Eyes Wide Open at Brockley Jack

Brockley Jack Film Club are showing the film Eyes Wide Open tomorrow night (Monday - details here) - Haim Tabakman's 2009 movie centred on the gay relationship between two Orthodox Jewish men in Israel.

Albert Dolphin - New Cross Hospital Hero 1940

Tuesday's Telegraph reports that Lord Ashcroft has a new book out called George Cross Heroes - the George Cross being awarded since 1940 for acts of civilian bravery. The literary efforts of the Conservative Party's bankroller and tax avoider are not normally a subject of interest in the Transpontine milieu, but it does apparently feature an entry on a genuine local hero:

'ALBERT GEORGE DOLPHIN

Rank/title: Mr

Unit/occupation: Hospital porter

Date of bravery: September 7 1940

Gazetted: January 17 1941

On September 7 1940 – the start of the Blitz − Germany switched tactics. It halted its successful blanket bombing of Britain’s RAF bases and instead targeted, first, London and then other British cities. As darkness fell, wave after wave of planes swept over London, dropping their bombs predominantly in the east of the capital.

Some 430 people died that night. Among them were four nurses who had been killed when a bomb landed on the South Eastern Hospital in New Cross, south London. The victims had been standing on the ground floor of the kitchens of Ward Block 1.

Another nurse, who had been in the ward kitchen on the first floor, had been thrown through the collapsing floor and had ended up in the passage of the ground floor. She was still alive, but seriously injured, and her legs had been trapped by some of the falling masonry. Those who rushed to help her included Albert Dolphin, a 44-year-old hospital porter.

Dolphin was a married man who had worked at the hospital for more than 20 years. As he and others worked frantically to free the nurse, one of the surrounding walls gave a loud crack. The would-be rescuers had time to move away and all of them, except Dolphin, retreated. Instead, the porter flung himself over the woman’s body. In doing so, Dolphin took the full weight of the falling masonry and was killed.

His selfless act was not in vain. The nurse was later pulled, alive, from the rubble, and Dolphin’s posthumous GC was announced just over four months later, his citation ending: ‘There is no doubt that Dolphin, although aware the wall was about to collapse, deliberately remained where he was and threw himself across the nurse’s body in an endeavour to protect her. This he succeeded in doing at the cost of his own life.’

Albert Dolphin is listed on a memorial mural in Lewisham Shopping Centre. The Deptford Ambulance Station now stands on the site at 1 New Cross Road. For similar stories, see Deptford's and Lewisham's Local Heroes from the Blitz at WW2Talk.

Cuts - do it French style?

Tomorrow's a big day for anyone working for South London's biggest employers - Councils, NHS, Colleges and other public services - as the government announces the scale of its spending cuts. With the Tories already predicting a loss of 450,000 public sector jobs, and other predicting up to 750,000 will go, things are going to get very tough indeed. Never mind they say, the private sector's going to create jobs to replace them - yeah right, maybe we can all flip burgers instead. Actually the burger flippers and coffee makers are also going to be in trouble, with all those cash strapped public sector workers and unemployed counting their pennies.

As just one example, here's an analysis of the potential impact on Goldsmiths in New Cross 0f the proposals put forward in the Browne Report on the funding of higher education:

'On Tuesday the Browne report came out, recommending removing the cap on tuition fees. This was followed by an email from the Senior Management Team (SMT) predicting Goldsmiths would lose £15m per year from its teaching budget for the next few years.

The level of projected cuts which could result from the implementation of the Browne report is unlike the scale of what any of us have ever faced. What would a 20% cut would do to our jobs, courses, libraries, facilities, support services?

Also, what would happen if students were expected to pay £7,000 a year, or possibly more, in fees? This would result in England having the the most expensive public degrees in the world, with families having to shell out between £76,000 and 136,000 to put two children through university.

If there is an open market in fees, this will create a 2-tier university system, with the most well-resourced universities charging the highest fees, and the most under-resourced universities charging the lowest. This would drastically exacerbate inequality in education.

The report also proposes to create a market in student places which it suggests will facilitate a large reduction in public funding which 'may be equivalent to removing all funding from anything other than priority subjects'. Goldsmiths, because it focuses on arts, humanities and social sciences, will be particularly vulnerable. Because of this, it is especially important that we rise to the challenge.

The scale of the cuts will require a response that is immediate, powerful, united and effective. We need to combine all our educational, campaigning and mobilizing skills to make the strongest possible protest to government. We urge everyone to attend the demonstration on the 10th of November . We also encourage you to participate in other anti-cuts actions, including: the march at 4:30pm on the 20th of October at Lincolns Inn Fields (http://bit.ly/bAtDmc); the Lewisham Anti Cuts Alliance public meeting at Goldsmiths, at 7PM, also the 20th of October, and the SERTUC march on the 23rd of October (assemble 11AM Chalton Street)

SMT have a responsibility to join our campaign to defend education. We call on them to not accept the Coalition Government's argument that there is no alternative, or the cuts for which they have no mandate. We also call on them to defend Goldsmiths' unique character as an institution that both supports cutting edge research and also has a strong widening participation agenda. We ask them to support our campaign against education cuts and to put pressure on politicians, particularly Liberal
Democrats, to stick to their pre-election pledge.

(Joint statement from student and staff unions - Goldsmiths Students' Union, Goldsmiths UCU and Goldsmiths Unison - thanks to Another Green World)

No doubt about how far the Tories want to go in using the financial crisis as an opportunity to implement long-cherished plans to decimate the public sector - the question is how far they will get away with it. Maybe we should take some lessons from France and not wait until it's too late to make a fuss.

Goldsmiths students will be meeting outside the the university library at 3.30pm tomorrow and then making their way to the anti-cuts rally in Whitehall, scheduled to start at 6 pm. No doubt many South London public sector workers will also be heading down to Downing Street tomorrow night.

Marty Wilde: Charlton's finest?

Welcome to another South East London hyper-local blog - The Charlton Champion kicks off with a list of 10 great things about SE7. Well if they ever get round to a top 10 of Charlton singers, a space must surely be reserved for Marty Wilde. Born in Blackheath as Reginald Leonard Smith in 1939, he lived in Greenwich and went to Halstow Road Primary School and then Charlton Central Secondary Modern School. He started his own band, Reg Smith and the Hound dogs, before he was signed up - and renamed - by Larry Parnes as one of the wave of late 1950s English rock'n'roll singers.

Marty is also, of course, the father of Kim Wilde - and co-wrote the great Kids in America. Less well-known is his less successful attempt to reinvent himself in the early 1970s as glam-rocker Zappo. Yes, that's him, pictured below.

I was wandering in transpontine London...

Here's what the Oxford English Dictionary has to say about the word Transpontine:

1. That is across or over a bridge; spec. on the other side of the bridges in London, i.e. south of the Thames; transf. (from the style of drama in vogue in the 19th century at the ‘Surrey-side’ theatres), melodramatic, sensational.

