People will be gathering at the Royal Court of Justice at 10:30 am for the announcement, and win or lose the campaign is calling on people to come to the hospital at 5 pm to celebrate or show determination to continue the fight.
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Lewisham Hospital Judgement Day
Wednesday July 31st is an important day in the campaign to keep emergency and maternity services open at Lewisham Hospital, with the judgement due on the legal challenges to the closure plans brought by the Save Lewisham Hospital Campaign and Lewisham Council.
People will be gathering at the Royal Court of Justice at 10:30 am for the announcement, and win or lose the campaign is calling on people to come to the hospital at 5 pm to celebrate or show determination to continue the fight.
People will be gathering at the Royal Court of Justice at 10:30 am for the announcement, and win or lose the campaign is calling on people to come to the hospital at 5 pm to celebrate or show determination to continue the fight.
Monday, July 29, 2013
Music Monday: SE26 4JP
A bit of ultra-localist music from a youth project on the Hazel Grove Estate in Sydenham, celebrating not just SE26 but SE26 4JP. Track was made last year as part of a project funded by Lewisham Homes and Sydenham Assembly.
Sunday, July 28, 2013
New Cross Barclays Bank to Close
The Barclays bank at 197 New Cross Road is due to close on 27 September this year. The building dominates that end of New Cross Gate, where it has stood since around 1910. It was originally built for the London & South Western Bank.
Whatever you think of Barclays, or of banks in general, the fact is that people who rely on having to get to the bank will now have to travel further. This applies particularly to those without internet banking, including many old people, people who need to deposit cash, and those who would actually like to speak to another human face to face rather than negotiating their way through the closed loops of telephone banking.
The biggest impact on most people locally though will be the loss of two cash points. It's true there is another one set back from the road in the post office next door, but if that one's not working the nearest free cash points are at Sainsburys. And frankly when Sainsburys is closed who wants to walk through a big empty car park at night to use them?
I know that some people locally have written letters of complaint to Barclays, not sure it will do much good at this late stage, but if you wish to register your opposition you can write to: to Barclays Bank PLC, 1 Churchill Place, London, E14 5HP
No word yet on the future use of the building.
Whatever you think of Barclays, or of banks in general, the fact is that people who rely on having to get to the bank will now have to travel further. This applies particularly to those without internet banking, including many old people, people who need to deposit cash, and those who would actually like to speak to another human face to face rather than negotiating their way through the closed loops of telephone banking.
The biggest impact on most people locally though will be the loss of two cash points. It's true there is another one set back from the road in the post office next door, but if that one's not working the nearest free cash points are at Sainsburys. And frankly when Sainsburys is closed who wants to walk through a big empty car park at night to use them?
I know that some people locally have written letters of complaint to Barclays, not sure it will do much good at this late stage, but if you wish to register your opposition you can write to: to Barclays Bank PLC, 1 Churchill Place, London, E14 5HP
No word yet on the future use of the building.
Friday, July 26, 2013
History Corner: Peckham Anarchists in the 1890s
Interesting account by Nick Heath at Libcom on 'state repression against the Peckham Anarchist Communist Group in 1894':
'In the 1890s several groups of, in the main, young activists broke away from Hyndman’s Social Democratic Federation and coalesced as anarchist groups in Canning Town, Deptford and Peckham. The Peckham Anarchist-Communist Group was one of these groups and was extremely active. It engaged in much local activity , although the rather suspect anarchist H. B. Samuels became a member of the Group.
However this period -1893-1894-was one of active repression against the British anarchist movement, with government, police and judiciary acting to attack open air meetings organised by anarchists, as in Hyde Park, Manchester and indeed in Peckham.
In March 1894 Peckham Anarchists held an open air meeting in Peckham Park Road on 15th March. A group of right wing thugs in collusion with the police attacked the meeting and seized the group’s red flag which was then torn to pieces. The group defended themselves with walking sticks and the police, who had been actively inciting the mayhem moved in. Detective Sergeant Walsh of the CID apparently got behind little boys and pushed them forward, according to Freedom of April of that year. Alfred Foster, the main speaker, twenty seven years old and living at Commercial Road, Peckham was arrested by P.C. Martin for ‘disorderly conduct by causing a crowd to assemble’!
At Lambeth Police Court the following day Foster appeared before Justice Biron. Speaking for the defence was another member of the group William Hart, a tailor’s trimmer, who stated that he was an atheist and took an affirmation rather than swearing on the Bible. Biron was hostile from the beginning asking “You were making Anarchist speeches?” Foster was ordered to find a surety of £25 to be of good behaviour for six months or go to prison for a month.
Agnes Henry volunteered to put up the money but was refused as a woman! H.B. Samuels in his turn offered to put up the surety but was refused because he would not swear on the Bible! After a week in prison Foster was freed when W. B. Parker put up the money.
The following week the Peckham anarchists again held an open air meeting which was “perfectly orderly” until a group of blackleg gas-stokers operating in collusion with CID detectives attacked the meeting. As a result the Peckham group gave up holding open air meetings, but continued an active propaganda.
It was present for the May Day assembly in Hyde Park later in the year where its black banner was inscribed with the motto: ‘Away with authority and monopoly - We demand free access to the means of life’.
Read the full article here
'In the 1890s several groups of, in the main, young activists broke away from Hyndman’s Social Democratic Federation and coalesced as anarchist groups in Canning Town, Deptford and Peckham. The Peckham Anarchist-Communist Group was one of these groups and was extremely active. It engaged in much local activity , although the rather suspect anarchist H. B. Samuels became a member of the Group.
However this period -1893-1894-was one of active repression against the British anarchist movement, with government, police and judiciary acting to attack open air meetings organised by anarchists, as in Hyde Park, Manchester and indeed in Peckham.
In March 1894 Peckham Anarchists held an open air meeting in Peckham Park Road on 15th March. A group of right wing thugs in collusion with the police attacked the meeting and seized the group’s red flag which was then torn to pieces. The group defended themselves with walking sticks and the police, who had been actively inciting the mayhem moved in. Detective Sergeant Walsh of the CID apparently got behind little boys and pushed them forward, according to Freedom of April of that year. Alfred Foster, the main speaker, twenty seven years old and living at Commercial Road, Peckham was arrested by P.C. Martin for ‘disorderly conduct by causing a crowd to assemble’!
At Lambeth Police Court the following day Foster appeared before Justice Biron. Speaking for the defence was another member of the group William Hart, a tailor’s trimmer, who stated that he was an atheist and took an affirmation rather than swearing on the Bible. Biron was hostile from the beginning asking “You were making Anarchist speeches?” Foster was ordered to find a surety of £25 to be of good behaviour for six months or go to prison for a month.
Agnes Henry volunteered to put up the money but was refused as a woman! H.B. Samuels in his turn offered to put up the surety but was refused because he would not swear on the Bible! After a week in prison Foster was freed when W. B. Parker put up the money.
The following week the Peckham anarchists again held an open air meeting which was “perfectly orderly” until a group of blackleg gas-stokers operating in collusion with CID detectives attacked the meeting. As a result the Peckham group gave up holding open air meetings, but continued an active propaganda.
It was present for the May Day assembly in Hyde Park later in the year where its black banner was inscribed with the motto: ‘Away with authority and monopoly - We demand free access to the means of life’.
