Lambeth Life second issue

25,000 copies distributed in the London Borough of Lambeth wards of Bishop’s, Clapham Town, Ferndale, Larkhall, Oval, Prince’s, Stockwell and Vassall

FREE NoVEMBER - DECEMBER 2017

NO: 2

Hailing this year’s Centre for Turkey Studies awards winners

Council Leader Lib Peck: Lambeth is still a winner

Is Mamma Mia! The Party going to face its Waterloo?

Feature

Interview

Debate

Page 14

Page 06

L

ambeth has thrown its hat in the ring to become London’s first Borough of Culture and win more than £1 million of public funding in a competition launched by Mayor Sadiq Khan.

The award will be announced next February, giving two authorities the title of London Borough of Culture in 2019 and 2020 respectively. More than half of London boroughs have declared an interest in bidding, a month before the deadline on December 1st.

Announcing the competition in the summer, Mayor Khan said, ‘Culture is the DNA of our city. Now, more than ever, there is a pressing need to reach out to our neighbours and celebrate London’s unique and diverse culture.’

Lambeth’s bid seeks to build on its already rich cultural offer of world-famous venues such as the National Theatre and the Royal Festival Hall, and nationally significant institutions like Brixton’s Black Cultural Archives, making them more accessible.

What’s On

The borough contains the UK’s flagship repertory cinema, the BFI Southbank, and arts venues like the Young Vic with a strong social vision. It is also home to some of London’s bestknown artistic figures including Joanna Lumley, Mark Rylance and David Harewood.

Numerous artists and cultural organisations have pledged their support.

Set designer and theatre director Ultz tells Lambeth Life: ‘Lower Marsh has been my home for more than 30 years and I divide my time between here, the thriving artists’ community of MakeSpaceStudios, where I have my studio, and The School of Historical Dress in Lambeth Road. So, most days I never have to leave the borough.’

At the launch of the bid last month, council leader Lib Peck declared she wanted to ensure ‘every single resident, from whatever background, whatever age and whatever their circumstance’ could get involved with the Page 09 borough’s cultural scene.

Local News

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Page 16

Restaurants bring Christmas cheer to the lonely in Waterloo

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Local Attractions We Have a Farm in the Heart of the City!

Lambeth is a whole world in one borough: we even have a farm in the heart of the city! If you’ve had enough of traffic and work and want to forget about big-city life for a while, come and meet the animals at Vauxhall City Farm.

Page 19

Feature Ev Restaurant hosts unforgettable events

As a part of London Fashion Week, Ev Restaurant in Waterloo hosted a show by Turkish brand Deerdef. Further to the success of the show, Ev Restaurant is keen to host events in its big Page 29 space.

Local News

Publisher’s Letter

November - December 2017

Ibrahim Dogus Publisher

I

/ibrahim.dogus.90

/ibrahim_Dogus

’ve been working in Lambeth for 15 years. I have three restaurants in Waterloo, just behind County Hall, and run my thinktank, campaigns and annual awards programmes from office space nearby. More recently I’ve become a Lambeth resident too.

I have launched Lambeth Life to fill what I think is a significant gap - that there is no existing community newspaper for Lambeth which is borough-wide. Lambeth is right at the heart of London, an outstanding local authority in terms of business, cultural life and entertainment and the diversity of its population. Lambeth is changing so fast, as people move here from across the country and around the world and as the physical environment evolves, with landmark new buildings and infrastructure.

Lambeth’s population is predicted to increase by a quarter in the next 20 years. Local communities, new and established, need a vehicle

to talk to each other and to reach out to political ty can offer. We want to try and ensure that all the changes that come to Lambeth are good for and business leaders to discuss the new develresidents and businesses. opments and changes in public services taking In this issue, we interview Lambeth Council place. leader Lib Peck, enabling her to set out her viI enjoy newspapers - for seven years, I published a Kurdish and Turkish community paper sion - but Lambeth Life is not a mouthpiece for the Labour Party. We are open to all political in north London, with stories in both languagparties and points of view in Lambeth, and are es, and I used to publish magazines for young keen to interview people and cover their acpeople too. I want to do more for the communities where I live. I’ve always been an activist tivities especially if they are leading important campaigns. We don’t want to exclude anybody. since childhood, on international and domestic If you want us to cover issues. Any campaign I your event or a cause you feel I should be part of, I have launched are fighting for, please get I’ll probably get heavily Lambeth Life to in touch with us - send us involved in. And I am an a press release and phoinstinctive entrepreneur: fill what I think is a tos. We are working with alongside my restaurants, significant gap that very limited resources; to I brew my own beer Bira, build a publication with the first ever beer espethere is no existing community focus is a joint cially for kebabs, I set community newspaper project, we need people to up the Kebab Awards to be involved with us. We’d highlight the best cuisine for Lambeth which is like to move into runin the sector, the Centre ning events with different for Kurdish Progress, the borough-wide. groups on a monthly basis.

Centre for Turkey Studies Lambeth has key characteristics that will to forge links between the UK and Turkey, and the SME4Labour campaign to promote discus- underlie Lambeth Life too. Half the population of the borough identifies as BME and more sion of issues facing small business within the than a quarter as black Caribbean or black Labour movement.

African. Lambeth is home to the biggest PortuI’ve started Lambeth Life as a social enterguese and Latin American communities in the prise, aimed at residents and local businesses UK and has a higher estimated proportion of across the borough. It’s a monthly publication, LGBT people than any other local authority. So funded 100% out of advertisements, and to many different communities living together is a begin with most copies will be hand-delivered to households. The edition you are reading, the great thing to celebrate. 79% of Lambeth voters backed Remain in the EU referendum, more second issue, has a print run of 25,000 copies. than anywhere else in the UK. Without being c We want to cover the issues that matter for prescriptive on the issue of Brexit, we want to the people of Lambeth - such as police station be the voice of those keen on being open to the cuts, discussed in this issue, or the Waterloo rest of the world.

Roundabout development - from a proactive, Let’s put our voices together, to build a better adaptive point of view of how to improve things, or of what fresh thinking the communi- Lambeth.

“This is a newspaper that celebrates Lambeth - success stories, great ideas and positive people trying to make a difference for the rest of society.”

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Reader’s Letters

November - December 2017

Waterloo Roundabout Project Dear Sir, Reading your article ‘Another controversial project: Waterloo Road and Roundabout’, I was worried by the way some people may be reacting to the plans for improving the local environment. Unless we do something about London’s traffic we will continue to suffocate under an invisible fog of pollution. We have at last stopped trying to turn

London into a racetrack and are moving towards making it into a city that values public transport and pedestrians above car drivers’ convenience.

Sure, the plans for the Waterloo roundabout need looking at carefully and local concerns should be addressed. But please give the plans a chance. I believe increasing the pedestrian space on the roundabout and giving

pedestrians surface-level options rather than funnelling them down underpasses will help make Waterloo a better place to live. Transport for London’s aims are clear: they want to deter unnecessary private traffic and encourage public transport (including black cabs), pedestrians and cyclists. If that is controversial to anyone - as the headline in your article implies - then I encourage those

people to look at what such cities as Copenhagen have done to de-toxify the air and reduce road casualties. TfL’s plans may not be perfect, but I hope with proper consultation we can find ways forward that benefit the majority of us and deter those who see Waterloo as a shortcut for motorists.

Jon Davies Yours,

A Critique of Network Rail’s Waterloo Regeneration Dear Sir, Commuters had been warned for months that the work involved in upgrading Waterloo station would cause havoc and major disruption for them during the month of August and possibly beyond.

Now that the works have been completed, it’s time to consider how well they went and what people think of the changes to the station.

The upgrade was undertaken by Network Rail to increase capacity on the busy South West Trains network, which operates 1,700 services carrying 650,000 passengers a day, making it the busiest commuter operator in Europe. Additionally, Waterloo is the UK’s busiest station with more than 99 million people using the

station each year. Commuters had grown weary of overcrowded train services and Waterloo was struggling with the volume of travellers. The £800 million works aimed to open four more platforms in the station and lengthen a further four, thus allowing for more trains with a higher capacity, in an effort to create a faster, more efficient service.

Nearly half of the station was closed during August, leading to significantly fewer train services and travellers having to alter their plans and routes. Services that did run were overcrowded and other commuter services were left to pick up the slack, causing severe disruption for many.

The station fully reopened

on 29th August, having been closed since 5th August, after a chaotic initial reopening while some delayed work was completed.

What do people make of the newly revamped station?

“I haven’t really noticed any changes in the station, except the fact that Platform 20 is now in use, the station is still as busy as ever and I don’t really know what they spent all summer doing to it,” Alex, a commuter, told me. Perveen Akhtar‫‏‬ tweeted “Does anyone know which routes got the extra capacity added as part of #waterlooupgrade my route still packed like sardines!” while Deanna Lloyd added, “Its not clear what happened during the #waterlooupgrade, but 3 weeks on and its

defo a #waterloodowngrade #SouthWesternRailway fail”.

Indeed, many commuters have noted that delays have been more frequent after the upgrade and their journeys are suffering from further delays. Tahir, a commuter who passes through the station every day said that he “can’t see any signs of an upgrade in the station”. Echoing the feelings of many, he went on to remark, “I just hope that in the long run it leads to more capacity and less crowded trains”. Time will tell to what extent the upgrade has achieved its aims of increasing capacity and efficiency across the network. For now, though, it seems that commuters remain unconvinced.

Sara Siddiqui

Dear Sir I think the proposals for ‘pedestrianising’ this congested area of London are atrocious. I use buses and also walk in the area. Buses can’t get through the roads as it is; the last thing we need is to make it any harder for them. Queues of traffic affect pedestrians, making it harder to cross roads where there is gridlock; traffic fumes are much worse; drivers get bad-tempered so they flout traffic signals, making traffic jams even worse.

As a pedestrian I want to be able to cross at crossing places without fear of vehicles, especially bicycles, ignoring signals. I want long enough to cross without having to run.

As a bus passenger, I want to be able to board the bus from the pavement and not have to dodge bicycles as I embark or disembark. I’d like the stops to be at places that are useful connection points (such as the railway station and the Southbank Centre) and buses to be able to make progress that is significantly faster than walking pace.

The state of London’s road design is utterly dreadful at present; it is full of bottlenecks and clogged-up junctions; there has been no real consideration of pedestrians who want to walk somewhere. Providing places for people to sit doesn’t help anyone get to where they need to go.

Anne Jessup Yours, Dear Sir, I don’t know what the design solution is in this case but I do know that the current status quo cannot remain. I live locally and don’t own a car. I catch a bus from here every day and not a week goes by without me seeing a near miss, usually involving a pedestrian or cyclist, only averted by the diligence of bus drivers (who are, thankfully, so much better at this sort of hazard than they used to be).

Yours, Stephane Duckett

Lambeth Life is a paper for everyone in Lambeth and we’d love to hear your views.

Are there newsworthy issues in your neighbourhood you feel deserve coverage?

Are there events nearby that Lambeth residents should know about?

Or do you simply want to share your view on one of our articles? info@lambethlife.com Tel: 0207 1834272

Lambeth Life | 5

Interview

Boosting Business, Helping Energy’: Lib Peck’s vision for

‘Her approach to fighting the government’s austerity plans is resolutely collaborative. There’s a point, she says ‘about campaigning and making our voice heard as the public sector’ as a whole’

By Joshua Neicho

L

ambeth council leader Lib Peck has an unenviable amount on her plate.

