No. 05 The High Rise Issue
Inside Pattern
Inside Pattern
SE LONDON JOURNAL – Issue 05
The High Rise Issue Delight in its finery, the nuts and bolts which make it peculiar and prized. There is poetry in the walls and you must listen harder to hear it, stare closer to see it, become aware that The buildings that surround you need a champion to stop and recgonise. — Keely Mills
Polly Editor polly@selondonjournal.co.uk
Issue 05 Illustrator Alice Tye
Jessica Creative Director jessica@selondonjournal.co.uk
Contributions info@selondonjournal.co.uk
Benji Art Director benji@selondonjournal.co.uk
Advertising advertising@selondonjournal.co.uk
Whilst every effort has been made to ensure accuracy, South East London Journal does not accept liability for any errors or omissions within this issue. Reprinting of any article or original images from South East London Journal without express permission of the Editor is expressly forbidden. South East London Journal is published by Gaze Media Ltd ©South East London Journal 2016
Spring 2016 — The High Rise Issue
Welcome Note Welcome to No.5 — The High Rise Issue, and the first Journal of 2016! Inadvertently one of our more wordy editions, it seems there’s a lot to talk about when it comes to South East London from up high. We look at the change happening in Elephant and Castle, from the shift in high rise living to the fantastic guerrilla gardening taking place at ground level; we also look at the future changes for Peckham, from the hopeful Cole Line project to the Peckham Levels development. As well as looking up, we also take a look out down, from some of the most breathtaking vantage points this area has to offer, as well as getting to know some of the feathered friends and creatures who probably know this urban landscape better than we do! As always, we’re glad to find community to be a naturally occurring theme in this issue too, with the Walter’s Way and Segal Close feature highlighting the positive effects of living within a supportive community of neighbours — wouldn’t it be wonderful if some of today’s property developers took a leaf out of Walter Segal’s book! We also interview inspiring architect, Kate MacIntosh who designed Dawson’s Heights back in the 1960s at the age of just 28, putting an emphasis on quality community living. As always, the warmest thanks to all our fantastic advertisers who keep South East London Journal free, accessible and available at over 100 stockists! If you’re visiting anywhere that you’ve discovered through the Journal, make sure to give us a mention!
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Community Notice: Animal Killer — What You Can Do To Help
Update from Boudicca and Tony at South Norwood Animal Rescue and Liberty who are investigating the killings in liaison with the police. There has recently been a spate of animal killings involving upwards of 50 cats, rabbits and foxes mainly across South East London, with multiple cases in West Norwood, South Norwood, Addiscombe, Croydon, Crystal Palace, East Dulwich, Charlton, Mitcham Common and Streatham. The police are aware of the issue and are running an active investigation. If you see someone behaving suspiciously around a cat, please dial 999 immediately and report it. It doesn't matter if it turns out to be nothing — the police want to know. Importantly if you or someone you know finds an animal that has suspected knife injuries, decapitation and tail or legs removed then please contact SNARL on 07957830490 or 07961030064 immediately. It is ABSOLUTELY VITAL that the body or parts are safeguarded and SNARL will attend at any time. They will liaise with the police and RSPCA to secure the scene. If the animal is still alive please take them straight to the nearest vet for treatment and call the above number as soon as you can. It is advisable to keep cats in at night. Thank you, SNARL & SELJ
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Spring 2016 — The High Rise Issue
Contents
07
23
73
99
Food
Culture & History
Home
Children & Families
Honey Brunch Map Ladyland's Brunch Favourites Persian Brunch
Culture Calendar Mixtape Throwing Shade Books Peckham Levels Dulwich2Dunkirk Alice Tye Rufus The Hawk A Bird's Eye View Peckham Coal Line SE Views High Rise Life Dawson's Heights
Walter Segal London Reclaimed Antisocial Behaviour in Elephant & Castle
What's On Children's Edit SE Little Journal Walter's Way Treehouse
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A community based social enterprise, The Jamii Project exists to see young people in South East London have the opportunity to train, work and reach their potential. The cafĂŠ serves amazing Extract coffee, bakes delicious cakes and is a hub for all ages. We work with local schools, charities and social workers WR LGHQWLI\ \RXQJ SHRSOH ZKR ZRXOG EHQHĂ€W IURP MRLQLQJ the team. Most of our young people have challenges accessing education and so we offer specialist training in Maths and English, run an apprenticeship scheme and prepare them for work. _ Come and meet us weekdays from 8am till 5pm and Saturdays from 10am till 5pm. Find us at 3 Honor Oak Park, SE23 1DX www.myjamiicafe.com
NOW OPEN IN HITHER GREEN!
Jones Q
So if you like proper coffee, a hearty & healthy breakfast or lunch come along! Oh and the Guinness cake is pretty good too. We are open Mon-Fri: 7.30am-4.30pm Saturday 9-4pm, Sunday 10-4pm
Selling fruits and vegetables, bread, cheese, local beer, cured meat, dairy, store cupboard groceries, wine and more. Also offering gift vouchers & selection boxes for christmas. @ jonesofbrockley jonesofbrockley. com
354 BROCKLEY ROAD, LONDON, SE4 2BY
60 Springbank Rd SE13 6SN 0203 581 7887
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A Weekend Wander: Forest Hill WORDS: Serge Sumerling
Have Brunch
At St Davids Coffee House, who do a mean Bacon Sarnie. If you’re really craving the carbs go to The Big Breakfast on Dartmouth Road. There’s also Canvas and Cream which does lovely brunches with a great choice of healthy options too.
Take a Walk
Around The Horniman Museum and Gardens and enjoy a breathtaking vista across London. During the Summer months the bandstand becomes a focal point for many events held in the grounds, such as concerts, film screenings and art performances, while the surrounding grass verge provides a large picnic area perfect to relax on. The gardens recently opened an 'animal walk' which lets you walk through the centre of the enclosure for a close encounter with its furry and feathered residents. Inside the Museum itself there’s plenty of weird and wonderful things to see, including the late Mr Horniman's penchant for collecting taxidermy, (most famously the giant walrus), and there’s also artefacts on show from cultures and civilisations around the globe, as well as an extensive interactive music gallery, and not forgetting an excellent aquarium in the basement.
Have a Mooch
In Bunka on Dartmouth Road, a shop which is loved in a place it loves — a kind of department store but just selling the good stuff. Stag and Bow a few doors up is a must for craft enthusiasts, selling an eclectic mix of handmade goods, together with workshops and classes. If your an outdoorsy type then Finches on Perry Vale is the place to go, with a fantastic selection of sports gear. For quality, tasty, ethically sourced meat go to The Butchery on London Road, and for fine cheeses, olives and nice bread there’s the excellent Aga’s Deli on Dartmouth Road. You’ll be in sweet tooth heaven at Sugar Mountain, carry on a bit further and you’ll be able to work off that sugar rush at The Forest Hill Pools (the oldest swimming baths in London no less!) Just beyond the pools is Forest Hill Library, where there’s under 5's free storytelling on Tuesdays and Thursdays. There are two galleries in the town centre, The Montage on Dartmouth Road and Canvas and Cream on London Road, both equally diverse and interesting, with art exhibitions frequently changing and both with very inviting cafes adjoining them serving yummy cakes! Speaking of yummy cakes, there's The Archie Parker Cafe, and The Teapot Cafe to tempt you in. 5
Stop for Dinner
At The Dartmouth Arms, a relaxed, homely gastropub with vegetables from Borough Market, meat from Oxfordshire and fish from Billingsgate. There’s The Perry Vale, offering a great seasonal menu of modern european homecooking at its best. And lastly, a very welcome new addition to the area’s eateries is Bona Pizzeria.