Read the full article here
Thursday, July 25, 2013
New Cross RumBQ/Yard Dance on Sunday
Trinity Music/Unit137 Sound System put on a great free event next to Telegraph Hill Park in May (see 'Reggae bass shakes Telegraph Hill Park'). Next weekend they are back in the area with a RumBQ/Yard Dance on Sunday 28 July (1 pm to 7 pm) next to New Cross Fire Station on Queens Road. They say:
'We have been scouting for another local venue, and are delighted to announce we are putting on the second RumBQ; this time in collaboration with Somerville Trust, the people behind Lewisham local treasure, the Somerville Adventure Playground.
This is a FAMILY FRIENDLY event, please bring your children, make the scene nice. Bring blankets, folding chairs, whatever you like. The event will be on an asphalt football terrain, so a bit harder than last time! There will be food and drink on sale, please don't bring any along. Supporting our food and bar shows you are backing this event. 20% of our proceeds after costs will be donated to the Somerville Adventure Playground Trust.
It's a family affair, a community happening. If you were at the last one, or heard about it, we hope you'll be down for this!'. Admission free.
Line up:
Hylu & Jago
Sleepy Time Ghost
DJ Snuff & MC Honey Brown
D Tek
Lionpulse Sound
Daddy Nature
powered by Unit 137 Sound System
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
EDL splinter group in South London on Saturday
The English Volunteer Force is a far right splinter group from the English Defence League. Charmingly it takes its name from the murderous Ulster Volunteer Force, responsible for numerous killings during the Irish conflict.
On Saturday 27th July 2013 they are planning an anti-immigration protest outside Lunar House (40 Wellesley Rd), the immigration office in Croydon. Anti-racists including Croydon Migrant Solidarity and South London Anti-Fascists will be gathering to oppose them from 11:30 am.
There is also intelligence that afterwards the EVF members may join other extreme right wing groups in trying to march through Woolwich and/or Lewisham.
South London Anti-Fascists state that 'People will be assembling later in the day to stop the march at the junction of Deptford High Street and New Cross Road, at 3:00 p.m'. Exactly what happens on the day is unpredictable, as SLAF advise: 'Racist groups are notorious for changing their plans at the last minute; in any case, they state they want to be at multiple locations through the day. Therefore, we suggest bringing an adequately topped-up Oyster card in case we need to travel. This means we can travel safely in groups rather than dispersing on our own'.
South London Anti-Fascists Call Out here
Unite Against Fascism Call Out here
On Saturday 27th July 2013 they are planning an anti-immigration protest outside Lunar House (40 Wellesley Rd), the immigration office in Croydon. Anti-racists including Croydon Migrant Solidarity and South London Anti-Fascists will be gathering to oppose them from 11:30 am.
There is also intelligence that afterwards the EVF members may join other extreme right wing groups in trying to march through Woolwich and/or Lewisham.
South London Anti-Fascists state that 'People will be assembling later in the day to stop the march at the junction of Deptford High Street and New Cross Road, at 3:00 p.m'. Exactly what happens on the day is unpredictable, as SLAF advise: 'Racist groups are notorious for changing their plans at the last minute; in any case, they state they want to be at multiple locations through the day. Therefore, we suggest bringing an adequately topped-up Oyster card in case we need to travel. This means we can travel safely in groups rather than dispersing on our own'.
South London Anti-Fascists Call Out here
Unite Against Fascism Call Out here
Ikonika, Mr Cake & Nunhead
Hyperdub artist Ikonika has a new album out later this month, Aerotropolis. Rob Walker's video for the track Mr Cake features a virtual city that seems to owe more to LA or Las Vegas than London, but in an interview in The Fader, Ikonika reveals that inspiration for the track title came from Nunhead:
“Mr Cake” is a funny title for a song. Where did it come from?
'I saw it in a shop one day, but I didn’t buy it. It was a small cake at the counter in a shop in Nunhead. It looked shit'.
I guess she must be referring to Ayres the bakers, though it could have been a cake in another non-cake shop. But note she said the cake looked shit, not the shop. Everyone knows that Ayres is a great bread/cake shop, 'Master Bakers of Nunhead since 1955' no less. Katy B once chose it as one of her top shops in an Evening Standard 'My London' interview, saying: 'Ayres the Bakers in Nunhead Lane, SE15, sells amazing sausage rolls'.
Not sure what Ikonika was doing locally, she is usually described as a 'West London producer', but I know she played out at Peckham Palais earlier this year. Whatever she thought of the cake, it is pretty clear that with her and Katy B both coming through the doors, Ayres can claim to be the number one bakers for the London post-dubstep scene. Watch out for Kode9 buying an apple danish there soon (actually I think he does or did live in Camberwell), or Benga waiting for his rye loaf to be sliced.
Later Ikonika confirmed on twitter '@ayres_the_baker I've just been told I've eaten your cakes loads for family members' bdays :)'
Mr Cake is a great summer track by the way.
“Mr Cake” is a funny title for a song. Where did it come from?
'I saw it in a shop one day, but I didn’t buy it. It was a small cake at the counter in a shop in Nunhead. It looked shit'.
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| Ikonika |
I guess she must be referring to Ayres the bakers, though it could have been a cake in another non-cake shop. But note she said the cake looked shit, not the shop. Everyone knows that Ayres is a great bread/cake shop, 'Master Bakers of Nunhead since 1955' no less. Katy B once chose it as one of her top shops in an Evening Standard 'My London' interview, saying: 'Ayres the Bakers in Nunhead Lane, SE15, sells amazing sausage rolls'.
 |
| Katy B |
Not sure what Ikonika was doing locally, she is usually described as a 'West London producer', but I know she played out at Peckham Palais earlier this year. Whatever she thought of the cake, it is pretty clear that with her and Katy B both coming through the doors, Ayres can claim to be the number one bakers for the London post-dubstep scene. Watch out for Kode9 buying an apple danish there soon (actually I think he does or did live in Camberwell), or Benga waiting for his rye loaf to be sliced.
update: Ikonika has now cleared Ayres of all charges of stocking shit cakes - apparently Mr Cake was actually in Nunhead newsagent:
Mr Cake is a great summer track by the way.
Sunday, July 21, 2013
Socialist artists and Third World Books in 1979 South London
Looking through an old copy of Photography/Politics: One, published by the Photographers Workshop in September 1979, I noticed a couple of interesting South London small ads.
Sabarr Books was at 121 Railton Road SE24 'Specialising in books on Third World politics and literature'. I believe that Olive Morris (among other things a Brixton Black Panther) was involved with this. Later the same address was squatted for many years as the 121 Centre anarchist bookshop and social space.
The League of Socialist Artists was based at 18 Camberwell Church Street (now Tuckers solicitors), and were advertising a publication on 'Class War in the Arts! The League of Socialist Artists v. The "Art and Culture" Agencies of Monopoly Capital'.
The LSA seem to have been a dogmatic group promoting strict 'socialist realism' in art and associated with the small Marxist Leninist Organisation of Britain. According to this article by Sam Richards:
'In addition to his activities in the MLOB, Mike Baker and other members of the group, notably his co-worker and wife, Maureen Scott, were active from August 1971 in the League of Socialist Artists (LSA). John Walker argues that: "Despite their left-wing rhetoric, in certain respects the LSA artists were conservatives: they believed in representation not abstraction, employed traditional techniques such as painting and drawing, accepted art galleries as places to display work and the necessity for artists to make a living by selling their products as commodities"(Left Shift: Radical Art in 1970s Britain). Based at 18 Church Street, Camberwell,The Communard Gallery, until 1975 provided the exhibition space where they exhibited their own work, delivered lectures, published the poetry of the Turkish Communist Nazim Hikmet, The Wall ,with illustrations by Scott, sold posters of Marx, Lenin and Stalin and generally promoted the cause of socialist realism'.