1844 ALB. SMITH Fort. Scatterg. Fam. ix, It was Monday evening, sacred to the pits and galleries of transpontine theatres. 1860 MRS. W. P. BYRNE Undercurrents Overlooked I. 78 The..Metropolitan theatres, cispontine and transpontine. 1876 C. M. DAVIES Unorth. Lond. 130, I was wandering in transpontine London one Sunday morning. 1882 H. DE WINDT Equator 132 Triana, a transpontine suburb [of Seville], is worth a visit in the daytime. 1901 Scotsman 9 Apr. 5/4 A new drama strongly seasoned with transpontine flavour.

2. [f. L. pontus sea.] That is across the sea; on or from the other side of the ocean, spec. the Atlantic, i.e. North American.

1891 R. L. STEVENSON Let. Oct. (1923) XXII. 414 The last four chapters of The Wrecker!.. Ours is such rude, transpontine business. 1920 Times Lit. Suppl. 15 Apr. 232/2 She [sc. an American writer] has investigated her subject with typical transpontine enthusiasm. 1922 JOYCE Ulysses 416 Thou sawest thy America, thy life~task, and didst charge to cover like the transpontine bison.

I hadn't realized that the word was sometimes used to refer to America - a usage that seems to have faded, not surprizingly as of course there is no bridge across the Atlantic!

The Rivoli Ballroom: the kitsch and the glamorous

In the mid-1990s, Helen Thomas and Nicola Miller, two dance researchers from Goldsmiths, undertook a research study into ballroom dancing and tea dances at the Rivoli Ballroom in Brockley. It includes some interesting historical material about the place, stating that the building that is now the Rivoli was originally 'a purpose-built 600-seater cinema, which opened in 1913 as the Crofton Park Picture Palace'. Renamed the Rivoli in 1929, it 'closed its doors as a cinema in 1957. It became a dance-hall in 1960 and subsequently for several years, like a large number of old cinemas, it became a bingo-hall, with dancing on Tuesday and Saturday evenings. In 1970 it closed for refurbishment, and two and a half years later it was reopened as a dedicated ballroom'.

There is also some very evocative description:

'The decor of the ballroom is fashioned on the lines of the grand Viennese ballrooms of the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In the 1920s, the newly-created palais de danse, such as the Hammersmith Palais, which opened its doors in 1919, aimed to cater for the urban working classes who wanted dance in the new styles, but could not afford to frequent the exclusive West-end hotels and restaurants where their more wealthy peers danced. With their large halls and spacious, sprung floors to dance on, to the sounds of the latest music played by full live bands, the palais were designed to give the appearance of luxury and grandeur for the pleasure of the working classes that had formerly been reserved for those higher up the social scale. The Rivoli Ballroom evokes the earlier past of the great balls and the more recent 'retro' style of the palais de danse...

The walls of the hall are lined with red velour, with patterned panels encrusted with diamente and gold-painted wood-panelling. There are 200 wall-lights which highlight the opulent appearance of the red and gold. The tables and the red velvet seating are set around the edge of the sprung maple dance-floor, with two revolving glitter balls, three large chandeliers and numerous smaller ones hanging down from the ceiling. There is a raised stage across the breadth of the far end of the hall, large enough to take a small dance band, complete with sound system and a large selection of dance records. There are two bars, a rather sumptuous 1960s one with gold flock wallpaper and matching upholstered seating, and a more everyday bar/buffer reminiscent of a 1950s ice-cream parlour, with booth seats...

Stepping into the ballroom at the Rivoli on a Sunday afternoon when the competition is in full swing proved to be a fascinating and bewildering experience. To begin with, the sight of the lavish, yet mannered, styling of the contestants as they swished effortlessly across the floor doing their set pieces, bathed in the light of the chandeliers, and set against the backdrop of the red and gold decor, with onlookers dressed in ordinary clothes, and other contestants in their ballroom best, standing or sitting around the edge of the floor, was so other-worldly that it seemed as if we had been dropped into a period film-set designed to exude the kitsch and the glamorous in the same instant'.

Ballroom Blitz by Helen Thomas and Nicola Miller is published in Dance in the City, edited by Helen Thomas (Pallgrave Macmillan, 1997) .

Skateboarding row on last lap?

The dwindling band of opponents of a skateboarding ramp in Telegraph Hill lower park, New Cross, are mounting a rearguard action against it as the date looms for Lewisham Council to give it the final go ahead.

A leaflet has been circulated with all kinds of alarmist language about 'saving the park', noise and antisocial behaviour. Its arguments have been thoroughly demolished at Brockley Central so I won't labour the point here.

Like many people I am not actually that excited about whether there is a skateramp in the park or not. But those in favour have campaigned for it, those against likewise, and the outcome is a limited, low impact scheme that will simply turn a tarmac path into a facility for young people to use. The park won't be destroyed, and the sky won't fall in. Maybe in ten years time it will be incredibly popular, maybe it will be under-used, in which case at some point it can be replaced by whatever people are into then.

Clearly the argument here is no longer about the merits of skateboarding facilities, but about a particular group of Telegraph Hill residents feeling enraged that for once they might not get their own way.

Their claim that there has not been sufficient consultation is particularly spurious - I can't think of a local issue that has been subject to so much discussion, with hundreds of people taking part in public meetings. More to the point, and unlike in most 'consultation' exercises, the plans have actually been changed to take into account the concerns raised by objectors.

What the diehards actually want is not more consultation but the right to veto things that don't accord with their own views, regardless of what other people want. Unfortunately for them, their scaremongering tactics seem to be backfiring with even people who initially opposed the plans now hoping that they go ahead.

New Cross Library Latest

The shutters at New Cross Library have been redecorated with the slogans 'Save Our Libraries' and 'Save New Cross'. The campaign to save the five Lewisham libraries threatened with closure is still going strong with a march with a carnival flavour planned for Saturday 30th October,
starting outside Crofton Park Library at 12pm, to arrive at the Town Hall by 1.30 for a rally.

Meanwhile Brockley Central reports that local Tories have pledged that they would save the libraries from closure if they were running Lewisham Council. What a nerve - do they really think we are too stupid to notice that Councils are planning cuts because the ConDem government is slashing funding to public services.

South East London Coffee, 1914-1950

Previously on Transpontine, we looked at the state of play for coffee provision in New Cross, Deptford and Brockley from 1888 to 1900. Moving on to the turn of the First World War, the Post Office London Directory 1914 shows that three 'coffee rooms' had survived from 1900, but all with different proprietors: Albert Barnes was now running 2 Coulgate Street near Brockley station (site of a coffee shop since at least 1888); Jn. Coudray was listed as being responsible for 111 Tanners Hill in Deptford (possibly Jean - Coudray is a French name); and Albert Smith was at 1 Lewisham High Road (now Lewisham Way) in New Cross. In addition two new coffee rooms had opened in Brockley/Crofton Park: Mrs A. Merry at 354 Brockley Road and William Biggs at 74 Brockley Rise.