Grab a Pint
The Perry Vale definitely has the refined drinkers base covered, whilst if its a proper South East London boozer your after, then head to The Blythe Hill Tavern on Stanstead Road. The Dartmouth Arms, is relaxed and homely, whereas The Sylvan Post on Dartmouth Road quirky-cool with a unique interior sympathetic to its previous occupiers, the Forest Hill Post Office, featuring snugs in what used to be the old safe rooms and the counter now used as the bar. The Signal opposite the station offers a good beer selection, and a good no-nonsense pub grub menu, while the best value Sunday lunches in Forest Hill can be found at The Hill on Dartmouth Road kid friendly too! The All Inn One on Perry Vale has a very warm and welcoming landlady Julie, good beer, a huge beer garden with playground and they show all the big games.
of 164 Manor Lane SE12 8LP Hither Green & Lee Breakfast Lunch
} BRUNCHEON
BAKES + BEVERAGES
Open daily
Archibalds
MON - FRI SATURDAY SUNDAY
8.00 to 4.30 8.30 to 4.30 9.30 to 4.00
email : hello.archibalds@gmail.com facebook: archibald’s twitter : @archibalds_lee
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Food
Honey Brunch Map Ladyland's Brunch Favourites Persian Brunch 7
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Food Item Edit 1.
2.
Food Item Edit: Honey 3. 6. 5.
4.
Honey 8
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Collecting honey is an ancient activity. An 8000-year-old cave in Spain depicts a painting of a honey seeker, his hand deep in a hive surrounded by bees, holding a small bucket. The oldest remains of honey were found in Georgia, in an ancient tomb dating back 5,000 years; a country where honey was packed for people’s journey into the afterlife. In the Middle East it was used to embalm the dead, and in Egypt honey was offered to the god of fertility, Min. In the absence of sugar, honey was an integral ingredient in Greek and Roman cuisines. It is significant in many religious writings and ancient Greek religion too. Honey is a timeless liquid, food of the gods no less! South East London is a keen area for the creation of honey (keep your eye out for Camilla Goddard’s Capital Bee honey, with local hives all across the area, alas not in season yet!), but the poor old honey bee is becoming increasingly endangered, which given that a third of the world’s food is pollenated by mostly bees, would leave us in a very sticky situation. Get online to see how you can help; you could plant some bee friendly plants, or even become a bee keeper yourself.
1. WHAT: Handmade in England, Mighty Fine Honeycomb use huge dollops of honey in their recipe, as well as donating to Friends of the Honey Bee with every product sold, helping to ensure a buzzing future for the British bee. This bar features their crisp and light honeycomb covered in a peanut butter-infused Belgian chocolate. WHERE: Anderson & Co, SE15
2. WHAT: Queen bee breeder Nick Tonkin rears and nurtures queen bees in his 90 wooden hives at Coedcanlas, nestled on the eastern shore of the Daugleddau Estuary in the heart of Pembrokeshire. The honey has an exquisite flavour, gathered by the Coedcanlas bees from the nectar of bluebells, dandelions, buttercups, blackberries and wild clovers. WHERE: General Store, SE15; Neal’s Yard Dairy, SE1
3. WHAT: Acacia Honey With White Truffle. The finest white alba truffles from Piedmont, Italy infused in local acacia honey. Man and nature in harmony. Drizzle over nuggets of Parmesan Reggiano and Pecorino, or a soft young Gorgonzola as the Italians do. WHERE: The Larder, SE13
4. WHAT: Coco is an Artisan Chocolatier based in Edinburgh that specialises in making ethically traded, organic and most importantly delicious chocolate. All their chocolate is organic, handcrafted and hand-wrapped, and this Honey Milk Chocolate is sweet, rich and delicious. WHERE: The Larder, SE13
5. WHAT: Originating from the Monferrato region of Piedmont (famed for its truffles and wine), Honeydew, also known as ‘Forest Honey’, is made by small insects who eat plant sap found in tree leaves. They leave behind a sugary liquid on the leaves after digesting the sap. Bees then collect the sap and process it into a dark, intensely flavoured honey. WHERE: From Field & Flower, Borough Market, SE1
6. WHAT: We can’t get enough of Gosnell’s Mead, converted on our first sip. Peckham based, they employ traditional brewing methods and blend carefully sourced citrus blossom honey with water to create a new style of mead with a light, refreshing taste. WHERE: The Larder, SE13; Hop Burns & Black, SE22; The Beer Shop, SE15 and most good places!
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Andersons Full
ANDERSON & CO. also open for dinner 6.30 - 10 tuesday to saturday 0207 469 7078 locally sourced, freshly made 139 bellenden road peckham se15 4dh andersonandcompany.co.uk
Brunch
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Hungover? Or maybe just hungry? When breakfast has been and gone but lunch is too far away you can always rely on brunch when you fancy a little of both. Let our Brunch Map be your guide to the best places to find this meeting of mealtimes from across South East London.
Bloody Mary from Brick House Bakery & Cafe, SE22
Map
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Anderson & Co. SE15 One of the early arrivals of the Bellenden Road set, Anderson & Co offers a beautiful oasis in the form of its sheltered back garden. Now having evolved from much-loved cafe to all day dining, the menu offers a far more sophisticated brunch than you might expect. We popped in for a colourful plate of Cilbir — a Turkish dish of poached eggs, herbed labneh, chilli butter and chimichurri on sourdough — which was a fresh and lively take on your traditional eggs on toast. We also went for the kedgeree — smoked haddock, lightly curried basmati rise, hard boiled egg, parsley and caramelised onion — which left us feeling full of fuel and ready for the day, rather than suffering the familiar post-brunch slump that may have come after a full English. Good coffee, a selection of great pastries and take-away Brick House bread makes Anderson & Co the choice for a more refined brunch.
Archibald's SE12 Archibald’s in Lee serve up brunch classics in the shape of bacon butties with tomato chutney, sausage
caramelised onion sarnies (using the best Cumberland sausages from local rare meats), eggs all the classic way, as well as savoury American pancakes. Keep your eye on the weekend specials board, for favourites such as huevos rancheros and bubble and squeak served with soft poached duck eggs. There’s also free wifi and power points for regular freelancers and parents with babies alike. To top it off, they’re licensed and host regular supper nights; Saigon Street are in residence on a Thursday evening and others popping in regularly!