As was usually the way with such organisations there were bitter splits and denunciations. Baker was expelled as leader of the MLOB in 1974 - and in another local connection I note that the address given for the organisation at the time was 17b Brindley Street SE14.
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| (found this image online, seemingly from a gallery catalogue) |
Friday, July 19, 2013
25 Tanners Hill: 18th century building restored
25 Tanners Hill was for many years the base for Witcomb Cycles, which hand built frames in the shop and workshop space behind. It closed in 2009 and has been converted to a private house and the Peter von Kant gallery space.
The conversion/restoration of the building by Dow Jones Architects won a RIBA London Regional Award earlier this year. Like the other buildings in that row, this one dates back to the early 18th century. As described by the architects: 'This grade II listed building, formerly a bicycle repair shop, is a timber-framed building made using timbers from ship construction at the historic Deptford docks. Our restoration exposes the elements of the historic structure that are intact, and uses lime plaster and timber joinery as a neutral background'.
The buidling has been profiled in an article, Down Deep in Deptford, by Jay Merrick in the Architects Journal (15 February 2013). He says: 'The scheme’s exposure of historic fabric is exemplary, the faintly surreal material and spatial qualities of its groundplane an engrossing temporal puzzle. The building is part of a higgledy-piggledy terrace of small two and three-floor houses, most built at the beginning of the 18th century and, in the case of No 25, rebuilt or recast circa 1750. This small fillet of Deptford still radiates a strong sense of that distant past'.
'Most recently, No 25 Tanners Hill had been a bicycle repair shop with a long single-storey asbestos roofed extension at the back. When the architects hacked, investigatively, through the mouldering layers of centuries-old distemper, lime plaster, and detritus on the inside of the western ground floor wall, they were effectively stripping back the final 18th century dividing line between Deptford and the rural wilds of Kent.
The architects Biba Dow and Alun Jones were dealing with a profoundly dilapidated building whose original plan had been derived from an early 18th-century standard London housing design for the ‘lower orders’, taken from Joseph Moxon’s Mechanick Exercises: Or The Doctrine of Handy Works, Applied to the Arts of Smithing, Joinery, Carpentry, Turning [and] Bricklayery'.
Monday, July 15, 2013
Lewisham Hospital latest - and my tour of A&E
Still waiting for the outcome of the judicial reviews into the Government's planned reductions in services at Lewisham Hospital. Two weeks ago at the High Court both the Save Lewisham Hospital Campaign and Lewisham Council submitted their cases that the plans were unlawful.
On 29 June, the Campaign organised their own People's Commission at the Broadway Theatre in Catford. They say:
The panel was also concerned that an admirable record of training at Lewisham Hospital will also fall victim to the proposed changes'.
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| Campaigners outside the Royal Courts of Justice on 2 July |
'The purpose of the People’s Commission was to hear the evidence which had been ignored by the Trust Special Administrator Matthew Kershaw and by Secretary of State for Health, Jeremy Hunt who accepted Kershaw’s proposals for Lewisham almost in their entirety.
In front of a packed audience in The Broadway Theatre Catford, a panel chaired by barrister Michael Mansfield QC and including Baroness Warnock and award-winning Lewisham author and journalist Blake Morrison, heard evidence from 25 witnesses – patients, patient group representatives, GPs, hospital consultants and nurses who were questioned by a team of barristers from Tooks Chambers. More than 50 witnesses, including community members and faith leaders, gave written and video testimony, some of which was shown at the Commission hearing.
Lewisham Mayor Sir Steve Bullock and Lord David Owen spoke passionately in defence of Lewisham Hospital and the NHS.
The initial findings of the Panel are that:
- the consultation exercise was a sham.
- there was unanimous opposition from Lewisham GPs and the CCG to the option to close services at Lewisham Hospital.
- the decision to downgrade Lewisham in the manner described above has nothing to do with the provision of healthcare in SE London
- the Minister's decision is based entirely on economic considerations and is an unvarnished sleight of hand to reconfigure finances not healthcare
- the proposals demonstrate a lamentable absence of evidence-led research
- where the proposals envisage new facilities there is no evidence to show how they would be implemented, nor what impact the removal of current resources would have on the community.
- the proposal for a small and safe A&E is a contradiction in terms and clearly does not accord with basic clinical requirements.
- the midwife-led birth unit presents no clinical sense
- a walk-in paediatric urgent care service has no clear parameters, is unsafe and unsustainable.
My tour of South London A&E
As it happened, I spent the day of the Commission in Accident and Emergency with an eye injury. One of the issues with the plans is that people from Lewisham would have to travel further to get care. In some cases that could be a matter of life and death, my case wasn't that serious but I can say that when you are suffering in pain every moment of delay in getting treatment feels like an eternity. It was bad enough being stuck in the traffic in Ladywell, it would have been much worse if I had had to get to Woolwich.
I did (eventually) get some great care, getting to be seen by a specialist doctor which made me very thankful for the NHS. My experience certainly reconfirmed my opposition to cuts in services, but also made me aware of how simply defending the current services is not enough. Hospital services are already under-resourced and over-stretched, sometimes leaving patients in limbo waiting hours with nobody telling them what's going on.
In my case, I was told at Lewisham that I should have gone to Kings College Hospital as Lewisham didn't have an ophthalmologist. After some pain relief at Lewisham I ended up going to Kings in Camberwell later on. I don't know how Kings would cope with the increase in patients it would face if Lewisham A&E closes. Along with most people there I waited several hours to be seen after a quick initial chat with the triage nurse. I don't doubt that were people who were more of a priority than me, but they were plainly understaffed. There were times on a busy Saturday night in casualty when there appeared to be nobody on duty at the front desk - people wandering in off the streets to find that both the triage nurse and the admin/receptionist were temporarily off somewhere else. Maybe the hospital was saving its staff to make sure it looked better on Channel 4's 24 Hours in A&E, currently being filmed there!
(on a personal note, my eyes are now fine. Several people have told me that I would have been better off going to Moorfields Eye Hospital Accident and Emergency by Old Street Station, which treats people from all over London and beyond. Maybe, it is good to have specialist centres like that, but it also very important that people can get urgent treatment closer to home. I was lucky enough to have someone to take care of me and drive me around, as I was temporarily blinded, don't know how I would have coped on public transport).
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| Ellie Veale from Hither Green on top of Mount Kilimanjaro with a Save Lewisham Hospital poster |
Friday, July 12, 2013
Rizzle Kicks in Deptford
Rizzle Kicks were in Deptford's Broadway Fields this week, filming the video for their next single 'Lost Generation'
Thanks to Down to Rizzness for the tip
Thanks to Down to Rizzness for the tip
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
New Cross Fire Station Saved - but cuts continue
New Cross Fire Station seems to have been spared the axe, according to the latest proposals due to be considered by London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority (LFEPA) on Thursday 18 July. Clapham too has been saved, but 10 stations are earmarked for closure including three in South London: Southwark, Downham and Woolwich.
There has been fierce opposition to the plans published in January to close 12 fire stations in order to implement Boris Johnson's cuts of £28.8 million over the next two years. Banners such as the above (in Pepys Road SE14) have appeared around London. On 22 May, 200 people attended a consultation meeting at Sydenham School and voiced overwhelming opposition to the plans.
While it is good news that New Cross won't close, the proposals will still result in a reduced service across Lewisham and beyond, and in fact the number of proposed job cuts is now being increased from 520 to 552. So the campaign against the cuts will no doubt be continuing.
