Music Monday: South of the Thames - Skalah ft. Novelist

 

Skalah and Novelist at the Elephant

Great new track from up and coming Skalah with grime veteran Novelist. 

'I'm from the town, I'm from the zone, I'm from the South of the Thames...

I'm a navy boy in a navy world, I represent Brockley and Ladywell...

I'm a navy boy in a navy fit, I represent Lewisham fam that's it'

  

fabric · SKALAH Ft. Novelist - South of the Thames

Beer and coffee latest: ex-White Hart opening in New Cross, new coffee shop by Nunhead station and much more

As always lots going on in the SE London beer and coffee zone. 

Best news is that a new pub is set to open shortly on the site of the former White Hart in New Cross Gate. The Broken Wheel, as it will be named, will occupy the iconic junction of New Cross Road and Queens Road, a place where there really should be a pub. The White Hart was there for over 170 years, it had its ups and downs but in its most recent incarnation was doing really well with great Sunday lunches including a fine Irish music session. Unfortunately it closed in the Covid period and has been empty since. In the mean time rooms above the pub have been converted to flats which may put some limits on noise and late hours, but hopefully not hamper the pub's success (see more about the pub's history at this earlier post).

work underway at the Broken Wheel (ex White Hart), photo from their insta @thebrokenwheelpub

Not far away the famous Montague Arms is up for let but no sign of a tenant as yet. Like the White Hart the pub closed during the pandemic and at one time looked likely to be demolished. Instead the upstairs has been converted to flats leaving the space downstairs refurbished but smaller. The famous stage is long gone (more about the Monty here), but scope for a good neighbourhood bar. See previous posts about history of this place.

Montague Arms - done up but still empty

A new coffee shop is set to open by Nunhead station soon. I know it sometimes feels like there's coffee shops everywhere but there actually isn't one here for caffeine-hungry commuters and other locals at this end (though there is Goodcup of course by Nunhead Green).  Servesmiths, which runs two shops in Catford, is coming to the site of the former Tony's barber shop at 52 Gibbon Road (next to Silver Fish Chinese takeaway).

Site of new Servesmiths coffee shop by Nunhead station (building in middle to left of Silver Fish)

Hopefully some of these places will become community hubs with space for music and meetings, as happens with many of our existing bars and cafes. It's been amazing for instance seeing the Old Nun's Head become a queer destination pub, and so many people enjoying the music and the craic at Skehans. 

Here's a few more examples from next week:

Welsh electronic duo Overmono are celebrating the launch of their new album Pure Devotion by running a pub for the day, The Two Dogs, in Deptford on Friday 7 August. Actually judging by the address they are actually doing this at the famous Dog and Bell pub in Prince Street SE8.

Bar D4100 (Dinner for One Hundred) are having a party on the 8th August at their Nunhead bar. The pizza people started out at the Hill Station Cafe SE14  (actually I think they started out in a family garden even before) and are very much rooted in the New Cross/Nunhead community. Locally based singer Jessie Ware recently declared them to be the best pizza on London in an interview with Topjaw (she also name checked Eat Vietnam in Deptford)

Joyce in Brockley are hosting another Brockley Queer FLINTA social on 11 August. If you haven't been keeping up with your acronyms that's 'Female, Lesbian, Intersex, Non-binary, Trans, and Agender'. 

Music Monday: 'Welcome to the Party' - Professor Green in Brockley

Professor Green is often to be seen at coffee shops and similar in the Brockley area, so perhaps no surprize to see him filming his latest video in Coulgate Street, home of Parlez, Brown's and Broca. 'Welcome to the Party' gently self-mocks his journey from working class boy does good to 'one foot in the grave, one foot in the rave' deli lifestyle. Some very funny lines, e.g. 'I don't wear crocs, but I wear birkenstocks, they're not sliders, they're sandals, I like buying coasters and candles'.

 

Sun Ra, Prince and Shaka in Brockley Road

Some musical legends commemorated at Lorenzo's Records Wanted shop at 260a Brockley Road, the mural painted in 2023 by Butch Attai. Those featured include Jah Shaka, Prince, Ennio Morricone, Sun Ra, Yukihiro Takahashi and Holger Czukay. Some stuff for the real heads there and an indication of the kind of music you can find inside. Just down the road from the Roy Ayers mural too - can any other street in the world boast such a line up?

