 05, 2010
Lee Hazlewood and Arthur Lee in New Cross
What's more someone has sent a couple of photos taken there. One of Hazlewood himself:
... and one of his guitarist Al Casey (1936-2006), who also played with Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash among many others.
Hazlewood played some of his last major gigs at the Royal Festival Hall in 1999, 2002 and 2004. Hazelwood seems to have rehearsed at the Music Room for both of the last two of these, with my informant stating that he liked drinking in The Five Bells. These photos were taken in 2002, with the person who sent them stating that 'He was an utter gentleman to work for, completely charismatic, his unique talents undimmed'.
Friday, April 02, 2010
Deptford and Lewisham Music Halls
Amersham Hall, 411 New Cross Road (licensed from 1885-1903), known as the Conservative Club Hall until 1888
Bee Hive Public House, 18 Wellington Street, Deptford (licensed from 1852-9)
Black Bull Public House, Lewisham High Road (1859-60)
Broadway Theatre, Deptford Broadway (1867-1911)
Brookdale Hall, Brookdale Road, Catford (1886-7)
Crystal Palace Theatre, Sydenham (1890-1900), capacity 1739
Deptford Theatre, Church Street, Deptford (1840-1857) - also known as the Royal Deptford Theatre, the site was known as Theatre Wharf by 1895. Later site of Oxford Arms then Birds Nest pub.
Foresters Hall, Raglan Street, Forest Hill (1869-1887), capacity 300
Fountain Public House, Deptford Broadway (1874-1888), also known as Old Fountain Public House and Music Hall
Globe Public House, Lower Road, Deptford (1859-1882)
Golden Lion Public House and Palace of Varieties, 14 Sydenham Road (1855-1897)
Kings Head Public House, Church Street, Deptford (1854-1879)
Lewisham Hippodrome, 135-9 Rushey Green, Catford - pictured below (1911-1940s)
New Cross Empire, corner of New Cross Road and Watson's Street (opened 1899), 2000 capacity.
Ordnance Arms Public House, 37 Lewisham Road (1866-91) - 1st floor room above a pub
Sir John Falstaff Public House, Deptford (1847-53)
Swiss Cottage Public House, Stanstead Road, Forest Hill (1872-1891)
Trinity Arms Public House, Church Street, Deptford (1866-1867)
White Hart Public House, New Cross Road (1876-1889)
White Swan Public House, Deptford High Street (1846-1891)