Heather's - vegetarian delights in turn of century Deptford

Heather's was a legendary Deptford vegetarian (and indeed mostly vegan) restaurant in the 1990s/early noughties. This was a period in which options were often limited for those who didn't eat meat. There were some vegetarian places to eat (see previous post here), but there was often a kind of standard wholefood fare which lacked variety. Heather's was exceptional and memories of its food still make my taste buds fizz.

It started out as Heathers Cafe at 190 Trundleys Road SE8, a small place that soon drew attention. Food was served as 'an eat as much as you like buffet', indeed according to this 1996 advert 'the best vegetarian buffet in town' in Time Out's estimation.

Advert from Arkangel animal liberation magazine, No. 16 (1996)

A review in the book 'Veggie London' by Craig John Wilson (1997) highlights its Cuban fruit curry and spicy chick peas as well as its broadly leftist culture, organising 'themed evenings as fundraisers for various causes', women only nights and a free cold drink for people arriving by bike. The people who ran it were very involved with supporting the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa.

 Heather's then moved to 74 McMillan Street in Deptford, a bigger space that had once been the the United Friends pub. I remember some happy Sundays there eating to my heart's content and listening to jazz. I found the menu below tucked inside an old 1999 diary, once again featuring a Time Out endorsement ('the most radical and happening of all London's vegetarian restaurants'), and with food including a spicy Ethiopian stew,  mushroom and chestnut strew and a range of salads and dips. Mick Foster and Dominic Ashworth were advertised as playing 'free live jazz'.

Even the food critic Jay Rayner - in those days notoriously indifferent to vegetarian food - was persuaded to visit and gave it a mostly good review, describing it 'a light and airy room of white walls, stripped floorboards and subtle lighting with carefully spaced tables so that you feel neither hemmed in nor on the verge of agoraphobia. In the middle sits the buffet which, at a very reasonable £14 a head, covers all the stations of the cross from soup to pudding'. He couldn't resist a dig at Deptford though 'as the kind of place one might go to dump a dead body. It has that ragged, urban wind swept aspect to it that lends itself to the concealment of crimes' (Observer, 21 January 2001)

Heather's was still going strong when it closed not too long after, I believe that the couple that ran it wanted to move out of London. A bar replaced it for a while - McMillans then Farragos, but it was then converted to housing..

[update to post: on twitter Jay Rayner confirms that 'It was great. Had the weirdest dreams after eating there... put it down to an exuberant amount of nutmeg']

See previously:

Green Guide to London: vegetarian food & bikes in 1990

Nouveau Quiche - a co-operative restaurant in 1980s New Cross

Green Guide to London: vegetarian food & bikes in 1990

 Being vegetarian/vegan back in 1990 wasn't quite as easy as it us today. Supermarkets had restricted  options, and many cafes and restaurants were similarly limited. Enter 'The Green Guide to London' written by Bill Breckon and published in association with Friends of the Earth. The 'comprehensive handbook for all environmentally aware Londoners' included, among other things, vegetarian and wholefood friendly shops and eating out places.  

Here's a few extracts from the Inner South West and Inner South East sections of the book.

Few of these places are still there with Brixton Wholefoods and Fareshares Food Co-op in Crampton Street SE17 among the survivors. Many more are fondly remembered.  The Brockley Bean has been mentioned here before, but who recalls Bean Thinking in Greenwich, Well Bean in Blackheath,  Nosebag Wholefoods SE18 or  The Veggy Table/Veganomics in Lewisham? What about Cross Currants in New Cross Road, Nunhead Deli and Wholefoods in Evelina Road or Full of Beans in Rushey Green?  Seemingly there were a lot of beans to be had! I was very fond of the vegetable patties at the Jacaranda Garden by Brixton Rec.

Bike shops were also listed:

South West London bike shops 1990

South East London bike shops 1990

Green Onions and Red Lion - healthfoods, vinyl and coffee in Clifton Rise SE14

Tucked off the New Cross Road in Clifton Rise SE14, Green Onions has been going for about 18 months offering a great combination of healthfoods and vinyl.

 

Out front there's vegan goodies, gifts and all the tea bags...

Head to the back though and there's racks of vinyl from Spotty Vinyl Records... some great finds to be had for all you crate diggers, with new stock every week.

I was sorely tempted by a couple of disco 12"s, maybe next time. Don't think they had this soul classic though...

Green Onions is open every day, including until 7:30 pm Monday to Friday, so handy for popping in on the way to or from New Cross Gate if you're commuting.

