Music Monday: Laura Misch - Alchemy on Hilly Fields

Laura Misch might be touring internationally at the moment but but she continues to deepen her relationship with South London landscape and communities. Last month for instance she gave a listening workshop at Avalon Cafe in Surrey Canal Road SE14 while last summer she was down at the 56a Info Shop supporting a project from her collaborators Holobiont.  She's also incorporating field recordings into her musical practice, as can be seen in this short film marking the launch of her new song Alchemy featuring her in action in Hilly Fields.

Laura Misch at Hilly Fields stone circle

see previously:

Laura Misch launches 'Sample the Sky' in Peckham

Hilly Fields Songs - yes several videos have been shot there including one by Stornoway that also features J's Cafe that later became Avalon

Some South London Beverages

Some South London themed drinks for the festive period. Good to see Hilly Fields getting its own beer courtesy of Brockley Brewery

Then there's Myatt's Fields Cocktails whose bottles will immortalise this part of SE5 for future archaeologists.

 

Hilly Fields parkrun 500

Hilly fields parkrun celebrated its 500th event last Saturday (6/6/23). Since it started in 2012 nearly 12,000 separate individuals have run or walked  three laps around the park on a Saturday morning to complete a 5k. The combined distance covered by all those who have taken part is around 480,000 km – that's equivalent to running a couple of time around the world, then running to the moon and running a couple of times round that too.

The free, volunteer run event started out from a meeting at the Ladywell Tavern, where Stephen Robson (pictured) agreed to be the event director. Having reached 500 events he stood down from this role on Saturday but will continue to be involved - thanks to Stephen and all the other volunteers who have kept this event going. Stephen and some of the others involved in setting it up had previously taken part in Bromley parkrun. Hilly Fields has gone on to spawn other events locally, with runners from there going on to set up Hilly Fields junior parkrun (for children on Sundays) and  Peckham Rye parkrun, among others.

In the early days of Hilly Fields parkrun attendance averaged around 40 runners. Nowadays it routinely involves more than 200 people and for Saturday's anniversary 438 people took part including 32 volunteers helping to make it happen.

Hilly fields parkrun has had a big impact on me since I first took part in 2013. It was the first organised running event I had taken part in since leaving school, and from that I really got the running bug. Parkrun led me on to get active in Lewisham based running club Kent AC and taking part in lots of races. But Hilly Fields parkrun is where I have run most and like many others I have developed an intimate knowledge of every twist and turn, every incline and descent. My running has declined due to injury in the last year, but it was great to attend at the weekend and I hope that as long as I am able to keep moving I will return there on Saturday mornings.

Olympic gold triathlete Alex Yee leaves us all behind at Hilly Fields parkrun in 2015

Women of Lewisham

The 'Women of Lewisham' banner outside Prendergast School on Adelaide Avenue SE4 features a number of women associated with the borough. From left to right author Malorie Blackman, singer Kate Bush (who lived in Brockley), Suffragette Emily Davison, community activist Sybil Phoenix and housing/open spaces campaigner Octavia Hill (who helped create Hilly Fields park).

 

Hilly Fields Jazz Police?

Summer evenings this year have seen some remarkable gatherings on Hilly Fields. In the area by the park's stone circle - an ancient monument dating back to 2000 - a group of young jazz musicians have been playing improvised sessions watched by people relaxing on the grass. I believe the sessions have mostly been on Monday nights, though there was also one on July 12th linked to the Black Lives Matter event in the park that day.

Last week though (Monday 3rd August) the session was ordered to stop by the police. It is unclear whether this was due to concerns about Covid 19 regulations, licensing issues or a complaint about noise. The  musicians have a lot of support locally,  as expressed in one facebook comment: 'This event is something very special, the atmosphere is out of this world. Was taken out of London and floating on air. Smiles all round, warm energies, dancing to the amazing music on the air. Seeing the musicians all buzz off one another is incredible. Such a shame if it's shut down now'. The photo below, by Cath Dupuy, shows the scene last Monday before the event came to a premature end.

