New Cross Giant Redwood

New Cross has quite a few fine trees - London Planes on the wider roads, cherry trees in residential streets and gardens full of all kinds of specimens. But one of the finest must be the Giant Redwood at New Cross Gate station. Legend has it that it was planted from seed in the 1980s by a railway worker who worked on the track there at the time 

The tree today

The tree c.2010 (photo found on ebay)

 

White Bike Cyclist Memorial for Irene Leardini in New Cross Road

 People gathered opposite New Cross Gate station on Friday 6th February 2026 to commemorate the life of cyclist Irene Leardini and to campaign for safer roads in her memory. Irene, aged 39, was among other things an Italian bike mechanic who had worked at Clapham Cycle shop. She was killed by a lorry on 20th January.

A white bike memorial was installed with flowers and candles.

'Irene was a young woman with an enormous love of life. Many many friends and a loving family are grieving her loss and will always miss her dreadfully. Those who loved her say she would have described herself as a happiness seeker and that she was passionate about human rights. She was a cycle mechanic and someone who made a difference in her community. She is a huge loss. Rest in peace, Irene'.

'And Irene is not the only person to be killed or badly hurt on this road. Along its whole length dozens have suffered and many families are grieving and struggling with the ongoing effects of serious collisions. We have known it is not safe for vulnerable road users, walking and cycling here for decades. Yet what could be done to make it safer has not been done. It needs to be done. Now. Safe space for cycling is needed here. If Irene had not had to share this space with a much larger vehicle and its driver, she would be here now. If she had the space she deserved here, her family and loved ones would not be grieving. Safe space for cycling, safe space for people;

'Cycling is not dangerous - this road is' (photo by Alex Raha from Lewisham Cyclists facebook page)

Irene

Sad that this has happened so soon after another cyclist was killed further up the Old Kent Road, and only two weeks after a man was killed by a police car on Borough High Street (see here)

Sports writer/presenter Ned Boulting was there on Friday and has written about it at his substack:

'London has seen considerable improvements over the last decade or so. Some of the infrastructure which has been designed, separating bikes from the motor traffic is genuinely fantastic. But this particular stretch of the A2 is one of many arterial roads managed by TfL rather than the individual boroughs, on which no material changes to protect vulnerable road users have been effected. There are advance stop boxes at junctions, but no clear path to access them for riders. And once the lights change, you’re on your own. It is almost as if the complexities and costs of doing the right thing to protect those who choose to ride are so overwhelming that the default position is simply to do nothing'.

'Freedom for Fatema' campaign at Goldsmiths

Staff and students at Goldsmiths University of London are campaigning for the release of a Goldsmiths student who has been in prison for over a year for alleged Palestine solidarity action. Fatema Zainab Rajwani, who also goes by Ray, is a 21-year-old film student and poet. They are currently being held as part of the Filton24, imprisoned without being convicted for alleged damage of weapons in an Israeli arms factory in England belonging to Israel’s largest arms manufacturer, Elbit Systems, at Filton near Bristol.  Ray’s trial at Woolwich has just concluded, and they are now awaiting jury deliberation alongside five of their co-defendants. Fatema was meant to begin their final year as a Media and Communications student at Goldsmiths in September 2024, but they were remanded after being arrested at Filton in August 2024. Eight other prisoners have taken part in a hunger strike.

According to Goldsmiths UCU:

'Ray is proud of their Indian heritage and East African roots. They are a film student and a poet, and their writing is an attempt to mediate between the existence we are witnessing and the beautiful world we have the capacity to rebuild together.

Fatema’s interests include reading and writing poetry, history, and social theory; Bollywood films and songs; zines; BFI films; Chappell Roan; Buffy; We Are Lady Parts; Sweatshop Boys; and books by Kamila Shamsie. They love meeting new people and hearing about others.

As Fatema has said: “We reject the business of imperialist murder that Britain profits from. The slaughter of Black and Brown bodies that the British arms trade facilitates must end. Long live Palestine.”