Also in Clifton Rise you can now get a really good coffee (not to mention plenty of food) at the new Red Lion Coffee Company. I know there's no shortage of cafes in the area, especially up near Goldsmiths, but lets just say coffee quality can be variable if you are as fussy as me.

Red Lion is on corner of Clifton Rise and Batavia Road near to Fordham Park.

New Cross Graffiti

Some recent messages from the diverse graffiti artists of the New Cross area.

'Blue Borough' (that's Lewisham) /  'South Side' - by Fordham Park

Justin Bieber in Drakefell Road - old skool tipp-ex graffiti

'Meat is Murder' 'Go Vegan' in New Cross Road
(same site as the vanishing UKIP poster earlier this year)

Clarkshaws: Vegan Brewery in East Dulwich

Clarkshaws is 'a small independent microbrewery in East Dulwich. Our beers are created with a subtle blend of innovation, hard work, and the finest ingredients mixed with a dash of whimsy and serendipity, resulting in contemporary takes on classic British beer styles.We use only ingredients sourced from the UK, supporting local producers and reducing the 'beer miles' of all our products. Our process is designed to be vegetarian and we are London's first micro to produce all Vegetarian Society accredited products'.

When I was a vegan - sorry younger self I haven't lasted the course, though I do actually care for some animals now rather than just care about them in the abstract. I digress... when I first turned vegan, I didn't really know the ropes. In the back of a van heading off to some anarcho-punk squat gig I wondered why nobody wanted to share my cider. Then somebody took me aside and told me - it wasn't actually vegan or even vegetarian. I had no conception, and I guess most people don't, that drink may contain animal products. Fish products are routinely used to clear wine and beer, and some cider contains gelatin.

But yes in East Dulwich there is now a brewery that makes vegan beer and is Vegetarian Society approved. Seemingly approved by Southwark Vegans too, as on Sunday 29th September they are going to visit said brewery. You can tour the brewery any time between 12pm - 4pm complete with a beer sampling for £2.50 (includes a pint of beer).

The brewery is  at Unit 8, Tyrrell Trading Estate, Tyrrell Road, SE22 9NA.

History Corner: Leslie Large of Lewisham & The Vegetarian Cyclists (1880s)

Some notes on the SE London origins of the still existing Vegetarian Cycling & Athletic Club:

'The Vegetarian Cycling & Athletic Club can trace its origins back to 1887, the year of Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee. In September of that year, Leslie Large of Lewisham, an enthusiastic worker in the Vegetarian movement and a keen cyclist, placed notices in a number of periodicals inviting other Vegetarian cyclists to contact him with a view to forming a Vegetarian Cyclist's Club.

Their objective was to provide a means of contact between Vegetarian cycling enthusiasts and to seek to prove, by the yardstick of athletic competition that Vegetarians could easily hold their own against their meat eating counterparts.Through the Spring and Summer of 1888 a series of Club runs and social events were held and the membership built up steadily until over 100 names were on the roll.

The first formal meeting was held on October 9th, 1888 at the Central Vegetarian Restaurant, St. Bride Street, London and this was followed by a meeting on February 9th, 1889 at the Appletree Vegetarian Restaurant, 34 London Wall, when Leslie Large was elected as the first Secretary and Arnold F. Hills, a wealthy industrialist became the first President. The name of the Club was confirmed as the Vegetarian Cycling Club. Reports from those early days are few but it is evident that VCC racing cyclists performed competently if not outstandingly.

Henry Light, a founder member who was elected Captain in 1890 soon became the main driving force behind the Club and under his direction standards of performance of the VCC men improved steadily. 1896 saw the VCC achieve its first outstanding success when Jim Parsley of Peckham won the prestigious Catford Hill Climb, the country's top event, in record time. The VCC were cock-a-hoop at this major breakthrough and held a dinner in Parsley's honour... In 1896 the green and gold triangular badge was introduced. Sadly, the same year, Leslie Large while on a visit to Edinburgh died of diptheria just as his dreams were becoming a reality'.

More at the VCAC website. The Catford Hill Climb is an event that Catford Cycling Club have been organising since the 1880s (see their history). It is held at Yorks Hill in Kent.

