The Tidal Year

 

Freya Bromley's 'The Tidal Year: a memoir on grief, swimming and sisterhood' sees the author travelling around Britain's tidal pools in the aftermath of her brother's untimely death. Along the way she visits some of my favourite swimming spots including Walpole Bay in Margate, Clevedon Marine Lake (on the Severn Estuary) and Dancing Ledge in Dorset.

But her home turf swimming spot is Brockwell Park Lido, even through the swimming there does not always come easy: 'Getting in the lido felt like a punishment, which something inside me needed. Getting out felt like a rebirth, which everything inside me needed. I took short, sharp breaths as the water burned my ankles, thighs, stomach, then chest. Crying happens on an inhale, and swimming gives me that same breathless sensation. I swam three laps, then at the deep end screamed underwater. When I emerged, I couldn't stop crying. Witnessing someone having a breakdown in a public pool must be a good way to see British manners'.

Along the way friendships and romance play out against a backdrop of familiar South London landmarks. East Dulwich Picturehouse, the Prince of Wales in Brixton, Myatts Fields, Herne Hill market, the Camberwell Arms and the Silk Road restaurant (also in Camberwell) all feature, not to mention a first date checking out the Lime Kiln in Burgess Park.

Black Lives Matter in South London- 2 months on

Two months after the police killing of George Floyd in  Minneapolis on May 25th, the global wave of  Black Lives Matters protests continues to make an impact around the world. This is a quick overview of the last eight weeks in South London, where the current phase of the Black Lives Matter movement in the UK started in Peckham on 30 May 2020 with hundreds of people marching across the Common and down Rye Lane.

Peckham Rye, 30 May 2020 (photo by @katyG_LSL)

Probably the largest demonstration so far took place a week later on Sunday 7 June, with a huge crowd gathering by the American Embassy in Battersea before crossing over Vauxhall Bridge and marching on to Whitehall. It was one of the biggest demonstrations seen in London in recent years, perhaps in the region of 50,000 or more.  On the way there I saw streams of people walking towards it from different parts of London due to the limited Covid 19 public transport. 

Vauxhall Bridge, 7 June 2020

A feature of the protests has been the wearing of face masks and the predominance of home made cardboard placards, well everybody seems to have a cardboard box to hand in these days of endless deliveries due to shop closures. But there were some banners to be seen, and I was pleased to see a proud Millwall anti-fascists banner at Vauxhall.

Millwall anti-fascists, Vauxhall Bridge

It seems that most local parks and public spaces have had some kind of Black Lives Matter gathering, usually 100-200 people taking the knee - a sign of the reach of the movement beyond the usual places where protest happens. I mean it's not every day (or decade for the that matter) that there is a protest in Hilly Fields or Telegraph Hill Park.

Lewisham Police Station, 3 June 2020 (photo by Mark Thompson)

Hilly Fields, 13 June 2020
(photo by Melissa Jacques full report at EastLondonLines)

Burgess Park, 14 June 2020

Ladywell Fields, 27 June (photo from SUTR)

Telegraph Hill Park, 4 July 2020 (photo from @avocadamn)

Protests have also taken place in Mountsfield Park (Catford) and outside the Deptford Lounge, among other places.

Firefighters take the knee at Lewisham Fire Station (photo from @itslukecharles, 3 June 2020)

Black Lives Matters signs can be seen in many local houses, following the recent trend for NHS rainbow window signs. Here's a few examples from around SE14.

There's also some BLM/anti-racist street art and graffiti. 

'Black Lives Matter', Waldram Park Road, Forest Hill

'Fight racism, build unity' - Thames path, Greenwich peninsula

'Racists still not welcome' - Thames path, Greenwich peninsula

What will happen next remains to be seen, in terms of  public protests all movements have ebbs and flows in their momentum. But away from the streets, this phase has kicked of a widespread questioning in workplaces, homes, sports clubs etc. There is a sense that something has to change and that is not going away. 