The First World War seems to have done for the Brockley coffee boom, with no survivors by 1919. Mrs E. Coudray (perhaps the widow of John?) was now running 111 Tanners Hill with Mrs Ellen Louisa Leaver at 1 Lewisham High Road. A new cofffee room had been opened by George R. Gatland at 67 Pomeroy Street.

Five years later, in 1924, Mrs Coudray was still going strong at at 111 Tanners Hill and Alfred Leaver was now at 1 Lewisham Road. 67 Pomeroy Street was still open, now run by George Pingram, with new local competition just down the road at no. 49 (Thomas Bradley and Mrs Elizabeth Maud).

By 1933, 49 Pomeroy Street had closed, with Pingram still running the coffee room at 67 Pomeroy Street. Florrie Taylor was at 111 Tanners Hill, but other than that there was nothing doing on the local coffee front. I guess coffee might have been available in some other local premises though - the directory now said under 'Coffee Rooms', 'See also Dining Rooms'. 310 Brockley Road - home of the Coffee Palace in 1900 - was now a Dining Room run by Frank Relf. But I am not going to be distracted now into the wider history of cafes and restaurants.

In the middle of the Second World War, 1942 seems to have seen the beginnings of a coffee revival, but at none of the pre-war venues. In New Cross there were coffee rooms at 142 New Cross Road (Mrs Ada Padley) and 29 Clifton Rise (Thomas Yarnton); in Deptford at 10 Childers Street (Reginald Chutter) and 427 Evelyn Street (Louise Gasper). Brockley was crawling back into the coffee world with a coffee room in Mantle Road run by Samuel Clarkon (no number given).

As stated in the previous post, there was a London coffee boom in the 1940s and 50s as new espresso machines were introduced. This pattern seems to have been repeated locally. In New Cross, 142 New Cross Road was still going (now run by Thomas Ball), as was 29 Clifton Rise (still run by Thomas Yarnton). There was also a new coffee room at 253a New Cross Road run by Angelo Borg (Borg is a common Maltese surname). In Deptford there were now coffee rooms in Deptford Market (Mrs M Batholomew); at 41 Deptford Church Street (Mrs Ivy Mitchell) and 192 Deptford Church Street (Charles Frederick Axford); 421 Evelyn Street (Louise Gasper - seemingly moved a few doors down since 1942, unless there was a typographical error); and 19 New King Street (Samuel Judson). Brockley was still a bit subdued on the coffee front, with still only the Mantle Road coffee room (now run by Joseph Stephen Hill).

So here's the survey summarised:

Coffee Rooms in Brockley, Deptford and New Cross, 1888-1950

This tells us a few things - 1950 was the peak year for coffee in this period; 111 Tanners Hill was the longest established coffee premises (1900-1933, perhaps longer); and Brockley declined as a place for coffee after the First World War, maybe taking nearly a hundred years to recover!

Gabrielle - 'Brockley Girl'

Singer Gabrielle was recently featured on Sky Arts' 'Soundtrack to my life', talking to Cat Deeley about her musical career. In it she described herself as a 'Brockley Girl' and talked about her time at school locally, including the role of her English teacher in encouraging her musical interests and memories of running round the school singing Diana Ross's My Old Piano.

She went to what was then called Samuel Pepys Secondary School in Wallbutton Road, now the site of the Crossways Academy.

Here she is on Top of the Pops in 2000 singing 'Rise' (featuring the best use of a Bob Dylan sample in a pop song?):

Halloween Ghost Walks in South London

As well as preparing for a talk about a Manx talking mongoose on 14 October, that's a talking mongoose on the Isle of Man, not a talking mongoose without a tail, South East London Folklore Society are giving two south London ghost walks in the run-up to Halloween.

Reserve a place by emailing Scott at South East London Folklore Society.

Walk details are as follows:


London Bridge Ghosts and Magic Walk
27 October 6.30pm-7.30pn(-ish)
£5

Meet for your bowler-hatted guide on the south eastern side of London Bridge by the Southwark Needle and Evans Bike Shop for a riverside and Borough back-street tour of Southwark’s ghostly and magical past and folklore. Hear legends of London Bridge; see the site of the wizard’s garret, sacred shrines, violent wives from beyond the grave, haunted hoof-beats and the sad, scary and silly ghosts of Bankside.


This Halloween walk is about an hour and also covers haunted pubs, Crossbones Graveyard, Austin Osman Spare, the legend of Mary Overy and an occult duel with an undead baker.


The Peckham Ghost Trail 
31 October 3pm-5pm
£4

Meet your bowler-hatted guide at Honor Oak Park Station at 3pm, this Halloween walk ends at Nunhead Green at approximately 5pm.


Follow in the footsteps of the Peckham Ghost, a mysterious masked figure intent on terrifying Victorian south London in strange and unusual ways. On the way from Honor Oak hear of the ghosts and legends of Peckham, One Tree Hill, Nunhead Green reservoirs and the undead bank clerk of Nunhead Cemetery.

This walk is just under 2 hours long with regular breaks, some steep climbs and some stony ground.

Over the river SELFS are also doing walks around Green Park and Westminster on 28 October and Smithfield on 29 October.

Alice in Lewisham

Over the Halloween weekend, Teatro Vivo ('the company who brought you Supermarket Shakespeare') present Adventures in Wonderland at Manor House Library, Old Road, Lewisham SE13:

'a curious and interactive, promenade journey inspired by Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. Staged in a Grade II listed Manor House, Wonderland will come to life. But banish those Disney images; this is the dark, dangerous and anarchic Wonderland of Carroll’s imagination.This is a site specific sensory spectacle for adults and young people where you can follow the strange characters and backwards riddles to discover scenes, installations and games relating to Alice’s adventure'.

Thursday 28th October - Sunday 31st October, Tickets: £10/£5. Concessions via website: www.teatrovivo.co.uk.

New Bookshop in Bermondsey

There can never be too many bookshops and libraries in the world, so welcome to Woolfson & Tay, the new bookshop/cafe/gallery in Bermondsey Square SE1. They've got lots of events planned, including a monthly open mic poetry session. Extra points for having a Walter Benjamin book in the window.

A.L. Lloyd, Crooms Hill Balladeer

Further to the recent post on South East London folk music connections, a Transpontinian has been in touch to confirm that the great folk singer/collector/writer A.L. ('Bert') Lloyd lived and worked at 16 Croom's Hill in Greenwich from 1948 until his death in 1982. Not sure how involved Lloyd was in specifically SE London music making, but at one point he was involved in music sessions at the Richard I on Royal Hill - a pub that still sometimes resounds to folk music courtesy of occasional visits by Blackheath Morris and the Fowlers Troop.

