Lambeth Life 8th Issue

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Playwright James Graham on tolerance, Twitter - and Boris >> Page 9

Discover the story of 250 years of circus in Lambeth

Iconic gallery renamed after community star

>> Page 12

Borough rallies for the People’s Vote March

A fresh hope for thousands in wait for homes Hopes have been raised that the 20,000 Lambeth residents in the queue for social housing could see their waiting time cut after Theresa May bowed to pressure and agreed to scrap a controversial cap on council borrowing.

The Prime Minister shook up the policy landscape by agreeing to lift the cap on how much local authorities can borrow to fund new housing developments.

The pledge sparked hopes of a wave of home building in Lambeth, where some 20,438 people are in the queue for subsidised housing.

“This is the biggest domestic policy challenge of our generation...Wewill help you get on the housing ladder,” May said in her keynote speech.

“The last time Britain was building enough homes - half a century ago - local councils made a big contribution.

“It doesn’t make sense to stop councils from playing their part in solving it.”

In scrapping the amount that local government can borrow to build new homes, May aligned her party with Labour and Liberal Democrats and made a symbolic break with the Conservatives’ policy towards social housing in recent decades. Her announcement prompted celebration across the political divide in south London.

“It’s great to see that all three parties are arguing for the same thing,” said Michael Ball from the Waterloo Community Development Group.

In the past, deals with private developers haven’t made enough affordable housing, he says.

Across London, there were 227,549 people on the waiting list for social housing last year, and almost one in ten of those applications was for a home in Lambeth.

Under the current system, councils need to do deals with private developers in order to finance social housing projects. These deals are usually to regenerate estates rather than build new ones.

“The cap (on borrowing) is just one of the many ways the Government has been stifling the building of new and desperately needed affordable housing,” said Cllr Andy Wilson, the Cabinet Member with oversight of the budget.

“We have committed to building 1,000 new homes at council level rent, including by direct delivery on unused sites, through partnerships with housing associations and through Homes for Lambeth,” he said, referring to a group of council-owned companies that say they’ll reinvest the profits rather than “making money for people in suits”. >> Page 2

>> Page 21

Get into Science... with the Chemistry Set Nine young leaders from Lambeth and Southwark have been chosen by the newly opened Science Gallery on Guy’s Hospital campus to engage local residents with the gallery’s programme.

Read how they were inspired to take the scientific route - and how they are going to thrill and astound the rest of us. >> full story 8

Crowds exceeding the 100,000+ who took part in June’s People’s Vote demonstration are expected for the People’s Vote March For The Future on Saturday October 20th, in support of a referendum on the final Brexit deal.

Lambeth voted more strongly for Remain (79%) than any other London borough. This summer, street surveys by Lambeth in Europe found support for a second vote to be as high as 95% in Brixton and 90% in Streatham.

Around 37,000 EU nationals live in Lambeth. While it is usually believed that London’s strong economy will soften the impact of Brexit, in certain respects Lambeth may suffer disproportionate negative consequences.

The share of Lambeth’s population employed in business administration and support services is higher than both the London and the UK average; nationally, 22% of jobs in this sector are dependent on EU trade. And a borough which is a hotspot for both high-skilled tech professionals and for nurse training may suffer a flight of talent.

Lambeth-based personal financial planning app Marble faces losing star employees, and new barriers to working with developers in other EU countries.

Marble CEO..... >> Page 2

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LAMBETH LIFE OCTOBER 2018

LETTERS London has been suffering from an oppressive amount of doom and gloom where the issue of youth violence is concerned.

At the very least, Lambeth Council’s announcement that it is initiating a long term public health approach has injected some hope. The best thing to come out of the Town Hall meeting on 23rd September was the feeling of optimism from all involved: youth workers, council, police and young people.

It’s vital that the next stage is truly driven by the community, with young people at the forefront of co-produced projects that lead to safer streets and environments to grow up in. It can’t be all about old people making decisions behind closed doors, then panels and youth violence forum talking shops as it has been historically.

With regards the bigger picture - it is imperative that the Mayor’s Office and Home Office work together on the new Violence Reduction Unit announced by Sadiq Khan, that it’s an independent unit, and that it has the cream of London’s experts attached in an advisory capacity.

MOPAC - the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime - is not the answer, as

its name demonstrates. The public health approach is about a lot more than policing and crime. Since MOPAC was installed in City Hall in 2010 replacing the old community safety team, the record on youth violence prevention has not been very good to say the least.

The new unit must emulate the way Glasgow constructed its long term planning and include everything in the mix such as housing, health and employment specialists.

First, though, it must put an infrastructure of better care and services around mental health in place particularly in the poorest areas.

After spending two years helping manage the All Party Parliamentary Commission, I’m full of hope that London has some of the best people and most passionate practitioners who can help resolve the long-term escalation in violence. Let’s start by getting the planning right.

Gary Trowsdale, founder, Spirit of London Awards. ...........................................................

I have always thought it very sensible to have the footbridge crossing York Road from Waterloo to the South

Bank. So much safer and more pleasant for excited children released from a train journey, people with disabilities, visitors, indeed everyone to reach the river area this way rather than descend to ground level first, then cross the busy York Road. Anyone in an ambulance trying to reach St Thomas’s might also appreciate fewer pedestrians crossing the road.

There is a website for comments on the One Waterloo scheme (Elizabeth House), so I had been encouraging neighbours who agree that the bridge is an asset to get in touch with developers HB Reavis. The problem is only on the station side; across the road, the developers of the Shell site have allowed for the possibility of the footbridge remaining and have provided both steps down and a lift.

But after raising the issue of the bridge through Kate Hoey, I got a reply from HB Reavis saying that they are *not* consulting on the footbridge.

They have simply decided not to include it in the new scheme. We are familiar with developers boasting of the merits of their consultation, but perhaps this says it all.

Jenny Stiles, SE1

Get set to show your pride in Europe

>> Fiona Mackenzie says: “Currently, a shared regulatory regime >> makes it very easy to do business across Europe. No one knows what things will look like after Brexit. EU nationals working in London are frightened, they’ve started to concentrate more on building their business outside the UK, to protect themselves.”

The hospitality trade faces difficulties. In contrast to 1000 responses to one Gumtree advert when he

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opened his first Subway franchise in Belvedere Road in 2008, restaurant owner Vinesh Patel yielded only 50 applicants after extensively advertising for his first independent venture last year. Just one came to an open day. Patel offered her the job and never heard from her again.

“British young people don’t want to take on this type of work, so if the current climate of xenophobia continues I will have no choice but to call it a day!” he says.

Website www.lambethlife.com Advertising info@lambethlife.com Social Media Svetlana Yesilyurt

Laura Stahnke, an Italian of Danish heritage said: “When I was working in Brixton Village. I was amazed at how many of us EU citizens were working in, and managed, the cafes and restaurants. Where is the future workforce going to come from?”

Opposition to Brexit in Lambeth crosses political divides. Sir John Major, who grew up and built his political career in Brixton, came out in favour of a second referendum in June. Last month, Lambeth’s Labour Group declared its support for a People’s Vote. A motion is being submitted to this month’s council meeting. Council leader Lib Peck said: “Lambeth residents overwhelmingly backed remaining in the EU and are becoming increasingly fearful about the outcome of this process.

“With it looking increasingly likely that there is no agreement in Westminster about a deal, the time has come to trust the people to have their say.

“I hope that the other parties in Lambeth will join our call for a People’s Vote”.

Editorial Team Emma Snaith Robbie Wojciechowski Victoria Bell Anne May ByrneNoonan

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Councils free to revive social housing, after PM lifts debt cap >> Another Labour Party member, housing sector veteran Steve Hilditch, argues that the removal of the borrowing cap isn’t sufficient to solve the shortage of affordable housing.

“Without an initial subsidy - eg grant or free land - councils will not be able to build at normal council rent levels,” says Hilditch, who was head of policy for the homelessness charity Shelter.

Typically, old estates are knocked down and replaced with new buildings that have a higher number of homes on the same area of land. The Waterloo Community Development Group says that most of the additional homes are sold privately because developers need to recover their investment.

Michael Ball gives an example of the South Lambeth Estate on Dorset Road, Stockwell, where he says that 100 council homes are to be demolished and replaced with 360 flats, but only 21 of these will be additional social rented accommodation.

“The whole business is extraordinarily complicated,” says Ball. He hopes that the new policy will allow council housing to be financed “like a normal company that borrows against its income streams.”

He says that the current caps on local governments’ housing debts have made it impossible for them to make the necessary investments to build new homes for people on lower incomes. However, he warns against over-optimism. “I remember Prescott announcing three times that his government would allow more council borrowing, but nothing came of it”.

Lambeth council owns and manages almost 33,000 rented and leasehold homes. In the last six years, it has paid to have more than 5,000 rewired and/or fitted with new bathrooms and kitchens.

This regeneration programme, called the Lambeth Housing Standard, has cost an average of £83 million a year since its introduction in 2012, funded by a combination of borrowing, rents, tenants’ contributions and a £116 million Decent Homes Grant from central government.

Conservative councillor Tim Briggs says that the Homes for Lambeth model might be unnecessary if Theresa May’s policy goes through.

Briggs says the council is a poor landlord, arguing that this is why it

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needed the grant from central government.

The council says it needed extra money to bring so many homes up to modern standards.

“It’s nice to get a change of policy… it opens up possibilities” says Christine Whitehead, a professor from the London School of Economics.

Still, she says that the response from local authorities will be different depending on their financial positions.

Many councils have strong capital values because they haven’t been building for decades and they’ve paid off the old loans with which they financed the original costs of construction.

“It’s not straightforward whether they’ll build or not. There’s a small number of local authorities who had the capacity [to build more] and were pressing for the cap to be removed” says Whitehead.

“They could go back to the ‘good old days’ of borrow and build”, says the professor, whom Southwark council consulted in 2012 for advice on its housing problem.

“Historically, when people could borrow more, they used it to improve the housing stock.”

Lambeth, like every other council, has a ring fenced Housing Revenue Account. If it wants to build or repair homes, it has to either use money from rents or borrow money for the account. It can’t spend money from other sources, such as council tax.

“After the Second World War, social housing was part of the consensus. There was no disagreement about building hundreds of thousands of homes,” says Tony Travers, who is director of the research group LSE London.

For millions of people, these homes replaced slums without central plumbing or heating. Public attitudes and government policy started to change in the 1960’s, spurred by disasters such as the collapse Ronan Point, a 22-storey tower block in Newham.

Since then it has become an ideological issue, says Travers.

In London, tenants in social housing paid an average of £108 a week, with people paying least in Lewisham and most in Wandsworth and Westminster. Lambeth’s rents are right in the middle of the city’s range.

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LAMBETH LIFE OCTOBER 2018

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A people’s vote and respect for Lambeth’s EU residents IBRAHIM DOGUS Publisher info@lambethlife.com

With six months to go before we are due to leave the EU, Britain’s plans are in disarray. Theresa May’s Chequers deal was roundly rejected by the EU and senior Conservatives lined up to make the PM change course. Warnings about a No Deal Brexit have come from the IMF and a host of major employers. Given the lies around the referendum - from the £350 million a week for the NHS down it is hugely important people get a vote on the final deal. That is why I and Labour colleagues in Lambeth are supporting the People’s Vote campaign and attendance for the march on 20th October is expected to exceed the 100,000 who took part in June.

