Black Echoes - South London nights out 1987

A window into London soul, funk and reggae nightlife from Black Echoes, 14 March 1987:

A 7 day 'Black Arts Festival' at the Cultural Centre in Woolwich with dance, drama and music with Smiley Culture, Ranking Miss P, Sista Culcha, Taxi Pata Pata and more...

At the North Peckham Civic Centre on the Old Kent Road, Southwark Leisure present 'Art and Soul - a multi-cultural season on events; including Linton Kwesi Johnson and Jean 'Binta' Breeze

Jah Shaka sessionsa the Self Help Centre, 10a Melon Road in Peckham

Soul nights with Bob Jones at the Royal Oak on Tooley Street SE1 (where the Hilton hotel now stands):

Round up of club nights including Chris Nat's under 18 soul parties at the Peter Piper Nitespot (10a Melon Road - same venue as Shaka above) and an under 16s event at the Oneway club in Catford (10 Brownhill Road). There was also an 'under 18 jam' at Steppers, 414 Coldharbour Lane, Brixton (I went there myself when it was Club 414).

And from August 29 1987, Jamaican legend Delroy Wilson appearing at the Golden Anchor pub in Nunhead and La Plaza nightclub in Peckham High Street.

Thomas McCarthy at the Goose is Out

An Irish flavoured event coming up at the Goose is Out at the Ivy House pub next week (31 May 2024) with headliner Thomas McCarthy. I first heard Tom sing at another  fine South London folk night, one of Kit and Cutter's great events at the Old Nun's Head way back in 2011. Since then his reputation has grown as one of the foremost collectors and performers of Irish Traveller songs (Ticket details here- advance booking recommended).

 

Nyge and Sue have built up The Goose is Out to be one of London's leading folk nights, attracting some of the best known acts on the circuit to a usually packed out room in Nunhead. In the last couple of years for instance I've seen Martin Carthy, Eliza Carthy, Stick in the Wheel, Burd Ellen and Fay Hield among others. The club has also provided a bridge between the more established folk scene and some of the new wave of queer/pro-feminist folkies - I've also seen Sonny Brazil (Goblin Band) and both Jacken Elswyth and Mataio Austin Dean (Shovel Dance Collective) perform there recently.  They also nurture local singers at their monthly singaround sessions where everyone is encouraged to stand up and sing a song, I've done so a couple of times myself.

So get along to Goose is Out!

Becket House - an immigration prison in SE1

At present there are major building works going on next to London Bridge station in St Thomas Street with the construction of a 27 storey 'EDGE London Bridge' office block well underway.  Whatever you think of it, nobody is going to much miss the Home Office building it replaced, known as Becket House. Before the latter vanishes from historical memory it's important to record what happened there as possibly the last designated prison in a part of London that has seen many prisons over the centuries.

Protest at Becket House in 2010

Becket House's purpose was probably unclear to those fortunate enough not to have to use it, including the many commuters passing by as they exited the south entrance of London Bridge station. The only clue was the daily queue of people from all corners of the world stretching around the building each morning.

Becket House was an an Immigration Reporting Centre where asylum seekers were required to attend regularly.  In most cases this would involve a long queue and a short signing on but the terror underlying this was never really knowing when you left home that morning whether you would be coming back again. Asylum seekers could be detained when they turned up and for this purpose Becket House had what was called a 'short term holding centre' where people could be locked up until they were moved to a longer term detention centre and then potentially deported.  This was officially designated as a prison and subject to HM Prisons Inspectorate (see for instance this critical report of a 2009 inspection). It consisted of two adjoining secure 'holding rooms', one for single adults and one for families. As well as being used for people detained when signing it was used to lock up people arrested in immigration raids in the community organised from Becket House.  People were usually moved to a removal centre on the same day, though sometimes they were moved overnight to local police station cells. The centre was run for  some of its time for the then UK Borders Agency by Group 4 Securicor (G4S).

At one time Becket House was processing 15,000 appointments a year. How many people were detained in total is unknown but one report shows that between August and October 2009 alone 255 people had been detained, including 39 children (15%) and 59 women (23%). Among those who were  locked up there was Amir Siman-Tov from Morocco. Detained when he reported to Becket House in January 2016 he was transferred to Colnbrook Immigration Removal Centre where he died the following month (see Inquest report). 