The full story of Lloyd's life is the subject of a forthcoming biography written by Dave Arthur, but suffice it to say it includes sheep farming in Australia, the Communist Party, a key role in the 1950s folk revival, and collaborations with everyone from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Fairport Convention.

For a couple of years in the 1950s, the Lloyds had a lodger - the young Peggy Seeger.

Chartists Rising

Did you know there's a new theatre in New Cross? Hot Tap Theatre is at 20-32 Goodwood Road, SE14 and on 14th October Hayley-D Theatre will be presenting a production of Chartists Rising, a play by Sam Dowling about the life of William Cuffay, the son of a former slave who became a prominent activist in the Chartist movement.

Tickets are £10 (£7.50 concessions), available from Zeata Tickets (0844 7404305).

Kidbrooke and the birth of comprehensive schools

Great to see a new blog, Kidbrooke Kite, giving due coverage to that corner of South East London.

As a little welcome present, here's a very topical tale. In 1953, London County Council announced that a new school in Kidbrooke would be London's first comprehensive school:

'Mr J. Brown, education officer of the London County Council, said tonight that the council felt that as people had to live and work together in a community there was no reason why they should not be brought up in a school community. He was addressing a meeting of parents at Eltham, S.E., at which he explained the council's proposal to merge six south-east London schools, including Eltham Hill girls' grammar school, into Kidbrooke Comprehensive School, for 2,000 people.

The new school, which would be the first of its kind in London, would be completed in 18 months time. The staff would be drawn from the existing schools and would number 100. Mr Brown admitted that the principal would not know her pupils as intimately as did head mistresses of smaller schools, but each teacher would be expected to get to know 30 girls well and to follow their scholastic careers closely. The comprehensive school would cost £75,000. Every consideration would be given to meetings girls' educational requirements for whatever occupation they wished to take up' (Times, 3 March 1953).

The following year, the Conservative Minster of Education over-ruled the LCC, agreeing for Kidbrooke to go ahead but stopping the closure of Eltham Hill grammar school(March 3 1954). This was a very contentious issue - there had been a petition against the closure of Eltham, but other schools felt that allowing Eltham to opt out threatened the viability of the new school: 'The staff and head mistress of Charlton Secondary School for Girls yesterday sent a telegram to the Minster of Education stating that they deplored her decision to "interfere" with the plans of the LCC to set up a comprehensive at Kidbrooke and protested at the exclusion of Eltham Hill Secondary School from the scheme' (March 4 1954).

The matter was discussed in Parliament, with Herbert Morrison (Labour MP for Lewisham South) accusing the Minister of party political bias, asking 'Did she or did she not encourage the London Conservative Party organization to involve themselves in this matter and give them some impression that she would support their efforts to oppose it?' (Times, 14 May 1954).

The Bus Strike

The school did open in September 1954, but transport arrangements for it prompted a bus workers' strike. Drivers at the New cross garage walk out against the introduction of a new schedule for the route 70 bus, brought in by London Transport 'to cope with additional traffic caused by children going to the new comprehensive school at Kidbrooke' (Times, 15 Sept 1954).

The strike affected buses across South East London: ''Six hundred drivers and conductors at the New Cross garage of London Transport, who began an unofficial strike on Wednesday, voted last night to continue the stoppage which now affects nine routes.' The Transport and General Workers Union called 'a delegate conference of busmen from every London garage' to discuss the dispute (17 Sept 1954).

After three days on strike, the bus workers decided in a meeting in Deptford to return to work - management agreed to 're-examine the complaints of the bus crews' (Times 18 September 1954).

By 1959, when a delegation of Japanese women trade unionists visited the UK, Kidbrooke Comprehensive School was sufficiently established to be included in their 'tour of British institutions' (Times, January 16 1959).

The history of post-Second World War education could be written through the lens of Kidbrooke school. Its early years show that the comprehensive experiment was undermined from the start in areas like South East London where grammar schools were allowed to continue to exist on the outer edges. Furthermore the actual implementation of comprehensive schools embodied two potentially contradictory impulses - on the one hand a socialist desire for a classless quality education, on the other hand an economic imperative to create larger institutions so that the new system did not extend the level of resources, staffing and support offered by the older grammar schools to the masses, but instead created huge, impersonal education factories.

As Michael Gove and co. set about trying to dismantle comprehensive education the question is not whether it has 'failed', but whether it has really ever been tried.

London Particular

Finally made it down to The London Particular, the newish cafe at 399 New Cross Road (it's in the same block as the Walpole, across the road from the Amersham Arms). Great coffee and I also had a bowl of soba noodles, freshly cooked from scratch with aubergine, courgettes etc. Will definitely be going back.

In Kharms Way

Next Friday at the Arthouse in New Cross there's a rare chance to see In Kharms Way, a performance of Danil Kharms texts by Ted Milton (of sometime Factory band Blurt) & Sam Britton:

'"In Kharms Way" is Ted Milton's and Sam Britton's co-operation around Russian absurdist writer Daniil Kharms, in whom Ted found something like a forefather for his own literary style. The works of Daniil Kharms (1905-1942, Russia) bring to the front of our collective consciousness a final, desperate image of the human condition. 'In Kharms Way' presents a snapshot of this reality, animated and shot into the present via the eager, intense vocalisation, saxophone playing and puppetry of Ted Milton and Sam Britton's deconstructed, rewired laptop computer. The piece was first presented in 2OO1 at the Rotozaza Connexions Festival in Paris and the performance developed over the next year, even with Ted slipping back in his role as puppeteer since 15 years. An acompanying book has been published, in the style of the Pagan Strings series. "In Kharms Way" was taken on tour in 2002 and 2003 across Europe'.

Here's a clip of an earlier performance:



Support is from Rabbit, featuring Tom Scott ( Saxes & Electronics) & David Aylward (Drums & Percussion) - David has recently been touring as drummer for Blurt.

Friday 8th October 8 pm at the Arthouse, 140 Lewisham Way £5 [£4 concs].

Black History Month in Lewisham

Some interesting events in Lewisham for Black History Month (October). There's a black history walk through New Cross and Deptford with S.I. Martin on Saturday 23 October, 11 am (£5, book tickets through New Cross Library).

At Downham Library next Thursday 7 October there's 'Soundtracks to South London life' (7.00-8.30 pm): 'Patrick Vernon of Every Generation Media and lecturer and DJ Dr Lez Henry, author of What The Deejay Said identify the music, clubs, festivals and threads which counted in South London from the 70s through to the 90s'. Sounds good - check out this short film about South London reggae sound systems featuring Dr William Henry aka Lezlee Lyrix.

