Blythe Planner

Blythe Hill Festival's new corporate hospitality packages unveiled

Put it in your diaries - the 5th annual Blythe Hill Festival will take place on July 2nd, 2011. No news on the lineup yet, but it will serve up its usual mix of live music, family events and stalls. Some pitches are still available. If you would like to book a stall, click here for an application form

And the fun doesn't stop there! You'll be able to enjoy this year's festivities while sitting on one of two new teak benches (above), located at the top of the park on the path leading to Brockley View. The benches were donated by the Friends of Blythe Hill Fields.

The Brockley MAX 2011 - May 27th - June 4th

South East London's most eclectic arts festival is back. The Brockley Max has a sumptuous new website and a full programme of events available for download here.

Events will take place across 19 venues, from Lewisham Art House to HOP Scotch in Honor Oak and including Hilly Fields and the traditional opening night party outside the Brockley Barge.

We'll be bringing you a preview of the festivals's highlights soon, but in the mean time, let us also give praise to the festival's sponsors, Jam Circus, The Wickham Arms, The Orchard and The Brockley Barge, not to mention the people of Brockley, Ladywell and Crofton Park wards, who gave financial support through their local assemblies.

Ladywell Cinema campaign

Although the aspiration to create a local cinema foundered when Hither Green Hall was bought by carpet-sellers, the Hither Green cineastes are back, with an even grander plan, to turn Ladywell leisure centre into a moviedrome.

After floating the idea on Southeastcentral, they write:

Hither Green Hall steering group are proposing a campaign to turn the Ladywell Leisure Centre site into a cinema complex once the old pool closes in two years time.

We have started an online petition. SIGN NOW

A detailed appraisal of the proposal is available on our website.

A consultation about Lewisham town centre developments including the old pool site is now being carried out by Lewisham Council.

Comments can be made directly to the following department with "Lewisham Town Centre Area Action Plan Consultation" in the subject line and state that you support a cinema at the Ladywell Leisure Centre site in the message.

planning@lewisham.gov.uk

The consultation regarding the town center development ends next week so comment now while you can.

The Council is considering turning that site into housing and that would be another missed opportunity for a central cinema complex.

This campaign will run for some time. For it to succeed we need to gather universal support so any help is gratefully appreciated. For now, please forward this to your contact list.

We admire any attempt to enrich Lewisham's cultural landscape, at this end of town, we don't feel particularly cinema-starved. The O2 and Surrey Quays cinemas are within pretty easy reach thanks to the East London Line, Greenwich Cinema is walkable and the Brockley Jack and Deptford Film Clubs do some great programming.

However, undoubtedly, if Lewisham Council wants to fulfill its ambitions to be the best place in London to live, then it needs to provide a greater range of local leisure options than it does at present.

Responding to the campaigners on the Southeastcentral forum, Cllr Mike Harris described it as "a really interesting concept" and has offered to investigate it with officers.

DLR releases possible route to Ladywell, Catford and Forest Hill

The DLR website has posted a new map of possible future line extensions, which shows a possible route to Ladywell, Medusa, Catford and Forest Hill.

An extension south from Lewisham would require the abandonment of the current station and major work in the Lewisham area. As such, this route is still in the concept stage, rather than fully-developed, but it would add significant capacity to the public transport options in Catford, which suffers from relatively poor connections, and help to integrate it more effectively with the rest of the borough.

Despite the major challenges involved, the DLR has an impressive track record of delivering on its vision, so this map is more than just a pipe dream.

EDIT: Trainspotter found a reference in a document from 2005, which clarifies that an extension south of Lewisham would involve constructing new track, running in parallel to existing overland services:

South of Lewisham the proposed alignment is alongside and east of the Mid-Kent Railway

line. Some complex bridge works are necessary and there are tight alignment constraints at

Doggett Road, to the North of Ladywell Road, and on the approach to Catford Bridge Station.

Whilst some of these issues – together with the necessary modifications to Ladywell Station

and Catford Bridge Station – are significant; they are less critical than the interface near

Lewisham Station.

Brockley's Unofficial Royal Wedding

The arrest of Brockley lunarchist "Professor" Chris Knight features on this evening's "The Unofficial Royal Wedding" on Channel 4 tonight. It's a very odd scene, it looks highly stage-managed and the police look extremely uncomfortable throughout. If they were headed for Soho Square then the arrest seems even more unjustified than it did on Friday.

We'll link to it once it's available to stream, but feel free to tell us what you think, having seen the programme.

El's Kitchen enters Deli of the Year

After tasting victory in Brockley Central's "Best Newcomer 2010" vote, El's Kitchen has the caught the scent of olive oil in its nostrils and is asking for Brockley Central readers' help in the British Deli of the Year competition. El writes:

Since we opened back in October last year, the team at El’s Kitchen has worked really hard to try and bring you a community-focussed deli that you love shopping at and we can be proud of. We’ve been really grateful for the generous support and fantastic feedback you’ve given us so far.

Though there’s still room for improvement, we think we’ve met your expectations in most areas and exceeded them in others. So much so, that we’ve decided to enter for the prestigious Deli of the Year competition!

The brainchild of champions of the independent food sector (and producers of fantastic, award-winning olives), Olives et Al, the competition aims to raise the profile of independent food shops and give us all a pat on the back in these tough trading conditions.

So, if you believe that El’s Kitchen has made a difference in Ladywell, sources and sells the produce you want to buy, champions local and regional foods and is run with genuine enthusiasm, deep product knowledge and with great customer service at its heart, then please vote for us! You could be in with a chance to win a trip to Spain to take part in the olive harvest later this year!

All you need to do is go to http://www.delioftheyear.co.uk/search-by-region/ search for El’s Kitchen and tell Olives et Al why we deserve to be crowned best deli in Britain. Alternatively, you can pop into the shop and pick up a voting slip to fill in and return to us.

Voting closes 31st May, so get your skates on and vote for El’s Kitchen to win Deli of the Year!

Royal Weeding Day: A day that was truly happy and glorious

The Royal Weeding Day was the sort of occasion that Brockley still does best. It showed a global audience of two dozen that, despite the rampant gentrification of Brockley, commoners can still dream of being accepted in to the establishment. Of course, it was also a showcase for Brockley fashion and there had been much advance speculation about who would design "those trousers" and while they were beautifully cut, with tasteful nods to Percy Thrower's famous trousers from 1956, in the end, it was the gardeners' well-honed bottoms that set Twitter ablaze.

Transition Towns' Royal Correspondent, Caroline looks forward to the honeymoon:

Our next date is Monday 30th May 2011, 10am - 12pm ( Bank Holiday )

We have a few gaps left to fill, plus there will be general tidying up / possible thinning / redistributing some plants, as well as planting a few more

So far we have a rich mix of ( in no particular order ); spring onions, butternut squash, courgettes, sweet peas, marigolds, cornflowers, lavender, crocosmia, calendula, runner beans, decorative peas champion of england, camomile, rainbow chard, turnips, gem lettuces, globe artichokes, potatoes,provencale mixed salad leaves, perpetual spinach, strawberries, parsley, mind, climbing french beans, and sunflowers !!

Please come along on the 30th with gardening tools, watering cans, seedlings, and we could also do with some more sticks for labelling ,

Thanks again, and maybe see you on the 30th!