Putting Brockley on the map
Come one, come all, to see our latest creation, the Brockley Central Guide to Brockley! We hope this map will help existing residents discover new places that we love, and help newcomers see just what Brockley and the wider area has to offer, when you look a bit deeper!
We've tried to pick the cream of the crop - there was no way every cafe and takeaway of Brockley was going to feature here. We expect what is (and more likely what isn't) featured here to generate some debate from you lot, so this is an ongoing project that we'll be adding to as Brockley blooms!
Use the buttons to move around the map and zoom in or out. Click the drawing pins to see more information and links where appropriate. Click here to view the Brockley map in full (opens in new window).
51 comments:
The thing I like best about Jon's innovation is that there are so many sites out there that have maps of Brockley that are worse than useless - outdated, inaccurate and threadbare. For example, anyone planning their holiday to Brockley using "AllinLondon" [sic] is confronted with the choice of going out to the Brockley Barge, "Biagio Restaurants" [aka La Lanterna], Ecosium, Just Thai Thai and Taste of India.
Inevitably, we will have missed stuff off, so please let us know what you want us to add.
Great map! Thanks for doing this - I've always wondered where some of these places are - now I know.
You could add that butchers that people often talk about. I can't remember the name, and the framing shop on Loampit Vale which I went to on the back of a recommendation from here which was very good value and very good all round.
You've done a great job here Brockley Jon. :) Well done and thank you.
Now...'Nose E' is off to find out just exactly where the establishment called 'The Talbot' is.
There really is no excuse for omitting the Nu Spice Caribbean takeaway (or eat-in if you prefer). It’s right next to Long Time Café and opposite Degustation, both of which are included!
Having tried many of the local Caribbean takeaways (none of which are mentioned either!), Nu Spice does the best jerk chicken and steamed fish you could hope for - it is also the best around and one of the longest standing.
Please right this wrong immediately!
A little way further on from the Honor Oak is another wonderful gastro pub - The Perry Hill. Tried it for the first time last weekend and the fish was fantastic.
Time Out review is below:
The Perry Hill
What did this pub-cum-restaurant remind me of? The question nagged as I hurtled down a hoppy Shepherd Neame Spitfire bitter, kept wonderfully well, and proof that the people behind the Perry Hill (Robbie O'Neill and Shaun Wilson) haven't made the classic gastropub mistake of giving great gastro but piss-poor pub.
It's a big roadhouse by a bleakish suburban thoroughfare, with a large decked backyard, restaurant at the side and a public bar sprinkled with lads drinking lager and older couples having a pension-day pint. That was it! The Perry Hill reminded me of a Harvester. But not any Harvester - certainly not the one in Upper Norwood that does cheesy chips - no, this is the Harvester from heaven.
We started with chicken liver pâté and a platter of home-cured salmon, mackerel, smoked eel and crayfish. My companion was an eel novice and expressed some nerves, but both of us could have eaten plates of the stuff - tender and delicately flavoured, it was a near perfect delivery of a tricky fish. The pâté had an almost erotically satisfying flavour - and honestly, I don't usually fancy meat products. Pink in the middle, it packed more flavour than seemed possible in portion and was delivered on toasted seed brown bread.
Mains were just as impressive. The grilled homemade leek and cider sausage was a moist yet crumbly masterpiece and char-grilled Scottish rump steak with peppercorn sauce supplied the requisite pub classic with panache. Wine - £25 for a bottle of Chablis - wasn't cheap, but we had little choice as the wine list was pretty poor. To his credit the extremely competent manager has worked this out and the list is changing.
If the hot chocolate soufflé with crème fraîche had been made by a woman I would have married her. That said I'm still considering a civil ceremony with the chef. This place is very, very good.
Michael Hodges
Time Out Issue 1942: November 7-13 2007
The Perry Hill
78- 80 Perry Hill
SE6 4EY
Nose E - thanks very much.
Anon@15.05 - Yes Sir, three bags full Sir! ;)
Seriously, this is the kind of feedback we want - how do we know a place is good if we have yet to visit it, until our readers tell us about it!
Any nominations for the best Chinese takeaway and/or restaurant - something else that the map is sorely lacking.
Nick - is the Regenter social housing office taking up one of the 3 shops under the new apartment block on Mantle Road? If so I find this rather depressing. Those shop fronts need to be filled with something a little brighter and more lovely than that if it's to transform that road.
Sal
Re Chinese, there's City Noodles (opposite The Barge) and Bamboo Gardens (at the junction with Wickham, Breakspears and Brockley Roads) although I prefer the first as there is seating and the food is better!
Brockley Kitchen also does excellent Caribbean food and is almost next door to Bamboo Gardens.
Skehans does v.good thai food.
Peter James is the butcher often recommendeed on here - and rightly so; he is at 1 Ewhurst Road.