New Cross Seasonal Customs

Yes, the ancient seasonal customs are being celebrated in New Cross in the great folklore emporium that is Sainsburys. Get ready for Halloween...





... or if you want to plan ahead, come along and meet Santa:

(pictures taken today)

Another Deptford Pub lost to Bookies?

Felt sad and resigned in Deptford High Street at the weekend to see the former Deptford Arms now fully up and running as a Paddy Power bookies. If that wasn't bad enough I was sickened to read at Deptford Dame that yet another pub looks set to go the same way. The John Evelyn in Evelyn Street closed 'temporarily' a couple of weeks ago and is now displaying notice of an application for a gambling licence for... Paddy Power.

I've got nothing against gambling on principle, but when a whole area is dominated by betting shops and there is hardly anywhere left to sit, drink and chat, something is seriously wrong

Amidst all the rhetoric about the Big Society the reality in poorer areas is that financial crisis + austerity = social decay, intensified poverty and a golden age for loan sharks, pawnbrokers, addiction and desparate gambling in the search for a miracle way out. Never mind 'casino capitalism', how about 'bookie barbarism'? I've lived through the 1980s once already thanks.

Brockley Coffee 1888

Well I mentioned that I was going to write something about the history of coffee in South London, but you can read a really good overview of the wider London picture over at the excellent Classic Cafes - short synopsis:

First London coffee shop was opened in 1652 by a Greek man named Pasqua Rosee in St Michael's Alley, Cornhill in the City of London; hundreds of coffee shops sprung up in the remainder of the century, but in the 18th century coffee fell from favour, partly as a result of the East India Company (who started out from Deptford) pushing tea; in the 1880s there was a boom in coffee houses and taverns, partly prompted by the Temperance movement who wanted to offer an alternative to alcohol and partly by Arab, Turkish, Greek and Sicilian migrants running places. After World War II, Italian-run coffee houses proliferated in Soho and elsewhere, revolutionised by the arrival of the modern espresso machine - cappuccino was invented in 1946, and the first modern espresso bar in London - The Moka - opened at 29 Frith St, Soho in 1953. Coffee houses were the focus of the London beatnik and folk scenes but fell from favour and had largely died in the 1970s. Then came the 1990s coffee boom, which hasn't faded yet...

Would like to be able to trace local connections to these various waves - where was the first South London coffee house? Where were the 1950s/60s espresso bars?

As a starting point for the late Victorian coffee boom I had a look in the local historian's friend, Kelly's Directory (available in local history archives in Southwark and I believe Lewisham). In 1888, the London Suburban directory lists over 300 coffee rooms and coffee taverns in the Southern Suburbs, covering areas including Camberwell, Peckham, Greenwich, Dulwich and Croydon. However, New Cross and Deptford seemed to have been a coffee desert with none listed. Not for the last time in history, coffee lovers had to travel to Brockley where they could take their choice between Samuel Syme's Coffee Tavern at 310 Brockley Road or Henry Lanbery's coffee room at 2 Coulgate Street. The latter is of course in the same row where coffee can nowadays be had from Broca (no.4) and Browns (no.5) - so clearly the habit of grabbing a coffee before getting the train from Brockley Station on the opposite side of the road was already established at this point.

By 1900, Deptford had caught up with coffee rooms run by William Gearing at 44 Deptford Bridge and Arthur Charles Wilkins at 111 Tanners Hill. In New Cross, Bartholomew Gwaspari was running a coffee room at 1 Lewisham High Road (now Lewisham Way). I wonder where the name Gwaspari comes from? Anyway back in Brockley no.2 Coulgate Street was still going, but now run by the wonderfully named Mrs Sophia Bellchambers, while at 310 Brockley Road Edward F Lepers was now the proprietor of the Coffee Palace, no less. They had been joined at 2 Crofton Terrace by Alfred Deveraux's coffee tavern.

Coffee rooms and cafes have always been places to socialise rather than just to consume caffeine, sometimes labelled, as Classic Cafes states, as "penny universities" because of their role as forums for discussion. In Deptford for instance, the local branch of the Social Democratic Federation - the largest socialist organisation of the time held meetings in 1889 at Hadleys Coffee Shop, Deptford Bridge, as well at 20 Frobisher Street, Greenwich (source: Mary Mills,The Gasworkers of South London, South London Record No.3, 1988).

Will report back on future researches, if you want to join in you could help by trawling through some of the old trade directories available online at the invaluable Historical Directories.

See next installment, SE London coffee, 1914-1950.

How does it Feel? this Friday

This Friday at legendary Indie Pop club How Does it Feel? in Brixton the guest DJ is Amelia Fletcher, of Tender Trap and Heavenly and Talulah Gosh fame.


They say 'Amelia used to live opposite the Canterbury Arms and was our semi-regular resident DJ for the first few years of the club in Brixton, so it's always a pleasure to welcome her back. As usual, she'll be playing a set of female fronted artists and bands'.

I had a great time when Amelia was DJing there a while ago, as reviewed here.


How Does It Feel To Be Loved?, Friday Oct 1st, Canterbury Arms, Canterbury Crescent, Brixton, SW9 7QD, 9pm-2am. £4 for members, £6 for non members. Membership is free from http://www.howdoesitfeel.co.uk/

Lewisham Irish Community Centre

Some good music coming up next month at Lewisham Irish Community Centre (2a Davenport Road, Catford SE6 2AZ).

On Saturday 2nd October at 8 p.m. there a Traditional Irish Music concert featuring Brendan Hendry & Jim Rainey 'Exceptional fiddle & singing from Northern Ireland - Brendan’s album “Tuned Up” was instrumental album of the year 2009'. Admission £10/£8.

On Saturday 30th October at 8 p.m. there's a Halloween Céilí, a family event with music by Delga Trad/ They say 'It’s great fun even if you don’t know the steps. We have a great caller!' (Margaret Morrin). Admission £10/£8.

If you fancy learning Traditional Irish Fiddle there are classes at Saturday lunchtime ( 1- 2pm), and they are also planning Irish Tin Whistle classes on either Wednesdays at 5:30 p.m or Saturdays 2-3 p.m depending on demand.

Tel 020 8695 6264 or info@lewishamirish.org.uk

Deptford X

Checked out some of Deptford X at the weekend, now self-styled as 'London's foremost contemporary visual arts festival'. There's certainly lots of interesting work and it is much more ambitious than just local artists displaying their wares to the community.

As well as gallery spaces, there's work on display in shop windows. Chrissie Stewart is showcasing her work in Gimcrack, that intriguing bric-a-brac shop at the bottom of Tanners Hill (opposite the Deptford Deli if you fancy coffee with your art, and let's face it, who doesn't?).

Feels like a good setting for her work which is assembled from bits of dolls and the kind of found objects to be discovered in that shop.

