Kennington Gardens Society - 12th August - Guerrilla Gardening Talk

Just a quick post to note that on Thursday 12th August (this week) at 7:30pm, Kennington Gardens Society are hosting a talk from Richard Reynolds, who is a local founder of the Guerrilla Gardening movement.  There's a £2 fee on the door and the venue is Roots and Shoots on Walnut Tree Walk (see poster below)

I've been to KGS talks in the past, and they usually prove fascinating, even if your garden is only as extensive as a patio.  I'm definitely attending this one, since I'd be interested in hearing whether there might be local sites that could benefit from beautification.

Planning Appeal on 216 Kennington Road (possible Tesco)

Since I was assuming that the opening of 216 Kennington Road as a Tesco was a virtual certainty (and the owners of Aby Convenience Store at 297 Kennington Road seem to have assumed thus, since they've shut up shop), I've not been taking much notice of the endless letters Lambeth Council keep sending out.  I was just assuming that the store would soon open.  There appears to have been a slight delay though, so I've just been leafing back through correspondence to figure out what's happening.

A letter on 22nd July noted that Gallagher wished to extend the opening hours by two hours (from 7:00 - 21:00 to 7:00 - 23:00) 7 days a week.  A second letter on 27th July corrected the first letter, which had omitted to mention that the extended opening times would apply seven days a week, and which added that the application would not be heard at the Planning Committee on 4 August 2010, but would be heard at the next possible date.

In the meantime, I've received a third letter which notifies of a Planning Appeal to the Secretary of State contesting hours of operation and deliveries on Bank and Public Holidays.  If you wish to comment in favour of the appeal (against extended opening) or against the appeal (in support of extended opening), you must quote reference APP/N5660/A/10/2130094, send three copies of your comments (by 31 August 2010) to:

The Planning Inspectorate, Room 3/19,
Eagle Wing, Temple Quay House
2 The Square, Temple Quay
Bristol, BS1 6PN

Alternatively, you can make your comments online at:  www.planningportal.gov.uk/pcs

So, I presume the thing will open in the end, but whether it will open from 7am to 11pm each day is under dispute.  One recent Tweet sent my way complained that there were no cash points between Elephant and Kennington Tesco, so if they do have to open a Tesco, let's hope they'll think to install a free cash point.  It would be useful to have one in the centre of Kennington.

Meanwhile, I notice that Ladbrokes and Pizza Express have both received a lick of paint and external improvements, and Kennington Cross is looking quite polished at the moment.

Triangle Adventure Playground vs. Archbishop Tenison School

Cast your mind back to the Parliamentary hustings, held back in April in St Mark's Church and you might remember that the "Triangle" featured briefly in questions to the candidates.  The Triangle is an Adventure Playground that sits just outside of the SE11 border in Ashmole Street.  The site is leased to the Triangle Adventure Playground Association (who are a charitable foundation) by Lambeth Council.  The Triangle is the oldest Adventure Playground to have remained on a consistent site in London, but was founded at a similar time to Lollard Street Adventure playground.  (It's worth noting at this point that residents must keep a close eye on the Lollard site since its future is potentially tied up in the future of the former Lilian Baylis School, and all of our adventure playgrounds are very valuable community resources).

Mention the Triangle to local councillors, and you might receive well-worn looks of despair.  Essentially, Archbisop Tenison School needed space to expand their play facilities.  The school /was/ due to receive money from the Building Future Schools programme which would allow them to provide schooling for an additional 150 boys, and Lambeth Council were left in the slightly awkward position that they would essentially need to sacrifice the Community Playground in order to turn it into a school playground that could be used on an out-of-hours basis by the community.  A shared solution was being sought (as at 15/10/2009) according to this FOI request, but since mention of the site still seems contentious, it would appear that no joint solution has been found.  I've also found that wading through the documentation on the matter is confusing.  The FOI email seems to suggest that Archbishop Tenison needed the space for a car park (Lambeth Council firmly refuted this) and reports from elsewhere seemed to suggest that the site would only be closed temporarily in order to allow the school to complete some building work (which is what seemed to be at issue during the hustings).  I am going to assume, unless somebody says to the contrary, that the plan was to give the Triangle Adventure Playground to Archbishop Tension School, and it is this that the Playground committee are objecting to (particularly since many students at the school are not resident in Lambeth).

