Channel 4 umbrellas - quirky London stuff

I know it's a little bit outside of SE11 (even North of the river, shock horror), I love the new art installation on Horeseferry Road, in front of the Channel 4 Building:

As you can see from the photo (which has to be taken from across the road, to get the angle correct) it's sculpted entirely out of old umbrellas, and lit up, so that it's colourful at night. The author, Stephanie Imbeau, used umbrellas for the construction material because they are a universal item used by people in the UK, whatever their background. She, apparently likes to use items from hardware shops when designing, since they "give the materials a chance to be something other than what they were initially created to be, and it also helps me to explore my interests in the everyday and domesticity".

I'm persuaded, at any rate, and it's only a quick jog from SE11!

Police and immigration at Vauxhall station

There were about 50 Police / Community Service Officers and British Transport Police, plus one immigration official at Vauxhall at about 14:10 today when I passed through. Why might this be? Could the use of 50 policemen/women just to check oyster cards be described as "overkill"? And why an immigration official? Are they worried about people escaping from South London to Pimlico or something?

I might have been conservative in my estimates. If you click to enlarge the picture below, you'll see at least 25!

Another 6 or so officers in this one. The guy with his back to the camera has something like "Border Control Agency" on the back of his jacket in this one:

I ran away quickly before anybody stopped me taking any more photos. And I am aware of the irony of a surveillance society itself being surveilled :)

The cafe formerly known as Dippy Egg, formerly known as Jado, Kennington

The cafe formerly known as The Dippy Egg, formerly known as Jado in Kennington Road near Kennington Cross appears to have been leased. It is, at least, being refurbished and the counter/internal furnishings have all been removed. I saw workmen in there on Saturday as I peered through the gaps in the whitewashed window. I don't know what it's going to be!

Also, the launderette at 220 Kennington Park Road next to the funeral director on the corner has been gutted (all the washing machines have gone). I'm not sure whether it will come back, but it must be something of a blow for people without washing machines. There were quite often people in there.

Finally, I've had a spate of Googlings looking for an SE11 sex shop. I couldn't think what they might be referring to, until it occurred to me that they might be referring to the new place(Master U) on Kennington Lane. It technically sells leather bondage gear rather than being a sex shop (I'm sure you all wanted to know that), and I'm kind of assuming that it caters for local clientele :)

Spring is nearly sprung (hopefully) so it's time for gardening

Careful readers of the blog will know that I'm interested in cultivating rooftops and areas in which others might not have thought about gardening. I'm very interested in planting veg (and fruit?) in areas that aren't overly exposed to traffic fumes. I'm quite excited by an idea for growing tomatoes in old plastic bottles that I found on a website this weekend. I also sent off for a book on container gardening, since not actually having a garden can be something of a constraint and I want to branch out into vegetables! It must be said though, that the beautiful chilli plant, bought for £2 on Camberwell New Road is sprouting new chillies happily in the bathroom! I'm sure I'll still find some space for strawberries and tomatoes on the balcony though (which has the advantage that squirrels, birds and slugs don't have easy access).

Inspired by the enthusiasm of residents in Lambeth Walk / Old Paradise Street, who, according to the Prince's Ward Councillor blog (Labour administration), are attempting to investigate the possibility of a community garden, a weekend visit to the Museum of Garden history cafe (next to Lambeth Palace) and finally a quick wander down from the museum past a potential allotment site for the Museum staff, I've decided it's time to expand the gardening efforts from inside the flat (whose balcony is still beautifully decorated with winter flowering pansies and viola) to the wider area.

Since the weather is getting warmer and the evenings are getting longer (well, slightly), I've joined the Guerrilla Gardeners forum in a bid to attempt to enlist some willing guerrilla gardeners for the SE11 patch (and its surroundings). Plants don't much care about postcodes so it would be great to hear from any readers who would be happy to explore the area and venture a little further out to make the Kennington/Vauxhall/Riverside area a little more attractive...

C'mon, you know you want to do gardening in the middle of the night! :-)

Additional library for Lambeth... The Library House

At the end of last year, astute local news watchers might have noticed that Lambeth Council was accused of opening "ghost" libraries, shortly before the Council was due to be inspected. It opened temporary book borrowing from three already existing facilities that it ran, but the facilities were never intended to be libraries. Whilst Lambeth Council claimed the "libraries" were pilot projects, some internal emails from staff indicate otherwise...

