Madeira Day 2010 [Moved to Monday 3rd May]

I almost completely forgot, but Madeira Day will be celebrated in Kennington Park, SE11 on Monday 3rd May from 10am to 7pm (it was moved from Sunday, due to the bad weather).  Lambeth's Mayor thoroughly enjoyed the day last year, and the SE11 lurker intends to try to drop in for some of the festivities this year.  Apparently, there will be food, drink and live music.  Woo Hoo!  It's party-time :-)

I'm pleased that the national anti-immigration political discussions have not intruded too badly into the diverse Borough of Lambeth.  One of the benefits of living in a multi-cultural society is that local residents are given so many opportunites to celebrate the carnivals, festivals and feast days of all nations.  South London people are party people! 

To the surprise of many, Lambeth is home to one of the largest Portuguese communities in the world.  Apparently, there are 27,000 Portuguese residents in Lambeth, and I'm delighted that they're here, holding a party in Kennington Park.  Many of the established and successful businesses in Lambeth (all of those Tapas bars and delicatessens in South Lambeth Road) have been set up over the years by Portuguese people that settled in Lambeth in the 60s and 70s and I believe our life in London is and has been greatly enhanced by the presesence of people from other countries.  (I keep wanting to say "Portuguese immigrants", but it seems wrong to refer to our Portuguese community as immigrants, when many of them are happily settled in Britain and have been for many years).

I have an entirely unverifiable theory that all of the best parties take place in South London.  Viva Madeira!

[Edit: I've put the photos from the event on another post.]

How "buying agents" clearly have no idea who has the best parties...

One of the interesting things about the Kennington News blog is that the author of it clearly uses some sort of online news gathering software which just picks out the word "Kennington", whatever the article might be about. This is useful in that the blog includes everything from articles vaguely relating to Kennington (it just so happens that the last block of "blue" aeroplane toilet ice landed through the roof of a couple in Kennington) to those that are highly relevant (advertisements of church fetes, local plays etc.). It also means that any bias against negative news is entirely bypassed as everything that hits the word is covered.

This article on How buying agents found my dream home in London caught my eye today. I am, in one sense rather glad that Kennington - SE11 - will not become occupied in the immediate future by those who do not want to live in a mixed society - rich, middle-income and poor; black, brown and white; Buddhist, Muslim and Christian; gay, bi and straight, all next door to one another. In another sense, I am, quite frankly shocked that somebody would consider the threat of being mugged (on the word of one person) as a reason not to move to the area! As an aside, it is probably the fact that I have spent so much time trudging around all of the back streets around here that I refuse to be afraid (or maybe I really am just foolish) of moving to SE11. I mean who, in their right mind, goes to a local police station and asks how safe an area is? Most police stations only see the worst of an area. I always remember with admiration a friend of mine who said, "everyone told me not to send my children to that school because they would learn nothing, but nobody seemed to think of the fact that the other children at the school might benefit from having my children there".

I think Kennington is a particularly fascinating area because it is one of those places that it is impossible to gentrify. Whilst there will always exist large Georgian and Victorian properties worth millions, those houses and flats will always (I hope) sit alongside 1920s and post-WW2 local authority housing. Long may this coninue, because I think that such social mixing is vital for any area. I do not think that this country is one in which the poor will be less poor, anytime soon (whilst many people say that they want this, it's not clear to me that many people have enacted a viable corporate politic that might make it concrete). But neither do I consider that those who are wealthy should be allowed to cocoon themselves off in boring little safehavens where they might never be accosted by somebody that smells bad. Why is it assumed that people should want (if they are rich) or should be forced (if they are poor) to live in places where everybody else there is like them?

Anyhow, there's no doubt that Regent's Canal beats the SE11 gas cylinders... But perhaps it's me, or maybe not; I think that Kennington, Oval, Vauxhall, Stockwell, Elephant, Brixton and their surrounds still possess something that pulls the kind of people who choose (or are forced) to stick two fingers up in the face of the risk of "crime" and say, "to hell with north London, where is everybody else?"