As Pete says, please add the butcher WH Wellbeloved, 31 Tanners Hill, SE8 4PJ.
Good work!
Is there an over-population 'explosion' around Toads Mouth Too?
I clicked on the pins, hoping to get the wondeful Delis, but each time 'Toads Mouth Too' or Chez Ecosium' comes up. I couldn't get Brockley Station itself! (That one is important.)
Butcher "and Grazier" WH Wellbeloved of Tanners Hill - that description alone makes me go to him (apart from the delicious pies and top of the free range chicken).
I'd be a bit miffed if I was one of the cafes left off, Andrew.
Love the map
I think the best coffee in the area is at CafeBlanca on Brockley Rd (Crofton Park end) - also good for mint tea.
....and I do agree the person who mentioned Nu Spice Caribbean takeaway + Jerk Garden, and also Lundies on Brockley Road - all great to my mind, and never seem to get a mention here though I have given a Lundies a plug before. A new Caribbean takeaway and deli has opened at Brockley Rise and it looks very promising too though I haven't tried it - I hope I have the name right: Wild Yam.
great idea. It would be helpful if it included useful, and well-thought of local resources and services, and not simply leisure activities (particularly for we parents who don't get the opportunity to enjoy the pubs, restaurants, bars etc quite as much as we'd like)
so on that note I'd like to second the suggestion to add the framers - great business, efficient, reasonable and professional. also starbucks - i know you don't need an upholsterers every day of the week, but when you do it's good to know we've got a superb one right on our doorstep.
We Brockley parents can find it difficult to source suitable local entertainment for our children. and even as i write this i'm at a loss as to what to suggest - there is plenty for toddlers, but activities for children over two seem to be really scarce.
yes cafe blanca def needs a mention as does EXP, best chinese food we've had locally (possibly in London) excellent, efficient service and lovely not to greasy food!
Great idea. I've had goat curry take away from Wild Yam, on Brockley Rise, and it was yummy. Very friendly shop.
There is also Tapastry (tapas), Bar Equal and The Bank (Italian) on Honor Oak Road. All good, though wondering if you are considering these as they are in se23, rather than brockley.
Yes, agree 100% re EXP - they are completely different to any chinese takeaway I've ever had : they seem to have been started up by a group of young people and the food is really really good.
No-one takes the smallest bit of notice if you recommend a chinese takeaway in south London (try it and see!) so I tend to keep them to myself.
Why isn't my bike on the map? We need a racing bike symbol near Hilly Fields.
Where's EXP - if we have takeaway it is chinese and I would like to know where to go for a good one.
My favourite chinese is Uncle Wrinkle...I know really unfortunate name and I didn't go for at least 3 years of living in the area...but now I have we are there or getting t/away all the time . He doesn't use msg yet its all so tasty...its in new cross road, just a few doors down from the library...and they do deliver to Brockley for free...try it its really good
Tamsin, EXP are at 390 Brockley Rd (Crofton Park end) , between Rivoli and Brockley Jack (same side of road).
sorry final word on EXP (and no, I don't own it) it also does free delivery everyone who likes Chinese should def give it a whirl
Can we stick Ayers Bakery on there ? Stricly speaking it is Nunhead but it is in the general locale of Brockley and it is an absolutely amazing place. Every local resident of Brockley should visit !
Nice work Jon, maybe you can add the website address to the Art House tag.
http://www.lewishamarthouse.co.uk/
I see that it's tagged just as "occasional open studios and events" and although that is perfectly true there's also a lot of educational activity going on there. There's life drawing, mosaic, ceramics and other classes for the general public but also classes for children as young as 5.
Re: EXP, I had a really bad delivery experience from there.
Now I go to City Noodles.
Re lack of things for children to do - The Arthouse, Montage Thatre and Felix's School of Rock are but three local organisations who offer young people things to do.
Moira
John / Nick - what about moving this map onto its own tab across the top of the blog? It is a fantastic idea and would compliment well with the review section that you have been talking of putting together?
Richard, that is the plan! Reviews section is, er, also in the pipeline. We're pushing the Blogger platform to the limits!
@ Moira. Thanks for those suggestions. I've explored those and they're excellent, arty and organised. This is where Brockley seems to excel. I struggle to find activities that are sporty and/or spontaneous. There it seems to be Hillyfields, Hillyfields and ... Hillyfields, or walks in the cemetry.
@ Brockley Mutha. In Ladywell Fields therer's the Kent Athletic Club as well as the skateboard ramps. Plus with the redoing of the river there is also plenty of mud to play with spontaneously.
It's beyond Greater Brockley bourders I'm afraid but not that far.
In fact at the end of Malyons Road, before entering Ladywell Fields, standing next to the front garden wall of the last house of the terrace there's a little column marking the old boundary between London and Kent, so that is most definetely beyond Greater Brockley.