(image reproduced from Classic Lightweights)

Leslie Large placed an advert in the Vegetarian Messenger, August 1888 which provides some details, including his address in Hither Green:

'Cycling. - It is proposed to from a London Vegetarian Cyclist's Club. Qualifications: Abstinence from flesh-food and riding a machine. Objects: To collect (and diffuse) information concerning the number and doings of akreophagist cyclists in all parts of the country, and to arrange runs in congenial society for local members (London. S.E.). Badge: Small silver letters, "V.C.C." It will be ready shortly; device, cost about 3d. per set. No subscription will be necessary if the editor of V.M. and other kindred journals will kindly insert notices as required. Any necessary trifling expenses are to be borne by the hon. sec. or any who voluntarily help. It is suggested to hold runs monthly on Saturday afternoons, alternately with shorter trips by moonlight on some other evening monthly. Picnicing in suitable places is recommended, with, if necessary, a tea party at some inn. The hon. sec. intends to forward on Saturday a parcel of meal bread and biscuits to some convenient station, in readiness. Fruit, &c., to be obtained in the neighbourhood as wanted. To facilitate the formation of the lists, which, if all join, will prove most valuable, all who are qualified (ladies as well as gentlemen) are requested to send without delay their addresses and any useful particulars of the kind of machine they use, the favourite distances, achievements, &c., to Leslie Large, 1 Cambridge Terrace, Hither Green, Lewisham' (this and other adverts reproduced at International Vegetarian Union website).

I love the idea of sending a parcel of vegetarian snacks ahead to make sure the cyclists can eat! Also note the word 'akreophagist' as an alternative to vegetarian - that never caught on, not sure it's even in the dictionary.

Crossway Cafe

Crossway Cafe in Nunhead (93 Evelina Road) offers one of the great South London vegetarian breakfasts, certainly a contender for top of the fry up league. Their vege option includes egg, sausages, mushrooms, hash brown and bubble'n'squeak (beans too if you want them), plus a slice of bread.

See also Vege Breakfast at McLaren's.

Meateasy

If you've been in solitary confinement or trekking in the Himalayas recently you might not have heard about Meateasy. So just so you know - it sells burgers above a pub, get over it.

The pub in question is the Goldsmiths Tavern in New Cross, currently closed for refurbishment and due to be relaunched in May as the New Cross House. Meateasy is a temporary 'pop up' restaurant run by people who usually run the Meatwagon burger van. It does sound quite buzzy and I am tempted to pop down to one of its Friday night music sessions featuring the likes of Joe Muggs and Kongo Sound System. Trouble is being a vegetarian for nearly 30 years means that I'd rather put tabasco in my eye than eat there.

The place has been glowingly reviewed in The Metro and The Standard (Sexy feast: the most popular burger joint in town). Today it made it into the Independent on Sunday with the kind of condescending opening paragraph that makes me want to shout out loud: 'It's New Cross – a part of London I can't really identify, never mind find. Is it east or south? Isn't it one of those places without a Tube station?'. Is it too much to ask that a journalist could write about something in South East London without starting with a variation on omg where is it/will I get murdered?

Anyway Meateasy is due to close on April 16th but wouldn't be surprized if it popped up again more permanently.

SE London Green Fair 1986

SE London Green Fair took place over two days in 1986 (21-22 June), starting off with a day of stalls, workshops and music at the Albany, followed the next day by a community festival in Fordham Park, New Cross.

'Greenwich 264' has recently posted a video on Youtube shot at the time by Tim Spencer and it really is a priceless social historical document, opening a window not only on to 1980s Deptford but to the green/peace/left movements of that time.

As described by Graham Bell (complete with some classic 1980s glasses!) the themes of the event were International Year of Peace and green campaigns around Transport. He mentions the launch of a campaign called Commuters against Polluters and the proposed East London River Crossing (a threat to Oxleas Wood, it was finally cancelled in 1993).

Across the event we see stalls and local activists of the time - Jeanette Prior of Deptford CND (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament) with a 'One Missile is too Many' banner; the Anti Apartheid movement, Dorothy Shipp of Lewisham United Nations Association; Ron Wye, London Cycle Campaign ; Kevin D'Cruze, Lewisham Peace Council; Micheael Prime, Lewisham Greenpeace Supporters Group; Tim Wright, Lambeth Friends of the Earth; and a short interview with Peter Tatchell ('I'm here because I'm a socialist and i think green politics is really important'). There's also a Brockley Bean stall - a vegetarian shop/cafe in Coulgate Street at the time.

Musically there's Irish folk from Goats Brigade, Grange Lunchtime Band, Barflies, Childeric School Steel Band, Lewisham Lizards (doing 'Cajun Two Step') and a reggae sound system from Catford Link. The famous Dewdrop Inn can be seen in the background in the park scenes. All this plus a beer tent, face painters, clowns, jugglers, inflatables and animals from Stepping Stones Farm in East London.