At the hustings, Kate Hoey appeared to blame Council Officers / council machinery for some of the decisions taken on the project.  More recently, the South London Press published an article (KA news blog has a copy here) which suggests that Kate Hoey has written to the Council, asking them to "save" the playground.  This is an interesting request, but is perhaps not unachievable, given the recent Lib/Tory pact to abolish the Future for Schools program.  If the Archbishop Tension School can't expand, then there's not really much reason to absorb the playground (as Kate Hoey noted) and she has called for the Council to reconsider their decision to close the Triangle.

What's important to note though, is that Kate Hoey has been campaigning for a shared solution (which does appear on the face of it to be common sense).  Ms Hoey doesn't want to see the Triangle disappear, nor does she want the school to be deprived of extra play space.  But the SLP article notes that,

"a council spokesman said the local authority would still not be renewing the lease when it expires in November."

Now surely anybody can see that that is not a good decision.  The school cannot expand due to the failure of the Building Future Schools program (which is a very bad thing), but the Triangle Adventure Playground cannot continue because the Council are refusing to renew the lease.  Are the Council attempting to de-facto hand the playground to the school, ousting the good work put in on behalf of local children in the 344th (out of 354) most deprived area of child deprivation in the UK?  Yes. Councillor Pete Robbins maintains that Lambeth Council are committed to expanding the school and that more space is needed for classrooms and play space (how they'll do this without any money is unknown).  I'm not sure whether Lambeth Council fund the Triangle at all, but it's quite clear that Lambeth Council will be cutting youth services, which might have something to do with the decision.

It seems to me that this would be a very good opportunity to start practicing all of this Co-operative Council malarky.  I'd have thought that Polly Toynbee (who will sit on the co-op's board), who has always been an advocate for the disenfranchised ought to be concerned about the removal of the playground.  Has anybody written to her?  I wouldn't personally wish to take on a Toynbee-Hoey coalition!  The Triangle are talking about organising a sit-in in November and waiting for forcible removal by bailiffs.  Surely it needn't come to that?  But if it does, perhaps we can arrange for some of the members of the venerable associations, organisations and adventure playgrounds in the area to at least organise a large enough sit-in that the bailiffs have a difficult task on their hands!  If you wish to sign the Triangle Association's petition, you can do so here, but they seem still to be using the misleading information that the site would be turned into a car-park, which from what I can discern is not quite true.

Schools in Lambeth will have to expand, but why not add secondary school places to the borough by using the already existing empty Beaufoy building?  A situation in which schools are having to compete with youth facilities for space is completely unacceptable, and I do wonder whether, perhaps led and arbitrated by Kate Hoey, the Triangle Adventure Playground Association might not be able to meet with the governors of the Archbishop Tension School to come to a mutual arrangement?

Part 2... continued here.

Boris bikes / Ken bikes continued... or Why can't London always be this way?

So, I decided to continue my Boris bike (Ken bike) exploration today.  Somebody really needs to invent a better name for these bikes, since nobody wants to call them Barclays Cycle Hire bikes on account of our dislike of corporate sponsorship (and big banks).  To be fair, it's also rather a mouthful.  But it seems disingenuous to call them Boris bikes when they were Ken's idea.  Barc Bikes is nicely alliterative, but alludes back to Barclays again.  Anybody any better ideas?