Monday, July 08, 2013
South London's Rite of Spring
This looks great - exactly 100 years after the first performance in London of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, a free show along Deptford Creek by the Laban Centre:
'Brian Solomon, a dancer with Trinity Laban's Transitions Dance Company for the past year, will bring together 20 professional dancers, actors and the local community for a new interpretation of Stravinsky's masterpiece, The Rite of Spring.
The cast of South London's Rite of Spring will include dance alumni Charlotte Pook, Ashley Hind, Sarah Golding and Daisy Farris, as well as retired Canadian dance star Caroline Farquhar and Theatre-Maker Lesley Ewen
Canadian-born Brian is guided by his Native American heritage in his choreography, and he is also particularly interested in engaging with unusual spaces in communities and helping people re-learn forgotten ways of using their bodies.
Brian choreographed The Rite of Spring a few years ago, but has recreated it to mark the anniversary of the first performance of this seminal work in London: "I felt that this primordial piece really demanded a cast of all ages and abilities to create a fuller atmosphere for the brutal story of death and sacrifice," said Brian. "By bringing together professionals and members of the local community with no prior experience to train together, we have been able to generate something much more powerful and strikingly real".
South London's Rite of Spring will be performed at the Laban Building on 12 July at 7pm and 13 July at 4pm - the only event in the city marking the infamous work's performance in London on those dates exactly 100 years ago. Entrance is free'.
Friday, July 05, 2013
London & Brighton: a pub vanishes
This empty patch of land on the corner of Queens Road and Asylum Road SE15 is all that's left of the recently demolished London & Brighton pub. As discussed here previously, the pub was closed in 2008 though it had an after life as a squatted centre putting on gigs and parties.
The pub will be replaced with housing by London & Quadrant. Of course we need more social housing, but we also need spaces for people to socialise and enjoy themselves.
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| photo from Pubshistory - the site suggests that its names comes from being on the corner of London and Brighton roads. Not sure about that though, Queens Road is the London Road but Asylum Road isn't the Brighton Road. Maybe when the pub opened you could get direct trains from Queens Road station to Brighton? |
Thursday, July 04, 2013
Two William Penns in Deptford
A little July 4th historical piece on two William Penns.
William Penn the elder (1621-1670) was an Admiral in the British navy, serving both the Parliamentarian side in the English Civil War and the King after the restoration of the monarchy. Like most naval officers of his period, he was a visitor to Deptford where many of the ships he sailed and commanded were built and launched.
In 1644 for instance, he set sail from Deptford on board the Fellowship, which operated in the Irish Sea against the King's forces. In 1646 he took command of the Assurance, a ship built in the Dockyard at Deptford. Then in 1650 he was commissioned to command the Fairfax, then being completed at Deptford. His instructions this time were to lead a squadron of eight ships to attack Portuguese ships on their way home from Brazil. In 1655, he was a commander in Cromwell's naval expedition to the West Indies which completed the capture of Jamaica from the Spanish. Penn went on to be an MP.
Penn's son, also William Penn (1644-1718) is famed as the founder of the state of Pennsylvania. He was a prominent Quaker, and was jailed for his religious views. As the King owed his father money he was able to negotiate for the King to grant him land in America - this was also intended to resolve religious conflict at home by providing a place for persecuted Quakers to emigrate to. Penn planned to call the area New Wales then Sylvania, but King Charles II named it Pennsylvania in honor of his father. Penn's Frame of Government for the province, which included freedom of religion, was an influence on those who drafted the United States Declaration of Independence and Constitution.
Penn the younger's main recorded visits to Deptford relate to Peter the Great's stay in the area in 1698. While studying the shipbuilding industry, the Russian Czar stayed at John Evelyn's house in Deptford (though he and Evelyn never met). As Sarah Young notes, the details of his visit are shrouded in myth, 'confusion and apocryphal tales'. It is unclear exactly what the interaction between Peter and the Quakers (Society of Friends) involved, but they involved William Penn (who by then had returned to England).
A plaque on the wall of what is now the Salvation Army shop on Deptford High Street states: 'Deptford Friends' Meeting House Stood Here' (Demolished 1807). Peter the Great Czar of Russia worshipped here 1697-8'. The Czar does seem to have visited the Deptford Quaker meeting house, but I am not sure that Penn met Peter here. Penn did though attempted to visit him at Deptford and may have spoken to him. According to Passages from the life and writings of William Penn by Thomas Pym Cope (1882) 'The Czar became so much interested in Friends, that he sometimes attended their meetings at Deptford. William Penn afterwards wrote him the following letter: 'It was a profound respect, and not a vain curiosity, great Czar, which brought me twice to wait upon thee." It is recorded that when Penn called on Peter in April 1698, the latter refused to meet him. But he did subsequently receive two Quakers, which may be the second visit Penn refers to (see Peter the Great Through British Eyes, Anthony Cross, 2000).
William Penn the elder (1621-1670) was an Admiral in the British navy, serving both the Parliamentarian side in the English Civil War and the King after the restoration of the monarchy. Like most naval officers of his period, he was a visitor to Deptford where many of the ships he sailed and commanded were built and launched.
In 1644 for instance, he set sail from Deptford on board the Fellowship, which operated in the Irish Sea against the King's forces. In 1646 he took command of the Assurance, a ship built in the Dockyard at Deptford. Then in 1650 he was commissioned to command the Fairfax, then being completed at Deptford. His instructions this time were to lead a squadron of eight ships to attack Portuguese ships on their way home from Brazil. In 1655, he was a commander in Cromwell's naval expedition to the West Indies which completed the capture of Jamaica from the Spanish. Penn went on to be an MP.
Penn's son, also William Penn (1644-1718) is famed as the founder of the state of Pennsylvania. He was a prominent Quaker, and was jailed for his religious views. As the King owed his father money he was able to negotiate for the King to grant him land in America - this was also intended to resolve religious conflict at home by providing a place for persecuted Quakers to emigrate to. Penn planned to call the area New Wales then Sylvania, but King Charles II named it Pennsylvania in honor of his father. Penn's Frame of Government for the province, which included freedom of religion, was an influence on those who drafted the United States Declaration of Independence and Constitution.
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| William Penn, aged 22 |
Penn the younger's main recorded visits to Deptford relate to Peter the Great's stay in the area in 1698. While studying the shipbuilding industry, the Russian Czar stayed at John Evelyn's house in Deptford (though he and Evelyn never met). As Sarah Young notes, the details of his visit are shrouded in myth, 'confusion and apocryphal tales'. It is unclear exactly what the interaction between Peter and the Quakers (Society of Friends) involved, but they involved William Penn (who by then had returned to England).
A plaque on the wall of what is now the Salvation Army shop on Deptford High Street states: 'Deptford Friends' Meeting House Stood Here' (Demolished 1807). Peter the Great Czar of Russia worshipped here 1697-8'. The Czar does seem to have visited the Deptford Quaker meeting house, but I am not sure that Penn met Peter here. Penn did though attempted to visit him at Deptford and may have spoken to him. According to Passages from the life and writings of William Penn by Thomas Pym Cope (1882) 'The Czar became so much interested in Friends, that he sometimes attended their meetings at Deptford. William Penn afterwards wrote him the following letter: 'It was a profound respect, and not a vain curiosity, great Czar, which brought me twice to wait upon thee." It is recorded that when Penn called on Peter in April 1698, the latter refused to meet him. But he did subsequently receive two Quakers, which may be the second visit Penn refers to (see Peter the Great Through British Eyes, Anthony Cross, 2000).