Someone has defaced Sun Ra (heresy), but found earlier image at Lorenzo's instagram

The  artist has also posted their original sketch for the piece

Jah Shaka from New Cross of course some of the others may have passed briefly through South London. Sun Ra's first London gig was at the South Bank centre (Queen Elizabeth Hall) in 1970 and of course there was Prince's 2007 residency at the 02 in Greenwich.

 

South London Street Signs

 Time for another round up of messages from the streets, lampposts and toilet doors of South London, most of these spotted around New Cross/Brockley/Nunhead in last 6 months.

Unequivocal Safe Space statement in Old Nun's Head.

New Cross, near to Goldsmiths (painted mural)

Robert Smith of The Cure in Dash the Henge record shop in Camberwell
 - 'Charlotte Sometimes, Always Anti-Fascist'

Dash the Henge - 'Millwall Communist Party'

Insurrectionary anarchists busy in Deptford, next to tunnel to Fordham Park SE14 'TFL raise fares... let's raise hell'

'Brockley Anarchist Reading Club' meeting up at Skehans

'Free Luigi Mangione' in Camberwell

Toilet doors in the New Cross Inn always a treasure trove of sticker art:

Only Tears on Old Kent Road

SE15SK8 sticker on Gellatly Road sign, SE14

Palestine still rightly getting attention - these stickers proclaiming 'long live Gaza' and 'Free Palestine'-

'Free like only animals can be' - spottted on a car in Nunhead

Reclaim the Streets/Critical Mass - advertising planned event in May 2025

Lots more posts about this kind of stuff

The Water Chorus/Third Revival at Acoustic Anarchy

Another great line up this weekend at Acoustic Anarchy, the regular night at waterintobeer in Brockley (209-211 Mantle Road, London SE4 2EW):

'The next acoustic anarchy on Saturday November 2nd, sees two of our favourite folk groups combine for what promises to be a special night. Third Revival take a mix of traditional songs and their own material and give it a dark edge, with vocals, guitar and fiddle.

The Water Chorus also work with traditional folk songs and have multiple instruments, giving the songs an energetic treatment with a lively dash of humour.

Each group will do a set and then combine to do a joint set, which we're really looking forward to. Regular host Martin Howard completes the bill. Starts at 7.30, music from 7.45. Suggested £5 donation entry, which all goes to the artists! No-one turned away for lack of funds'

I saw The Water Chorus there earlier in the year and think they are going to bigger places, so catch them while you can. Some great Scottish and other songs, including a version of Comin' thro' the Rye.

The Water Chorus at waterintobeer, April 2024

Update: this was great, Water Chorus' usual singer Caitlin Chalmers was away, with Ali Lawrenson and Jack Saville joined instead by Sophie Grenfell.  Nice to hear a few lines of (Scots) Gaelic, they did a version of the old fairy song 'Tha mi sgith' and also did a join set with Third Revival

The Water Chorus and Third Revival at waterintobeer, November 2024

Vox Populi party in Brockley 1993

1993 and a party in Brockley put on by Vox Populi sound system to raise funds to replace their rig which had been stolen from the Deptford Urban Free Festival in Fordham Park shortly before ('local people built the rig for free parties and festivals'). Venue was a furniture warehouse on Mantle Road.

flyer from 56a Info Shop archive

Krumpo on twitter recalls going to another party at the warehouse, possibly put on by people from Spiral Tribe after most of them had moved to the continent. SE London based Vox Populi also roamed Europe in 1994 helping to spread the free party vibe in France and at early Teknivals in the Czech Republic. They also apparently did a party on a boat at Deptford Creek.

Didn't go to any of these Brockley parties, though I went to plenty of free parties elsewhere in town round then and also to the Fordham Park festival itself. 

Any memories of these events or other South London free party/sound system tales? I known Hekate sound system were based at a squat in Brockley's Foxberry Road in the 1990s.

Update:

Have been sent confirmation that Bridge House was the Mantle Road furniture warehouse (as it was in the 1990s) and it was on the site of what is currently the Costcutter store behind Brockley Station. Compare Google pics from 2008 and now (2024). There's more at the planning application from 2007. So next time you are walking the aisles of that shop you may hear the ghosts of free parties past.

Mantle Road 2024

Mantle Road 2008, furniture warehouse on left, vacant site from demolished Maypole pub on right.