Refreshment Rooms SE15 With both the weekday breakfasts and weekend brunches offering a substantial heartiness, Peckham’s Refreshment Rooms focus on a more European fare amalgamated with modern British. Ask any local and they’ll rave about the Alsace bacon sandwich, as well as the bulford brown eggs with merguez sausage. On the weekend, you can get a bit more adventurous with dishes such as kedgeree; salt beef hash; pickled sardine, potato salad and creme fraiche, washing it all down with a black velvet cocktail. With coffee coming from local small batch roasters, Coleman Coffee, the large seated window is the perfect place to watch the heart of Peckham go by in all its colour from dawn til dusk. 12
Aya SE15 Arriving at Aya’s for brunch on a gloomy Saturday in Peckham, it seems as though everyone who turns up to this little hole in the wall restaurant is met with the same welcoming smile, and doted on by attentive owner, Aya. Located in Holdron’s Arcade, the fact that there’s limited seating doesn’t seem to matter, with people sitting on the same table having never met, and sparking up a conversation about the books they’ve been reading. A vibe that would make anyone want to put their phone away and join in. The menu is interesting and varied, but by no means fussy. With sweet, or ‘non sweet’ crêpes, warm sandwiches, and a list of loose tea as long as your arm, you’ll find yourself wanting to order the whole lot. Made with an incredible, giant doughnut-looking sourdough bread, the smoked salmon with cream cheese and cucumber sandwich was nothing short of incredible, and the combination of three different dressings gave the sandwich an unusual, but elegant twist. Whether you order the kimchi crêpe, or the chicken / avocado / melted cheese sandwich, you can see that a love of flavour, and flexibility in catering to peoples' different tastes, is applied to Aya’s meal-making over her entire menu. If you want to feel like you’re being looked after, this is the place to go. DANIELLE WATT
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St David's SE23 A stone’s throw from Forest Hill station, St David's Coffee House, is a friendly, independent coffee house and one of the best brunch spots in South East London. Owner, Sian provides a warm welcome and is a perfectionist when it comes to her coffee, something you can taste in every delicious sip. A concise menu of well considered dishes such as Parisian poached eggs, fried egg with potatoes and smoked sausage is served from 8am, as well as lighter options such as homemade granola, dairy free peanut butter porridge, cakes and pastries. I went for their best seller, poached eggs with bacon and avocado on sourdough — a slightly less guilty Saturday breakfast, but equally as delicious. I can see why this dish is their best seller as it was cooked to perfection! It's also worth noting the various different evening popups on offer at St David's, I'd highly recommend trying out Laksa night on a Thursday hosted by Nyonya London. DANIEL FLETCHER
Arlo & Mo SE13 You may already know Arlo & Moe in Crofton Park; the brilliant, relaxed coffee shop with mid-century leanings, popular with families and
freelancers alike. Following their success in becoming Crofton Park’s go-to cafe, late last year, they spread their wings and set up Arlo & Moe number two in Hither Green, hoping to introduce their staple menu offerings such as sexy toast to a new audience of locals. Their most popular dish is that satisfying and salty staple, crushed avocado and feta on toasted campaillou, topped with pan fried chorizo. There’s also the other brunch classics, such as scrambled eggs with smoked salmon, all done to perfection. To wash it down, their coffee is sourced from local small batch roaster, Dark Fluid.
My Jamii Cafe SE23 Opening in the summer of 2014, My Jamii in Honor Oak Park is more than just a coffee shop, it’s a not-for-profit enterprise scheme to give local young people training and work opportunities. We were served by the lovely JC, Crystal and Liam who ensured our choice of waffles and crushed avocado on toast were made to perfection. The surroundings are calm, with tables of reclaimed wood and big windows filling the room with light, yet the prices are incredibly reasonable. The young people who work there receive more than just barista training, they gain an NVQ Level 2 in catering, lessons in maths and english, as well as gaining skills in customer service and access to wider employment. Knowing you’re helping the project makes the brunch taste even better! 13
No. 67 SE5 Situated between Camberwell and Peckham is The South London gallery, and the independently run No. 67 within it. Opening for brunch at 8am Tuesday through Friday and at 10 on weekends, we’d recommend getting there early as it fills up quickly — and on trying the food it’s easy to see why. Eggs Royale — poached eggs, spinach and hollandaise sauce on an english muffin — but with a Scandinavian leaning, served with beetroot cured trout instead of smoked salmon; it was delicious. There are more European influences in other aspects of the menu; mushrooms on toast but in a rich white wine and thyme sauce and the Full Spanglish with a healthy portion of chorizo and morcilla sausage on the side. If you’re after something a little less decadent there’s a really good range of lighter options from pastries, smoothies and toast with a variety of toppings. Alternatively if you want something from the other end of the scale you can’t go far wrong with a huge plate of waffles, bacon and syrup or a Tunnock’s caramel wafer milkshake. As you might expect in an art gallery, the setting is as enjoyable as the food, particularly in the conservatory at the back with its high ceilings and wraparound gold mural. No. 67 is also open in the evenings for dinner and if you can’t stop for long they’ve got you covered for that too, you can pick up a coffee or a St Johns doughnut from their espresso bar outside.
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Brown & Green SE19 Brown&Green on the Crystal Palace Triangle is the newest member of the B&G family. With specials such as ‘Aussie Eggs’, they’re full to the brim with wholesome brunches, delicious cakes, vegan and gluten free options. It’s a great spot to grab a coffee and a sourdough bacon butty and watch the Crystal Palace world go by. The full breakfast and substantial vegetarian option comes in in at a reasonable £6.95, and there is a massive amount of choice depending on your taste and budget. Carrying on the trend of cafes offering an evening fare, Brown&Green are now also doing Thursday supper clubs, with pop up chefs cooking up feasts from Persian delights to indulgent burgers.
quickly. It’s here, however, at it’s cafe just off Lordship Lane, where you can enjoy the bread at its freshest; it’s baked on site six days a week. The food is uncomplicated, healthy and really good, letting the ingredients speak for themselves; garlic kale with fried eggs and avocado accompanied by wedges of sourdough toast was really delicious. There’s a sense of collaboration between the kitchen and the bakery as the chefs often request different types of bread from the bakers; buttery soldiers made from a denser loaf of sourdough, baked in a tin, was just the right accompaniment to soft boiled eggs. The bread’s so good though that it could be eaten just with jam or butter — Brick House are happy to oblige, there’s jars of homemade marmalade on each table. Although not on the menu all year round, the highlight of our visit was a breakfast burger made from Flock and Herd pork mince, fennel seed and white pepper. Topped with an egg, spinach and — unexpectedly — a slice of burger cheese, I would thoroughly recommend it. Another recommendation is the Bloody Mary, one fellow diner remarked ‘This is probably the best Bloody Mary I’ve ever had!’ — and we happen to agree.