(photo by Cath Dupuy)

Hopefully a way forward can be found to enable something to continue, for now the musicians are considering taking their talents elsewhere (I have come across similar gatherings on Peckham Rye). 

The bigger picture for me is how amazing it is that in 2020 there should be a vibrant, multiracial community of young musicians playing jazz for an appreciative public! South East London is recognised internationally as a centre for this new movement that has spawned Ezra Collective and Catford's Moses Boyd among many others. A while ago Kate Hutchinson wrote up  'A sweaty night out in London's new jazz scene' in the New York Times (19 October 2018):  'In a tiny converted railway arch south of the River Thames, a mosh pit had formed in front of a three-way brass-off. The house band played from the floor, as if it were a punk show. Other musicians crowded around, waiting for their turn... In London, a new generation is challenging jazz’s stuffy reputation as the conservatory-honed noodlings of middle-aged musicians for affluent — and seated — audiences'. The night featured was a Steam Down session at Buster Mantis bar in Deptford.

As John Lewis highlighted recently in The Guardian, this new 'cosmopolitan vision of jazz' is very much shaped by 'The multicultural nature of London'. Key scene figure Shabaka Hutchings notes that it incorporates influences from  'Dub, dancehall, calypso, soca, Afrobeat, highlife, township jive, nyabinghi – all put through the filter of rave and house and hip-hop' (Add some township jive! How London's jazz scene set itself apart, Guardian, 27 May 2020). Many of the musicians are from South London,  either by origin and/or having studied on the influential jazz course at Trinity Laban college in Greenwich/Deptford.

You really have to go back to  the acid jazz clubs of 1980s/90s  or maybe even the jazz raves of the 1950s to find anything like a similar energy. And when was a jazz event last stopped by the police?  Punk gigs, grime nights, reggae blues parties and acid house raves have all felt the force of the law in the last thirty years, but let's face it jazz couldn't get arrested.  Surely there can be no surer sign of the rebirth of cool! 

(photo by @SwanAroundPhotos)

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

Covid-19 street art, volume 1

Covid-19 might have led to physical distancing but, as many have observed, the need for social communication and organisation has never been more apparent. In  this post I am focusing on one aspect of that - public expressions relating to the pandemic as seen on the streets of SE London (examples mainly from Brockley/New Cross/Nunhead area unless otherwise stated). There is a wave of spontaneous street/folk art bubbling up in windows, pavements, hoardings and many other places.

The first wave of creativity accompanied the launch of community self-help/mutual aid. The first public sign of this was the launch of the Lewisham Covid 19 Mutual Aid facebook group on March 12th, a good ten days before the Government implemented a lockdown. Soon flyers were dropping through letterboxes and posters going up all over the place, as people set up local groups at neighbourhood and street level. Today there are well established networks in most areas, there is lots of informal checking in on neighbours and co-ordinated responses to requests to pick up shopping and medicines, along with more ambitious efforts such as delivering food parcels to those who need it most (such as the scheme being run from Telegraph Hill area). If in some streets there hasn't been much need to go beyond setting up a whatsapp group, it is good to know that the support is there when required. Here's a couple of early examples of leaflets, from Telegraph Hill and Brockley respectively (click to enlarge).

'If you're self isolating you are not alone' (Telegraph Hill leaflet) 

'Need the support of your community during Covid-19? We can help' (Brockley leaflet)

The key visual image of pandemic street art has been the children's painting of a rainbow, displayed in a window as a general expression of hope. This seems to have started in Italy and spread internationally.

Some people have taken the rainbow on to another level - here's a balloon arch from Waller Road SE14:

Another international trend has been the bear hunt - strategically placed teddy bears for children to spot when they are out and about with their parents during their exercise stroll. This bear is giving thanks not to just emergency services but to food producers, shop workers, delivery people and... cats:

In Britain over the last couple of weeks the rainbow has merged  with another key trope - support for people working in the National Health Service. Here's some chalked examples:

Ravensbourne Park

Ivydale Road

'thank you NHS & Key workers - stay safe' (Ivydale Road)

NHS on Gellatly Road, opposite Skehans pub

 Elsewhere there have been banners, like this one:

'Thank you NHS' - Frendsbury Gardens, Honor Oak Estate (detail below)

Rushey Green - 'Care for each other'

The 'Trees on the Green' sculptures at Rushey Green have been decorated with pictures from children and staff at St John Baptist Primary School in Catford.

