An Easter tragedy - drowned on the Bromley Road pond 1887

A sad tale from 1887 (South Wales Daily News, 14 April 1887):

 

Mysterious case of drowning - On Tuesday morning, between six and seven o'clock, the body of a young lady of respectable appearance, and apparently about eighteen years of age, was dragged out of the mill-pond, Southend, near Beckenham... The young woman, in company with another female and two young men, had been driving out on Easter Monday, and when returning home to Deptford, about nine o'clock, the stopped at the Green Man Inn, Southend, for refreshments. The three other occupants of the conveyance left the deceased by herself for a few minutes, and upon their return she could not be found. Subsequently the body was discovered in the pond which is situated immediately opposite the inn. The body was removed to Brockley, there to await identification and the coroner's inquest'.

 

The mill-pond referred to is still there, albeit remodelled as the pond in front of the Homebase store on the corner of Bromley Road and Beckenham Hill Road. It was once part of Southend village, the last rural area of Lewisham before it was urbanised in the 1920s.

The pond in front of Homebase store
(picture from Geograph © Copyright Philip Talmage and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence)

The Old Mill and its pond in 1905 (from Ideal Homes)

New Northern Soul Night in Camberwell

No better time than a bank holiday weekend to start a new Northern Soul night.  'Together'  launches

on Saturday March 26, 7:30 pm to 12:30 pm at Longfield Hall, 50 Knatchbull Road SE5. Sounds great:

'Peckham Soul and Longfield Hall proudly present ‘Together’ - Camberwell’s new monthly night of Northern Soul Togetherness.

With events taking place across South East London, Together will be spinning all the best in Northern Soul - from Motown classics to new soul discoveries. It will reflect the unity of the original scene, welcoming both aficionados and newcomers into the beguiling world of rare vintage soul. This is a soul party playing life-affirming music, and absolutely everybody’s invited.

Together welcomes a very special guest for its Easter bank holiday launch. Bassman with the Paul Weller band and Acid Jazz recording artists, Andy’s DJ C.V. is truly impressive. Resident DJ at the seminal Brit Pop ‘Blow-Up’ club, and a DJ whose guest slots have taken him round the globe, a better debut guest really would be difficult find. Joined by Peckham Soul’s Craig Jamieson and guests, expect some serious heavyweight soul action.

A beautiful rotunda space, Longfield Hall is a truly impressive venue. A Grade two listed Victorian building, its ample sprung wooden dancefloor makes it the perfect destination for authentic Northern Soul dancing.

Convenient public transport links. Buses to Camberwell Green – 12, 35, 36, 40, 42, 45, 68, 148, 171, 176, 185, 345, 345, 436, 468, 484 (10 minute walk to venue). Rail links from Denmark Hill'

Next month (April 30th) they've got Chris Geddes from Belle & Sebastian DJing.

Tickets available at Resident Advisor

NHS Cleaners strike at four South London mental heatlh units

Domestics and hostesses employed by private contractor Aramark at four sites of South London and Maudsley NHS Trust (SLAM) are out on strike today, seeking a living wage of £10per hour and an end to two tier arrangements on sick pay and shift allowances. The strike involves GMB members at  the Maudsley, Lambeth, Bethlem and Ladywell mental health service sites - the latter at Lewisham Hospital, where strikers were joined on the picket line by the indefatigable Save Lewisham Hospital Campaign.

Deptford & Rotherhithe: 'The Eastern Part of London' (1852)

'Katharine Beresford; Or, The Shade and Sunshine of Woman's Life: A Romantic Story' by Hannah Maria Jones Lowndes  is a novel from 1852. Not particularly remarkable but browsing through it I noticed that some of the action takes place at the St Helena Tea Gardens, the pleasure gardens which stood on the Lower Road from 1770 to 1881 (see post at Rotherhithe Blog). Also of interest is the fact that, as seems to have been quite common in that period, Deptford & Rotherhithe were described as being in East London rather than South London.

