Guest post: attendee at John Bull Centre Hustings

For the first time, I have agreed to publish a guest post at the Lurking about SE11 blog.

Obviously, I have to publish a disclaimer, since the views presented are not my own, although I have received verification that the guest poster was present at the hustings and is not one of the candidates standing for election.

If any other participants were present at the John Bull Community Centre hustings, and wish to make a counter guest post, I will publish it (so long as it's not defamatory).

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Dear SE11'ers

I was at the LGBGT candidate hustings last night and was utterly shocked at the response the Labour candidate gave in response to the question "would he support the use of the old Lilian Baylis site by the the All Nations Church given their teachings on homosexuality as a sin?" In a long winded response, he said that he did support them having the use of the site.

I find it incredible that an openly gay, prospective local goverment Councillor in one of the districts in the UK with a high concentration of LGBGT residents, is in support of such and organisation and has been actively helping them to secure their place on the site.

I hope that the LGBGT community will come out in force and let their elected representatives know that these organsiations have no place in multi-cultural Lambeth and should not be given the use or option of purchasing public spaces for propogating messages of intolerance of any sector of the community, let alone such a huge proportion of the Vauxhall residents.

Your truly
Concerned SE11

Possible stabbing in Black Prince Road and questions about networking

Very occasionally, I wonder whether there's some form of news blackout that operates within the SE11 area. It's very difficult to find out certain pieces of information that it might be within the public interest to have made public.

A commentator yesterday remarked "I heard that there was a stabbing on black prince road on Friday 22nd May...any news?". My feeling is that this is probably not the case and nothing happened. Stabbings tend to generate a lot of hits here, with people searching for information. But the rumour of a stabbing must be grounded in something, most probably some sort of disturbance. It would be useful if there was a Lambeth police feed in which information was shared to alert residents to be on guard or remain watchful if anything was particularly amiss.

I understand that the issue of dangerous dogs was raised at Tuesday's hustings, dogs apparently being the "preferred" weapon of choice for those engaged in anti-social behaviour. However, I've not seen news reported anywhere on fights with dogs between youths. I heard that there have been a rise in burglaries on one local estate, but once again, no news.

My feeling is that the SE11 community is still not sufficiently networked. We have many civic organistions for linking people together, but many of them have significant overlap in committed members, and sporadic communication with those people who are not online. There's a low level of computer use/technological know how in both poorer and older communities locally (I saw a map of this that I might do a blog post about). The question is, how is this best overcome? I'm pleased with the contribution to this blog from regular commentators and anonymous lurkers, but my feeling is that there is still more local knowledge and resources to be shared.

In the meantime, don't forget the LGBT / gay hustings, which is on tonight at 7.30pm at the John Bull Community Centre. If you didn't make it to the last set of general hustings, I'm sure you'd be welcome to show up here, even if you've not got specifically LGBT questions to ask.

Hustings - LGBT - Please circulate

I was sent this re. LGBT hustings for Prince's Ward. Please circulate:


The text says:

Thursday 28th May
7:00 – 8:30pm

The John Bull LGBT Centre
64 Tyres Street
Vauxhall
SE11 5NL

0333 700 1232 (John Bull)

John Bull Centre: This year's best kept secret

I was delighted to read recently that a new centre for the LGBT community was due to open in Vauxhall, SE11. The scene has long been dominated by clubs under railway arches, and to be honest, the "L", "B" and "T" provision in the area might be said to be, errr, non-existent. Still, in these days of post-Thatcherist politics, everything is led by the market, so one just has to wait for queer minorities to make some money...

The John Bull Centre is to be opened on Tyre Street (in the old pub of the same name), after having received funding from a local entrepreneur, Adrian Flack, who has also decided that the scene lacks a heart, and wanted to put something in place. Flack is quoted in the Pink Paper as saying:

“We have a gay village, but it doesn’t have a heart. Yes, I could’ve opened the place as another club, but there’s a definite need for a focus for our community. Since the press release yesterday, the response has been amazing.“ The opening of the centre will provide the LGBTV and TG with a dedicated community
centre in Vauxhall.”

The press-release, which I discovered here, notes that the centre was due to open on 8th November, and the coffee shop on the 1st December.

After my initial delight, I peered more deeply into the ways in which the centre was to fund itself. Unfortunately, it seems that for a large portion of the time it will be open, it's going to exist as another club. The John Bull Centre website suggests that during the following times, it will host the Play Pit club:

Thursday: 9:00pm - 2:00am
Friday/Saturday: 9:00pm - 3:00am
Sunday: 3:00pm - midnight

I suppose that some form of club promotion was to be expected, but I was vaguely hoping that the community space might be more accessible in the evenings for LGBT people who don't have any interest in clubbing. On the plus side, it does have a coffee shop:

Monday - Friday: 8:00am - 5:00pm
Saturday: 12:00 noon - 5:00pm

It would be really good to hear some comments from anybody that has actually dropped by. Disco Damaged has a review from the Play Pit clubbing point of view of the opening night, but I'd like to hear comments from anybody that visited in a broader social capacity.