Feast of Nuestra Senora del Cisne in Nunhead

Came across this procession in Kimberley Avenue, Nunhead this afternoon, with several hundred people marching behind an image of the Virgin Mary, saying prayers and and throwing rose petals over the statue.

Apparently it was a procession of Ecuadorians from St Thomas the Apostle Roman Catholic Church in Evelina Road SE15 to mark the Feast of Nuestra Senora del Cisne (Our Lady of the Swan), a major religious festival in Ecuador to commemorate the supposed appearance of the Virgin Mary in the town of Loja in southern Ecuador in the late 16th century.

Service sheet from the Mass/procession -
'Es Maria la blanca paloma, que ha venido a Londres a traer la paz. En el centro de una blanca nube, se vino volando desde Ecuador'  ('Mary is the white dove, who has come to London, to bring peace. In the centre of a white cloud, she came flying from Ecuador')

A Welsh Church on Lewisham Way

St David's Day seems like a good time to document a lost local Welsh institution. The Presbyterian Church of Wales (Eglwys Bresbyteraidd Cymru) was open until recently at 289 Lewisham Way SE4. Its location suggests that at one time there must have been enough Welsh speaking presbyterians locally to sustain a congregation - or maybe they chose the site because Lewisham is an anagram of 'I Am Welsh'!

I am not sure when it closed, but the church and its neighbouring vicarage were put up for sale early last year and a nursery is opening there soon. The church building dates back to 1924, the minister's house being part of an earlier Georgian mansion.  The church had previously met (from 1901) at 2 Undercliff Road in what later became Loampit Gospel Hall.

interior of church (from Church Properties)

There are some recollections of the chapel in the comments to this thread at Brockley Central. Apparently the opera singer Geraint Evans (1922-1992) was sometimes among the congregation, and the actor Meredith Edwards (1917-1999).

photo by R.Sones at Geolocation

Amnesty International Book Sale in Blackheath

Next week is the annual Amnesty International Book Sale in Blackheath, a regular date in the diary of all south London bibliophiles. Here's the details:

'The Blackheath and Greenwich Group of Amnesty International is holding its annual fund-raising book sale on Saturday 23 November at the Church of the Ascension, Dartmouth Row, London SE10 (10 minutes walk up Lewisham Hill from Lewisham BR, DLR & Bus Station). Doors open at 10am [finishes at four].

The local group has collected thousands of books from a variety of sources, including publishers and book reviewers as well as individual donors. The quality of books – many of which are brand new – is exceptionally high, and there will be plenty of bargains to be found, from second-hand paperbacks to review copies of recently-published novels. Prices start at £1 for paperbacks and £3 for hardbacks. The group’s book sales – now in their 39th year – are established as Amnesty International’s most successful local fundraising event in the UK, raising over £200,000 over the years.

Amnesty International works worldwide for the release of prisoners of conscience, fair trials for political prisoners and an end to torture, extrajudicial executions, disappearances and the death penalty. The Blackheath and Greenwich group has done a lot of campaigning work on Human Rights in China and stopping violence against women and meets at 8pm on the second Tuesday of each month at St. Margaret’s Church, Lee Terrace, Blackheath. To find out more information about the Amnesty Blackheath and Greenwich group visit www.amnestybg.wordpress.com'

I have been several times and have had some very good finds.  The Church of the Ascension is an interesting building worth a visit in its own right. According to its website:

'The Church of the Ascension  was established as the Dartmouth Chapel in 1697 by Susannah Graham, aunt of William Legge (later Earl of Dartmouth and Lord of the Manor of Lewisham). She was also the second daughter of Sir William Washington, the great-great-great uncle of George Washington, the first president of the United States... The church was rebuilt in 1750 and  extended in 1838. It became a parish church on Ascension Day, 3rd of May 1883. A hall was added in 1906.  The church suffered bomb damage in December 1940 and was restored in 1950'

The Church c.1840 - from Ideal Homes

Brockley Grove Street Art

This mural is outside Crofton Park Baptist Church in Brockley Grove SE4. I am guessing that it was painted as part of the commemorations for the 200th anniversary of the Slave Trade Act in 2007, as it is themed around slavery.