The strongest work I've seen so far was at St Pauls House (125 Deptford High Street) where Wayne Lucas and Julia Bardsley have created 'Fami-liar', a disturbing space of hair, rubber, body fluids, underwear and brown paper. I think this is only open at weekends, check the website for details.

It put me in mind of Louise Bourgeois or even COUM Transmissions, who once shocked the world with a display of hair, blood and tampons at the ICA in the far-off days (1976) when art could still shock enough to excite the tabloids

In the stairwells of Deptford Train Station Liz Harrison has put in place a sound installation of bird song, not as sweet and tranquil as it sounds. There's something urgent and piercing about the sound, reflecting her take on recent research that suggest that birdsong in urban areas is rising in pitch as birds compete with city noise to be heard.

Lot's more to see, Deptford X runs until 3 October, full details at the Deptford X website.

London Wildlife Folklore Events

A couple of interesting folklore-inspired events especially for kids/families coming up soon courtesy of London Wildlife Trust's Wildlife Gardening Centre, a green oasis in Marsden Road, Peckham.

On Sunday October the 17th, Vanessa Woolf-Hoyle will be telling stories about harvest, growing, field boggles, London wildlife etc., all this plus a nature trail at the centre itself.

Then on the afternoon of Halloween (31st Oct) between 2 and 4pm, there will be a trip to Norwood for an afternoon of storytelling in a yurt (a spooky tale about the gypsy queen of Norwood Hill) and a chance to make your own tree spirit!

Both events are free, but booking is advised. For more information or to book your place please contact Celia Hammond on chammond@wildlondon.org.uk

Camber Well Open Day: This Sunday

This just in from John Chaple, who is busy uncovering the Camber Well:

We are having a second open day and the well is now more exposed so people can climb into it to see it.


If you missed the last open day or are interested to see work in progress there will be another open day on Sunday 26th September 1pm to 4pm at 56a Grove Park, off Camberwell Grove, Camberwell SE5. to view the ancient well of Camberwell.

The well that gives Camberwell its name. It is an on going archaeological dig and so far the sides of the well are beginning to emerge. As Roman coins were reputed to have been found at the bottom of the well, it is likely to be two thousand years old or earlier.

St David Coffee House

I had an exceptionally good coffee last week at the new St David Coffee House in Forest Hill (across the road from the train station). The cafe has a slightly retro feel in terms of the decor - there's an eight track cartridge player (not sure if it works) and strategically placed iconic vinyl (e.g. Morrissey and Stone Roses). Reading matter includes a book swap scheme, a couple of daily papers and a stack of vintage Vogues.

At some point I am going to write about the history of coffee houses in SE London, but for now check out this love letter to coffee by Carolyn (all way from Detroit to Nunhead) at her I Am Not A Reliable Narrator blog:

'I remember, Coffee, how I used to struggle through a mug of you when we first became acquainted, back in 1993. I was young, my palate untested. I added creamer after creamer to you in order to hide your flavour. But, Coffee, I learned and I grew and now I understand. And I know I stopped drinking you for a few sad years in the early Oughts when my stomach was giving me troubles, but that wasn’t about you Coffee, it was never your fault, it was all me and my traitorous digestive system'.

Last Chance to Save the Skateboard Park Tonight

At tonight's Telegraph Hill Assembly meeting (Tues 21st, 7:30 pm at Aske's school lower site, Jerningham Road), there will be a public vote on whether to go ahead with plans to site a small skatepark in the Telegraph Hill lower park.

As reported here before, proposals to put this facility in the upper park proved contentious at the last meeting of the Assembly. Since then a broad group - including some who opposed the earlier plans - has come up with a second proposal which seems to address the concerns of the objectors.

At the last minute however, a campaign has been launched against the plan with posters put up today on trees around the area saying 'Your last chance to save the lower park from the skateboard park is tonight... If you care about the lovely green space of our park and don't want all the potential problems associated with such facilities please turn up and vote No to the proposal'.

This is entirely misleading - the new plans envisage squeezing the ramp in next to the existing tarmac sports area, replacing a path. There will be no loss of green space. As for the 'potential problems' this sounds like code for 'keep young people out of the park unless they are on a lead'.

Can't help thinking that the timing of these posters is very cynical - the objectors have not made their views known in the kind of places you might expect to read them (e.g. in the comments thread at Brockley Central or on the Hill discussion boards). In this way they have allowed the impression to be created that there is a consensus about the plans with their approval a formality. On this basis I am sure that some people in favour of the skatepark might have felt there was no need for them to turn up, requiring only a semi-clandestine 'anti' mobilisation along with some last minute hysteria to get the plans voted down.

Don't let them get away with it.

Upate 22 September 2010: the meeting last night voted 72 against and 196 for the proposal. Whatever else you think about it, the issue has certainly put some life into the Telegraph Hill Assembly meetings!

Kick Up the Fire

Kick up the Fire are a new locally based rock band, with a debut mini album due out in November. According to Rock Sins:

'Spawned from the murky depths of the London New Cross scene, Kick Up The Fire deliver angular rock & roll with strict ideals. The South-East London four-piece formed in early 2009, drawing influence from post-hardcore acts such as Q and not U, At The Drive-In and Cursive.
Childhood friends from Italy, Andrew and Kenny formed ‘Raid on the Arcade’ [earlier band] with art-student Thom Wicks in late 2007 after working together at a local art-house cinema in Greenwich'.

The band are on Twitter where they say: 'We are a four piece indie rock band from Deptford, London. We love SE London and want SE London to love us back. We want to play your bar/house/squat/party'. You can listen to them on myspace and they also have a blog.

Saving New Cross Library

The campaign to save New Cross Library has stepped up a notch with a meeting last week and lots of activities coming up.

There's going to be leafleting and petitioning at a few places, as follows:

- outside the library sat 18th, between 14.00 - 16.00; tues 21st 9.00 - 11.00, thur 23rd 13.00 - 15.00 .

- 'school gates' petitioning monday 20th - 8.40 am St James' Hatcham , 3pm outside Edmund Waller School, Waller Road.

- Telegraph Hill Ward Assembly, Tuesday 21 September 2010, 7-9.30pm, Haberdashers Aske's Hatcham College, Jerningham Road, London SE14 5N

There's a joint lobby of the Full Council Meeting by all the Lewisham library campaigns at 6.45pm on Thursday 23rd. September

The next Save New Cross Library meeting is on Wednesday 29th sept, upstairs at the Amersham Arms pub.

Full details at Save New Cross Library facebook page

No decision has been made about the closure of up to five Lewisham libraries, but they have been identified on a list of potential cuts. As a small library only open for three days a week, New Cross is perhaps particularly vulnerable. It is important to keep it open for its own sake, but also because if it disappears and people get used to not having a library in the area it may make it easier for the Council to back down on its commitment to open a new library on the ill-fated Briant Street site.