Anyhow, I wanted to go and discover whether the Lollard Street dock and the Kennington Lane Rail Bridge dock really existed, and if they worked.  I began at my local, Kennington Road Post Office, hopped on a bike, glanced behind me and set off.  I share the view of another commentator who remarked that the gears are set too low.  My legs were spinning around, Tom and Jerry-like, and I wasn't going very far!  They're also designed only to be ridden for short distances on account of having saddles that tip you forward slightly.  I've discovered that they're much more comfortable to ride when I raise the saddle so that my toes don't touch the ground.  I don't regard myself as short by any means (I'm 5'4"), but I can't see anybody much shorter being able to ride these and still have their toes touch the ground.  The other SE11_lurker (who is 4ft 11 and three quarter inches) cannot ride them at all, so they're yet another philandrist device, designed to exclude short people!  Other than that, they're a fine specimen of transport.

My ride to Lollard Street didn't take long, but upon arrival, I was detained by an older, slightly inebriated man who wished to engage in conversation about the bikes.  That is what I really like about the scheme.  Londoners have suddenly stopped to talk to one another.  The chap wanted to know what I thought about the scheme, how you used the cycles and how much it cost.  It seems to take people a little while to get their heads around the idea that there is both an access and a usage charge.  I explained that the bikes were designed for tourists to hire all day (eg. a rip-off for long-time hire), and most people would put them back within half an hour.  He was unconvinced that they were better than his bike at home, and I had to agree, but we chatted for 10 minutes. On Friday, I was detained at the Post Office by a man from an expensive flat and a woman who lived on the local estate who both wanted the scheme explained.  On Saturday, whilst I was experiencing the yellow light-red light issue, again at the Post Office, another woman wanted to chat about them.  When I put my key in, there's usually a set of passers-by wondering how they work.  And this morning, I was chatting to some Camberwellians who had noticed my TV appearance, and wanted to know why the bikes hadn't been placed further south in London.  Well, quite.  Boris probably doesn't travel much further south than Elephant and Castle, so that might explain it.  But it has led me to wonder, "why can't London always be this way?".  I really like these conversational excursus, although one has to ensure they're held /before/ you put the key in, otherwise you'll be using up the half hour chatting to strangers!  But, why not?  I hope that people keep chatting, even when the novelty wears off.

I made a bit of a mistake with Lollard Street.  It's one of those "out of the way" bike docks, and the bikes have been placed just outside of the former Lilian Baylis School.  There were plenty there, but it turned out that I'd hired one of those over-tightened back wheel affairs.  I realised within 15 seconds, but decided to plough on.  Phewww.  Exhausting.  I cycled as far as the Embankment, and went to see whether  the Fire Brigade Pier docking station exists.  It doesn't.  Do beware of that.  Whilst it seems to appear on some of the maps, I arrived at the place where it should have been, only to be greeted by a blank section of pavement and no electrical points here:

The bike had become seriously hard work by this point, but I pioneered on, heading for Vauxhall.  However, a little further up, I spotted the Albert Embankment dock.  I thought they weren't operative, so I zoomed to the right to chat to the chap in the yellow jacket.  He noted that I could choose to dock the bike and that I should press the red "fault" button, but that if I did so, I'd be unable to take out another bike.  Oh dear!  Here's the Albert Embankment dock (including some tourists looking curious):

I elected to cycle on to Vauxhall, hoping to find the Kennington Lane Rail Bridge dock.  I'd not spotted it before, because it's actually under the bridge (it's the tunnel just next to the Vauxhall Tavern).  I docked the bike, but completely forgot about pressing the fault button and by the time I'd remembered, 10 seconds had more than expired.  I turned the saddle around (like the French do) to indicate a fault, and hoped that some of the Serco chaps would spot it.  Here's the dock... (Photo quality is due to iphone camera):

At that point, things took a turn for the worse.  I decided to print out my journey thus far, and headed to the computer:

I went to try the screen on the other side.  Incidentally, I'm not fond of this particular spot.  Hanging around for 5 minutes inside a tunnel makes one look rather seedy.  Unfortunately, the back of the terminal was no better:

Whilst I was waiting, I spotted one of those rather curious poems/anecdotes pinned to the side of the tunnel (see below). So I waited for what seemed like five minutes and reinserted the key.  Oh no!  The yellow light-red light fault had recurred.  I was certain that I'd definitely got the green light when redocking, so waited a few more minutes to try again.  No luck.  Happily, I remembered that Kennington Tesco should have some bikes, and it's only a quick walk down the road.

