New statistics on Lambeth: CPCG Police and Community Safety 2010 (part 1)

Every couple of years, just as the local area census data starts to look old, somebody commissions a report that sheds light on current trends and produces a new fascinating set of statistics.  On this occasion, it's the turn of the Community Police Consultative Group. Catriona Robertson (their project manager and report writer) has produced a superb account on the state of Lambeth community/police relations.  (Ms Robertson has her own blog and is also on Twitter).  I love statistics, (although my analysis skills are non-existent, so I'm just going to add some commentary in bold type).  I really welcome additional data about the area.  The report, Whose Shout? : Engagement on Community Safety in Lambeth, can be found here. 

From the report, I discovered that there is a State of the Borough Report (2008) which is perhaps worth examining further, and the GLA may also have produced additional figures in 2009, which help us identify who lives in the area, what they do and what opportunities are open to them.  In the mean time, I've mined the CPCG report for the following statistics, which I think you might find interesting:

* The annual turnover of population in Lambeth is 22% or 27%, if you include people who move within the borough (p5)
[This is exceedingly high, but not sure how it compares to London as a whole.]

* The population in Lambeth in 2007 was 285,580, although those registered with GPs in March 2009 was 352,762.  (p6)
[Assuming that there hasn't been a sudden rise of 68,000 residents in a year, that means that there are a lot of "hidden" folk in Lambeth.  Are these asylum seekers?  Undeclared relatives?  Folk from neighbouring boroughs who want to keep using Lambeth GPs?].

* Lambeth is the most ethnically diverse borough in London, with 52% of population beign white british, 14% being white (other), 34% being black, Asian and other. (p6). 
[It's probably worth exercising some caution here, since these figures are based on the 2001 census, and if we've got an annual turnover of 22%, I don't expect these figures to remain unchanged.  I say "hurrah" for diversity, but I'm intrigued to know whether the Borough is integrated enough, or whether some people live in unintentionally segregated groups.  I ask, on account of some recent comments on the blog, and some of the comments raised at the recent KOV meeting.]

* 60% of Lambeth is Christian, 5% Muslim, 8% other, and 29% preferred not to answer. (p6) 
[Seems to total over 100%, but nevermind.  I'd be really intrigued to know the breakdown of the 8% "other", assuming it's not Jedi or something silly.  I've a vague theory that Lambeth seems to have a higher than average number of Buddhists.  I suspect the 60% Christian figure is much higher than the national average, even once you factor out people who answer C of E by default.]

* Reliable sexual orientation data isn't available, but local surveys suggests an LGBT population of 3%-5%. (p6).  Homophobic crime rose by 46% during 2009-2010 
[Perhaps that's true of Lambeth as a whole, but my view is that Princes, Oval and parts of Stockwell wards have a significantly higher LGBT population, which I don't think is accounted for with this figure, which seems to only reflect national percentage.  The rise in homophobic crime is atrocious, but /could/ result in greater willingness to report crime.]

* Crime fell over 30% in Lambeth over seven years to 2009, although Lambeth remains a high crime area, with the third most recorded offences of all London boroughs 2008-2009. (p6) 
[I'm really suspicious of measurement of crime statistics because every few years, the police alter the definitions of certain crimes.  Also, many people still fail to report crime (especially if they're not supposed to officially be here), making this very difficult to track.  A 30% reduction, however, is probably high enough to be significant.  See here for my controversial view that knife crime is worse in North London than South London.]

* In 2009-1010, gun crime is up 33% in Lambeth and rape by 25%. (p6)
[I believe that the Borough Commander recently explained that the rise in gun crime is as a result of commercial incidents eg. bank robberies / holdups.  Obviously, that doesn't really excuse it, but I think it is worth noting that this is not necessarily gang related.  The rape statistic is very very concerning.]

* 16% of Lambeth population have a long-term limiting illness. (p7) 
[Is it me, or is this a horrifying statistic?  Surely 16% of the UK doesn't have a long-term limiting illness?  Perhaps this ties in with the recent statistic that Lambeth is the top London borough for unemployment  (9.3% of Lambeth /working age/ people are unemployed).  I suspect that the limiting illness figure is related to obtaining benefits, and that more money is available if you can demonstrate illness.  But from that figure, I want to be careful of drawing Daily Fail type conclusions.  I suspect that in Lambeth, many people draw benefits to care for older and ill extended family members and prefer to raise their own families (instead of buying in labour).  This likely reduces the bill to the state on child care and adult care homes.  However, I suspect the Tory/Lib Dem coalition may not interpret things quite as charitably!] 