Lambeth has been struck by some of the deepest local government spending cuts, amounting to a loss of 56% of its grant from Westminster between 2010 and 2018. Alongside dismay at the Government’s cuts, there has been strong criticism from across the political spectrum at the policies over which Councillor Peck has presided since becoming leader in 2012. There have been protests at the council’s estate regeneration programme, something Lambeth says is necessary to build more council homes and improve conditions for those living in social housing – estate residents are understandably nervous as it involves demolishing and rebuilding their homes. There’s a campaign over the perceived downgrading of Waterloo and Upper Norwood Libraries and controversial plans to install a gym in Carnegie Library in Herne Hill. There are claims that the council under Peck is failing to consult and is shutting 6 | Lambeth Life

down scrutiny. There is even anger about Lambeth exaggerating its budget constraints using expensive communications campaigns: when other income sources are counted, such critics argue, funding cuts amount to just over 20% over eight years (you can’t compare these income streams to the cuts in central grant, says a former council chief executive).

Priorities and collaboration in tough times Peck responds coolly to these criticisms. When I ask her what her message is to residents who feel let down, she says, ‘Without entirely challenging the premise of the question I would query it’, and goes on to note Lambeth resident surveys, which show relatively high levels of satisfaction with the council. She defends films the council has made, such as one about business rates, as an important tool to get its message across and rally supporters. She dispels the gloom around library policy.

Waterloo Library has moved to The Oasis Centre, ‘which means it’s welcoming, it’s much brighter’ and can offer ‘much more engagement with lots of other groups and services’. Upper Norwood Library is now run by a commu-

nity trust. ‘The group there have set themselves up in an incredibly entrepreneurial way which means that the building is so much more connected with the community,’ Peck says.

Her most noteworthy defence is that policy has been driven by a commitment to protect the most vulnerable, and that the council has increased spending on children’s services – a big chunk of its budget – so it has maintained its ability to do preventative work, such as investment in early years’ education and support. One of the things she is proudest of is making sure there have been no cuts to Lambeth’s programme of combating violence against women and girls. She has just come back from a mentoring event at the London Eye for the UN’s International Day of the Girl, and she supports TfL’s decision not to renew Uber’s licence due to, among other issues, questions over women’s safety (although she adds that as a mum of two teenage girls, once these concerns are resolved she’ll be happy for them to take an Uber home, rather than having to pick them up from parties).

Her approach to fighting the government’s austerity plans is

resolutely collaborative. There’s a point, she says ‘about campaigning and making our voice heard as the public sector’ as a whole, rather than being viewed only as disparate elements – local government, the police, and so on. Through local authority association London Councils, Lambeth has joined other boroughs to fight proposals such as cuts to school budgets. Peck believes campaigns prove their worth in terms of the number of people engaged as well as success at changing policies. ‘Clearly the most effective example of a campaign is that we don’t have those cuts. But equally I’m not naive, I realise that’s hard at the moment.

We have a government that isn’t listening.’ The council h as scored partial victories over the school funding formula and business rates relief, and is now campaigning on Universal Credit.

Better ways of doing housing Part of a council leader’s role is handling disaster response, something Peck has faced on a number of occasions. Shortly after she took over, a helicopter collided with a crane attached to St George’s Tower, killing two people. The morning after the Grenfell Tower fire, the council offered to

send social workers to Kensington & Chelsea, and Lambeth co-ordinated the emergency centre in the weeks afterwards. The disaster resonated with Lambeth tenants so that ‘there was a real job for us to do in terms of providing information and practical measures’, Peck says. The council has spent up to £3 million on urgent fire safety work on Lambeth’s 122 blocks over six storeys to make sure they are as safe as can possibly be.

On housing policy, Peck is proud of the council’s success at exceeding its own 40% affordable target (reaching 43% last year) by ‘being very tough and consistent with developers’. She adds that Lambeth’s definition of affordable goes further than the 80% of market rate used elsewhere – but that the housing in this category still isn’t affordable to many, so that there is more to be done beyond current local authority powers. Lambeth has recently brought in publication of viability tests, requiring developers to explain the reason they’ve failed to achieve the affordable housing target in a publicly-available document. There remain concerns that developers can skew viability assessments by downplaying the

November - December 2017

Renters and Lots of ‘Good the future of Lambeth profitability of their schemes.

Meanwhile, Peck highlights progress made on her party’s 2014 manifesto pledge to build 1,000 new council homes. She was pleased to hear Theresa May emphasise social housing in her conference speech (‘inspired is much too strong a word,’ she notes), but is infuriated by the tiny amount of money available for it.

She cites the bearing the council has had over the Berkeley Group’s development of council housing at Vauxhall City Farm, which has also led to investment in better community facilities at the farm, as an example of a successful partnership with the private sector.

With 30% of Lambeth residents living in private rented accommodation, Peck acknowledges that a housing strategy that looks at all forms of tenure and in particular addresses the security of private tenants is needed. More regulation around the private rented sector, ways to incentivise good private landlords and the possibility of the council itself providing private rented accommodation are all ideas being explored.

Lambeth’s entrepreneurial streak Lambeth has a strong track record of supporting small businesses. Its commitment is signalled by its campaign against business rates, and the fact it has more Business Improvement Districts than any other London borough aside from Westminster, with scope for designating more if there is demand. The borough was acclaimed as joint winner of the Best Programme of Support for Small Businesses at this year’s Small Business Friendly Borough Awards. To deliver enough affordable office and retail space for start-ups, Peck says the council is focused on ensuring a good proportion of Section 106 obligations on developers goes into creating physical premises. Temporary community and events hub POP Brixton is a pioneering project of its kind with 75% local businesses, operating on the principle of more established firms subsidising newer start-ups.

Similarly, on the environment, Peck refers to the number of Lambeth ‘firsts’ where the council

has been ahead of the pack – eg introducing the Street Champions residential neighbourhood improvement scheme and leading on the south London-wide Low Emissions Logistics project. She is a big fan of the renewable energy cooperative Repowering London, holding a symbolic single share in it to back its notion of getting the community to support ‘good energy’. Lambeth is committed

parking slots, and a long waiting list. Lambeth was quick off the mark to promote car clubs, but slower to adopt electric car charging points – although Lambeth’s charging points will be more efficient than other boroughs’, Peck says, because they utilise lampposts as connecting points rather than standalone charging stations.

Lambeth topped the percentage of Remain voters. She finds it ‘absolutely appalling’ that the

consider it a success if in twenty years Lambeth manages to retain all its qualities and ensure oppor-

Council leader Lib Peck meets Lambeth Life at Olive Morris House

‘Policy has been driven by a commitment to protect the most vulnerable, and the council has increased spending on children’s services - a big chunk of its budget - so it has maintained its ability to do preventative work’

Cllr Peck at Repowering London event at POP Brixton

to sustainability in its council buildings. The Town Hall is being made energy-efficient and a new sustainable civic centre constructed, in a move that also creates affordable housing and consolidates council properties from 14 buildings to 2 at a saving of £4.2 million a year (campaigners say the scheme’s projected cost has more than doubled, however). The transformation of public spaces such as Clapham Old Town and the planned replacement of the Vauxhall Gyratory also speak to Peck’s greener agenda.

Peck is proud that Lambeth identifies itself as one of the most cycling-friendly boroughs, addressing two of the obstacles that keep people away from bikes by offering cycle confidence training and plenty of cycle storage spaces.

There are 215 Bikehangars across the borough with 1,290 secure

Optimism can carry us through Peck diplomatically distances herself from the Garden Bridge scheme, saying that as the planning authority, Lambeth was ‘very much wrapped up in it, but we certainly weren’t leading it’. On wider gig-economy issues, ‘we’ve now got quite a high employment rate. We also know there are far too many people who are doing three jobs a day or night. Our role as a place-shaper means we’ve got a responsibility to try and influence employers to say paying the right wages is important.’ Following the start of the Night Tube, Peck wants to foster the night-time economy, but balancing it with the rights of local residents is ‘one I take seriously’.

On the ‘very bleak’ EU referendum result night, Peck says that she was at least able to cheer when

Cllr Peck with Lambeth Life publisher Ibrahim Dogus

government still hasn’t guaranteed EU nationals’ rights. As Brexit is negotiated, she feels it her duty to speak out about the importance of attracting investment into Lambeth and London. On the gulf between her and the strongly pro-Brexit Kate Hoey, she remarks, ‘I completely disagree with people like the MP from Vauxhall on this issue – I can’t really say any more than that.’

She thinks Lambeth’s strengths are its character, diversity and dynamism. She hopes there’s enough inherent interest and resilience in the borough that, in the event of the UK leaving the EU, it keeps attracting business, and she would

tunities are shared more equally.

Despite being under huge pressures, Lambeth has much it can take pride in: radically improved schools (in the top 10% of English Local Education Authorities) and its status arguably as both the most entrepreneurial local authority outside Tech City (according to Start Up Loans Company figures) and the most thoroughly multicultural London borough.

In the face of vocal criticism, Lib Peck sticks by her vision and is determined to celebrate Lambeth; more of that can-do spirit will be needed to meet all the challenges ahead.

Lambeth Life | 7

Interview

What Does the Future Hold for Lambeth’s At-Risk Police Stations?

By Bilgehan Akturan

W

e asked your questions to Councillor Mohammed Seedat, Lambeth’s Cabinet Member for Healthier and Stronger Communities, who has launched a public petition as part of a campaign to protect police stations in the borough...

What’s the petition to ‘Save Our Stations’?

Well, with police stations, since 2010, the government has diminished the London Metropolitan Police’s budget by £600 million.

They haven’t explicitly cut the budget, but they’ve also not increased it so, taking into account inflation and related economic concerns, it has amounted to a £600 million cut. The way the police have dealt with that, under the mayoralties of both Boris Johnson and Sadiq Khan, is maintain frontline police officers at the expense of back-office staff. The result is that bobbies on the beat are much more occupied with paperwork and spend more time in police stations rather than getting out on the street, making people feel safer. That’s clearly not sustainable in the long term. To make matters worse, the government has then required the Met to find another £400 million in savings from its budget by 2019. So, in all, that’s approximately £1 billion cut from the Met’s budget since 2010.

That’s not a trivial figure and the Met are running out of options for dealing with it. The way they’ve found is, having already gutted their back office, they’re now selling off their buildings. This brings in more money for them. So, the proposal in Lambeth and every London borough is to have just one public facing police counter, have only one place that people can go to and close every other police station in the borough.

How will that affect people in Lambeth, given that they are proposing closing eight stations here?

For most people, thankfully, it won’t affect them, because most people don’t need to go to the police station, but, when you do need it that one time in your life, the only place to go will be Brix8 | Lambeth Life

ton. Which is fine if you live near a Tube station, but when you go further down, zone 2, zone 3, past Streatham, into more suburban areas, it’s far. It’s not easy travelling to Brixton at any time of day, especially rush hour, which can be any time from say 2.30pm until about 7pm, realistically. Because of the geography of Lambeth, it very easily can be a one-hour trip on the bus from southern Streatham to Brixton.

Does it also increase the workload of police officers at Brixton police station?

Yeah, so the other fear is that the sale of buildings isn’t enough to pay for these cuts, so more has to be done. The mayor has been warning that this isn’t it, this isn’t the end of cuts. So, the police may have to cut 13,000 more officers from the streets at a time when violent crime is increasing, when the threat of terrorism has clearly increased. One of the biggest concerns I have is that there was a lot of focus and energy put on neighbourhood policing under Ken Livingstone. By having fewer police officers and police buildings, you can’t be as focused on the community as you would want to be. In Brixton, and Lambeth in general, there’s a long history of tensions between the community and the police.

How will Brixton feel now?

I definitely believe that people will feel that this is a repeal of the state, as they’re seeing a reduction of services in front of their eyes, and it follows that people will feel less protected. It is ultimately something that Sadiq Khan has to sign off on, but he has no choice in the matter, he can’t rustle up £400 million from nowhere – it’s something the government has to fund. The one duty the government has is to look after its people and in this particular case it’s failing to do that.