As part of the Government's Hostile Environment, Becket House was designed to intimidate - in 2018 the Guardian reported that an official there had been filmed saying 'We are not here to make life easy for you. It’s a challenging environment we have got to make for people. It’s working because it’s pissing you off'.

Becket House was the focus for a number of protests from migrant solidarity groups. The building closed in 2022 and was demolished soon afterwards.

s

Several hundred people paused at Becket House during the March for Migrant Rights in October 2006

 which went from Imperial War Museum to Tanner Street park

No Borders protest in 2009

SOAS Detainee Support, Migrants Organise and These Walls Must Fall at Becket House in 2021

The only Immigration Reporting Centre for South London is now at Lunar House in Croydon. 

Russell Dryden RIP

Sorry to hear today of the passing of Russell Dryden. Familiar to many from his fish stall in Bermondsey's  Blue market, which he ran  for more than 30 years, he championed music through his involvement with Bermondsey Beat and Bermondsey Carnival.

He also had a lovely singing voice himself. Back in June 2011 'Nigel of Bermondsey' hosted Southwark Folk, a night of South London themed songs at the Cuming Museum on Walworth Road. Nigel/George performed, I sang a few songs as did John Constable, and Russell charmed us with some of his own compositions including one I remember prompted by hearing an American accent in the market and reflecting on the ever changing area.

Hate is a Drag! - Honor Oak protest exhibition in Catford

Hate is a Drag! is an exhibition at Catford Constitutional Club's Gallery SE6 of art from and inspired by last year's Honor Oak anti-fascist counter protests. It includes placards and signs from the movement as well as other work by Kate Emblen who curated the exhibition and who was herself targeted online by the far right for her participation in the events.

From February to July 2023 there were monthly far right protests targeting a Drag storytelling session at the Honor Oak pub. The first one saw 500 people turn up and block the road to oppose them, and that set the tone for an ongoing community mobilisation which outnumbered the far right each month until the final one in July 2023. By this time the storytelling session had stopped anyway, it's in the nature of events in pubs that they come and go over time though I think that the company running the pub may have brought pressure for it to take a break and no doubt the police had a word in their ear too. 

The exhibition at Catford Constitutional Club runs from 10 May to 5 June 2024

I've written an account of the protests at Datacide magazine, here's an extract:

'The protests were first called by Turning Point UK, a Trumpian ‘anti-woke’ group, and amplified by right wing influencers like GB News TV presenters Calvin Robinson and Laurence Fox. Both of these attended the first protest in February 2023 where their 30 or so supporters were heavily outnumbered by community opposition, with several hundred people occupying the road by the pub to stop them getting near. Since then there have been monthly face offs with anti-fascists as the far right has tried and mostly failed to occupy a space directly outside the pub for its protest.  In the most serious confrontation in June intelligence that the far right were planning to arrive very early led to an to an even earlier counter effort. By 6 am people had gathered to defend the pub and soon afterwards the Turning Point mob turned up and piled in. Scuffles continued for a while before the police turned up, a few people were injured and a window broken in the pub but the line held. After the early departure of  the far right there was dancing in the road before the police cleared the impromptu street party.  Giving evidence against a protestor who was arrested, a cop claimed that the sound system had been louder than Rampage at Notting Hill Carnival – a slight exaggeration.

Since then events have settled down into a routine with 100+ anti-fascists outside the pub, large numbers of police (12 van loads at most recent count) and a hard core of around 20-30 anti-drag activists, mostly older white men with long term involvement in far right street politics. Among those identified have been people previously associated with Combat 18, Blood & Honour (white power skinheads) and the British National Party. One regular attendee spent years in jail for being part of a neo-nazi gang that nearly killed a man in a racist stabbing in Essex.

Opposition to the far right at the Honor Oak has come from a mixture of  younger queer and trans activists, long time Lewisham leftists and trade unionists and other local people just outraged at the presence of bigots in this diverse part of London. Despite some political differences some interesting connections have been made and a tentative South London antifascist community of struggle has emerged over seven months. Large banners have proclaimed ‘South London Loves Trans People’ and ‘South London is Anti-Fascist’.