 

'Next stop is Queens Road '- aya's Hexed! is Quietus & Wire album of the year

First day back at work yesterday after the Christmas break, and a nice moment of synchronicity. As is my wont at this season I have been working my way through various lists of the best albums of the last year. Number one on the Quietus list for 2025 is aya's Hexed! on Hyperdub, with Claire Dibbles describing the artist 'as a master of sound design, functioning as both a storytelling tool and as a descriptor of emotion'. The album is also no.1 on the Wire magazine's end of year list.

Listening to the track 'off to the ESSO' my ears pricked up at the line 'next stop is Queens Road' as I was just approaching Queens Road Peckham station. OK other Queens Roads are available, but as aya apparently has a studio in Peckham I'm going to take this an SE15 reference

As for the album, it certainly woke me up on a wintry Monday morning. Check out this interesting interview with aya at Fader which describes her 'uncanny, abrasive collages' and the album's 'bewildering journey through pummelling electronic noise'.

aya on the cover of The Wire, May 2025

Ikonika also has a new album out - SAD - on Hyperdub by the way, which puts me in mind of one of my favourite Transpontine posts, from 2013 - the story of Ikonika, Katy B and Ayre's Nunhead bakers.

All Together Now - 1978 Deptford anti-racist festival

All Together Now was an anti-racist festival held in Deptford in April 1978.  According to a contemporary report:

 ''All Together Now' was the name of ALCARAF's (All Lewisham  Campaign Against Racism and Fascism) multicultural festival which ran for three Saturdays before the local authority elections. 

A Community resource centre, the Albany, and a community theatre the Combination under an ALCARAF banner had the idea of celebrating the multicultural nature of Deptford  as a positive step against the National Front's propaganda. So  they built a beautiful bandstand on a derelict site in the middle of the busy Deptford market place and made fun and festivities with reggae music, morris dancers, medicine shows about racism, bag pipes, Chilean children dancers and the Kent Miners Band. 

Around the main stage was a market of 35 stalls from political parties,  anti-racist groups and community organisations. They gave away information, talked to people about their campaigns and sold food and  artifacts from many cultures'.

This was a period when the far right National Front had been gaining momentum in Deptford and other areas, but they didn't make the breakthrough in 1978 which they had been hoping for. The festival seems to have taken place in Douglas Way SE8, before the construction of the current Albany theatre building. The original Albany was at 47 Creek Road and later that year, in December 1978, was seriously damaged in a fire which ALCARAF and others believed was caused by a far right arson attack partly prompted by its role in putting on the festival:

'ALCARAF believes the fire was started deliberately. We have said we think there is every probability that this was the work of the National Front or their supporters. We are aware that in this we are directly contradicting the official statements of the Greenwich police. We are in fact gravely concerned at the apparent indifference to this attack. We intend to try to bring pressure to bar on the Home Office and to insist that suspected racist and fascist crimes are treated with the they deserve. 

Before doing however, we must explain our reasons for reaching the conclusions above. These can be summarised as follows: 

1) the expert opinion of the fire officer in charge of the case is that the fire was almost certainly started deliberately. 

2) The Albany Empire and the Combination theatre group who are based there are well-known for their work in the field of race relations. 

3) The Albany Institute is affiliated to ALCARAF and they played the  major part in staging with us the 'All Together Now' festival in Deptford in the three weeks prior to the May local council elections. We believe this helped significantly in bringing about the National Front's resounding electoral defeat in Lewisham. 

4) A note claiming to come from 'Column 88' (believed to be the paramilitary wing of the fascist movement in Britain) and indicating responsibility was delivered to the Albany shortly afterwards'.. 

Source for festival report: Community Action, no. 37, May - June 1978 - check out the excellent online archive of this publication.  Source for ALCARAF statement on Albany fire: 'Stages in the Revolution: Political Theatre in Britain Since 1968' by Catherine Itzin.