How many of the police stations would you want kept open?

All of them, because the local police service have already been through huge deductions in the

past, and it’s not sustainable to keep cutting services, unless there’s a good offering in its place, which I don’t believe there is. We have a responsibility to residents. We have grave concerns about police engagement with the community, as in the past it hasn’t been very good: they have these contact sessions, for example, where police officers stand in an advertised place for people to meet with them. The reality is no one attends; if they do it’s the same people going with the same few issues and it gives a very lopsided view about the issues affecting people to the police. In

sold off to make money. That has huge repercussions for logistics.

For example, where will police cars be stationed? Where will neighbourhood police officers be based and how can they be considered neighbourhood police officers if they’re nowhere in the neighbourhood, don’t really know the area and are on a rota shift pattern? It doesn’t really work.

You end up with a police service that’s not really engaged with the community or meeting its needs – that’s my fear. In the year 2016–17 in Lambeth, there were 600 violent incidents involving knife crime.

The previous year, 2015–16, there

cisions are made and implemented.

So if the public gets behind this campaign, we still have time to make MOPAC change its mind.

What has the response been like so far?

Very good. We have nearly a thousand signatures, we’ve done a huge campaign here and nearly every household in the borough has been leafleted about the closures, so I think everyone is now aware about the scale of cuts to policing.

And residents are similarly outraged?

Definitely, as soon as they understand what’s happening, they’re incredulous that someone

Lambeth, and especially Brixton, due to the history here, there’s been a huge amount of work done between the police and the community. It’s taken a lot of time to build up trust. The police commander is very good at understanding that Lambeth is a unique place in that respect. If you talk to the borough commander he’ll tell you that Lambeth is one of the most challenging policing areas in western Europe: unfortunately, it has a very high crime rate and a whole host of other ills.

If you aren’t able to keep all the stations open, what would be a good compromise?

There is no compromise to be made here. If you close the police stations to the public, they’ll be

were 400, which is still high, but the space of a year has seen a dramatic increase. This year it doesn’t look like it’s slowing down either.

In that context, if you’re closing police stations and reducing police officer numbers, it’s folly.

How is the process with regard to closures and budget cuts proceeding?

The process is that MOPAC – the Mayor’s Office of Policing and Crime, which is responsible for commissioning the police – ultimately makes the decision of which stations are going to be closed. So, the Save Our Stations petition is directed not only at the government but also at MOPAC as well. It is doing a consultation now, which closed on October 8th.

Thereafter it’s a bit hazy about what will happen. There’s no definitive timeline about when de-

would propose such a thing. If you talk to MOPAC, it says not many people go to police stations, so it’s not worth leaving them open, most people prefer to telephone, which is true, but a lot of the data used isn’t representative and MOPAC has been very restrictive in the statistics it’s employed. I think that also misses the point a bit. Police stations aren’t there to be used loads, they’re there as a base for officers, and represent safety in the community. By taking that away, it will inevitably make us feel less safe.

Have you had any reaction from the police about your petition?

Yes, the police can’t make an official statement, as they’re apolitical, but I can tell you that the sentiment is very much the same as mine.

November - December 2017

Lambeth reaches out for the capital’s latest cultural crown

L

ambeth launched its bid to become one of London’s first two Boroughs of Culture at Downstairs at the Department Store in Brixton on October 17th.

The prize is £1.1 million of funding each for two boroughs to stage events programmes during a Year of Culture in 2019 or 2020. A further £600,000 is being made available to up to six boroughs who ‘put forward exemplary projects’.

More than 50 organisations including King’s College London, Brixton Pound and Age UK Lambeth are backing Lambeth’s bid so far, which is based around the strength of its current cultural scene and a drive to make it more accessible.

Aside from its most familiar arts institutions such as the Southbank Centre, Lambeth contains a hub of LGBT culture in Vauxhall, and places of pivotal importance in black cultural and music history in and around Brixton.

Lambeth has Morley College and

City & Guilds, important centres of technical arts education; artists’ communities in Kennington and West Norwood; studio spaces for emerging artists such as Clapham’s Studio Voltaire and galleries including Damien Hirst’s.

It has dynamic restaurant and market scenes fuelled by its diverse resident cultures. It hosts an eclectic mix of museums and collections, from the Type Archive to the Chocolate Museum.

At the launch, Ovalhouse Theatre Executive producer Stella Kanu said: ‘We back the bid in the hope that we can imagine beautiful reflective mirrors in the hidden and open spaces across Lambeth... and more importantly in the minds of those who are often unrepresented.’ Marie McCarthy, artistic director of Clapham’s new art centre and creative space the Omnibus Theatre said: “We’re backing the the bid because it’s a great opportunity to shine a light on our brilliant borough as well as hoping it will bring an ambitious and accessible programme of

artistic initiatives for all.”

Pastor and community campaigner Lorraine Jones says, ‘Why I really, really want Lambeth to get this bid is to support our young people. We want them to maintain that rich history and culture of Lambeth’. Set designer Ultz suggests building a Southbank-style dance centre and theatre around the Black Cultural Archives, providing a home to one of London’s black theatre companies. Campaigner Ben Walters would like a Year of Culture to “animate Lambeth’s rich, radical legacies of BAME, LGBTQ and women’s activism”.

Other boroughs bidding for the title include Southwark, Croydon, Bexley, Greenwich, Camden, Brent, Tower Hamlets and Newham.

Boroughs must submit their bids by December 1st. In the meantime, the council is looking for more people to pledge their support for Lambeth by going to www.OurLambeth.london.

Restaurants bring Christmas cheer to the lonely in Waterloo Co-director of restaurants Troia, Cucina and Westminster Kitchen Raife Aytek is shocked at the extent of rough sleeping she sees in Waterloo.

“When you go to the station it’s so worrying - in summertime and wintertime, they are sleeping in this area” she says.

In response, the three restaurants Raife Aytek in the group do “as much as we can do” to help the street homeless in the neighbourhood, regularly offering them tea or coffee and a sandwich or a meal.

In the run up to Christmas including on Christmas Day itself they are laying on a special service. At quieter times of the day, they will be offering free hot meals of two or three courses to both homeless people and elderly people

who are alone at Christmas. In the latter category, all are welcome - people who don’t have family, or if their family are far away, or if they have family but don’t keep in touch with them. Any older person who is in this situation who comes in with a copy of Lambeth Life will be treated to a nice meal in a warm, friendly setting.

Migrant communities show the way

Aytek’s philosophy comes from her upbringing in Amed (Diyarbakır), in the Kurdish region of Turkey, where people always support each other, getting hungry neighbours bread or anything else they need. “This is not just about food, it’s about daily life. Because in Amed people are so poor. When my parents get old, I have to look after them. This is a good attitude: you have to look after your family. Parents did a lot for us, we need to give back to them. There’s no excuse - if you don’t look after your family, the society and community will not accept you,” she says.

She sees similar attitudes in the Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities. But, she adds, local communities need to support each other no matter the ethnic background of their population. She’d like to see a Lambeth community centre follow the restaurants’ example and offer food and support on the same basis. It’s an efficient way of avoiding food waste too, she points out. *Troia, Cucina and Westminster Kitchen are offering free meals to street homeless and to elderly people who are alone at Christmas throughout December Lambeth Life | 9

Advertorial

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M

s Laura Alvarez moved from Mexico to London in the 1990s and quickly realised that there was a crucial gap in the British coffee scene: there were no coffee shops that sold coffee from the rural parts of Mexico and Guatemala, home of the Maya communities.

Thanks to her experience in the financial sector and her outstanding entrepreneurial skills, she established Mexica Products in order to give British coffee lovers an opportunity to enjoy high quality products from her homeland while ensuring that the Mexican growers benefit from fair wages and good employment practices.

Ms Alvarez started off by buying coffee beans from smaller and independent growers and cooperatives. Her business initiative quickly provided a sustainable income source for the small farmers and indigenous communities in one of the world’s most socially divided regions. In

so doing, she also observed that farmers and cooperatives had historically often found themselves at the mercy of large corporations that control much of the international coffee trade. To tackle this problem, Ms Alvarez decided to work solely with environmentally conscious companies and cooperatives that only purchase coffee from small-scale family-run businesses.

It was by selecting farms for their geographic location, taking in the altitude, rainfall and climate of the regions with rich, volcanic soils that yield the mostprized Mexica coffee, that Ms Alvarez aimed to make a difference – one bean at a time. Mexica coffee is grown at between 1,200 and 1,700 metres above sea level in temperatures between 20ºC and 25ºC. ‘That’s how you get the wonderful smooth flavour and aroma,’ she notes.

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Buying coffee from Ms Alvarez’s coffee shop means that you are getting not just a great cup of coffee, fresh and free from chemicals, but also helping the community of Mexican coffee growers to make sustainable and fair livings for themselves and their families, on their own terms. It is an inspirational journey from bean to cup.

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Opinion

November - December 2017

Dr. Kowsar answers your local queries

Dr. Hoque Kowsar

Write to local hospital doctor Hoque Kowsar with your questions about life in Lambeth and to get any gripes about community issues off your chest info@lambethlife.com

Hello Lambeth, I am Dr Hoque and my monthly surgery is open to discuss issues that affect your life in Lambeth.

Just like the diverse people who live in this multicultural community, my own background is one of contradictions. I was born into the hospitality industry but I trained as a surgeon at University College London. I have businesses and social interests across Lambeth. I am the owner of Kennington Tandoori, which has been in our family for thirty-five years. Through my experiences of medicine and hospitality, I have learned to appreciate and observe people from all walks of life.

I look forward to answering your letters and emails every month. I will be taking advice from a panel of professionals, who are leaders of their respective industries, from a fashion director to senior judges, MPs to heads of religious organisations, and together we will tackle issues arising from life in Lambeth.

Dear Dr Hoque, My partner often visits her 103-year-old friend in an old people’s home where she lives.

On the occasions I join her I often notice there are many old people who never seem to have visitors, which greatly saddens me. What is the best way to befriend and visit old people who may be lonely in the Lambeth area. Can you recommend any local organisations I could contact?

Dear Caring Citizen, I am so pleased to read of your partner’s kind deeds towards the very lucky 103-year-old. It is clear from your letter that you’re very keen to help. One possible approach is to channel that enthusiasm into direct action: visit the nursing home when your partner does and let the staff know you’re keen to visit and support the elderly.

You could also consider visiting St Anselm’s Church to see whether there are any events or opportunities planned to help those of advanced age in the community.

Lambeth Council and Age UK have programmes too. Providing you meet their requirements, I am sure they will be delighted with your help.

Dear Dr Hoque, I am a regular user of Kennington Park and as such often witness dog owners not picking up the little presents their dogs leave behind. Is it true that doggie doodoo can be very harmful to children if they come in contact with it and

how can we get people to be more responsible and pick up yesterday’s digested dinner?

Dear Friend, I share your annoyance at dog owners who do not give a faecal matter about the deposit their chums make.

Just to put things in perspective, on average, dogs defecate twice a day, which adds up to about fourteen piles of poop in just one week - all from one dog. That excrement has around the same amount of bacteria as fourteen wheelbarrow-loads of combined human poop, cow poop and horse poop.

Dog faeces can contain parvovirus, whipworms, hookworms, roundworms, threadworms, campylobacter, giardia and coccidia.

If left unattended, these parasites, bacteria and viruses can contaminate water and soil, and can infect both pets and humans, especially vulnerable young children playing close to contaminated areas.

We all need to act responsibly and clean up after our pets for our health and that of our neighbours, as well as to protect natural wildlife and our local ecosystem.

Dear Dr Hoque, I am a Kennington resident.

