Brockley Max 2015

A map of all the participating venues at this year's festival

The Brockley Max arts festival returns (May 29 - June 6), topped and tailed with its traditional opening night party next to the Brockley Barge and closing Art in the Park party in Hilly Fields. In-between, there are dozens of events across 25 venues.

This year's highlights include an Open Studios at Dragonfly Place, Afternoon Tea at the Opera (both May 30th) and loads of live music at venues including The Orchard, The Talbot, Jam Circus and the Ladywell Tavern.

The full programme is now available to download here.

Hot Buzz

BC's constructive critic Chris Wheal forgave us for our vile anti-dog-rumour-mongering just long enough to send us this recent article by Buzzfeed, which listed "31 [natch] Things to Eat in South East London Now."

Of course, it's nice to see local favourites like Brown's of Brockley, the Royal Albert, Brockley Market and Mo Pho get name-checked, but the more interesting thing about the list is the geographic distribution of the choices. For this is a list that basically defines South East London as Greater Brockley + Greater Peckham.

Sure, there are bones chucked to places like Penge, Crystal Palace and Greenwich but if you were to plot the recommended venues on a map, it would look like the Broad Street Cholera Outbreak, with Brockley as the culprit pump.

The mental map of South East London has been re-drawn - the golden triangle is now Peckham - Deptford - Brockley.

New regular music nights at the Rivoli, starting July 25th

Brockley's answer to Madame JoJo's will be throwing their doors open on a regular basis for a series of new music nights. This is the first.

Ladyspace becomes available

A unit located inside Ladywell Road arches has been put on the market.

Nestled beneath the road bridge, next to the redeveloped adhesives factory, this space is now being marketed as a possible location for a restaurant or cafe, though the estate agents reckon that it actually has planning use class B1 (office / light industrial).

It's an unpromising spot, but then so was the scrap of land between the Birds Nest Pub and the DLR elevated track until someone parked a bus there and created a pizza restaurant.

With thanks to Joe.

Pomegranate Pop-Up

Villa Toscana, 179 Brockley Road

Having previously noted the relative lack of old-school restaurants in the area, it's time BC celebrated one under our noses - a turnaround story led by a team of genuinely passionate foodies - Villa Toscana.

Under its previous owners the restaurant had fallen on hard times but just over a year ago a new team took over, led by Leo, formerly a General Manager for Marco Pierre White and someone with six years of running Conran restaurants under his belt.

Hidden behind a front window which gives little away, Villa Toscana has been steadily building a local fan-base, thanks to its focus on simple, high-quality Italian cooking by chef duo Daniella and Francesco.

In addition to their pastas and pizzas, Leo's most proud of their scaloppine, steaks, veal, sea bass and fresh, hand-made breads. The wine list is all-Italian and they are generous with the limoncello.

Now, with their reputation established, they are doing more to attract new audiences. From this weekend, a pianist will be performing on Friday and Saturday evenings, while that un-alluring frontage will eventually get a makeover.

Like Meze Mangal, this is a restaurant that trades on its food first, but Leo stresses that they pride themselves on their service too.

Please post your reviews here.

The way we live now

This is why BC loves Brockley, in one Tweet:

Love this selection of front wall freebies in @BrockleyCentral pic.twitter.com/jrdM28jVNX
— Rebecca Cox (@RebeccaMCox) April 26, 2015