The mural was presumably commissioned by the Church, though it appears to criticise the hypocrisy of those Christians involved in the slave trade. The central figure says 'vote for Christian values' while behind his back a procession of slaves are led ashore from a ship (or is he supposed to be a William Wilberforce character urging the abolition of slavery in line with 'Christian values'?). The final panel says 'Slavery still exists in many forms', showing a child soldier, a prostitute, a sweatshop and a DVD seller.

Swandown

Swandown at Dilston Grove (Cafe Gallery) in Southwark Park is an installation to accompany the film 'Swandown' about Andrew Kötting and Iain Sinclair's journey, in a swan-shaped pedalo, from Hastings to Hackney - a journey described by Sinclair as a kind of mute 'counter grand project' to the Olympics and similar initiatives. It is on until July 29th.

I went along a couple of weeks ago (1st July) to a talk featuring Sinclair and the writer Marina Warner in conversation about the complex mythology of the swan - as both graceful and violent, pure and terrifying, creature of the water and the sky. The many swan names in the river city of London were referred to (and indeed, though not mentioned, there is a Swan Road in SE16 and Swan Street SE1, as well as numerous Swan pubs).

Marina Warner and Iain Sinclair talking in the swan

Dilston Grove - built in 1911 as the Clare College Mission Church, this early concrete building
is now Grade II listed. The church itself closed in 1966. Clare College Mission was a philanthropic
settlement linked to the Cambridge University college.

Among the documents in the exhibition is this 1987 flyer for an appearance by
Sinclair and Brian Catling at Rasp - seemingly a poetry night held at 67 Balfour Street, SE17

Actual swans in Southwark Park

Here comes May Day again

This time last year I published my history pamphlet May Day in South London, which as the name suggests looks at the different ways people in this part of the world have commemorated the season with May Queens, chimney sweep processions, horse parades, trade union demonstrations, anarchist protests and much more. I sold most of the print run at various events, online and in bookshops including Bookseller Crow and 56a Info Shop. There's about 15 hard copies left, so if you want one you'd better order quick (details in box to right), though you can also get an electronic version.



Amidst a flurry of activity for May Day 2011 I gave a talk on it at South East London Folklore Society (Old Kings Head, SE1) and also, briefly, at a Lewisham Anti Cuts Alliance event at the then occupied ex-Job Centre on Deptford High Street. A nice mix, as one of the themes of the text is the way that the seasonal 'green' elements of May Day have been intertwined with the radical 'red' elements over the years.

I also did the rounds of various May Day related activities, including the opening of the Brixton Windmill, which  featured a May Queen on May 2 2011:



And the Deptford Jack in the Green procession through Greenwich on May Day itself:

I also went on the Cool Tan May Day walk  from Tate Modern to Camberwell Green on May 21st 2011.

Elsewhere there were May Queens in Petts Wood, Orpington and at Hayes Common in the borough of Bromley.

At St George's Roman Catholic Cathedral in Southwark, up to 2,000 people from all over the world took part in the annual Mass for Migrants on May 2 2011- May Day also being marked as the Feast of St Joseph the Worker.

So what's happening this year on and around May Day? Let us know.

Peckham Rosicrucians

'Why don't you join the Rosicrucians,

they can give you back your hope,

you can find your love with diagrams

on a plain brown envelope'

(Leonard Cohen, Dress Rehearsal Rag)

I've been intrigued for years by the Rosicrucian building in Waghorn Street, Peckham. According to Peckham History, the building was originally St Andrew’s Mission Church, 'built in 1903 to replace a temporary iron church on the site. It fell out of use in 1932 and was sold in 1948 to fund the restoration' of St John the Evangelist Church in East Dulwich Road, to which the Mission Church was linked. There's still a plaque on the building from when it opened which reads 'This stone was laid by Mrs Charles Ward, 7th January 1903'. The architect was J.Nixon Horsefield.