Full of the joy of "I'm a friendly Londoner spirit", I very nearly stopped a man wearing a "Sex, bugs and rock and roll" T-shirt to admire it, but then I realised that I'd not got a cycle hire bike with me, and he might think I were mad.  I thought better of the decision to stop and chat!

I quickly arrived at Tesco to find another chap in a yellow vest who advised that there were no known problems at his terminal, so I tried the key again, attained the green light and hoiked out a bike.  From there, I just cut across Tesco car park, and zoomed back to the Post Office to re-dock.  As easy as pie!  It's fantastic.  And well done to TFL for ensuring that there are plenty of personnel on hand to explain how the scheme works.  Just one quick plea to Londoners... please don't stop talking to strangers!

Don't try bombing MI6. The spooks don't like it!

Bombing MI6 is not going to make you popular, and will almost certainly lead to your arrest.  If you were thinking about it, don't.  If you want further proof that it's a  bad idea, you need look no further than the arrest of two Welsh chaps with too much time on their hands.  Apparently, two men, aged 21 and 52 (father and son) were detained by local and Metropolitan Police in Wales on 28th July when one suspicious parcel was found at the M16 Building (whether it got inside is unknown) and another suspicious parcel was discovered at a South London sorting office early on the morning of the 29th (we're not given its destination)!  The article notes that police were granted "extra time" to question them this afternoon.  Crikey.

All that I've written above has already been released by the AFP, who simply issue simple news items without further embellishment, but it does pertain to this area, and I'm sure we'll all hear more as it unfolds!  The Daily Fail has a little more info, saying that the men are being questioned at Padding Green "secure" police station in London (Queens Park) and that the bombs were "amateurish" (neither had to be destroyed in a controlled explosion, which rather implies that these were not serious bomb makers).

London Cycle Hire (Barclays) aka Boris Bikes in SE11

SE11 is fortunate enough to contain 9 Barclays Cycle Hire docking stations.  I haven't actually seen them all yet, so I'd appreciate it if readers could confirm whether or not they exist and have bikes at them and I'll add a  "confirmed" tag next to them.  For those of you who like trivia, the Kennington Road Post Office docking station is the southernmost cycle docking point in London (as things stand).  I'm sure there'll continue to be calls to expand the scheme further south to Stockwell, Clapham and Brixton, since coverage is rather sparse south of the river.

SE11 Docking Stations [all now Confirmed operational]:


Kennington Road Post Office (capacity: 18 bikes)
Kennington Lane Rail Bridge (capacity: 19 bikes)
Lollard Street (capacity: 25 bikes)
Kennington Lane Tesco (capacity: 14 bikes)
Kennington Cross, (top of) Sancroft Street (capacity: 16 bikes)
Sancroft Street (capacity: 24 bikes)
Black Prince Road (capacity: 19 bikes)
Cotton Gardens Estate (Kennington Lane) (capacity: 16 bikes)
Walnut Tree Walk (just off of Kennington Road) (capacity: 16 bikes)

Additionally, the SE11 area benefits (or perhaps I should say, /will/ benefit) from another 6 nearby docking stations:

Docking Stations Near SE11

Vauxhall Cross (Pret a Manager) (capacity: 17 bikes) (Trivia: it's SW8's sole docking station) [Confirmed Operational]
Albert Embankment, SE1 (capacity: 24 bikes) [Confirmed Operational]
Fire Brigade Pier, SE1 (capacity: 17 bikes).  [Confirmed as non-existent]
Lambeth Road, SE1 (Near Garden Museum) (capacity: 18 bikes).  [Confirmed Operational]
Kennington Road, SE1 (Imperial War Museum) (capacity: 36 bikes) [Confirmed Operational]
Hampton Street, SE1 (just off of Newington Butts) (capacity: 21 bikes) [Confirmed Operational]

Here's a photo of the Kennington Road Post Office docking station at about 8.45am this morning.  I was delighted to find that it still contained bikes, but not so thrilled that my key (despite activation) appeared not to work to remove them from the docking point.  I watched another chap try in vain to insert the key and get a green light, but neither of us were in luck this morning (which might explain why plenty of bikes were still available).  I was told that my key might be faulty, but I tried again nearer to my workplace, and attained a green light.  Unfortunately, I was unable to remove the bike from the stand, but I'm told I might not be tugging hard enough!

Owner of Queen Anne pub, Denise D'Courtenay, murdered in Dominican Republic

There was an article in The Sun this morning that noted that Denise D'Courtenay, the owner of the Queen Anne (strip) pub, in Vauxhall (it's the bright orange one on Vauxhall Walk) was murdered whilst taking her annual holiday in the Dominican Republic.  According to the Mail, her body was found a week after she went missing.  Her death is particularly tragic since she was due to retire next month.

According to the Sun, the pub was a haunt for "footballers, soap stars and rappers", which is somewhat surprising since I've always thought it looked a little intimidating from the outside (that's probably always the case when it's somebody else's local).  Anyhow, our area being what it is, I'm sure Denise was well known and loved by the patrons of the pub and other business owners.  Please feel free to leave any memories of Denise or the pub in the comments section.

Also, see August 2010 article re. the pub turning into the Tea house theatre, and there's a photo of the sign outside (thanks Twitter) that indicates it will re-open in April 2011.

Number of Lambeth residents affected by government's new housing cap

Back in June, I asked how many Lambeth residents would be affected by the rate cap introduced by George Osborne in the June 2010 budget.  I speculated that Lambeth would likely be affected by additional accommodation-seeking in-comers who could no longer afford Westerminster or Kensington and Chelsea.  I predicted that there would not be a mass exodus of families who received benefit over and above the new housing caps, but I was unsure, so I submitted a Freedom of Information request here.

And now the data is in... In Week 15 of 2010/2011, Lambeth were renting 24,378 properties to members of the public.  This figure does not include properties rented by tenants from private landlords paid for with housing benefits.

The number of Lambeth council households who are renting property from Lambeth Council or an affiliated Housing association or who are private tenants who claim Housing benefit over the amount of the George Osborne cap are as follows:

94 properties for 0-1 bedrooms where rent over £230
12 properties for 2 bedrooms where rent over £290
5 properties for 3 bedrooms over £340
39 properties for 4 bedrooms where rent over £400

That totals 150 households. Unfortunately, I can't provide a percentage of total Lambeth households affected because the figures for the rent exceeding the new cap include households renting privately from non-Lambeth landlords, but Lambeth haven't provided me with the number of households renting privately, only those who rent public housing. In any case, presuming that the 150 includes everybody renting privately (which has been confirmed to me in correspondence following the Freedom of Information request), it seems that the numbers of Lambeth residents affected by the cap are extremely low, which is good news. (I'm assuming that some of the people that receive more than the cap will be on the cusp eg. receiving £235 per week for a 0-1 bedroom property).

Kylun Vauxhall Island Site - Planning Application Submitted

I received the letter below from Kylun Ltd, advising that planning permission has been sought for the Vauxhall Island site from Lambeth Council.  The development, if approved, would comprise two buildings, one of 31 storeys and one of 41 storeys.  If you're interested in my much lengthier comments, see the post I wrote back in May .  There's also a Property Week article (which may or may not be firewalled for you) available here.

