New Beer at Planet Wax, New Cross

Planet Wax, the record shop/bar at 318 New Cross Road has teamed up with brewers Deya to create their very own pale ale: 'Very Good Plus'. They had a launch event for it on Saturday 17th August.

They have the beer on tap as well as in cans and I can report that it is very refreshing pint that goes down well with the traditional Planet Wax diet of drum & bass and electro

Lewisham Olympic Medals at Paris 2024

I don't think there is an Olympic league table for London boroughs, but think we can claim at least four medals from Paris 2024 for Lewisham, which is more than many participating countries have managed. At least three medalists previously represented Lewisham in the London Youth Games.

Alex Yee won gold in the men's Triathlon with one of the most exciting finishes of the games, and also picked up a bronze medal in the Triathlon mixed relay. Alex grew up in Brockley Road and joined Kent Athletic Club, based at Ladywell Arena, as well as Crystal Palace Triathletes Club. He went to Stillness Primary School and Kingsdale secondary school. After previous success at Tokyo Olympics, his gold medal was painted on to the  Brockley train station mural by artist Lionel Stanhope. Now the mural has been repainted as Brockyee.

Alex Yee in 2021

photo from JanecandoSE4

Alex Yee flies ahead of the field, me included, at Hilly Fields parkrun in 2015

Daryll Neita was the fastest British woman at the Games, running 100m in 10.92 seconds and making top five in the 100m and 200m finals before bringing home a silver medal running a great last leg in the women's 4 x 100m relay. Daryll grew up in Ladywell and now lives in Lee. She went to Gordonbrock Primary School and Prendergast Hilly Fields secondary school. Neita's running careeer started out with SE London's Cambridge Harriers, training at Sutcliffe Park in Eltham as well as at Ladywell Arena.

Daryll recently bigged up Lee in the Standard, with her foodie highlights including  Luciano's on Burnt Ash Road, and a full English breakfast at the Lee Cafe.

Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix won a bronze medal in the synchronised 10 meter platform diving. Andrea went to John Stainer Primary School in Brockley and Harris Academy Bermondsey secondary.

Were there any other Lewisham competitors? Certainly some other South Londoners, including Kye Whyte from Peckham BMX who had a crash in Paris and Ethan Hayter who won a cycling silver in the the men’s team pursuit. Hayter hails from West Norwood, and like Fred Wright who took part in Olympics road race, trained as a youngster at Herne Hill Velodrome (as has Alex Yee).

Well done all. Once again this shows the importance of local community sports facilities like Ladywell and Sutcliffe Park running tracks and Herne Hill Velodrome, as well as the volunteer run sports clubs that use them

Lewisham Stands Against Racism, again

A great turn out at Lewisham clock tower last night for anti-racist rally, part of a big movement of similar actions across the country in response to threats of more far right attacks on mosques and asylum seeker accommodation. After a week of seeing racist mobs on the rampage, including fires starting at a couple of hotels, it it was a great relief to see such large numbers on the streets to oppose them.

In Lewisham there were about 500 people, with banners from Lewisham Trades Council and Stand up to Racism, who called the event. Despite untrue rumours spreading earlier in the day of riots in Lewisham, it was pretty calm with no sign of any far right presence other than a couple of guys spotted wandering around earlier in the day.

Speeches in Lewisham including Stand Up to Racism, local trade unions, Lewisham Islamic Centre etc. One thing that struck me was how often people referred to the local history of racism and anti-racism. Mentions of Lewisham 1977, when the National Front were defeated in street battles, always get a cheer, but there were also references to the movements around the New Cross Fire and the Stephen Lawrence murder. There is a lot of memory and experience in SE London to mobilise, as well as the fresh outrage of a new generation of anti-fascists.

The far right haven't got away and there are challenges ahead, but perhaps a sense that momentum has switched away from them for now.

(I posted a clip of Harold Wilson of Stand Up to Racism speaking on twitter/insta, saying 'If you want to see a migrant go to Lewisham Hospital, we are the ones that are doing the graft'. It went semi-viral getting more than 50k views, which also meant it got some unwanted attention with racists from across the world having something to say about the state of Lewisham of which they know nothing). 

See also some other posts on racism, fascism and anti-fascism in South London:

Pro-fascist Tory MPs in 1930s Lewisham

Fighting Fascists in Deptford 1933

'Jews in Lewisham Fight': a 1936 punch up with Hitler fans

Fighting Fascists in Peckham 1937

Southwark Spain Shop, Walworth Road 1937

A racist riot in Deptford 1949

Deptford Colour Bar 1958

Forest Hill 'Colour Bar Pub' 1965

'No Nazis in South London' demo, Elephant & Castle 1977

Lewisham '77: Myth and Anti-Fascist History

Battle of Lewisham Chronology 1977

No nazis in East Street, 1979

Opposing the National Front in Camberwell/Peckham and Catford 1980

New Cross Fire 1981

Hither Green DHSS strike against BNP member 1988

Racist Murder in SE London early 1990s- Rolan Adams, Stephen Lawrence and anti-BNP demos in Welling