But the really good news is that Lambeth does have a new library (or at least one that has been given a new lease of life). And guess what? Lambeth Council is trying to close it down. Why are there no headlines? Why no outraged Daily Mail readers? Well, presumably because, like the transport network is at times subject to "the wrong kind of snow", Lambeth Council is now subject "to the wrong kind of library".

According to an article in The Evening Standard (that liberal bastion of merry goodness), about the Library House's occupants,

"Lambeth council had most recently been using it to provide social housing but it had been vacated for renovations.

Yet construction work has not been able to get under way and the squatters have refused repeated pleas to leave during the last six months. The council now faces a legal battle to obtain a court eviction order."

There's a quote by one of the occupants (Simon), who apparently said:

"When we arrived, it was in a real mess. We cleaned up the garden and fixed all the rooms. There were squatters here before us who sold drugs. We are not interested in any of that. We do live an alternative lifestyle, but all we want to do here is something for the community."

Well, how fabulous! I applaud the efforts of all squatters and other anarchist-y types who are attempting to work for the common good, or create that most elusive concept, "community". I think it's really good news that they're offering classes in everything from "Squatting" to "Spanish". And all of that, for no charge at all. Lambeth Council should be encourage such initiatives! It's hardly like they're going to get any money to put all of their empty buildings to good use.

I confess I've not yet visited them because whilst my soul is that of an anarchist, community forming, hippy squatter, my upbringing is one that almost entirely precluded such an anti-establishment option. I think I'm secretly afraid of getting beaten up for sustaining capitalism by doing an ordinary job in a corporate firm. One of these days I might just run away and join one of these self-sustaining anarchist communities. It's so damned tempting. In the meantime, I want the option open to me, so I'm going to unabashedly promote their activites. On Sunday 22nd (this weekend), they're going to be running a Free School. See here for more details.

I've been subscribed to their blog, The Library House, for sometime now and I think they deserve some good publicity. Billed as being in Camberwell, they are actually kind of in no (wo)mans land between Brixton, Camberwell and Stockwell, but it's definitely possible to walk/bus from SE11.

Oh, and I forgot... within the next weeks I'm going to be doing an exposé of some of the Lambeth Council properties in my locality that are currently boarded up because /that/ should act as a good answer to the commentators on the Library House who think that deserving people require housing. Yes, they do, and Lambeth Council doesn't seem to be doing much about it.

Round of News in SE London, and quick note on Brixton market

SE11 is still very quiet at the moment. The only event of note is that the Kennington Association will be having a bazaar on Saturday (21st Feb) from 11am-1pm. More details on the KA blog.

Consequently, I bring you only the pieces of exciting news that have caught my eye in the South East:

The Peoples' Republic of Southwark (courtesy of Camberwell Online) are hoping to set up a Public Meeting to increase Real Life interaction between people in Camberwell to involve more local people with their surroundings. More details on CamberwellOnline blog.

Again from Camberwell Online, funding has been approved for Phase 2 of the East London Line extension which will put more of South East London on the overground/tube. There's a lovely map (for those sad types that like to see coloured lines linking things together) from another blog here. It will be interesting to see how this might create possibilities for better joined up thinking in South London.

I forgot to mention that the nasty, ugly 23 storey building, destined for the end of Black Prince Road in SE11 didn't get the go ahead. London-SE1 did a report on that. There is likely to be an appeal, so we'll keep our fingers crossed. My only concern is that another developer might dream up something worse!

And finally... I'm not too sure how serious this threat is, but I've caught whiff of news which suggests that there is a company who hope to build on Granville Place (part of Brixton market). It's not possible to oppose the plan yet as it hasn't been placed on Lambeth Council's online Planning database. The Friends of Brixton Market have quickly put together some info. and have given instructions about what you can do to keep the market in place and to stop Brixton becoming some sort of trendy shopping mall. I like the market down in Brixton. I think it has great character, and some of the few fresh fish stalls left in London, so I'd be sad to see it turned into a bastion of smart looking chain stores, especially considering that Elephant and Castle will probably go that way any way (and surely with better reason than Brixton). Isn't there a limit to the amount of chain stores that any town centre needs...?