Beyond the political outcome, it’s important to address the key factors that led to the Brexit vote.

People voted Leave largely because of fears about immigration – often highest in areas with few migrants. Those of us who recognise the potential of Brexit to cause huge damage should address these underlying concerns by making the positive case for immigration. Repeated studies show migrants contribute more than they take out. Growing workforce participation indicates migrants aren’t taking jobs away. London,

with a high net inflow of migrants, has benefited hugely: foreign workers coming to the capital add economic value amounting to 4.5% of the UK’s tax take.

Looking beyond economic arguments, life in Lambeth shows that immigration works. The borough is a thriving multicultural place. People from all over the world bring their skills and entrepreneurial drive, and there’s a strong sense of cohesion.

That’s not to say there aren’t inequalities. We’ve got a long way to go on issues such as knife crime. But when communities come together we can overcome many problems. Social problems are complex and we’ve all got a role to play to solve them.

Being open to immigration and skills is a good thing, and we mustn’t be afraid to say it.

On the other side of the equation, we need to offer reassurance to EU nationals that they can continue to live and work in the UK. While Theresa May has said EU citizens’ rights are safe even in the event of No Deal, there are concerns many could fall through the net of the government’s eligibility test. What resources will be put towards a public information campaign for 3.8 million people?

What will the Home Office do to ensure vulnerable people, the elderly and children aren’t overlooked? Given a 10% failure rate in immigration checks for bank accounts, how much confidence can we have in the system?

The current arrangements are insufficient. People who have lived and worked in the UK, contributing to our society and with family and friends here must be treated equally to those born

cuts, reducing class sizes below 30 for the under 7s. Learning from the successful London Challenge, we will encourage co-operation between and strong leadership across schools, and make schools democratically accountable.

We will introduce free school meals for every child, erasing stigma, and ensure teachers are valued so theirs is a prestigious profession.

Every student must have the chance to unlock their potential and become the best they can be. With a National Education Service, we can safeguard world-class education for all in Lambeth. *

here. It’s a simple thing, and a fundamental duty of government, to make everyone feel welcome. *

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When I see the hard work that goes on in our local schools, I am very proud.

But teachers and students are working with one hand behind their back. The government claims education spending is at its highest ever level. The reality is per pupil spending has been frozen in cash terms since 2015. Factor in inflation, rising pupil numbers, and the national funding formula – in theory fair, but leaving schools in deprived innercity areas facing the biggest losses - and it transpires funding for all Lambeth’s 71 schools in 2020 could be lower in real terms than five years earlier. So the Schools Cuts website shows Walnut Tree

Walk Primary in south Lambeth with £315 less to spend per pupil over five years in real terms; children at nearby Archbishop Sumner Primary face a cut of £609 each and at Vauxhall Primary a reduction of £459.

Education in Lambeth has been transformed in recent years, from 14 schools being in special measures in 1996 to 96% judged at least good or outstanding by Ofsted last year. Budget cuts make it harder for schools to continue improving, with fewer teachers and bigger class sizes. Thousands of teachers are quitting. The NAHT union believes that even if there were enough new trainees, schools wouldn’t have the money to hire them.

Labour is taking a completely different approach with a cradleto-grave National Education Service, guaranteeing universal high standards. We will reverse the

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In this issue of Lambeth Life, Kennington resident and playwright James Graham surveys the political landscape; we celebrate the 250th anniversary of circus, which started in Lambeth; while gluten-free entrepreneur Marnie Searchwell, winner of 11 food awards, describes some delicious cakes. We look ahead to Black History Month, the Lambeth Walk against youth violence, rescheduled to April 2019, and the People’s Vote March; and bring you a round-up of community events, arts listings and sports reports.

We hope you enjoy this issue and please do send us news about local organisations you support and views on issues you feel passionately about – email us on info@lambethlife.co.uk. We hope to tell the stories of all the communities in this fabulously diverse borough – and we need you to help us spread the word far and wide.

“Delicious Food, Beautiful Atmosphere” Steaks&Burgers

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LAMBETH LIFE OCTOBER 2018

Positivity needed to turn the tide on youth violence A council officer admitted Lambeth is “still failing” youngsters at a landmark Town Hall meeting.

Lambeth’s head of community safety Kristian Aspinall spoke out as public servants, community leaders and locals came together to develop fresh measures to tackle violent crime.

The public health model, first developed in the 1990s, treats crime like a physical disease and looks at all the reasons for it rather than focusing on a response through the criminal justice system.

It has been used successfully in cities from Boston and Los Angeles to Glasgow. The approach has been studied with interest: last month Sadiq Khan set up a Glasgow-style Violence Reduction Unit for London and the Home Secretary endorsed the model in his Conservative conference speech. It comes after the Safer Lambeth Partnership appointed a board of directors in March to lead on adopting the public health approach.

Now officials and voluntary sec-

tor alike want to deliver “generational change” - a message they sent at the Town Hall workshop, organised by campaigner Gary Trowsdale following the postponement of the Lambeth Walk.

“It has got to grow from the ground upwards”, said Alastair Reed, Safer Neighbourhood Board programme manager and former head of youth strategy for the Metropolitan Police.

Lambeth has the unhappy distinction of seeing the highest number of

violent incidents of any London borough over the past decade.

Mr Aspinall cited the case of a Lambeth man in his early 20s who had been convicted 13 times, imprisoned on seven occasions and seen no improvement in his educational attainment since he was nine - the borough “failed that young person.... [the existing approach] isn’t working”, he said.

Mahamed Hashi, a councillor, activist and youth worker, highlighted data on deprivation and said there

had been a “wholesale attack on young people… the violence is just the symptom”.

The Stockwell ward representative said we should admire inner city “resilience built through trauma” and cited the success of Lambeth residents past and present - such as ex-London Mayor Ken Livingstone, his former deputy Lee Jasper and ex-PM Sir John Major, as well as cultural idols such as David Bowie and Asher Senator – as an inspiration. Lee Jasper, who was at the meeting, gave a passionate address, calling on black men to take responsibility for violence against women and girls, and suggesting drug dealers’ assets should be confiscated and given to the community.

Nick Mason, chair of the Lambeth Safer Neighbourhood Board said recognition was needed that “the vast majority [of young people] are doing incredible positive things”. Jamal Simon, member of the UK Youth Parliament said, “I don’t know anybody who hasn’t

‘A mentor teaches you about life’

To be told you are going to fail your exams is a hammer blow for any child.

For Abdul-Karim, however, the harsh words of one teacher went even further. “’You are going to fail in life’, he told me”.

At the same school, however, one teacher inspired him, putting him on the path to becoming a spoken word artist, respected Brixton youth worker and as of last month, a National Diversity Award winner. His media teacher was the first black male teacher he had ever seen. Abdul-Karim went on to study the subject at college. “Representation matters,” he says.

We meet in a cafe behind Brixton Library, which is also the HQ of Young Lambeth Co-operative (YLC), where Abdul-Karim is a Pathway Coordinator.

Abdoul, 20, joins us. Earlier this year he was voted onto the YLC steering board after his mentor Abdul-Karim put

him forward. As part of his responsibilities, Abdoul refers youth in need to YLC’s social workers. “He’s one of the highest referrers,” says Abdul-Karim.

Young people need mentors, says Abdoul. “A teacher can teach you about a subject but a mentor teaches you about life.” He hasn’t always been so responsible. The third of six children, he was kicked out of home last year.

He was hanging “with bad crowds and doing silly things”, he admits.

When Abdoul was arrested a few years ago, he realised how much the police had on him. “I swear this city has a camera for every two people,” he says.

Now, as most local police know him, he’s no longer stopped and searched.

Abdoul has since found accommodation with charity Centrepoint. Under Abdul-Karim’s guidance, he’s successfully completed a SIA security guard training course. He’s in the YouTube

reality show Real Life Brixton, under his artist name ‘Traumz’ and is writing his own film script.

Other young people look up to Abdoul. “Before I’d just give them advice,” he says. As part of YLC, he feels he can talk to them in a different way.

Engaging community leadership is crucial for tackling youth violence, says Abdul-Karim. He quotes an African proverb: “It takes a village to raise a child.”

Years of austerity have taken their toll on Brixton, which “used to be very close-knit,” he says. Gentrification, institutional racism and an abdication of responsibility have also taken their toll.

Abdoul agrees: “Right now, there’s no love in the community. Why would you look at another brother, and want to kill him?”

Both men resist blaming youth violence on social media and drill music, a kind of rap. Abdul-Karim sees drill’s glo-

rification of violence as a symptom rather than a cause. “It can sink into your heart,” says Abdoul, then adds, “but it depends on how weak your mind is.”

Last year, Abdul-Karim made a documentary about youth crime called Road 2 Recovery to raise awareness among the Muslim community. Faith leaders need to be accountable for their young congregation’s behaviour, he says. “Often they only care about what’s happening in these four walls.”

The film’s debut brought together 300 people from mosques and prisons, as well as activists and concerned families. Abdul-Karim wants Muslim leaders to install a youth worker at every major mosque. He thinks the Mayor should focus more on the grass-roots: Khan “inherited a difficult job,” but “he’s not doing enough to engage.”

Then on the Friday following this interview, Abdul-Karim was recognised with a National Diversity Award in the ‘Positive Role Model for Age’ category.

He had been overwhelmed, after his nomination, by everyone else’s self-written bios, much longer than his own. Nevertheless, he was shortlisted.

His mum and aunt were over the moon at his victory – all the more so because he, and they, didn’t attend his graduation ceremony from Goldsmith’s. This prize represented a kind of atonement.

“The most amazing thing about receiving the award is that the community voted, and I’m bringing back to a community that needs hope, ” AbdulKarim says.

If his stellar work continues, perhaps years from now, we’ll see Abdoul on stage collecting that very same award.

been affected by youth violence”.

Gary Trowsdale, who advises the Youth Violence Commission, said he felt “positive” after meeting with Lambeth council leader Lib Peck in her capacity as London Councils’ executive member for Crime and Public Protection. In June, Cllr Peck wrote, “we put community at the centre of a public health approach. We placed [this work] at the heart of the council.”

Plans are now underway for a modified Lambeth Walk next April.

Also in September, the Litle Big Peace event was held in Streatham, involving workshops and a procession in which seven Lambeth and Croydon councillors and two mothers who lost their children to violence took part.

One of the mothers, Minister Lorraine Jones said: “I witnessed people of different nationalities, ethnicities and ages coming together. The speeches and affirmations from various community leaders came through powerfully. I am filled with hope, peace and confidence of a brighter future”.

The LA gang prevention scheme with a “Scottish twist” Started in Glasgow in 2005, Police Scotland’s violence reduction unit (VRU) teams up social workers, housing officers, schools, community groups and mental health workers instead of just relying on the courts.

The strategy is based on the fact that violent behaviour in young people often stems from past trauma. They are not criminals to the core, says DI Iain Murray, part of the VRU since 2011. “The criminality is their solution to the problems they face.”

