Brockley Bites - Philosophy-Free Special

DLR set for Charing Cross

Once derided as a Mickey Mouse service that didn't really go anywhere, the Docklands Light Railway is arguably London's most successful public transport service, successfully growing its tendrils in to new parts of the city. One of the most likely extensions in their future planning appears to be an extension from Bank to Charing X via City Thameslink and Aldwych. Given the speed at which the DLR can be built and that it would use a number of existing platforms, the extension may not be a very distant prospect. An extension to Catford still seems a relatively distant prospect though.

Getting rid of large objects

We have now used both Lewisham Freecycle and the Council's Special Collection service. We used Freecycle to get rid of a sofa, which was harder than we expected. Despite the sofa being in decent condition (and from Habitat, no less) a lot of people turned their noses up at it when we sent them a photo, while a few other respondents either sounded decidedly dodgy or didn't bother with basic pleasantries in their messages. Eventually it went to a good home in Forest Hill.

We used the special collection service to rid ourselves of three large items. They have to be left outside the house, within the boundaries of your property, the night before collection day (which was within about a week of calling) . One of the large objects (we forget what it was) took the eye of someone more resourceful than us, as it sat in our front "garden", so it disappeared overnight. This meant that, when the collection team arrived and saw only two large objects cluttering the front of our home, they concluded that this couldn't be the collection in question and promptly left, without bothering to let us know of their logical deduction. After a second call to the Council, during which we were initially told that we hadn't left anything for collection, we got them to come back and the items eventually went without further hassle. There is a flat charge (£20) for this service and a maximum limit of three items.

Key cutting

We got three keys cut at the hardware shop a couple of doors down from Moonbow Jakes. All three opened the locks they were meant for, which constitutes a recommendation.

Going Local

Brockley Central regular Tom has had the temerity to start his own blog about Brockley stuff. And worse still, it's pretty good.

Congratulations to our 50,000th visitor!

When not writing lists or counting cards in Vegas, Brockley Central pores over the stats for this site, like it was a particularly slow and frustrating version of Championship Manager.

And as a result, today is a very exciting day, for within a few hours, we will welcome our 50,000th visitor since the site began last year. Unfortunately, we won't be online to mark the occasion, but if current trends are anything to go by, the person is likely to be:

a) Someone trying to find the menu for Meze Mangal
b) Someone from the States who can't spell broccoli
c) Monkeyboy

Welcome, whoever you turn out to be.

Lewisham Council: The Verdict

Yesterday's debate about Brockley's Chattering Classes went in all kinds of unexpected directions - we're still trying to decide whether the resulting argument supported or undermined our original theory about the nature of Brockley's chatter.

One of the issues raised was whether the Council delivers a good and cost effective service. Well, according to the Audit Commission, whose job it is to assess these things, Lewisham fares pretty well. In the last report, dated October 2007, it scores 4 overall, which means that it is "well above minimum requirements – performing strongly." Now admittedly, this is in comparison with other Councils, which means that it may not be the strongest benchmark to set it against, but the key findings of the report are:

"The Council is performing strongly. It is working for and delivering real improvements for Lewisham. It is with its partners extremely ambitious in creating and seizing opportunities to improve life chances for its young people and regenerate its diverse area, many parts of which are deprived but well-placed to develop. Its ambition to make Lewisham the most liveable and sustainable community in the most successful city in Europe is based on an exceptionally good understanding of its communities and their potential. Over the last five years the Council has prioritised clearly and delivered successfully improvements that are central to its vision, particularly the attainment of young people and the condition of streets and open spaces. Better transport links to London's commercial centres are fostering well-targeted regeneration. Strong partnerships deliver more than the sum of their parts including some world-class integrated facilities for local people. Some lower-priority services currently perform only adequately, but improvements are mostly in hand.

"The Council has achieved well against its key priorities over the last five years including important and continuing gains in school attendance, pupil attainment and the prospects of young people leaving care, in better-maintained and outstandingly clean streets and parks, measurably reduced deprivation overall and better energy use. Regeneration is building on the unique characters of communities, making good use of new transport links which have been achieved through active lobbying and starting to exploit the possibilities of the London Olympics. Remaining challenges, on which the Council is strongly focused, include securing an ambitious Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme to support its plans for education development, improving social housing through a complex stock transfer, and major regeneration proposals for its town centres and Thames frontage. These are things of real significance in improving the lives and life chances of local people.

"There are a few weaknesses in areas that are less central to the Mayor and Council's goal of a step-change in the Borough's fortunes. Early slowness in determining options for the housing stock has made the Council behind on Decent Homes Standards (DHS). Complaints in housing are not followed through well and tenants are dissatisfied and unsettled. Homelessness is still problematic. Relationships with voluntary organisations need more development. Older people have been a lower priority and although strategy is progressing, services to support healthy lifestyles for people over 50 are not well coordinated."

Full report here

The Brockley Society (Updated)

We are hoping to write a feature about BrocSoc, but, before we do, we'd be interested to know whether any of Brockley Central's readers are members or have been involved with them in the past.

Please post below or email us at the usual address. Thanks.

[UPDATE: We have created a new poll relevant to this topic]

Brockley Central Drinks 2 Details

We'll be putting our theory about the standard of Brockley's small talk to the test on Wednesday, February 6th, 8pm, Jam Circus.

Apologies to those this doesn't suit. Hope to see you all there.

Brockley's Chattering Classes

Not that anyone's ever invited Brockley Central to a dinner party locally, but if they did, we like to imagine that it wouldn't be like the one described in this ludicrous bit of navel-gazing in The Telegraph today.

"Picture the scene, and mark it well, for it will be coming soon to a dinner party near you... Where once the idle chit-chat might have been of a lavish basement extension or a holiday finca in Andalucia, now the talk is of crippling school fees, tumbling house values and the scandalous cost of commuting by rail. Or car. Or, for that matter, staying at home and putting the heating on... We are the Coping Class."

This is surely the silver-lining to the area having more than its fair share of rehab centres. It ensures we all maintain a sense of perspective, whatever our political persuasions or financial status. And it means that, when writing this blog finally earns us a seat at the most illustrious tables in Brockley, we expect the conversation to be a little less hellish than that described by The Telegraph.

Toad's Mouth Too Restaurant and Gallery, Brockley Road

BC review to follow, please post your comments and reviews here.

The London Breakfast review can be found here.