Cinetopia at the Arthouse

'Cinetopia and Lewisham Art House are reuniting to bring you a second evening of glorious cinematic splendour. So, please bring your friends and join us for a few drinks, a fun film quiz (points mean prizes) and a great mystery film (you won't know what it is 'til it's started). Past Cinetopia evenings have been themed around a wide range of genres from classic comedies to hard-boiled thrillers, including Nine Queens (Argentinian heist thriller), The Shining (epic horror), Adaptation (writers and Hollywood) and Together, (love, sex, childhood and the music of Abba in a Swedish commune). The theme for this event is corruption, cabaret and corporate sleaze.When: Friday 12 June.Where: Lewisham Art House. 140 Lewisham Way, (corner Rokeby Rd) London SE14 6PD. Tickets: £5. Tickets available on the door. Time: Doors open 6.30. Quiz 7.15. Film 8.00'.

Three rivers clean-up

Starting today is a week's voluntary effort to clear up the three South East London rivers of the Ravensbourne system - the Ravensbourne itself, along with the Pool and Quaggy. The Three Rivers Clean-Up is being organised by the charity Thames 21 in conjunction with local groups. The focus is on clearing the Himalayan Balsam, a plant that has taken over the banks of the river to the exclusion of many other species needed for a balanced habitat.

Today and next Saturday they are in Ladywell fields from 11 am to 4 pm, and tomorrow (Sunday 31st) Quaggy Waterways Action Group will be working on a stretch of the Quaggy between Clarendon Rise and Manor Park, in SE13. Other activities are taking place in stretches of these rivers in Bromley, Greenwich and Lewisham boroughs. Volunteers are welcome, check the list for detals.

It's great to see these 'lost rivers of London' getting some love and attention, next we need to dig up the River Peck and the River Effra!

Posties and Cleaners

A couple of South London-linked tales of workplace activity... good to see that the threat of recession hasn't cowed everybody:

- Hundreds of postal workers based in Brixton, Stockwell and South Lambeth refused to deliver the BNP's European election leaflets. The Royal Mail drafted in agency staff to get them delivered instead (South London Press29.5.09).

- There is a tube cleaners demonstration next Monday, the call follows: ' JUSTICE FOR TUBECLEANERS - DEMONSTRATE AT CITY HALL MON 1 JUNE 4PM. On Thursday, the London Mayor increased the London Living Wage to £7.60 an hour. Tubecleaners know they won't see this increase without a fight. Despite the Mayor's commitments to a living wage for cleaners on the underground last summer, it took months for the increase to kick in, and some contractors are still refusing to pay even this.Join the RMT picket of City Hall to call for this living wage for all tube cleaners, as well as for free travel to work / sick pay / decent pensions / 28 days' annual leave / an end to third party sackings. Monday 1 June 4pm outside City Hall (on the south of the river between Tower Bridge and London Bridge). Bring banners, placards and noisemakers!'

Kraftwerk in Brixton Market

In this week's South London Press (22.5.09) there's a short interview with Brixton-based Stereo MCs vocalist Rob Birch. I was intrigued by his 'favourite uniquely South London memory': 'Seeing a member of Kraftwerk shopping in Brixton market'. That's got to be up there with Destiny's Child rehearsing at the Elephant and Castle as an unlikely sighting - but as Beyonce's in Greenwich this week, maybe anything's possible.

Grow your own drugs

Local natural remedy enthusiasts may want to head down to Baldwins next week to meet James Wong, author/presenter of BBC2 TV series 'Grow your own drugs'. He will be at the shop at 171 Walworth Road at 3 pm on 3rd June 2009.

Buddhist Centre in Walworth

The Kagyu Samye Dzong London Tibetan Buddhist Centre is hidden in an unassuming brick building in Manor Place, SE17 (off the Walworth Road). If you are in the area of an afternoon and want some peace and tranquility, they welcome visitors. The picture is of the shrine room.

The Manor Place building once housed the municipal baths for the area. The Buddhist Centre itself may be moving to a building elsewhere in South East London which they are in the process of buying.

Brockley Max Opening Night

Lots of music and other stuff happening at this year's Brockley Max festival, from 29th May to 7th June. The opening night is this Friday with a gig from 4 pm to 8 pm, in front of the Bob Marley mural on Foxberry Road by The Brockley Barge. Line up (subject to confirmation):

4.00pm - 4.15pm J’adore L’amour
4.20pm - 4.45pm Anita Maj
4.50pm - 5.15pm Bad Habits
5.20pm - 5.40pm Room Philip
5.45pm - 6.10pm The Fruitful Earth
6.15pm - 6.40pm The Grey Cats
6.45pm - 7.05pm Brockley Ukelele Group
7.10pm - 7.35pm Samuel Luke
7.40pm - 8.00pm Rock Choir
8.10pm - 8.40pm The Fishermen
8.45pm - 9.15pm Revived Band
9.20pm - 9.50pm This Is Us

Brockley Ukulele Group also have another uke box Sunday session coming up at the Amersham Arms, SE14 on Sunday 14th June:

All are human

A reminder from Creekside, Deptford:

Occupations and borders

Wednesday night (27th May) sees South East London radicals spoilt for choice. At Goldsmiths College, Lewisham Way SE14 (Room RHB308, Main building, 2nd floor, follow signs), Autonomy and Solidarity are hosting a discussion on occupations. They say:

'2009 - the year of the recession - is also the year of the OCCUPATION. From workers in a Ford factory in Enfield demanding their redundancy pay, to parents in a primary school in Glasgow demanding it stays open, to university students just about everywhere (even Goldsmiths) demanding greater access to education, everywhere it is being demonstrated as a viable tactic.
Whats the potential of OCCUPATION as a tactic for getting what we want? Come find out - open to all students and non students. Speakers from the OCCUPATIONS at: LEWISHAM BRIDGE PRIMARY SCHOOL (SE13), CHARLOTTE TURNER PRIMARY SCHOOL (SE8), LONDON METROPOLITAN UNI (E1), FORD VISTEON CAR FACTORY (EN3). 6:30 pm start.