Apparently there was a similar event the year before, at Goldsmiths and in Fordham Park. Does anyone know if it happened again?

There's a bit in the first part of the film where Catherine Maguire leads a workshop in the Albany on 'Creating Your Own Future', asking people to envisage the world they would like to live in in the year 2000. Did your dreams come true?

Hatcham - Still No Action

Still no sign of any action at the Hatcham Liberal Club in New Cross (369 Queens Road), shamefully empty more than two years after it closed. For over 100 years it was a place for drinking, socialising, music and much else. In its last few years alone the hall out the back hosted Exploding cinema film nights, jazz nights, private parties and more - in fact I DJed there a couple of times myself.

I've mentioned before its earlier radical history, and a quick google search shows that all kinds of alternative and radical currents flowed through the place from when it opened in around 1880 to at least the time of the First World War. Annie Besant lectured on socialism there, as did George Bernard Shaw and the Fabian Sidney Webb ( on 'Socialism and Cooperation'). The latter owed his political career as a London County Councillor to the club - in an 1891 letter he stated that 'B T Hall of the Hatcham Club wants to propose me as LCC Candidate for Deptford'.

Shaw also records in his diary that on November 15 1887 there was a 'Debate on Vegetarianism at the Hatcham Liberal Club between Dr. Drysdale and W. S. Manning'. There were meetings on the Irish situation too. Remarkably The Brisbane Courier (27 February 1882) carried a report of a meeting there: 'Miss Helen Taylor, who has returned from a tour in Ireland, recently addressed the members of the Hatcham Liberal Club on the condition of the country... she asked were English working men prepared to send 50,000 soldiers to Ireland to force the Irish to emigrate and leave the land desolate? She did not believe two thirds - certainly not one-half - of the Irish could pay their rents... the police were the masters of the lives and liberties of the people in Ireland'.

On Sept. 29 1889, Colonel Henry S. Olcott, a leading member of the Theosophy Society lectured at the Hatcham Liberal Club - it was apparently lthe argest audience of the season.

On 21 Feb 1912 there was a meeting in support of women's suffrage there, chaired by CW Bowerman, MP with the main speaker, Mrs F Swannick.

Now - nothing (apart from the memory of its name carried far afield by Hatcham Social). Is it going to be left to crumble just because nobody can make money from buying it? The place is crying out to be an occupied social centre, come on people!

Vege Breakfast at McLarens

The search for the perfect vegetarian breakfast is a lifelong quest. For me there are a number of essential agreements - eggs, mushrooms (not tinned), some kind of vegetarian sausage/bacon and some kind of potato product (such as hash browns. Price is also a factor - it should be roughly equivalent to the cost of meaty fry up in a local cafe (i.e. not restaurant prices).

For many years my favourite was the breakfast at Domali, the excellent vegetarian cafe in Crystal Palace. But now it has been pushed into second place by the breakfast at McLarens Bar and Grill in Honor Oak Park.The vege breakfast there includes scrambled egg, tarragon sausage, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, potato wedges, beans and four slices of toast. Extra points for having a home made sausage rather than using a supermarket bought one and for offering (without being asked) an extra sausage when I said I didn't want beans. Extra extra points for running over the road to buy a new bottle of tabasco when they realized that the bottle I'd asked for was empty. All this for £4.45.

Lots of other good food on the menu including vegetarian dishes but it may be a while before I get beyond the breakfast.

(evidently I am not the only one who thinks so - see this analysis of the breakfast)
/

Cafe Crema Film Night

Cafe Crema Vegetarian and vegan café/restaurant, 306 New Cross Road, SE 14 6AF, have re-opened and will be brining food and film to the masses. The schedule in to follow but they will be having an opening party on Friday 15th October. They promise: "a food, music and party night at the cafe".

7.30-11.30pm, to celebrate the opening of the café they have a selection of old time ska/funk/r’n b and rock’n roll from: DJ Johnny Clash and his fine vinyl, DJ Lance and his lovely collection (tbc). Entrance: £3 includes meal: veg. pasta or pizza.

Tickets can be bought on the door or in advance from the café (open mon 11am-4pm, tue-fri 11am-4pm & 7-11pm and sat 7-11pm)

Reserve a place by email: freshfilmscafé_at_hotmail.com (or go and see the Swear instead).

(Replace _at_ wirh ' in

Where is it? Café Crema, 306 New Cross Road. Close to New Cross and New Cross Gate tube stations on the East London Line. Easy on the bus from Lewisham and Camberwell/Brixton. Lots of routes, 36, 136, 177…