Today the building belongs to the Ancient and Mystical Order Rosæ Crucis (AMORC), a Rosicrucian order founded in the US in 1915. Rosicrucianism is a mystical current dating back, depending on what you believe, to the 17th century, 14th century or ancient Egypt. It has influenced secret societies (including branches of Freemasonry) and esoteric groups of various kinds. There are numerous Rosicrucian-influenced groups around the world, and it is common for them to claim that various philosophers, artists and scientists were members of the Rosicrucian order in the past, including Isaac Newton, Dante, Debussy and Francis Bacon - hence the AMORC building in Peckham being the home of the Francis Bacon Lodge.

AMORC describes itself as 'a non-sectarian body of men and women who study the elusive mysteries of life and the universe.  Since 1915, hundreds of thousands of students have used the Rosicrucian teachings, carefully preserved by mystery schools for centuries, to find their inner light and wisdom. Delivered in a series of weekly lessons, the Rosicrucian home study course presents the collective wisdom of humanity on topics such as metaphysics, mysticism, and philosophy'. 

I'm not sure when AMORC acquired the Peckham building, but I first noticed it about seven years ago. Some of the AMORC leadership had a dubious reputation in financial scandals in the 1990s, so I assumed it was simply a property investment. But it does seem to be in use as one of only two AMORC centres in Britain (the other is in Crowborough, Sussex), with free public talks taking place on the second Wednesday evening of every month.

Of course if you look around various dubious conspiracy theory sites, you will find allegations that the Rosicrucians are just a wing of the illuminati who secretly run the world (example from the very dubious Conspiracy Planet: 'Rosicrucian Illuminati have centres in the U.K. at places such as the Francis Bacon Lodge in Peckham, London') . Personally I quite like the idea that the world is actually being run from a Peckham back street - gives new meaning to the phrase 'South London run tings'

'Motley Crew' riot in Camberwell on preacher's visit (1827)

Camberwell Fair, held where the Green is now situated, was a source of conflict between the authorities and fair-goers until it was eventually suppressed completely. In 1827 there were riotous scenes as the police intervened to prevent a preacher addressing a crowd on Camberwell Green. Exactly what his message was, and why the local magistrates wanted to stop him, is unclear from the following account published in The Times, 21 August 1827.

'Riot at Camberwell

On Sunday, at two o'clock, according to previous announcement, Mr Smith, of Penzance, arrived on the ground where Camberwell fair is held, in a hackney coach, attended by an immense number of persons who had followed the vehicle all the way from town. The moment he alighted, a constable stepped up and told him that the Magistrates had given directions that he should not be permitted to hold forth on the Green. On receiving this notification Mr Smith demanded the names of  the Justices who had issued such a mandate and upon being informed, he proceeded to take down their names in his note-book. He then called for a chair, intimating to the mass of people by whom he was surrounded that as soon as he was furnished with an article that would elevate him  a little above the rest, so as to he heard by all his auditors, he should then explain to them the chief causes of the opposition manifested by the Magistrates against him. Having waited for some time, during which the shouts of the crowd were deafening, a parson was seen making his way towards the preacher holding up a chair; and having placed it down, the later was about to ascend when two or three constables approached and again reiterated their directions; but no sooner had they spoken than they were attacked by the mob, who were determined that Mr Smith should be heard.

A reinforcement of police, however, having come to the assistance of the constables, a general row took place, during which broken heads were given on each side, and in the midst of the affray Smith, like a skillful General, made a hasty retreat, and escaped, leaving one if his chief supporters, a man named Perring, in custody. In appeared Smith proceeded afterwards into the parish of Lambeth, followed by a crowd of ragamuffins, and having ascended the steps of a new building in Surrey New-road, he there harangued the motley crew, exclaiming most vehemently against the magistrates, and declaring that their names and conduct towards him should be published and go forth to the world.