In 2012, he was given an accessall-areas pass to Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles, which has taken on more than 10,000 former gang members, training and employing them. The programme boasts an 80 per cent success rate. “It let me realise what we could do to change people’s lives,” Murray says.The scheme has expanded under his direction.

Social enterprise Street & Arrow (a play on “straight and narrow”) was founded in 2016 and now operates a café and a street food truck. A car wash and sports café are in the pipeline. Murray says they’ve helped over 140 people and estimates an 86% success rate.

In March 2018, Lambeth Council announced it would adopt a similar approach, even considering a version of the street truck.

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LAMBETH LIFE OCTOBER 2018

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The best (and wurst) of the fests The German tradition of Oktoberfest may have originated in Munich, but it’s alive and well in Lambeth this October with what seems like more opportunities than ever to clink steins and say “Prost!”

Rock’n’roll theme hang-out Venn Street Records is offering Flammkuchen pizzas and “lager than life” deals on Berliner Pilsner.

Brixton Jamm is celebrating with Germanic panache for three Saturdays in a row, bringing in oompah DJs and sausages from West End chain Herman Ze German. Their “bearded wenches” are perhaps a little less authentic.

Meanwhile at Vauxhall Street Food Garden, a full-scale bier hall will be popping up, with brass

bands, traditional food traders and a wide selection of German beers.

While British acquaintances slip into lederhosen, SW9 resident Gebina Ham from Lower Saxony in Northern Germany confesses that “my main reaction is one of bemusement”. But Marx de Morais, born on the Baltic island of Usedom, is joining in the Bavarian fun. “If Hyde Park Corner [the entrance to Winter Wonderland] is your portion of Germany in December, then Lambeth is your place to go in October”, he says.

“No one except the British celebrates Oktoberfest as well as the Germans”.

Lambeth traders will be hoping Oktoberfest adds a pre-Brexit boost to the economy as revellers come out in force: the original festival in Munich adds an estimated ™1.1bn to the coffers.

Emotional Black History Month echoes into the present As Black History Month gets underway, Lambeth’s Cabinet member for Equalities and Culture Cllr Sonia Winifred has condemned the Government’s attempts to resolve the Windrush scandal for not going far enough.

The Home Office faced a fresh storm of criticism last month after it emerged that Caribbean nationals who arrived in the UK from 1948-71 and have a criminal record will not be granted citizenship.

They will have right to remain, if they can obtain the relevant evidence of residency.

Cllr Winifred, who first arrived in the UK from Antigua in 1965 with her mother and brother, calls the decision to destroy the landing cards of Windrush arrivals in 2009 instead of archiving them “a deliberate act of racism”. “I think it’s lack of empathy, lack of sympathy, lack of care for certain groups” she said. “It’s been referred to as lowhanging fruit”. Her test for the Government demonstrating remorse is the successful return of those wrongly deported.

Black History Month magazine

managing editor, historian and mental health activist Dr Patrick Vernon describes the different treatment of Windrush migrants with criminal convictions as “outrageous” and “a dangerous precedent.”

“A lot of young black men in the 80s were criminalised by the police under Sus laws. It seems like one

injustice on top of another one” he added.

Dr Vernon says that there has been an explosion of interest in Black History Month this year, much more than for the 30th anniversary last year, because of Windrush raising awareness and because of the row around some councils renaming the celebration ‘Diversity Month’.

Roughly half the passengers on the Empire Windrush settled in the Lambeth area, Vernon says, forging a strong link between Windrush and the borough.

Events jointly organised by Lambeth Libraries and Black Cultural Archives for this year’s Black History Month include a night of Black British Punk in Clapham Library, a tour of Brixton with BBC Windrush poet Michael Groce (both on 13th October), and book talks by Afua Hirsch, pan-Africanist Professor Hakim Adi and Lord Kitchener biographer Anthony Joseph (dates in late Oct and Nov).

Pegasus Opera is offering an evening of arias and African song at Lambeth Town Hall on 23rd October. On 29th September, Malorie Blackman led an afternoon of storytelling and conversations for young people at Lambeth Town Hall.

Comedy’s home, sweet home Waterloo comedian Ivor Dembina knows that, when it comes to an issue as serious as the housing crisis, it’s better to laugh than cry.

Having campaigned against the proposed Mamma Mia! The Party development on Stamford Street, withdrawn in May, he is launching a series of Friday lunchtime comedy shows in Lower Marsh in support of campaigns to build more social housing. All profits will go towards Waterloo Community Development Group.

“Housing is currently the number one local issue, and it’s time for us to stop feeling so powerless.

The campaigns against the Garden Bridge and the Mama Mia! nightclub demonstrate we are anything but” Dembina says.

The 45 minute shows, entitled The Joy of Jokes, will take place at pub and events space Vaulty Towers, owned by the team behind The Vaults. The programme will be mainly stand-up and musical comedy with a mixture of circuit regulars and promising newcomers plus some TV comedians. QI panellist and Piccadilly Comedy Comedian of the Year Cally Beaton will headline the first show.

The comedy will not be housing-specific, Dembina says, but he offers a couple of south of the river jokes: - “I watched our local football team Millwall for sixteen years. Yes, it was a bit of a long game”.

- “I am a Jewish comedian from the heart of south London... My parents were Jewish refugees from north London”

Solidarity against school cuts Lambeth schools are “primed to be severely affected” in the Budget, says Ffiona Martin, who describes herself as a “busy parent”.

Martin, who has a six year-old daughter at Streatham’s Granton Primary School, has organised a “Funding for All Schools Lambeth Campaign” along with fellow parent Ellie Brown.

She has called for students, parents and teachers to “floss for funding” on 19th October —making videos of themselves flos-

sing to call attention to funding shortfalls. Signs outside Jubilee Primary School, in Tulse Hill, say that by 2020, Lambeth schools will lose £14.1million altogether in funding, or £468 per pupil.

In July, the Institute for Fiscal Studies said total school spending per pupil fell around 8% in real terms in England between 2009-10 and 2017-18.

Between 1,000 and 2,000 head teachers marched to 11 Downing Street on 28th September, to deliver a petition to the Chancellor.

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LAMBETH LIFE OCTOBER 2018

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LAMBETH LIFE OCTOBER 2018

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Prue Leith inspires Kennington cake queen to yet more awards

By Marnie Searchwell I couldn’t have been more proud when another of my cakes won a Great Taste award this summer from the Guild of Fine Food – the top industry body for artisan food producers and a signpost to great flavour. The judges described my Chocolate & Olive Oil Cake (gluten- and dairy-free) as “beautifully baked and presented”.

I was thrilled to get two more stars! And they made me pause to think about how I got here.

It’s been more than 30 years since I came to live in Lambeth. A long journey in more ways than one, as I built my business, moved into gluten-free flavours and picked up tips from the likes of Prue Leith – when she was famous for her revered restaurant and cookery school, but not yet the TV star she now is through Great British Bake-Off. And it reminded me of how the support and loyalty of people in Kennington helped me to turn my passion into a small business. I love the fact that so many of my customers are nearby – and it makes delivering large cakes a lot easier!This latest accolade means my cakes have won 11 awards from the Guild and the FreeFrom Food Awards since 2011, when my Luxury Jamaica Christmas Cake won me my first two Great Taste stars.

I certainly didn’t imagine this when I first came to London from Jamaica in the 1970s to study art. Along with my portfolio and pencils, I brought with me a rich Jamaican heritage of fruit puddings and cakes, and the fabulous nutmeg and pimento flavours of my Mum’s cooking.

I trained as a graphic designer up the road at the London College of Printing before beginning my first career, in publishing. It was when I worked with Prue on the first edition of Leith’s Cookery School that I was inspired to become more serious about baking.

Later, having kids reinforced my determination to make delicious and healthy dishes, including

treats, for us all to eat.

I started my cake business bulk-baking fruit cakes aimed at the Christmas trade. But I learned quickly that there is no good business model in trying to produce standard cakes to compete with supermarket prices. My cakes aren’t cheap.

Customers come back to me for quality ingredients and of course, great taste.

Now I prefer to concentrate on bespoke cake-making and design for weddings, birthdays and anniversaries. As a designer, the creativity appeals to me.

And my customers are usually ordering a cake for a special occasion, so they want the best.

Quality ingredients are key – I use organic wherever I can.

The internet has been a boon for artisan producers. Changing tastes and customer demands have had a big impact too. Sweet treats free of gluten were seen as a tiny niche product when I started making them 15 years ago, when my husband worked out he was gluten intolerant. I experimented with mixing different flours, such as brown rice and buckwheat, and developed my own special blend of gluten-free flours.

Since then, food producers and supermarkets have woken up to the fact that lots of customers are looking for free-from foods, either

because of serious allergies or simply because they want to cut back on the amount of wheat they eat.

My mission is to make cakes that are so moist and tasty you wouldn’t know they’re gluten-free.

And you can’t have failed to notice the recent craze for vegan cakes – my new Peanut Butter and Banana Blondie has been a big hit. Dairy-free treats are popular now, too. You can use fantastic oils – from olive and coconut to rapeseed – instead of butter.

Creating cakes is an art. But baking is a science. You have to weigh and measure ingredients carefully, and get your oven temperature right. Otherwise it just won’t work.

That’s my advice to anyone tempted to have a go at cakemaking. Then – just to go for it! Try new things. If your bake doesn’t turn out right first time, your family or friends will be happy to eat it up.

My favourite cake? I’m very proud of my Reine de Saba, made with ground almonds and Appleton Jamaica rum. It’s named after the legendary African Queen of Sheba – dark, brown and beautiful – and it’s my best-seller: a real grown-up chocolate cake.

See more of Marnie’s cake creations and all her awardwinning cakes at www. marniesearchwell.com

Five tips for getting back in the groove Winter wardrobe check

By Joana Ramiro It’s the beginning of the school and university year, and even if you’re a little older than that, autumn is a great time to hit the reset button and start afresh.

Here are some ideas to get you into the swing of things as the nights draw in.

Summon that productivity You’ve resolved to get productive and I am cheering you on. Get going with simple lists of achievable tasks. Each task should be straightforward enough to complete in an hour or less. Mark each item by level of urgency with stars - from one (can wait) to three (needs addressing now). As you complete your tasks, reassess the list. For motivational stationery, pop into gift and card shop Nor in West Norwood.

Nor, 1 Hannen Road, SE27 0DT

Set little tongues wagging Why not take advantage of your child’s (possibly ephemeral) enthusiasm for school and get them to learn a new language this year? Reay Primary are running workshops on Spanish and

Portuguese for children in Lambeth.

The lessons cost just £1 and are guaranteed to be great fun. For more information contact Luisa Ribeiro luisa.ribeiro@reay.lambeth.sch.uk

The unforgettably warm summer of 2018 is a distant memory. But don’t be sad - it’s a great excuse to refresh your winter wardrobe and go on a shopping spree for coats, scarfs and all things cosy. Lucky for stylish Lambeth chaps, minimalist chic menswear fashion curators Article now has a shop in Brixton.