Here's the relevant quote:

'I don't suppose you know much about the Eastern part of London - Rotherhithe, Deptford, and thereabout?'

Milly replied that she had never heard of the places he named.

'No, I thought not,' he replied. 'Well, you see, Miss Shelburne, there are, on the other side of the river, over London Bridge, in fact in Surrey, very respectable places I assure you, and so quiet. Rotherhithe - Redriff some call it, but that's vulgar, I never call it so myself - Rotherhithe is remarkably quiet, a capital place...

There is a most delightful place of amusement, you see, at Rotherhtihe, or rather on the lower road to Deptford, - the Lower Road as it is called, for there are two roads - called the St Helena Tea Gardens... The Eastern Vauxhall, we call it. One of the loveliest places you eyes ever beheld. More romantic and much more select than any of the other places in London. There's a Ball-room and a Orchester, and such a Organ, it's worth going, if it's only to hear that'

Later there is a description of the St Helena gardens:

'an arbour scented with honeysuckle and jessamine, where a peep through the sweetbriar hedge commanded a view so rural - including a windmill with revolving sails, cottages, fields with cattle fielding, a secluded lane green as an emerald; altogether a scene which might have persuaded you that you were a hundred miles from the Great Metropolis; while on the other side were to be seen the masts of vessels rising above the green hedges, indicating the vicinity of the mighty Thames'.

St Helena Tavern and Tea Gardens (from Ideal Homes)

The end of the (old) Brockley Jack

The Brockley Jack in around 1868
(source: Lewisham Heritage)

The current Brockley Jack pub dates back to 1898 and replaced an older building demolished not long before. The pub had actually only been known by that name since 1863 - prior to that it was called The Castle. It is described in Walter Besant's London South of the Thames (published 1912, but written in the 1890s):

'on the west side of the road is the Brockley Jack public-house. It was named after Jack Cade and was formerly frequented by Dick Turpin and other highway- men, and is a good specimen of the English wayside tavern of the last century. The taproom and the whole architecture of the place with its old buildings are curious, and the sign nailed to the stump of an old elm in the yard is painted on a mammoth's bone which was dug up in the railway cutting behind the house. The Croydon Canal was acquired by the Croydon Railway in 1836, and it was in deepening this that the bones, of which the sign is one, were found. The old farm south of this inn will soon be built over, and houses are already appearing in the lane to Honor Oak, but most of the ground is still pasture' (Jack Cade was a leader of the 1450 Kentish uprising).

The demolition of the old building was opposed by some, as indicated by this report from th Illustrated London News, 16 October 1897:

'The Jack Inn, Brockley: The vandal is generally more inclined to spare a public-house than he is to spare a church; but it is the old Jack Inn at Brockley, in Kent, that is now marked down for demolition. Many a cyclist following the course of the London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway from London Bridge will miss the welcome which the inn continued to give from the old world; but the growth of suburban London is imperious in its demands. Brockley is within the Parliamentary borough of Deptford; but the little boundaries and isolations of London are rapidly disappearing in that direction, and much beside the Jack Inn will disappear ere long in front of London's immense army of occupation'

Judging by the number of paintings made of the old pub, it was something of an iconic building.

A painting dated 1898 and sigend G.C.,  held by  Lewisham Local History and Archives Centre

The pub painted in 1897 by Philip Norman
(from Museum of London)

The Brockley Jack around 1885 (Lewisham Heritage)

The Brockley Jack befire 1880  by Mr Corcoran (Lewisham Heritage)

The Old Brockley Jack - Arthur  Harding Norwood (1897)

photo of old pub from Pub History

The new pub, pictured in around 1905

St Patrick's Day Ukulele Session at Catford Constitutional Club

I don't think I have played a ukulele in public since the ancient 'night of the long ukes' split in Brockely Ukulele Group (it's OK, we're all friends again now). But I must admit I am tempted to pick up the four stringed wonder once again on St Patrick's Night (15th March) when Catford Charity Strummers are having an Irish-themed strumalong upstairs in the Catford Constitutional Club. All are welcome, you don't need to have played before and in fact you don't even need to bring your own uke. There is a suggestion donation to raise funds for local charities. 