According to Kylun's stats, 65% of local residents who attended the consultation (we don't know the number, since they don't say what number filled in feedback forms) broadly approved of the development.  If we assume that 100 people filled in feedback forms (since we know that over 150 people attended), there are only about 65 local residents in favour, with a significant proportion against.  However, residents cannot say they've not been consulted on the matter, so the decision now lies with the Council.  The reference number for the development is 10/02060/FUL, try clicking here, as it proved very tricky to find (thanks, anonymous).  The plot is described as bounded by Parry Street and Bondway and falls into Oval Ward.  Residents have until 5/8/2010 to comment on the application, and should you wish to do so, use the link above and click the "submit comments" button.
As far as I can see, there's still no committment from the letter re. figures provided on affordable housing, but I'll take a look at the detailed application later and report back.  I'd have thought that this is something our local councillors would be interested in too.

On a more positive note, I welcome the emphasis on the streetscape (which can hardly be made worse), improvement to the underground station entrance, new pedestrian and cycle crossings, new shops and restaurants and a cinema (which one reader fears won't be commercially viable, so we'll have to see).  I imagine monetary contributions to both Vauxhall Park and Vauxhall Spring Gardens would be very welcome and I'd really like a little more information about the proposed improvements of the railway arches.

Kennington Schools - Ofsted reports and meeting for concerned parents

I've been emailed a flyer which suggests that parents in Kennington are concerned that two local primary schools are in "special measures" and would like to meet to discuss their options.  Click the poster to view a larger copy to discover where/when the meeting takes place:

Being placed in special measures means that Ofsted judge that a school does not provide an acceptable level of education and lacks the leadership capacity to improve matters.  The local schools that have been / were placed under special measures are Henry Fawcett Primary School and Vauxhall Primary School (see here for large .zip file of the data as at 31st March 2010 from Ofsted).  Note that as of 9th/10th June 2010 (date of last inspection), Henry Fawcett is deemed no longer to be in special measures.  Therefore, the poster above is somewhat misleading.

I cannot imagine how it must feel to teach or lead a school placed in special measures so I really hope that the parents at those two schools are rallying together to be as supportive of the staff as they can.  It would be very interesting to see if the wider Kennington and Vauxhall community could think of ways to offer their talents to the schools that do not make the grade that would give the children at those schools a boost, but I'm not altogether inclined to think that Londoners are necessarily so community minded.  Whilst being placed in special measures is something of an indictment on a school, I do wonder whether the school intake at both of the schools that were originally placed in special measures comprises of a larger number of children who speak English as a second language, and who are entitled to free school meals (indicating poverty).  Note that the most recent Henry Fawcett Ofsted report states "Attendance has risen, but not at a pace that matches the improvements in other areas, despite the school's strenuous efforts." which rather implies that the staff are working with a set of parents who don't place a high value on education and potentially have lower aspirations for their children.

As far as I know, there are seven primary schools in SE11 and Ofsted rate schools Overall effectiveness with the grades Outstanding, Good, Satisfactory and Inadequate.  I've provided links to all of the Ofsted reports so that anybody interested can analyse further:

Archbishop Sumner (C of E) - 2009 Ofsted Report judged school as Outstanding
Charlotte Sharman - 2009 Ofsted Report judged school as Satisfactory
Henry Fawcett - 2010 Ofsted Report judged school as Satisfactory
St Anne's Catholic Primary School (RC) - 2008 Ofsted Report judged school as Good
St Mark's (C of E) - 2008 Ofsted Report judged school as Good
Vauxhall Primary School  - 2010 Ofsted Report judged school as Good
Walnut Tree Walk Primary School - 2010 Ofsted Report judged school as Good

I'm not surprised that having two of seven schools in special measures (or recently placed as such) is causing consternation amongst local parents.  If you're not religious and don't wish to enter into attending church for the sake of your child's education, you have a choice of only four schools, two of which are or have recently been in special measures and a third of which is judged only as satisfactory.  This, I imagine, puts considerable pressure on places at Walnut Tree Walk.

