None more local

Vanessa: He has a five year plan. 
Sonny: What is it? "Don't die"?
- Big Daddy

We're indebted to Transpontine, who points out that today is Brockley Central's fifth anniversary. Our first article, about plans for Brockley Common, was written on Valentine's Day 2007, suggesting the longevity of our marriage is more of a miracle than the ongoing existence of this site.

Transpontine writes:

As a near neighbour I certainly didn't used to have such a sense of it being a distinct place - I am afraid I used to consider it just as that bit on the way to Hilly Fields. Or say 'you know, where Moonbow Jakes is'. Now it is spoken of as if Brockley was a third sibling of the great SE London twin cities of New Cross and Deptford (and Moonbow Jakes has been replaced by Brockley Mess).

If we had an ambition for this site when we started it, that sums it up pretty neatly. We were once fuelled by a burning sense of injustice that Brockley's wonderfulness was so little understood by the wider world and those who lived here. Now Channel 4 dedicates programmes to househunters scrambling to be close to the Brockley buzz. So what has replaced our inferiority complex as a motivating force? Probably a belief in the power of networks - the desire for Brockley to become the best-connected part of London and for a thousand ideas, projects, groups and enterprises to evolve from our primordial soup. Thus, we have BC Facebook, Twitter and the South East London Forum. But not Foursquare though, that was a waste of time.

At some point entropy will kick in. Not for Brockley, which is an open system, but one day someone will come along and invent a bigger and shinier local service. Until then, let the dance of the anons play on.

We'd like to take this opportunity to dedicate Brockley Central to our lovely wife, who, as she takes up yoga and inches towards profitability, must wonder what we offer her. Let's hope she's impressed by 3,428 Twitter followers.