An 1890s Indian Visitor to Crystal Palace - and New Cross?

The Reverand Thomas B. Pandian of Madras (sometimes known as T.B. Pandian or T.B. Pandiyan) was a Hindu convert to Christianity who came to England in 1893 to raise awareness of the plight of low caste 'Pariahs'. His travels in this country inspired his book 'England to an Indian Eye, Or, English Pictures from an Indian Camera' (1897), which is available to read for free at archive.org. It is  a work that includes lots of interesting observations such as his remark that 'the rage for cycling has taken full and fast hold of the people of England, as is evidenced by the fact that London is simply  over-run by "wheelers" of both sexes'. 

While describing London as 'the most remarkable city on the face of the globe' he did not overlook its miseries, such as the plight of the homeless: 'scores of such can, when darkness sets in, find no better resting-place than that afforded them by the doorsteps of public buildings, and obscure angles forming the junctures of adjoining structures  of one kind or another. Foodless, half-clothed, lying through the live-long night on the bare surface of these stony  bedsteads— so cold, so damp, so hard— life to the houseless poor of London must seem nothing more than an intolerable  condition of agonizing cursedness! What wonder, then, that so many of these wretched beings daily call in the angel  of death to relieve them before their appointed time, ending their earthly miseries by plunging themselves headlong into  the unclean waters of their Father Thames!'

Pandian describes a visit to the Crystal Palace:

'No sight-seer will think of leaving London without looking in at the world-famed 'Palace of Glass' in Upper 

Norwood, where John Bull and all his household disport themselves in a hundred different holidays. The Crystal Palace hall is capable of accommodating several thousands of people, and it is here that popular 

concerts and musical entertainments, organised on a large scale, are held, and it is here also that monster meetings of all sorts take place, when they are intended to present the character and significance of a national demonstration. So grandly beautiful is the appearance of this magnificent structure that I could well imagine a Christian villager from India regarding the edifice as a prototype of one of the 'many mansions' he has been taught to believe in as being  'prepared' for those who follow the teachings of the Heaven-sent Master he has learnt to serve. In a word, the  Crystal Palace of London is best described as being a splendid exhibition in itself, such as cannot be found in any  other part of the globe. It is, moreover, a complete and comprehensive index to England's commercial wealth and greatness'.

In a post earlier this week I featured a photo taken in that period at the New Cross studio of photographer R.F. Barnes. I am wondering whether this might actually be T.B. Pandian himself. There's some discussion at a family history site which suggests a link between Pandian and this photo- the key is the book he is holding. On highest resolution I could see that the last word on title is 'Peninsula' and others have spotted that the other visible word looks like 'Heroes'. Pandian was the author of a book entitled 'The Ancient Heroes of South Indian Peninsula', published in the year of that visit to London - 1893. Why else would he be holding that particular book in the photograph unless he had written it himself?

(Pandian's account is mentioned in Sukhdev Sandhu's excellent 'London Calling: how Black and Asian writers imagined a city', Harper, 2004)

Telephone box children's library launches today

The telephone box library on Loampit Hill has been going for a couple of years, but now it has been joined by a companion library not far away for children - on the corner of Lewisham Way and Wickham Road

In fact today (Wednesday 2nd March) sees it official opening at 4 pm, with children's author Amanda Swift cutting the ribbon (she wrote The Boys’ Club, Big Bones and Anna/Bella, and co-wrote Guinea Pigs Online and Puppies Online with Jennifer Gray).

The phone box is already stocked with some good children's books, the format being the same as the other telephone box library - passers-by can simply choose a book and take it away, preferably swapping it for a book of their own that they have finished with.