Since the building works began at the new American Quarter on Nine Elms I and a number of my neighbours have experienced a significant increase in mouse and rat activity. I am told the building and groundworks destroyed a lot of rodent homes, so they have moved into the area. While I know

the area has become far more desirable, these are new residents we could do without.

What is the best way of preventing our little friends gaining entrance in the first place? When they do get in, what are the best ways of getting rid of them?

Dear Resident, You will be surprised by the number of times this topic has surfaced. Living in London we are never too far from our furry neighbours.

First and foremost, councils should ensure they have an ongoing plan to keep on top of this problem. Of course, it doesn’t help when there have been large reductions made to council services. We all need to raise this matter collectively with our local councillors.

For acute problems in Lambeth Council-owned properties or those of housing associations, there should be an in-house service available. For privately owned homes a professional pest company is recommended, as it is rarely possible to eradicate this problem without professional assistance.

In the meantime, we all have a responsibility to keep our neighbourhood clean and tidy. Food debris should not be left in the streets or in open bins, and we should endeavour to ensure our homes and places of work are kept clean and take full responsibility in disposing refuse in the correct manner.

Lambeth Life | 11

Feature

The Beating Heart of

Pegasus Opera performs epic Koanga

Black History Month was brought into being 30 years ago by a former Mayor of Lambeth.

Since then it’s become part of the nation’s calendar each October, bringing black heritage alive for millions of children and adults. Joshua Neicho reviews this year’s events in Lambeth

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ast month marked the thirtieth anniversary of Black History Month in the UK, an event with which the borough of Lambeth has been intimately connected from the start. Radical black feminist Linda Bellos, Lambeth council leader in 1987, was a co-founder, along with colleagues from the recently abolished Greater London Council, such as Ghanaian activist Akyaaba Addai-Sebo.

In response to the identity crisis that some black schoolchildren were experiencing at the time, and following calls for an event in Britain comparable to the United States’s Black History Month, Addai-Sebo conceived the idea of a celebration of the contribution Africans and people of African descent had made to world civilisation. He wanted October to be the designated month, he recalls, 12 | Lambeth Life

because it was early in the school year at a point when pupils were still filled with positive energy, and also because it is the time associated with harvest and reconciliation in Africa. However, as Bellos tells the story, October was chosen because she agreed to get Zimbabwean First Lady Sarah Mugabe as guest of honour for an event at the Commonwealth Institute, and it was the earliest possible date to suit both guest and venue.

Since then, Black History Month has been trying to broaden young people’s awareness of black innovators, such as Daniel Hale Williams, the first doctor to perform open heart surgery, and many others. It has spread across the UK to areas where black schoolchildren are in a tiny minority, but is celebrated with a particular sense of purpose in Lambeth, widely recognised as the cultural centre of

Black Britain. Windrush Square in Brixton was officially inaugurated at the start of Black History Month in 2000. Lambeth’s 2004 Black History Month began with an unveiling of a blue plaque on the final home of acclaimed West Indian historian, journalist and activist C. L. R. James on Railton Road.

Recent years have seen film premieres, fashion shows, a restaging of a 1960s Lambeth Town Hall Paul Robeson concert, events marking Lambeth’s LGBT heritage and an extensive children’s programme. This thirtieth-anniversary Black History Month in Lambeth included a Q&A session with Grace Jones at the Southbank ahead of the release of Sophie Fiennes’s documentary, a celebration of black opera, and no-holds barred talks on FGM, black pupils’ achievement and the future of black history itself.

Black Sound at the Black Cultural Archives

November - December 2017

Black History Month I -----

f you haven’t before, Black History Month presents the perfect opportunity to pop into the Black Cultural Archives (BCA) in Brixton and check out the large collection of artefacts documenting the histories of the British African and Caribbean diaspora.

Their ongoing show Black Sound – ‘a raw and energetic exhibition that draws on BCA’s archive collection of ephemera, photographs, vinyl, cassettes, and music tracks’ – will make you want to dance as it takes you through a century of black British music.

The exhibition is co-curated by social enterprise and creative agency The Champion Agency and former NME and Mojo journalist Lloyd Bradley. It offers a timeline, from calypso stars to recent Mercury Prize winners, with an audio smart fob that activates recordings from over the decades, and criss-crossing panels that dive deeper into themes such as 50 Carnaby Street, which from the 1930s to the 1960s was a hub of black artistic and intellectual life, and the coming together of the sound systems from the West Indies. Black musicians have been continually inventive in the UK, says Scott Leonard of The Champion Agency, ‘constantly working out different ways of doing things to navigate the challenge of the industry’: thus early grime singers, who didn’t have access to a studio, got their beats – and a unique sound - by rejigging their PlayStations. Leonard thinks we’re now on the cusp of a new era when the music industry will no longer be run by middle-class white men, with SBTV’s Jamal Edwards and Boiler Room’s Thristian Richards showing the way. Eminent black British musicians including Eddy Grant, Soul II Soul founding member Jazzie B, Michael Riley, sometime lead singer of Steel Pulse, and classical composer Shirley Thompson have attended the exhibition. Black Sound at the Black Cultural Archives is now open throughout November.

----he director of Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami, the new documentary about the Jamaican-born singer and actor, struggled to get support from

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funders and commissioners – so she went and shot it anyway.

Sophie Fiennes’s film, shot cinéma verité-fashion, focuses on the star as she is today rather than on archive footage of her iconoclastic 1980s heyday: Fiennes spent five years with her. ‘Grace had fiercely controlled her public image, but made the bold decision to un-mask. She never sought to control my shooting process, and I didn’t second-guess the narrative,’ Fiennes says.

Jones was in London for a Q&A at the BFI on the South Bank on Wednesday 25 October, which was broadcast to cinemas nationwide. Fiennes’s documentary began showing at the Ritzy and the Clapham Picturehouse on Friday

many of her fans, mostly in their thirties, had left to catch the last train. It was, writes Parkes, ‘one of the very, very rare moments when I found a show at the Academy disappointing’.

Others would say this entirely misses the point. According to music journalist Paul Morley, who ghost-wrote her autobiography, she is ‘vehemently anti-cliche, anti-nostalgia, anti-sentimentality and consistently “other”. This world would prefer to continue to fix Grace in the celebrity category she was actively resisting and rejecting 40 years ago. So instead they place her in the patronising “crazy woman” box to deal with the threat and unpredictability of her presence.’

issues that contribute directly to the wellbeing of the black diaspora,’ says Palop Union co-founder Veibena Armada. He is organising another event soon in Lambeth showcasing Afro-Portuguese food, music and dance, and arts and craft.

Stockwell-raised singer-songwriter and producer Ashley Abigo

Busayo Twins of the National Union of Students

was one of the afternoon’s performers, playing a mixture of his own songs and covers on guitar with creative use of a loop pedal. He taught himself guitar and from the age of six-

27 October.

Indomitable, peacockish, raucously hedonistic and a subverter of gender conventions, Jones is a consummate rebel. She is both black role model and a reluctant figurehead for black empowerment; her view on race is ‘we’re all human beings and that’s it, so I don’t even go there.’ She polarises opinion, with some people feeling she is a perverse egotist whose attention-seeking has become very boring over the years.

Simon Parkes, founder of the Brixton Academy, recalls the first of Jones’s two 1990 shows at the venue in his memoirs. She repeatedly delayed her arrival – in the final instance, because her dressing room had been stocked with the wrong type of Cristal champagne - so that by the time she appeared,

O -----

utside Tate South Lambeth Library on Saturday 21st October, passers-by could chill to music while savouring hot, hot flavours at the Spice of Africa market.

One food stall had been set up

by Palop Union UK, a newly established Afro-Portuguese organisation representing Angolan, Mozambican, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde and São Tomé communities in the UK. The stall offered the tasty piri-piri chicken traditional to Mozambique, paracuca (caramelised peanuts), and a special hot sauce from Angola called gindungo sauce.

‘Black History Month brings everyone together to celebrate and it welcomes debates about the

Audience at the Spice of Africa event, Stockwell

teen worked as a sound engineer at Stormont Studios in Battersea. He released his first single, Tingaling, featuring Nigerian singer Mr2Kay in 2014 and is now working on his first album; he’s up for gigging anywhere, including around people’s dinner tables.

-----here’s a concern that in too many schools, black history education is limited to slavery,

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civil rights and a parade of a few individuals, and that in the age of Black Lives Matter, white nationalism and ‘unconscious bias’, a fresh approach is needed. As part of a series of programmed discussions, Chuka Umunna met with Busayo Twins, a member of the National Union of Students’ executive committee, in Streatham Library to talk about the significance of Black History Month for young people today.

Umunna described the history of Lambeth, the iconic position of Brixton in British black history, the importance that black politicians don’t just have a race-specific role within the Labour Party and the need for engagement with schools so that they can support black leaders effectively.

Twins thinks reflection is needed over whether some of the traditional discussion around Black History Month is exaggerated or obsolete, so that the debate can look more clearly to the future. For example, the mixed-race population is the UK’s fastest-growing ethnic group: what will it mean for black history if they take on mixed-race identity? What about the black history narrative that non-black youth is receiving, since they are in the strongest position to challenge prejudice and hatred?

Twins’s contemporaries have further ideas. Young poet Oluwaseun Matiluko thinks Black History Month is about a recognition of British history: ‘We have had a presence in the British Isles before black people ever set foot in the Americas and yet more people recognise black people as being American than the existence of black Brits. To celebrate Black History Month is to recognise all that black people have done for this country, often for little in return.’ NUS Further Education students’ representative Myriam Kane wishes children could be taught there were Black Panthers in Britain, too (such as photographer Neil Kenlock), though having grown up in France and Italy, she is grateful that there’s a Black History Month at all in the UK, as opposed to issues like slavery seldom being mentioned.

Additional reporting: Joana Ramiro Lambeth Life | 13

Feature

A crowd of many cultures hails the CEFTUS awards winners “As a member of the Sikh community it was an honour to be invited to the CEFTUS awards.

The ambience of the raffle was thrilling as everybody wanted the top two prizes. The guest list was worthy of a celebrity function” (Harry Virdee, City Sikhs)

By Joshua Neicho

O

n Sunday 8th October, the Centre for Turkey Studies (CEFTUS) hosted its sixth anniversary gala at the Westminster Park Plaza Hotel in Waterloo, to mark achievements over the past year towards its objective of building bridges between Turkey and the UK. At the event, CEFTUS’s annual Turkish, Kurdish and Turkish Cypriot Community Achievement Awards were announced in recognition of outstanding work in a host of categories, including business, law, politics and education.

While the capital’s Turkish and Kurdish community is primarily concentrated in north London, Lambeth is its spiritual home south of the river. Turkish Cypriots set14 | Lambeth Life

tled there in the 1970s and the first Kurdish community association in London was founded in Stannary Street, near the Oval.

This year’s awards brought together more than 700 guests from diverse communities to celebrate the success of Turks, Kurds and Cypriots in the UK as three peoples united in their common Turkish identity.

Following a buzzing drinks reception, guests feasted on a threecourse Turkish meal of mezze, kebabs and miniature desserts and were entertained by performances from the Turkish rock band Legacy II Galaxy and singer-songwriter Olcay Bayir, from the Kurdish region of southern Turkey. A raffle at the end of the evening raised £1,800 for good causes.

The CEFTUS story CEFTUS is an independent, non-partisan thinktank, set up in

2011 with the support of Nick Clegg while he was Deputy Prime Minister. It hosts experts, politicians and other opinion-formers at speaker events, round-table discussions, debates and dinners.

It promotes open dialogue across the political spectrum on issues around Turkey and its relationship with the UK. In his speech welcoming guests to the gala, CEFTUS’s founder Ibrahim Dogus described the unique role played by the thinktank in bringing together senior figures from all political parties in Turkey.