I would have thought that activities which were sporty and spontaneous, neccessarily shouldn't be 'organised' by parents - its called unsupervised play and essential for children's development. Hilly Fields has football pitches, basketball, tennis, a playground, not to mention a wood to hide in, trees to climb, secret corners to play in, a hill to fly kites on. And as kids we always found 100s of things to do in the cemetary other than go walking. The opened up river near Lewisham station could offer hours of fun -fishing, paddling or just mucking about in the water. Let your kids decide what they want to do and let go of needing to organise them!
Ah the predictable voice of the finger wagging parent police - censorious, not particularly helpful and invariably missing the point.
Which leads me on - brockley nick or brockley john - would it be possible to do something on children's activities. The skateboard ramps is exactly what i'm looking for. we're going this weekend - unless its floodlit in the evenings!
the best chinese takeaway in brockley has to be Bamboo Garden- nice clean food and the friendliest delivery people in the whole world
Bamboo Garden
260 Brockley Road, Lewisham
London, SE4 2SF
Tel: 020 8320 2826
Also would like to recommend the best thai restaurant in south london - randomly round the back of an irish pub on kitto road (skehan, 1 kitto road) review on irishworld.com
I agree about Skehans, i think the woman who runs it it thai, so despite being an irish pub the food is thai and excellent.
P
Having visited and worked in Thailand for 18 years, I would agree that Skehans is good as is Just Thai Thai, that is, as good as Thai food outside Thailand gets which is mainly Bangkok cuisine. Thailand's food is supremely regional and the closest I've found to authentic Issan (NE Thai and what the Thais call real Thai food) is the Mantanah in South Norwood.
If you want to go for a blow out, of royal cuisine with a slight modern twist, then it has to be Nahm at the Halkin Hotel. Owned by Dave Thompson (who's written the best book on Thai cooking), a meal will set you back about £50 per head.
Most British people, however, would not eat authentic Thai food as its too spicy, often involves crunchy insects or animal body parts not for sale in Tesco's, and fermented, uncooked food which is so high you could abseil from it. Even I baulked when it came to roasted spiders or termite consomme, (the spiders were, however, delicious). My favourite is a cross between a coakroach and grasshopper, which has the taste of savoury pear drops and is mixed with nam prik.
Moira
Mmm. I don't think one should confuse authentic with good. Just because something is authentic doesn't automatically make it something worth striving for. If the locals eat cockroaches it's because they have to. I don't recall ever hearing my mates wife (who was raised in rural thailand) hanker after a deep fried spider or grasshopper.
It wasn't a cockroach, but maeng da which looks like one and considered a delicacy, and as I said in my post is delicious. If your wife was brought up in rural Thailand, she would have heard of it. The Thais have plentiful food and never in my experience are reduced to eating certain food because they have to.
Certainly, in Cambodia, spiders were first eaten during the Pol Pot regime as the people were starving, but now continue to eat them out of choice.
Moira
Stick around, there's plenty of fast food outlets around here that serve insect life in their food for free.
With regards to sporty things for kids to do in the local area there is organised football on Hillfields on Saturday mornings for children. Or if you go a bit further afield there is lots of childrens cycling down at Herne Hill Velodrome.
Does anyone know a good dentists in the area that I could register with as an NHS patient? I haven't been to see the dentist for something like 5 years and the americans in my office have made me paranoid.
Yes, I don't know the name of the practice (there are a very large number of dentists registered there - I esp recommended Mandy Davies) but it is near Crofton Park Station - next to the graveyard!
The NHS Website is really useful (www.nhs.uk) and lists the dentists closest to your postcode with contact details, opening hours, and information on whether they are accepting new patients and services offered.
I was just wondering if anyone could tell me where a tip is that we can use for house renovation stuff? I was told that the local council one doesn't take things like wood... we have laminate flooring and bits of old kitchen units to get rid of.
Any advice of how or where to dump this would be greatly appreciated.
Julie
I know this is probably in the wrong place but it's to do with things in that are on our doorstep that we may not know about. Today I had a look around Nunhead cemetary. I drive past it all the time and always think it looks interesting, but today i pulled over and had a wander around. I can confirm that it is amazing! The next time Tim Burton makes a film he must shoot it here. I recommend everyone to have a look at it, i couldn't believe how stunning it was.
PJ
You know there are guided tours of Nunhead cemetery on the last Sunday of the month.
http://www.queries.demon.co.uk/fonc/
Very interesting it is too. The Victorians certainly didn't let death get in the way of social class snobbery.
Hi everyone all though we are not strictly in Brockley how about The Brockley Jack Theatre and Film Club being on the map. Once again thanks for all the support this year.
errm... we need the map updtaed.. chez ecosium is now aquarium, moonbows is no longer... etc etc..
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