Refugees Welcome Here meeting in New Cross

Tonight (Tuesday 1^st March, 7 pm), Stand up to Racism South East London is holding a 'Refugees Welcome Here' public meeting in Room 137a, main building (RHB), Goldsmiths University, New Cross, SE14 6NW

Speakers include:

Imam Shakeel Begg - Lewisham Islamic Centre

Vicky Foxcroft, MP - Labour, Lewisham Deptford

Shakira Martin - NUS Further Education Vice President

Denis Fernando - Stand up to Racism (Chair)

Maya Goodfellow - Journalist, Independent & LabourList

Laurie Heselden - Southern and Eastern Regional TUC

Jenny Leow - Student health worker, NHS Bursaries campaign

Marcia Rigg - Sean Rigg Justice and Change Campaign & co-chair United Family & Friends

Rabbi Sylvia Rothschild - Tzelem (Rabbinic Voice for Social and Economic Justice)

(further details on facebook)

The meeting takes place in the lead up the 'Refugees Welcome' national demonstration in London on 19 March:

Victorian New Cross Studio Photographs

Some more vintage studio photos from the New Cross area. Frustratingly there is no detail about the subjects, but they tell us plenty about London hair and clothes styles in late Victorian London.

The first  few were taken at R.F. Barnes's studio, Mortham House, Lewisham High Road, New Cross. According to Photo London, the full address was 144 Lewisham High Road, and the studio was opened by Robert Freeman Barnes in 1874. On his death in 1898, he was succeeded by his wife Matilda Sarah Barnes who kept the business going until 1907. So in all likelihood these photos were taken in the late 19th century.

An Indian resident (or visitor) in New Cross (some inconclusive discussion about him here)

The next two portraits of children were taken by A.C. Clements, 'artist and photographer' based at 3 Amersham Road. Albert Charles Clements (1865-1938) ran the studio there from 1887 to 1895.

Finally there's this finely bearded gentleman 'From Kirby's Studios, Peckham and New Cross'. The photographer was Theophilus Claudius Kirby (1829-1907). The Peckham studion was at 85 Hill Street (from 1879 - 1895) and the other studio at 346 New Cross Road  (from 1888 - 1891). So this photograph must have been taken in the 1888-1891 period.

(see previous post about Edwardian New Cross photgrapher, Frederick Wiedhofft)

Some of these photos are for sale on ebay, if you are interested

Norman Jay at Bussey

Norman Jay is one of my all time favourite DJs, with deep roots in soul, disco and funk, through to soulful house and beyond. I've had some memorable nights and days dancing to him, most notably at his Good Times sound system at Notting Hill Carnival. I still miss his Sunday radio shows on BBC London, there are some tracks he used to play that whenever I hear them I immediately think 'Norman Jay'. In fact just now I was listening to 'Les Fleurs' by Minnie Riperton and I thought, oh that reminds me I must do a post about Norman playing in Peckham.

Yes, he's playing at South London Soul Train at the Bussey Building on Saturday April 2nd - the perfect DJ for this great club. Of course I should be going but... I'm running a half marathon the next morning. You all go ahead and enjoy yourselves.

(tickets here)

Telegraph Hill Festival 2016

It's the 22nd annual  Telegraph Hill Festival next month, with more than 120 events taking place from 5 – 20 March 2016 at various venues in the New Cross/Brockley border zone.  You can check out the full programme here, but for now here's a few of the events that caught my ere.

Red and Pink

'Painting & Sound Improvised Performance – audio - visual action - interaction. First meeting of reknowned painter and performer Pauline Amos and English experimental improvising musicians Mark Browne and Richard Sanderson.

PAULINE AMOS - (painting and sounds) Pauline Amos is an internationally renowned artist. She has collaborated with William Orbit, Poppy Jackson and dancer Anna-mi Fredriksson amongst others. She says of her work: “The paintings are documents and a recording of an event that happened - the action, the performance, the life, the improvised and impulsive moment is the work.” Her work is dramatic, her subjects: the female body, feminism, war, global politics, the environment, women, sex and relationships – the human condition.  She has featured on YouTube and bill boards around the UK using her naked painted body to promote democracy.