On the same night at Pullens Centre, 184 Crampton Street, Elephant & Castle, SE17 3AE, London No Borders presents a talk from an activist from No More Deaths (nomoredeaths.org), which gives humanitarian aid to migrants on the US/Mexican border. Plus showing of the 2006 film "Crossing Arizona". 7 pm start.

Mydiddee

The usual high quality historical posting over at Caroline's Miscellany, with the latest an account of the death of Mydiddee in Deptford in 1793 - a Tahitian who travelled to Britain with Captain Bligh, dying soon after arriving here.

Traditional Interest in Bermondsey

I've been reading the diaries of Kenneth Williams, which he kept consistently from the 1940s until his death in 1988. I must admit I found the younger Williams a more likeable character - there is a lot of self-loathing later on as he struggled with being gay (though apparently celibate for large periods), and he became a Tory.


In his earlier years he was something of a socialist, and does a great put down of a racist acquaintance: 'Lunch. J. was there. Never was she more futile and boring. 'I just don't want to mix or be friends with coloured people...' O dear! She's certainly not depriving them of anything!' (8 March 1960). Unsurprizingly he also expressed strong views about homosexuality being illegal, as it was until 1967: 'Obviously the sex life of consenting adults of same or opposite sex has nothing to do with the State' (14 january 1956 - referring to the Montagu case, and the 1954 jailing of Peter Wildeblood for 'homosexual offences'). There's the odd bit of Polari, the London theatrical/gay slang that he used to famous effect in the radio programme Round the Horne.


There a few memorable put downs of South London places in the diaries, with Croydon being summarily dismissed: 'Went to Croydon with John but didn't like Croydon, so returned straightaway (11 October 1952). In 1953 he was playing in Peter Pan at Streatham Hill Theatre: 'It looks like a great cinema of a place. Oh! Horror. I choose bus - though one can by train from town - because I hate the smells on the Southern Railway, and the grimly smug suburban feeling on those dreary green stations. And all those circumspect men with milk and sandwiches stuffed into important-looking briefcases' (29 January 1953).


However there is one South London location which he was very favourable to . His diary entry of 7 July 1958 states: 'Went to Bermondsey for traditional interest and it was quite fabulous'. The reference is to Bermondsey municipal baths on Grange Road, where the Turkish Baths were a well known gay meeting place.


Source: The Kenneth Williams Diaries (1993).

How evil is the M25?

From Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman's novel Good Omens (1990):

'Many phenomena - wars, plagues, sudden audits - have been advanced as evidence for the hidden hand of Satan in the affairs of Man, but whenever students of demonology get together the M25 orbital motorway is generally agreed to be among the top contendors for Exhibit A.Where they go wrong, of course, is assuming that the wretched road is evil simpy because of the incredible carnage and frustration it engenders every day. In fact, very few people on the face of the planet know that the very shape of the M25 forms the sigil odegra in the language of the Black Priesthood of Ancient Mu, and means 'Hail the Great Beast, Devourer of Worlds'. The thousands of motorists who daily fume their way around its serpentine lengths have the same effect as water on a prayer wheel, grinding out an endless fog of low-grade evil to pollute the metaphysical atmosphere for scores of miles around'.

Skeme

A couple of great tracks coming up featuring Deptford rapper Skeme. But first, a bit about him from his myspace site:

'Hailing from Deptford, South East London, Skeme had a hunger for the mic from an early age. With sound systems like Saxon and Spectra holding jams at the bottom of his road every Sunday getting on the mic was soon became second nature to the ghetto star. Whilst still at primary school the big players allowed him to ride the riddim, which was highly unusual for someone of his young years and MCing became a natural progression, which eventually lead into rap. Skeme hooked up with three fellow local rappers and became part of an outfit aptly named The Money Programme. The crew approached lifelong Saxon member D.Rowe for musical support and guidance and began using Saxons studio to record their hard-hitting material. As always Skeme shone out with his distinctive vocal style and made the wise decision to go solo...

Skeme is currently working with popular garage outfit K2 family, Lethal and Destruction, Passing Trade and award-winning Estelle. Estelle and Skemes track Just Because received major airplay on BBCs 1xtra. Other tunes playlisted on the airwaves of Radio 1, Kiss 100 and Choice are 'Bling Bling', 'Herbman Hustling', 'Turning' and 'UK Bubblers'...

Skeme runs a workshop in partnership with NDC providing the opportunities for the young people in his area to hone their skills as an MC and to improve their lyrical content in the form of a weekly Lyric Writing and MCing session. The workshop is for 14-25 year olds from a deprived area of South London. He also works in close proximity with and is a regular speaker for Love Music Hate Racism (organized by the Anti-Nazi League) using the positive energy of the music scene to fight back against the racism being pushed by Nazi organisations such as the British National Party, National Front and Combat 18'.



This Is London - MAS P ft Skeme & BIG P - 'I'm a bad boy talker from the Deptford blocks'. Coldharbour Lane is also name-checked



Fusion - The Greatest Show featuring verbal gymnastics from Shabba D, Det, MC D, and Skeme. From 2005, 'Give me the ragga, give me the hip hop, give me the jungle techno... and the Twins dem Ragga up on Kool FM'. Got me thinking about the debates still raging about Simon Reynolds' notion of the Hardcore Continuum- the musical line from hardcore through jungle to speed garage, 2 step and grime. This track is in some ways a celebration of that continuum, but it also made me think about how many people tend to ignore UK hip hop when they talk about this, and perhaps underplay the influence of reggae sound system culture (pertinent in the case of Skema with his youthful links with Saxon). Though to be fair to Reynolds himself he sees the birth of the 'Nuum itself as resulting from 'The four-way collision of house/reggae/techno/hip hop'.