‘Turkey should be a peaceful, stable, democratic and secular country with free and fair elections, the rule of law, protection of minorities and freedom of expression,” he said. ‘It breaks our hearts when we see the political opposition and journalists locked up in

Councillor Christine Hamilton, Osman Balikcioglu prisons, peaceful demonstrations broken up by force, human rights violated, and military violence used against citizens of Turkey.’

He continued, ‘Right now, Turkey falls short of where we would want it to be. And that’s why we’re here. Because we know that through dialogue and campaigning and scrutiny and pressure, things can and will improve.”

Star-studded guestlist The event was very well attended by politicians across political parties, including MPs Sir David Amess – who thanked CEFTUS for all its activity to promote a healthier debate around Turkey – Marsha de Cordova, Afzal Khan, John Spellar, Barry McElduff, Kate Osamor and Graham Stringer; Lord Paul, Lord Dholakia,

November - December 2017

Lord Bilimoria, Lord Glasman, Lord Bird, Lord Dykes, Lord Suri and Lord McInnes; and Claude Moraes MEP. Several mayors were in attendance - Marcia Cameron of Lambeth, Philip Glanville of Hackney, Christine Hamilton of Enfield, Linda Huggett of Redbridge and Bhagwanji Chohan of Brent. Ambassadors or their representatives from countries including Senegal, Sudan, Laos, Venezuela, Angola, Republic of Congo, Honduras and Bahrain were present, and the Counsellor for Strategic and Security Affairs from the French Embassy. Also among guests were prominent business people, including from gala sponsors Cobra Beer, JustEat and Alton & Co., lawyers, trade unionists, journalists and policy experts.

Political figures from Turkey who attended included Republican People’s Party (CHP) MP Gaye Usluer and Altan Tan of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP). Veteran journalist, Middle East expert and former advisor to the Turkish government Cengiz Candar was awarded the CEFTUS Appreciation Award and introduced as a ‘seeker of truth’ for his reporting from war zones such as Bosnia. Candar said he’d watched CEFTUS grow from ‘scratch’ into a ‘wonderful success story’, galvanising UK political leaders and intellectuals. Other special guests included former Justice and Development Party (AKP) MP and law professor Osman Can, and former US Ambassador to Turkey James F Jeffrey.

Honouring migrant communities In his speech, Dogus emphasised the huge importance of migrants to the UK’s economy and society: ‘With the rise of racist incidents since the EU referendum, we need to celebrate the role of migrant communities now more

Ben Carter, Itir Sokmen, Graham Corfield

Altan Kemal, Ibrahim Dogus than ever. That we are home to so many people across the globe gives the UK a web of connections and influence across the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and the Indian subcontinent. Migrants add tens of billions of pounds to the UK economy every year, they make us stronger and enrich our lives.’

Presenters and guests at the awards echoed these sentiments.

‘Throughout my time in Parliament, I have forged strong links with the local Turkish communities,’ Sir David Amess noted. ‘The vibrancy and cultural diversity that they bring to the area benefit everyone whether it be through local restaurants, shops or community events. Most notably, the continued support that local charitable projects have received from Turkish communities has been remarkable.’

Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords Lord Dholakia said, ‘I am pleased

that entrepreneurs were recognised. This is the best way to identify role models who can be inspirations.’ He added, ‘The event also gave us an opportunity to network with community organisations and people who have made a vast contribution to political and social life in this country. We salute them for their achievements’.

Crossbench peer Lord Bilimoria, chairman and founder of Cobra Beer said, ‘It’s wonderful that we have a celebration of the contribution 450,000 people from the Turkish, Cypriot and Kurdish communities make to the UK. As a fellow entrepreneur, I was proud to present the Businessman of the Year award. Because it’s entrepreneurship that is going to see this country, this industry, battle through the challenges that we have.’

Labour London Assembly Member for Lambeth and Southwark Florence Eshalomi remarked:

‘Like many other inner London boroughs, Lambeth continues to be open and welcoming to everyone that chooses to make the area their home. Our Turkish, Kurdish and Turkish Cypriot communities are having an important impact on the capital.’

Lord Glasman, former adviser to Ed Miliband said, ‘The CEFTUS Community Achievement Awards is unique. I grew up with Kurds, Turks and Turkish Cypriots and it is wonderful to witness the range of their achievements.’

Les Levidow of the Campaign against Criminalising Communities said that ‘the CEFTUS Community Achievement Awards symbolise the important contributions of prominent individuals to political, cultural and enterprise activities in this country, often linked with the struggle for justice and democracy in Turkey. The annual dinner brings together different communities targeted for

Lord Bilimoria persecution or division by Turkey’s authoritarian regime.’

Harry Virdee of City Sikhs said, ‘As a member of the Sikh community it was an honour to be invited to the CEFTUS awards. I was both surprised and pleased at the diversity in the room. I particularly enjoyed the charity raffle – although I may not have won anything, the ambience was thrilling as everybody wanted the top two prizes’, which were tickets to the final of The X Factor and executive-level tickets to see Manchester United.

He added, ‘The guest list was worthy of a celebrity function.’

CEFTUS looks forward to another year of building connections between British and Turkish thought leaders in a challenging political climate, and to hailing the next set of community award-winners in 12 months’ time.

Businesswomen of the Year (joint winners) Yildiz Jasmine Armstrong of Inspire Health & Beauty Salon and Women Inspire Women international women’s group and Itir Sokmen of Tulip Holidays Ltd Businessmen of the Year (joint winners) Mehmet Sat of Bicity of London Ltd, Alp Ceylan of commercial loan brokers Strategy Finance and Nasir Kiral of Best C Veg Ltd Law Award (joint winners) Extradition and fraud specialist Ozlem Erbil Cetin of Kent Solicitors and Ozan Askin of Silvine Solicitors Role Models of the Year (joint winners) Helin Pekoz, who works with female refugees, Mehmet Agca of Oxford Academy, which prepares students for GCSEs and A levels, and Abide Osman, a community adviser to the Metropolitan Police and the co-founder of the Metropolitan Turkish Police Association Politics Award Haringey councillor Emine Ibrahim Young Entrepreneur Award (joint winners) Cem Canpolat and structural engineer/product manager Hasan Icoz Lifetime Achievement Award Veteran radio and theatre performer Osman Balikcioglu *Selected winners only.

Lambeth Life | 15

Debate

Is Mamma Mia! The Party

Resident’s View

By Ivor Dembina

I

magine this: The kids are safely tucked up in bed.

You have finished your cocoa, brushed your teeth and said your prayers. Sleep beckons and you prepare for your favourite dream. Namely that you’ll wake up the next morning and the ugly bit of derelict land across the street has been magically transformed into a beautiful set of homes for local people, complete with a children’s playground and a small park.

Then, wallop! From the street outside, the sound of five hundred drunken revellers’ songs comes crashing through your bedroom window, and the window of your kids in the next room. The guests at the uninvited street party are singing ABBA songs. And they are singing them over and over again. They seem like a friendly enough crowd, but on closer inspection they are a raucous collection of coach party drunks, 16 | Lambeth Life

stag-dos and hen parties.

Is this a nightmare? No, it’s real, and, what’s more it’s not just tonight, but every night, six days a week and twice on Saturdays. And, to add insult to injury, it’s all going to emanate from a building on that disused piece of land you like to dream about. It’s enough to stop you sleeping at night. Welcome to the world of Mamma Mia! The Party.

What is Mamma Mia! The Party?

Good question. Its advocates like to call it a show, but there is no stage, just some actors and singers traipsing around the audience who sit at tables, stuffing themselves with food and drinking gallons of alcohol. Its promotional video leads one to the inescapable conclusion that the absence of a stage is because no-one in their right mind would sit down to watch such dross. And it’s all being planned for here, in the London borough of Lambeth.

Mail on Sunday Journalist Liz Jones went to review its original incarnation in Stockholm: ‘I

understand now why Swedes drink too much and want to kill themselves… I have in front of me a bowl of humous that has developed a worrying crust and a glass of bad wine… Inches from my nose is a failed drama school-type, gurning into her head mic, emitting what was once a fantastic song which has long been since murdered… I literally cannot stand it, and very soon pipe up with my own rendition of Baby Can You Hear Me, SOS’.

What makes things worse is that the owners of the land are the misleadingly-titled Coin Street Community Builders.

Yes, spot that word: Mamma Mia! the Party is going to be about as useful to the Waterloo Community as the Blitz. It’s an outrage, cynically positioned on the corner of Stamford Street and Cornwall Road, in the very heart of the housing co-ops that were so vigorously fought for many years ago.

Local resident and black cab driver Mudzi Mehmet says: ‘It’s a travesty that an organisation

such as Coin Street Community Builders has approached the Abba group with this awful idea!

This land has been earmarked for community use for nearly two decades and Coin Street Community

Builders have not built one single flat in all that time.’

Emboldened by the successful campaign to get rid of the Garden Bridge, local opposition is building. The media is beginning

“Mamma Mia! The Party is going to be about as useful to the Waterloo Community as the Blitz”

November - December 2017

going to face its Waterloo? to take an interest, local MP Kate Hoey is getting involved and the Lambeth planning website is being deluged with objections.

Cornwall Road pensioner Anne McKenna says: ‘Peace and quiet are our most valuable commodity these days and it will be a tragedy for people like me if this monstrosity with late night and early morning revellers goes through.

We have to fight this.’

Let’s face it: the noise, the traffic pollution and the general late-night

brand, would be a triumph to the detriment of community.’

Abba were a great pop band.

They achieved their success by breaking rules. They were Swedish, they wore naff outfits and they produced songs with lyrics so joyfully mindless that you couldn’t help remembering and repeating them. But now, they are breaking one rule too many. They are putting their own thirst for yet more money above the basic needs of people in our area. The producers

disruption to a quiet area should be enough to cause this project to be abandoned.

Another local resident, Judy Smith says: ‘Mamma Mia! the Party is an insidious and invidious proposal: a cabaret and party venue smack in the middle of a residential area and on the corner of an already overused major road.’

So, what’s this all about? Well, to quote a famous line from a wellknown ABBA favourite – ‘Money, Money, Money’. As a local planning objection document puts it: ‘The only economic beneficiaries for this project will be Coin Street Community Builders (who seem to have forgotten their original remit to serve the community) … a successful partnership with the highly respected and popular Abba organisation, an international

of Mamma Mia! The Party laughably claim it will add to the area’s cultural mix. But this show hasn’t been produced so much as excreted, and it’s our local residents who are going to be left with the social effluent on its doorstep.

Or to put it more succinctly, as local resident and artist Franco Bosio says: ‘Mr Abba don’t give a damn about the people.’

Well, some of us do. Hence STOP THE PARTY!, a campaign by people in our area to send the folly of Mamma Mia! The Party the same way that we sent the Garden Bridge. Right down the river.

As the major planning objection concludes: ‘The lines are drawn for the next Battle of Waterloo to start here to preserve our precious and privileged historic right to exist as a peaceful inner London community.

Applicant’s View

By The Mamma Mia! The Party organisers

C

onceived by Björn Ulvæus of ABBA, Mamma Mia! The Party is a theatrical experience set within a Greek taverna, where guests enjoy a three-course meal while the story unfolds around

their tables.

Characters sing ABBA songs accompanied by live musicians, dancers, acrobats, special effects and more. We are hugely excited to bring this unique concept to London, following its enormous success in Stockholm.

Operating for a maximum of five years, our proposal is to create a 500-seat temporary venue on the empty site on the corner of Cornwall Road and Stamford Street.

This location, moments from the Southbank Centre, with its excellent public transport connections,

is fantastic and we look forward to adding to this already diverse cultural hub.

