The Boy who Stole Time - book launch at Crofton Books

'The Boy who stole time' is a new  young people's fantasy novel by Ladywell-based author Mark Bowsher (publicity says 'for fans of Neil Gaiman and Philip Pulman'). A book launch and reading is taking place on Sunday 28th October, 3 pm, at Crofton Books, 375 Brockley Road SE4 2AG. That's the excellent value second hand bookshop inside Crofton Park Library.

Open the Window: soundscapes from South London to the World

For the third Christmas Eve in succession, Hither Green-based experimental/improvisational music label Linear Obsessional has released a compilation based on inviting submissions in line with a chosen theme. This year's premise was simple: 'open your window and record two minutes of what you can hear. Interacting with it live if you wish, or editing and processing the recordings later. From this concept has emerged this 85 track, 2 hour 50 minute compilation of extraordinary recordings from all over the world'.

There are many remarkable recordings on this global smorgasbord of soundscapes,  includes several recorded in South London:

Richard Sanderson - Playing - Hither Green features the Linear Obsessional founder playing melodeon over the sounds of children playing outside.

Anthony Osborne - The Story Of A Panic - Ladywell includes some rather scary sounding crows.

Steven Ball - Go From My Window - New Cross - the traditional folk song sung over the sound of the New Cross rain.

Phil Julian - 3 November 2015 - South Norwood - the familar South London sonic sweep of birdsong and airplanes.

Argument Club - Shipping Forecast - Lewisham - traffic noise and radio sounds.

Chris Jones - Drill_Byt - Peckham - processed drill noise.

Sean Dower - Taxi Argument - Bermondsey - the title says it all.

Neil Gordon​-​Orr - Gellatly Road 1940​/​1915 - New Cross - traffic, drone and the names of people killed in the street in World War Two - 'Gellatly Road is a short but busy street in London SE14. 75 years ago, bombs were landing on it. Recalling memories of those terrible times, the sound of today's traffic - usually annoying -appears vaguely heroic: the victory of the everyday over terror and horror'.

Steve Scutt - Somehow Window - Camberwell

Clare and Arthur Wood - Bedtime Background With Oompa Loompa Song- Lewisham




You can download the album, with  62 page booklet, at Linear Obsessional

Ladywell Baths: some history (post updated November 2017)

Lewisham Council has approved (November 2017)  a proposal for the semi-derelict Ladywell Playtower building  to be refurbished as a cinema by Curzon, due to open in 2020. A rival proposal from the Picturehouse/Cineworld cinema chain came second and had been the focus of an 8,000 strong petition 'Do not give our Ladywell Playtower to the union-busting Picturehouse / Cineworld chain!' - workers at the Picturehouse cinema have been in dispute with the firm over its failure to pay London Living Wage (unlike Curzon). It is not clear whether this was a factor in the Mayor's decision, but Lewisham has been actively promoting the London Living Wage. In any event there are already three Picturehouses within five miles of Ladywell - which will now host the borough's only dedicated full size cinema (architect's impression of new scheme below).

The Council's invitation of proposals for the site was prompted by another online petition in 2015 which stated:

'We the undersigned note that the Ladywell Baths (aka 'The Playtower') was listed recently by The Victorian Society as one of England and Wales's 10 most 'at risk' Victorian and Edwardian buildings. This highlights the failure of the Mayor and Council over many years adequately to prioritise the restoration of this building, a prominent and much-loved local landmark, to beneficial use - a total abdication of their responsibilities as owner and custodian of this fine public building. We call upon the Mayor and Council urgently to set in train a process and take all appropriate steps, in partnership with other interested public, private and third sector organisations and in close co-operation with local people, to bring the Ladywell Baths building back into productive use and so secure its integrity and future for the at least next 100 years'. Well I guess they have got what they wanted.