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| 144 Deptford High Street, a 1920s building on the site of the Friends Meeting House |
Tuesday, July 02, 2013
Blythe Hill Fields Festival 2013
The Friends of Blythe Hill Fields (between Catford and Honor Oak) are holding the Blythe Hill Fields Festival this Saturday 6 July between 12 and 5pm.
The event will include music from Ceri James, who has written a song about Blythe Hill Fields, Siobhan Parr (another local singer songwriter) and headliners Blues Patrol. There will be food from the likes of Babur, Hills and Parkes, Van Dough, Brunch 2 Buffet Caribbean Cuisine and the Avocado Cafe.
There will also be a funfair, the Surrey Docks Mini Farm, Punch and Judy, Childrens' craft tent and circus skills from Tea Dance for Little People.
This is always a very pleasant community event, I played there myself once with the East Dulwich Jug Band way back in 2008.
Thursday, June 20, 2013
David Shenton: Cartoons of Gay Life and Death
Space Station 65 in Kennington is currently hosting These Foolish Things, an exhibition of works by cartoonist/illustrator David Shenton. Shenton's work has been featured in the UK gay press since the late 1970s, in publications such as Gay News and Capital Gay, as well in a range of other papers and magazines from Positive Nation to The Guardian.
As Graham McKerrow writes: 'Shenton's cartoons are often camp but they're not just camp, and they're not that awful apolitical offensive camp, but a light, knowing, meaningful camp; their first task is to entertain and to make the audience laugh - and often they do much more because the liberation politics that informs his work means that with the laugh there is an acerbic point - a wry observation on how we live or a satirical comment about society and a wider political context, contained in the lives and musings of plausible and likeable characters'.
David Shenton's knitted medals, featuring the lyrics of 'I Will Survive'
On a more sober note there is a series of images commemorating victims of homophobia including this one which highlights some London murders. Gerry Edwards was killed at his home in Page Heath Villas in Bromley in 2009; David Cooper was killed in Calderwood Street, Woolwich in the previous year. Edward Highwood was murdered in Hollymount Close, Greenwich. Ian Baynham (from Beckenham), was beaten to death in Trafalgar Square in 2009 by Joel Alexander (from Thornton Heath) and Ruby Thomas (from Anerley).
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| Space Station 65, 373 Kennington Road, SE11 |
The exhibition continues until 27 July, open Thursday-Saturday 12.00–18.00 (admission free). Next week on 28th June, the artist will be giving a tour and he will also be giving a talk on the final day of the exhibition.
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Siouxsie at the South Bank - and Horniman Juju
I wasn't quite sure what to expect at the Siouxsie gig at the Royal Festival Hall on Monday night. I thought it might be one of those polite 'an audience with...' sit down South Bank affairs, where ageing punks perform interpretations of Jacques Brel and Kurt Weill and labour through the Great American Songbook. But no, as soon as she came on and started with Happy House everyone stood up and stayed up for nearly two hours- there was actual pogoing upstairs in the stalls and dancing in the aisles. Siouxsie and her band played the whole of the Banshees' Kaleidoscope album and much more, finishing with the great Spellbound as second encore. The gig was part of Yoko Ono's Meltdown, and Yoko was in the Royal Box, standing and clapping for Siouxsie's version of Dear Prudence (which of course John Lennon wrote).
The setlist for those interested was:
1. “Happy House”
2. “Tenant”
3. “Trophy”
4. “Hybrid”
5. “Clockface”
6. “Lunar Camel”
7. “Christine”
8. “Desert Kisses”
9. “Red Light”
10. “Paradise Place”
11. “Skin”
12. “Eve White/Eve Black”
13. “Israel”
14. “Arabian Knights”
15. “Cities in Dust”
16. “Dear Prudence”
17. “Loveless”
18. “Face to Face”
19. “Careless Love”
20. “Here Comes the Day”
21. “Into a Swan”
22. "Spellbound"
(She played the same set on Saturday night without Spellbound as second encore)
Juju and the Horniman Museum
I have been reading 'Siouxsie & The Banshees: the authorised biography' by Mark Paytress (2003). Of course there's lots in the early days about Chislehurst (where Siouxsie grew up) and the 'Bromley Contingent' from which the band emerged. But there are also a few other interesting connections further into South London.
The band's original drummer, not counting Sid Vicious for one gig, was Kenny Morris who packed in a course at Camberwell College of Art to play on the band's first two albums. Steve Severin, bassist and co-songwriter, was living with his friend Simon Barker in Bermondsey/Borough during the lead up to the 1980 Kaleidoscope album, and wrote the music for 'Christine' in that Southwark Council flat. But I was most interested to read about the origins of the African image on the cover of the 1981 album Juju (which includes Spellbound and Arabian Nights). According to Severin, 'we saw a definite thread running through the songs, almost a narrative to the album as a whole. The African statue on the cover, which we found in the Horniman Museum in Forest Hill, was the starting point for a lot of the imagery'. Interesting to wonder how many songs, stories, visions and more have been incubated in the Horniman over the years.
 |
| photo by jamesalternation at Slicing Up Eyeballs |
The setlist for those interested was:
1. “Happy House”
2. “Tenant”
3. “Trophy”
4. “Hybrid”
5. “Clockface”
6. “Lunar Camel”
7. “Christine”
8. “Desert Kisses”
9. “Red Light”
10. “Paradise Place”
11. “Skin”
12. “Eve White/Eve Black”
13. “Israel”
14. “Arabian Knights”
15. “Cities in Dust”
16. “Dear Prudence”
17. “Loveless”
18. “Face to Face”
19. “Careless Love”
20. “Here Comes the Day”
21. “Into a Swan”
22. "Spellbound"
(She played the same set on Saturday night without Spellbound as second encore)
Juju and the Horniman Museum
I have been reading 'Siouxsie & The Banshees: the authorised biography' by Mark Paytress (2003). Of course there's lots in the early days about Chislehurst (where Siouxsie grew up) and the 'Bromley Contingent' from which the band emerged. But there are also a few other interesting connections further into South London.
The band's original drummer, not counting Sid Vicious for one gig, was Kenny Morris who packed in a course at Camberwell College of Art to play on the band's first two albums. Steve Severin, bassist and co-songwriter, was living with his friend Simon Barker in Bermondsey/Borough during the lead up to the 1980 Kaleidoscope album, and wrote the music for 'Christine' in that Southwark Council flat. But I was most interested to read about the origins of the African image on the cover of the 1981 album Juju (which includes Spellbound and Arabian Nights). According to Severin, 'we saw a definite thread running through the songs, almost a narrative to the album as a whole. The African statue on the cover, which we found in the Horniman Museum in Forest Hill, was the starting point for a lot of the imagery'. Interesting to wonder how many songs, stories, visions and more have been incubated in the Horniman over the years.
Monday, June 17, 2013
London: City of Resurrections and other Machen wisdom
You can never have too many London quotes by Arthur Machen (1863-1947), he had a great appreciation for the mysteries to be found in wandering the streets of the city. Here's a few favourites:
'Villiers had emerged from his restaurant after an excellent dinner of many courses, assisted by an ingratiating little flask of Chianti, and, in that frame of mind which was with him almost chronic, had delayed a moment by the door, peering round in the dimly-lighted street in search of those mysterious incidents and persons with which the streets of London teem in every quarter and every hour. Villiers prided himself as a practised explorer of such obscure mazes and byways of London life, and in this unprofitable pursuit he displayed an assiduity which was worthy of more serious employment. Thus he stood by the lamp-post surveying the passers-by with undisguised curiosity, and with that gravity known only to the systematic diner, had just enunciated in his mind the formula: “London has been called the city of encounters; it is more than that, it is the city of Resurrections" (The Great God Pan, 1894).