Article, 61 Atlantic Road, SW9 8PU

Ladies: Maximise your potential

A shot in the arm

BBC Radio 4 Today presenter Mishal Husein has published her first book, The Skills, and it’s a handy guide for women to get the most out of their careers.

From balancing motherhood and work, to being a more ethical entrepreneur, if your post-holiday goal is to push yourself to the next level, this is the book for

Autumn can also signal the start of some serious sniffles. For those at risk of flus this winter, your jabs should be taken before the end of October. So head to your local pharmacy or consult your GP. To check your nearest flu administration provider you can call NHS Lambeth on the 0203 049 4444.

you. Herne Hill Books will sort you out with this, plus pleasurable browsing before you need to run to your next thing.

Herne Hill Books, 289 Railton Road, SE24 0LY

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LAMBETH LIFE OCTOBER 2018

Young innovators to get Lambeth hooked on science

London’s newest gallery is hoping to fire up young people’s passion for science, with the help of inspirational Young Leaders from Lambeth and Southwark.

The Science Gallery, a project of

King’s College London, opened in September in what had been the last undeveloped Georgian courtyard in London, on the historic Guy’s Hospital campus. The Gallery is free entry and part of a global

St Thomas’ doctors latest to join fight against immigration rules

By Jimmy Kelly Doctors at St Thomas’ hospital have come together to join a national campaign against new government rules which demand passport checks are carried out on sick patients.

Local healthcare professionals and many of the people they treat have signed up to DocsNotCops group, which was set up in response to the “hostile environment” policy established by Theresa May when she ran the Home Office.

Under one plank of the policy, passport checks are required for all patients accessing most nonemergency services, known as secondary care. Amongthe healthcare services targeted under are maternity and antenatal care, paediatrics and cancer treatment.

The introduction of the new rules, part of the government’s 2014 Immigration Act, is thought to deterred many from seeking care and - in an echo of theWindrush Scandal – thousands of eligible patients are said to have been wrongly denied NHS treatment, including cancer sufferers.

“Deterring people from seeking help when they are unwell harms

individuals, is bad for public health and is not cost effective,” said Dr Jessica Potter of Docs Not Cops.

The respiratory registrar and public health researcher at Queen Mary University London went on to describe alarming reports of how government policy was implemented, including a patient being arrested by immigration enforcement at their clinic appointment.

“Patients I spoke to expressed fear accessing services, some even too afraid to provide their real names,” she added.

Such stories echo the notorious case of a Grenfell survivor, who after escaping the fire in North Kensington last year, didn’t go to hospital to be checked overfor two months for fear she would be deported.

DocsNotCops were among campaigners who protested publicly against a pilot scheme arranged

by Barts Health Trust which required patients to provide detailed information about their immigration status before they were allowed treatment. A new form demanded patients to provide full passport details, employer contact details, visa and travel insurance informations.

gallery network started at Trinity College Dublin in 2012 dedicated to engaging 15-25 year olds in science and culture. The Science Gallery will have a particular focus on health sciences. The Young Leaders,

including King’s College medical student Mandeep Singh and Tulse Hill-based graphic designer Stacie Woolsey, who devised DIY degree project Making Your Own Masters, will help shape the Gallery’s direction and curate events with edge.

“People are generally a lot more interested in science than they think” says Young Leader Elly from Brixton, who studied at King’s and Imperial College and works at the Science Museum in South Kensington. “The popularity of medical dramas on TV is one example. Connecting science to our everyday lives is another way. Everyone loves their

phones, or relies on their fridge – but what’s the science behind it?

“Young people are naturally inquisitive, which is one of the fundamental parts of science”.

Richard Wilson, a Young Leader who also works front of house at the Science Gallery says: “You can walk into a gallery and see art, but you can’t just walk into a lab and see procedures. That’s one thing the Science Gallery is doing, flipping this whole secret world of science into the streets”.

The opening exhibition is HOOKED, exploring addiction as an everpresent risk of being a modern human. The HOOKED Youth Weekender on 19th-21st October kicks off with a Friday Late featuring cocktail-making, live music, a talk and a film by Dose of Society and a deterioration dance by South London model and performer Kaner Flex.

Over the weekend are a Scrapyard Challenge hardware hacking session, poetry performances, banner-making and an examination of hip-hop and psychiatry with King’s College London’s Rap Society.

• HOOKED at Science Gallery London runs until 6th January 2019.

Read more at https://london.sciencegallery.com

Superb aromas in historic Vauxhall lavender harvest

More than 150 people descended on Vauxhall Park to take part in a very unusual harvest.

The lavender crop, first planted in 2003 to mark the centenary of Vauxhall Motors’ car manufacturing in nearby Wandsworth Road, was picked once again at the start of this September.

In recent summers, the flowers have been harvested and sent to Carshalton, the “lavender capital

of the world” for distillation into an oil.

The oil is believed to have excellent antiseptic and antiviral properties, noted by aromatherapy pioneer René-Maurice Gattefossé in 1910 after he used it to treat burns he suffered in an experiment that went wrong. It also has calming, sedative and anti-depressive effects.

The oil obtained from Vauxhall is processed in Laurie Rudham’s

still and then sold in small bottles at Italo delicatessen in Bonnington Square. It is also turned into soap, candles and face cream by local craftspeople. The proceeds go towards Friends of Vauxhall Park and local charities.

The volunteers from the harvest came from as far afield as Wembley and Enfield and included a shamanic group. It may be the last lavender harvest for a few years, as there are plans to uproot and replant the meadow, and it takes two or three years to get yield from a newly planted crop.

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LAMBETH LIFE OCTOBER 2018

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Beware the Ides of Boris, warns London’s king of political theatre

By Joshua Neicho “I don’t want to be unfair on him. My role as a playwright is to see the best in people…” James Graham seems compelled to say when I mention the name Boris Johnson, giving extra bite to his assessment.

At the age of just 36, Graham already has a remarkable body of more than 20 plays, TV and radio dramas and a film behind him. He’s feted for bringing politics and history to life with cracking plots, rich detail and lightness of touch. Politically unplaceable himself, he aims in his work to show tolerance and generosity towards people from all points of the spectrum and walks of life – even Rupert Murdoch in Ink, his acclaimed drama about The Sun. In the course of an hour, he is commendably balanced about George Osborne – “You can agree or disagree with his response to the financial crisis” – Theresa May - “very exposed in the last election as not convincing enough - that’s not because she’s not either talented, or because she doesn’t have any ideas” and Jeremy Corbyn - “His policies may be best for this country, I don’t know”. But the polarised state of politics is testing him and several times he drops his normal measured tone.

With his TV drama about Brexit starring Benedict Cumberbatch currently in the edit suite, he is nervous he has not matched his usual standards of empathy because, “Brexit is such a poisonous, unhealthy arena”. On anti-semitism in Labour and how “normally reasonable, intelligent people” deny it, he “can’t quite believe in 2018 that that has been the dominant theme.

It’s beyond devastating actually”.

And he has our tousled would-be PM down as a crass and reckless provocateur, on the same lines as Nigel Farage.

“Clearly [Boris] is an intelligent man, able to translate the national mood into language that feels interesting and entertaining,” he says.

“Because he’s a journalist, and because of his natural privilege, he’s able to treat very serious, very dangerous issues to normal people as a kind of sport. He’s treated England like an Oxford debating society.”

“I don’t think he’s got worse but I think it’s become inexcusable, because he may be the next Prime Minister”. He pins the Brexit result on Boris above all, since he gave “legi-

xity and greyness” that is now lost.

Graham confesses to spending too much time on Twitter. “I’m really trying to stop, I don’t think it’s healthy” but worries that logging off permanently would cut him off from the “impulses and anxieties of the age”. He’s gleefully embraced innovation in his work – 2015’s The Vote was the first play to be screened at the same time it is set; 2014’s Privacy sourced data from audience members’ smartphones but he stresses theatre must have

timacy to what had previously been seen as a bit of a bonkers point of view”.

Graham hopes to explore populism further, suggesting “it’s in the DNA of everything I write, whether it’s explicitly about it or not” – his recently staged play Quiz for instance, about how Major Charles Ingrams may have cheated on Who Wants to Be A Millionaire, invokes post-truth and the onset of Trumpism. But he also admits he is “trying to work out my own response in this particular climate”.

While he believes we all need to engage in politics and therefore vote, he doesn’t want anyone “guilt-tripped” into going on marches or joining a party, which he sees as another aspect of the “ugly” current mood. He is excited by politicians and pundits becoming fans of his work - Michael Heseltine, Ken Clarke, David Steele and David Dimbleby were in the audience for his breakthrough hit This House - but leaves it to other political playwrights to fan the flames of righteous anger. Instead this son

of a Nottinghamshire mining community is more riled by certain MPs’ dislike of theatre as bourgeois, describing his time studying the artform at Hull University as a “working class pursuit”. wHe’s disturbed not only by President Trump’s undermining of objective reality, but by the blandness of most modern politicians who are terrified of slipping up.

He looks admiringly at politicians of the 1970s and 1980s (including Margaret Thatcher) who he feels had an “ability to embrace comple-

a bird’s eye of humanity, not get stuck in the minutiae.

Graham’s new show, Sketching, which has just opened at Wilton’s Music Hall is both innovative and historical. It’s a modern spin on Charles Dickens’s first book, Sketches by Boz - which the playwright describes as “Love Actually set in Victorian times” - scripted collaboratively with Graham as lead writer.

The producers invited submissions from emerging writers, to offer ideas and work out the modern equivalents of 19th century clerks and orphanage owners – some 800 replied. They “unapologetically asked people to tell us who they were”, since they wanted diverse perspectives. Eight writers were chosen, working with Graham online and for one week around a table in a CONTINUED ON P 10 ->

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10 LAMBETH LIFE OCTOBER 2018

‘James is humble before the work’ room “throwing ideas against a wall, structuring something, then going away,”. It was unfamiliar territory for Graham, who normally works long hours alone, but he feels they managed to capture the strangeness of modern London in a coherent work.

Graham’s Brexit TV drama covers the scheming of the Remain and Leave campaigns, with shades of Mike Bartlett’s The Press. Its glittering cast includes Rory Kinnear (Quantum of Solace, Black Mirror), Kyle Soller (Poldark), Liz White (Call the Midwife), John Heffernan (The Crown) and Rich Goulding (The Windsors), alongside Cumberbatch as maverick Vote Leave strategist Dominic Cummings.

Other projects in 2019 include a London transfer for Finding Neverland, the J M Barrie musical for which Graham wrote the book and Gary Barlow was co-lyricist; a workshop for a new musical and a Broadway outing for Ink. Graham once told an interviewer his ideal might be to write “a film in the morning, a TV drama in the afternoon and maybe a play in the evening”. When I ask him if he’s achieved this, he says he’s got “somewhere between 10 and 15” projects on, although some aren’t due for a couple of years.

He’s a film fan and made 2015’s X&Y about an autistic maths prodigy, but he blanches at the suggestion of relocating to Hollywood – “absolutely never. No disrespect to that

city, [but] there’s no theatre”.