Ladywell Baths in better days... the tower is still there, but it lost its cone in the Second World War

Much of the building fabric remains intact if not in great condition, as an 'urban explorer' who  photographed the inside in 2015 found: 

photograph from slayaaaa at 28 Days Later

According to Historic England:

'Ladywell Baths were erected in 1884 to the designs of Wilson & Son and Thomas Aldwinkle, the latter a local architect who designed several bath houses of note. The builders were Hobbs of Croydon. The Ladywell Baths were built at a cost of £9,000 on a site procured by the vicar of the adjacent St Mary's Church. At the time, a local paper commented on the juxtaposition of church and baths that 'cleanliness was next to Godliness'. The site was chosen as it is on the main road into Ladywell from Brockley, Catford, Lewisham and Hither Green. 

Local vestries were first permitted to levy a rate for baths and washhouses under an Act of 1846. Largely concerned with the hygiene of the lower classes, however, the Act only permitted slipper baths, laundries and open-air pools until an amendment in 1878 encouraged the building of covered swimming baths. Few authorities adopted the Act before the 1890s, when baths began to flourish. Lewisham Vestry, however, was notably progressive and appointed seven Commissioners in 1882, whose aims was to obtain funds and land to build two swimming pools at Ladywell and Forest Hill. By 1900 public baths were not only being built in large numbers, but also with increasing elaboration. 

On 25 April 1885, the baths were opened by Viscount Lewisham, MP, who remarked that aside from the Paddington Baths (which do not survive), 'there were no others in London of that size'. The Forest Hill baths were opened the following week. The ceremony was reported in the Kentish Mercury of 1 May 1885, which described the baths as 'quite an ornament to the neighbourhood, standing in striking contrast to the ancient church behind it'. The charges for use were 6d for the first class pool and 2d for the second class. On two days a week the pools were reserved for ladies bathing'. 

Interesting the lengths Victorian authorities went to to embed class distinctions in architecture - in this case building two separate pools so that the semi-naked middle classes didn't have to swim in the same water as the great unwashed!

The pools were replaced by the 1960s Ladywell Leisure Centre, now demolished, and the building has been empty for at least ten years having last been used as a play centre and gymnastics club.

Swimming


At one time Ladywell Baths was a significant centre for swimming, hosting Kent county swimming and water polo competitions and acting as the home pool for Lewisham Swimming Club. In 1906, the world half mile swimming record - then 11 mins. 37 seconds - was set at Ladywell by David Billington (Gloucester Citizen, 14 September 1906).  Eric Liddell, the athlete immortalised in the film 'Chariots of Fire', swam there as a school boy (David McCasland, Eric Liddell: Pure Gold). Edward Temme, the first man to swim the Channel in both directions, attended a gala there in 1927.

Edward W Stafford (1853-1915), a water polo player for Lewisham Swimming Club was one of the seven founder members of the Life Saving Society (later the Royal Life Saving Society), established in 1891 to train people in saving people from drowning, including initiating the Bronze Medallion for qualified lifesavers (James R McClelland, The Bronze Medallion and Lifesaving Story, 2016). Another member of the Club from this period was sometime Goldsmiths student Stephen Gabriel Dadd (1894-1915). He won the Club's 1,000 yards river race in 1911 (as well as running for Blackheath Harriers) and was killed in the Dardanelles during the First World War.

Local running club Lewisham Hare and Hounds - who later became part of the still thriving Kent Athletic Club based at Ladywell Arena - seem to have sometimes used the baths as a starting point

'A good field turned out for this club's 10 Miles Scratch race, and Sealed handicap, which was decided from the Ladywell baths yesterday. Result of scratch race - R.C. Harris, 64 min 10 sec; F W Coldwell, 66 min 45sec, second; F H Williams, 67 min 26 seconds, third' (Lloyds Weekly Newspaper, 23 January 1898).


Gymnastics

Ladywell Gymnastics Club was founded at the Playtower in 1967 by Jim and Pauline Prestidge and became one of the top clubs of the 1970s, training Olympc gymnasts including Suzanne Dando and Avril Lennox. After moving to Lewisham Leisure Centre in Rennell Street in 1977,  it came back to the Playtower in 1996 prior to moving on to a purpose built facility at Bellingham Leisure Centre in 2004, where it continues to flourish.