Fascist attack in Lewisham 2012

South London Anti-Fascists 2013

Black Lives Matter in South London 2020

Croydon Racist Protest Outnumbered 2021

Fascists seen off at Honor Oak pub, February 2023

Defending Drag - opposing the far right in Honor Oak, 2023

A racist riot in Deptford, 1949

 In July 1949, there was a racist riot in Deptford. A large crowd of white men attempted to storm Carrington House, a London County Council lodging house in Brookmill Road where a group of around 40 black men from Africa and the Caribbean were staying. What seems to have started out as a clash in the high street was followed by hundreds of white men attempting to force their way into the hostel.   Those under attack barricaded themselves in and defended themselves and when the police intervened some of them were arrested as well as their assailants. After two nights of clashes, a third night drew a crowd of 1500 outside the hostel but the night passed off peacefully. 

'Crowd of 800 tried to get at negroes'

The men from Africa and the Caribbean had faced racism including colour bars in local pubs, and there were later suggestions that one motive for the violence was that some of them 'had befriended white girls'.  As usual in such cases the attackers justified their violence on the grounds of defending women and children from an imaginary threat.  Many of the actual women seem to have had different ideas.  Mrs Lilian Carrigan of Kings Grove, Peckham wrote to the local paper that 'The coloured boys of Carrington House, Deptford, don't get a fair deal... There are quite a lot of snobbish people about here who still feel themselves above the level of coloured people, and the colour bar in Peckham is very strong'. Another woman living opposite Carrington House told the South London Observer: 'They're persecuted. You'll find plenty of sympathisers for them round here'.

As is often the case with such outbreaks of racist violence there were predictions of ongoing race war which did not materialise. The very language of 'race riot' is misleading as it can imply an equivalence - two groups fighting like two rival football firms, rather than people from a dominant group violently harrassing minorities. 

Outbreaks of collective racist violence - what some have termed 'whiteness riots' - have periodically occurred in South London as elsewhere reflecting a deep current of racist hostility to 'others' within British popular culture. But there are other counterveiling tendencies at work including the presence of decent people who develop friendships and other social relations with people different from them and don't go along with the racist mood. Organised opposition to racism and fascism has also been important. In this instance Les Stannard of Deptford Communist Party was quick off the mark to argue that 'Incidents of this kind are the result of official policy and the Fascist mentality of some undesirable elements in the borough'.

 Following the events a conference to discuss the situation was held at Goldsmiths College with the involvement of Deptford Trades Council, Deptford Council of Christian Churches and the National Council of Civil Liberties. The 'colour bar' was denounced and there were speeches from Carrington House residents including Alghali Sillah, a lorry driver from Freetown, Sierra Leone who asked 'why he and his friends were shunned by white people living in Deptford. In particular he criticised the local police and said "They arrest the coloured boy and let the white man go"'.

Another Carrington House resident mentioned in the reports was a 'young West Indian Clinton Pius' who is credited with halting 'race war' by encouraging people to stay inside. As the 40 residents were outnumbered by 1500 people outside plus a hostile police force it seems extraordinary that they should be seen as the threat to peace.

'Coloured man asks: why am I shunned?'

(note on sources - most of these are from the local press,  I found copies of some in Lewisham archives a few years ago where they were in a file on racism. In some cases the date was written on the cuttings but not the source - I assume they would be from South London Press/Kentish Mercury/South London Observer)

Music Monday: Marysia Osa - dreaming of the sea in Lewisham

Marysia Osa is a harpist (among other things) who plays with Levitation Orchestra and Transpontine favourite Laura Misch. Moving from Poland to London as a child, she started playing harp at Trinity Laban in Greenwich. Now signed to Gilles Peterson's Brownswood Recordings, she has an album coming out on October 18th 2024 - 'harps, beats and dreams'.

The opening track 'seatime' has been released and was played on BBC R6 Music this week, with Mary Ann Hobbs saying that it was  'written in a bedroom in Lewisham dreaming of the ocean'.

London Land Justice Fair in Myatt's Fields

Enjoyed the London Land Justice Fair in Myatt's Fields Park in Camberwell last month (21st July 2024), lots of stalls and chats plus a meeting marquee where I went to an interesting session on 'who owns London?'. Before I went I wasn't too sure about the concept of 'land justice' but I came away thinking that it's quite a neat way of framing the connections between housing, environmental, food and other issues which ultimately come down who owns and controls land and buildings, and who determines what uses they are put to.

As explained in 'Towards a Manifesto for Land Justice' (2024):

'‘Land’ is all the earth’s resources: the physical surface of the earth, both land and water, urban and rural, what lies beneath, and the atmosphere above. Land is also more than its physical attributes. Land is home to people and other species. It contains history, memories, stories, dreams and aspirations. It is a ‘place’ that people are rooted in, the context in which their lives are played out. 

However, for centuries land has been an economic asset for a small minority, its value determined by how it is used and priced by the market, displacing the majority - physically, economically, socially, politically and culturally'.

'Let's make London a Commons!'

Anyway People's Land Policy have put together a nice short film of the event which captures its conversational feel -