BrocSoc calls community meeting to discuss Ashby Mews developments

Brockley Society Public Meeting - Ashby Mews – Gates and Resurfacing
Thursday 19 July 7.30pm
Myatt Garden School, Rokeby Road, SE4 1DF

Feelings have been running high about developments in Ashby Mews. BrocSoc has called a public meeting to discuss the issue. They say:

Locked gates recently installed at the Ashby Road end of Ashby Mews, SE4, followed by
resurfacing a stretch of the mews in tarmac have caused a significant number of residents
to contact Brockley Society to complain. We are holding a meeting to gauge local opinion,
explain the legal and planning ramifications and consider the next steps.

Everyone is welcome, whether you oppose or support the changes, simply walk through
the mews, or are just interested in the Brockley Conservation Area. Those responsible for
the gates and tarmac and those whose properties are affected are also welcome.

Brockley Society’s position is as follows:

1. Resurfacing the Mews in tarmac

Brockley’s mews are an integral part of the character of the Conservation Area. We view
black tarmac as inappropriate and believe it damages the character of the mews and may
also cause flooding or water seepage as no drainage is provided. Lewisham Planning
department is currently looking at enforcement. Planning and ownership in the mews is
very complex but we believe several solutions are worth exploring, including for this
section to remain resurfaced with a more sympathetic and sustainable topping material.

2. The Gates

The gates are inappropriate for the location: they are far too tall for gates on a public road
and contravene other guidelines in the Brockley Conservation Area. We believe they
should be reduced in height or removed entirely and replaced by a better “gallows” gate,
like those which exist in all Brockley’s other mews. The one currently in Ashby Mews,
behind the new gates, could have been modified.

3. The Right of Way

Ashby Mews is a private road. However, it is also a public right of way – and has been for
at least 120 years. This means the public have an established legal right to use the mews
as a footpath. Locked gates block the right of way. We believe that unimpeded pedestrian
and emergency vehicle access must be restored to the mews as soon as possible.

Brockley’s vibrant and open community has developed over many decades through the
work of Brockley Society, Brockley Open Studios, Brockley Cross Action Group and many
other community activities, campaigns and projects. Closing off a right of way and creating
a gated community is totally at odds with this.

BrocSoc slams Ashby Mews changes

The tarmac-covered north end

Following the installation of a gate across the north end of Ashby Mews, some residents have now decided to tarmac the surface, changing its historic character to something which more closely resembles a business park.

The southern end of Ashby Mews is untouched

The gates, which we were initially promised would be left open for pedestrians, are now permanently locked to anyone but residents. As a result of this action, the Brockley Society, which exists to protect the heritage of the Brockley Conservation Area, has issued the following statement:

Brockley Society is aware of the installation of gates at the northern end of Ashby Mews and has advised initiating mews residents (frontagers) that:

• a retrospective planning application is needed
• otherwise LB Lewisham will start enforcement action as the gate is too high
• even though the Mews is privately owned, all mews frontagers along the whole length should have been consulted and a management strategy should have been agreed to ensure free access is maintained for pedestrians as well as delivery and emergency vehicles

Despite this advice being given to the organising mews residents it seems to have fallen on deaf ears as they have now had the mews access lane resurfaced early this week with black tarmacadam at the northern end.

As this destroys the rural character that is such a unique characteristic of the Conservation Area (CA), the Society has escalated its concern via Ward Councillors so as to extend the request to LB Lewisham:

• for enforcement to be investigated or
• to require that planning consent be obtained to stop this 'suburbanisation' threat

On this Brockley Society considers that:

• the resurfacing work fundamentally affects the status of this part of the CA such that it could be withdrawn
• other more suitable traditional solutions should have been considered via the Society to avoid this possibility
• as the work is defined as 'a hard surface' within the curtilage frontage of each property bordering the affected area then the Article 4 Direction protecting the CA should fully apply and the planning applications already granted/in consideration for bordering properties should be reappraised in view of this ill-considered change

In contrast to original reassurances, the pedestrian gate is now locked

The Brockley Festival of Ideas for Change 2017, November 19

10am-5.30pm

Lewisham Southwark College, Lewisham Way, SE4 1UT.  

The festival is back for its second year, with speakers including nailed-on new Lewisham Mayor Damian Egan, Andrew Mitchell from outstanding local homeless charity 999 Club, Battle of Lewisham academic Dr John Price, food futurist Rosie Boycott, boxing coach Jon McKenna, agricultural economist James Skinner and reparations scholar / activist Esther Stanford-Xosei.