The neighbourhood of Camberwell was a scene of noise and confusion the whole of the day; the mob, amongst whom were numbers of pickpockets, expecting the return of the preacher. Yesterday morning, Perring, who had been apprehended the day before, was taken before the magistrates and held to bail for assaulting the officers in the execution of their duty. He was anxious to address the magistrates on the subject of Mr Smith's visit to Camberwell, but the magistrates declined hearing anything, conceiving that Mr Smith's efforts were calculated to do much more harm than good at the fair'.

I am guessing that 'Mr Smith of Penzance' is George Charles Smith (1782–1863), known as ‘Boatswain Smith'. Originally from London - he was apprentice to a bookseller in Tooley Street - he was press ganged into the Navy before becoming pastor of a baptist chapel in Penzance. In 1817 he spread his activities to London, preaching in particular to sailors, river and canal workers. He opened a floating chapel in the Thames and established charities including the the Shipwrecked and Distressed Sailors' Family Fund. The practice of open air non-conformist preaching was initially met with official opposition, though it later became common-place.

Christmas Straw for Deptford?

Happy Christmas one and all, and God rest ye Merry Gentlemen and Women. But wait a minute, if you live in Brockley don't forget to bring some straw to Deptford tomorrow.

According to the book 'A collection of old English customs: and curious bequests and charities, extracted from the reports made by the commissioners for enquiring into charities in England and Wales' by H. Edwards (1842):

'By a decree of commissioners for charitable uses, dated 4th March, 6th James I [1609] it was decreed, that the owners of three parts of land, whereof one was called Lady Crofts, should from thenceforth for ever deliver and distribute, every Good Friday, amongst the poor people of Deptford, all the bread which might be made and baked of half a quarter of good wheat; and should likewise yearly deliver, at Whitsuntide, half a load of good green rushes, and at Christmas one good load of new grass straw, in the pews of the church at Deptford [St Nicholas Church].

The land charged is Brookley farm. By an order of vestry, 17 April, 1721, it appears that William Wilkinson offered 21s. per annum for the time to come, in lieu of pea straw and rushes, which offer was accepted, and since the year 1744, 10s. has been received in lieu of the half quarter of wheat. The two sums of 21s. and 10s. are regularly paid and distributed in bread'.

So it looks like some Brockley farmer swapped their straw supplying duty for cash during the 18th century. I'm not sure that will do - come on SE4 people get to your farm. The decree does say 'for ever' after all.

Old London Bridge (and an ex-Lewisham icon)

The current London Bridge only dates back to 1973, and the one before to the 19th century. Old London Bridge proper lasted for around 600 years from the early 13th century and until the 18th century was lined with houses and shops. It was about 30m downstream (towards Tower Bridge) compared with the current bridge.

On the north side of the river, the bridge approach road passed in front of the church of St Magnus the Martyr. Today in the Church, among many other interesting features, there is a great model of the medieval bridge.

Outside the Church there are also some stones from the old bridge.



A Lewisham icon

Incidentally, the church also includes an icon, 'Our Lady of Perpetual Succour', painted in 1908 in Moscow and commissioned by Father Fynes-Clinton, rector at St Magnus' 1921-1959. The church website states that it was originally displayed in a chapel in All Saints, Lewisham. I assume this was All Saints on Blackheath rather than All Saints in New Cross (not aware of any other churches of this name in the borough).

Fynes-Clinton favoured closer links between the Anglican, Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches, and indeed was one of the founders of the Anglican and Eastern Churches Association in 1906, whose history states: 'It was a cold and windy night, the rain pelted down stair-rod like, whilst two Anglican clergymen met under a railway bridge in Lewisham in 1906. They were the Reverend Henry Joy Fynes-Clinton, an Assistant Curate at St Stephen’s Lewisham, an aristocrat; and Canon John A. Douglas, Vicar of St Luke’s, Camberwell, from a middle-class engineering family...Under that railway bridge in 1906 the Anglican and Eastern Churches Association, in its present form, was born'.