British improvising musicians Mark Browne (saxophones and collected objects and Richard Sanderson (amplified melodeon and small instruments) have been playing together off and on for some 20 years, including in the quartet Fraction and the trio Browne/Thompson/Sanderson - creating instant and constantly changing music from instruments, objects and debris described as probing, adventurous, and uniquely textured exploration, haunting and fascinating. Together with Amos they will craft a totally immersive show.

This unique collaboration is presented as part of the Telegraph Hill Festival. The evening will include a discussion with Pauline Amos of her work. Admission £5 on the door.

Photos at The Hill Station Cafe

Punk Rock Karaoke

At the Montague Arms on Saturday 19 March, band My Midlife Crisis will be backing various singers having a go at songs from the golden age of punk. As they didn't have any Crass songs on the list, I have gone for 'Boys don't cry'.

Prefab Walking Tour -  Saturday 12 March 12 noon-1.00pm 'Meet at Brockley Station exit, Mantle Road Free but donation to museum funds gratefully received This moderate walk visits post war prefab locations past and present, derelict and inhabited. Finishing at the Ivy House, London’s first community-owned pub. Booking essential, email elisabethblanchet@hotmail.com'

Saint Patrick’s Day (17 March) 8.00pm-11.00pm Skehan’s, Kitto Road (Free) 'Skehans is proud to invite you along for bowl of our delicious Irish Stew with soda bread (while stocks last and daytime only). From 9pm The Clarkes will rock the joint in their customary style'

Horniman Merman on QI

The  curious'Merman' figure from the Horniman Museum in Forest Hilll featured in a recent episode of QI, with Stephen Fry and guests including Sara Pascoe, Josh Widdicombe, Phill Jupitus and Alan Davies discussing this strange beast.

As Fry mentions, recent testing has confirmed that the figure was made from fish body parts supplemented with wood and papier mache. During the programme, both Davies and Pascoe mention visiting the Horniman, with Pascoe saying that she lives nearby.

Sara Pascoe, Phil Jupitus and the Horniman Merman.

Rave at the Crypt - St Paul's Deptford 1988-1991

As mentioned here before, the crypt of St Pauls Church in Deptford was extensively used for gigs and parties in the 1980s and 1990s. From the great phatmedia rave flyer archive, here's a couple more to prompt your memories. 

Mary's House in November 1988 promised '100% pure house sounds' with 'DJ Merran and Graham Meacham'

Insanity Promotions' Hallelujah was a fortnightly event starting in August 1991, with DJs including Andy Nichols, Scott Smith, Danny Monk with forthcoming guests Steve Lee and 'Andy Weatherall (unconfirmed)'. Wonder if he ever made it? In those pre-internet days, membership was available from promoter Alan Main at an address in Lenville Way SE16 - that's on the now demolished Bonamy Estate:

See previously:

Babylon filmed in the Crypt

More tales from the Crypt - pyschedelic club, reggae sound systems and gigs

Saxon International at the Crypt

'Psychedelic Nites' at the Crypt - late 1980s flyers

Will Greenwood and Ozric Tentacles at the Crypt

30 years of Band of Holy Joy - including their early days at the Crypt

Subconscious deep house at the Crypt 1989

Friends of Fordham Park SE14

It's the annual general meeting tonight (Wednesday 10th February) of the Friends of Fordham Park, from 7 pm to 8 pm in the Moonshot Centre in the park. If you want to get involved in caring for this oasis off the New Cross Road, come along.

Fordham Park is not one of those London  parks that are leftover fragments from when it was 'all fields round here'. Go back a hundred years to the 1916 Ordnance Survey map and you see not a green space but tightly packed urban streets, demolished in the post-WW2 period. Angus Street and Achilles Street are still there, at the north and south ends of the park, but in between no trace remains of Snead Street and Vance Street.