'I searched for Mrs. Beaumont in the dark waters of the life of London... assuming, as I had to assume, that her record was not of the cleanest, it would be pretty certain that at some previous time she must have moved in circles not quite so refined as her present ones. If you see mud at the top of a stream, you may be sure that it was once at the bottom. I went to the bottom. I have always been fond of diving into Queer Street for my amusement, and I found my knowledge of that locality and its inhabitants very useful' (The Great God Pan, 1894).
'London in September is hard to leave. Doré could not have designed anything more wonderful and mystic than Oxford Street as I saw it the other evening; the sunset flaming, the blue haze transmuting the plain street into a road 'far in the spiritual city'' (The Shining Pyramid, 1895)
'And it is utterly true that he who cannot find wonder, mystery, awe, the sense of a new world and an undiscovered realm in the places by the Gray's Inn Road will never find those secrets elsewhere, not in the heart of Africa, not in the fabled cities of Tibet. 'The matter of our work is everywhere present', wrote the old alchemists, and that is the truth. All the wonders lie within a stone's throw of King's Cross Station" (Things Near and Far, 1923)
OK I would have preferred 'All the wonders lie within a stone's throw of New Cross station' but the same principle applies!
See also: Arthur Machen: South London 'Behind the Scenes of the Universe'
'Villiers had emerged from his restaurant after an excellent dinner of many courses, assisted by an ingratiating little flask of Chianti, and, in that frame of mind which was with him almost chronic, had delayed a moment by the door, peering round in the dimly-lighted street in search of those mysterious incidents and persons with which the streets of London teem in every quarter and every hour. Villiers prided himself as a practised explorer of such obscure mazes and byways of London life, and in this unprofitable pursuit he displayed an assiduity which was worthy of more serious employment. Thus he stood by the lamp-post surveying the passers-by with undisguised curiosity, and with that gravity known only to the systematic diner, had just enunciated in his mind the formula: “London has been called the city of encounters; it is more than that, it is the city of Resurrections" (The Great God Pan, 1894).
'I searched for Mrs. Beaumont in the dark waters of the life of London... assuming, as I had to assume, that her record was not of the cleanest, it would be pretty certain that at some previous time she must have moved in circles not quite so refined as her present ones. If you see mud at the top of a stream, you may be sure that it was once at the bottom. I went to the bottom. I have always been fond of diving into Queer Street for my amusement, and I found my knowledge of that locality and its inhabitants very useful' (The Great God Pan, 1894).
'London in September is hard to leave. Doré could not have designed anything more wonderful and mystic than Oxford Street as I saw it the other evening; the sunset flaming, the blue haze transmuting the plain street into a road 'far in the spiritual city'' (The Shining Pyramid, 1895)
'And it is utterly true that he who cannot find wonder, mystery, awe, the sense of a new world and an undiscovered realm in the places by the Gray's Inn Road will never find those secrets elsewhere, not in the heart of Africa, not in the fabled cities of Tibet. 'The matter of our work is everywhere present', wrote the old alchemists, and that is the truth. All the wonders lie within a stone's throw of King's Cross Station" (Things Near and Far, 1923)
OK I would have preferred 'All the wonders lie within a stone's throw of New Cross station' but the same principle applies!
See also: Arthur Machen: South London 'Behind the Scenes of the Universe'
Saturday, June 15, 2013
Farewell Faircharm
MAS Exhibition
Meanwhile at Number 82, Tanners Hill SE8 there's a 'one night pop up exhibition' on June 20th with people invited to submit work on paper and then exchange works with each other. Further details here: http://usedthreads.wordpress.com/2013/06/08/mas-exhibition/. The MAS exhibition is intended to 'explore notions of value, ownership and exchange' in art and is part of the ongoing USED project focused on upcycling, swapping, and reclaiming textiles.
As well as the exhibition there will be a free screenprinting workshop.
Thursday, June 13, 2013
Gemini City: stories and songs from Nigel of Bermondsey
Tonight (Thursday) at South East London Folklore Society:
London: Gemini City: Stories and songs from Nigel Of Bermondsey
Join Nigel Of Bermondsey on a musical journey through the streets of this fair capital. You may meet a ghost or two, cross the occasional underground river or encounter a cursed ironclad. There may be scenes of mild terror and the possibility of a duel. Have a drink ready to join in a toast to one of this fine city’s forgotten mystic artists.
8 pm at the Old Kings Head, King's Head Yard, 45-49 Borough High Street, London SE1. £2.50, £1.50 concessions
Nigel, who once played with Gay Dad and also makes dance music as part of Cage & Aviary, is a 'site-specific troubador' who has produced a finely crafted body of song about London, South London in particular.
London: Gemini City: Stories and songs from Nigel Of Bermondsey
Join Nigel Of Bermondsey on a musical journey through the streets of this fair capital. You may meet a ghost or two, cross the occasional underground river or encounter a cursed ironclad. There may be scenes of mild terror and the possibility of a duel. Have a drink ready to join in a toast to one of this fine city’s forgotten mystic artists.
8 pm at the Old Kings Head, King's Head Yard, 45-49 Borough High Street, London SE1. £2.50, £1.50 concessions
Nigel, who once played with Gay Dad and also makes dance music as part of Cage & Aviary, is a 'site-specific troubador' who has produced a finely crafted body of song about London, South London in particular.
Nigel of Bermondsey from Superimpose Magazine on Vimeo.
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
History Corner: Jessica Mitford in Rotherhithe
The Mitford sisters became notorious in the 1930s and 1940s as aristocratic socialites who pursued widely divergent political paths. Unity and Diana both became Hitler enthusiasts, the latter marrying British Union of Fascists leader Oswald Mosley.
Jessica Mitford (1917-1996) on the other hand ran away to Spain with her boyfriend Esmond Romilly to back the republic against Franco's fascist rebellion. Back in London and married, they ended up in 1937 living at 41 Rotherhithe Street in a large house 'wedged between warehouses' on the river. The house belonged to Roger Roughton (1916-1941), surrealist poet, who also stayed there. Another frequent guest was their friend the writer Philip Toynbee (Polly's dad). They held 'bottle parties... frequented by a motley crowd of journalists, writers, night-club singers, students' and spent a lot of time arguing about the merits of joining the Communist Party (Toynbee and Roughton did).
It's easy to mock the idea of a couple of upper class lefties slumming it in SE London, and indeed there is some condescension in Mitford's account: 'The bus ride from Rotherhithe to more familiar parts of London (Kensington, Hyde Park, Oxford Street) takes well over an hour. It winds past miles and miles of workers’ flats with such incongruous sounding names as Devon Mansions, Cornwall Homes. Five or six storeys high, these gloomy red-brick structures house a shorter and paler race of people than the inhabitants of London's West End. In appearance, dress and speech they form so radical a contrast as to give the impression of a different ethnic group'.
