Brockley betting shop application refused

Glenda Rodgers has written a detailed article about this news here, so we won't try to replicate it, but suffice to say that:

1. This is great news for the life of the high street

2. This will be widely welcomed - we've still never seen a single comment in favour of the planned bookie, on this or any other blog

3. We don't believe that, even if they do re-apply, the Council would be silly enough to grant permission. They know the strength of public feeling about this and are no-doubt greatly relieved by Friday's decision.

4. If the current poll is anything to go by, bar operators should be queueing up to make an alternative application.

Do you want cash back?

It looks as though the Lewisham Way Tesco Metro will also bring with it a new cash machine - a new cashpoint has been installed in the frontage.

There's no confirmation yet whether the machine would be free, but we've never seen a Tesco machine that charges.

It won't do much to encourage local spending in Brockley Cross, but that stretch of Lewisham Way is also sorely in need of a few more impulse buyers and it will provide a useful facility for many in Brockley and St John's.

Thanks to John for the tip-off.

Brockley on Flickr

You've probably heard of Flickr.com - the free photo-sharing site, aimed at anyone with an interest in getting their photography online. Users 'tag' photos so that they can easily be found by others. You can also add them to one of Flickr's many groups - they exist for just about everything you can think of, and Brockley is no exception...

With 28 65 members and counting, the Brockley Flickr Group serves as a pinboard for everything and anything Brockley. What I love most is seeing how others view and interpret Brockley through their camera - some show the beauty, some the community, and others the people.

Below are the latest images in a fancy slideshow. Check out the group, and join up if you've got some photography we deserve to see!

The world's least auspicious film award ceremony comes to Brockley

Already famous as the home of assorted members of Athlete, Brockley is rapidly making a name for itself as a cover story for international con-artists.

Among the less-convincing scam emails that have been doing the rounds in recent months is one purporting to be from the 'Microsoft Award Team', which tells the lucky recipient that:

"Your email address as indicated was drawn and attached to ticket number 008795727498 with serial numbers BTD/9080648302/06 and drew the lucky numbers 14-21-25-39-40-47(20) which subsequently won you £3,400,000.00. The draws registered as Draw number one was conducted in Brockley, London United Kingdom on the 25th of March 2007. These Draws are commemorative and as such special."

We were always entertained by the idea that Brockley would be chosen as the venue for a glittering lottery draw (surely only the Rivoli Ball Room could live up to such an occasion) but clearly Brockley's name has got around in the scamming community. For, following hot on the heels of the Evening Standard's Brockley coverage, comes this piece from The Daily Sun in Lagos, which reports that a drug smuggler, posing as a journalist was arrested in Nigeria, "armed with fake documents suggesting that he was traveling to London for the Second Annual African Film Festival and Academy Awards taking place at 35 Brockley Road, London from October 2 to 6, 2007."

A little late for the Brockley MAX of course, but if the organisers want to get in touch, we'll happily give it a plug.

Blast from the past

As a child of Greenwich, Brockley Central has found that many of the people it grew up with have gravitated towards Charlton, Hither Green and Deptford and in one case, an Australian nut farm, in search of affordable first homes. Relatively few, in spite of (or perhaps because of) our best efforts, have been convinced by SE4's appeal, thus far.

So it was nice to get an email from an old friend, Joe, who now lives in Brockley and, in the 15 years since we last spoke, has metamorphosed from skateboarder to local historian.

He's trying to track down old pictures of the area and sent a few links of the kinds of images he's looking for [here, here and here] in the hope that other readers might be able to point him towards some more.

If you know of any other useful websites or have any images of your own you'd like to share, please let us know. Even images from Brockley's recent history, like the late, lamented 'Elephant House' would be welcome.

New look Brockley Central on its way

During its summer hiatus last week, Brockley Central has not been idle - Brockley Jon has been busy working on a new look for the site.

The changes won't be drastic, but we have been looking at the ways you use the site and the information you search for most often and we will attempt to make the site work better for you - although we get a lot of people visiting from the US, searching Google for "recipes for brockley", but we don't plan on catering for that audience.

Brockley Central 2.0 should go live in about a month's time and over the coming months you might notice a few odd things happen to the site, but please bear with us.

If you have any questions or comments about the change, please post them here.

Best wishes

Nick and Jon

Brockley Road: New date for "Homeview" hearing

The fate of the site currently occupied by the defunct Homeview video store is a story we've been following closely. The shop, a prime site on Brockley Road, has been targeted by a betting shop chain from Abbey Wood, who want to bring their particular brand of "upmarket" gambling to Brockley.

Given its location and the fact that Brockley is already blessed with an abundance of bookies, this proposal has met with strong opposition from local residents. The hearing to decide its fate overran several weeks ago and the new date has been set for 7th September, 10am at Bromley Magistrates Court.

We will bring you the verdict when (and if) it arrives.