Politics


The Baths were also used for social events and political meetings. Herbert Morrison spoke at a Labour Party rally for women there during the 1945 election campaign:

'It was a typical cross-section of the women of a London division that filled the main hall of the Ladywell Baths - housewives whose husbands work in the City; women shopkeepers, women who had taken time from work to hear their candidate, and a considerable leavening of young women who had just qualified for the vote. They listened to Mr Morrison with close attention and plain appreciation, and warmly applauded when he pressed home the point that all the reforms of housing, health, child welfare and security which women ardently desire could come to them only through a Labour Government in power' (Daily Herald, 26 June 1945).

The swimming pool is mentioned in E.Nesbit's children's novel The Wouldbegoods (1899): 'we boys can swim all right. Oswald has swum three times across the Ladywell Swimming Baths at the shallow end, and Dicky is nearly as good'.


(post first published December 2015, updated November 2017 with news of plans for building)

London Urban Legends at Brockley Max

Brockley Max Festival starts tomorrow, lots of  arts and music coming up over next couple of weeks, starting with the usual opening night music event by Brockley station. You can check the programme for full list of events, for now just want to highlight an event next Monday June 1st (8 pm) at the Ladywell Gallery behind the Ladywell Tavern.

Former Transpontine contributor and London Forteanist Scott Wood will be giving a talk on 'London Urban Legends: The Hidden Insult and Other Stories'. Ladywell-based Scott is the author of 'London Urban Legends: the corpse on the tube' (History Press). Admission is free.

The Korean Wonder Juggler of Ladywell (1889)

Sometimes when you're browsing in the archive for something, you stumble across something else entirely. This advert for 'Draterson Okaro, the Corean Wonder' of '43 Ladywell Park, Lewisham' was published in The Era, 29 June 1889. Only a few lines, and I haven't been able to find anything else about them, but you can't help but feel that there's a whole untold story there of how a self-styled Korean 'Marvellous Equilibrist and Balancer, Stick and Ball Manipulator, Juggler', with 'Splendid Costumes' and 'Two Year Engagement with the Celebrated Japanese Troupe' came to be living in Ladywell.

The Era - Saturday 29 June 1889

Save Lewisham Hospital Victory Parade Tomorrow

From Save Lewisham Hospital campaign:

'We will be holding a VICTORY PARADE through LEWISHAM and PARTY IN THE PARK Saturday 14th September! Meet at 12 NOON, Lewisham Roundabout (nr train station) followed by a celebration in Ladywell Fields!

We want to THANK the INCREDIBLE Lewisham community for your amazing support and to celebrate together our victory at the High Court! Although we've since found out that the Government is appealing, we WILL go ahead with this event as the High Court ruled the Government's proposals to close our Hospital UNLAWFUL and we will continue to fight. Let's make this a fantastic day to celebrate our community and the incredible journey we've travelled together!'

 More details: http://www.savelewishamhospital.com/victory-parade-and-party/

The Commons

The 1805 Ordnance Survey Map shows some of the unenclosed common land of SE London. Peckham Rye Common covered a much larger area than the current park. The land to the south of what is now Lewisham Way, between Deptford and Brockley, was Deptford Common.

The Well to its South East was presumably the Lady Well (hence obviously Ladywell). Oh and the Folly in Peckham was 'Heaton's Folly' on what is now Heaton Road, about which I'll have to write another time. The dotted line down the middle marks the Kent/Surrey border I believe - Surrey to the left, Kent to the right.

Those commons were enclosed and largely built on in the 19th century, notwithstanding some remaining parks and green spaces. Are their different kinds of commons today, and indeed new forms of enclosure? That is something that is being explored by New Cross Commoners, a new group looking at 'commoning' in the local area (something they describe as 'a process of coming together and doing things together that differs from the private and the public/State controlled ways of doing things'). They are meeting and discussing contemporary theorists of the common, such as Massimo De Angelis, as well as having excursions to possible examples of common practice such as Sanford Housing Co-op and the Creekside Houseboat community.