Also definitely worth a metion: Lerryn’s, SE15 Pigeonhole, SE5 You Don’t Bring Me Flowers, SE13 Rosie’s, SE15 Duck Egg Cafe, SE22 Crossways Cafe, SE15 Lumberjack, SE5 Blue Brick Cafe, SE22 Ali Baba Bar, SE15 London Particular, SE14 Daily Goods, SE5 The Uplands Cafe, SE22 Pavilion Cafe, SE10 Browns Of Brockley, SE4 The Great Exhibition, SE22 The Scullery, SE3 Canvas & Cream, SE23 The Lido Cafe, SE24 The Waiting Room, SE8
Fowlds Cafe SE5 Brick House SE22 Brick House bakery is a bit of a London institution — it delivers its huge sourdough loaves to restaurants across the capital and when on sale at shops and markets, often sells out extremely
Down a little side road off of the infamous Walworth Road, the vibe is vastly different to the busy traffic left behind with beautifully missmatched buildings hinting at their past lives, that now make up a humbling and close knit community — Fowlds being at the centre. On the outside 14
Sugahil, SE26 The Table, SE1 Franklin's SE22 The Montage, SE23
SE LONDON JOURNAL of the entrance is a brass plaque with a collection of names etched into it, which we later found out are the names of the locals who invested in the business on it’s opening 2 years ago making Fowlds essentially a community funded project. This wonderful little cafe boasts some of the best seasonal plates you’ll find, in one of the cosiest cafes SE London has to offer. Armed with a generous serving of avocado on toast, half a grapefruit, and a strong coffee, that weekend supplement won’t know what’s hit it. Whether you indulge in a cheeky brunch cocktail, or go for a classic sandwich that will take you back to picnics as a child, or one of the specials for a more sophisticated pallet (like the taleggio, rosemary, pear & prosciutto sandwich, or fennel and chestnut soup), you feel like you’re getting a proper London pat on the back, from a team who clearly love their community. DANIELLE WATT
Cafe G SE15 An unrivalled location with some of the best windows in the area looking across the grassy expanse of the Rye common, Cafe G serves up a hearty and comprehensive selection of brunch fare — a great selection of nice things on toast such as buffalo tomatoes with a Balsamic glaze and thyme and barbecue beans. They also have a customisable take on a cooked breakfast with a base of eggs and toast to which you add three other components such as garlic mushrooms, spiral sausage or streaky bacon. Lighter options include the homemade granola with berry compote and Greek yoghurt and a great selection of fresh smoothies with the popular vegan choice of ‘Green Love’ a refreshing blend of spinach, mango, pineapple, coconut milk and mint.
Goldsmiths Cafe SE14 Cheap and definitely cheerful, Goldsmiths Cafe is located opposite their namesake campus in New Cross. It’s a family-run, no-faff cafe, with passionate and attentive staff and probably the cheapest brunch in SE14; full of arts students getting full and caffeinated for under a fiver. Everything is served in hearty portions — their full english served with almost two of everything and a side of chips. The coffee is 80p and teas even lower at 60p, and when Costa opened next door, they won a lot of fans with their ‘We Costa You Less’ signs. A great place to soak up a hangover without feeling sad for your pocket, whilst looking like you chill with the cast of Withnail and I.
Mr Bao SE15 With Pedler, Lerryn’s, and more recently Rosie’s at the top end of Rye Lane, just below Peckham Rye Park, you’re spoilt for choice for great brunch spots. If like us you’re sick of the usual ‘things on sourdough’ available most places these days then you’re going to love 15
relative newcomer to the triangle, Mr Bao. With tables in the middle of the restaurant there’s plenty of space for couples or larger groups but we’d suggest sitting at one of the bars at either end of the restaurant. There’s one overlooking the kitchen and another along the large the window looking out onto Peckham, ensuring there’s always something interesting to watch whilst you wait. A fusion of Korean, Japanese and Taiwanese flavours might not be the immediate choice for brunch but I cannot recommend it enough. Mr Bao excels at the traditional brunch staples but with an Asian twist; Bao Benedict of slow braised Flock + Herd Pork, wilted spinach, poached egg and hollandaise was warming, sweet, spicy and delicious; similarly good was the Mushroom Bao with slow roasted mushrooms and a sweet, savoury soy based sauce and a spicy tomato jam. The Full Taiwanese is the star of the menu — amazing spicy sausages, eggs, korokke (a kind of fritter) and best of all, the Asian Beans — though the smoked bacon on the side felt a bit of an outcast next to the other strong flavours. There’s also a super healthy option; the Chia Seed Pot with Goji berries, ginger, poached pear and coconut yogurt was very tasty. Crucially none of the food is served with heavy sourdough but a light steamed bun so you don’t leave uncomfortably full; although with food this good it’s always possible you’ll over-order.
Next time we'll be mapping out the best places to get a pizza in South East London. Email us with your recommendations or contact us @selondonjournal
CafĂŠ G. Artisan Kitchen & Coffee House Breakfast & Lunch Coffee & Cake 184 Peckham Rye SE22 9QA www.cafeg-eastdulwich.com email: hello@cafeg-eastdulwich.com tel: 020 3616 0099 @CafeG_coffee
LADYLAND'S BRUNCH FAVOURITES WORDS: Ladyland contributors, Christine Joos & Bella Binns PHOTOS: Emma Scott-Child
Ladyland is a lifestyle site based in South East London. They publish posts about things to make and do. As a collective of female freelance creatives, the Ladylanders come from diverse backgrounds in publishing, art direction, event and interior design. For this issue, they’ve been kind enough to give us some of their favourite healthy brunch recipes.