Organisers BrocSoc explain:

Last year’s very successful event had 250 people attending, almost all local. We have planned this year’s event to enable more time for discussion by continuing the sessions in break-out rooms. We will also have films and audio recordings in another room and an Ideas Cafe for informal discussions. We have five themes:

• Battle of Lewisham - 40 years later
• Housing, Homelessness and Inequality
• Debt, Money and Exploitation
• Food and the Environment
• From Ideas to Action

The agenda will be on our website this weekend, as soon as we have finalised our exciting range of nearly 30 speakers. Please register online to reserve your FREE place: www.brockleysociety.org.uk or directly from www.ticketsource.co.uk/date/420988 

We will welcome donations from those who can afford it as the event is self-funded. Tea and coffee will free, with affordable food at lunchtime, or you can bring your own. 

Doors open at 9.30am for registration and coffee before the 10am start. 

We look forward to welcoming you to this stimulating event which we believe will contribute to actions for change. 

The BrocSoc BBQ, July 7

Tomorrow, from 7pm at the Stone Circle on Hilly Fields, BrocSoc will have be hosting a BBQ for Summer Fayre volunteers. Anyone interested in getting involved with the group is welcome.

Bring your own food to cook on their legendarily massive grill.

The Hilly Fields Midsummer Fayre 2017

Innovation and Conservation, June 10

Keynote speakers are:

• Laura Sandys, daughter of Duncan Sandys MP, who instigated the 1967 Civic Amenities Act
• Duncan  McCallum of Historic England
• Nicholas Boys-Smith of Create Streets. 

Case studies of local schemes will include:

• Rhys Cannon of Gruff
• Jon Broome, a specialist in self-build
• Charles Coull on a live-work studio featured on Channel 4
• Murray Groves on timber-framed Cedar Mews
• Paul Russell on the children’s nursery in the former Welsh Chapel
• An alumnus from the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust will talk about their work supporting young architecture students

Green is green: The Brockley Tree Fundraiser

Work by Isobel Kimberley will be shown during the event

We're organising a storytelling evening at Number 57 Loampit Hill to fundraise for the Brockley Society Tree Committee.

The event will feature ordinary people telling true stories. No notes, 5 mins. Must be your own story. Not compulsory to tell a story but you may find you want to...

Sunday 30th October 7pm Ticket price £15.

Includes Pintxo & Glass of wine from L’Oculto

Buy tickets at 57arts.co.uk

Also features Poet Bill Greenwell

There will also be an exhibition of tree drawings by Isobel Kimberley.

The Brockley Festival of Ideas

A festival of radical ideas organised by two local conservation groups might sound like a contradiction in terms, but BrocSoc and St John's Society have worked together to organise The Brockley Festival of Ideas, a free day of talks, loosely based on the theme of 'challenging power.'

The Momentum activist, Jackie Walker, recently suspended from the Labour Party for her comments about Holocaust Memorial Day, is among the guest speakers for some reason.

Click here for details.

Brockley Front Garden Sale, September 10-11

The Fourth Annual Brockley Front Garden Sale takes place on Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 September, 11am – 4pm.

Last year over 70 addresses took part in a day of coordinated front garden sales. You can choose to participate on one or both days. The format rewards neighbours who get together to organise a cluster or nearby sales.

To take part, email: gardensale@brockleysociety.org.uk with your name + house no. +  street + postcode and email, stating Saturday, Sunday or both.

A list will go on the Brockley Society website www.brockleysociety.org.uk

The Brockley Midsummer Fayre, June 18

Stalls at the 2015 Fayre

The Brockley Midsummer Fayre takes place this Saturday, June 18th, midday-5pm on Hilly Fields.

By now you hopefully all know the deal: Food, craft and jumble stalls, inflatables, land-train, birds of prey (awesome) and jolly people with microphones whipping up a bit of audience participation in things. You won't believe you're in Zone 2 London.

Head along and pray for sun.

Sponsors needed for 20 more Brockley street trees

Due to high demand, the Brockley Street Trees project is extending its deadline to sponsor a tree until September 20th 2015, to raise money for a further 20 trees.

So far, Brockley residents have donated nearly £10,000 to support tree planting in the neighbourhood. That astonishing sum of money will pay for the planting and protection of 40 street trees by BrocSoc and Lewisham Council.

Residents can club together or sponsor a tree outright, giving them a say on what type of tree gets planted and where they go.

For details, click here.

The Brockley Front Garden Sale 2015

On Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 September, from 11am to 4pm each day, homes across Brockley will be taking part in a neighbourhood front garden sale, with BrocSoc co-ordinating the marketing, to maximise the number of potential customers. BrocSoc says:

Sellers can take part on one or both days. It definitely works best when there is a cluster of sales in or near your street, so talk to neighbours about participating as well and display the poster (still to come) outside your house.

To take part, email: gardensale@brockleysociety.org.uk with your name + house no. + street + postcode and email, stating Saturday, Sunday or both.

A list will go on the Brockley Society website stating only street, house no. + postcode and day(s).

Them & Us

BrocSoc have released the official Then & Now group photograph, taken on Hilly Fields as a snapshot of local life (almost) 100 years after the last one was taken.