'The raiders left behind a black silk mask' - IRA attacks in Catford, Blackheath & Tooting 1921

During the Irish war of independence (1919-1921) there were armed attacks in London linked to the conflict, in the lead up to the truce agreed in July 1921 that paved the way for independence for most of Ireland. Here's a report of a series of attacks in May of that year in South London, from The Times (16 May 1921).

On Saturday May 14th 1921 'Between 10 o'clock and midnight', 'a series of outrages, believed by the police to be the work of Sinn Fein agents in this country, took place in Outer London. They were all the work of armed parties of men, and in the majority of cases there was proof that the incidents had a direct connexion with the troubles in Ireland..

Two masked men tried to force their way in to the residence of Mr Charles F Duffield, a double fronted house, 141 Wellmeadow Road, Catford, standing in the heart of the St Germans estate. As the result of the attack, Mr Duffield, aged 61, is in Lewisham Hospital with a bullet through both thighs, and his wife, Edith Mary Duffield, has a bullet wound through each wrist... The raiders left behind a black silk mask, a bicycle pump and a heavy revolver with four live cartridges in it'.(The Times speculates that this was a case of mistaken identity as the Duffield did not appear to have any connections to Ireland).

141 Wellmeadow Road SE6 - now the London Stage School,
scene of  a non-fatal shooting in 1921

Four armed men attempted to force their way in to a house in 'Halstow Road, Westcombe Park, Blackheath, at the house of an officer in the Royal Irish Constabulary, who is at present serving in Ireland'

'At Tooting an attack was made by a number of armed men on a house in Coverton Road, occupied by Mr William Dawner, whose son is in the RIC. The knocked at the door, and when it was opened, drew revolvers and forced their way inside. When they were inside, they produced bottles of petrol, which they poured over the floors of various rooms. They then set fire to the place'

See also: 'Sinn Feiners at New Cross' for a report of further attacks in June 1921

Half Nelson - Rock'n'Roll & Wrestling at the Amersham Arms

Half Nelson is back at The Amersham Arms in New Cross this Saturday 13th February, with a night of wrestling and rock'n'roll. The last event there in October was one of the best nights I've had out locally for ages, very funny but with some serious acrobatics thrown in, and the house band in Mexican wrestling masks playing theme tunes for the fighters. This time there's additional music from Dracula Legs, plus DJ until 3am.

Advance tickets £8 or £10 on the night. Book here.

Hilly Fields Wassail

Wassailing is an old custom of drinking to the health of  fruit trees to ensure a good harvest, most commonly associated with cider apples producing trees in the West Country. Tomorrow (Sunday 7th February) there's a Hilly Fields Wassail with music and refreshments at the orchard by the park's stone circle. It starts at 4 pm, but if you can help with orchard maintenance come along from 2 pm

Organised by the Friends of Hilly Fields with Transition Brockley.

Blur once recorded a version of The Wassailing Song and gave it away as a limited edition 7 inch single to the 500 people at a 1992 gig at the Hibernian Club in Fulham. If you have a copy they sell for around £300.

Experimental music night at Vinyl Deptford

This Saturday February 6th there's a night of experimental/improv music at Vinyl Deptford, the record shop and coffee bar at 4 Tanners Hill,London, SE8:

'a chance to to hear some rarely heard international musicians...