* There is a much higher prevalence of mental illness in Lambeth, compared with the country as a whole.  around 37,000 (over 10% of the population) were being treated for anxiety and depression in 2008. (P7) [Again, this is a very high figure.  I wonder whether people who suffer from mental illnesses tend to live in boroughs where they know that they can seek treatment, or whether those who suffer from mental illness seek one another out, or whether mental illness is better diagnosed in Lambeth or even whether there's some kind of environmental factor that results in the higher correlation between living in Lambeth and mental illness.]

* Lambeth is the 5th most deprived Borough in Lambeth and the 19th most deprived borough in England (2007).  (p7)

This is part 1 of my summary of the Whose Shout? report, and really just contains the headline statistics and the points (with my commentary in blod) that I find most interesting and which I've not seen elsewhere.  I've not commented at all upon the police / community consultative angle of the report, and I'll do that in part 2.  The report comes in at a whopping 91 pages, and I doubt it will reach a wider audience unless it's summarised somewhat.  It's very useful on account of its length, but I think that there are some other conclusions that readers of this blog might be interested in, without needing to read the whole thing.  Expect part 2 in the next few days.

The White Hart pub - explanation for renaming

Being well-connected online sometimes pays off.  Shortly after the post I made yesterday, I was followed on Twitter by somebody who owns a group of pubs, amongst them, The White Hart.

Here is a slightly cut down version of why there is a proposed name change for The White Hart and why the White Hart is planning to close and re-open as The Tommyfield:
* The White Hart is a very large modern space on a very busy junction. The primary argument for retaining the name would be that it is a wonderful old pub, and changing it's name would be like ripping its soul out. However, it's not felt that this is a strong argument re. The White Hart due to the fact that the pub's original interior has not been retained.

* In order for a pub to thrive, it needs a very distinct identity, in order to differentiate itself from the multitude of pubs in the area and draw people from further afield. "The White Hart" is apparently the fourth most popular pub name in the country. The owners think it makes sense for a pub to have a unique name to mark it out. A name change is recognised not to make a pub better, but it's one change among many that can galvanise a business. The White Hart will change on a multitude of fronts, and a new name is the single most direct way of communicating this change.

* The pub is in need of more significant refurbishment than originally anticipated and considerable income needs to be generated to facilitate this. Unfortunately, turnover at The White Hart has been in decline for several years (partly due to its own shortcomings. Consquently, the owners have had to take a "hard-nosed commercial view on the issue". Pubs have come under enormous pressure in recent years: the smoking ban, ever-increasing duty on alcohol, big business rate rises, escalating cost of good quality meat & fish, rising minimum wage etc etc. All of this squeezes profit margin and forces the focus to be on creating the most appealing pub possible.

The question for local SE11 residents, of course, is whether what makes a pub appealing to the general public is the same as what makes it appealing to them?

Cllr Mark Harrison has commented on the previous post on the issue of extending licencing hours that, 'The Doghouse and the Little Apple both have 1am licences on Fridays and Saturdays. People who want to object [to the extension of hours] will need to demonstrate that problems will result from the extension. Objections from the immediate neighbours of the White Hart will carry the most weight.'

On a related note... Please do check out a wonderful photo blog here, as somebody has painstakingly photographed a number of open (and closed) pubs in the Kennington and North Lambeth area, in what should prove a useful historical record (if pub closures continue at such a steady rate).

Political stripes revealed - will not remain neutral in face of Labour smear campaign

A few days ago, after a bit of Boris-bashing, I was accused of being politically non-neutral.  That is probably true.  I'm deeply non-neutral, despite my best efforts.  I have now written in the "About me" link that:

"Politically, I'm generally on the side of the people who do not currently hold power in local or national government."

The problem is that my non-neutrality tends to reveal itself under the guise of dislike or disgust of some policy or lack of action.  I am not a member of any national political party, and I'm a true floating voter.  I tend to vote for people, rather than parties as I tend to think you're better off with local politicans who act on your behalf, rather than those with whom you might agree on every issue.  I thought I'd give you a guide to my current general South London political feelings so that you can see that my non-neutral feelings are not particularly uni-directional.