Don't let it pass you by

As we've mentioned here before, there are a number of songs that refer to the 1981 New Cross Fire in which 13 young black people died at 439 New Cross Road. Another one to add to the list is UB40's Don't Let it Pass You By (1981). The lyrics include the lines 'You gonna wake up and wonder why, Gone in the blues, Go check on the news, Go listen to political views... New Cross was no gate-crash bomb...Rightful justice must be done!'

Montague Arms Next Tuesday

A night of local music at The Montague Arms (corner of Queens Road and Kender Street) next Tuesday 26th May with 'Girls in Bikinis' presenting The Sense of Amelia, Danny Whitfield, Warpigs, Adam Ashton, The Bertolis, Mr Bowditch plus open mic. £4/£3 concessions.

Cemetery Life

Brockley & Ladywell cemetery isn't the big star like it's Nunhead neighbour but it is a fine, peaceful place full of wildlife, interesting graves, including anarchist Fernando Tarrida del Marmol (apparently) and one famous absinthe poet.

Like Nunhead, it has it's own friends group, the Friends of Brockley & Ladywell Cemetery. They're holding a guided walk on Tuesday 26th May, meet at the Ladywell Road gate at 6.50pm.

Details are:

Nick Bertrand will talk about the flora, fauna and ecological management of the Cemeteries.
A donation from participants is requested, to go to the Creekside Trust, of a minimum of £3 for members, and £5 for non-members of FoBLC.

The walk is expected to last for 2 hours. As this is an “after hours” activity, the cemetery gate will be locked at 7pm, so latecomers can not be admitted.

Natalie Okri

Yes, we all know Britain's Got Talent is a cynical corporate cheesefest, but still 10 year old Deptford girl Natalie Okri done good:

Laila Morse

The trial of the alleged killers of French students Gabriel Ferez and Laurent Bonomo in New Cross last year has thrown up some harrowing details. Apologies for the triviality of noting that one of the accused is said to have climbed up to the window of a flat near to the Sterling Gardens murder scene occupied by the actress Maureen Bass. Bass, stage name Laila Morse, is best known for playing “Big” Mo Harris in Eastenders.

Maureen Bass is the sister of actor Gary Oldman, so presumably like him grew up in Monson Road, SE14. She also starred in Oldman's film Nil by Mouth. If I recall correctly, early in the film she utters the immortal line about smelling 'like a rat's crawled up my arse and died'. She is one of several members of the Eastenders cast to be spotted out and about locally.

Save old Hither Green Cinema

Schools, swimming pools, social clubs, ballrooms, glue factories and now...

From This is Local London. Full story there.

RESIDENTS are fighting to save a former cinema from demolition and want it turned into a community centre.

The former Park Cinema, in Hither Green Lane, Hither Green, was built in 1913 and was used as the Kids Korner nursery until two years ago.

Now the property is lying derelict and its owner is seeking planning permission to demolish the building and transform it into a four storey high block of flats with commercial space on the ground floor.

But residents are angry the building, which was used as a cinema until 1957, might be lost forever and are urging Lewisham Council to save the building.

So far more than 100 signatures have been collected for a petition and campaigners would like to see the cinema used as an arts and community centre.

Campaigner Max Calo, of Mount Pleasant, Hither Green, says there is a lack of social facilities in the area.

The 40-year-old said: “It’s a crucial site in Hither Green and a corner stone of the community. If we take that away we burn any hope of regenerating the area.

“It’s a purpose built performance place in a crucial area so why not try to rescue it?”

An application to convert the cinema into flats, preserving the building’s shell, was granted by the council in 2007 but the development was eventually abandoned.

However, acting on behalf of the building’s current owner Abdul Hamid, from Ilford, architect Jerome Lejeune, of Agenda 21 Architects, says he doesn’t think preserving the building’s architecture is appropriate in this case.

The news story give a link to the Hither Green Hall blog, which appears to be just starting out.

May Queens

The crowning of the May Queen in the London area is an ancient custom that goes back at least as far as.... er... the Victorians. Actually, there were May Kings and Queens before that but the practice seems to have died out until John Ruskin and others revived it as part of an attempt to recreate a romantic vision of Merrie England as a counter-point to the urban reality of slums and industrialism. In the process the figure of the May King was largely squeezed out and the age of the May Queen was lowered, typically being a young girl rather than a young woman.

I'm not aware of any 2009 May Queens in inner South East London (correct me if I'm wrong), you have to go further out to the suburbs to find them. In Wallington this year, 'outgoing May Queen Zoe Bird helped crown the new Queen Rhianna Deonarain and her prince Lisa Bird. Meanwhile in Sutton Katie Staniford was crowned May Queen and was star of a procession lead by a piper, which began at the Salvation Army offices, went up Throwley Way and back down the High Street'.

There was also a May Fair and May Queen procession in Petts Wood - where this year's May Queen was crowned in April. Elsewhere at Hayes in the Borough of Bromley 'A trio of May queens were handed their crowns during a ceremony signalling the start of spring. Bethany Porter, 10, became queen of Hayes Village, 12-year-old Rosie Bridger was crowned queen of Hayes and Chloe Martin, 11, became queen of Hayes Common at a ceremony on April 11. The queens will now take part in the London May Queen parade on Hayes Common and the Hayes Village Fair later this year'.