Bernadette Zeilinger - (AT - recorders)

Diego Mune - (AR - guitars)

+ from Berlin

Miriam Seiberstadt- (saxes)

Lisa Simpson- (sewing machine)

+

Sue Lynch (sax, flute, clarinet)

Richard Sanderson (melodeon and amplification)

Adam Bohman (amplified objects, strings and debris)

Adrian Northover (saxes)

Entry by donation'

How Does it Feel to be Loved back at Montague Arms

Indie pop/soul club How Does it Feel to be Loved? is back at the Montague Arms tomorrow night (Saturday February 6th), scene of its packed New Year's Eve party recently:

'We're doing a series of one-off nights at venues in south London for the early part of 2016, and the first of these is at the Montague Arms in Peckham on Saturday February 6th. We've had two storming New Year's Eve parties at the Monty, and we're excited to come back for a regular HDIF. The Monty was one of south east London's most characterful pubs, famed as a live venue and eccentric hostelry, until it closed in 2011 - it reopened in 2014, and has lost none of its former charm. The pub itself has a good sized stage and dancefloor in one third, and then the bar and seating takes up the rest, so there's no pesky bar queues getting in the way of the dancing. Our night on the 6th will start at 9pm and finish at 2am, with a guest DJ TBA.

How Does It Feel To Be Loved?

Saturday February 6th

The Montague Arms, 289 Queen's Rd, London SE14 2PA, map of the venue here

We play:

The Smiths * The Supremes * The Go-Betweens * Dusty Springfield * Belle & Sebastian * Love * Tammi Terrell * Aztec Camera * The Ronettes * Orange Juice * Beach Boys * The Temptations * Velvet Underground * Felt * The Shangri-Las * Primal Scream * Otis Redding * The Field Mice * Dexys Midnight Runners * Camera Obscura * The Four Tops * Melba Moore * The Orchids'

Advance tickets here: http://www.wegottickets.com/event/346006 (£4 members, £6 everybody else)

Montague Arms, 31 December 2015

International football stickers on South London streets

Some football stickers spotted on my rounds today, mostly in vicinity of Millwall FC. Every sticker tells a story...

'No one likes us we don't care' is well known as the Millwall cry, but what about Sham Army? The latter refers to followers of punk band Sham 69, also mentioned on sticker. The band took their name in the late 1970s though from a fragment of graffiti in Surrey referring to non-league Walton & Hersham FC. Never had them down as a Millwall band, though one later version of the band (without original singer Jimmy Pursey, fronted by Tim Scargill) did do a charity CD that rewrote Sham's 'Hersham Boys' as 'Millwall Boys' ('drink up your beers and make some noise'):

Millwall Sham Army sticker, Ilderton Road SE15

Getting into the world of international football fandom, this lamp post, also on Ilderton Road, has a sticker from Millwall FC's Italian Crew (Italian Lions' fans). Above it is a Spanish sticker which says 'Bukaneros presenta La Familia Podrida'. Bukaneros are the Ultras of Rayo Vallecano de Madrid. La Familia Podrida means the corrupt family, but the initials spell out LFP: Liga de Fútbol Profesional, the Spanish football league.

On another lamp post in same road  a Millwall on Tour sticker comes above one saying 'Ultras contro el racismo' (Ultras against racism), another Spanish slogan, think this may be another Bukaneros sticker, they are famously anti-racist.

Another club whose fans are associated with militant anti-fascism is Hamburg team St Pauli. This sticker from Queens Road SE15 is from St Pauli London fans.

Of course not all European ultras are on the left of the political spectrum. This sticker, spotted in Hyson Road SE15 says FC  DK with the letters gathered around a neo-nazi symbol. I believe this refers to Ukrainian team Dynamo Kiev, some of whose fans are on the extreme right. Last year the club were sanctioned after a racist attack during a game against Chelsea

See previously

Dulwich Hamlet stickers

Radical stickers in New Cross

Lucky Man at the Rivoli

Stan Lee's Lucky Man is the latest TV/film production to feature the Rivoli Ballroom in Crofton Park as a location. For the purposes of the Sky One show, it is transformed into the Pleasure Palace pole dancing club visited by detective James Nesbitt.

The whole show foregrounds London, Nesbitt always seems to be driving across a bridge and Bermondsey Street and Southwark Park are due to feature in the series among other Transpontine settings.

See previous posts about the Rivoli here - there's a lot!