Boris Johnson - Unimpressed by super highway that, in reality, is just blue paint.  Unimpressed by abandonment of cross-river tram.  Unimpressed by attempts to close the South London line.  Unimpressed by refusal to turn Vauxhall into a high-rise mecca, despite supposed dislike of tall buildings.  Unimpressed by attempt to regenerate Nine Elms by "intensification", without having any funding plan for Northern line extension or solution to overcrowding on Victoria line at Vauxhall.  Unimpressed by attempt to include Elephant and Castle in the Crossrail levy, despite it not being anywhere near Crossrail.  Unimpressed by money being found for Crossrail in North London, but no equivalent South London transport investment.

Local Labour lot - Pleased that none of current Labour councillors have run off to Bristol like the last one did.  Pleased to receive regular email updates re. planning consent and bike plans.  Unimpressed that former-Lilian Baylis project still has no legs, and refuse to be fobbed off by the SAZ occupation.  Unimpressed that Beaufoy project was scuppered by insiders at Lambeth Council and is also going nowhere.  Accept that current Councillors appear to do their job adequately, but would be pleased to see a bit more vision and "fight" for the local area.

Lambeth Labour lot (in power) - Deeply deeply unimpressed that the campaign to re-elect Labour is proceeding on the basis of "slag off the Lib Dems" and videos that contain no policy content.  Not impressed by the level of leisure facilities available (or rather, unavailable) to Lambeth residents (particularly re. swimming).  Not impressed by the number of Lambeth leaseholder service charge queries that I(!) have received due to the outsourcing of accommodation management to Lambeth Living.  Annoyed by general Labour smugness.  [I have said on Twitter, in recent days, that unless the Lambeth Labour lot clean up their act, and cease publishing antagonistic videos, that I will refuse to be non-neutral in the next election.  Haven't decided who I'd publicly support, but I despise dirty campaigning.]

Lambeth Lib Dem lot (not in power) - Unimpressed that they only seem to pop up with vigour near to an election.  Unimpressed that, if not carefully watched, they could launch into an aggressive anti-Labour campaign, without detailing their own policies.  Quite impressed by local Oval councillor who spoke up persuasively at recent Nine Elms consultation meeting.

Lambeth Conservative lot (not in power) - Again, tend not to think they do very much outside of local election time.  Neither impressed nor unimpressed by them, but think they lack gravitas locally.

Caroline Pidgeon (Lib Dem London Assembly member)- Quite impressed that Caroline Pidgeon is so re-active when it comes to local SE11 issues.  Quite impressed to have received timely and relevant emails from Cllr Pidgeon when questionned.

Kate Hoey (Labour) - Generally impressed by Kate Hoey, as am in awe of anybody that can topple a speaker.  Particularly approve of Kate Hoey's anti-war and anti-trident stances.  Secretly admire Kate's public disavowal of the whole of Lambeth Council.  Deeply impressed to see Kate Hoey at a number of very small local meetings that couldn't really be used for political capital.  Unimpressed by Kate's occasional attempts in campaign literature to claim that the work of local organisations are somehow all attributable to her in the end.

Deep Blue Subs, and Ways into Work - supporting people seeking work

Apparently, a new sandwich shop - Deep Blue Subs - is opening in Vauxhall.  My new SE11_jobs Twitter feed that sources jobs around SE11 (except when it gets confused by somebody mentioning unrelated "Ovals" informed me that they are hiring.  I've not noticed this shop, but my spies tell me it's somewhere near Vauxhall Station.  (What else have I missed recently?)

On that note, if you're unemployed (or maybe just under-employed), Lambeth Council are running a group for people looking to get back to work.  The group is open to all (not just young people) and will be taking place for 10 weeks, from 22nd Feb.  Go along on Mondays from 10:30am - 12:00.  What's quite unusual is that it's meeting at Alford House Youth Club (kind of tucked away opposite Kennington Tesco), which is impressive because I do occasionally think, what with the still empty Beaufoy and the under-utilised (and badly maintained) former Lilian Baylis, that Lambeth Council sometimes brushes North Lambeth under the carpet.  In this instance of employment and jobs, it does appear not, so let's try to use the services whilst they're on offer! 