Nevertheless, despite living in a comfortable house, Mitford and Romilly were largely cut off in disgrace from their family wealth and struggled to get by. To an extent they did share some of the life of local working class people, eating 'fish and chips at the nearest Lyons teashop' and getting involved in the local Labour Party:
'The Bermondsey Labour Party was much more to our liking. At the monthly meetings, held in a shabby hall not far from Rotherhithe Street, vigorous discussions would take place on the important political events of the day. Tired, white-faced dockers and their wives would join in "The Red Flag", a popular Labour Party anthem in that part of London. Fund-raising campaigns for milk for Spanish orphans or for aid to Hitler’s Jewish victims were planned and carried out, often in defiance of the wishes of Transport House [Labour Party national HQ]. If they lacked the glamour and the special, high-flown language of some of our Communist friends, these members of the local Labour Party branch seemed to display a seriousness of purpose and a down-to-earth understanding of issues that quickly won our respect. The Labour Party in that section of London was considerably more militant than the Party's official spokesmen. It was said that the schoolchildren lined up to boo Princess Mary, symbol of hated charity, when she made her infrequent expeditions to the local orphanage.
On May Day the entire community turned out, men, women and children, home-made banners proclaiming slogans of the "United Front against Fascism" waving alongside the official ones. The long march to Hyde Park started early in the morning, contingents of the Labour Party, the Co-ops, the Communist Party, the Independent Labour Party marching through the long day... Everyone took lunch in a paper bag, and there was much good-natured jostling and shouting of orders, and last-minute rounding up of children who had darted away in the crowd. Philip and Roger taught us some new songs to sing on the way- parodies on Communist songs: “Class conscious we are, and class conscious we’ll be, And we'll tread on the necks of the the bourgeoisie !”, "Oh, ’tis my delight, of a dirty night to bomb the bourgeoisie!”, and a sarcastic version of "The People's Flag": "The People's flag is palest pink, It's not as red as you might think."
We had been warned that the Blackshirts might try to disrupt the parade, and sure enough there were groups of them lying in wait at points along the way. Armed with rubber truncheons and knuckle-dusters, they leaped out from behind buildings; there were several brief battles in which the Blackshirts were overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of the Bermondsey men'.
Sadly, they shared another feature of local life - the tragedy of infant mortality. In December 1937, Mitford gave birth to a daughter, Julia: 'She became the centre of my existence. Esmond gleefully watched her grow, learn to smile, learn to wave her feet and catch them with an unsteady hand. We planned her future, growing up among the rough children of Rotherhithe Street, born to freedom and May Day parades, without the irksome restraints of nanny, governess, daily walks and dull dances'. Within six months however the baby had died in a measles epidemic.
Later in 1938 they were forced to move out of Rotherhithe Street when they couldn't afford to pay their electricity bill, and the following year they moved to the United States. During the Second World War Romilly, who had fought with the International Brigades as a teenager in Spain, joined the Royal Canadian Air Force. He was killed in action in 1941. In the same year, Roughton committed suicide in the midst of despair about the Nazi-Soviet pact. Mitford remained in the United States where she lived a long and fruitful life as a writer and civil rights activist.
Jessica Mitford (1917-1996) on the other hand ran away to Spain with her boyfriend Esmond Romilly to back the republic against Franco's fascist rebellion. Back in London and married, they ended up in 1937 living at 41 Rotherhithe Street in a large house 'wedged between warehouses' on the river. The house belonged to Roger Roughton (1916-1941), surrealist poet, who also stayed there. Another frequent guest was their friend the writer Philip Toynbee (Polly's dad). They held 'bottle parties... frequented by a motley crowd of journalists, writers, night-club singers, students' and spent a lot of time arguing about the merits of joining the Communist Party (Toynbee and Roughton did).
It's easy to mock the idea of a couple of upper class lefties slumming it in SE London, and indeed there is some condescension in Mitford's account: 'The bus ride from Rotherhithe to more familiar parts of London (Kensington, Hyde Park, Oxford Street) takes well over an hour. It winds past miles and miles of workers’ flats with such incongruous sounding names as Devon Mansions, Cornwall Homes. Five or six storeys high, these gloomy red-brick structures house a shorter and paler race of people than the inhabitants of London's West End. In appearance, dress and speech they form so radical a contrast as to give the impression of a different ethnic group'.
 |
| According to a 2002 Southwark Council Rotherhithe history map the former 41 Rotherhithe Street is now on Fulford Street, the 'sole remaining terraced house from a whole row lining Thames'. So pretty sure this is it - or it could have been one of the now demolished adjoining buildings, where the Londonphile notes John Betjeman, Marlene Dietrich, Lord Snowdon, Princess Margaret and Noel Coward variously hung out! |
Nevertheless, despite living in a comfortable house, Mitford and Romilly were largely cut off in disgrace from their family wealth and struggled to get by. To an extent they did share some of the life of local working class people, eating 'fish and chips at the nearest Lyons teashop' and getting involved in the local Labour Party:
'The Bermondsey Labour Party was much more to our liking. At the monthly meetings, held in a shabby hall not far from Rotherhithe Street, vigorous discussions would take place on the important political events of the day. Tired, white-faced dockers and their wives would join in "The Red Flag", a popular Labour Party anthem in that part of London. Fund-raising campaigns for milk for Spanish orphans or for aid to Hitler’s Jewish victims were planned and carried out, often in defiance of the wishes of Transport House [Labour Party national HQ]. If they lacked the glamour and the special, high-flown language of some of our Communist friends, these members of the local Labour Party branch seemed to display a seriousness of purpose and a down-to-earth understanding of issues that quickly won our respect. The Labour Party in that section of London was considerably more militant than the Party's official spokesmen. It was said that the schoolchildren lined up to boo Princess Mary, symbol of hated charity, when she made her infrequent expeditions to the local orphanage.
On May Day the entire community turned out, men, women and children, home-made banners proclaiming slogans of the "United Front against Fascism" waving alongside the official ones. The long march to Hyde Park started early in the morning, contingents of the Labour Party, the Co-ops, the Communist Party, the Independent Labour Party marching through the long day... Everyone took lunch in a paper bag, and there was much good-natured jostling and shouting of orders, and last-minute rounding up of children who had darted away in the crowd. Philip and Roger taught us some new songs to sing on the way- parodies on Communist songs: “Class conscious we are, and class conscious we’ll be, And we'll tread on the necks of the the bourgeoisie !”, "Oh, ’tis my delight, of a dirty night to bomb the bourgeoisie!”, and a sarcastic version of "The People's Flag": "The People's flag is palest pink, It's not as red as you might think."
We had been warned that the Blackshirts might try to disrupt the parade, and sure enough there were groups of them lying in wait at points along the way. Armed with rubber truncheons and knuckle-dusters, they leaped out from behind buildings; there were several brief battles in which the Blackshirts were overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of the Bermondsey men'.
Sadly, they shared another feature of local life - the tragedy of infant mortality. In December 1937, Mitford gave birth to a daughter, Julia: 'She became the centre of my existence. Esmond gleefully watched her grow, learn to smile, learn to wave her feet and catch them with an unsteady hand. We planned her future, growing up among the rough children of Rotherhithe Street, born to freedom and May Day parades, without the irksome restraints of nanny, governess, daily walks and dull dances'. Within six months however the baby had died in a measles epidemic.
Later in 1938 they were forced to move out of Rotherhithe Street when they couldn't afford to pay their electricity bill, and the following year they moved to the United States. During the Second World War Romilly, who had fought with the International Brigades as a teenager in Spain, joined the Royal Canadian Air Force. He was killed in action in 1941. In the same year, Roughton committed suicide in the midst of despair about the Nazi-Soviet pact. Mitford remained in the United States where she lived a long and fruitful life as a writer and civil rights activist.
 |
| Esmond Romilly and Jessica Mitford |
Source: Hons and Rebels - Jessica Mitford, 1960
Monday, June 10, 2013
Music Monday: Naresh Sohal
The composer Naresh Sohal was born in Punjab in 1939 and moved to the UK in the early 1960s.