Over west, Richmond has been having a May Fair since 1970, complete with 'live music, maypole and morris dancers, a tight rope artist, comedian and... the yearly crowning of the May Queen'.

Spooky Underground

At South East London Folklore Society this Thursday (14th May), Alan Brooke & David Brandon are talking on 'The Haunted London Underground: What Lies Beneath?: The London Underground late at night has a haunting atmosphere with its labyrinth of subterranean tunnels, passages, disturbed burial grounds and whatever might lurk down there. Workers on the Underground have often reported strange incidents such as unexplained noises and sightings of people' that had reputedly died years earlier. This talk draws on material from The Haunted London Underground (published by The History Press, 2008) and explores the various stories and accounts of supernatural activity'.

SELFS meets at The Old King's Head, Kings Head Yard, 45-49, Borough High St, London, SE1 1NA. Talk starts at 8:00 pm, entrance is £2.50.

Cafe Crema Films

Cool French films at Cafe Crema in New Cross on Thursday nights this month. Missed one of my favourite films last week - Cocteau's La Belle et la Bete - this week (14th May) it's Les Parapluies de Cherbourg, a musical starring Catherine Deneuve.

The following week (21st May) it's The Lemon Tree, a recent Israeli-made film. Then it's back to France the following week with Deneuve again in Belle de Jour.

Tickets (£6) are available at the Cafe anytime or turn up on the night if you're feeling reckless. Ticket includes polenta or homemade cake and a glass of wine. Arrive at 7.30 for food; film starts at 8.15.

Cafe Crema is at 306 New Cross Road London SE14 6AF.

Lewisham Bridge Protest

The tents have been up for over a week now and it's all looking very jaunty . The "Hands Off Lewisham Bridge" protest is holding a march and rally this Saturday, 9th May, from 12.00pm. "Bring banners & balloons" says the flyer that came through our door.

Assemble opposite Lewisham Bridge school, Elmira Street, and march . There's then a rally at the Clocktower, Lewisham High Street, at 12.30pm.

As the previous post and discussion highlighted, issue here isn't just the closure of Lewisham Bridge primary but the broader disorganisation of education in the Lewisham / New Cross area.

Don't think details are final yet, contact 020 8314 7487 or handsofflewishambridge_at_yahoo.co.uk (doing the usual anti-spam thing with the '@') to confirm details.

Balloons need to be utilised much more in protest culture, me thinks.

Prohibition in New Cross

British drinkers were lucky to avoid the prohibition period experienced across the pond, but there were those here who campaigned for something similar, with one leading anti-drink campaigner being based in New Cross. In 1910, the American Prohibition Yearbook reported that 'The National Prohibition Party of England is an aggressive force in British agitation. The President is Bert G. Baker, the Secretary HW Goldsmith, his address being 96, Gellatly Road, New Cross, SE. The official organ of the party is The Prohibitionist, now in its eleventh volume. From its press comes a constant succession of timely and telling leaflets and printed argument advocating the complete abolition of the manufacture as well as the sale of liquor in the British Empire'.

Number 96 Gellatly is directly opposite the pub - now called Skehans - no doubt a source of irritation to HW Goldsmith!

May Day Jack in the Green

May Day last Friday saw Deptford Fowlers Troop out on their annual Jack in the Green procession, this year taking in streets and pubs around the South Bank, Bankside and Borough area. This picture was taken in Union Street, SE1. As I walked down the road I noticed a few people standing outside Jerwood Space looking over at the procession to see what was going on - among them was Jude Law. Perhaps next year he can be persuaded to don green foliage and join in.

Here's some nice footage from the people at SE1:

Dancing in the Anerley Gardens

I came across this card in Southwark Local Studies archive, advertising dancing at Anerley Gardens in Penge. Anerley Gardens were open from 1841 to 1868, next to Anerley station, and featured a hotel, tearooms, a maze and a bandstand. Oddly Anerley is spelt as Anerly - presumably the spelling had not yet been standardised.

A contemporary visitor described Anerley Gardens as 'prettily disposed, with every imaginable device to make a visitor prolong his stay. The old Croydon Canal runs at the end of the grounds, and is kept well stocked with fish; there are few resorts more calculated than this to afford innocent recreation and healthy enjoyment' (Adams's Pocket descriptive guide to the environs of the metropolis).

Sorry about the quality, it's a scan of a photocopy of the original. The full text says: 'Admit Two to Anerly Gardens, Archibald Hinton. Dancing every Evening in the Gorgeous Al Fresco Rotunda. Fireworks by Jones of Camberwell. As the Gardens are so crowded on Mondays and Saturdays this Order will not be Admitted on those days. This Order is available Every Evening (except Mondays and Saturdays) until June 30th , and not after. Return Crystal Palace Tickets are available at the Anerly Station. Trains from London Bridge to Anerly Quarter past every Hour'.

Archibald Hinton was the owner of the Anerley Gardens from 1860, having previously been the proprietor of the Highbury Barn in Islington. The Anerley Arms pub was built on part of the site.

Next Uke Box

Brockley Ukulele Group's appearance at the soon-to-close Shunt Lounge was a lot of fun. A Thursday night at London Bridge attracts a mixed international crowd with everyone from Hoxtonite students to bank workers ripping off their ties, all of them determined to kick start the weekend early. So it was quite a messy night (in the positive sense of the word) with lots of dancing and singing along. As the Ukebox format is for people to shout out the number of the song they want to hear from a list, it got quite rowdy with groups of people chanting their songnumber or writing it on signs to get noticed above the shouting.

Shunt was great as ever, it was the 23rd of April and they celebrated St George's Day in Catalan style. La Diada de Sant Jordi is lovers' day in Barcelona, with lovers exchanging gifts of roses and books, so at Shunt they had roses and books out on the tables. Only one more week to go at Shunt London Bridge, after which they are moving for a while to a warehouse in Bermondsey Street. I am sure they will do a good job there, but the labrynthine railway tunnels of London Bridge will be sadly missed.