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BLUEBERRY BLAST SMOOTHIE Pictured, previous Ladyland: At Ladyland HQ we like to mix it up. One day a recipe for a deliciously decadent cocktail, the next, a life-affirming, cellularboosting blueberry blast smoothie. We’re all about the balance. Blueberries are delicious and super healthy with it — even the NHS, often suspicious of so-called superfoods, sings their praises. And besides, blueberries give this smoothie an otherworldly purple tint (think Violet Beauregarde) that should get your kids interested, at the very least. We make this for breakfast, brunch or even a 4pm snack. You can use frozen berries too, which contain possibly even more vitamins than their nonfrozen counterparts, when you consider their often long journeys onto supermarket shelves. Add in the flax, hemp and pumpkin seeds — omega-rich nutritional powerhouses — creamy coconut yoghurt and hydrating cantaloupe melon and this is one glass of goodness you’ll want to make again and again, we guarantee it. Ingredients: 1 handful of blueberries, fresh or frozen ½ small cantaloupe melon 2-3 medjool dates 4 heaped tbsp of coconut yoghurt 1 tbsp flax seeds 1 tsp hemp seeds 1 tsp pumpkin seeds Maple syrup or honey to taste
Method: 1. Leave one tablespoon of the coconut yoghurt, a few blueberries and the hemp seeds to one side. 2. Mix all the other ingredients in a blender or smoothie maker until smooth and glowing purple. Depending on how sweet your melon is, add more or less dates and maple syrup (or honey). 3. Transfer into a glass and top with the remaining yoghurt, berries and seeds. Drink responsibly. 18
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RHUBARB & STRAWBERRY CHIA PUDDING Ladyland: Pudding for breakfast? Yes, please! But before you start thinking of whipped cream and chocolate for brunch (hmm, that’s an idea) we have to tell you this ridiculously good morning treat actually strays dangerously close to smug food territory. Virtuous chia seeds are loaded with antioxidants, calcium and fibre, and are low-GI so give you a good, long energy boost. You can tweak this recipe to suit what’s in season: we’re celebrating spring with some rhubarb (from Cruson in Camberwell by the way). You’ll need to soak your chia seeds overnight, which does require a little organisation, but these puddings keep in the fridge for up to three days. Ingredients: ¼ cup chia seeds (black or white – up to you) 1 cup coconut milk 1 tsp honey, maple syrup or agave nectar A pinch of cinnamon A handful of strawberries, chopped Toasted slivered almonds and granola, optional, for sprinkling For the stewed rhubarb: 1 bunch of rhubarb, chopped into 1-inch thick pieces 1 orange, zested and juiced ¼ cup sugar Pinch of cinnamon 19
Method: 1. Rinse your chia seeds under cold, running water and transfer them to a large container. 2. Pour in the coconut milk and honey (or maple syrup or agave) and give the chia a stir to make sure there aren’t any pockets of seeds that have remained dry. Allow to soak overnight – the chia seeds will take on a tapioca-like consistency. 3. To stew your rhubarb, place into a pan along with the orange zest and juice, sugar and cinnamon. Simmer for about 8-10 minutes until soft; you want some texture, not a puree. Set aside to add to your chia pudding when it’s ready. 4. Take a glass (or jar if you’re bringing this to work) and place a dollop of rhubarb in the bottom. Rhubarb still a bit too tart? Add a drizzle of honey. Spoon over your chia seeds, leaving enough room on top for the strawberries. Add your strawberries and a sprinkle of granola and toasted slivered almonds if you fancy. 5. Bring it to work and amaze your colleagues as you eat your virtuous breakfast at your desk. No swinging your bag around precariously on the way to the office! Note: Try macadamias, pistachios or pumpkin seeds for crunch — and use your preferred milk to soak the chia seeds. Almond milk, soy and dairy all work; just keep to the ratio of 1 part chia seeds to 4 parts liquid. Trick yourself into feeling like you’re in the tropics with our mango and coconut version, which you can find online at thisisladyland.com.
Wunderlust half
Dinner Dance for the 21st Century
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PERSIAN BRUNCH Persian inspired eggs, serves two as a hearty brunch
WORDS: Sophie Mackey
Ingredients: 5 eggs 1 tsp ground cumin 2 tsp sumac, plus extra for sprinkling Sliced sourdough 1 clove of garlic Handful of pine nuts Few good glugs of virgin olive oil Handful of parsley, finely chopped Quarter of a pack of feta, crumbled Half a lemon Salt and pepper
1. Start off by toasting your pine nuts in a dry frying pan on a medium heat. Keep a close eye on them so they don’t burn. You want them a golden brown colour. This should take a few minutes.
this, but we’re cooking the eggs gently, so you still get the lovely peppery taste of the oil in the final dish), add in your eggs and immediately turn the heat down to its lowest setting. Let the egg start to cook and form, then gently swirl the mixture around, trying not to break the egg up too much. Turn the heat off when they’re looking nearly done, as the eggs will continue to cook.
2. Crack the eggs into a deep bowl and whisk. Add in the cumin (I like to toast then grind my own cumin seeds for a better flavour, but ready-ground is fine), sumac and a good amount of salt and pepper
5. Take your sourdough out from under the grill and rub with the garlic clove. Place the sourdough on two separate plates.
3. Slice your sourdough, drizzle with the oil, sprinkle with a small pinch of salt and place under grill. Keep an eye on it and turn when toasted. You’ll grill this whilst cooking your eggs.
6. Spoon your eggs on top of the sourdough, and squeeze over the lemon juice, sprinkle with a final bit of sumac, top with your toasted pine nuts, feta and parsley. Be generous with the toppings — this is a generous and hearty brunch.
4. Heat up a frying pan on a medium heat, add in a good glug of extra virgin olive oil (I usually wouldn’t cook with 21
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History & Culture Culture Calendar Mixtape Throwing Shade Books Peckham Levels Dulwich2Dunkirk Alice Tye Rufus The Hawk A Bird Eye's View Peckham Coal Line SE Views High Rise Life Dawson's Heights 23
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Sarah Hughes: One Dozen and Zero Units 1–6 MARCH
culture
Combining print publications, improv performance and pit-fired ceramic sculptures, is artist Sarah Hughes. Presenting an exhibition of work that concludes her renowned year-long residency with the South London Gallery, the artist and composer invokes the history of the gallery itself as a durational framework. Introducing new material processes in her practice, Hughes’ works take their cue from the artistic and social founding concerns of the South London Gallery. SOUTH LONDON GALLERY, SE15
Rachel Ofori — Portrait 08 & 09 MARCH Part of the Women Of The World Festival, which celebrates women and girls and looks at the obstacles that stop them from achieving their potential, Portrait is a provocative look at the trials and tribulations of modern life through the eyes of a young black woman. Inspired by Racheal's own experiences, Portrait uses music and dance, poetry and frank humour, to examine identity and role models, and challenge cultural stereotypes. SOUTHBANK CENTRE, SE1
Jeremy Underground 11 MARCH Brixton’s newest nightclub, Phonox, presents a greatly anticipated set from the immensely talented DJ Jeremy Underground. The Parisian DJ behind the acclaimed My Love is Underground compilation, Jeremy Underground has been collecting records since the age of ten. A passion he has retained since, the breadth of his collection make his sets truly unmissable. PHONOX, BRIXTON
DIY Art Market 12 MARCH Work your way around Peckham’s Copeland Gallery, a spacious white-walled gallery warehouse space, at March’s much anticipated DIY Art Market. A celebration of London’s independent publishers, ceramicists, zine makers, illustrators, jewellery makers and screen printers, find your way around a marketplace of the most accomplished amateurs of London’s non-establishment art. COPELAND GALLERY, SE15
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Jamie Fitzpatrick (Loudly) chomp, chomp, chomp 1–9 APRIL Royal College of Art graduate Jamie Fitzpatrick makes domineering sculptures employing the motifs of masculinity and nationhood. Beginning his debut exhibition at Bermondsey’s foremost contemporary art institution, expect bold, large and insightful sculptures. VITRINE GALLERY, SE1
Blue/Orange 12TH MAY – 18 JUNE A production which seeks to address race, ethics, sanity and prejudice, Matthew Xia directs Joe Penhall's Olivier Award Winning play which follows the life of a psychiatric patient for a month. The patient’s doctor wants to section him, whilst his senior consultant wants to save financial resources by sending him to be ‘amongst people who think just like him’, in Shepherd’s Bush. Find gripping performances directed by Xia at the Young Vic. YOUNG VIC, SE1
Dawn Chorus Walk 7 MAY 5AM – 7AM Join Ornithologist David Darrell-Lambert in an early morning walk around the Horniman Gardens, listening and identifying birdsong against the fine London skyline. Join bird experts after the walk for a Horniman special: pastry and taxidermy. Enjoy a hot drink as the Horniman museum’s ornithologist specialists talk you through the museum’s finest feathered taxidermy examples. HORNIMAN MUSEUM, SE23
Artists Open House 06 – 15 MAY Over two weekends in May, hundreds of creatives open up their homes to showcase what they make; a vast cornucopia of works from local ceramicists, painters, print-makers, photographers, jewellers, sculptors, designers, furniture-makers, and then some. Whether you’re just browsing or on the market to buy something local and unique, it’s a wonderful way to spend a weekend. DULWICH FESTIVAL
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“Mr Bao will be a big deal” @Londonist Peckham’s Taiwanese Restaurant Steamed Bao Buns | Brunch | Dinner 293 Rye Lane, Peckham, SE15 4UA
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MIXTAPE: THE HIGH RISE ISSUE Working On A Building — Cowboy Junkies High Rise — Cross Record Tower of Song — Leonard Cohen Running Up That Hill — Kate Bush Higher — J. Cole Doo Wop (That Thing) — Ms. Lauryn Hill High All Day — Popcaan Higher — SBTRKT, Raury
Get high, in a strictly legal capacity, with the high rise playlist, our first of 2016.