Jane Jones at Brockley Mess

Went along to Brockley Mess last week for the launch of a new exhibition of collages and prints by Jane Jones. My favourite image was this one of 'Jim and Kit' - seemingly the artist's cool grandparents.

Tree Paper Tree continues at the cueB gallery at Brockley Mess, 325 Brockley Road, until 14th October.

Electric Eden - South East London Folk

I've been reading Rob Young's 'Electric Eden: Unearthing Britain's Visionary Music' (Faber, 2010), an excellent overview of 20th century folk music and related scenes. It includes some good South East London connections, and indeed starts out in the area in 1967 with the singer Vashti Bunyan and her artist partner Robert Lewis living at ‘a camp in a clearing in some Kentish woods, where they had been living for several months among piles of home-made wooden stools and tables, log fires, bivouacs and hammocks. The clearing was decorated with Lewis’s giant sheet paintings, part of the diploma he was enrolled in at Ravensbourne College of Art, near Chislehurst on the fringes of south-east London. The land was just at the back of college’

Having been evicted from the land, they set off on a journey by horse drawn carriage from London to the Isle of Skye, where the singer Donovan had bought a couple of islets and offered them a place to stay (by the time they finally got there Donovan and co. had moved on, but that’s another story) . Bunyan drew on her experience of the journey and living in the Hebrides in writing songs for her beautiful 1970 album, Just Another Diamond Day.

Electric Eden includes a section on the late 60s/early 70s singers David and Toni Arthur (the latter best known in the period as a TV presenter on Play School and Play Away). Seemingly they were only two of a cluster of South East London folk luminaries at the time: 'by the end of the decade [the 1960s] they were living in Lewisham, part of a babysitting circle with Shirley Collins, who lived across the heath, and Pete Maynard and Marian Gray of Martin Carthy's former folk/skiffle group The Thamesiders. Dave Swarbrick lived nearby'.

More detail is included in an article on the Arthurs by Rob Young published in the music journal Loops ('Hearken to the Witches Rune' in Loops, No. 1, 2009), where we learn that 'Arthur found that he and A.L. Lloyd were near neighbours in south-east London, and Lloyd wound up as artistic director of the duo's 1969 album of folk songs, The Lark in the Morning, on Topic'.

That’s quite a list:

– AL (Albert) Lloyd was a key figure in the 1950s/60s folk revival. He recorded albums on his own and with Ewen McColl (who as covered here before, lived in Beckenham), and wrote books including the classic Folk Song in England;

- Shirley Collins was one of the the most striking voices in English folk music and recorded landmark albums with Davey Graham, her sister Dolly, and the Albion Country Band, as well as solo albums. She married Ashley Hutchings, of Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span and the Albion Country Band in 1971, so presumably he was also living locally (in Blackheath?) in this period.

- Dave Swarbrick is the best known fiddler in English folk music, famous for his work with Fairport Convention among others.

As for the Arthurs, they were particularly interested in looking for possible connections between English traditional song and a supposed underground pagan strand in English culture. It was a search that led them to record an album of magical-themed folk songs, Hearken to the Witches Rune, and indeed to participate in Wiccan ceremonies overseen by self-styled King of the Witches Alex Sanders. A search that ultimately led them to conclude that Wicca, rather than being the ancient religion of witchcraft, had largely been stitched together by Gerald Gardner in the 1940s from literary, occult and folklore sources (now generally accepted to be the case - see Ronald Hutton's book The Triumph of the Moon). They came to a similarly sceptical view of claims that folk songs can be read simply as survivals of pagan ritual lore. According to Toni Arthur, it was 'a total illusion, but a nice one. Most of us that bothered to research knew that this was not a continuation of anything. But it was a reinvention of something that we thought had been before. It was a look at values that we seemed to be losing' (quoted in Loops).

Anybody have more detail on where any of the above lived in Lewisham and Blackheath?

Red Cross Bards - new Southwark songs, poems and stories

Red Cross Bards - new Southwark songs, poems & stories is an early evening event next Wednesday 15th September happening in the lovely Red Cross Garden, 50 Redcross Way SE1 1HA. It runs form 5:30 to 7:00 pm.

'hosted by John Constable aka John Crow (SOUTHWARK MYSTERIES) with Nigel of Bermondsey and Vanessa Woolf-Hoyle (LONDON DREAMTIME). Floor spots: come and perform your own poem or song inspired by your local neighbourhood. Open-air poetics in the beautiful Red Cross Garden setting. FREE! This event is funded by SOUTHWARK MYSTERIES with special thanks to Bankside Open Spaces Trust'.

I'm thinking of popping along to sing a song myself.

Monster Policeman lands on New Cross, 1845

An odd tale from this day in 1845 - a model of a policeman floating over London. The last sentence says a lot about popular dislike of the new police force at that time. Minerva Place, where the 'monster' landed, was seemingly where 104-110 New Cross Road now stand.

A "Monster" Policeman (Times, September 12 1845)

'On Tuesday evening the inhabitants of Brixton, Walworth and Peckham, were considerably amused by the aerial gambols of a "monster" policeman, who was seen floating about the air for some time, and who at length fell upon the roof of a house in Minerva-place, Old Kent-road. It appears that Mr Bass, a gentleman of fortune residing in Kent-terrace, Lyndhurst-road, Brixton, has been in the habit of letting off small balloons from his pleasure grounds, for the amusement of his friends. Latterly he has caused the construction of a figure of 12 feet in height in glazed paper, with head, neck, arms and legs, and painted in colours to represent a perfect fac simile of a "peeler", with truncheon in hand; and on Tuesday night he (Mr Bass) had caused this figure to be attached to a pilot balloon, and so arranged it that it should drop from its companion upon the former attaining a certain altitude.

The experiment was very successful, and, upon ascending, the figure of the peeler had an exceedingly ludicrous appearance, and seemed as if in the act of being hung. On attaining a certain altitude the figure dropped from the balloon, when its appearance became much more comic and laughable. It had been so constructed as to maintain an erect position, and its various evolutions in the air were truly ludicrous. It gradually descended, until at length it fell on the top of one of the houses in Minerva-place, Old Kent Road, and was secured by police constable 146 P, who on Wednesday restored it to Mr Bass. It was fortunate it had not fallen to the ground, for had it done so, no exertions of the police would have prevented the public from seriously damaging the representative of the law'

Ukebox returns

Brockley Ukulele Group are back at the Amersham Arms tomorrow (Sunday 12th) after a summer break for their monthly Sunday night ukebox. 8 pm start, admission is free.

Nice flyer, featuring uke-strumming aliens in New Cross.