See also:

Black Lives Matter in Croydon

Black Lives Matter at Telegraph Hill Park

More local Black History:

The New Cross Fire 1981

Resisting the National Front 1980

The Battle of Lewisham 1977

Police raid New Cross Blues Dance 1975

Forest Hill 'Colour Bar Pub' 1965

Deptford Colour Bar 1958

Anti Slavery Meeting at Elephant & Castle 1863

Christ Stopped at Burgess Park: Arild Rosenkrantz's war memorial

By Burgess Park in Wells Way SE5, in front of St George's Church (now flats), there stands a war memorial 'to the memory of those who served 1914-1918'. It features a bronze figure of Christ holding a crown of thorns. The statue, formally unveiled in 1920, was made by the Danish artist Arild Rosenkrantz (1870-1964), an interesting character who subscribed to a mystical strand of Christianity strongly influenced by Rudolf Steiner, who he first met in 1912 and worked with closely until Steiner's death in 1925. Not sure if there's any particular esoteric symbolism in the statue, but of course the crown of thorns is traditionally seen as being placed on Christ's head in the lead up to the crucifixion. Here Christ appears to be either contemplating the crown or offering it - to suffering humanity?

Much of the artist's work dealt with religious/spiritual themes, with his paintings also infused by Steiner's theories of the importance of colour (Steiner once said: 'Colours are the soul of nature and the entire cosmos – and we become part of that soul when we live with the colours').

Tempting to wonder if his c.1930 work, Temple of Peace, referenced St George's Church in Camberwell.

See also: Rudolf Steiner's visit to Deptford

A South London Street Art Bestiary

Fox in Burgess Park (New Church Road, SE5)

Kingfisher in East Dulwich (Frogley Road, SE22)

Lemur in Sydenham Road, SE26

The other Lemur in Sydenham Road.

Lion in the car park of the Golden Lion, Sydenham (Daniel Morgan RIP)

Panther off Sydenham Road.

Ram in Sydenham Road (opposte Golden Lion)

Seahorses in Forest Hill (Devonshire Road, SE23)

Squirrel on Bellingham Green SE6

Ruin Lust

A couple of weeks left at Tate Britain of 'Ruin Lust', the exhibition tracing artists' fascination with ruins from the 18th century onwards. London features heavily, with Transpontine content including:

Photographs by Henry Dixon of old inns facing demolition, commissioned  by the Society for Photographing Relics of Old London in the 1880s. This one is of King's Head Inn yard off Borough High Street SE1 in 1881. There is still a pub there of course, but the old 17th century coaching inn structure is no more:

The White Hart Inn in the same street was also photographed by Dixon in 1881, prior to being demolished in 1889:

Keith Coventry's Estate Paintings appear to be abstract designs but are in fact based on the layout of London estates. The exhibition features his 'Heygate Estate', painted in 1995 before the Estate became a famous ruin.

The exhibition also includes Coventry's bronze casts of vandalised saplings in Queens Road SE15 and 'Burgess Park SE5, Planted 1983, Destroyed 1988':

Laura Oldfield Ford's 'Ferrier Estate' (2010) pictures the now demolished estate in Kidbrooke. She sees ruins emerging as part of a class-based reshaping of London, and also wonders about the ruins of the future

'My psychogeographic drifts through different areas of London have become a melancholy project documenting the loss of certain aspects of the city . I return to places that have been important , sites of collective memory and desire that are being demolished. During the Blair years walking through the redeveloped and regenerated London streets was to experience alienation and familiarity simultaneously, fragments of memory would emerge as splinters in the smooth space of developers plans. Places that had been in the commons were being gated off, the consequence of a decade of corporate land grabs and sustained social cleansing. London was becoming an enclave for the wealthy, and the rest of us were being pushed out, scrubbed off the map and out of history... 

