Three days in May

This is due to be a big month for Brockley, with three grands projets due for completion in May.

The Hilly Fields cafe should act like a sponge for the area's young families, freeing up some floor space in the likes of the Brockley Mess and hopefully providing some temporary relief in the Forever War that wages between parents and non-parents there.

The Gantry will boost Brockley nightlife and bring the area's nicest (commercial) outdoor space back in to action for the summer.

And Gently Elephant will inject some more confidence into this stretch of Brockley high street, as well as drawing customers in from surrounding areas, to boost passing trade for other local shops.

No idea when we can expect Conway to finish at Brockley Cross, but you'd think it would be possible to complete the new scheme by the end of the month too...

UPDATE: As pointed out below, May should also see the start of Hilly Fields cricket.

Booting an elephant

Gently Elephant is the name for the new children's shoes and accessories shop on the great, grey-green greasy Brockley Road. To satisfy your 'satiable curiousity, there is also a website to look at although it doesn't yet answer ever-so-many questions.

Parkrun 5k events to come to Hilly Fields

On the Brockley forum Sally points out that Parkrun is coming to Hilly Fields. The grassroots group offers free timed 5k runs to all ages and abilities and has delivered more than 9,000 events across the country, including similar runs in Crystal Palace and Greenwich.

Sally says:

They're looking for volunteers to help with the events. This could be setting out course markers, marshalling on the course to make sure people are going the right way or handing out tokens at the end, for people's times. If you think you could help then get in touch with Lynne Atkinson: lynneatkinson@englandathletics.org 

Details of the first event are to be confirmed.

Meze Mangal to expand this summer

Friend of BC, Nick, reports that Turkish restaurant Meze Mangal is due to expand this summer. The team are set to move in to the empty space next door to their hugely popular restaurant on Lewisham Way.

The windows for that part of the property are currently obscured by a large sea container (which houses charcoal for their oven), so we assume that the metal box will finally be going, making this doubly-good news.

At one point, they planned to open a patisserie in that space, but this plan was shelved a few years ago.

The London Mayoral Elections - the other three

David Ershon: Gentlemen, you have two choices: Mamma Mia or Jersey Boys.
- The Other Guys

Following our article about the two main contenders for the Mayoral election, here is our take on the other three candidates, who won't win, but anyway...

Brian Paddick, Liberal Democrats

Unforgivably dull on I’m a Celebrity a few years ago, Brian Paddick is back for another go in the Mayoral race, but without the excuse that he’s a previous winner. Big on law and order issues, he promises “New York-style crime reductions” (homicides in NYC approx. 500 per year, homicides in London approx. 125 per year).

Pros

His proposal for an independent police commissioner probably the right forward for the Met.

His plans to make cycling safer and improve air quality are not the most ambitious, but they are probably the most that’s achievable.

‘Part-timer’ Oyster card rates is the right solution for increasingly flexible working patterns and the one hour bus ticket is nice.

Cons

Beyond policing, his manifesto is a little light on detail, with lots of talk about “encouraging” and “promoting” things that are happening anyway.

He proposes a London version of the national plan for a “Green Investment Bank” and while it might make sense to have one for the country, one specific to London (one of the biggest capital markets in the world) is probably not the right way forward.  

One of his policies is actually called “Paddick Patrols”.

Jenny Jones, Green Party

In her time on Southwark Council and with the GLA, Jenny has proven herself to be a committed and effective politician, considerably smarter and more worldly than Caroline Lucas.


Pros

Prepared to use Congestion Charge to help keep fares down and discourage more polluting vehicles.

Wants to give a greater voice to small and micro businesses on the London Local Enterprise Partnership and provide better help for them to win procurement contracts.

As you might expect, she has some nice ideas for investment in green technology, including LED lighting and smart waste management centres to cut landfill.

Cons

Tough talk on reducing income inequality undercut by the lame policies intended to achieve this grand goal.  Lots of talk about income, little about wealth, possibly because they know their core voters.

Perhaps surprisingly, her ideas for green spaces in London are the least inspiring of any of the major candidates.

One of her priorities is to change the planning system to guarantee we all have access to a nearby newsagent, which is the most unnecessary policy ever proposed.

Siobahn Benita, Independent

The first thing Benita wants you to know is that she’s an outsider, independent of the party system. The second thing she wants you to know is that she’s worked as an insider in central government for years. Once you get past the irritating plucky outsider (not really) stuff, she’s a credible, personable candidate, who has  seduced many a commentator and who would be a good ambassador for London.

Pros

Admirable commitment to state education in London and reforming access to secondary school places.

She grudgingly supports a third runway at Heathrow, which, unless the UK unilaterally signs-up to a policy that limits air travel, is the only honest position to take.

Free travel for job seekers is a good idea if it can be made to work.

Cons

A bureaucrat’s fondness for reviews (independent one on policing, Councils must survey residents’ “top five issues”) and imposing red tape of dubious benefit (‘private property MOTs’).

A civil servanty tendency to propose an audit and / or a commissioner in response to any issue. Do we really need an urban fox audit to assess the scale of the problem?

Her home – New Malden – barely counts as London in our book.

NTO BORKCLYE BGADRE [UPDATED]

The name for the new restaurant and bar replacing Toads Mouth Too will be revealed  today as part of the Brockley Design Project local treasure hunt. But they're not making it easy: it's going to appear in anagram form in their window, so you'll have to unscramble it yourselves.

We had a quick look behind the scenes yesterday evening and although it's very much a building site, they had already succeeded in making it feel more spacious. The upstairs bar area in particular was a surprise: we imagined space for a few people lined up on stools along a bar, functioning as a holding area for the restaurant below, but they've found a way to create a (small) lounge space upstairs that, on summer nights when the front terrace will come in to play, will accommodate a decent number of drinkers.

There are still a few places on the treasure hunt for any last minute takers if they drop an email to brockleydesignhunt@gmail.com and the restaurant team will be answering questions for anyone who wants to knock on their door between around 1-3pm.

UPDATE: It's now confirmed that The Gantry is the restaurant and bar's new name, replacing the Druidic and ungrammatical Toads Mouth Too at 188 Brockley Road. More details about the new place, coming soon.

Uke newcomers needed

Hello! We are the Brockley Ukulele Group, and we are looking for new female vocalists – we’ve had a bit of a baby boom recently, which has taken its toll on our regular line-up.

We are basically looking for someone who has a decent singing voice, and either plays the ukulele or is willing to learn, and who is interested in playing gigs with us, potentially including doing lead vocals on a handful of songs.

Just to give you a bit more info about what to expect if you’re considering getting involved: we are an easygoing bunch, with eclectic music tastes. We practice every Sunday 5-7pm, usually in Brockley, sometimes at the Amersham Arms in New Cross. We play at the Amersham Arms on the second Sunday of every month: the format for those gigs is that we hand out copies of our “Uke Box” to the audience – a list of about 60 songs – and they shout out the numbers of the songs they want us to play.

We also usually play several local festivals during the summer. We’ve had lots of requests to play at weddings, parties, festivals outside London, and even a few TV shows, but so far we’ve turned almost all of them down. We are thinking we might say yes to a few more things in the future, though. We basically choose our gigs based on how much fun we think they’ll be to play! Recently we’ve had some very interesting offers for high profile events, and that is why we really want one or two new female vocalists on board as soon as possible. 

We’ve been asked to play at the Thames Festival (which is part of the Cultural Olympiad) in early September, and ideally we’d want our new member(s) to play at that, so we have a four month countdown starting about now… If you are interested, please email us at brockleyukegroup@gmail.com and please pass this on to anyone else you know who might be interested – thanks!