We are delighted that the rent we will pay to Coin Street Community Builders, a social enterprise, will be used to support its extensive community activities, including youth clubs, family support sessions and sports camps, and management and maintenance of properties and Coin Street’s public realm, including Bernie Spain Gardens and a busy stretch of the Riverside Walkway on the South Bank. In the longer term, we understand that the permanent use of the site will be as the second phase of the neighbourhood centre and that the site has never been earmarked for housing.

While it is natural that some within the local community have concerns, we have been genuinely saddened by the reaction of some residents who actively oppose our plans. The main worry is clearly that our guests may be disruptive as they arrive and leave the venue, and we have worked hard to address this issue. We will now

be closing 30 minutes earlier than previously planned; with the show finishing at 10.15pm our guests will have over an hour to disperse gradually. There will be no performances on Tuesdays.

During our two years operating in Stockholm, we had absolutely no issue with drunk, disorderly or anti-social behaviour among our guests, most of whom are over 40,

and we very much anticipate the same in London. However, we are not complacent and do understand the importance of proper visitor management so already have a robust plan in place, which has been expertly developed by the former Head of Event Services for the London 2012 Olympics.

Given the close proximity to Waterloo and Southwark tube stations and well-connected bus routes, we are confident that we can limit the number of coach trips while also encouraging the use of sustainable methods of transport. We take our obligations to residents very seriously and are confident that we have the best team in place to manage visitors seamlessly and without causing disruption to our neighbours.

In response to comments we received during our local consultation we have also made a number of design changes. We reduced the height and size of the building while adding solar panels and a green roof. The venue will be fully soundproofed so that no noise will be audible from outside during performances.

It has been our aim from the very start that these proposals must tangibly benefit local people. We believe that they will do so by creating over sixty new local jobs, offering apprenticeships with our catering contractor and providing hands-on training opportunities in lighting, sound and other technical facilities. In addition to establishing a community fund, we will also be making the venue available to local community groups for activities, training and meetings when Mamma Mia! The Party isn’t on.

We very much look forward to becoming an active part of the community over the next five years and are confident that we will be a well-run and courteous neighbour to all those living locally.

Lambeth Life | 17

Local Attractions

Discover the hidden side to the story of Florence Nightingale

A

re you ready to meet the ‘Lady with the Lamp’? Everyone has heard of Florence Nightingale, the heroine of the Crimean War and the founder of modern nursing. A pioneering nurse and writer, Florence Nightingale left a profound mark on British history, not to mention global medical history. However, there is a hidden side to her story. Did you know she was also an inspiring activist and reformer?

You can learn about this and more at the Florence Nightingale Museum…

The museum opened in 1989 and is located within St Thomas Hospital on the South Bank. After an extensive £1.4 million refurbishment, in 2010, it reopened its doors.

Now the museum tells the real story of the Lady with the Lamp, who was given her fond nickname by the soldiers she treated while working shifts of up to twenty hours a day during the Crimean War in the mid-1850s.

The Florence Nightingale Museum presents her motivating and moving story in three different sections - ‘The Gilded Cage’, ‘The Calling’ and ‘Reform & Inspire’. The first section tells the story of her childhood and her struggle against the oppressive social norms of the day. ‘The Calling’ presents Nightingale’s story of self-discovery and

All in one: The Friends of Kennington Park 18 | Lambeth Life

the background of the Crimean War. Finally, the ‘Reform & Inspire’ section shows the less familiar side of Florence Nightingale - including her role as medical reformer in addition to that of saviour nurse.

The museum contains some fascinating artefacts, including Nightingale’s childhood writing slate, her medicine chest from the Crimean War, lists of the nurses who helped her during the war, and her beloved pet owl, Athena, whom she found in Greece and carried everywhere with her in her pocket. Additionally, the museum gives an opportunity for young people to volunteer with the Youth Panel programme and offers practical hands-on skills courses. You can also visit the museum for family-friendly performances or to take one of the workshops arranged for children and adults of all ages.

Opening times: daily 10am - 5pm (last entry 4.30pm).

Closed Good Friday, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Eve. Address: St Thomas Hospital, 2 Lambeth Palace Road, London SE1 7EW Telephone: 020 7188 4400 Email: info@florence-nightingale.co.uk

K

ennington Park is a great place for a day out with your family and has something for everyone.

Besides a well-equipped playground and sports area, it is also home to one of the loveliest flower gardens in London.

The garden was restored in 2012 through the partnership of Lambeth Council and civic society organisations. The park hosts sessions for volunteers, from gardening classes to event organising. For those who prefer total relaxation, Kennington Park’s spacious cafe with freshly baked cakes is a wonderful place to spend an afternoon. But it’s worth remembering that Kennington Park has not always been this peaceful: during the 1880s it was a site for public executions and large-scale demonstrations. In the 1990s, it became a popular cricket venue. The park’s rich history is evident in its impressive collection of statues and monuments.

Opening times: every day from 7.30am until 15 minutes before sunset. Address: Kennington Park Road, London SE11 4BE Telephone: 020 7926 9000

November - December 2017

Garden Museum is Vibrant this Autumn

G

ardening is a wonderful part of British culture combining love for nature with a disciplined

art.

The Garden Museum hosts events and exhibitions on the art and history of gardening. It was founded forty years ago by Rosemary Nicholson, a passionate gardener and an active member of the Lambeth community. This autumn, the museum is hosting a lecture series on landscape design. Every Tuesday between 7 and 8:30pm, a different garden designer will talk about their work and how they

collaborate with people from other disciplines such as craftsmen, wine makers, architects and artists.

Ticket prices are £20 for museum members and £25 for non-members. Also, this autumn, the museum will display the winning photos in the National Garden Scheme Photography Competition.

The competition received over 1,000 entries depicting fantastic flowers and green landscapes. The display runs from 18th October to 3rd December and entry is free.

This winter, the museum will host an exhibition on John Brookes, the author of twenty-five books on

L

ambeth is a whole world in one borough: we even have a farm in the heart of the city! If you’ve had enough of traffic and work and want to forget about big-city life for a while, come and meet the animals at Vauxhall City Farm.

It’s home to pigs, sheep, rabbits, ducks and more.

There are also three alpacas: Ben, Jerry and Tom! Vauxhall City Farm was founded in 1976 and registered as a charity in 1977 by local people who wanted to create a green community space. Since then, the farm has grown but it still relies on the commitment and enthusiasm of volunteers.

Each year the farm welcomes 50,000 visitors, delivers beneficial programmes, workshops and activities for around 6,000 individuals and reaches over 10,000 more off-site (via mobile farm and outreach delivery

gardening and landscape design.

He has designed gardens all over the world and taught classes on gardening on six continents.

Throughout the year, Garden Museum offers lessons for primary and secondary school children on the gardening methods.

Opening times: Sunday - Thursday 10.30am - 5pm. Friday 10.30am - 9.00pm. Saturday 10.30am - 4pm. Closed the first Monday of each month.

Address: Lambeth Palace Road, Lambeth, London SE1 7LB Tel: 020 7401 8865

activities). The farm does all this through five core project areas: a farmyard, an education and training team, a riding team, a training cafe and a newly opened on-site farm shop.

Volunteers host around 200 guided education visits and workshops per year for local schools, enabling around 5,000 children to get up close to the animals and learn about a range of subjects from farming to food chains, ecology, nature, conservation and the environment. Pop by for a visit one weekend to see what’s happening!

Today the farm is home to an award-winning family of animals, including a number of rare breeds, a riding centre, education and youth projects, a cafe and more.

We Have a Farm in the Heart of the City!

The farm has an ecology area, herb and dye garden and a picnic area. It’s perfect fun for all the family and entry is free. Group and educational visits are also offered.

Opening times: Tuesday to Sunday 10.30am - 4pm.

Closed on Mondays Address:165 Tyers Street, London SE11 5HS Telephone: 020 7582 4204

Lambeth Life | 19

What’s On

Art Exhibition | Art of the Machine Age: Modern British Abstraction 1956–2017 Brixton’s go-to contemporary art space, the Knight Webb Gallery, has gone on a new journey this autumn, hosting its first exhibition containing modern British works entitled ‘Art of the Machine Age: Modern British Abstraction’. The series includes some early works by Scottish modernists Alan Davie and William Gear, as well as Slade School of Art alumnus and prisoner of war Adrian Heath.

‘It’s new for us to include historic works with our contemporary program,’ says gallery director Rufus Knight-Webb. ‘This is due in part to my interest in both modern and contemporary art, and also because the mid-level contemporary market is quiet and we must adapt.’

The show focuses on the industrial entrepreneurialism of postwar Britain, through the abstract expressionist lens of Davie, Gear and Heath. Next to the period pieces stand more recent works by contemporary artists, echoing what the gallery calls ‘the melancholic optimism’ of the time.

The exhbition, which runs until 14 November, is not to be missed.

Knight Webb Gallery, 54 Atlantic Road, London SW9 8PZ Telephone: +44 (0) 207 274 1793 Website: http://www.knightwebbgallery.com/

Festival | EFG London Jazz Festival The EFG London Jazz Festival is going to take place between 10-19 November. Over 2,500 artists will perform across 60 venues over the course of the 10-day festival, and Lambeth’s cultural hub the Southbank Centre will be one of the busiest venues.

Southbank will host leading names on the Jazz scene such as Marcus Miller, Abdullah Ibrahim and Hugh Masekela. Marcus Millar, who is known for his eclectic jazz style, will present his latest project, while Abdullah Ibrahim will revisit his days with the seminal Jazz Epistles in 1950s.

The festival also includes events for toddlers and free talks, as well as lunchtime sessions where you can enjoy the hard-bop jazz of Leo Richardson during your break time. Mr Richardson is widely recognised as London’s finest hard-bop tenor saxophonist. His show will take place on the first day of the festival (10th November) at the Central Bar Foyer (2nd floor). It will start at 1 pm and run for 60 mins.

Concerts

November - December

Theatre

November - December

Dua Lipa: The Self - Titled Tour O2 Academy Brixton - Monday 6 November - 7pm

Follies National Theatre Wednesday 1 November to Wednesday 3 January 2018

Angus & Julia Stone O2 Academy Brixton - Tuesday 7 November - 7pm

Beginning National Theatre – Wednesday 1 November to Tuesday 14 November

Sean Paul O2 Academy Brixton - Thursday 9 November 2017 - 7pm

Network National Theatre - Saturday 4 November to Saturday 24 March 2018

Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time Southbank Centre - Tuesday 14 November - 7.30pm

Saint George and the Dragon National Theatre - Wednesday 8 November to Saturday 2 December

Blondie O2 Academy Brixton - Friday 17 November 2017 - 7pm

The Trap Omnibus Theatre - Wednesday 1 November to Sunday 19 November

Lambeth Wind Orchestra St Faith’s Church - Saturday 18 November - 7.30pm

The Suppliant Women Young Vic Theatre - Wednesday 13 to Friday 15 November

Rag’n’Bone Man The Overproof Tour - O2 Academy Brixton - Friday 24 November 2017 - 7pm

Yellowman Young Vic Theatre - Wednesday 22 to Friday 25 November

Alexandra Ridout Quintet Omnibus Theatre - Sunday 26 November - 7.30pm

The Society of Strange Omnibus Theatre - Saturday 25 November

20 | Lambeth Life

November - December 2017

Theatre | The Trap A biting new comedy by acclaimed playwright Kieran Lynn about the financial perils of a capitalist world receives its European premiere in Clapham at the Omnibus Theatre on 31 October. The play runs until 19 November.

Set in the office of payday lending company Debt Duck, The Trap is a sharp-witted topical comedy featuring a motley crew of flawed characters. The play presents some serious truths and takes a closer look at debt and the ethics of capitalism, while also serving up a good dose of humour.