Peckham - a Jewel in God's Crown

Various strategies have been applied over they years to improve the image of Peckham. Demolishing most of the North Peckham Estate, rebranding whole areas as 'Not Really Peckham' (Bellenden)... But none of these have been ambitious as Christchurch on the Old Kent Road which has declared to the world 'Peckham - a jewel in God's crown'.


I would like to think of this as a subtle exercise in liberation theology - an affirmation of 'God's preferential option for the poor' at a time when the eyes of the world's media have been focused on the Church of England's more establishment role as stage set for royal spectacles (yes, that wedding). SE15 - the stone the builders rejected will become the cornerstone...

St George the Martyr x 2

Opposite the Church of St George the Martyr in Borough High Street there's a painting of the church, in a kind of Van Gogh style, on a telecoms box.

New Cross Fire Memorial Service

I am going to the New Cross Fire event at the Albany tonight, but there's also a memorial service on Sunday 16 January (3 pm) at St Andrews United Reform Church in Brockley. As pictured here recently, the church features a stained glass window dedicated to the fire's victims.

The church was strongly linked to the tragedy, with many of the young people who were in the fire having attended the youth club at the church.

The youth club was mentioned by Les Back in a recent interview on reggae sound systems in the 1970s and 1980s:

'Any available space would be used. There were dances on Lewisham way opposite the college in houses. Lots of dances happened at the Moonshot youth club, so many dances there. And what kind of space is that? Well actually it was a gym. Lots of dances were in the place where the basketball court was. In Brockley, places like St Andrews church. There was a very radical, open minded vicar in charge who opened the church, they had dances in the church. Lewisham way youth club, regular dances there. They weren’t night clubs, they weren’t tailor made because there weren’t any tailor made spaces in those days'

(full interview at Tropical Waste)

South London Dissenters in Bunhill Fields

I visited Bunhill Fields cemetery this week, the burial ground for protestant dissenters on City Road (near Old Street station). The most famous grave with a South London connection is that of William Blake and his wife Catherine, who of course lived in Lambeth for some of their lives.



A grave with a New Cross connection is that of Joseph Hardcastle (1752-1819). His stone reads 'He was a founder of the British and Foreign Bible Society and First Treasurer of the London Missionary Society and was associated with William Wilberforce in the campaign to abolish slavery'. Hardcastle lived at Hatcham House in what is now New Cross Gate.

The grave of Thomas Rosewell (1630-1692) tells us that he was 'a Most Distinguished Divine' and that in 1662 he was 'appointed pastor of the church at Rotherhithe near London in the County of Surrey'. Rosewell was sentenced to death for treason in 1684, but was subsequently pardoned.
The Rev. Joseph Swain 'of Walworth' - who's stone is next to the Blakes'- died on April 14 1796 at the age of 35. He was the pastor of the Baptist church in East Street, and published a collection of 192 'Walworth Hymns' in 1794 - I will have to track these down for the South London Songs project.
There's also a William Bousefield who died in 1802 'late of the Parish of St Olaves, Southwark', buried with other members of his family.

New Cross Fire Memorial Window

The 1981 New Cross Fire is commemorated in a stained glass windown at St Andrews Church in Brockley Road. The Church was strongly associated with the tragedy, with funerals and memorial services for the young victims held there.

The window was installed in 2002. According to the artist, Nicola Hopwood 'Following extensive consultation with families and friends of those who died and with church members, the window was designed to celebrate the young lives lost and to acknowledge directly the pain felt over many years by those closest to them. The symbolism suggests a journey from suffering (violet and purple) to triumph (red and gold) against a background of blue - healing and spirituality. The spiralling white shapes are free spaces for personal thoughts, memories and prayers'.