Here's a map some of them started on during a workshop at New Cross Learning (the old library) - presumably in this schema Fordham Park and Sandford represent some kinds of common but the Supermarket (Sainsburys) represent some kind of enclosure. Some interesting ideas, though with their own contradictions. For instance does replacing a properly funded and staffed library, run by the Council, with a volunteer led project llike New Cross Learning represent enclosure (the loss of a public service) or commoning (the creation of a new kind of common space)? Or a bit of both? Is a common future prefigured only in 'alternative' spaces or in the social labour of the supermarket where people from all over the world encounter each other and the products of global human effort (albeit in the context of a profit-driven corporate supply chain)? Discuss!

Check out their blog for information about future activities.

If contemporary radical theory is your thing you might also be interested in a talk coming up at Goldsmiths in New Cross on on 19 March 2013, with  New York-based wrtier Jodi Dean introducing her book 'The Communist Horizon' which aims to chart 'the re-emergence of communism as a magnet for political energy following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the stalling of the Occupy movement'.

The event takes place  in Rm 309, 3rd Floor, Richard Hoggart Building, 19:00 – 21:00 (organised by Centre for Cultural Studies, free, all welcome).

Spike Milligan's Grave

Spike Milligan (1918-2002) was born in India but spent many of his formative years in South East London from the age of 12 in 1931.  He went to Brownhill Road School and then to St Saviours School in Lewisham High Road. In 1933 his family rented part of a house at 22 Gabriel Street, Honor Oak Park, later moving to 50 Riseldine Road nearby.

In 1934 Milligan got a job at Stones' Engineering in Deptford (Arklow Road) and later worked at Chislehurst Laundry. After being sacked from a tobacconist for stealing cigarettes he worked as a labourer at Woolwich Arsenal.  Meanwhile he had won a crooning contest at the Lady Florence Institute in Deptford, come second in a talent show at Lewisham Hippodrome and sung at St Cyprians Church Hall in Brockley and Ladywell swimming baths. He taught himself the ukulele, bass and trumpet and guitar ("My mother bought my first guitar for eighteen shillings from Len Stiles’ shop in Lewisham High Street") and took music classes at Goldsmiths in New Cross. He played with local dance bands including the New Era Rhythm Boys and Tommy Brettell's New Ritz Revels in South London dance halls.

In a 1970 interview he recalled 'we used to go to the jazz sessions at the rhythm clubs. Do you remember the rhythm clubs? The Number One Rhythm Club—and the local one, at the Tiger’s Head at Lee?'.

In 1940 he joined the army, after a period of out-patient treatment at Lewisham Hospial for back pain apparently caused by overdoing weightlifting at Ladywell Recreation Track in an effort to impress the women working at Catford Labour Exchange ('Spike Milligan' by Humphrey Carpenter). Returning after World War Two, Milligan moved in with his parents for a while at 3 Leathwell Road, Deptford, before leaving South London and finding fame through the Goon Show on radio.

Spike Milligan gave a less than romantic view of 1930s South London working class life in his poem 'Catford 1933':

The light creaks and escalates to rusty dawn
The iron stove ignites the freezing room.
Last night's dinner cast off popples in the embers.
My mother lives in a steaming sink. Boiled haddock condenses on my plate
Its body cries for the sea
My father is shouldering his braces like a rifle,
and brushes the crumbling surface of his suit.
The Daily Herald lies jaundiced on the table.
'Jimmy Maxton speaks in Hyde Park',
My father places his unemployment cards in his wallet - there's plenty of room for them.
In greaseproof paper, my mother wraps my banana sandwiches
It's 5.40. Ten minutes to catch that last workman train.
Who's the last workman? Is it me? I might be famous.
My father and I walk out are eaten alive by yellow freezing fog.
Somewhere, the Prince of Wales and Mrs Simpson are having morning tea in bed.
God Save the King.
But God help the rest of us.