BUG are in action again at the monthly Sunday Uke Box session at the Amersham Arms in New Cross on May 10th.

Local movements

A few things to keep you busy, if you are so inclined:

Defend Education in Lewisham is supporting the occupation by parents protesting against the planned demolition of Lewisham Bridge Primary School.

At the New Den last weekend, supporters of the United Campaign Against Police Violence leafleted fans about the death of Ian Tomlinson -the Millwall fan killed by police during the G20 protests on April 1st. The family of Sean Rigg - who died in police custody in Brixton last year - also took part.



Bob from Brockley has the full details of next week's Strangers into Citizens rally for migrant rights in London, including the South London contingent from the Elephant.

Stop the Strip is a campaign against the lap dancing club at the White Hart in New Cross. They say 'This is not an anti-sex campaign but rather a campaign by a range of local people who are concerned about the establishment of these clubs in residential areas. We believe our area, New Cross, deserves better. Women working in modelling and sex industries are often treated poorly and their rights often breached. As a group we believe all workers have the right to Unionise and seek support when they are being exploited. We would extend support to any and all women working in the venue'.

High Llamas - Pipas - Stereolab - New X

Some more New Cross music connections towards the indie end of the spectrum.

Lovely indie-pop duo Pipas used to live in Jerningham Road, and indeed have a song called Old Kent Road on their 2002 album 'The Cat Escaped'. In this 2001 interview they mention Telegraph Hill Park and also refer to another band living in the same area: 'we think that we have these superstar neighbors, the High Llamas, and this whole year one of my projects has been to look into everybody's window as I walk up and down the hill and I've studied everybody's house and there's some people who look like they're into '60s tropicalia kind of stuff and it's got to be them'.

In a 1996 review of the High Llamas and Stereolab in Mojo magazine, Barney Hoskyns refers to them as 'two musical ensembles who dwell in the New Cross netherlands of south-east London, whose metier happens to be an uncanny kind of mimicry or pastiche. They do it brilliantly'.

Intriguing, somebody mentioned to me before that Sean O'Hagan (High Llamas and before that Microdisney - who I once saw at Glastonbury) used to live in the area but I didn't know that anybody from Stereolab did too. I would love to be able to weave them into the South East London musical history narrative so if anybody knows any more, do tell...

Anyway here's The High Llamas' Bach Ze to brighten up your day:

New Cross vs. New York (2)

Just noticed that a different version of the article in today's Metro referred to in the previous post is also in today's Daily Hate Mail with a typically nasty shift in tone - i.e 'You gotta be kidding: New York Times tells U.S. tourists they MUST go to 'Wild West' Deptford... Wealthy American tourists are being urged to visit a crime-plagued UK district which has been dubbed ‘London's Wild West', by a popular travel guide'.

New Cross vs. New York

The Metro has picked up on the New York Times travel feature on New Cross & Deptford (covered here at Transpontine a few weeks ago), with an article in today's paper noting that 'American tourists have been advised to check out the hottest must-see locations in London - er, Deptford and New Cross'. The Metro adds its own slant to the story by adding a list comparing New York and New Cross:

' NEW YORK V NEW CROSS AND DEPTFORD
US: Plaza Hotel - UK: Novotel London Greenwich
US: Bowery Ballroom - UK: Goldsmiths Tavern, formerly featuring S&M "live whipping" shows named "Night Of The Cane"
US: Mayor Michael Bloomberg - UK: Labour MP and former deputy leadership contender Jon Cruddas
US: The New York Dolls - UK: Dire Straits
US: George Gershwin - UK: Jools Holland
US: David Letterman - UK: Danny Baker
US: Woody Allen's "Annie Hall" - UK: Gary Oldman's "Nil By Mouth"
US: John Lennon assassinated in 1980 - UK: Christopher Marlowe assassinated in 1591
US: Central Park - UK: Brookmill Park'
US: The Subway - UK: The Docklands Light Railway
US: Broadway - UK: The A2
US: Views and boat trips out to Staten Island - UK: Views and boat trips out to the Isle of Dogs '.

Hey they missed out, US: Brooklyn, UK: Brockley.

London Lore

A report on yesterday's 'London Lore' conference at the Bishopsgate Institute, sponsored by the Institute, the Folklore Society and South East London Folklore Society:

'London Lore' was a great success, with a sell out audience of 250 suggesting that there is a growing interest in 'exploring London's traditions, customs and folklore, old and new' (as the conference was subtitled).

Sarah Crofts began the day with a talk on the Fowlers Troop and the Deptford Jack in the Green. The starting point was an Edwardian photograph by Thankfull Sturdee, the Deptford based photographer of a local May Day scene (below). This inspired members of the Blackheath Morris to revive the custom on May Day in the mid-1980s, building a the Jack (a green foliage covered frame) in the back of a local pub - accounts differ about whether it was the Dog & Bell or Wickham Arms. Over the years they have staged May Day processions in Deptford, Greenwich, Borough, Bankside and the City of London.


Sonia Ritter discussed The Lions Part seasonal festivals in Bankside and Borough, particularly Twelfth Night, St Georges Day and October Plenty. They have been combining processions, seasonal customs, music and street theatre since 1995.

Doc Rowe gave a broad overview of London Seasonal Celebrations. He argued against an ossified view of 'calendar customs' as survivals from the past, looking instead at people marking times in the year very much in a continuous present according to the needs and interests of the period. He covered May Day, Halloween and more specific local events like the annual Clown service in Dalston.