The Trap was first staged in the United States in April this year and follows on from Lynn’s previous comedy An Incident at the Border, which successfully transferred to the West End. Marie McCarthy, Omnibus Theatre’s artistic director said, ‘We are delighted to be bringing this thought-provoking production to audiences in London. Kieran’s sharp wit and detailed observations tackle pertinent issues which many will identify with.’

Tuesday 31 October to Sunday 19 November, weekdays and Saturdays 7.30pm, Sundays 4pm Running time: 70 mins approx. Recommended for ages 14+.

Tickets: standard tickets £15, concessions £12, special ticket price of £12 for all tickets for the first week using the code DEBTDUCK when booking online.

Website: www.omnibus-clapham.org

Concert | Alexandra Ridout Quintet

Art Exhibitions

November - December

The Jazz Gig photography exhibition Omnibus Theatre - Wednesday 1 November to Sunday 3 December, 10am to 6pm Art of the Machine Age Knight Webb Gallery, Brixton - Wednesday 1 November to Tuesday 14 November

BBC Young Jazz Musician of the Year Alexandra Ridout is joined by four other young musicians whose passion and mature sound belie their tender years as their performance ranges from swinging soul to funk tunes.

Alexandra is the BBC Young Jazz Musician of the Year and The British Jazz Awards ‘Rising Star’ runner up. The members of the quintet all met at the Royal Academy of Music Junior Jazz department, which they attend every Saturday during term time. Their passion for music and their outstanding musicianship has produced an incredibly mature band sound that belies their tender years. They are equally at home playing swinging jazz, contemporary jazz, poignant ballads and solid funk tunes. The band is comprised of: Alexandra Ridout (18 years old, trumpet), Noah Stoneman (16, piano), Miles Mindlin (16, guitar), Freddie Jensen (18, bass) and Luca Caruso (18, drums).

‘Her incredibly sweet, subtle and well-controlled tone … absolutely owning the stage and the room … melodic, fluent and engaging … great sound, and an emotional content to her playing, but again with superb control even in very high register.’

Jazz Journal Omnibus Theatre Sunday 26 November, 7.30pm.

Tickets: standard tickets £10, under 25s £5

Ilya and Emilia Kabakov: Not Everyone Will Be Taken Into Future Tate Modern - Wednesday 1 November to Sunday 28 January 2018 Drawing A Line Under Torture Oxo Tower - Wednesday 8 to Sunday 12 November Red Star Over Russia: A Revolution in Visual Culture 1905 - 55 Tate Modern - Wednesday 8 November to Sunday 18 February 2018 Hyundai Comission: Superflex One Two Three Swing Tate Modern - Wednesday 1 November to Monday 2 April 2018 Dazzle: The World Famous Curated Selling Jewellery Exhibition Oxo Tower - Sunday 12 November to Sunday 7 January 2018 National Open Art (NOA) Oxo Tower - Friday 17 to Sunday 26 November

Festival

November - December

EFG London Jazz Festival Southbank Centre - Friday 10 to Sunday 19 November Southbank Centre Winter Festival Southbank - Friday 10 November to Thursday 4 January 2018 Winterville - Clapham Common Thursday 23 November to Monday 1 January 2018

Lambeth Life | 21

Local News

Revealed! Lambeth’s top takeaway Pizza Bocca takes the title as borough’s best

So what’s the scoop on Pizza Bocca?

It’s official. Lambeth has gone pizza crazy. Pizza Bocca on Loughborough Road has shot in at number one as Just Eat’s highest rated takeaway in Lambeth.

Take our word for it, a Friday night Pizza Bocca is a great life choice. Not only are the ingredients delicious and considered (local, seasonal, fresh, handmade - we’d go on but we’re salivating), but the pizzas themselves are unique, and rather brilliantly named after famous foody locations in London.

And it’s not plucked from nowhere, oh no. Based on total number of customer reviews in the past 12 months (including quality, service and delivery time), it’s come straight from the people who count. You guys. And Pizza Bocca, which has five and a half stars from nearly 600 customer reviews, was a resounding front runner.

1 Smithfield Pizza

Artisan meats, red onions and chilli flakes.

Don’t believe us? Have a gander at their top three pizza creations. Trust us, you may never recover.

2 Chelsea Pizza

Mushrooms, smoked mozzarella, artichoke hearts, truffle oil, dressed in rocket & spinach salad.

Surely there’s no better time to join the pizza parade.

So go on, dough it!

Ordering is easy - just download the Just Eat smartphone app or go to www.just-eat.co.uk

3 Brixton Pizza

Scotch bonnet pepper infused tomato base topped with jerk chicken, sweet corn and grilled peppers.

Restaurant Review

November - December 2017

“Riverside location offers great Chinese food with superb views”

John Whelan

www.zenchina.co.uk Riverside Building County Hall London SE1 7PB Phone: 020 7261 1196

W

hat was once the restaurant China Zen in the Riverside Building on London’s South Bank has undergone an identity change and is now known as Bao Fa Garden restaurant and bar. It’s been been expanded with a new bar area and open kitchen. It is now serving classic fusion cuisine and provides an excellent venue for business meetings, business events, wedding parties and birthday parties.

With a location that will send other restaurateurs green with envy, Bao Fa Garden is an exciting addition to the South Bank dining scene and a veritable jewel in the crown. It is set within the Riverside building, part of the County Hall complex, on Queen’s Walk overlooking the Thames. In the evening, with the Thames and the Houses of Parliament lit up, the

setting could not be more romantic: tables are placed to show the river and the parliamentary estate at their finest and the view takes in Big Ben and the London Eye. Meanwhile, the restaurant’s interior has the atmosphere of a drawing room in an old country house. The combination of an archetypically British location and the classic Chinese cuisine is pleasurable indeed.

The Bao Fa Garden team believes ‘green food’ – food produced seasonally, and without resorting to chemical methods – is best. As a result, they have introduced a seasonal menu to ensure that all food materials come from reliable suppliers and they use only green and entirely natural ingredients for all of their dishes – no MSG or colour additives.

The new head chef has over twenty-eight years of working

experience, including fourteen years of cooking Chinese cuisine, during which time he won several awards in competitions, and fourteen years cooking classic fusion cuisine in Poland, England and Canada. The extensive menu offers a wide range of choice to suit all tastes with excellent dim sum starters, grilled and fried dishes, poultry, fish and seafood, as well as vegetarian options. For those with generous appetites there are dumplings, noodles and rice as you’d expect together with a choice dessert menu.

You can expect a range of fine wines together with traditional Chinese beverages plus attentive but not obtrusive service. After a good meal at Bao Fa Garden you can always enjoy a walk along the river where there are entertainers for the crowds to enjoy.

Lambeth Life | 23

Advertorial

Get on the ladder with Galliard Homes’ Magnificent Seven Collection

G

alliard Homes has been building and developing in and around London for over twenty-five years and has a reputation for bringing stylish and luxurious apartments in key growth zones to the market at reasonable prices. One of Galliard’s mission statements is to get as many people ‘on the ladder’ as possible, and to this end it has created the Magnificent Seven collection of affordable luxury apartments, all within easy reach of Central London.

All of the apartments are available through the London Help to Buy schme. To mark them out as part of the Magnificent Seven collection, Galliard Homes has devised a set of tempting offers, with some apartments coming with stamp duty already paid for and others with free furniture. The schemes in the collection range in price from £149,995 (Carlton House, Luton) up to £360,000 (Atria Lofts, Slough) and there are a variety of apartment sizes at several price points in between.

Two of the schemes within the collection are located in Slough, which has been identified by Galliard Homes as soon to be a prime commuter location in the South East, as it will benefit from Crossrail (journeys into Paddington will take just seventeen minutes).

Within Slough, the distinctive Atria building offers 97 studios, one- and two-bedroom apartments – as well as twenty-three luxurious mezzanine and duplex apartments known as the Atria Lofts.

Located on Bath Road, Atria is a ten-minute journey from Slough station and just around the corner from the Queensmere Observatory Centre, home to 126 shops and restaurants. Apartments at Atria are available from £295,000 and apartments in the Atria Lofts are available from £360,000.

One of the more arresting developments on offer is Trinity Square in Hounslow. Previously the headquarters for American Airlines, the building has been redeveloped into a striking modernist steel and 24 | Lambeth Life

glass construction, complete with one of the largest private glassroofed atriums in London. Trinity Square is likely to be able to claim the title of the ‘Best Connected’ development in London, due to its proximity to Heathrow Airport, from where 170 international destinations can be reached. The development is a short walk from Hounslow Central station (Piccadilly line, Zone 4), from where one can reach Green Park (Mayfair) within forty minutes. Studio and one-bedroom apartments are

available, with an enormous range of layouts from which to choose.

Prices at Trinity Square start at £260,000.

Two of the schemes in the Magnificent Seven Collection are in leafy Hertfordshire, on the route of the original Metropolitan railway that helped accelerate the county’s growth as a commuter and residential hotspot. Pinnacle House is located in King’s Langley, a pretty village only twenty-seven minutes from Euston Station by train. The development is set in rolling coun-

tryside next to the Grand Union Canal and contains a selection of studio and one-bedroom apartments. Some apartments offer versatile ‘study’ spaces that can be used as guest bedrooms or nurseries. Apartments at Pinnacle House are available from £230,000.

A short distance away, Rickmansworth is home to Langwood House, set on the high street and with studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments available from £235,000. The stylish apartments include clever touches, such as a swivel-television unit in the studio apartments, meaning residents can watch a programme on the sofa, before swivelling the television so that it can be viewed in bed!

a plan to provide over 18,000 jobs in the area within an ‘Enterprise Zone’ and Luton airport is about to receive a £110 million redevelopment.

The Magnificent Seven Collection’s final scheme is Rosebery House in Chelmsford, Essex. Located just a ten-minute walk from Chelmsford station, from which Liverpool Street can be reached in under forty minutes, Rosebery House is a former office building which sits above the Springfield pedestrianised shopping promenade. It contains sixty-six one- and two-bedroom apartments spread across adjoining buildings, each with a separate entrance foyer.

Carlton House in Luton, Bedfordshire, is a redbrick office building converted to the height of contemporary style. It offers studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments from £149,995. Luton is soon to undergo a huge surge in popularity, as Luton Council have

Apartments at Rosebery House are available from £199,995.

For more information about the Magnificent Seven Collection, please visit www.galliardhomes. com or call our sales team on 0203 740 4855.

Restaurant Review

November - December 2017

“Troia offers the best in Middle East and Mediterranean cuisine”

John Whelan

T

roia specialises in Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cuisine in a cafe-style setting with scarlet walls and mosaic lamps. It is

an outstanding, well-established family friendly setting close to the London Eye, the

London Aquarium and other South Bank attractions familiar not only to locals but also to visitors to London from the United States, Europe, the Middle East and beyond.

One special feature at Troia is a covered outside dining area offering what is called shisha in Egypt and the Gulf states, nargile in Turkey and Syria and hookah in India.

The principle remains the same: it allows the intrepid to smoke flavoured tobacco as it bubbles through water. Shisha’s popularity at Troia is undeniable. Anyone using a shisha pipe usually sits away from other guests who are just there to eat and drink coffee or other beverages.

At the heart of Troia is a varied menu offering a wide choice of cuisine from Mediterranean favourites such as houmous, baba ghanoush, tabbouleh and imam bayildi together with calamari, brie and mixed

mezze. The grill section includes lamb and chicken shish kebabs and chicken kofta.

Then there’s steaks and the ubiquitous favourite for visitors to London: fish and chips. Casseroles, such as lamb moussaka, and seafood, including salmon fillet, are also on offer. Let’s not forget that Troia also does burgers, pasta dishes and a host of vegetarian options. The food on offer is backed up with a selection of fine wines as well as the popular Bira London brand of beer.