Many of the ruins we see emerging at an accelerated rate around London and the South east are the ruins of the future, the new build luxury highrises and inevitable victims of the next collapse in the property market. There are ranks of empty blocks, like Capital Towers in Stratford, bought off plan in auctions in Hong Kong and Malaysia and left as menacing totems of a speculative free for all. What will become of these places? Maybe they will end up as negative equity ghettos like the Pinnacles in Woolwich, sublet to recent arrivals from the former colonies and left in a state of chronic disrepair , or perhaps they will be seized and occupied by bands of rent defaulters, young people unable to afford anywhere to live in the South East whose desperation has led them to take militant direct action' (Laura Oldfield Ford, Zones of Sacrifice: 2010-2014)

'Ferrier Estate' by Laura Oldfield Ford

Ruin Lust at Tate Britain closes on 18th May

Poetry is in the streets

The Lewisham Natureman White Stag has been featured here several times, having been spotted at various places across South East London. Emma D. sent us this photo of the stag seen recently in Northbrook Park in Lee:

'Beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror we're just still able to bear' - Rilke, 1875-1926.

Chalked in St George's Way SE5.  next to Burgess Park, last month:

Possibly accidental Deptford Jackson Pollock effect on wall in Trundleys Road SE8:

South London Select

Following recent feature on Smash Hits cover stars, here's some fab photos from Select magazine, August 1991.

But what are they doing at Transpontine? Can you guess the South London connection? (click on images to enlarge).

Julian Cope - but wasn't he in that Liverpool band The Teardrop Explodes? Yes, but in the late 1980s/early 1990s he moved down to London and lived in Albany Mews by Burgess Park and at 149a Tulse Hill. I remember seeing him around on anti-poll tax demos in fancy dress.

The Creatures - Siouxsie Sioux, born in Guys Hospital, was famously part of the early punk Bromley Contingent - though technically she was from Chislehurst (she went to Mottingham High School).
KLF - Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty. 'KLF HQ' was Jimmy Cauty's house in Camberwell: ' KLF activities were then based around their Camberwell HQ, a huge Victorian terraced house. In the basement were the ersatz 'Trancentral Studios', where their finest moments were recorded. The upper floors were home to Cauty and wife Cressida, herself an artist, and several others. Friends recall the good times, at the height of the acid-rave scene, when the KLF would throw "really brilliant fuck-off parties", sometimes lasting all weekend, with a fairly relaxed attitude to uninvited house guests' (Guardian 21 May 1994). Not sure exactly where this was, but love that some of the stuff I was dancing to at that time was recorded just down the road.

Vic Reeves - career took off via nights at the Goldsmiths Tavern (now New Cross House) and the Albany in Deptford.

Sadly haven't managed to write Robert Smith himself into the South London Story, unless you know better...

May Day Events

Various May Day related things coming up over the next few days:

Lewisham Anti Cuts Alliance

Lewisham Anti Cuts Alliance will be celebrating May Day on Sunday May 1st at Social Centre Plus (the old Job Centre) in Deptford High Street with 'Mayday! Mayday! This is an emergency! We are all under attack!... An evening of discussion, dinner and debate on how trade unionists, activists and local residents can defeat the cuts'. The programme is

5pm - 6pm – dinner (bring a dish if you can).
6pm - 8pm – discussions
8pm - 9.30pm – film about the Wobblies
9.30pm - 12am – music

You are welcome to attend all or part of the event. I will be giving a short illustrated talk based on my May Day in South London history pamphlet at some point between 7 pm and 8 pm.

Jack in the Green in Greenwich

This May Day Fowlers Troop and the Deptford Jack in the Green will be in Greenwich, processing through the streets and pubs with the Jack itself (a kind of green man pyramind of foliage) accompanied by folk dancers and musicians. It all starts at The Ashburnham Arms on Royal Hill Greenwich around noon - full details of the route and venues here.

Latin American Workers Association

Latin American Workers Association is running a number of activities this weekend at the temporary space in the Elephant and Castle shopping centre. On Saturday 30th April, there will be a workshop on making banners using batik, for use on Sunday’s Mayday March and other demos. This will be followed by bilingual singing workshop: A las Barricadas, Solidarity Forever, Solo Pido a Dios etc! The banner workshop is scheduled for 11:00 - 16:00, singing 16:30 - 19:00. Both take place at the Studio at the Elephant, unit 207/208 at Elephant & Castle Shopping Centre, SE1 6TE.