Music Monday: Hope 4 Justice with Eska and John Stainer School Choir

In 2022 over 1,000 young people, including students from 27 South London schools took part in Hope 4 Justice, an urgent call to action on the climate emergency highlighting issues such as air quality, ‘throw-away’ culture and housing inequality through performances of music, dance and spoken word. Created and produced by Trinity Laban as part of the Lewisham London Borough of Culture, it culminated in a performance in Mountsfield Park on Saturday 18 June 2022.

Now, to commemorate the project, five songs composed by Mercury Prize nominated artist Eska (with lyrics from Young People's Poet Laureate for London Cecilia Knapp) have been recorded at Trinity Laban with Brockley's John Stainer Community Primary School Choir and students from the TL Jazz Department.  The first track. Air, was released on 15 Feb 2024, the eleventh anniversary of the death of Lewisham resident Ella Roberta Adoo Kissi Debrah who died aged nine after a fatal asthma attack.  Ella was the first person in the world to have air pollution listed as a cause of death on their death certificate.  

Acoustic Anarchy

Martin Howard's Acoustic Anarchy has been running since 2017 at waterintobeer in Brockley (209 Mantle Road SE4), an acoustic live music night focusing on folk, punk and indie. There's a couple of events coming up in next few weeks.

As part of the Telegraph Hill Festival this weekend, on Saturday 23rd March 2024 there's a special featuring artists including:

• Joe Bitter is an acoustic punk rocker with songs celebrating cider, football and punk rock.
• Shouting into the Dark are a prog-folk duo with heartfelt songs of love, life and grief. Their latest song features a middle English section, which will be a first for the night.
• Drew Margot is a queer singer songwriter from LA whose work tends to revolve around gender, mental health, and often, dogs.

Then on Saturday 6th April 2024, headliners are The Water Chorus 'a young folk trio with an array of instruments tackling a mix of Irish and Scottish folk with plenty of tunes from further afield. They are exciting musicians with wit and zest and quite a dry sense of humour. Support comes from Neil Gordon-Orr, who will be playing some specifically South London folk songs. Regular host Martin Howard is joined by Max for some interpretations and originals'. More details here.

Music Monday: Sahra

Brockley-based singer Sahra is another graduate of the great South London jazz finishing school that is Trinity Laban. She's been getting increasing attention for her new material, including an excellent live session on Gilles Peterson's show on Worldwide FM last week. 

As she told Gilles, her soulful new single 'Alone Again' was recorded at Theo Erskine's studio in Forest Hill.

Cider with Joyce

Delighted to have the first pint to be served of the new 'Joy is an Orchard' cider at Joyce in Brockley tonight, blended by them at Ross on Wye cider.

 

South London Street Art Gallery, September 2023

Refugees Welcome - Nettleton Road SE14

Refugees Welcome - Nunhead

'Now playing Stereolab Parsec' - Station Passage SE15

'Stop lying' - Peckham

'South London is Anti-Fascist' - Peckham High Street

'Edelweiss Piraten' sticker, Nunhead (name of underground youth subculture in Nazi Germany)

Multilingual radical posters Bellenden Road SE25

'Transphobia belongs in the bin' - sticker, Brockley

'Justice for Chris Kaba', New Cross Road (shot dead by police in Streatham in September 2022)

'Black Lives Matter' - Choumert Grove Car Park, SE15

#

'Black Lives Still Matter' by Aliyah Art from her exhibition 'Anime through Black Eyes' at Peckham Levels (OK not actually street art, but thematically linked)

South London Tarot

 Brockley Pop Up on the corner by Brockley Cross roundabout has hosted some interesting retro clothes and other short term shops recently. Lates temporary occupant is Tia Xixa Tarot offering tarot readings until 29 January 2023

Like many tarot readers, Jessica uses the Rider Waite Smith tarot deck, to which there is a South London connection  (there always is). As mentioned here before A E Waite, who co-created the deck with artist Pamela Colman Smith, was initiated into the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in the grounds of what is now the Horniman Museum in 1891.

There are lots of new and interesting decks out there too, at a recent Old Kent Road Arts Club fair I came across Ayshe-Mira Yasmin's work. She has designed  an Earth Mother Magic Tarot Deck as 'an intersectional feminist tarot deck for queer women and femme non-binary people. The intention of the deck is to empower women and femme people in the face of an adversary world, to celebrate queer love, and to embrace raw feminine power through an intersectional representation of femininity'.  Yasmin has been studying illustration at Camberwell arts college. You can find her on insta as Illustrationwitch.