Kennington park and Kennington SE11 in the snow - amazing sculptures

Taken about an hour ago in Kennington Park:

These amazing sculptures have been designed and executed by local students at the City and Guilds of London Art School. They were supposed to be in college! Apparently, the first sculpture only took an hour and a half.






This one was the largest snowman in Kennington park:



This was my favourite Kennington Park snowman. Look carefully and you'll see he's from Columbia and is enjoying a drink!



An amazing snow bird, spotted on Kennington Park Road:




These three photos were taken this morning at about 8:45:

This is at the entrance to Kennington Park:



More Kennington Park this morning:



Kennington Park Road on the way to work this morning at 8:45:



Crossing Kennington Park at about 16:00 this afternoon:

Council tax - good news

I've been a bit lax of late, about updating this blog. There are a number of local events taking place, and much information is available elsewhere through, for example, the Kennington Association news blog, and also on Stockwell News, but I'll keep trying to highlight events from time to time as well...

One of the first things worth commenting on this year is the council tax freeze. I think it's worth saying "yay" about the fact that Lambeth council have frozen council tax for the next two years. Info gained from the Labour Councillors' Princes Ward blog, SE11 Action team, here.

On the other hand, are we impressed by the scale or depth of detail re. the consultation over 81 Black Prince (I went into further detail about this in my last post here)? No. We're not the slightest bit impressed to receive only two days notice that there is to be a meeting with the developers about 81 Black Prince Road, organised by the Council. Whilst it appears that their blog was updated on January 22nd to inform the public about the meeting, it appears that many of the interested parties did not receive an email until January 27th.

So... The meeting about 81 Black Prince Road is tonight from 5pm to 8pm at the 81 Black Prince Road site. The postcode for the site is SE1 7SZ.

Fog - Coffee morning - nasty tall building

Everything seems rather quiet at the moment in SE11. A long, dark fog descended last night making views towards the river disappear. The Tesco in Vauxhall / Kennington still appears to contain a large amount of unbought Christmas food. Quite a number of formerly occupied shops in Kennington Road are sadly empty. The dark evenings have prevented me from taking interesting photographs of the area, which was part of the intention for this blog. When I get home in the evening, it's already dark! Bring on the summer...

Oh yes, and looming large and long on the horizon is a nasty planning application for a building on 81 Black Prince Road. Now I really am not opposed to new developments. I'm actively in favour of new houses, flats, commercial property when built in an appropriate style. What I really dislike though is huge buildings, of no particular merit that do not fit the surrounds, which in all respects describes the proposed development on Black Prince Road. Quite why anybody thinks a 23 storey building appropriate for that location is a mystery to me. If you want to see the planning application, click here. I do have a vested interest, in that I might lose some views from where I currently as a result of the building (I could just move!), but I'm not too keen on the new 43 storey Strata building in Elephant and Castle either. I just do not like very tall buildings in locations other than Canary Wharf. Anyhow, if you might be affected by 81 Black Prince Road, and want to object, you can do so online using the link above.

I'm going to try and attend the Prince's Ward Councillors coffee morning on 17th January in case there are some interesting SE11 people or issues to discuss, and I'll report back on Prince's Ward news. I think it's quite novel, trying to meet people In Real Life (IRL), rather than doing an internet thing. But then people are always reminding me that not everybody that needs to access a councillor either owns a computer or would be capable of using one.

Merry Christmas

I wish a Merry Christmas to all readers of the Lurking about SE11 blog. We have the following local good news stories in honour of Christmas:

Here's a great story from the Telegraph about a one 100 year old lady, originally born in Kennington.

There's an alarming story here of a Pest Control officer who discovered a 2 ft crocodile in a house in Peckham!

There's a bright story about the father in Walworth who has decorated his estate with Christmas lights to celebrate his son's recovery from leukaemia.

Another stabbing: Tooley Street

There's been another stabbing at Tooley Street in SE1. This is of two men, one in his thirties and one in his teens, but fortunately, it is thought that neither of their lives are at risk. London-SE1 reports the rest.

Good grief. I thought that this was the season for goodwill and cheer.