On Sunday 1st May, LAWA will be celebrating and joining the Mayday march, starting from 11:30 at Clerkenwell Green. The day's events will close with a celebration from 19:00 at the Studio Elephant, and will have music and special guests.

Mass for Migrant Workers

Over 2,000 Catholic migrants living and working in London are expected to attend a special Mass for Migrants, which will be celebrated at St George’s Cathedral, Southwark, SE1 on Monday, 2 May 2011 (the Feast of St Joseph the Worker) at 11am. This event has been held at Westminster Cathedral for the past few years and has featured calls for rights and better conditions for migrants workers.

Brixton Windmill opening

May Day costumes will feature in the official re-opening of Brixton Windmill on Monday 2nd May, with a carnivalesque procession heading from Windrush Square at 2 pm, up Brixton Hill to the site of the Windmill for the opening ceremony at 3 pm. The organisers say: 'To enter the spirit of the parade, we'd love you to dress as a miller or a May Day Queen or King, or wear a hat dress with with flowers. We are also holding a fancy dress competition, for the children, who will head the parade led by the Brixton Windmill Theatre Company' (see facebook event for further details).

Later in the month there will be a May Fair in Burgess Park on May 14th organised by the Friends of Burgess Park and maypole dancing on Camberwell Green on May 21st at the end of the Cool Tan arts walk from Tate Modern to Camberwell - I will be taking part in that too, so more details to come.

Burgess Park history

Burgess Park is such a huge, well-established green space that many people don't realize that it was once a densely populated area of housing, demolished by bombs and slum clearance (an area sometimes known as North Camberwell). If you want to know more about it, there a talk and slideshow on its history, entitled 'Bibles, Baths and Bombs' at East Street Library, 168-170 Old Kent Road, SE17 next Thursday 20 May, 6 - 7:30 pm.

Straycation Cancellation: 2 August & Carnaval del Pueblo

From the SELFS list:

I am afraid we have to cancel Roy Vickery's 'Wonderful Weeds' walk which was scheduled to happen tomorrow [2nd August].

I am sorry but the walk clashes with the Carnaval del Pueblo festival in Burgess Park. I am shall try to reschedule this walk for later in the year.

The Carnaval del Pueblo and the pre-festival procession from the Elephant & Castle down the Walworth Road is a true secret spectacle of south London and I’m happy to be shunted out by it. I took some photos of last years procession and fortune-telling budgies.

I’m glad to say that the rest of Straycation is still on, details are below. Look forward to seeing some of you in Camberwell tonight.

Straycation: Exploring South London

Explore the unknown spaces and stories of South London in a walking festival currated by South East London Folklore Society in August.

All walks are free. Contact scott@selfs.org.uk for more information.

Saturday 1 August 7pm: Camberwell Myth & Magic
Join Scott Wood on a walk around the mythological sites of Camberwell. There'll be ghosts, folklore, saints and Aleister Crowley's father-in-law. Meet on Camberwell Green, junction of Camberwell Road & Camberwell Church Street.

Sunday 2 August 3pm: Wonderful Weeds
Roy Vickery of the South London Botanical Institute will lead a stroll around Burgess Park exploring the folklore and uses of our native plants. Meet at the Camberwell Road entrance to Burgess Park.

Wednesday 5 August 7pm: Brockwell Park is waiting in the dark!
Wild West heroes, a cure for impotence, the devil's fruit and deadly mermaids are just part of the cast in this stroll around Brixton's magnificent Brockwell Park. Brockwell Park Gates Herne Hill entrance. Junction Dulwich Road and Norwood Road.

Sunday 9 August 3pm: The Greenwich Mysteries
Jacqueline Woodward-Smith takes a walk around Greenwich Park, and maybe beyond, in search of goddesses and mysteries in the land. Meet at the King William Walk gates in Greenwich.

Thursday 13 August 7pm: The Peckham Ghost Trail
Follow the trail of the infamous Peckham Ghost with SELFS host Scott Wood, meeting other phantoms of Peckham & Nunhead on the way. Meet Honor Oak Station, walk ends Nunhead Green approx 9pm.