Graham draws political and media A listers to his shows, from national newspaper editors to Tony and Cherie Blair, to add to his admirers in the critics’ circle. His talent is outstanding in so many directions, yet he’s so low-key and wellmannered it’s easy to forget this.

“James is humble before the work,” says artistic director of the Finborough Theatre Neil McPherson who commissioned his early plays. Graham’s first professionally produced play Albert’s Boy (about Einstein) was recently revived, “and it was fi-ne” its author says, putting emphasis on both syllables. “There was a lot of overly deliberate writing. But there was something in there that I sort of enjoyed”.

He’s recently moved to a house

with a garden in Kennington which he bought with the proceeds from Finding Neverland – the third place he’s lived in the area, having moved up the Northern Line from rentals in Balham and Tooting. He loves Kennington and calls it a true London village. He’s a fan of cocktails at Brunswick House, former bookshop turned coffee shop Vanilla Black, the Young Vic rooftop and the Old Vic basement bars; and he can also be found at the Black Dog pub by Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens or at the White Bear pub theatre in Kennington, which is “really suddenly quite dynamic”.

Graham has a community activist’s sensibility about the loss of local amenities and public space nationally. He sees planning rows as highly significant and symbolic of social divisions, and calls luxury developments along the river “grotesque in a housing crisis”, although he is sympathetic to councils’ financial difficulties. Having proudly put his home town of Mansfield on stage in Labour of Love, he laments the extent to which the arts are Londoncentric, while confessing “selfishly that makes this city really exciting”.

Five years from now, he says with extraordinary modesty, he expects to be “still here. I don’t aspire to do anything else”. Hollywood’s loss is our gain. And who knows where politics will be by 2023?

Tenants welcome new renters union A new union for London private rented sector tenants, set up to demand lower rents, longer tenancies and better housing, has been welcomed by Lambeth campaigners.

Although London Renters Union (LRU), founded in June by a coalition of activists, has yet to form a branch in Lambeth, some local renters have shown enthusiasm after the organisation attended a local housing meeting on 29th September.

Christine, who rented in Lambeth for ten years before moving to Wales, describes LRU as “very much needed”.

“When I was involved in campaigning for renters’ rights in Lambeth, you’d hear people echo the same problems.

“London Renters Union is trying to involve a real cross-section of renters, allowing people to link up locally, but also to form a bigger movement. A lot of change needs to happen at a national level”.

In September LRU organised a tongue-and-cheek demonstration playing miniature violins during the Resident Landlords Association (RLA) conference, in response to the RLA’s claims that landlords

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face an “increasingly hostile environment”.

LRU is also campaigning for the abolition of section 21 notices, which allow private landlords to evict tenants without giving a reason.

Sarah (name changed) and her family were evicted from their home in Lambeth under Section 21 three years ago, after she complained to her landlord and the council about the squalor of her flat.

“There were rats, mice, cockroaches, faulty electrics, broken drains and scaffolding across the windows,” she said.

“They issued us with a section 21 but because I’d complained to the council they had to wait six months.

“Eventually the landlord fixed some of the things but there were still rats and cockroaches. Then they issued us with another section 21 and evicted us.”

Cllr Paul Gadsby, cabinet member for housing, said that he welcomed new groups like LRU “to help bring a greater voice to those renting in the private sector”.

“We have joined other London councils to lobby the government to deliver meaningful action for renters using the Tenants Fees Bill”.

“At Lambeth, we have acted to levy fines and prosecute rogue landlords”, he added.

“We are planning in the new year to consult the local community on a new ‘private renters’ charter’”.

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After netting one prize, can Olley’s make it to first plaice?

Step into the olde worlde of Olley’s Fish Experience in Herne Hill, and you will be stepping into one of the nation’s top chippies, graced by actors, entertainers and food critics and feted by the likes of Jamie Oliver.

By Molly Brown The long-established fish and chip restaurant was recently named joint winner of the London and South-East regional category of the prestigious 2019 Seafish National Fish and Chip Shop of the Year awards and is in contention

for the top prize. Owner Harry Niazi will find out if his eatery has taken the national crown at a ceremony in January.

“I’m very delighted,” says Niazi, who set up the business in 1987.

The self-proclaimed Famous Olley’s Fish Experience is named after Oliver Twist, since fish and chips was a popular dish in Dickens’s day, and because “it’s an experience eating here,” Niazi adds. The décor evokes picturesque, tumble-down parts of Victorian London.

It also uses the slogan ‘London’s most fashionable chippie’, perhaps on the strength of its famous clientele. Regulars have included actor James Nesbitt, Time Out food critic Guy Diamond and the late entertainer Cilla Black. The Cilla Black Experience is named in honour of

the order the singer created when filming the game show The Moment of Truth in the 1990s. The order involves haddock, chips, scampi, king prawns and picked onions.

Olley’s came to the attention of celebrity chef and food warrior Oliver in 2013 following an article in the Evening Standard. Niazi asked Oliver for help in becoming fully sustainable and was the first business to sign up to his Southbank Sustainability Initiative. A wholesale overhaul of the menu was re-

quired, which included changing from wild to farmed halibut, from mass-produced to wild king prawns and the removal of swordfish altogether as the stocks of this are too vulnerable to justify selling it.

Olley’s now offers the widest choice of sustainable fish on offer in the UK with eight Marine Stewardship Council certified species on the menu. It has received best-in-class ratings for sustainability from organisations including fish2fork and the Sustainable

11

Restaurant Association.

Marcus Coleman, Chief Executive Officer at Seafish says: “It’s not possible to reach this stage of the competition without displaying true quality in every aspect of running a fish and chip business, so these 10 shops should be extremely proud of what they’ve achieved so far. These shops have demonstrated real commitment to quality in a number of areas, not just food, and have worked extremely hard to earn their place on this list.”

Mosaic Clubhouse: removing the barriers to work for everyone The era when those who admitted a mental health issue when job hunting faced sneers or laughter is quickly fading into history. That fact marks a major victory – but the step-change in attitudes invites the question of what exactly people who have experienced mental ill health should do to get back into the workplace.

Mosaic Clubhouse, set up in Lambeth in 1994 to promote positive mental health has been chosen by borough Mayor Christopher Wellbelove as his official charity for his year in office.

We help those aged 16 upwards following the globally recognised Clubhouse model of rehabilitation in which staff and attendees work together.

Mosaic recently hosted an open day with more than 20 employers to focus on the options for getting back into work, volunteering or training after experiencing mental ill health.

“It was an excellent presentation with the organisations talking

about how they can help people with mental illness, why it’s not a taboo, and how we can benefit,” said Chantal, one of the people who came along.

Mosaic also has its own model of supported employment called a Transitional Employment Placement (TEP), a part-time entry-level job typically of six to nine months which can be set up without a formal interview.

The benefits of the placements are easy to see – helping to build confidence for the worker and providing a springboard for him or her to go into sustainable employment.

A support worker stands ready to assist if needed.

One of those who enjoyed the scheme is Gabriel, a former database analyst whose mental health suffered after he lost his job and then found himself struggling to get a new one.

“As months turned into years I became downhearted and depressed. I had also become stressed and anxious and started to suffer from lack of sleep. After several panic attacks and a psychotic episode in May 2015, I ended up in Lambeth hospital.”

The placement allowed Gabriel

to take up a job as an admin assistant at Public Health England in 2016 and since then he has been able to rebuild his confidence.

“I feel like I’m doing something useful again,” he said. “I’m enjoying interacting with different people.

The placements are just one of the many services offered by Mosaic. We also provide: Clubhouse membership – staff and members come together to run the Clubhouse community and work in reception, café, gardens and finance department as well as delivering workshops.

The Living Well Partnership –

Mosaic works with partners, including Lambeth College and the Workers Education Association, who offer services and support from its site in Brixton.

Information Hub – rapid information on mental health, including referrals for advice on benefits, housing and physical health.

Evening Sanctuary – available five nights a week between 6pm and 2am for people to discuss their feelings and take part in activities like exercise, art or simply watching television.

Go towww.mosaic-clubhouse. org

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12 LAMBETH LIFE OCTOBER 2018

THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH…

Circus has a claim to be Britain’s most successful export, a concept which people across the world immediately understand. And its origins can be pin-pointed to Waterloo - where in a field 250 years ago, Sergeant-Major Philip Astley together with his wife Patty performed feats of horsemanship, such as standing across the backs of two galloping steeds. (Patty’s star turn was to ride smothered in bees).

They rode in a circle, laid out with a rope, making it easy for the audience to see everything and to help the riders perform their tricks through centrifugal force. Over the next two years, the Astleys moved into a more permanent venue in a timber yard on the site of St Thomas’s hospital, and introduced other acts – acrobats, jugglers, tightrope walkers, musicians, a clown, and dancing dogs. Astley was invited to perform in France and Ire-

land, and built more and grander “Astley’s amphitheatres”. Meanwhile in Lambeth, always fertile ground for entertainments, Charles Hughes and Charles Dibdin set up a rival venue – the first to use the term “circus”. In the coming years, wild animals, big tops, staged battles, freak shows and ringmasters were all to be added to the emerging artform.

To celebrate the anniversary, writer and broadcaster Dea Birkett, who when she was in her thirties took a radical career break to become an elephant girl in Sicily and Scandinavia, has set up Circus250.

From Kennington and Ireland, the non-profit is co-ordinating more than 400 events across the British Isles to show how circus “is part of our history and what we are”, says Birkett. Lambeth events have included a Victorian sideshow by Invisible Circus in Vauxhall Pleasure

Gardens, a Circus250 weekend at the Southbank, and the unveiling of two plaques to Astley by ringmaster and circus historian Chris Barltrop. Barltrop has taken his one-man show about Philip Astley to the Edinburgh Fringe, earning five-star reviews. There have also been major exhibitions in Dublin and Sheffield, and programmes of events in six “cities of circus” across the UK. At Christmas, the Southbank is hosting Circus 1903, an Edwardian extravaganza returning elephants to the stage in the form of life-size puppets made by the creators of War Horse. Dea has vivid memories of working in this side of the circus – “the hair of the elephant is like wire and rubs uncomfortably against your thighs and yet I was waving and smiling. You are presenting joy and that contrast [between pain and joy] is part of the circus”. But she’s not sentimental about wild animals disappearing from the ring. “Change has always been at the heart of circus, and that’s a very good thing”.

Her hope with Circus250 is to raise the profile of an artform which has embraced racial, genetic and cultural diversity from the start, and which is accessible to all age groups. “Circus has always been the poor relation in terms of funding” she says, “which is ironic, as often funding is about inclusion and diversity. Other artforms should be looking to circus for advice.

We need to support circus to take circus to as many people as possible”.

TUMBLE THROUGH TIME WITH THE MARVELLOUS

by Charlie Holland, former programme director, The Circus Space (National Centre for Circus Arts) and author, Strange Feats and Clever Turns Circus goes way beyond the Big Top. I took up juggling after seeing vaudevillians The Flying Karamazov Brothers in the interval of a Grateful Dead concert in 1981. In the course of my short career as a juggler, I performed a lot on the alternative comedy circuit and in theme parks; many of the circus artists who influenced me had more of a background in variety than in the ring.