Brief note on KOV public meeting and Mayor's Plan

I was somewhat disappointed by the KOV public meeting this evening. There were some good representations made by local community members re. loss of industrial land for local employment. We heard about issues relating to the cost of building public transport (and how this may not help overcrowding on the Northern Line). There were notable remarks about the need for family accommodation and discussion about avoiding high density residential housing. There were comments from various locals who are not in favour of high rise buildings and a high degree of concern about the lack of open space in Lambeth. Somebody wanted to know whether the consultation would even go anywhere, and how local concerns would really be heard and a local resident was concerned that the local estate was just seen to exist to 'do something for' in a kind of ghetto. A number of people had read and commented on the whole document (well done!), and I'm hoping their preliminary remarks might be published soon... I had hoped to write something myself, but the document is huge, and there may be too much to say.

The man from the Mayor's Office seemed disappointed with (most of) the residents, who weren't impressed by the plan, and he wants to hear alternative ideas because, as he said (and I tend to agree), the developers will just proceed inevitably because, as somebody else said, Lambeth are just a huge soft touch when it comes to granting planning permission. I wanted to ask why Lambeth Council have to consider planning permission requests before the Vauxhall Supplementary Planning Document is even finished, but it all seemed a bit pointless because everybody knows that money talks loud.

A number of local politicans spoke (Kate Hoey dropped in, which should be noted, since I'm sure there are less depressing evenings to be had), but none of the politicians or residents really sounded convinced that this inevitable lumbering project could be persuaded to change direction. Some people even seemed to think that the cost of transport would cause the developers to increase the density further, and one person said the proposed development would place a population the size of Welwyn Garden City in one sixth of the space.

Participation in the evening (as with many other consultations) seemed unrepresentative. I spotted no BME residents at all this evening (surely that must be wrong... this is Lambeth). There were too many bumbling old people who just burbled on and took ages to get to any semblance of a point (but that's just public meetings, I guess). A sense of defeat hangs heavily in the air (but that might just be my mood).

The Mayor's office want comments, but didn't invite the audience to visit County Hall and sit around the table and start drafting documents. I don't know who believes that it is possible to make any kind of difference. Everybody knows that something needs to happen in Nine Elms. There is a haven of opportunity in front of us, but nobody seems to think it's an opportunity for them.

Ahh well, tomorrow is another day.

Elephant and Hippo and squatting and Olive Morris

A year or so ago, I noticed that 1 Bowling Green Street (Elephant and Hippo pub) was mentioned in various legal news articles re. the question of regaining possession of the property. I didn't mention it at the time, and the case really only came to any attention because it involved a point of law (whether /any/ court could grant a stay of execution re. gaining possession of a property). The eventual ruling was that any court may indeed grant a stay of execution, but I'm afraid I have failed to figure out who exactly has possession at the moment. I presume that eventually the claimant (Admiral Taverns (Cygnet) Ltd) did win the possession back, (irrespective of how the case went re. the point of law), but I suppose that the question of possession might have had to wait for the Appeal court ruling, and if that's the case, the defendant still has possession.

The pub has theoretically been boarded up for the last year or so. I only noticed because the fabulous elephant and hippo 3D model seemed to disappear from the front. But even before that, it looked rather quiet deserted. In any case, I have heard on the grapevine that the pub is currently squatted. Can anybody advise whether there are plans to turn it into one of those squats that offers community services, in the same vein as The Library House in Camberwell? It seems the Library House have a day in court tomorrow (Jan 18th) and their blog indicates they have asked for supporters to attend an 8am breakfast, if anybody feels like going along... Anyhow, I have often wondered whether the other old pub (the pink one) (formerly The Cricketers) on one side of the Oval is squatted too as have seen movements that might indicate so. If there's lots of squats in SE11, it's all good news, as [notice the badly designed plug], Olive Morris would have agreed.

Who was Olive Morris I hear you asking? (Some people try to answer that question here). She was an amazing, right on lady from Lambeth! She was a campaigner who was well ahead of her time, promoting groups for black women in Lambeth (Brixton specifically) and at the forefront of the Black Panthers and black rights movement in the 1960s and 1970s. Central to her life at one period was the squat at 121 Railton Road she started occupying in 1972 (and which was occupied by squatters until 1999)! If you want to find out more, why not pop into the Gasworks art exhibition named, "Do you remember Olive Morris?" or check out the Remembering Olive Collective blog, from which I've drawn the above information. The Gas Works gallery is open from Wednesday - Sunday. I went today, and it's great to see that this very important woman is not being forgotten, but it made me wonder how many other brave women from this Borough are waiting to be rediscovered. I know that Olive Morris has a whole administrative building to her name, but I wonder whether she has a blue plaque anywhere...