Sohal was profiled in the Financial Times last week: 'he lives in a modest house in Brockley, southeast London, and draws ideas for his music from cosmology, Sanskrit philosophy and the European classical tradition'. The feature included a photograph of him in the garden of his home, where he has lived for the last 18 years.
The 2013 Proms will feature the premiere of a BBC-commissioned work by Sohal entitled 'The Cosmic Dance'.
The youtube clip below features the soprano Sally Silver and tabla player Sanju Sahai performing Sohal's Gitanjali, a setting of writing by Rabindranath Tagore. Incidentally Silver also lives locally in SE14, in fact sometimes I hear her practicing when I'm walking the dog!
Sohal was profiled in the Financial Times last week: 'he lives in a modest house in Brockley, southeast London, and draws ideas for his music from cosmology, Sanskrit philosophy and the European classical tradition'. The feature included a photograph of him in the garden of his home, where he has lived for the last 18 years.
The 2013 Proms will feature the premiere of a BBC-commissioned work by Sohal entitled 'The Cosmic Dance'.
The youtube clip below features the soprano Sally Silver and tabla player Sanju Sahai performing Sohal's Gitanjali, a setting of writing by Rabindranath Tagore. Incidentally Silver also lives locally in SE14, in fact sometimes I hear her practicing when I'm walking the dog!
Sunday, June 09, 2013
Back to the Broca (and remembering The Brockley Bean)
The Broca by Brockley station was opened six years ago by Erin and Rob 'inspired by the coffee shops in Western Canada and Berlin' and 'using found objects, second quality equipment, and ethical products'. At one time I used to be in there several times a week, but changes in work/school/ukulele patterns put an end to that. I was glad to pop in there last week though for the first time since some changes were made earlier in the year. It still has that non-corporate, bohemian feel, the biggest change is that the kitchen/counter area has been moved in to the area that was previously an extension, creating more space for preparing food and drink.
The space hangs together better, in the past it felt a bit like a tiny cafe with a big room stuck on the side. Of course the coffee is still very good, and as I had just run 5k round Hilly Fields I also allowed myself my traditional banana and almond muffin.
The book exchange has returned to just a few shelves, with the tide of old books no longer threatening to overwhelm the space. I love second hand books and picked up some really interesting reads at Broca over the years, as well as adding some into the mix. But one thing I have noticed in watching a few of these take a book/leave a book schemes is that there seems to be an iron law for the quality to diminish over time, so that you end up with a lot of books that nobody wants.
Next step for Broca is a planned alcohol license so that they can open as more of a bar in the evening.
Next step for Broca is a planned alcohol license so that they can open as more of a bar in the evening.
The Broca is at 4 Coulgate Street SE4.
The Brockley Bean
In the 1980s/early 1990s there was a wholefoods co-op at 2 Coulgate Street called The Brockley Bean. I came across a 1993 article from The Independent which describes it as the base for the South East London Permaculture Community, then planning to grow food at Brickhurst Farm, near Pembury in Kent
'Since qualifying as a permaculture designer two and a half years ago, Steve Reaad has been spreading the word around his base in Brockley, south-east London. The local food supply system was set up 18 months ago after eight locals attended an introductory course on permaculture.
Based at the Brockley Bean, a pretty, cottage-like house with balloons painted along the facade and runner beans growing up the walls in summer, the South-East London Permaculture Community provides a monthly supply of wholefood - soya milk, organic flour, rice, cornflakes, muesli, bread, cheese and the like - to its 50 members. It also provides organic fruit and veg from Spitalfields Market. 'The mark-up is only 5 per cent and you're doing your body a favour. It's not so much a business as a proper community,' says Leslie Wills, a member who makes a living recycling clothes into an extraordinary range of patchwork coats and skirts. They plan to grow all the green goods for the community at Brickhurst Farm as well as providing free-range eggs, honey and organic wine from the nearby vineyard' (12 November 1993). Anyone remember the Brockley Bean or related projects (I think there was also a cycle repair project)?
Thursday, June 06, 2013
Walworth radical history walk
Interesting radical history/geography walk last weekend from 56a InfoShop in Crampton Street, around the the top end of Walworth Road and the Pullens Estate SE17 courtesy of Past Tense.
How the poor die
One theme was who gets remembered and who get forgotten in the official record, with reference to Orwell's How the Poor Die. We were reminded of Ayikoe Atayi, found dead in 2006 in the cupboard where he had been living in Perronet House SE1 while working as a cleaner sending money back to his famiy in Togo.
Reminded too of Richard O'Brien, a 37 year old father of seven who 'died in April 1994 after being pinned to the ground by three officers who said they were arresting him for being drunk and disorderly... Mr O'Brien's family say that his pleas that he could not breathe were ignored, and alleged that officers shouted anti-Irish abuse at him. Mr O'Brien suffered injuries in 31 areas including 12 cuts to the face and head' (Guardian 14 May 2002)
O'Brien was arrested while waiting for a taxi outside English Martyrs Catholic Social Club and taken to Walworth police station. A jury found that he had been 'unlawfully killed' by the police, but in 1999 three police officers were found not guilty of manslaughter. Nevertheless after being found liable for his death under the Fatal Accidents Act, the police finally paid £324,000 compensation to O'Brien's family in 2002.
Walworth Working Men's Lecture and Reading Rooms
There was also some reflection on the parallels between the 56a InfoShop - a radical bookshop and archive in the area since 1991 - and an earlier local institution, the Walworth Working Men's Lecture and Reading Rooms in Camden Street. The poster from the 19th century invited people for lectures, discussion meetings, 'all the best of the periodicals' and 'books lent from the library' - all for 'one shilling per quarter'. Though don't think we would want to advertise today 'take your Wife that is, or is to be'!
How the poor die
One theme was who gets remembered and who get forgotten in the official record, with reference to Orwell's How the Poor Die. We were reminded of Ayikoe Atayi, found dead in 2006 in the cupboard where he had been living in Perronet House SE1 while working as a cleaner sending money back to his famiy in Togo.
Reminded too of Richard O'Brien, a 37 year old father of seven who 'died in April 1994 after being pinned to the ground by three officers who said they were arresting him for being drunk and disorderly... Mr O'Brien's family say that his pleas that he could not breathe were ignored, and alleged that officers shouted anti-Irish abuse at him. Mr O'Brien suffered injuries in 31 areas including 12 cuts to the face and head' (Guardian 14 May 2002)
O'Brien was arrested while waiting for a taxi outside English Martyrs Catholic Social Club and taken to Walworth police station. A jury found that he had been 'unlawfully killed' by the police, but in 1999 three police officers were found not guilty of manslaughter. Nevertheless after being found liable for his death under the Fatal Accidents Act, the police finally paid £324,000 compensation to O'Brien's family in 2002.
Walworth Working Men's Lecture and Reading Rooms
There was also some reflection on the parallels between the 56a InfoShop - a radical bookshop and archive in the area since 1991 - and an earlier local institution, the Walworth Working Men's Lecture and Reading Rooms in Camden Street. The poster from the 19th century invited people for lectures, discussion meetings, 'all the best of the periodicals' and 'books lent from the library' - all for 'one shilling per quarter'. Though don't think we would want to advertise today 'take your Wife that is, or is to be'!
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| 'Just the place to go when work is over, you can see there all the news of the day' (not sure of the date of this, though the place was certainly going in 1855) |
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