Historically interesting rather than demographically representative, the photo serves to document Brockley residents' enduring love of group photos.

Available to buy now on all good civic society websites.

Time is a flat circle - now with Instagram!

Paul Doyle: There is life after death. Of that, I am sure. But I'm also pretty sure dead people no longer need their stuff.
- Pain and Gain

Don't talk to me about sacrifice, I'm missing Ant-Man for this

Nearly a century ago, towards the end of The Great War, the people of Brockley, weary from bloodshed and sacrifice, came together on the slopes of Hilly Fields for a group photograph that would capture the character and resilience of their community forever. Today, between 2-3pm, the Brockley Society is inviting us all to recreate this moment in 2015.

So let's show those old piles of dust and bone who's in charge now - and how much better the vitamin-enriched, artisan-fed, digitally-filtered population of today looks. Our forebears probably never even heard of type II diabetes!

Meet on the slopes next to the cricket pitch from 2pm today. Details here.

Brockley Voices - An Oral History

Tim from BrocSoc writes:

Brockley Voices is a new oral history project by the Brockley Society, which seeks to capture and share the stories and reminiscences of people living in or connected to Brockley. Several volunteers came forward following a piece in the November 2014 Newsletter which expressed a desire to preserve the memories of older Brockley residents before they are lost forever.  Following several meetings, a core group of volunteers with a range of recording, interviewing and archiving skills has distilled a number of potential options into a coherent idea.

Our aim is to record the thoughts, feelings and memories of anyone who lives in or is connected to SE4, capturing for posterity a snapshot of Brockley in the early 21st Century.  By broadening out from the initial idea of ‘reminiscence’, we hope to make the project accessible and relevant to anyone who feels they have something to say about Brockley.

We are currently looking at how to structure and conduct the interviews, and thinking about subjects or topics we most want to find out about.  Some conversations will be long, in-depth, and subject-specific; others may be shorter and more random: ‘vox-pops’ captured at public events, for example.

We have a short list of people who we hope to speak to initially, but are looking for suggestions and volunteers.  If you would like to participate, or know of someone who might, please get in touch.  We would also like to hear from anyone who is either proficient at recording archival quality audio or is interested in being trained.  Providing training and support to ensure the project can continue indefinitely is integral to the project.

We will formally launch the project at the Mass Photo at Hilly Fields on Sunday 19 July 2015.  More information will be available from the Broc Soc stall at the Midsummer Fayre on Saturday 20 June 2015.

To contact us, email brockleyvoices@gmail.com

The Hilly Fields Midsummer Fayre 2015

Brockley: Then & Now, July 19th

Ox: Everything is different, but the same... things are more moderner than before... bigger, and yet smaller... it's computers... San Dimas High School football rules!!
- Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure

Shaun writes:

We found a remarkable photograph in the Brockley Society archives: a massive group portrait of the men, women and children who gathered on Hilly Fields, Brockley, in August 1918 after a procession commemorating the start of the First World War.

Inspired by this photograph we plan to take a new one, inviting anyone who lives in or feels any connection with Brockley. The community response has already been enthusiastic and we expect thousands to participate.

For this contemporary portrait of the people of Brockley we have commissioned the photographer and Graduate Affiliate, Slade School of Fine Art, University College London, Simon Terrill, widely recognised for his work on 'Crowd Theory' and other large-scale community gatherings. Recent art projects include Bow Cross in East London and Balfron Project in Poplar. http://www.simonterrill.com/

A limited edition of large photos will be available afterwards, as well as affordable prints for the public to buy as a record of the day.

Please see brockleysociety.org.uk/thenandnow/ for more info.

Hilly Fields Summer Fayre volunteers needed

Broc Soc writes:

The fayre is our biggest event, run entirely by volunteers, always a great community day. We run the fayre through separate (though cooperating) Teams. This is an urgent appeal:

We print 8,000 Programmes and distribute them FREE far and wide in the week before the Fayre. We need 2 volunteers as soon as possible to assist team captain Emma and programme designer Fatima: you would approach local businesses to sign up sponsors, book the advertisements and collect prizes to be raffled in the prize draw on the day.

Please email Clare if you are interested in helping.

The Brockley Front Garden Sale - This Weekend

The Brockley Front Garden Sale 2014

Saturday 6 and Sunday 7 September, 11am – 4pm

The Brockley Front Garden Sale is an SE4-wide sale organised by BrocSoc - like the Open Studios event, with boxes of old DVDs. People will also be selling art, clothes and a wide range of other items.

Last year over 70 addresses took part in a day of coordinated front garden sales. This year it will be on both Saturday and Sunday. You can choose to participate on one or both days.

If you would like to take part, send an email by Wednesday 3 September to:
gardensale@brockleysociety.org.uk with your name + house no. +  street + postcode and email, stating Saturday, Sunday or both.