216 Kennington Road (again)

Sorry everyone, but yet again, there is another planning application on 216 Kennington Road, SE11...

In August and September, I blogged that the application to change the use of the basement portion of 216 Kennington Road (old cinema) from D1 to commercial was refused. Prior to that, in May, I blogged that I oppose a bid by a large commercial retailer. Many residents heard on the grapevine that Gallagher are representing Tesco, who are behind the request. So, you'll be unsurprised to learn, if you've not already read it somewhere else, that another planning request has been made.

The planning request is on Lambeth Planning Database here where you can submit comments.

There are a various local voices that say that since the ground floor of the building was originally set aside for community use (this was sadly a missed opportunity), it should be used for such. The problem is that no tenant has been found (but then, I think it has been "off the market" for some time now, due to the Gallagher/Tesco planning application bombardment.

There is another body of people who have suggested it would be better to have a retailer occupy the space than nobody at all, but I do wonder why it has to be Tesco. For my very long blog moan about our local Tesco, see my post from June (and photos of empty shelves) at Trouble at the Big Gay Tesco in Kennington. The page is still getting large numbers of hits, and regular comments, and indeed a defence from somebody who (presumably) works there, alleging staff cuts. With such poor service from the brand at the moment, I hardly think we should be encouraged to support another store in the vicinity.

It all raises the question of how often any company can continually submit planning applications to the local authority, without the authority opening a debate about change of use of buildings (or new developments) to local residents.

Ongoing Lambeth leaseholder debacle

I've been leaked a copy of an email which was sent to Cllr Steve Reed (leader of Lambeth Council) and Derrick Anderson (Chief Executive of Lambeth Council), which I'm going to paste in full below:

I understand from Chris Lee's email response to me late last week that Lambeth Living stand by their estimates as Lambeth has been informed by their vendor, Lambeth Living, that all the estimates are correct and that, and I quote from Cathy Deplissis from Friday news piece, "Lambeth Living has a legal obligation to bill for service charges and Leaseholders have the legal obligation to pay thiose charges",

May I take this opportunity to remind you that those charges have to be "reasonable" and represent value for money otherwise they will not stand up in Leasholder Valauation Tribunal cases and again, this will be costly for Lambeth and will not help the organisations achieve the balanced budget by March 31st.

I am extremely disappointed that given the initial findings of the Audit Commission on the lack of response to Leaseholders' queries and request for information/evidence of charges etc, that we are still in this position and there seems to be no signs of progress to meet across the table to discuss this major issue.

I know that for political reasons, distancing oneself from the shambles of the ALMO might seem like a good idea, however, I cannot see how this will serve the longevity of any officer or Councillor as the fact remains that our Landlord is not ble to manage their property management contractor.

I can only say that after requesting this meeting, and Cllr. Pecks further follow up which has been ignored, that I will now have to email the residents who have again, given up their own time to work out their charges etc and sent copies to me so that I could have a discussion with you both, only to be let down again. I will aslo be sending this to the other Leaseholders that I have contact with as I have promised them that I will do what I can. and this failure is simply not for my lack of trying.

I am very disappointed that there are around 10,000 household in Lambeth being ignored and expected to pay for these hike in charges and the response is to pass this around and not to meet with us.

I will also be sending information to as many leaseholders as I can to inform them of their rights, under law, to hold Lambeth to account for these charges.

Yours in utter frustration and disappointment,

Steve Rice

It appears to me that Steve Rice is doing a fantastic public service for all Lambeth leaseholders. Remember, the inflated leaseholder bills are an issue across the whole Borough, and are not exclusive to SE11.

If progress on the issue (in the form of public meetings, and so on) is not forthcoming, then I will continue to publicise that fact in a way that makes it known to as many people as possible.

London European Election results - Lambeth breakdown

I know it's only of marginal interest to SE11 readers, but we are a part of the London Borough of Lambeth and I think the breakdown of voting in the Borough of Lambeth in the European elections is fascinating because it's contrary to the rest of the UK.

Thanks to Fiona Colley on Twitter who pointed me to the full results on Lambeth website here.