Last week on a day trip to Dungeness and Rye in East Sussex I came across Spike Milligan's gravestone in the churchyard of St Thomas' Church in Winchelsea, where he is buried along with his wife Shelagh. Milligan spent his later years  at Udimore, a village near Rye. The grave reads 'love, light, peace - Terence Alan (Spike) Milligan CBE KBE, 1918-2002... writer, artist, musician, humanitarian, comedian' and famously includes the line in Irish Gaelic  'Duirt mé leat go raibh mé breoite' - 'I told you I was ill'. Milligan once joked about heaven "I'd like to go there. But if Jeffrey Archer is there I want to go to Lewisham." 

Sources include: Spike Milligan: the biography by Humphrey Carpenter (2003).

It would be dishonest to pass over the fact that some of his comedy was incredibly racist even by the standards of the time. He appeared blacked-up as a 'pakistani' in the TV series Curry and Chips (1969) and his books feature many Jewish and Asian jokes. In a 1975 interview he declared 'I'm sorry that you can't call people n*ggers anymore. Or w*gs'

Music Monday: Hilly Fields Songs

Brockley Central has noted what I failed to spot before - that the 2010 video for Stornoway's Zorbing single features a shot of Hilly Fields. In fact the white house that the singer is sitting outside early on is on Hilly Fields Crescent SE4. Much of the rest of is filmed around Surrey Canal Road (SE8) round the back of Millwall. You can see the incinerator on Landmann Way and I assume the cafe is J's (corner of Surrey Canal Road and Juno Way), as you can see the outside of it in one shot. The band are from Cowley/Oxford but the song does include the line 'Send my body out to work but leave my senses, In orbit over south east London' - maybe they met at college and one of them's from round here?



Hilly Fields has at least two songs of its own. Nick Nicely's 'Hilly Fields (1892)' from 1982 is a slice of psychedelia now recognised as a cult classic. As mentioned here before, in an interview at the time he said: '"Hilly Fields is a large park in South London, close to where I live. It's a beautiful place. And the area where I live still retains a lot of the atmosphere of the 1890s - all late Victorian houses, really wonderful. All the songs I wrote are situated in this part of London, Brockley. And Hilly Fields... I used to go there a lot in various stages of high, stoned, tripping, and that's where the song comes from. It's about someone who goes to hilly Fields and then disappears.... and that someone could very well be me, tripping out".

Then there's Lucky Soul's Upon Hilly Fields (2011):



Also from 2011 and filmed on Hilly Fields is the video for My Tiger My Timing's lovely Endless Summer.

.

Conrad Williams: Doing it for the South East

Yes I know there's lots of business, politics and general razzmatazz tied up with the Olympics, not to mention London becoming a militarized zone with missiles on Blackheath and at Oxleas Wood (as confirmed yesterday).

But in case you've forgotten there's also thousands of people from all over the world coming together to run, swim, play and generally push the human body to its limits. Among them is Lewisham's Conrad Williams, who has been confirmed to take part in the 400m and 4x400m relay.

Williams, who lives in Hither Green, played basketball at Blackheath Bluecoat school and got involved in running when he stumbled across a Kent Athletic Club training session at Ladywell running track..

He's also as far as I know the only Olympics hopeful who has tweeted about training to Old Skool garage and 'Love lewisham market no place like south'. Yesterday he confirmed that he will be 'doing it for the south east'. Go Conrad!

History Corner: the Prendergast Murals

In the main hall at Prendergast girls school on Hilly Fields SE4 there is a set of striking pastoral murals dating from the 1930s.  At that time the school was called Brockley County and was a boys school (if you go into the Brockley Mess cafe today they have a large photo of boys eating at the school).