Animal folklore was the subject of Paul Cowdell's talk 'Rats, redstarts and ravens: animal-identified London'. He discussed new and old legends - or as is often the case with folklore the former masquerading as the latter. For instance the 'ancient legend' of the ravens having to stay at the Tower of London to prevent its destruction seemingly only dates back to the 1950s and may have been invented by tour guides. He also traced the history of the slogan - 'Rats, rats we've got to get rid of the rats', starting off as an advertising jingle for rat poison, adapted by fascists as an anti-semitic slogan and then used by anti-fascists breaking up Mosley's meetings in Clapham and Battersea.

In discussing London fox-lore, Noel Rooney suggested that the fox was assuming a more positive identity, becoming seen as an icon of willderness in the city rather than as a pest - a fact perhaps linked to the decline of Londoners keeping chickens. The cat owners' fear of foxes killing their pets was dismissed as another legend - they generally coexist peacefully - a fact borne out by own observations a few years ago of a fox and a cat sitting happily in the sun on a sofa on derelict land in Camberwell Road.

Richard Barnett's talk on 'Folklore, medicine and the body in London's history' covered executions and the uses of the bodies of the victims - such as the notion of the Hand of Glory, the candle-bearing hand of an executed prisoner said to be used to ensure that burglars could enter a house without being observed since the inhabitants would remain asleep.

Scott Wood discussed a modern urban legend, The Helpful Terrorist - the tale that warnings had been given to people to avoid places threatened with terrorist attack as a result of them helping out a suspicious generally foriegn looking man. Various versions of this storu - inevitably happening to a friend of a friend of a friend - have spread in the context of 9/11 and the July 2007 London bombings. But Scott traced similar stories back through the IRA campaign to the First and Second World Wars. In 1915 a mysterious helpful German is said to have warned a nurse who had saved his life to avoid the tubes in April of that year.

Several presentations covered the life and work of Edward Lovett (1852-1933), a pioneer collector of London folklore in the early twentieth century. Steve Roud gave an overview of the life of the Croydon-based folklorist, while Ross MacFarlane focused on the relationship between Lovett and the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum. Neil Gordon-Orr discussed the Lovett collection relating to London superstitions held at the Cuming Museum in Southwark. This includes lucky charms and amulets to protect from disease, such as this blue bead bracelet warn by children to protect them from bronchitis:
Mark Pilkington spoke on the Brompton Cemetery time machine- a Victorian mausoleum around which stories have been woven involving egyptology and time travel - a tale seemingly made up by a mischievous screenwriter in the 1990s.

John Constable introduced The Southwark Mysteries and the Crossbones Shrine - the latter the site in Redcross Way, Southwark of a burial ground believed to be the last resting place of prostitutes denied a Christian burial as well as of paupers. Up to 15,000 people are still buried there, disturbed by the Jubilee Line Extension in the 1990s. Every halloween since 1998 people have gathered at the gates to honour the outcast dead.

It was almost time to retire to the pub, which Anthony Clayton set up with a talk 'Strange brew- the folklore of London pubs'. Pubs mentioned included The Widows Son in Bromley by Bow where a hot cross bun is hung from the ceiling every Good Friday. Numerous pubs have legends attached to them stating that they have secret tunnels, usually leading to landmarks such as a palace or monastery. Clayton mentioned the Hoop and Grapes in Aldgate and the Nell of Old Drury in Covent Garden in this context, but of course in our area a similar legend applies to the Old Nun's Head.

All in all, an interesting day prompting lots of ideas for future research.

New Cross play worker wins award

Hanneke Nicholson has been working at Somerville Adventure Playground in New Cross for the past 30 years and has just received London Play's 2009 award for Lifetime in Play. Hanneke and other staff and volunteers have kept the playground going in the face of all kinds of adversity (not least shoestring funding), offering that seemingly rare experience of exciting outdoor play.

The playground - situated opposite the Montague Arms is open most afternoons after school for children from 5 to 16.

Read an interview with Hanneke in Children and Young People Now.

Strangers into Citizens

On bank holiday Monday (May 4th), Strangers into Citizens are holding a big Justice for Migrants' rally in Trafalgar Square (Asian Dub Foundation will be playing at the rally). SiC is campaigning for a 'one-off regularisation' (or 'amnesty') for long-term migrants.

A South London feeder march, organised by Latin American community organisations, will be leaving from the Fusion Centre in Elephant & Castle from 10am.

The Battle of Lewisham Bridge

From BBC News today:

Protesting parents have occupied a school roof-top to voice opposition against plans to build a new academy. Children from Lewisham Bridge Primary School are being bussed from their school gates to a temporary school in nearby New Cross as part of the plans. Campaigners said the disruption would adversely affect their children's education and want the plans reversed. But Lewisham Council insisted the plans to build a new secondary school on the current site were vital.

"Myself and a number of other parents are very angry that our children are being expected to go to a school that is over a mile away from where we live, while our own school stands empty," said Eleanor Davies, one of the roof-top protesters. "The council decided that all the children and staff would have to leave the school before they got planning permission to build their new academy."

English Heritage confirmed that the primary school has been given Grade II-listed status.
Campaigners said they hoped that will delay the council's plans to demolish the two-storey Victorian building. Council leaders described the school's new listed status as a "shock decision". "This decision beggars belief," said Lewisham's mayor Sir Steve Bullock. "It has been made by an undisclosed civil servant with no regard whatsoever for local need. The future prospects of our children and young people cannot be sacrificed for the sake of somebody's fancy for Edwardian sinks, butterfly designs and tiling."

He said a rising population within the borough meant the borough needed additional secondary school places. The new academy Lewisham wants to build will cater for children aged three to 16 and would be run by Leathersellers, a City Livery company.