An event to mark the 30th anniversary of the fire is taking place at the Albany in Deptford on January 14th.

The Sweep-Preacher of South London

William Carter was a nineteenth century sweep who gave up his job to become a full time preacher. According to the Christian Spectator in 1867, he was 'called the "sweep-preacher" by the roughs of Lambeth' and dedicated to 'pleading the cause of the destitute, the helpless, and the fallen on South London, with its half million of inhabitants nearly all belonging to the poorer classes'. Indeed his aim was to 'perservere in this line of things until I shall have preached Jesus to all the subdivisions of the working-classes in the south of London'.

Carter organised large scale free teas in Deptford and elsewhere:

'Mr. Carter mentioned that he had given five thousand free teas to companies of thieves, prostitutes, and drunkards, who had been thus drawn within the sound of the gospel, and many of them permanently converted. They had given proofs of this by maintaining honest and virtuous behaviour in spite of severe temptations to the contrary. He had engaged for sabbath services, chiefly for these classes, the Victoria Theatre, the Deptford Dancing Rooms, and a hall at Kennington' (Thomas Shillitoe, the Quaker Missionary and Temperance Pioneer, 1867)

In 1864, he opened the South London Refuge as night shelter for 250 homeless people on Southwark Bridge Road, where in addition to a bed for the night, people were given 'half a pound of bread and a pint of coffee' (Christian Spectator).

Thieves, prostitutes and drunkards in Deptford. Who knew?! I wonder where the Deptford Dancing Rooms were, I've never heard of them before.

A Chartist Church in Deptford

One strand of the radical Chartist movement was Christian Chartism, some of whose adherents created their own churches which put into practice the democratic principles of the movement. One such church was in this area; according to Mark Hovell's book The Chartist Movement, 'at Deptford there was established a "Working Men's Church," whose members were said to study the New Testament in Greek' (his source is the Chartist paper, Northern Star, October 30 1841). I wonder where this was?

More on the St Catherine's Church Fire (1913)

We've covered the 1913 fire at St Catherine's Church, Hatcham, here before. The fire at the Kitto Road building was believed at the time to have been started by supporters of the campaign for votes for women.

Here's another picture of the event, published in The New York Times, May 18 1913. The article reports that the church ‘was destroyed by fire... presumably by a suffragette “arson squad”'.

Babylon returns to the Albany

A full house at the Albany in Deptford this week (Tuesday night) with an appreciative crowd cheering at the end of a showing of Franco Rosso's fine film Babylon. The event was arranged by Fred and David Aylward as part of the Deptford X festival, to accompany the former's exhibition there (of which more in a later post).

The film is centred around the lives of those involved with a South London reggae sound system struggling in the face of racism from the police, employers and neighbours. What gave the film showing at the Albany a particular charge was not just that much of it was filmed in surrounding streets in Deptford with many local people as actors. The whole idea of the film grew out of the Albany (then it's earlier Creek Road location), as Rosso recalled in this interview:

'At the time both Martin Stellman [the film's co-writer with Rosso] and I worked at Albany Empire where they had a youth theatre for kids who were seen as really hopeless, but were in fact terrific. The hall was being hired by black kids who had their own soundsystem and they had to have a staff member because everyone was terrified to leave them on their own, and they asked us "would you sit in with us?". So we volunteered and Babylon really grew out of that because virtually the story of the kids was there, the fights and everything - it was very educational.

There was also a church at the bottom of the garden that had a soundsystem every Friday night. It was all coming together, the soundsystems, the kids, it was all really multi-racial. It was more by accident that people were mixing, than by design, but it was the atmosphere of the time and we were really just observing it and being there. As we were writing the story for Babylon, two guys from the soundsystem would come in and we would say "OK, this is it", and they would say "Oh I like that", or "No, that wouldn't happen", and then they would actually speak it to us, so the whole script was written in patois - it was very much done with them.