Sunday 16th August 3pm: A short radical ramble in SE1: subversive amblings up Blackfriars Road. A walk with Past Tense: Anarchist plotters, King Mob tumult, ranters, writers, early feminists, physical force chartists and more... Meet at the Obelisk, St George's Circus, SE1

All walks between 1-2 hours.contact scott@selfs.org.uk for more details. Keep an eye on the website and the Facebook page for more walks.We'll try and be brave but walks won't happen if it's pouring with rain please ring 0795 201 2487 on the day to ensure the walk is happening.

Burgess Park Lake

The lake in Burgess Park, SE5, might be artificial but it is teeming with wildlife. Cormorants, swans and many other birds are to be seen there. Yesterday I saw lots of huge fish splashing around near the edge, which is something I haven't noticed before.

It put me in mind of The Singing Ringing Tree:

Goldfrapp in Camberwell

The video for the new Goldfrapp single, Happiness, was filmed in Addington Square (off Camberwell Road). Watch out for the opening shots of Burgess Park tennis courts and Southwark Council bins!

Earl Grey and The Tea Ladies

I didn't managed to stay for the whole show at the Pullens Centre (Crampton Street, SE17) yesterday, so missed Bucky and Butcher's Boy. But in addition to sampling cake and mulled wine I did get to see Earl Grey and the Tea Ladies and enjoyed their versions of film themes played on trombone, trumpet and accordion. As well as 'Moon River', 'The Good, the Bad & the Ugly' and 'The Godfather', they finished off with an instrumental version of 'Anarchy in the UK'. Afterwards there was a few short films, including Chris Jones stalking pigeons and crows in Burgess Park.

Whatever happended to the cosmic dream?

Shame about Syd Barrett. Its well known that he went to Camberwell Art College, but did he play music locally with any early Pink Floyd incarnations? Where did he live/hang out when he graced the streets of South East London? Was 'Piper at the gates of dawn' inspired by a night wandering on acid through Burgess Park? (OK I'm making this up). Who knows?

Summer Solstice

The Summer Solstice passed in various ways in South London. I went to Burgess Park, where Christopher Jones launched his new booklet ' I saw a tiger running wild... on the trail of Burgess Park' (published by Past Tense) accompanied by reading, incense and people in animal masks. It all took place on the bridge in the park that once spanned the now filled in canal.

On Lambeth Bridge, the Tribe of Avalon Summer Solstice ritual ended with offerings of flower petals on the waters of Goddess Tamesa, deity of the River Thames.

Others stayed up (or got up very early) to see the sun rise in Hilly Fields.

Camberwell walks

There are three free walks round north Camberwell coming up: March 19 (10.30am), 25th and 26th (both 2pm). All leave from Camberwell Green and take in some of the hidden green spaces of Camberwell, local artists, the history of the Grand Surrey canal and Burgess park, Robert Browning, with a break for tea and cake at Chumleigh gardens. Free but please book if possible 020 7277 0571 or greencamberwell@fsmail.net
There's a new map that covers the same territory, available now in local libraries and cafes.

You are here but why?

More interesting (and free) events coming up as part of the You are here but why? Festival of Mapping, happening in and around 56a Infoshop in Walworth. Tomorrow (Friday 17) promises a Psychogeography bunfight, while on Saturday at 6 pm there's a talk on gathering free food from the wilds of South London. It's followed by a cafe where you can sample some of the results. Should be good, judging by Mikey's elderflower cordial I sampled last week, made from flowers gathered in Burgess Park.

Last week, Andy Worthington's talk on the 1985 Battle of the Beanfield went well, and he was joined by one of the makers of the Operation Solstice film that documents the events. Then last Friday we had a discussion, 'History No! The Future', about some of our efforts (including Past Tense and Practical History) at using history in alternative ways to challenge the present and shape the future.

There's some cool maps to see in the temporary Map Room at 56a Crampton Street, SE17, including some South London radical history cartography. So get on down before the end of June.