I became interested in Kennington’s “gentleman acrobats” the Craggs – a father and five sons who were the highest paid acrobats of their day – because there is such excitement and incident around their life, and they offered an opportunity to look at the wider world of performance and how it evolved.

The troupe, who lived for 40 years on Kennington Road where

the China Walk Estate is now, performed in the finest Victorian and Edwardian age enterta-

inment palaces.

They started as gymnasts and toured Britain for three ye-

ars with Sanger’s Circus, the largest of its time. Then they graduated to being successful trapeze

artists and acrobats in London before going on to be a smash hit in Australia, New Zealand, the US and Europe. Their act included standing on each other shoulders’ in two columns, and the man at the top of the column in front somersaulting backwards onto the column behind.

In 1901, they were filmed by the Edison company in the early days of the Cinematograph.

They were awarded the Diploma d’Honneur at the Folies Bergère – the only acrobats to be so honoured.

In a talk I gave at the Lambeth Heritage Festival in September, I imagined myself standing in the Cragg family’s Victorian gymnasium, where the head of the dynasty Edward taught acrobatics and trapeze after he retired from performing in his seventies.

From my time working at the National Centre for Circus Arts, based in a former Victorian power station, it’s a place I feel very much at home in.

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BORN RIGHT HERE, IN LAMBETH Trapeze troupe seeks winter home after hitting the heights of popularity

CRAGGS

The Streatham-born spectacle that remembers its roots Writing in 1928, a contributor to industry paper The Stage described Edward: “Papa Cragg, the Patriarch of Kennington, the youngest old man in the world, eighty-three, four times married. Papa can still do a flip-flap, and looks like living for ever.”

Pictured are jugglers at Zippos Circus, which is holding a Legacy Tour to mark the 250th anniversary of circus. Martin Burton, founder and owner of the circus, feels proud of the continuing place of Zippos in the ongoing story of circus in Lambeth. Martin first opened Zippos 40 years ago at Streatham Common. Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park (by the Imperial War Museum) was a regular early venue, and today Zippos routinely visits open spaces across South London, including Clapham Common.

Once it was seen as a pursuit for only the toughest of daredevils. Now flying trapeze has taken off in Lambeth.

By the end of its first summer season in Ruskin Park, a new trapeze group was doing so well, it had to lay on six extra classes.

TLCC Trapeze School was established to help beginners as well as experienced aerialists. Local people came in droves and now the school is looking for an indoor location to allow enthusiasts to practice over the winter. It is appealing to Lambeth Council and local organisations to help it find somewhere for a healthy and increasingly hip hobby.

The school organisers say that while Glasgow and Bristol have fullsize flying trapeze rigs covered from the elements available to the public, there isn’t one in London and the South-East.

Tuikku Alaviitala, TLCC director says it could be "anywhere indoor that has space”: a 20 metre high ceiling is required.

“We would definitely take a trapeze inside a big top” says Lisa Torkington, who helped set up the school. “Winter is a little longer without trapeze in our lives!”

Lambeth Life attended an evening class and saw an impressive display of gymnastic poses, tricks and landings in the net (although this reporter's first attempt was more thrilling than graceful).

The school has grown a reputation.

Professional trapeze artist Jess Niven, who trained in Melbourne and has performed in China, South-East Asia, Tur-

key and France assisted over the summer. “Whatever your body in circus, there’s a place for everyone”, she said.

Mark, an osteopath with a performing arts background, said that aerialism doesn’t require a certain body type or peak fitness levels: "If you've been doing it for a while you naturally develop your strength. It’s an incredibly good work-out. Cardio pushes you and it works just about every single muscle."

Participants this summer included a local man who was trying trapeze for the first time at 80 years old, as well as members of local community groups.

Sharon, who executed a series of perfect-looking tricks and flips, first tried trapeze on a Club Med holiday three-and-a-half years ago. “You come to forget other things you’re worried about” she said.

Deborah, an assistant instructor, described the experience of being up in the air as “really exciting. There’s a sense of achievement that you can push your body to learn and do new things."

Describing the camaraderie that comes from taking part in an adrenalinefilled hobby, she added: "Sometimes at TLCC we can set up, run classes all day and it’s been all women, and I find that pretty empowering”.

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14 LAMBETH LIFE OCTOBER 2018

Success is sweet, from the Hacienda to Waterloo James O’Malley meets Paul Cons, one half of the couple behind Konditor & Cook Like much of central London, Waterloo can feel as though it is in a constant state of flux. But some things remain constant.

Konditor & Cook, now also at six other sites around the capital, is celebrating the 25th birthday of its original Cornwall Road store, from where it built its reputation as a purveyor of rich and spectacular sweet treats. Few upmarket chains can rival it for exotic cake creations; Patisserie Valerie’s nearest presence south of the river is in Clapham and points west.

Gerhard Jenne started the company when he bought up an existing bakery, the Queen of Hearts. Renaming it Konditor & Cook - Konditor means “Pastry Chef” in his native German he was CEO until 2010, when he handed over the reins to his husband Paul Cons. “Gerhard’s passion is creativity - he’s more of a visionary and a pioneer than someone who wants to run a business day to day”, Paul explains.

The couple today live with their two boys on picturesque Roupell Street, just around the corner from the store. It is a very different environment for Paul compared to where he started his career - as brand manager of Manchester’s legendary Hacienda nightclub. Is there anything in common between the two roles?

K BOO NOW

“It’s all about celebration”, Paul says. “Our mission at Konditor & Cook is to spread joy through cake.... And my mission at the Hacienda was probably to spread joy through.. something else”, he laughs, in reference to the club’s wild nights.

Paul studied drama at the University of Manchester and in the 1990s was the brains behind Flesh, the Hacienda’s legendary gay night. He met Gerhard in 2006 and finally got involved in the business while Konditor was still recovering from the financial crash, a “challenging” period which he says involved a lot of “fire fighting” rather than long-term planning. You get the sense that his experience provides a vivid example of the advice he’d give any budding entrepreneur in Lambeth today.

“I think that it’s really important to be clear about the purpose of your

business and put together a strategic plan”, he says. “I’m very much a believer that if you’re setting out on a journey you need to have the end in mind... not that it won’t change, but you need to have a map.

“It becomes an anchor point for everything: your brand, your operations, your services, and how you engage with customers”.

There is a picture in his office of mountains overlaid with the text “as long as you’re going to be thinking anyway, think big”.

What’s on Paul’s map for the future of K&C? In addition to a further new store, the company will be making another big shift: after a quarter of a century, it has decided to drop the “& Cook” part of the name - reflecting a tighter focus on the celebration cakes that it does so well, rather than trying to compete on savoury foods where

there is more competition. While this might make business sense, it was not an easy decision: “I used to love the sausage rolls - that was hard to get rid of.”

Aside from a rebrand, what really seems to excite Paul is his plan for his employees. Paul and Gerhard intend to give something back by turning Konditor into an employee-owned trust over the next five years. Shares would be given to staff members with more than two years’ service.

Having taken the first steps on this path, in 2016 Konditor & Cook won the Employee Ownership Association Investment Award, sponsored by John Lewis & Partners, the UK’s largest employee-owned company.

“It just felt much more in line with our purpose to spread joy”, Paul says.

“It’s not just about the customers but about the people who work for us. If we sold the business to a third party or to venture capitalists it wouldn’t really feel like that would spread a lot of joy - it would just be about the money.”

The plan is very much in line with Paul’s management philosophy. He uses a technique called “The Great Game Of Business”, pioneered by Midwestern entrepreneur Jack Stack who outlined it in a 1992 book of the same name.

In a nutshell, it is based on every employee knowing and understanding what makes the business successful and being given a stake in the outcome - taking an “open book” approach to

management. To this end, one wall of Paul’s office is covered in whiteboards containing an array of numbers, tracking sales in each store and forecasting the month ahead so that everyone can see. There’s a similar whiteboard in every store, and each week staff will hold a “huddle” to discuss the plan.

“Part of doing that is to make everything really transparent: the numbers, the figures, the profits, and we also have a profit share”.

The strategy isn’t just about being nice - it pays off for the business too.

“We obviously employ a lot of very young millennials and it’s quite a transient [population] in Central London, so I think people having that five year timeline is quite challenging if you’re 22-23”, Paul says.

“But we are really engaging with people who are here and want to stay here for the long term around that goal.

“We really believe in teaching people the ‘rules’ of Konditor & Cook how we make money, what’s the best way for us to thrive as a business, and then we make the score really transparent. So everyone really knows how they’re doing, so there’s no confusion about what’s going on. We keep everyone with a stake in the game by sharing the profits and then eventually the ownership of the business.”

And when it works, they won’t be short of choices for celebration treats.

Konditor & Cook, 22 Cornwall Road, London SE1 8TW

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LAMBETH LIFE OCTOBER 2018

The caring cab service ready to come to mum and dad’s rescue Being a parent is hard. Being a single parent is harder and being a single working parent harder still.

Now throw in studying as well as all that and you start to get an idea why Streatham businesswoman Lyndsey Fyffe wished she’d had Hermione Granger’s time turner or someone trustworthy to ferry her daughter around. Or both.

While changing the space time continuum is beyond even Fyffe’s considerable organisational abilities, creating a company that transports children safely to and from activities and appointments is not.

Kids Services, originally called Kids Minicab Service, launched last May. “When I was trying to juggle it all – to study part-time for my degree in occupational therapy, get to work, attend university, struggling to do the school runs and take my daughter to her many, many activities – I was searching for something like this, a company that could provide safe, reliable transportation,” Fyffe recalls. “There wasn’t one, there wasn’t anything like it, so I decided I should start a service for mums and dads that they could trust.”

It’s fair to say the idea took a while to gestate.

Fyffe took a course in business administration at Lambeth College in 2013 by way of preparation, but life has a habit of getting in the way and it wasn’t until a change in personal circumstances forced her to do something “to keep me sane”.

Her daughter Isis may now be 15 and perfectly capable of transporting herself, but there remained a gap in the market and a significant one if the response from parents has been anything to go by.

“People love it,” she comments.

“Some use the service for a short period of time, when they need extra childcare; some long term for school runs or other reasons.” The company has grown from just Fyffe at launch to 20 drivers at present, but she needs another 30 and has a waiting list of parents. The service covers most of London from Wembley to Wandsworth, Surrey Quays to Surrey and almost everywhere in between.

The service offers door to door transportation for children and teens, including non-emergency medical appointments, after school activities, religious activities, parties, teenagers’ outings, school runs and last-minute pick-ups for sick kids or when parents’ lives suddenly keep them from being at the school gates themselves.

All drivers are licensed and with enhanced DBS checks, but Fyffe is moving away from the private hire

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driver model to using childcare professionals, which is what prompted the name change. “Our drivers are great, but most are men and a lot of parents don’t really want some big burly bloke turning up to look after their little ones even if the big burly bloke is lovely!” she smiles. But on a more serious note, there aren’t that many licensed female drivers, so Fyffe is fulfilling parents’ needs for childcare professionals to pick up, drop off and look after their children in a nurturing way based on hands on experience.