In another interview, Martin Stellman recalled:

The stories behind Babylon came from the kids we were working with and also from Franco and I going out separately or together with sound systems. Dennis Bovell, for instance, was busted and ended up in prison. The original script was longer, and had a whole second half that was set in a borstal.

Local people were recruited to take part in the film from the Albany's Combination Theatre group (which I believe Stellman was involved with), its Basement Youth Theatre group as well as other local venues such as the Moonshot Club in New Cross.

Thirty years later - Babylon was filmed in early 1979 and released the following year - it has become a time capsule of period clothes, cars and street scenes. The director was clearly looking for some suitable scenes of urban decay - alleyways, estates, boarded up buildings - and Deptford seems to have had plenty to offer. The whole area of 1980s housing immediately near to the Albany today (Vaughan Williams Close etc.) was, at the time of filming, empty Victorian terraces and bomb sites, surrounded by corrugated iron and awaiting demolition.

This has vanished completely, but other locations in the film are still to be seen and after the showing David Aylward took us on a short tour pointing out some of the surviving places featured in Babylon. These include:

- the railway arch used by the sound system, round the back of Deptford rail station in Ffinch Street, now part of the Titan Business Centre.

- the crypt of St Pauls Church, used for the soundclash scenes with the real Jah Shaka versus the fictional Ital Lion (the latter's music supplied by Aswad).

- the garage on Watson's Street where Blue (Brinsley Forde's car mechanic character) is sacked by his racist boss (played by Mel Smith) - still there today as Watson's Garage and Tyres.

- Deptford High Street - the (now closed) Windsor Castle pub is among the buildings seen in the film.

Other places visible in the film include Brixton market, the Silwood and Pepys estates in Deptford, the Dacre Arms (Blackheath) and the Venue in New Cross - there's a scene of people flyposting on the latter, putting their posters over others advertising the opening night of Cheeks nightclub, 18 Deptford Broadway.

In Babylon, the racist brutality of the streets is contrasted with the (intimately shot) spaces of respite where black people come together - sound system nights, engagement parties, churches and Rastafarian gatherings. In all of these sanctuaries music is central. It may not offer magical protection - the tensions of survival still explode along the competitive edge of the soundclash - but it inspires and acts as a rallying point. The film ends with the sound systems hastily packing up as the police raid, leaving Blue standing firm and chanting over the closing credits; 'Babylon brutality, We can't take no more of that.'

Babylon is an important social document, but it would be a mistake to view it as a straightforward representation of reality. It is after all a story, and just as the sharp eyed will spot some of the editing tricks (people skipping between locations shot in Brixton and Deptford in the course of a single scene) those who were there at the time will no doubt have their own take on the accuracy of the film's characters and dialogue.

But at the very least it directly connects, via the real people and places it includes, with the lived histories of the period. A time when the National Front was confronted as it marched through New Cross (1977), and when both the Moonshot (1977) and the Albany (1978) were set ablaze in suspected fascist arson attacks.

Babylon was remastered and released on DVD last year - so you've got no excuse for not watching it. Franco Rosso, the director, comes from a London Italian family and spent his youth in the Brixton/Streatham area before going to Camberwell art college. He also directed Dread Beat an' Blood, a documentary about Linton Kwesi Johnson. Martin Stellman also wrote the screenplay for Quadrophenia and wrote and directed For Queen and Country.

A bomb shelter on Telegraph Hill

This fading sign is painted on the reservoir wall in Jerningham Road, SE14. It dates, I believe from the Second World War, when a big painted S with an arrow showed the direction and distance to the nearest air raid shelter. SE8ker has photographed lots of examples in Deptford and elsewhere.

But where was the shelter signposted in this example? The distance information is faded, but the arrow is pointing to the top of the road -was the shelter in St Catherine's Church or Aske's school, or somewhere else?