The breakdown is as follows:

1174 - BNP
2154 - Christian Party - Proclaiming Christ's Lordship
10537 - Conservative Party
488 - English Democrat Party
194 - Jury Team
11340 - Liberal Democrats
478 - No to EU: Yes to Democracy
281 - Pro Democracy: Libertas.eu
653 - Socialist Labour Party
10394 - The Green Party
15990 - The Labour Party
158 - The Socialist Party of Great Britain
3111 - United Kingdom Independence Party
155 - Yes to Europe
46 - Gene Alcantara
187 - Steven Cheung
176 - Jan Jananayagam
36 - Sohale Rahman
48 - Haroon Saad

Rejected ballots = 558
Turnout = 30.15%

So total votes cast = 58,158

What's interesting about these results is as follows:

1. The Green Party won only 143 votes less than the Conservatives in Lambeth. That's an appalling Conservative result and a fantastic result for the Greens!

2. Labour are so far ahead (4650 votes) than their nearest rivals (Lib Dems) in Lambeth that they're virtually unbeatable at current turnout levels. This might not be so interesting if Labour didn't appear to be performing so badly nationally. There's a joke in my hometown constituency that "you could pin a blue rosette on a monkey, and everybody would still vote Conservative", but that seems to hold for red rosettes in Lambeth.

3. UKIP performed appallingly in Lambeth compared with the national result. Even the UKIP result and the BNP result added together does not approach anything like that of the main parties and only makes up 7.37% of the vote.

4. The BNP won only just over 2% of the vote. That's still too much, but it does mean that they're not likely to gain a foothold in Lambeth and their "clean image" promotion is not working amongst local people. That's a very good thing.

5. If everyone who voted for a party that received under 1000 votes had voted for a party that received 1000 votes or above, there would be an extra 2900 votes zapping around that might not have been "wasted" on minor candidates. Those votes couldn't have closed the gap between Labour and their opponents, but they could have pushed Lib Dems much closer to Labour or pushed either the Conservatives or Greens into second place.

I would love it if this data were available by ward. We're interested in Princes, Oval and Bishops around here, but I don't suppose that information is available. Please comment if you know where I could obtain a further breakdown.

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.

Madeira Day in Kennington Park

Due to leaving SE11 momentarily over the Bank Holiday, I missed the fact that there was a Madeira Day celebration in Kennington Park on Saturday. Since Lambeth has a very high proportion of Portuguese residents (and very welcome they are too), we are the fortunate beneficiaries of Portuguese food, drink and festivals. However, I can't figure out what Madeira Day is a celebration of exactly... Is it just the place?

Fortunately, the Mayor of Lambeth was there, and has recorded the day (along with photos) on his blog in full. It looks quite busy! I found some other photos on Flickr, taken by somebody else that attended.

That will teach me not to leave London... It looks like a lot of fun, but I failed to see it advertised anywhere before I left. I wonder whether it's annual?

North Lambeth Parish fete - Lambeth Palace - photos

I do admit that I have added Lambeth Palace to the map, even though it's not strictly SE11. I'm not sure if I've ever commented that whoever drew the postcode boundaries drew them in such a way that SE11 was denied any views of the river! Consequently, there is a thin slice of SE1 that runs down the Albert Embankment to Vauxhall, and that slice includes Lambeth Palace. Also, another interesting fact is that Lambeth Parish doesn't sit in anybody's diocese, it's sort of its own realm. I wonder if they take in exiles... A pertinent question!

Anyhow, the palace does get a special mention on the map, and the incumbant of Lambeth Palace seems to allow (not sure if it was just this year, or whether it has been ongoing) the Parish of North Lambeth (an amagulmation of St Peter's (Vauxhall), St Anselm (Kennington Cross) and St Mary (Lambeth - Methodist/Anglican)) to hold its fete.

We went very briefly on Saturday, mostly because it was a bit of a rush to get from the fete to the London ordinations elsewhere in the afternoon! Here are a few snaps of the fete, and a couple of lovely ones of the garden in full bloom. Will try to make it back some other time to take more photos of the gardens, because they're lovely. The fete was well organised with South London Jazz orchestra, cake stalls, bric-a-brac, strawberries and cream, tombola, raffle etc. It was exactly what one would hope for in a traditional English (in the absolutely broadest sense possible, where English includes everybody who happens to live here) parish fete, the weather was glorious and it was wonderful that so many people stopped by.

NB - The usual qualification stands. I try to take non-generic pictures in "peopled" crowds. If you can see yourself and object to being photographed, please leave a comment and I will take the photo down.

Bouncy castle:




Generic fete:




South London Jazz band




Flowery walk:



Lavender-like flowers:




I'd like it if somebody could tell me what the lavender-like flowers are called... They're incredible.