Parents are matched with guardians and have a meet and greet session before any journeys take place to ensure that they are happy with the person and their approach, and to build a rapport with parents. The service isn’t cheap – journey prices start at £12 – but people are paying for peace of mind.

Such is the demand for it that Fyffe is talking about taking the service national, possibly through a franchising operation. Never one to let the grass grow under her feet, she is now embarking on a master’s degree in international business to prepare for the next step.

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HELPING SPIN BRIXTON BUSINESSES INTO A VIRTUOUS CYCLE A mechanical whizz from Dr Bike performs a free check on Brixton Station Road. A regular session by Dr Bike on the last Wednesday of the month is one of the services offered by Brixton Business Improvement District

for the more than 650 firms in the area. Last month the cycle checks ran alongside pop-up events for National Fitness Day to encourage all-comers to get active.

Other BID projects are a lavender maze on Rush Common on Brixton Hill, commissioned from local greening experts Father Nature, and a partnership with Octopus Energy to provide renewable energy to businesses at an affordable price. Less exotically but hugely welcome to members - the BID provides training in areas such as licensing, first aid and health and safety, which it has given to 350 people so far.

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GOING OUT

16 LAMBETH LIFE OCTOBER 2018

Restaurants with Don’t duck out of the challenge at experimental Cantonese Most innovation in food is through trial and error, refashioning the same techniques and ingredients - try out a new recipe, and if it works, just keep doing it.

was superb. Two crunchy slices, topped with an inch-thick layer of minced prawn and herbs, deep fried and finished with bonito flakes and what seemed like Japanese kewpie mayonnaise making it satisfyingly savoury.

Next were Viola aubergines and San Marzano tomatoes, stir fried in fish sauce, chilli and ginger. This was on the expensive side at £8 but explosive with the punchy but elegant flavours that make good Chinese food so special, and in particular that ensures aubergine has bite and flavour.

The pork belly was, sadly, not as crispy or as flavoursome as it ought to be at £8.50. But the roast duck (£12 for a quarter) was close to perfect. The skin crackled with every bite, revealing a layer of rich, silky fat and juicy duck meat underneath.

Soy poached chicken (£15 for half a chicken) can hardly live up to that, but Duck Duck Goose’s was moist, shot through with clean flavours of soy and ginger, and came in a generous portion. As an end of meal palate-cleanser, it worked well. Less impressive was the duck fat fried rice (£8): too one-dimensional. I wish I’d tried the steamed sea bass with ginger and spring onion (£15 for a whole one) that our neighbours had.

Not everything works at Duck Duck Goose, and it sometimes feels as if they should stick to the classics.

But those are the failures of a restaurant that’s experimenting. When those experiments work out, you’ll be happy you were there to enjoy them. Sam Bowman

That’s the big advantage of places like KERB, which opened a new Saturday market in Peckham this summer, and Pop Brixton. The running costs are lower, so you can take some risks with an idea and see if punters like it.

Duck Duck Goose, in one of Pop Brixton’s renovated shipping containers, is inspired by the Cantonese food you might find in a cheap and cheerful Hong Kong place - roast meats and spring rolls, without the sweet, sticky sauces that dominate most Cantonese food in Britain.

When you’re offering something as delicious as Chinese roasted meats, breaking with the formula is risky. Perhaps because it tries to do a few things at once, with a menu that feels uneven, Duck Duck Goose enjoys mixed success.

Pork and black bean spring rolls (£2.25 for two) came with slivers of pickled fennel on top, whose acidity would balance the black bean nicely if the roll was better seasoned.

The duck spring roll alongside a pile of frozen foie gras shavings wasn’t bad, but a weird way to use foie gras and not a great buy at £4 for a miniature dish.

The “revisited” prawn toast (£6.50 for two pieces), however,

Beers to titillate your palette, at Brixton's buzzy new tap rooms fill the spaces left behind by the closure of high-street staples like BHS and Woolworths, also with beers on tap that you can drink in the garden out back.

Along with things like the Sour Cherry Candy Popcorn Sour - a Swedish sour that might even appeal to beer-haters - are strong, punchy beers like the 8% Double Milkshake IPA, which really does taste like milkshake. Or you can pay a £1 corkage and try one of the 150+ cans, many of which are so rare and obscure that even a beer purist won’t have seen them before. Be sure to check opening times as, unlike pubs, these tap rooms keep irregular hours. SB Brixton has three of London’s best tap rooms in the London Beer Lab on Nursery Road (just behind the High Street), the Brixton Brewery on Brixton Station Road, and newly-opened Ghost Whale on

Atlantic Road.

The first two brew their own beers, which means you’re getting fresh and often brand new kinds of beer. London Beer Lab’s 3 Fruit Marmalade Saison beer is fresh,

bitter and comes with a hint of oranges, while darker stouts are also often on the menu. Prices tend to be very reasonable, too: many are £4 a pint, which for a craft beer is a bargain. One thing

you might miss is ambience – this is a brewery first and foremost, not a pub.

Ghost Whale is slightly different.

It’s a can shop, the sort of which is popping up across the UK to

London Beer Lab, Arch 41 Railway Arches, Nursery Road, SW9 8BP Brixton Brewery Limited, Arch 547, Brixton Station Rd, SW9 8PF Ghost Whale, 70 Atlantic Road, Brixton, London, SW9 8PX

THEATRE PREVIEWS

LAMBETH LIFE OCTOBER 2018

TO HAVE TO SHOOT IRISHMEN - UNTIL OCTOBER 20TH AT THE CLAPHAM OMNIBUS Inspired by true events, award-winning playwright Lizzie Nunnery weaves a tale of corruption, militarism and the power of rebellion in this stirring piece that combines movement, folk music and powerful storytelling. The production, which is making its national debut at the Clapham Common Old Town venue, is set in Dublin on Easter morning 1916. The bloody chaos and confusion, fear and determination are vividly captured by a cast featuring Gerard Kearns of Shameless fame.

Tickets: £16 for adults; £13 for concessions www.omnibus-clapham.org

TWELFTH NIGHT - UNTIL NOVEMBER 17TH AT THE YOUNG Prepare for Shakespeare as you’ve never seen it before. Twelfth Night has been reimagined as a seriously soulful musical set in Notting Hill with music and lyrics by critically acclaimed songwriter Shaina Taub.

The Young Vic’s artistic director Kwame Kwei-Armah and The Public Theater artistic director Oskar Eustis co-direct this extraordinary production, which brings the Bard bang up to date. The professional cast performs alongside a community chorus of 60 members from Lambeth and Southwark, who will be getting down to some R&B infected beats.

Tickets: from £10 but selling out fast www.youngvic.org

CHUTNEY - OPENING NOVEMBER 6TH AT THE BUNKER THEATRE

I’m a Phoenix Bitch - until October 20th at Battersea Arts Centre Award-winning performance artist Byrony Kimmings returns with her first solo show in nearly a decade as part of the BAC’s Phoenix season. The show is both a dark and joyful work about motherhood, heartbreak and finding inner strength. It combines personal stories with epic fill, ethereal music and personal stories. Two years ago Kimmings nearly drowned, literally and figuratively; now she returns to the stage to explore how we learn to fly instead of drown.

Tickets £15 www.bac.org.uk

Burgerz (First Bites) - October 19th and 20th at the Ovalhouse

Chutney is a pitch-black comedy about a young, well-to-do, suburban couple brought together by a murderous instinct for all things small and fluffy.

Beneath their unassuming, mundane exterior lies an insatiable desire to murder their neighbours’ pets.

American Psycho meets Animals of Farthing Wood, this new black comedy offers a cynical commentary on the desires that bring us together and break us apart. Expect the fur to fly.

Tickets: from £10 www.bunkertheatre.com

Travis Alabanza’s new show is a timely, powerful and unsettling piece that explores how trans people are dissected in public. Alabanza is a performance artist, writer, poet and leading LGBTQ+ activist who hit the headlines last year when they were thrown out of a Topshop changing room. This latest piece was inspired by a hamburger hurled at them on Waterloo Bridge. They were called a faggot 60 times last year and 15 different men tried to follow them home. So what does the trans body do to survive?

Tickets £5 in advance or £8 on the door www.ovalhouse.com

17

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18 LAMBETH LIFE OCTOBER 2018

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LAMBETH LIFE OCTOBER 2018

19

MPs and councillors unite to pay tribute to humble community champion Cllr Matt Parr Matt Parr, who died in late July at the age of 61, had served as a councillor for Coldharbour since 2010. An IT manager by profession, he came from Liverpool and had lived in Brixton for around 30 years where he "fought tirelessly" for his residents.

Matt, who was diagnosed with cancer earlier this year, was a member of the scrutiny team with particular responsibility for housing, jobs and investments. His political interests included sustainability and green issues.

His dedicated work on behalf of his constituents continued even after he learnt about the severity of his condition. A passionate supporter of local schemes, including the Boiler House redevelopment programme on the Angell Town Estate and community food growing project Loughborough Farm and Grove adventure playground, he was instrumental in securing funding for the rebuilding of St John's Church of England Primary School in Angell Town.

One of his final acts on the council, approved by the cabinet in July, was the creation of a commission setting out steps to ensure all Lambeth residents include those suffering from multiple disadvantage are

John Whelan was a long-standing Conservative councillor in Lambeth, rising to group leader and then deputy leader of the council.

By profession he was a journalist, covering a wide range of fields over the course of his career from foreign news and business to tech and health.

He started on a regional newspaper in Burnley in 1970. Later he worked for journals such as FX Week, Euromoney Corporate Finance and New Arabia, news agencies and newspapers. He wrote obituaries for the Telegraph, including those of Saddam Hussein and Yasser Arafat. He was a key supporter of and regular contributor to Lambeth Life from the first issue in September 2017.

Early in his career, John reported on the Bush War in Rhodesia.

He covered Ian Smith's speeches around the country and interviewed mutilated war victims. In 1974 he defied an official order not to publish a story about a South African policeman charged with cutting a baby’s throat and was asked to leave the country. He returned to Zimbabwe subsequently, including to interview President Mugabe for Time magazine in 1990. He had

able to access good jobs.

Ward colleagues Donatus Anyanwu and Emma Nye and Lambeth council leader Lib Peck paid tribute to Matt's quiet dedication in a joint statement.

“Matt had a particular desire to improve the lives of the area’s poorest residents. He fought for investment in the area’s estates which saw the transformation of council housing in the area, providing homes that are safe, warm and dry.

“Matt was a kind, thoughtful and

decent man, not interested in personal glory or self-promotion... He will be hugely missed."

Grove playground reopened last month after Lambeth Council granted Loughborough Junction Action Group (LJAG), which also runs Loughborough Farm, a three year lease to operate it. " LJ Works on Loughborough Farm, a project Matt worked hard to bring to life, will open later this year offering jobs and training opportunities to local young people.

For others in the community he will be remembered for his modesty and desire to bring residents together.

Reverend Canon Dr. Rosemarie Mallett of St John’s Church Angell Town described Matt as someone who "believed in community cohesion and community enhancement and used his position to work to bring that about... He carried his position lightly and with great humility."