Lansdowne Way Stabbing (July 2010)

I've just spotted a BBC Tweet which suggests there's been a stabbing on Lansdowne Way, Kennington.  Geographically, Lansdowne Way should be classified as Stockwell (or the boundaries of Oval) since it's a bit further south in Lambeth.  The 18 year old male in question has life threatening injuries.  There's a BBC Press Release here.

This has got to stop.  I really really hope that the man in question recovers.

I assume Stockwell News will report further as news becomes available.  Sadly, it appears that there was a stabbing just last year (June 2009) in Lansdowne Way June too.

More on 216 Kennington Road (likely to be a Tesco)

I received a letter at the end of June, advising that Gallagher are attempting to vary a condition (one of opening hours) for the ground floor level on 216 Kennington Road (likely to be a Tesco Metro).

Gallaher are applying to change the opening hours from 07:00am - 09:00pm (Monday to Friday) to 07:00am - 11:00pm (Monday to Friday).

If you agree, disagree or want to comment, you can email lambethplanning@lambeth.gov.uk quoting reference: 10/02164/FUL

The deadline is 20th July 2010.

Oval Farmers Market and Future Plans for St Mark's churchyard

I skipped happily along to Oval Market this week to drink the apple juice, choose the cakes and have a crepe, so I was able to photograph the boards displaying the plans for Oval Market / St Mark's graveyard.  The new initiative appears to have been developed as a result of dicussions between Lambeth Council and the Oval Partnership.  I apologise for the quality of the shots.  They were taken on the phone camera which isn't a patch on a standard camera, and there was also a lot of pushing and shoving with lots of people trying to view the boards, so two of the photos have emerged in a pinkish hue.  Still, it's better that nothing, right?

The boards provide a little history of St Mark's Church, and the local area. Kennington Park Road, for example, still follows the old Roman route, originally named Stane Street and St Mark's was built on the site of the gallows of Kennington Common. (It looks as though the board writers cadged most of the history from the St Mark's website). In the past, I had heard it said that the burial ground was still Common land (hence being allowed to be used for the Saturday market and as a local cut-through). However, a little more digging has yielded the information that common rights over /both/ burial ground and church were extinguished by an Act of Parliament when the church was built. The church had to be conveyed from the Duchy (to whom it never belonged, on account of it being common land) across to the Church Commissioners by an Act of Parliament, which left it in the slightly odd situation that it was built, prior to gaining permission for it to be put in place!  In a twist of fate, however, the responsbiblity for management of the burial ground was handed back to Lambeth Council in 1950, so it has essentially become common land (or at least, shared space) once again.

The gist of the consultation was that the Churchyard needs some improvement on the basis that the paths are worn and become slippery, the playground requires upgrading, some of the trees are in poor health and a number of the tombstones in the grounds have been displaced and collapsed.  Additionally, there are no facilities for the use of stall-holders in the market.  The market management also wish to ensure that the market stalls are placed to ensure that the grass in the yard is not damaged.

There are two development options. 

The first is a simple plan to improve the paving around the memorial, stop people parking on the grass, replace and widen the path, install new drainage, add benches, repair the railings, plants some new trees, remove diseased trees, add a "natural play area", refurbish the playground,  add some kind of surface to reduce wear and tear under the market stalls, add electricity points for the market stalls, and install new lighting.

The second option includes all of the improvements contained in the first, but advocates the addition of an Oval shaped piece of land (which appears to be paved and is pictured with a detachable canopy) that could be used for the market as well as providing a dedicated space for other community events).

Neither option looks to be detrimental, unless one is concerned by the removal of grass that would be necessitated were option two to be adopted.

Oval Farmers Market Consultation tomorrow (3rd July)

As you can see from the poster below, there's a consultation tomorrow from 10am at Oval Farmer's Market about how the market and the churchyard could be improved.  