Klezmer at the Telegraph

Tomorrow night - Thursday 23rd - at the Telegraph pub (Dennetts Road, SE14) there's live klezmer from the band Oi Sauce. It starts at 7:30 pm.

Squeeze at the Albany 1977

A review by Paul Rambali from the NME (6 August 1977) of a gig by Squeeze at the Albany in Deptford:

'The Albany is one of those places – and there aren't many – that can get packed to the rafters, sweaty and messy, and still be comfortable. It's a small theatre at weekends and an occasional small rock gig during the week, putting on mostly local bands. Squeeze are obviously a local band, local heroes even... when they came on stage they were greeted with a welcoming roar – probably most of the crowd were their mates anyway. There's no way you can really blow a gig like that, and of course they didn't' (read the rest of the review at Rock's Back Pages).

This was the old Albany at 47 Creek Road, before the current building opened in Douglas Way.

Marianne Faithfull

In 1979 filmaker Derek Jarman made a series of three music shorts with Marianne Faithfull linked to her album Broken English. The songs were the Ballad of Lucy Jordan, Broken English and The Witches Song. According to Jarman's autobiographical Dancing Ledge (1984)some of the filming took place at Surrey Docks where they 'built a bonfire in the rubble of the old warehouses'.

The Broken English video also has another local connection: 'We used old footage of Stalin and Hitler, cut together so that they smile and wave to each other in a ballet of destruction. There's footage of Mosley, and video material that the Oval Co-op have given me of the police at Lewisham. The film starts with the Bikini H-bomb explosion monitored on a space-invaders machine; and ends with the destruction in slow motion of the huge concrete swastika that crownded the Nuremburg stadium'. The Lewisham footage is from the 1977 clashes between anti-fascists, the National Front and police in New Cross and Lewisham.

Deptford Allotments and Gardens Association

There are a number of allotments in the local area, probably least visible are those in a narrow strip between St Norberts Road in Brockley and the railway line (the entrance is near the junction of Mantle Road/St Norberts Road by the Chinese takeaway). They are run by Deptford Allotments and Gardens Association (DAGA) and have been in existence since the 1930s. DAGA now have their own website, and are developing a blog which will include gardening tips and the history of the allotments.

BUG at Shunt

Brockley Ukulele Group are playing this Thursday night at the Shunt Lounge at London Bridge. If you've never been to this amazing place in the arches under London Bridge station before get along there now as it's closing in a couple of weeks to make way for the construction site for the Shard of Glass tower. It's £5 in, worth it just to wander around and check out various installations and have a drink, never mind the bonus of the famous SE4 strummers. The entrance is on Joiner Street SE1, opposite the tube station entrance. BUG will be on after 9 pm.

More details about Shunt here, plus a short film about the place below:



(just in case you are curious about the bear in the flyer above, it might just be a reference to a new number in the repertoire of SE London's premier English-Irish-Japanese-German-American ukulele band - 80s Swiss classic Eisbär)

G20: The Brockley Connection

Brockley has been in the news a few times relating to the G20 protests and the subsequent row about policing sparked by the death of Millwall fan Ian Tomlinson. In the build up to the demonstrations, the press highlighted that one of the organisers was Chris Knight (of the Radical Anthropology Group) with the BBC commenting that his 'rather grand house on this rather leafy street in Brockley was in fact the headquarters for the four horsemen of the apocalypse'.

Now a local man has complained about his treatment on April 1st: '21-year-old student Tom Hibbins, from Brockley, south-east London... said he was unable to escape as the police line pressed forward outside the Bank of England, and that he was hit with a metal baton and kicked in the groin by police. He said: "It seems to me inevitable that the tactics used by police on that day would inevitably agitate people and lead to trouble"' (source: BBC News).

And to think that the person who is ultimately in charge of the police - Home Secretary Jacqui Smith - lives just down the road from this hotbed of radicalism in her sister's house in Nunhead. If you're wondering what all the fuss is about, here's the latest film report of the Climate Camp protest:

Dancing on the Heygate Estate

The Elephant and Castle is full of healthy looking specimens of humanity leaping off buildings and dancing in the streets - or at least it could be if this 2006 video is anything to go by. Love Don't Let Me Go (David Guetta vs The Egg) was filmed on the Heygate Estate, SE17:

Marilyn Monroe in Forest Hill

...or at least a model of Marilyn watching the Forest Hill traffic on Stansted Road from the window of an antique shop.

CALL gig at Dirty South

A night of comedy and music in aid of the Campaign Alliance for Lifelong Learning is happening next week (23rd April) at Dirty South, 162 Lee High Road. Acts include Radio Revolucion, The Rules, Jeremy McClintock and the Brocklet Rise singers. There some's more information here. CALL is campaigning against the death by a thousand cuts of adult education.

South London in Swanage

The town of Swanage in Dorset is not a place you would automatically associate with London history, but oddly it does feature a number of monuments that previously graced the streets of the capital. The most prominent is the Wellington Clock Tower, erected at the Southwark end of London Bridge in 1854 but moved to Swanage in 1867, where it still overlooks the sea.

The tower and other London relics were brought to the town by George Burt (1816-1894), who ran the construction company set up by his uncle John Mowlem, (1788-1868). Stone from quarries in the Swanage area was shipped to London for use in building projects, and on the return journey the boats were filled with material from London, partly for ballast and partly because Burt thought that some of the unwanted London relics could be put to use in Swanage.

At Durlston Country Park on the edge of the town, there is 40 ton Portland stone globe displayed by Burt with plaques including quotes from Virgil and Tennyson and astronomical information.


The globe was actually constructed in Greenwich in 1887, where Mowlem had a yard from the 1840s (the location of Mowlem's yard on the Greenwich peninsula by Cadet Place is discussed here).