The painting was undertaken by a group of students from the Royal College of Arts - Evelyn Dunbar, Mildred Elsie Eldridge and Violet Martin - along with their tutor Charles Mahoney (aka Cyril Mahoney, 1903-1968). They started the work in 1933, with the finished results being officially opened in February 1936. Dunbar (1906-1960) went on to be the only official female war artist in the Second World War, noted for her paintings of Land Girls and nurses (including at St Thomas' Hospital).

The five panels were loosely based on the fables of Aesop and other writers, in addition to s 39-foot panoramic view of the school and Hilly Fields. It was Dunbar who painted 'The Country Girl and the Pail of Milk (above)', with her sister Midge as the model. M.Elsie Eldridge painted 'Birdcatcher and the Skylark', and Mahoney 'Joy and Sorrow'. They were painted directly on to the plaster in wax.

Mahoney's sketch for Joy and Sorrow panel, painted on paper in 1933
(from Liss Fine Art)

Dunbar was chiefly responsible for the balcony panorama. According to Dr Gill Clarke, Dunbar's biographer:  'In order to complete her preliminary sketches, which took 3-4 months, and to get the best view of the extensive buildings, Dunbar had to ascend the water tower of Lady Well Institution. In the Kent Messenger (January 1935), she described how she had to squeeze through a small trap-door and climb on to the top of an extremely narrow shaft, which led on to a tiny railed platform on the edge of the lead roof of the water tower, more than 100 feet above the ground. 'It was like being on a gas stove', Miss Dunbar told a Kent Messenger representative, 'and it was so hot with the sun beating down mercilessly that the water in my paint nearly boiled'' (Clarke's biography is entitled 'Evelyn Dunbar: War and Country').


Panorama of Hilly Fields and School



The murals gained national recognition at the time, and more recent appreciation led to them being listed in the 1990s. They were unveiled on February 21 1936 by the then education minister, Oliver Stanley. The Times reported: 'An example that might well be followed has been set by the Headmaster of the Brockley County School, Hilly Fields, SE4 [Dr G.I. Sinclair], who some time ago offered to Sir William Rothenstein, then Principal of the Royal College of Art, an opportunity for some of his students to execute a series of mural paintings in the school hall... The work has taken about three years to execute, the expenses of the artists being paid out of a small fund created from the profits on meals at the County School'.

Detail of panorama of Hilly Fields and School (photo from Decorated School blog)
- note schoolboy reaching over fence

In his speech, Stanley talked of painting on walls as 'the oldest form of artistic expression' and joked that 'in no other school in the country had the boys the opportunity of  using that form of expression in any other way than in the caricature of the headmaster on the wall' (Times, 22 February 1936).

Detail of panorama of Hilly Fields and School (photo from Decorated School blog)

The murals are quite hard to get decent photographs of - I tried and failed, and found some online. So if you get the chance to see them in situ, take it.

Further appreciation of Dunbar at Paint Drops Keep Falling and of the murals at the Decorated School.

Dunbar at work in the School,
(from St Barbe Museum & Art Gallery)

Ladywell water tower, Dressington Ave SE4, from where Dunbar sketched Hilly Fields.

Built 1898-1900 for St Olave's Union, home to 'aged and infirm'

designed  by Ernest Newman, the founder of the Art Workers Guild

(photo by Mike Quinn at Geograph)

Ticket Offices face Closure

Ticket offices at rail stations across South London face closure if the Government implements the recommendations of the McNulty Report which it commissioned. The report, "Realising the Potential of GB Rail: Report on the Rail Value for Money Study" proposes that all Category 'E' Stations should have their staffing removed. These are stations which typically only have one member of staff present - in future they would have no staff on the premises.