High For This — The Weeknd Towers — Bonobo, Szjerdene Higher Ground — TNGHT (Hudson Mowhawke x Lunice) Higher — Rihanna Hits from the Bong — Cypress Hill Because I Got High — Afroman Higher Ground — Stevie Wonder Three Little Birds — Bob Marley & The Wailers Fly Like An Eagle — Seal Thru’ These Architects Eyes — David Bowie Working On A Building Of Love — Chairmen Of The Board All Rise — Blue High — Lighthouse Family Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High? — Arctic Monkey New World Towers — Blur Birds Of Paradise — The Cult On Melancholy Hill — Gorillaz bit.ly/thehighriseissuemixtape
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Throwing Shade
WORDS: Lizzi Sandell PHOTOS: Alex McLuckie
I
meet Crystal Palace based producer and DJ Nabihah Iqbal, also known as Throwing Shade, in a small, noisy coffee shop in her local station. We chat about the great record shops and cafés in the Crystal Palace Triangle, and she shows me around the nearby park, where the infamous dragons — curious Victorian interpretations of the dinosaur — grace the greenery and half-emerge from ponds.
“I put a few tracks up and I didn’t think anyone would listen to them. But then I got an NTS show and I thought, ‘It’s now or never,’” says Iqbal. So she left the legal profession and took up music fulltime, much to the chagrin of her parents. “They’re coming round to it. But you know, Asian parents, in their minds they thought I was going to be a lawyer and now I’m doing music and they’re just like ‘What the hell?’”
Iqbal is extraordinarily accomplished. By her own admission, she has studied, “quite a lot.” Growing up north of the river, she attended one of the best schools in the country, before going on to study a little-known course at SOAS in Ethnomusicology. After graduating, she completed an MPhil at Cambridge before converting to law, completing the bar and relocating to South Africa to work for a human rights’ organisation. Upon her return to London, while still working as a lawyer, her music career picked up via Soundcloud in a way aspiring musicians only dream of.
But Iqbal’s career has gone from strength to strength. This year, she is due to play South by Southwest in Texas (“a dream of mine”) and will release a 5-track EP, House of Silk, on Ninja Tune in March. When I meet her, she is working on a score for a Belgian indie film. “I don’t think it has a storyline. It’s strange but I like that because it gives me the same freedom with my music. The sound palette sounds like Throwing Shade but it’s more atmospheric. I’ve used guitar and some different instruments." 29
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Iqbal’s creative persona is defined by the eclectic, and derives from a deep, lifelong passion for music as well as her academic pedigree. Her regular NTS Radio show consistently incorporates music from all over the world, and spans all imaginable genres. Throwing Shade is so much a product of these competing influences that it has become otherworldly; its ineffable, ambient sound has been described as “cosmic RnB.”
Jackson as, “her first musical obsession,” retelling a story of a childhood spent watching the same Michael Jackson documentary “religiously” until the tape became worn out and had to be replaced. Upon his untimely death, she was distraught: “My friends joke about it because I was crying so much. They’re like ‘How can you cry about Michael Jackson?’ but I still get really sad about it now. I wish he wasn’t dead.” The day afterwards, she paid homage to her late, great hero. “I went for a bike ride and I had a little ghetto blaster and was playing Michael Jackson on it, and everywhere around town you see people coming out onto the streets. "There were a lot of people in Trafalgar square and around Soho, and people had put up signs in their windows. It was cool to see.”
Iqbal collects sounds wherever she goes. She would one day love to travel with the sole purpose of musical discovery, but “that hasn’t happened yet.” Instead, she incorporates music into all her itineraries. When I meet her, she has just returned from visiting family in Pakistan and is busy formulating a show based on her recordings there. A holiday to Jamaica provided the basis for one special edition of her show, and she once dedicated an entire show to Muslim Jazz, which became one of her most popular to date.
Iqbal has a deep love for the city and designates it as the spiritual home for her competing, international influences. “I like Paris, New York, Berlin and Cape Town but there’s just something about London. It will always be my favourite place. It’s got a great mix of people. I love how multicultural it is and how everyone just gets on with it. There’s lots of space to do your own thing. It’s the best place.”
Iqbal is composed, accommodating and easy company. Naturally relaxed, her demeanour is underscored by professionalism, and she gives calm, assured responses to my, sometimes erratic, line of questioning. It strikes me that her manner in some way embodies the complexities of Human Rights’ lawyer turned musician à la mode.
