East London Line replacement bus service cancelled

BC reader James has alerted us to the fact that the bus service covering the route of the old East London Line is to be withdrawn in late September.

The new ELL is not due to restart until the middle of next year, meaning that passengers of the service will be expected to catch the nearby 225, which goes to Canada Water from New Cross Gate, in the interim.

This month, responsibility for the East London Line is transferred from London Underground to London Rail, which has a different policy with regards to rail replacement services.

The new operators claim that not enough people are using the service to justify its continued existence. However, James is one of the people who will be inconvenienced and says that he sees plenty of other people - including school children - every day on the bus. He's hoping there may be other BC readers who use the service and who can help him campaign for some sort of service to be kept going.

If you'd like to support James please email him at his ironic email address: cheerfuljim@yahoo.co.uk

Flytipping by J R Hartley

Few things generate more heat on BC than the issue of flytipping, but now someone is hoping to use the site to throw a little light on the problem too.

Tom has been in touch, because he's studying for his MA in Design Communication and is working with Lewisham Council to understand how best to tackle the problem of flytipping in the borough. To help with his initial research, he'd appreciate the help of BC readers, who he'd like to complete this quick questionnaire and email it back to him. Just cut and paste the text below, fill in your answers and email to the address at the bottom.

1. Are you Male or Female?

2. Age

3. Street name?

4. Do you currently Rent or Own your house/flat?

5. How long have you lived in Lewisham?

6. Have you used the http://www.lovelewisham.org/ website?
Reason?

7. How often do you use the Landmann Way Recycling Centre.
Every Week
Twice a Month
Once a Month
Once a Year
Never

8. Reasons for using it:

8.1 Do you feel it provides a good service?

9. If you have never used Landmann Way Recycling Centre, Why?
Don’t know about it.
Haven’t needed to use it.
Too far away
Don’t own a car.
Other

10. What do you consider to be the biggest obstacle for people to use this facility?

11. Have you ever fly-tipped? Do you know of anyone who has fly-tipped? If yes, Why? (Remember this is completely anonymous!)
What?
How much?
Why?

12. How much would you be prepared to pay for disposing of large household items such as mattresses and furniture?

13. What issues affect you the most in relation to living in your street (surrounding area).

14. Whats your favourite thing about Lewisham?

Any further comments regarding Lewisham, flytipping or any other issues?

Would you be happy to be contacted further? All information will remain anonymous.
If Yes:
Name
Address
Email
Telephone

Thank you for you time and help.

Please email the questionnaire to: flytipping@hotmail.com

Green shoots

Is Brockley's recession a V, U, W or an L?

The imminent re-opening of Moonbows as the Brockley Mess, of Dandelion Blue as Browns of Brockley and of The Talbot as a functioning pub suggest the state of the local economy may be starting to improve.

As economic indicators go, it seems as reliable as any other.

A while back, around the time of the Lehman collapse, we polled BC readers about their personal circumstances - how optimistic were they feeling, financially speaking? We stupidly forgot to record the results, but the majority of those who voted (on a scale of 1 - 4, 1 being champagne, 4 being Special Brew) opted for option 2 - Sancerre.

The opening East London Line extension is perhaps less than six months away and promises structural change for the area, regardless of the peaks and troughs of the business cycle. But how does Brockley feel now, nearly one year on? The poll on the right hand side poses the same question as last time.

Thanks to those on Twitter who suggested the re-poll.

PaperBoy Interiors

As part of our occasional series about creative business in Brockley, we spoke to Victoria Cramsie of Paper Boy Interiors, a company producing wallpaper designs for boys, ahead of her company's launch later this month at 100% Design London, Earls Court:

I’ve been living in Brockley for just over a year and working from a small office off the kitchen ever since.

PaperBoy was conceived when my two young boys outgrew their nursery-style room. I was looking for boys’ wallpaper that felt hand-made, but wasn’t folksy or whimsical or twee. Something more pleasing than tacky, standard licensed wares. But affordable, too.

After a long search for the right thing, I gave up looking and decided to make it myself. I came up with designs that would appeal to boys from pre-school to teens. Something for after the fluffy bunny stage that would see them through until they painted their bedrooms black.

Sadly there are no wallpaper factories in London so my paper is made in Norfolk. But I have a great fabric screen printer based in Bermondsey who is sampling the designs at the moment.

I don’t know if Brockley per se is a good place to start a business or not yet, I don't feel part of a networked business community here and what I'm making is not really that dependent upon location. But I find Brockley a very peaceful and quiet place to live and work. It doesn’t feel like I’m living in a city.

PaperBoy Interiors Ltd.
T: +44(0) 207 193 9135
victoria@paperboywallpaper.co.uk

Teatro Vivo, September 2009

Teatro Vivo is a theatre company that will be performing in Deptford, Blackheath and Forest Hill in September - here's what they say about their new show:

Welcome to the Hothouse - the most beguiling bar in town. Where the tragedies of jealous lovers, unrequited dreamers and greedy good-for-nothings reach their climax, spurred on by a live tango score. Free post-show tango session for ticket holders - experience the sensuality and intimacy of tango for yourselves!