Together for Transport have the full list of 675 stations at risk nationally, including the following from South London:

Anerley
Beckenham Hill
Bellingham
Brixton
Carshalton Beeches
Crofton Park
Deptford
Elephant & Castle
Gipsy Hill
Ladywell
Loughborough Junction
Lower Sydenham
Mitcham Eastfields
Mitcham Junction
North Dulwich
Nunhead
Queens Road, Peckham
Ravensbourne
St Johns
Sydenham Hill
Tooting
West Dulwich
Woolwich Dockyard

As Together for Transport argue:

'This will cause a great deal of inconvenience to passengers who will then:

•lose the opportunity to seek advice about planning rail travel

•lose the ability to get advice about a range of ticket products including cheaper options

•lose the option to pay by cash if ticket machines - like those proposed to be installed by London Midland - only accept debit or credit cards

•lose the assurance of assistance in the event of an accident or assault'.

I have benefited from the help and advice from staff at many of the stations on that list, and have also felt reassured at their presence in some threatening situations. Some of these stations are already scary enough - they need the staffing hours increased, not decreased.

(thanks to Deptford Dame for alerting me to this on twitter)

Ladywell Shelter

This 'Shelter for 700' sign is on the road bridge on Ladywell Road, opposite Ladywell station. It's mentioned in a few places online where it is described as a World War 2 bomb shelter sign. But is it? These were usually painted on a white background with a big 'S' for Shelter (see New Cross example here).

I wondered whether it might be more recent, e.g. a homeless shelter from Crisis at Christmas or similar. Does anybody know for sure? And where was the shelter? Presumably somewhere towards Lewisham High Street.

Lucky Soul on Hilly Fields

Lucky Soul are SE London's finest purveyors of indie-pop-soul, and their new single honours the green heights of Ladywell - Upon Hilly Fields.



Following the earlier post on the closure of the Ivy House (SE15), Darryl at 853 has reminded me that Lucky Soul's 2007 video for 'Add your light to mine, Baby' was filmed in that very pub, and even features a shot of Darryl's arm.

Joy Orbison - Ladywell

Joy Orbison (real name Peter O'Grady), in case you don't know, is a cutting edge producer operating in that sonic world where garage, dubstep and all the other offspring of the hardcore continuum interbreed with interesting results. Intriguingly his latest release on his own Doldrums label features a track called Ladywell.



So wonder why this track seemingly references part of Lewisham? In interviews Joy/Peter is sometimes described as living in South London, but in this one he says that he lives 'not too far from Croydon

Orchard Planting on Hilly Fields

Transition Brockley and Lewisham are planting trees on Hilly Fields next month:

'ORCHARD PLANTING - SAT 15 JAN 2011 - HILLY FIELDS from 11.00am to 1.00pm

Everyone is welcome to join in with (or just watch) the planting of a small apple orchard on Hilly Fields (next to the Stone Circle) from 11.00am to 1.00pm on Saturday 15 January, 2011. This will be the first community orchard in a major park in the borough of Lewisham and we, from Transition Lewisham/Brockley are delighted to be initiating this project, together with the Friends of Hilly Fields and the London Orchard Project, with funding from Capital Growth and support from Lewisham Council and Glendale.

The orchard is being planted to promote the growing of fruit locally (in an area which previously had many fruit orchards), to provide habitat for wildlife, and for people to enjoy. It will be a family activity day, with digging, planting, composting, mulching and treeguard staking. Come along for some warming spiced apple juice, hot apple soup and apple-themed sweet things'.

South London Winter Wonderland

South East London is a winter wonderland this weekend, with events including:

- Deptford Christmas Fair - Saturday and Sunday you can get a free rickshaw ride from New Cross to Deptford, and there will be a free big wheel.

- Brockley Christmas Market - today in Coulgate Street from 12 to 6 pm.

- Ladywell Christmas Market - today, 10am – 4pm, outside Ladywell rail station followed by mulled wine, mince pies and live music at the Ladywell Tavern in the evening.

- Devonshire Road Nature Reserve Tree Dressing in Forest Hill tomorrow, 2 to 5 pm.