She once played in the Tate Modern’s iconic Turbine Hall. “It was sick. There’s so much natural reverb and delay; I use those sorts of effects a lot in my music but I turned them right down and just let the space do it. From one end of the
But why did Iqbal make this change? I ask her if she feels 'weird' about the transition and she tells me 'weird' is not the right word. Pop music however, is a long-standing passion. She describes Michael 30
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hall to the other end, there’s a 15 second delay. So when you come in through the doors it sounds like ‘sound soup’. I don’t think I’ll get to play in such a big place again.”
the music industry. They’re always scantily-clad and over-sexualised. People like Beyoncé or Nicki Minaj say, ‘Well it’s my choice, I’m just doing it because I want to,’ but their choice is defined by the structure that they’re in; it’s not really freedom of expression.” Iqbal expresses this attitude in her tongue-in-cheek
I imagine that she will. Much of Iqbal’s time is spent gigging these days, but she still goes out regularly; South East to Rhythm Section, Rye Wax and YAM Records in Peckham, and East London venues like Alibi, Birthdays, or Visions, "It’s a bit down and dirty, but it’s an important venue to me; it’s where I played my first ever gig as Throwing Shade”. She spends days at the Blue Mountain café in Penge, the Herne Hill Famers’ Market, and the Horniman Museum. Keen to discover Iqbal’s less cool past-times, we discuss a shared adolescence spent hanging out wearing “really baggy trousers.” “Me and one of my best friends made a pact when we were 14 that we would always wear Criminal Damage trousers - that we’d never stop wearing those trousers, even when we’re 20. We laugh about it now.” While at university, she was in a noise band called Of For. "I don’t think there’ll be anything about that on the internet,” she laughs, “But we did play a few shows. We played at the ICA. That was cool.” Clearly, Iqbal’s awkward grungier moment was infinitely cooler than mine.
videos for Sweet Tooth and Honey Trap. In the former, topless men are drenched seductively in honey, cream and sprinkles; in the latter, Iqbal walks purposefully, fully-clothed, through glowing red scenery, where near-naked men bathe in rose petals. Think, a witty, inoffensive inversion of Blurred Lines. “There are some points where I really feel like I’m a girl in a male-dominated industry, but you’ve just got to believe in yourself and keep doing it. Don’t think that wearing tight, skimpy clothes is going to make a massive difference… I mean, it might but we’ve got to change that.”
“You never see those kind of kids any more.” Iqbal bemoans, over tea, a growing modern homogeneity, in which the internet has “like, meshed everything together.” Although most chart music “does nothing for her,” she is a huge fan of Drake. She has a track called 4Drake which is her most-played song on Spotify, but I was amused to discover that Iqbal cited it as last year’s most underrated song in a Guardian Q+A. The intention of the track, as the name suggests, is that one day, he will hear it. “Drake is always doing different things and he makes tracks that become anthemic. When Hotline Bling came out, I listened to it on repeat, and when a Drake song comes on in a club, everyone just goes crazy. That’s quite an achievement.”
The strength of Throwing Shade lies therein; she incorporates a certain academicism, an awareness, into her work that transcends making or playing music solely because it sounds good. But it does sound good - from her exceptionally diverse, feel-good radio shows, to her danceable live sets, to her evocative personal sound, Iqbal provides ear candy endowed with a knowledgeable dimension. Bright, natural and unpretentious, Nabihah Iqbal is a welcome addition to a flourishing, but testosterone-heavy, alternative music scene.
I ask her how she feels about the accusation that Drake’s lyrics, with their emphasis on “good girls,” are paternalistic, but she prefers to describe his sound as “Sexual Melancholy.” She is concerned however, about the potential for feminism in pop music. “I think we need to look more critically at the role of women in
Lizzi Sandell is a film student at King's College London, she lives in Bermondsey…though her heart belongs to Peckham.
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SPRING NEWS & EVENTS Greenwich Market cookbook launches 22 March Preorder or on sale in participating stores Easter Eggstravaganza Sunday 25 and Saturday 26 March Chocolate Easter egg decorating and card making
Park it in the Market Thursday 31 March, 28 April, 26 May from 7pm Award-winning vintage car and bike event. Family fun with food and music. Craftisan - celebrating the best in Craft and Design Friday 27 to Monday 30 May
Shops and restaurants open daily. Market open 7 days a week from 1 April. greenwichmarketlondon.com
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REVIEW: BOOKS Crystal Palace's The Bookseller Crow on the Hill curates this month’s towering book selection. booksellercrow.co.uk
CONCRETOPIA — A JOURNEY AROUND THE REBUILDING OF POST-WAR BRITAIN John Grindrod Grindrod grew up in New Addington which he describes as like an inner city housing estate abandoned in the country outside Croydon (albeit one with 22,000 inhabitants). Nevertheless it does not appear to have diminished his infectious enthusiasm for his subject, which sets him on a course to find out how blitzed, slum-ridden and crumbling austerity Britain became, within a few short years, a space-age world of concrete and glass. It is a warm, non-judgemental journey that travels from Croydon to Catford pre-fabs, to the BT Tower and the Barbican, to Welwyn Garden City and the first new towns, to the rebuilding of Coventry, Sheffield and Glasgow. It tells the story of ambition and vision; of streets in the sky – close to home, an architect’s plan to link the estates of North Peckham, Heygate and Aylesbury with walkways that would enable you to walk the three miles to the Elephant and Castle without ever visiting ground level — but the story is also one of slack planning and cheeseparing, of Ronan Point and Hulme Crescents. HIGH RISE J G Ballard An idea of community, prepared at the drawing board, played a significant part in much of this activity, from new towns downwards, or upwards. J.G. Ballard’s 1974 novel High-Rise, a modern classic, presents one of the most eloquent challenges to this thinking, and provides a chilling point where the utopian modernism of Le Corbusier breaks down. This high-rise is an elegant forty-storey tower block of a thousand apartments, it has a swimming pool, a bank, a supermarket, a hairdressers and a junior school, presenting little reason, aside from work, to ever leave its environs. It cushions its residents from outside reality, but nevertheless, divides them into lower, middle and upper class. The infamous opening line which begins ‘Later, as he sat on his balcony eating the dog…’ indicates where we’re headed. TEN STOREY LOVE SONG Richard Milward To a tower block in Middlesborough and a book written by a scamp. Ten Storey Love Song tells, in one long, 286 page single concrete paragraph, the story of Bobby the Artist painting his canvasses on pills and acid and (Francis) Bacon. London and money beckon in the shape of the brilliantly named art dealer Bent Lewis and a tale of woozy redemption ensues. Six or so years old, it remains one of the most original and ambitious, but brilliantly controlled novels of recent years.
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Peckham Levels We meet the team behind Peckham Levels — a project aiming to transform one of Peckham’s most iconic buildings.
WORDS: Philip Nichols PHOTOS: Andy Barker
The building which now houses the Peckham Plex cinema was originally built in 1983 as a Sainsbury's supermarket, serviced by a multi-storey car park in the remainder of the building. Today, the first three levels are in use as parking for the town centre, although in practice it is hardly ever used. Since 2008, creative enterprise Bold Tendencies have been putting on art and music events at the multi-storey using the top three floors. The venture has attracted more than 900,000 visitors to the area, thanks also to the popularity of the rooftop bar, Frank’s Café, which has become a new London landmark. Southwark Council owns the site and the long term future of the car park had been in doubt for some time. Last year, they announced a five year plan to run the space as a creative and enterprise hub. They were approached by seventy different organisations interested in managing the space, with fourteen submitting full tenders. In November, the Council announced that Pop Community Ltd, a collaboration between Pop Community, architect Carl Turner (the same architects that are transforming Peckham’s Library Square) and The Collective, a property development company. Their aim is to transform Peckham’s town centre car park into ‘a new creative community for local artists and entrepreneurs’. Pop Community are currently running Pop Brixton, situated behind Brixton railway station on
a previously unused piece of land. Using shipping containers, the project has been created to showcase a range of independent start-ups and businesses from Brixton and Lambeth, where they can share space, skills and ideas. This includes a number of food and drink outlets, retail outlets for local makers, workspaces for artists, a community event space and office space for social enterprises. James Leay is the Managing Director of Pop Community Ltd said, “we want to create an environment which allows small local businesses the opportunity to flourish, but also that has a positive contribution to the local community”. Leay wants to attract businesses that share his ethos of adding value to the wider community - anyone wanting to rent space at Pop Brixton, apart from having a sound business idea, must commit to do at least an hour’s volunteering each week with local community groups.