Still Water (The River Thames, for Example)

The best thing for me in the Roni Horn exhibition at Tate Modern is 'Still Water (The River Thames, for Example)' a set of 15 close up photographs of the surface of the Thames taken on the Central London stretch of the river.


According to Horn: 'every photograph is wildly different—even though you could be photographing the same thing from one minute to the next. It’s almost got the complexity of a portrait, something with a personality. Of course the Thames is an especially beautiful river to photograph because the weather here is so indecisive, it’s rarely blue skies, which would be the least interesting light to photograph water in. The Thames has this incredible moodiness, and that’s what the camera picks up. It is also about it being a tidal river, so it has these vertical changes and it moves very quickly. It’s actually a very dangerous river and you sense that just by looking at it'.

Each of the pictures is annotated with a series of quotations and comment reflecting on the river and water, such as 'The sound of the river at night is a landscape of possibilities'. Horn is particularly interested in the relationship between the Thames and death - one note states: 'Another kind of suicide or even drowning in another river wouldn't be the same. In the Thames you die a double death, you die but you also disappear'.

As she described in an interview, 'I thought I would shoot the Seine or the Garonne, but these rivers don’t have the same energy. I don’t know how many people kill themselves in the Seine but it just didn’t look like a convincing suicide route to me. The Thames has the interesting fact attached to it that it is the urban river with the highest appeal to foreign suiciders. So you get people coming in from Paris to kill themselves in the Thames. So it has an incredible draw and one of the points about shooting the Thames was the fact that it’s darkness was quite real—it wasn’t just a visual darkness, it was a psychological darkness. Water is something one’s attracted to largely for the light aspect of it. And the banks along the Thames, a lot of them are being restored or renovated and the view is on this very dark water'.

Roni Horn aka Roni Horn is on at Tate Modern until 25 May 2009.

Dulwich Ukulele Club May Day Ball

Dulwich Ukulele Club are hosting an event to mark May Day this year (Friday 1st May). They promise:

"An evening of riotous ribaldry awaits. Featuring a very modern take on the May Pole, Morris Dancing and at midnight the coronation of the May Day Ball’s very own Lord and Lady of Misrule.With a veritable army of top class entertainment including live music from crazy country ska bumpkins David Goo and his Anti-Depressant Variety Show, bespoke pop for the discerning from King and the Olive Fields, the début performance of 7 piece Harmonica Dad and the Dulwich Ukulele Club of course.We’ve got a host of weird and wonderful cabaret stuff too – Charlie’s Mad Marionettes, which frightened everybody last time out and the sublime Actionettes, an eight piece all-girl 60’s dance troupe. Then there’s DJ 78– spinning the discs on two wind-up gramophone players. The last one was totally fantastic, we expect the same this time out. There's only room at St Thomas More Hall, 116a Lordship Lane, SE22 for 250 people so if you'd like to come and join the 'May'hem on Friday May 1st, 8 til 1am please visit the DUC myspace where you can buy a ticket by clicking on 'add to cart'"

Don't forget too that Brockley Ukulele Group are bring their ukebox to the Amersham Arms next Sunday (12th) and to Shunt at London Bridge on 23rd April.

Oss Oss Wee Oss

On Thursday (April 9th) at South East London London Folklore Society there's an English Folk Dance and Song Society Film Night, featuring a selection of short films from the EFDSS archive including 'Oss Oss Wee Oss', a record of the May Day 'Obby 'Ose celebration at Padstow in 1953 and 1960s singing and dancing in the Barley Mow pub in Suffolk. Come see some raw film recordings of British folk life from the not-so distant past.

Venue: The Old King's Head, Kings Head Yard, 45-49, Borough High St, London, SE1 1NA.
8:00 pm start, £2.50 / £1.50 concessions.

Blue-collar aesthetics and intermittent hipsterism

If you bump into some American tourists in Deptford High Street asking you the way to the Amersham Arms, you can thank the travel section of the New York Times.

No, unlike Brockley Central's story about anarchist barricades in Wickham Road (untrue I'm afraid) this isn't an April Fools prank - that was Wednesday. In an article 'New Cross and Deptford Attract the Hip' (22 March), NYT really does tells its readers 'The coming of New Cross and Deptford has been predicted for some time. It won’t be an easy ride. The area lies in an inglorious corner of southeast London; those with well-cushioned sensibilities need not make the journey. But with the unpolished location comes that most heady of urban ingredients: an edge. For now, these neighboring districts still feel more like eccentric outposts than uncut diamonds'.

Priceless. Along the way the Amersham Arms, Goddard's pie and mash, Bar Alchemy, the Bunker Club, The Deptford Project and the Royal Albert all get mentioned. I must take issue with the claim that the latter 'has been salvaged from the remains of one of the area’s most notorious dives'. That was The Paradise Bar, birthplace of the New Cross musical explosion way back in the early 21st century!

The article concludes 'Until the well-washed masses start arriving in larger numbers, this still feels a bit like London’s Wild West (southeast, actually), a boisterous concoction of blue-collar aesthetics and intermittent hipsterism. Perhaps some of the chaos will make it to the other side'.

Hmmm. Actually I think you'll find that we are already familiar with soap and hot water thank you very much. As for 'the coming of New Cross and Deptford', they have actually been around for quite a few hundred years already. (see also New Cross - New Shoreditch).

Nowtopia at 56a

56a Infoshop at the Elephant & Castle is presenting an afternoon this Sunday 5th April with Chris Carlsson, the author of NOWTOPIA giving an illustrated talk. They are also using the occasion to open their newest exhibition in the space: Celebrate Peoples History, a selection of the great poster series from the radical art collective Just Seeds (56a is at 56a Crampton Street, SE17).