Ernest Dowson Remembered

The local connections of the Victorian decadent poet Ernest Dowson have been covered at Transpontine before (born in Lee, died in Catford after spells in Paris and Brittany, buried in Brockley). His life will be celebrated on Monday August 2nd at 2 pm, with the unveiling of his restored grave in Brockley & Ladywell Cemetery.

There will be an introduction and a reading by Jad Adams, Author of the biography 'Madder Music, Stronger wine: The Life of Ernest Dowson, Poet and Decadent' followed by a memorial in the cemetery chapel, ending with a toast to celebrate the life of Dowson in the Brockley Jack Theatre.

I note that Ernest Dowson was familiar with the term Transpontine. In 1893 he wrote to a friend: 'Yesterday an advertisement in The Times was sent me, for a librarian, in a Public Free Library (under the Public Library Acts) ... I have been advised to apply for this, I fear, not very desirable post, and I have thought that if you, with your official signature of Librarian . . . could give me a testimonial, I might stand some chance. Could you consider me then, in a short missive a competent person to hand out dime novels to transpontine shop boys?' (source: Ernest Dowson, 1888-1897, reminiscences, unpublished letters and Marginalia, 1914).

The library in question was the (still open) Newington Library in Walworth Road - he didn't get the job. Transpontine proles like myself still frequent it.

(thanks to Mike Guilfoyle from the Friends of Brockley & Ladywell Cemeteries for the heads up on this)

Hacienda on the Hill

Brockley Max festival finished last weekend with Hacienda on the Hill. Hilly Fields was nice and busy, just like a real festival... I know that sounds patronising, what I mean is that it didn't feel like just a handful of passers-by watching their mate's band. Bumped into a few people (including Bob from Brockley and Scott Wood), sat in the sunshine, heard some good music, what more could you want?

I particularly enjoyed Maracatudo Mafua, samba from Brazil's Northeast State of Brazil - Pernambuco via Brockley.

Seemingly I missed the later restaging of the Wicker Man in the stone circle by Decodance - anybody who was there care to describe it?

Some nice Brockley Max photos by Rupert Hitchcox

There also's a whole page of photos in this weekend's South London Press

Brockley Max- forward to Hilly Fields!

Good night last night in the Ladywell Tavern with Brockley Central hosting a night of music as part of the ongoing Brockley Max festival. Evening started with a few songs from Deptford via Goa balladeer Rupert, then a set of June Brides/Wedding Present indie pop via Eltham from Tracey's Love. Even as I write I am listening to their demo CD, specifically a song called The Girl with Amsterdam Eyes about nearly being run over by a cute cyclist.

With a sound like that they just have to playing at How Does it Feel to be Loved? soon, and indeed they are, on 24th June at Jamm in Brixton. Incidentally at How Does it Feel's club night at the Canterbury Arms in Brixton this evening they are having a Meat is Murder special, playing the entire said Smiths album to mark the 25th anniversay of its release.

Next up at the Ladywell Taven last night was jazz singer Andrea Mann, playing a solo set with her gorgeously rich voice accompanied by piano. She started with a Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square and ended with the pub whooping for an encore.

Unfortuntely we had to leave before The Madding Crowd played, but not before saying hello to Darryl from 853, Brockley Nick, Moira Max, Ceri James, Mark Sampson and Moonbow John.

The latter is involved in plans for the Brockley Max finale this Saturday June 5th - Hacienda on Hilly Fields no less, with loads of music, games, theatre and children's actvities from noon to late. Not sure whether the vibe will be Hacienda (Manchester night club), Hacienda (Spanish estate) or Hacienda (situationist image of an abundant utopia - 'the Hacienda must be built'). Hopefully a bit of all three!

My first time in the Ladywell Tavern since it was refurbished, seems like a good pub. My only complaint is that I couldn't see the picture of the Ladywell that used to hang in the pub (that is the actual local well after which the area is named). A few years ago I took a group of people on an epic history/mythology/pyschogeography ramble from Camberwell to Ladywell which finished up in the pub, and coming across the picture was a fitting end to the adventure. Maybe it's still in there somewhere.