After last years successful sell-out run at the Horniman, Teatro Vivo’s site-specific show has been re-commissioned by the Arcola as the finale of the Grimeborn Festival. This will be followed by a short tour to unusual spaces.

Hothouse is a unique exploration into the relationship between musician, actor and the story they create together. Set in a seedy otherworldly bar, and combining the talents of one of London’s most exciting site-specific companies with the contemporary tango band Metamorphosis Hothouse is a dynamic dance-inspired piece of performance.

Over the past year Teatro Vivo and Metamorphosis have worked with a group of international performers devising characters, stories and a new improvisational process allowing dance, theatre and music to fuse together in a vivid and exciting way.

After each performance there will be a free tango lesson for the audience to join in with.

Blackheath

The Bakehouse Theatre, 11 Blackheath Village, Blackheath, London, SE3 9LA

Box Office: online at www.teatrovivo.co.uk

8^th, 9^th and 10^th September 2009

7.30pm

Tickets: £10 with a glass of wine, £8 without, £5 concessions.

Forest Hill

The Horniman Museum, 100 London Rd, Forest Hill, London, SE23 3PQ

Box Office: online at www.teatrovivo.co.uk

15th and 17^th September 2009

7.30pm

Tickets: £10 with a glass of wine, £8 without, £5 concessions.

Deptford

The Albany, Douglas Way, Deptford, London, SE8 4AG

Box Office: 020 8692 4446

19th September 2009

8pm

Performance Length: 1 hour, a free tango taster lesson will be offered after each performance.

Climate Camp

Brockley Central wandered over to Blackheath yesterday to have a look at Climate Camp. Partly as we are about the thousandth blogger to have done so (Blackheath Bugle has some excellent coverage) and partly because some of the campers are currently naked in the reception of our office, we shan't dwell on what we thought about the content.

However, we did want to make a few quick points in light of some of the discussion about the use of the heath itself.

1. Mayor Bullock's comparison of the campers with football hooligans looks all the more regrettable once you've been up and had a look around - the camp is well organised and, with the exception of one or two small fires lit on the grass, it looks as though the heath will come out largely unscathed - particularly in comparison to the damage done several times a year by the grotty funfair that the Council allows.

2. Brockley Kate's point about the hypocrisy of championing Blackheath's status as common land, while throwing up perimeter fences is very well made. We understand why they've done it of course, but they should have created more than one entrance, so that people can cross the site.

3. Many of the tents had words to the effect of "no media" written on them, which makes their headline-grabbing stunts in various parts of the City all the more confused - unless they are only keen to engage the media on their own terms. Of course some coverage will be needlessly dismissive and some may be critical of their analysis of the problems and solutions, but that's democracy.

The Talbot: Progress Report 1

Little over one month ago, the new landlord of The Talbot, Felix, wrote to Brockley Central to explain to readers about his plans for the pub, which is due to re-open in November. He also promised to keep us up-to-date as the rennovation progressed. True to his word, here is Felix's latest update:

I thought I’d give you a quick update since it has now been a month since we started work and things have moved at a great pace. At the moment we are on schedule for opening The Talbot at the beginning of November and barring any major problems we should be on time.

We have removed at least a dozen 12 yard skips of rubble, old pipework, and general building waste and some particularly unsavory carpets from the Talbot. The infrastructure of the building was in very poor condition, so we have reconstructed some internal walls, replaced a fair bit of rotten timber and repaired the main drains to the rear of the pub.

The rebuilding has begun at the top of the building and there are 14 men gradually working their way down. New plumbing, new wiring and new plasterboard throughout means that teams are following each other down from the 2nd floor. Since the trade kitchen and the dining room/function room will be on the 1st floor with a new bar, we are currently working hard to get this into good shape before we head down another floor to the main bar.

Last week I submitted the first of two planning applications that should be on Lewisham’s searchable database this week. The first is an application to separate the house on the left on the Talbot from the pub. In years gone by this has become part of the pub and it is my intention to turn this back into a house and live there myself. All of the space lost by turning the raised room on the left of the pub back into my living room will be regained by opening out the bar area and adding a bar and dining room upstairs.

The second application will be submitted next week and has been made to create an entrance lobby on the right hand side of the pub where the existing door is and to move the front entrance to the centre of the front face of the pub. We will then replace the old gated door on the left with a window to match all of the others. This will make the building accessible to all and comply with current disabled access regulations. We have looked at trying to achieve this internally but a lobby would simply eat up too much space in the bar.

I do hope that these applications will meet with all of your approval when Lewisham send out letters to you. They are only intended to improve the pub and update the building to make it more functional.

On a lighter note, I have managed to salvage the old cocktail sign from the rubble. It will definitely feature in some respect in the new pub. Watch this space.

Many thanks for your time