Troia is the brainchild of Lambeth Lifepublisher and restaurateur Ibrahim Dogus, who is also active in the community, especially on Turkish issues. Dogus’s engaging personality translates into making Troia welcoming for guests. The standards he sets are high both in the kitchen and front of house.

Troia is popular for private parties; indeed, given Troia’s location just ten minutes from

the Houses of Parliament, the restaurant was booked for a private function to celebrate the birthday of the current Leader of the Opposition. He can often be seen riding his bicycle along Belvedere Road.

It is easy to gauge the popularity of a London restaurant by the mix of communities who enjoy its hospitality and the way staff handle the odd crisis. I should fess up straight away: my newly arrived, heavily jet-lagged two grandchildren howled the place down, despite my attempts to placate them with chips. Troia’s staff responded with great tact and two fizzy drinks later peace reigned. Luckily, I am still a welcome guest, but I do admire those families that have impeccably well-mannered children enjoying their lunch or dinner at Troia.

The food offer is backed up with a selection of fine wine as well as the popular Bira London brand.

www.troia-restaurant.co.uk 3F Belvedere Rd, Lambeth, London SE1 7GQ Phone: 020 7633 9309 Reservations: opentable.co.uk © Photographer: Ali Haydar Yesilyurt

Lambeth Life | 25

Local News

Shoot hoop with a Live-Stream Basketball Lion breaktrough for Lambeth forum AGM Community business and residents’ umbrella group the Kennington, Oval and Vauxhall (KOV) Forum held its AGM on Thursday 19th November at the Kennington Park Community Centre, now under joint community management by the Kennington Park Estate Forum & Residents’ Association in partnership with Hyde Housing. It was the first Lambeth Forum AGM live-streamed on YouTube, at the encouragement of a Lambeth council officer following Greenwich council’s trials live-streaming council meetings. KOV Forum Secretary Bryon Green who sat at a laptop producing the webcast said he was amazed it went live on time as he needed three hours to set up properly: he is hopeful that the usefulness of covering community meetings this way may grow, as more people get into it.

Oval ward councillor Claire Holland addressed the meeting about a range of issues including the challenges posed by local economic inequalities, the housing waiting list, council campaigns, the Northern Line extension and encouraging cycling. She was challenged over TfL’s plans for the redevelopment of Vauxhall bus station, and South Lambeth Road and Clapham Road traffic levels. David Boardman, the Forum’s planning expert, described four new tall building proposals and their potential impacts, while KOV chair Helen Monger set out the 10 point plan agreed between Lambeth neighbourhood forums being put to the council about community involvement in planning. Zoe Thomson of Trees for Cities and Rupert Sutton, a counter-extremism specialist in Lambeth’s Community Safety service gave presentations. The AGM was well-attended and saw the KOV Ad V2a.pdfunanimously 1 18/10/2017 12:46 for another term.

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T’S & C’S APPLY 26 | Lambeth Life

London’s only professional basketball team the London Lions is joining the Black Prince Trust at The Hub in Kennington as a basketball development partner.

Alongside existing onsite partners the London Basketball Association, Who’s Got Game, the Love Basketball Academy and community team the Kennington Generals, the Lions will support the growth of onsite activity and school competitions held in The Hub’s Regal Court. The Lions’ top player and winner of the British Basketball All-Stars Championship Most Valuable Player Award Justin Robinson, who grew up in Brixton, will pass on his skills to local youngsters wanting to follow in his footsteps.

Robinson has a wealth of experience having played across Europe for the past six years and for Team GB at EuroBasket 2013. He is a former player for Brixton Topcats, learning the game under legendary coach, Jimmy Rogers. For sixth form, he moved to Blair Academy in New Jersey, then attended Rider University in the state, where he averaged 15.3 points and 3.8 assists per game as captain in his senior year.

Under-16s wanting to learn to shoot some hoops should join Lions Star Justin Robinson at Tuesday training sessions after-school, from 4.30-6.30pm at Black Prince Trust, 5 Beaufoy Walk off Black Prince Road, London SE11 6AA

November - December 2017

Feature

Half a Century in Waterloo: An Interview with The Waterloo Barber Shop Peter Neocleous has worked in Waterloo as a men’s hair stylist for almost 50 years. Here we discuss the changes he has seen over the decades and what one might expect from Waterloo Barber Shop today.

thewaterloobarbershop

By Matthew Allder & Emma Jorgenson

P

eter started his career working on Lower Marsh in the early 1970s. The shop moved to Kennington Road in the early 1980s and it is still there today.

Peter’s Hair Stylist now has a new owner, Thanos, who took over in November last year, but Peter can still be found in the newly refurbished Waterloo Barber Shop.

What was the shop like when you first opened?

When I moved into the shop it was the flashiest in the area. The customers wanted shiny surfaces, with everything bright and clean looking – now they want the rustic look! So Thanos has exposed the bricks, timbered the walls and put in old-style barbers’ chairs and traditional barbers’ tools. We’ve 28 | Lambeth Life

almost gone back to the look of the Victorian days, although we have the modern lighting, hair-styling techniques, digital gadgets and wifi!

What was the heyday for Waterloo?

It was in the 1980s: we had four hairdressers working non-stop all day like we were in a factory. We were surrounded by a lot of office buildings, we had MI6, the Central Office of Information, County Hall, Shell, Christopher House and several other big companies. Then offices started moving out. It took time for things to improve, but the area is now on the up again.

What’s it about Waterloo that means you’ve never wanted to leave?

I’ve always been happy here.

My entire working life has been in Waterloo and I’d never want to work anywhere else. I’m very pleased that Thanos decided to

WaterlooBarber

take over the shop: he first started working for me 20 years ago and he did his original training with me. I’m happy he is making his mark too, refurbishing the shop, reintroducing beard trimming and sculpting and selling male grooming products from waxes and hair tonics to beard oils.

What haircuts do you never get asked for anymore?

The Tony Curtis. And the Elvis Presley quiff. We even used to singe people’s hair, burning it with a candle. I never enjoyed doing that – it’s a cheap gimmick that was 10p on the original pricelist! A lot of people thought it sealed the ends of the hair, which is nonsense. It just smelled bad.

Are there any other businesses from the early days on Lower Marsh that are still around?

I’m the last of the originals on this parade and possibly Lower Marsh. One thing that hasn’t

waterloo_barbershop

changed on Lower Marsh is there have always been lots of cafes. However, Ryman’s used to be a bacon-curing factory, where my father-in-law worked, and there were all sorts of traders on the market – from umbrella repair men to horsemeat sellers (as pet food!). It’s definitely good to see the market busy again. When I started on Lower Marsh I was the only foreigner. But I was accepted from the beginning because I’ve always been friendly to everyone and the fact that customers still come back to me after all these years does tell you something! In England we can’t go back, and as long as we all learn to live with one another it’s good with me.

What is the secret to running a successful barbers for over thirty years?

I’ve kept it very reasonable here, that’s how we’ve survived for so long. I always believed in

Peter Neocleous

giving good service and offering reasonable prices, and people always came back. Quality is in the details, we play close attention to every detail of the hair and scalp to ensure that the cut is pristine without a hair out of place.

What do you want to see here in the next ten years?

When it comes to business, we’ve always benefitted more from offices. In the 1980s at lunchtime you couldn’t even get in here. Now our customers range from MPs to OAPs. We have a good mix of locals living in the area, workers in local offices, plus students from local schools. But, as ever, more businessess still mean more customers!

November - December 2017

An Unforgettable Catwalk Show at Ev Restaurant In September, London once again welcomed the world’s fashion media and buyers for a week-long celebration of the latest colourful fashion trends.

As a part of this exciting event, Ev Restaurant in Waterloo was lucky enough to host a show by Turkish brand Deerdef of special items from its Spring–Summer 2018 capsule collection. Ev’s spacious site, in a repurposed railway arch, was converted into a glamorous catwalk.

The show’s choreography was managed by Istanbul-born fashion consultant Zeynep Ober. The collection was predominantly in black and white, with pink and blue pastel tones adding smoother occasional touches. The pieces in the collection were mainly dresses, silk vests and shorts, chiffons, knit fabrics and silvery garments, featuring deep slits, Vs and triangle cuts as design flourishes.

Deger Y Ozturk, Deerdef’s Creative Director, said, ‘Women need timeless clothes in their closets.

Simple yet chic and elegant clothes they can wear for many occasions, not just for one-occasion-wear.

With this approach, we love using main colours like black, red and whites and adding adding smoother occasional touches, collars, waist cuts. We are inspired by real women around us. We want Deerdef women to feel confident, always loaded with positive energy and, most importantly, lucky.’

Further to the success of the Deerdef show, Ev Restaurant is keen to host more events in its big space, including business functions and association meetings.

Photographer: Seref Ozdemir Address: 97-99 Isabella St, London SE1 8DD Telephone: 020 7620 6192

Lambeth Life | 29

Local News

Lambeth - a Veritable Cradle for Politicians

By John Whelan

L

ambeth Town Hall is an iconic building on Brixton Hill and has, in the past 60 years, become a veritable cradle for budding politicians who go on to feature on the national stage. Alas, it is currently closed to the public.

Lambeth Council, like any family, has had its share of errant sheep who have wandered from the right path. Nonetheless it stands as an inspiration for young people growing up in Lambeth today; they can look back on exemplars from the past who show that even from the humblest of backgrounds you can become prime minister, mayor of London, or head of the NHS. And that’s just to list three distinguished offices held by for-

30 | Lambeth Life

mer elected members of Lambeth Council.

Sir John Major, who became prime minister after Margaret Thatcher resigned, was Brixton born and bred and made his mark as a politician after being elected to Lambeth Council in 1968. He took the lead role for the housing service, which at that time was in crisis. With his experience and knowledge of social housing he made many friends across the parties in the council at the time. The rest, as the saying goes, is history.

Equally dynamic in his own distinctive and often unconventional way, Ken Livingstone came from a family originally from Tulse Hill.

He served on Lambeth Council, then went to what was then known as the Greater London Council.

Finally, he became an MP for Brent East and in 2000 he became

the first mayor of London.

More recently, another ex-Lambeth councillor has made a national reputation: Simon Stevens, currently chief executive of NHS England and arguably one of the most powerful decision-makers in the NHS, was a councillor for a Brixton ward from 1998 to 2002, before moving on to greater things and advising Tony Blair, then prime minister, on health policy in the early 2000s.

Yet Lambeth is no mere conveyor belt of talent and, like any London borough, it’s had its share of turbulent patches in the past. The 1980s saw the council, controlled by hard-left councillors, at odds with the government of the day.

The council refused to set a rate to collect local taxes, a stalemate only broken by banning the rebel councillors from holding office

for five years. But perhaps the most enduring scandal in Lambeth was the failure of the council to provide adequate child protection policies, resulting in abuse in children’s homes. Even today, investigations continue as more evidence comes to light about mistakes in the past.

However, it would be wrong to paint an entirely dark picture.

There are several former Lambeth councillors of all the three main political parties who have gone on to serve as back-bench MPs or in other areas of public service, including Roger Liddle who now sits in the House of Lords. Former Liberal Democrat Leader of the Council (2002–06) Peter Truesdale OBE went on to serve with distinction on the London Fire Authority, a path already trodden by his deputy leader who hailed

from a different political party on the council and whom modesty prevents me from naming.

If you look beyond Lambeth Council, there are many examples of local activists in the three major political parties who have become well-known MPs. Among them are the current sports minister Tracey Crouch, the new MP for Saffron Walden Kemi Badenoch who is of Nigerian origin, and many others who are contributing greatly to our national life.

November - December 2017

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