Similar sentiments have been expressed in street art pieces like these:

'We are blessed to have the NHS' - Geoffrey Road, SE4 (by Harry Blackmore)

NHS superhero, Hilly Fields

These graphic outpourings of support for NHS workers have been matched by public cheering on Thursday nights at 8 pm (for three consecutive weeks so far). In many places people have been clapping and generally making noise from their doors and windows. On my street in SE14 it has got busier and noisier over the three weeks, with banging of saucepans and even a couple of trumpets. It is both a gesture of solidarity and an affirmation of community, the only time in the week when we get to see our neighbours in any numbers.

I've seen some remarks online to the effect that what frontline workers in the health service need is better pay, more funding and Personal Protective Equipment, rather than cheers. But these need not be mutually exclusive. What is being shown appreciation on Thursday nights is not the limitations of the top down, under-resourced NHS with its various hierarchies and bureaucracies but the value of care and the principle that it must be there for all regardless of wealth. And of course respect for those shouldering the risk of providing this while many of us stay at home (not that this is limited to the NHS, let's not forgot teachers, social workers, care home staff etc.).

Many other people are having to travel to work and mix with colleagues because their employers have rather dubiously classed their work as essential. The reluctance of some companies to prioritise the health of their staff and customers by closing was highlighted at Wetherspoons pub chain, before they were forced to close by lockdown restrictions. This sticker from staff at the Brockley Barge highlighted their campaign for 'real sick pay now':

'Living wage for Brockley Barge staff'

Now with so many places closed we have become familiar with notices on doors explaining their position. This one is from the Old Nun's Head pub looking forward to reopening when 'this absolute bastard of  a virus has finally buggered off':

If ordinary politics seems to have been temporarily put on hold, it will no doubt return. A global pandemic affecting people everywhere might open the way for planetary humanist responses,  but equally it could be the precursor to a climate of blame in which various 'others' are held responsible. There are questions about what labour gets valued, how health and care services are resourced, what kind of 'normality' do we want to go back to? There has been some political graffiti locally but there will be a lot more political debate and controversy to come. 

'Pandemic to class war - don't trust Boris' - Lewisham town centre

'Covid futurism - economy of care - universal basic income - bury capital'
(the closed Black Horse and Harrow pub in Catford - most recently 'The Ninth Life')

And of course once again we are thankful for the success of our fight to stop the Government from closing Lewisham Hospital. The fallacy of reducing hospital services to a bare minimum with no capacity to respond to surges in illness has surely been exposed once and for all. Lives are being saved today at Lewisham as a result of the thousands who marched and campaigned back in 2013.

'Save Lewisham Hospital' campaign thanking NHS staff last month and
 calling for 'personal protection equipment for them now'

A message from some Lewisham staff - 'I stayed at work for you. Please stay at home for me!'

Music Monday: The Drezone - 'End of Summer Blue' on Hilly Fields

SE London musician The DreZone has many talents - multi-instrumentalist, DJ and professional singer who can be found performing tributes to Prince and Stevie Wonder among others. He also writes and produces his own material, his latest song released yesterday to coincide with the turning of the seasons and the end of British Summer Time. 'End of Summer Blue' is a lush slice of classic melancholic soul which put me in mind of 'What's Going On?' period Marvin Gaye (yes Marvin, the guy who danced in Deptford!).

The video was filmed in Hilly Fields, so joining the illustrious company of several other Hilly Fields songs and videos.

The DreZone is on facebook and all the usual channels.

Tree Trunk Love on Hilly Fields

'I pray you mar no more trees by writing love-songs on their barks'

(Shakespeare, As You Like It)

I would agree with the Bard as far as living trees are concerned, but you can't really object to the ancient practice of carving names on a dead tree trunk like this one in Hilly Fields.