Up Shooters Hill with the Dover Mail

Charles Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities opens on Shooters Hill in 1765, with the Dover mail coach struggling up the hill on the muddy road, and the travellers in fear of being robbed by the highwaymen for which the area was notorious:

'It was the Dover road that lay, on a Friday night late in November, before the first of the persons with whom this history has business. The Dover road lay, as to him, beyond the Dover mail, as it lumbered up Shooter's Hill. He walked up hill in the mire by the side of the mail, as the rest of the passengers did; not because they had the least relish for walking exercise, under the circumstances, but because the hill, and the harness, and the mud, and the mail, were all so heavy, that the horses had three times already come to a stop, besides once drawing the coach across the road, with the mutinous intent of taking it back to Blackheath...

There was a steaming mist in all the hollows, and it had roamed in its forlornness up the hill, like an evil spirit, seeking rest and finding none. A clammy and intensely cold mist, it made its slow way through the air in ripples that visibly followed and overspread one another, as the waves of an unwholesome sea might do. It was dense enough to shut out everything from the light of the coach-lamps but these its own workings, and a few yards of road; and the reek of the labouring horses steamed into it, as if they had made it all.

Two other passengers, besides the one, were plodding up the hill by the side of the mail. All three were wrapped to the cheekbones and over the cars, and wore jack-boots. Not one of the three could have said, from anything he saw, what either of the other two was like; and each was hidden under almost as many wrappers from the eyes of the mind, as from the eyes of the body, of his two companions. In those days, travellers were very shy of being confidential on a short notice, for anybody on the road might be a robber or in league with robbers. As to the latter, when every posting-house and ale-house could produce somebody in "the Captain's" pay, ranging from the landlord to the lowest stable nondescript, it was the likeliest thing upon the cards. So the guard of the Dover mail thought to himself, that Friday night in November, one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five, lumbering up Shooter's Hill, as he stood on his own particular perch behind the mail, beating his feet, and keeping an eye and a hand on the arm-chest before him, where a loaded blunderbuss lay at the top of six or eight loaded horse-pistols, deposited on a substratum of cutlass'.

Nunhead & Peckham Free Film Festivals

If you've ever fancied watching a vampire film on top of a car park in Peckham, you are in luck this weekend. Actually there are lots of free outdoor cinematic delights to be had as part of the Nunhead Free Film Festival and the Peckham Free Film Festival running from 8 to 12 September.

At the Nunhead end, it kicks off with World War II film A Matter of Life and Death being shown in Nunhead Cemetery on Friday 10th at 8 pm, followed by a film-themed dance night at the Old Nun's Head. The next day Blues Brothers is being shown in Peckham Rye park by the cafe.

In Peckham it starts on Thursday 9th (8.30 pm) at the lovely Centre for Wildlife Gardening (28 Marsden Road, SE15) with Koyaannisqatsi - great Philip Glass soundtrack.

And yes, it ends on Sunday 12th with Nosferatu at Frank's Cafe on top of Peckham car park (Cerise Road, SE15).

Full listings at http://www.freefilmfestivals.org/. All events free of charge.

The Sweep-Preacher of South London

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

Carter organised large scale free teas in Deptford and elsewhere:

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

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

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

The Templars in London

Coming up this week at South East London Folklore Society, the very erudite Rob Stephenson will be givng an illustrated talk on the Templars in London, discussing places in London that were either occupied, owned or had some connection with the Knight Templars and their dramatic downfall, including the sites of their imprisonment and interrogation.

All at the Old King's Head, Kings Head Yard 45-49, Borough High Street, London, SE1 1NA (by London Bridge), 8 pm start, all for the price of a pint.

Not sure what South London sites will be featured. As Brockley Central reported a while back, Brockley once belonged to the Templars along with the manor of Deptford (or West Greenwich as it was then known)

The manor of Paris Garden, on the South Bank, also belonged to the Templars for a while.

Nothing is Forever

A couple more weeks left to see Nothing is Forever, the first exhibition in the newly expanded South London Gallery (65 Peckham Road, SE5). The exhibition includes works which have been made directly on the walls, and which will be painted over at the end of the show and thus embedded in the fabric of the building. Mark Titchner's 'Another world is possible' (above) is in the main gallery.

Ernset Caramelle has decorated the walls above the new cafe space (below) - where incidentally I had an excellent coffee.

Sam Dargan has drawn a cartoon 'Brief and Idealistic Account of the Paris Commune of 1871' on a bathroom wall. Nice to think that the spirit of Louise Michel will be secreted in that room for years to come - in exile she lived for a while in East Dulwich.

The exhibition closes on September 19th (not 5th September as I erroneously stated in an earlier version of this post)

Memory of a Free Festival

Memory of a Free Festival by David Bowie is a song I've known for years - it's on his 1969 Space Oddity album - but I've only recently discovered it is a true South London song.

Bowie's Beckenham connections have been documented here before, but I didn't realize that this song was apparently inspired by the Free Festival held in Beckenham Recreation Ground, Croydon Road on August 16 1969. The festival was put on by Bowie and others involved in the Beckenham Arts Lab held on Sundays at the Three Tuns pub in Beckenham High Street. As David Bebbington recalls at Beckenham History, 'Bowie played solo, and the bill also included singer-songwriters Bridget St John, Keith Christmas and Toni Visconti'. Comus and The Strawbs also played.



Here's the lyrics:

"Memory Of A Free Festival"

The Children of the summer's end
Gathered in the dampened grass
We played Our songs and felt the London sky
Resting on our hands
It was God's land
It was ragged and naive
It was Heaven

Touch, We touched the very soul
Of holding each and every life
We claimed the very source of joy ran through
It didn't, but it seemed that way
I kissed a lot of people that day

Oh, to capture just one drop of all the ecstasy that swept that afternoon
To paint that love
upon a white balloon
And fly it from
the toppest top of all the tops
That man has pushed beyond his brain
Satori must be something
just the same

We scanned the skies with rainbow eyes and saw machines of every shape and size
We talked with tall Venusians passing through
And Peter tried to climb aboard but the Captain shook his head
And away they soared
Climbing through
the ivory vibrant cloud
Someone passed some bliss among the crowd
And We walked back to the road, unchained

The Sun Machine is Coming Down, and We're Gonna Have a Party
The Sun Machine is Coming Down, and We're Gonna Have a Party
The Sun Machine is Coming Down, and We're Gonna Have a Party
The Sun Machine is Coming Down, and We're Gonna Have a Party
The Sun Machine is Coming Down, and We're Gonna Have a Party."

Nunhead Soul

The Twisted Wheel.... Wigan Casino... and now.... the Old Nun's Head .

Northern Soul in Nunhead - what's not to like? Saturday 25th September sees Downtown Soulville bringing the noise to the pub on Nunhead Green, SE15. Further information at their Facebook page. I went to the Brockley Soul night some of these folks put on at the Wickham Arms earlier this year, and can confirm they have great record collections. Bring your own talc.