Camberwell Shooting

A 26 year old man was shot dead two nights ago (Friday 19th December) after an incident which apparently began in Coldharbour Lane, Camberwell. Police are chasing two men who apparently ran in the direction of Crawford Road.

There's not much further information on the matter. The Telegraph's report is scant. The Press Association suggests that the shooting started in Coldharbour Lane, Stockwell, but since Stockwell isn't really near Coldharbour Lane, I can only assume that they've incorrectly labelled the area.

My sympathy goes to the family of the man in question.

Is Kennington / this area safe?

I cannot quite recall how many times I've been asked "is Kennington safe?" or "is this area safe?" or received looks of incredulity for owning up to the fact that I choose to live in SE11, but I can safely say that if I had £1 for every time I was asked, I think I'd be able to live quite happily on the proceeds.

The problem is that I don't have a good answer to the question. I've hosted numerous international students over the years, and I have several answers to this question:

1. None of London is safe in the sense that it's a large city with dark corners containing a huge number of strangers.

2. London might be safer in certain parts than some cities because of the fact that some parts are very busy.

3. The areas that I feel safe in are actually areas that have less money. Whilst Kensington or Chelsea might "feel" safer, I'm inclined to think that the risk of being mugged is higher because one actually stands a chance of finding somebody with some money on them in those areas! However, there are also locations within certain areas that I perceive to have deep pockets of poverty, and which I would consequently feel vulnerable walking at night.


This is the advice that I give to international students for living/traveling in London:

1. If you do not know the city well (particularly if you are a woman), try to travel as much as possible with somebody else until you know the area better. If you get lost, ask an older woman for help with directions.

2. Once you know an area, walk confidently and determinedly at a steady pace to wherever you're going. Do not catch peoples' eyes or stare at people, but also do not look as though you're afraid. You have as much right to be out as anybody else to be out and about during the day or night.

3. Traveling through well-lit and well-populated areas is much safer than traveling through dark side streets. I know it may be noisier, but choose to live on a main road in a property with double glazing, rather than opting for a quiet cul-de-sac in which the lighting is poor, and where people will not pass regularly.

4. Do not carry your camera/wallet/purse on display or get them out more than necessary. Keep valuables in a bag which has a zip. My top tip is to keep your oyster card separate from your wallet so that each time you go on public transport, you don't have to get your money out!

In answer to the question, "is Kennington safe?", I can only point to the Metropolitan Crime Maps here: and ask you to start burrowing into Lambeth at ward or sub ward level. Unfortunately, the maps don't appear to have been updated since October 2008, but it does give some idea of crime in the area. Most of Kennington appears to have average levels of crime for London. If you want to be really safe, you could move to Wimbledon, Richmond or Twickenham, but you'll then live in the suburbs. I'd much rather walk home alone from Kennington tube than have to catch a late night overground train back to Twickenham.

Oh, and I don't think the shooting/knifing headlines are useful to judge how safe an area is because knife crime/gun crime does appear to be particularly targeted upon those involved in drugs/turf wars.

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.

Cutting of concierges on council estates in Kennington

I've been watching with some concern, various news stories about concierges being removed from (or having their hours cut) on various council estates in Kennington. There have been plenty of reader responses in the media, and all have reacted negatively against the cost cutting suggestions. The SE11 Labour councillors have weighed in on the debate, arguing that it's the Lib Dems fault for bringing in expensive CCTV cameras that there's now no money to operate. Unfortunately, the current Labour councillors have not actually resolved the situation yet.

Whilst cutting concierges might appear to the council (or more likely, the management companies), as a quick way save money, it appears instead to be making certain estates more dangerous. The concierges perform the role of keeping an eye on the estate, and no doubt, help unite the people who live in any particular area.

Sadly, there is now an alarming piece on the front of this week's South London Press about serious arson at Elkington Point on the Ethelred Estate. I think that the newspaper's linking of the blazes with the issue of cutting concierge services is spot on, although I'm not clear whether the Elkington Point services have been cut. (By the way, Elkington Point is such a nasty looking building - that is, it's very badly upkept, that I cannot find one image of the tower to display here). If they haven't actually cut the concierge services, I dread to think what might happen within the next few months...