Found kitten
Hazel says:Last night I found a black kitten, definitely lost and hungry, in Whitbread Road, brockley. We'll keep the kitten safe but obviously would prefer s/he gets home. The owner is welcome to email me .
St Andrew's steeplejacks
Thanks to Debra, who sent us this shot of two men climbing St Andrew's Church moments ago, all watched over by machines of loving grace.
Brock and Chips
Gourmet Inn, the Chinese restaurant on Brockley Road near the Brockley Mess, is currently being refitted. BC Twitterers Laura and Jennifer have now been able to establish what is happening to it.
The takeaway will re-open shortly as a fish and chip restaurant, with some outdoor seating. The builders confidently informed Jennifer that the work will be 'spot on', which would make a nice change from some of the refits we've seen on Brockley Road in the last year.
The new Utrophians
As Transpontine reports, Deptford arts space Utrophia is sadly relocating from the old ice cream factory at 136 Tanners Hill in Deptford as the building is being redeveloped. Utrophia has had to cope with the loss of its home before and is planning to move to a new (currently undisclosed) location.
If you want to get a vision of Utrophia for yourself before it goes, there are still some events due to take place before it closes, click here for details.
The evolution of Brockley man
EDIT: Photo now removed, but basically it was a couple of hipsters.
Recently on Twitter, Sydenham-based journalist Paul tweeted this picture from his train journey home, together with the bold prediction that the two gentlemen in the photo would disembark at Brockley. He won his bet.
Since Brockley Central is a fairly buttoned-down, sexually-inhibited sort of a blog, that spends all its days behind a desk, working for the man to prepare Brockley for a merciless invasion by Megacorp PLC, we tend to travel to and from Brockley at rush hour, when a wide array of people get on and off the train at Brockley, so we've never thought that Brockley had such an easily identifiable 'type'. At other times of day, life around the station can look very different.
It's obvious that Brockley has got younger and more attractive over the last few years as Brockley Central has gotten older and less attractive. But the array of stereotypes that get thrown around on this site, from cardigan wearing vegans, to ruthless bankers, middle-aged doggers and angry crusties suggests that Brockley remains a broad church and we hope it remains thus.
Is this what we have become? How would you describe the average Brockleyite?
Edit: for the avoidance of doubt, we think the two people in the photo look perfectly nice. If that is what you're all like, that's fine by us.
The New Cross Community Council
Following the closure of New Cross Library, local campaigner James Holland believes that the issue has shown the need to create a new group for "everyone who lives, works and studies in SE14 to come together to directly represent their interests themselves."We asked James how this would differ from Lewisham Council's Local Assemblies and he said:The local assemblies vary immensely accross the borough. In New Cross the Assembly is not really a democratic body. But however good or bad assemblies are, they are still an arm of the council, and therefore are not really open arenas for people to initiate and direct debate and decision making, especially if it's critical of the council. They were imposed from the top and are a bureaucratic and expensive way to make the council look like it's
involving people. In fact the only power they actually have is on how to spend a tiny amount of money, however, even then these 'decisions' have the be approved by the Mayor.
The new community council will be completely different - run entirely by the people of the area it's most likely role will be to allow the community to represent it's interests to the council to help them to avoid making mistakes such as closing the library or allowing another Sainsbury's.
I hope the Mayor and Lewisham council recognise that such an independent, open and democratic local voice will help them to make better, more informed decisions similar to how we might hope the borough council might represent our interests to central government.
There is also the problem of the geographical areas covered by council wards which bear no resemblance to actual functioning communities - New Cross ward includes Deptford Station, but not Goldsmiths College which is why we're organising for anyone in the SE14 postcode - which covers an area most people would recognise as New Cross.If you'd like to attend the meeting, here are the details:Monday June 6th 7pm, Goldsmiths College, Main Building, Lewisham Way, Ground Floor room 143
On Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/6xvuv22
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