I can't say enough to recommend this market and all of the stallholders.  It's fantastic to have people that travel up to London each week and offer their wares.  It's great to be able to buy food straight from the farmers that grow it and the bakers that bake it, and the churchyard is a completely free public space to sit in the sun and chat to friends. 

Part-ownership of a spaceship, going carbon negative and recycling on Lambeth housing estates

The consensus is that prices are rising once again in London, such that owning a property is beyond the reach of many citizens.  Help, however, is at hand in the form of a part-ownership eco-spaceship.  Head over to the Beaconsfield Gallery (22 Newport Street, SE11) where an installation, exploring the contradictions and difficulties of building a utopia, will be constructed in the form of  a Spaceship Earth eco-structure.  You can buy a slice at a rather reasonable £1 per share, but it's unclear exactly what you'll get for your money!  

The Beaconsfield spaceship project is collaborative, and the artists require donations of works relating to utopias.  In addition, you can take a picture of yourself outside your house with lots of unwanted goods, and email it to the organisers.  There is a whole host of free workshops on offer, but participants are encouraged to bring something (or offer a service) in exchange for attendance.

Events which still have to take place are as follows (info lifted from the Spaceship Earth project on the Beaconsfield website).  I'm wondering about attending the vegan chocolate one on Sunday!

Thursday 1 July 6-8 pm
Creative Writing Workshop with Sarah Butler
Saturday 3 July 2-4 pm
Immigration Law for Sale? with Barry O’Leary and Tim Barnden
Sunday 4 July 2-4 pm
Raw Chocolate Demo with Laura Coxeter
Tuesday 6 - Thursday 8 July 11-5 pm
Eco-Build: Rammed Earth with Mark Pavey and friends
Friday 9 - Sunday 11 July 11-5 pm
Eco-Build: Living Roof with Mark Pavey and friends


On a related note, there is an interesting project that seems to be taking place within SE11 at the Bowling Green Street pub (yup, the one that was meant to be turned into housing, but got turned down by Lambeth Council).  Some of the people currently based(?) there are advocating the possibility of living a carbon negative lifestyle, in which communities learn to be self-sufficient.  The group advocate the change of planning laws to enable the building of Eco-villages (I'm unclear about how this would work in densely populated Lambeth) and also put forward some ideas about how to improve the quality of soil (and thus increase its capacity for food growth) through a method called Biochar.  I'm afraid it's all rather unwieldy to go into here, but they have a GrowUp website that provides further info.  Apparently, they're willing to explain it all in the form of an exhibition, where films and music will illustrate what they're talking about, and it's on every Thursday.   Might be worth checking their website first as it looks a little adhoc.

Finally, on a more practical note, Lambeth Council are embarking on a bid to the London Waste and Recycling Foundation.  They need some ideas and proposals for various projects to run locally.  If successful, I think they'd be allotted some money to encourage additional recycling on Lambeth council housing estates.  I believe we discussed this matter here about a year ago, when one commentator wrote insightfully that he thought residents on local estates would be encouraged to recycle more effectively were better signage provided on the recycling bins.  I wonder whether, with many residents not having English as a first language, some investment should go into providing literature in a number of different languages.  Unfortunately... the one type of project that this particular bid does not support is that which relates to communications, "this includes doorstepping, leafleting, community outreach, literature", which leaves the Council requesting proposals for:


* Small-scale composting
* New or improved bin chambers
* Dropped kerbs that will enable the recycling provision to be increased or improved
* Incentive schemes
* Chute conversions (to recycling, where there are two chutes side by side)


Do readers have any ideas along these lines for local estates in the area?  Do you live on or have friends who live on local estates that might benefit from these types of changes?  I'm not entirely sure how I've come to be consulted on such matters, but I'm really impressed by Lambeth Council's recycling commitment, so I think it's well worth giving them input where possible.