Deptford Market

Deptford Market takes place every every Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, 7am-4pm, in Deptford High Street and Douglas Way.

The market specialises in low-cost clothing, fresh fruit, vegetables and fish, prepared foods and household products and toys.

Please post your comments and reviews here.

The East London Line - we count the ways

We had our first go on the East London Line yesterday. God it was good.

The trains are so wide! The lack of doors between carriages! It's like riding in the belly of a Hercules, with windows.

The carriages feel tubey, but better. It wasn't hot or crowded enough to judge the aircon, but we could hear it whirring, reassuringly. Even when the trains are "underground" there is barely a moment when we couldn't get a signal on our phone, which is great for anyone who likes to use the internet on their way to work.

Like the DLR or the rail service, you're up high for much of the journey, which we love compared to the claustrophobic underground. But unlike the train, there were no irritating pauses outside stations as the train sits idly for some reason or another.

And the new stations! Hoxton and Shoreditch are so easy to access from the street. If you have a buggy, as we did, the lift access is a joy. The way the train doors draw exactly level with the platform is a miracle.

When you draw up to Canada Water, it's satisfying to see the entrance to the Jubilee Line platform right in front of you, rather than a long walk from platform 15 at London Bridge.

The signage wasn't working at any of the stations, but nothing beats the feeling of turning up at a platform happy in the knowledge that a train will be along in it in a minute (rather than racing around to the big screens at London Bridge to see what platform the next train is leaving from, praying that it's not just about depart as you scan the information feverishly). And lo, a train did appear within a couple of minutes of us arriving at the platform.

Truly, the East London Line is the king of tubes.

Our Future's Orange: Hoxton

The Geffrye Museum garden, underneath the arches of Hoxton Station
White Cube Gallery, Hoxton Square

Delicious London lanscapes

The only scary thing about Hoxton is the realisation that you are ten years older than everyone else

This is part six of our preview of the East London Line, profiling many of the stops along the new route, ahead of its opening this month.

Hoxton is the counterpart of Shoreditch, to the north of Old Street, although the name has seeped south thanks to places like the Hoxton Urban Lodge on Great Eastern Street. Hoxton Station seeks to avoid future confusion by planting the flag firmly in the north of its territory.

Hoxton carries so much cultural baggage – from the White Cube gallery to Nathan Barley – that the first time we went with the intention of reviewing it for the site, we were fearful that we were neither young, nor cultured enough to judge it. We gestured approvingly to our wife at the first bit of alternative high-culture we saw: a small theatre we spotted tucked away inside a brick doorway, which on closer inspection turned out to be a gay sex shop.

Despite the reported defection of many of Hoxton’s cultural settlers to places like Dalston and Deptford due to rising prices, the area remains one of the most exciting in London, with a dense concentration of nightlife and stunning architectural contrasts from every angle.

Hoxton Station (like a DLR station on steroids, built on brick arches) sets you down in an incongruously quiet little pedestrian street, just behind the Geffrye Museum, which is devoted to the history of the English home, built inside a pretty 18th century almshouse. The museum is free to enter and – like Brockley Central – much of it is given over to “Urban life and the middling sort.” That means it recreates a series of living rooms, from the 17th century to the modern era and provides a small but beautiful period garden. No museum of the middling sort would be complete without a café, and the Geffrye’s is lovely, set in a new conservatory, overlooking the garden.

From there we travelled down Kingsland Road, the centre of Vietnamese cuisine in London, with standout venues including Viet Grill, Que Viet and Tay Do. Among the other places worth checking out along this stretch are the Flowers Galleries and Jaguar Shoes (a cut and shut of two former shops). We then turned down Drysdale, into the heart of poseur Hoxton.

On summer evenings, Hoxton Square is the closest thing central London has to a beach resort, with drinkers spread out on the small patch grass from day, into the evening. Unlike Soho Square, many of the bars face the square itself, with the sun terraces of venues like Bluu, the Hoxton Apprentice and Zigfrid creating a more intimate, self-contained atmosphere than Hoxton’s west end rival. Having said that, one of the area’s best bars, the Electricity Showrooms, is located just off the square.

Beyond Hoxton Square, head west for restaurants like Fifteen on Westland Place or pubs like The Eagle on Shepherdess Walk. Or sneak across the border in to Shoreditch for great streets like Rivington, home of day/night club Cargo, and Curtain Road, home to SCP, a furniture and garden shop, which will make you wish you had more money.

All this and yet no-sign of the drug dealers that some of our more imaginative readers had warned us the area was teeming with, ready to pounce on us as soon as the East London Line was up-and-running. The station did have handy step-free access and platforms on the same level as the train doors, for their pushchairs though.

More East London Line destinations:

Forest Hill
Crystal Palace
Shoreditch High Street
Rotherhithe, Canada Water, Surrey Quays
Dalston

Fear of a cack planet

For an area that is one of the most significant Green Party strongholds in the country and a site with a readership regularly caricatured as hand-wringing, planet-botherers, environmental issues haven't played a significant role in any of the discussions during this week's virtual hustings.

So how important will issues like energy policy, green taxes, airport expansion and road pricing be to you when you come to vote? If you're voting Green, how much is it because of their green policies?

Owners re-apply to demolish Ladywell factory

The owners of the have renewed their application (won on appeal in 2007) to demolish the art deco adhesive factory at 59 Ladywell Road.

The demolition would be followed by the construction of 14 apartments and 520 square metres of office space (class B1).

Click here for photos of the undeniably handsome (if somewhat awkwardly sited) building.

New La Lanterna open within weeks

Work has begun on the conversion of La Lanterna from small, not-very-good restaurant into something bigger and - hopefully - better.

With the East London Line's arrival only days away, La Lanterna's owners are aiming to capitalise on the opportunity. We spoke briefly with the builders today, who confirmed the plan was to be ready within a few weeks.

The new restaurant will be an important first step in transforming the fortunes of that stretch of Brockley Road, which is also subject to a planning application to rennovate two shop fronts a few doors down.

Enterprise Brockley - May 11th

Brockley Central has teamed up with Enterprise UK to help organise a free networking night for local businesses and entrepreneurs on May 11th.

Enterprise UK is backed by the Department for Business Innnovation and Skills, the CBI, the British Chamber of Commerce, the Institute of Directors and the Federation of Small Businesses and it exists to support entrepreneurs.

The challenge of how Brockley can nurture clusters of high-quality businesses is one that we believe is vital to the future success of the area, creating jobs, opportunity and local spending power. There are some great examples of local businesses supporting eachother and we hope that this evening will help to encourage new partnerships and ideas.

We'll have some great companies involved, sharing their experiences and we also hope to see our new elected representatives and a range of organisations with an interest in the area.

If you're a local entrepreneur and would like to come along, please email us. More details coming soon.