Vassall councillor and Cabinet member for housing Paul Gadsby, who worked on numerous projects with Matt because of a shared border between Vassall and Coldharbour wards, described a "tragic loss" “Matt was a huge source of guidance, experience, common sense

John Whelan: newspaperman

just completed a book about the country before he died. He was based in the Gulf for a period during the 1990s, reporting on the aftermath of the Gulf War from Kuwait and the booming economy of the region.

John was scheduled to be at the World Trade Centre in New York on 11 September 2001 for an event he had been organising, but had lost his job just before travelling.

He felt the loss of many close colleagues that day keenly for the rest of his life.

From 1990-2014 John was a Conservative councillor for Thur-

low Park Ward. He was joint chair of the Education Committee from 1994-1998, Conservative Group Leader from 1998-2014 and Deputy Leader of the Council 2002-2006 in a joint administration with the Liberal Democrats. He had a six year term on the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority from 2002-2008 and acted as a mentor to several local authority leaders. His wife Clare also sat as a Lambeth councillor for 24 years concurrently with him.

Edwina Currie, who first met John when Clare came to work for her in the House of Commons said

he was "funny, intelligent and delightful to know. He wrote a wry and clever piece for a book I edited called What Women Want. Not all our feminist friends agreed with his sentiments - but he enjoyed prodding them, without any malice or misogyny.”

Former Conservative MP Stephen Dorrell, chair of the Hospital Times of which John was editor right up til the end of his life said he “will always be grateful for the diligent way John worked. John will be primarily remembered for his courageous persistence in maintaining the liberal Tory message against all comers. We have all lost a valued friend.”

Staffordshire County Council leader Cllr Philip Atkins said "John had family links with Staffordshire. John and Clare lived for a while at Rocester and John wanted to retire to the county. Behind the scenes, many people work tirelessly for their community. John has been helping people in Staffordshire for nine years, making friends across the political spectrum".

Croydon North MP Steve Reed,

and good humour. Fought tirelessly on behalf of all his residents."

Herne Hill councillor Jim Dickson said, "Matt was a lovely man, a wise and dedicated representative for Coldharbour ward, hugely respected for his hard work, integrity and intellect."

Conservative councillor Tim Briggs who served on the scrutiny committee with Matt said he was "very sad".

"Matt tried to be objective in all his decisions, not party political, and in so doing served the people in his ward with great commitment".

Dulwich and West Norwood MP Helen Hayes said, "So very sad that my friend Cllr Matt Parr has passed away, a lovely man and dedicated representative of Coldharbour Ward since 2010 who was passionate about fighting injustice".

Battersea MP and former Larkhall councillor Marsha Da Cordova said that when they worked together she "saw first-hand his dedication to serving those most in need. His generosity, kindness, and commitment will be sorely missed."

Matt is survived by his wife Petrina and their young twin daughters.

Lambeth council leader from 200612 said that he and John had "fought each other hard, but I respected him".

Former Brixton headteacher and exCroydon councillor John Wentworth said, "John was one of the most interesting, generous and intelligent people I have ever met."

"It is a huge tribute to John and Clare that they were repeatedly reelected for so many years".

Liberal Democrat former council leader Peter Truesdale, who worked with John during the coalition said "John worked tirelessly and fruitfully for the people of Lambeth. He was a good friend."

Cllr Tim Briggs, who succeeded John as leader of the Conservative Group, praised John’s “intense commitment” to Lambeth residents.

Born in Hull in 1947, John spent much of his early life in Borneo where his parents worked for the colonial government. He was educated at Sabah College, Stonyhurst College and Exeter College, Oxford.

Never one to miss a deadline, even after his diagnosis with cancer this summer, John filed his last piece for Hospital Times from his bed at St Thomas's Hospital a few days before he died, dictated to Clare as he was too ill to sit up.

20 LAMBETH LIFE OCTOBER 2018

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LAMBETH LIFE OCTOBER 2018

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All hail the Brixton Design Trailblazers!

By Yemisi Adedoyin

Hundreds braved the wettest weekend in September to catch a special design festival celebrating the diversity of the capital.

Brixton Design Trail, now in its fourth year, featured events, workshops, and exhibitions over a week under the theme of “we belong”, and included a tribute to the Windrush families.

The slogan appeared in a huge stencil outside Brixton tube station alongside pavement arrows leading visitors to a follow-your- nose type treasure hunt.

Meanwhile the MADE youth market on Brixton Station Road, hosted by Pop Brixton with youthled enterprise Livity, displayed a huge selection of art, fashion, and handmade jewellery made by people aged 16-25, as well as a fashion show at Pop Brixton.

Exhibitors aimed to offer shoppers something unique, they told Lambeth Life.

Makeda Thomas, designer and creator of Pink Diamond said “I’ve been doing fashion designs for about three years now but officially launched this year. My focus is vintage and retro clothing, and I specialise in customising one-off designs and unique pieces so you won’t see anyone else in the same outfit!”

The design trail is a not-for-

profit community project and part of the London Design Festival. One of this year’s highlights was Rooted, a series of papier-mache installations by Alvin Kofi exploring the journey of African-Caribbean migrants and how they came to belong in Britain.

To read more about the design trail go to https://www.brixtondesigntrail.com/

Southbank poaches West London’s finest Community heroine is toast of the Tate

By Victoria Bell The Southbank Centre, Europe’s largest arts complex, has appointed the Bush Theatre’s artistic director Madani Younis as creative director in succession to Jude Kelly.

In his six years at the new writing theatre, Younis won critical plaudits for exploring edgy themes and cultivating diverse writing talent and audiences with plays such as Josephine and I, a one woman show by South Londoner Cush Jumbo, and Arinzé Kene’s Misty. also oversaw the second phase of the theatre’s £4.3 million capital redevelopment programme, tripling audience capacity.

As the Southbank’s creative director – a newly formed role – he will be working with Hayward Gallery director Ralph Rugoff and director of music, Gillian Moore, to create collaborations and crosscommissioned work, as well as leading individual arts strands at the venue.

Southbank Centre chief executive Elaine Bedell said he would

“bring a new energy and vision”.

Younis, who was born and raised in London, said his time at the Bush had been one of his “proudest achievements to date” but that he is ‘thrilled’ to be joining the Southbank team.

The 36-year-old said: “I’m looking forward to joining Elaine Bedell, Ralph and Gillian to develop impactful, forward-looking crossartform collaborations and, as part of the wider artistic team, bringing world-class art to audiences old and new”.

Tate Modern’s iconic main building has been renamed after South Bank resident and activist Natalie Bell, and an interactive work inside pays tribute to a Syrian refugee she helped, in a community-driven commission for the Turbine Hall.

Cuban artist Tania Bruguera brought together 21 people living in the SE1 postcode as Tate Neighbours, as part of her exploration of communal interaction. They chose to rename the former Bankside Power Station in honour of Natalie, head of youth and community programmes at social enterprise Coin Street Community Builders, for the impact she has had on local people’s lives.

“I am quite overwhelmed by having such a famous building named after me”, says Natalie. “I get a real buzz working with individuals, seeing them develop, become more resilient and enjoying themselves. It’s not work for me, it’s my life”.

The title of Bruguera’s work is an ever-increasing figure corresponding

to the number of people who migrated from one country to another in 2017 added to the number of migrants who have died or gone missing so far this year. The entire floor of the Turbine Hall has been covered by a surface which, when the body heat from enough people lying down on it is transferred, reveals a portrait of Youssef, a young man from Homs who Natalie’s charity SE1 United assisted while he was sleeping rough in London. “I could tell he had so much potential but

his personal circumstances had got in the way” Natalie says. Youssef became part of the community and is now studying medicine.

Natalie has had a connection to the area since 1991, when she had a fashion business at Gabriel’s Wharf.

She got a flat at Redwood Housing Cooperative in Oxo Tower Wharf in 1995, at a point when she was homeless.

Frustrated as a single mum by the lack of support and activities for local families, she set up Family Links in 2001 as a volunteer, running services with other parents. She founded peerled youth organisation SE1 United in 2003, and landed her “dream job” at Coin Street 2016, leading a team delivering programmes to young people, families and older residents.

Bruguera’s exhibition also features a “crying room” filled with a menthollike substance which makes visitors eyes water uncontrollably. She says her intention is to use “forced empathy” to provoke a visceral response in viewers.

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A FAIRYTALE SUMMER AT THE OVAL

By last September, Surrey county cricket club had only scraped together two wins. They finished the 2017 season some 85 points off the top of the table.

Fast forward a year, however, and south London’s finest have been crowned champions of the country.

They claimed the title in exhilarating fashion at the end of a summer of high drama at the Oval ground in Kennington.The season of 2018 was one in which Surrey finally delivered in terms of both the title and some

twisting, turning drama.

Not only did they end up winning the first division for the first time in 16 years; they also took part in a gripping final match of the season against Essex, the team they usurped as champions – in which all four results - win, loss, draw and that rarest occurence in cricket, an exact tie, seemed possible going into the last hours of the contest.

And, as if that were not enough, the Oval also played host to the final England match played by Alas-

tair Cook. In an emotional, fairy-tale finale, the nation’s record-breaking run-scorer signed off from Tests with a hundred that brought everyone in the ground to their feet.

International matches are, of course, played in SE11 every summer but, for affluent under-achievers Surrey, it was the season when their riches of wealth and talent finally shone through in county cricket.

Surrey strolled to the championship with two games to go. Going into the final match against Essex, they

had racked up 10 victories and three draws. This end-of-September encounter see-sawed throughout, with Surrey skittled for just 67 in their first innings – their lowest total for 32 years – and conceding a massive first innings deficit of 410 before mounting a stirring comeback, in which they were finally bowled out for 541. This marathon effort pushed Essex to the brink of an historic defeat before the East Anglians won home with just one wicket to spare.

In that titanic encounter, which played out largely in bright September sunshine, most of Surrey’s stars were on show – a joyous riposte to those fans who understandably complain that England international players are seen too rarely in the county game.

There was Rory Burns, the opening batsman whose place as the top-scorer in county cricket this

summer has earned him a place on England’s winter tour to Sri Lanka.

Then there was Ollie Pope, the middle-order player who won his first England cap in August against the might of India.

And, in a rare four-day appearance, was Jason Roy, whose batting fireworks have made him a regular in England’s limited overs side.

At the end of the season the three men were all to be found in the top five of the national averages – and they all were on show against Essex this month.

Their efforts were given rocket power by Morne Morkel, the freshly-retired South African fast bowler whose five scalps helped him to a haul of 59 wickets in just 10 matches at a stellar average of 14.32.

The key man missing was Sam Curran, the all-rounder who made his Test debut in June and was named England’s player of the series against India.

Curran has been brilliant, but it says much of Surrey’s strength that they did not cry over his absence.

Surrey’s success will live long in the memory of their members and their dominance deserves to be remembered by cricket fans around the country. And Morkel and co will be back next summer.

The Mayor of Lambeth’s Charity record for 2018 raising awareness of mental health and suicide prevention with proceeds going to mental health charity Mosaic Clubhouse Available to download - just search for ‘Hear My Song - Two’s Company’ - or visit www.tinyurl.com/hearmysong2018

Hear My Song - Two’s Company

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