workspace, Peckham Levels is intended as an asset for the wider Peckham community. The aim is to integrate its members with local people, community groups and schools; the scheme includes a series of community initiatives offering free events space (for free use by local community groups for at least 25% of the time) training, education and employment opportunities. 10% of any profits generated from income will be used to create a community fund, for reinvestment into local businesses, community groups and projects. The Peckham Levels project feels different though from the pop up nature of the Brixton site. This is reinforced by the £3 million invested into the project on a five year lease by Southwark Council. The investment has been made by property development company, The Collective. James Scott, Chief Operating Officer of The Collective, is keen to dispel some of the myths and stereotypes about the reputation and nature of property development. Scott emphasises that Peckham Levels shares Pop Brixton’s ambition to support local, independent talent and that the space needs to be an asset for the whole community. However, given the investment he accepts that the partnership needs to develop a mixed economy of established creative businesses as well as others at a more developmental stage.
Pop Community’s vision for Peckham Levels is to create a new home for Peckham’s creative community, utilising the existing six levels of the car park. The arts organisation Bold Tendencies, Frank’s Café and Peckham Plex will continue operating, with the new plans transforming the intermediate levels. In collaboration with the existing tenants, the scheme wants to turn the car park into a year-round hub of creative activity. Levels 1 to 4 will comprise of artist studios, maker workshops and shared workspace for young creative businesses (47% of the available space); Levels 5 and 6 will provide gallery, performance and multi-purpose events space (46%), some retail space (4%) where the artistic community can promote and sell their work and food and beverage units for independent traders from the local area (3%). As well as providing creative
Pop Community Ltd is currently in discussions with local residents and stakeholders to finalise the designs, with talks taking place on Rye Lane last month. Building work is planned to start in March 2016, and the aim is to open the car park in phases starting from June 2016. Longer term, Southwark Council still says their plan is to sell the site for redevelopment after the five year lease has expired. 35
Dulwich2Dunkirk The Dulwich Hamlet FC fans supporting refugees in need This month we spoke to Katie, a member of Dulwich2Dunkirk, about the inspirational work the grassroots network is doing to improve the refugee crises just the other side of the Channel. It was started by nonleague Dulwich Hamlet FC fans, Nisha, Jack and Dave. They saw the inhumane conditions occurring in France and felt South East London had to do its bit to ease the suffering. The collective was born in the football stands and is now drawing in supporters from far and wide. WORDS: Philip Smith  PHOTO: Duncan Hart
With an estimated 2000 people, 300 of which are children, living in the Dunkirk camp, the situation is grave. Mud engulfs and envelopes the canvas and corrugated site. With only 1 water tap per 375 people and one toilet per 150 people, the sanitation is severely worse than in the notorious Calais camp. 10 children a week are in dire need of medical attention and the kids occupy themselves by kicking rubbish around in the sludge.
chest-infections and psychological traumas are increasing at an alarming rate. The cold and damp infiltrates the residents' barely standing structures and eats away at the hope of a new beginning, that for now, still burns strong. It was easy for co-founder Nisha to rapidly build up a large network of people. The main aim is aid; necessities that allow the residents of the camp to seek comfort in a modern hell. Those who have seen their homes destroyed by war and extremism, are now in a transitory state and battered by the cruel sea storms. Food, shelter and
With a high number of unaccompanied minors in the camp and winter settling in, cases of scabies, 36
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warmth provide light in these darkest of times.
turned away and directed back to the UK.
Katie told me of the enormous backing Dulwich2Dunkirk has received from Dulwich Hamlet FC from the very beginning. The football club became intrinsic to getting the cause off the ground. The club’s buildings have been used as storage spaces, with the turnstiles used to house donated clothes and the equipment sheds keeping food. The ground has been used as a drop off point for sleeping bags and the owners of the club paid for the first convoy of transport to head over to the French coast.
The struggles faced by aid workers appear to be down to the tense nature of the CRS (French Riot Police) and the uncertainty about how they will react at any given moment. Heavily armed and agitated by the volume of refugees and media attention, rules on aid-giving are not clearly defined. The more backing behind the relief projects, be it through monetary donations, practical gifts or wider coverage, the easier it will be to overcome these struggles. Dulwich2Dunkirk want the camp residents to feel like humans, not hounded out of the country, or detained like animals in captivity. We must act as fellow human beings, brother to brother, sister to sister. There must be more provisions for refugees! The situation may appear to be alien, a news story that pops up on your Newsfeed or on the Ten O’clock News. Yet, large numbers of people are living in infested, stagnant and atrocious conditions just along the coastline from the more well-known Calais camp.
The internet has drawn people together all under one cause. Nisha, Katie and the team have used Facebook, Twitter and the blogosphere to their maximum potential. Forums have popped up, friends have linked in other friends and now large pockets of South London are donating and contacting Dulwich2Dunkirk to jump on-board with their mission. Dulwich2Dunkirk members have been to the camp six times since October 2015 with vans of supplies. Katie remarked that people are struggling to comprehend that such devastating living conditions are occurring a mere three hour journey south of London.
Dulwich2Dunkirk are working with many businesses and volunteers in order to raise awareness and provide help. Katie explained the work of one such project, Kitchen in Calais. The founder, Sofineee, along with her husband Jamal feed 1300 people a day from their on-site kitchen. If you want to donate food to this amazing cause, get in contact with Kitchen to Calais and Dulwich2Dunkirk to find out which foods are in short supply.
The network want people to realise the scale of the problem and address the fact that people are residing in a camp far below the UN minimum standards for a refugee camp. Dulwich2Dunkirk attempt to send members to the camp as often as possible. Foodstuffs, blankets, tents and sleeping bags are the main priority; however, the policing of the French coast is making it increasingly harder to provide such important provisions.
Dulwich Hamlet FC will be holding a match to raise money for Red Cross and Southwark Refugee Centre on 2nd March against FC Assyria. There will also be a food donation dropoff at the match. Full details can be found here: bit.ly/hamletsupportrefugees
On the French coast, aid workers are experiencing difficulties in getting supplies to those in the camp. Katie explained that aid reaching the camp residents depends on the mood of the French police on a day to day basis. On some occasions, aid will be waved through the checkpoints, on others, the vans will be searched and some supplies removed. Provisions will even be simply
If you wish to donate to Dulwich2Dunkirk head to the fundraising page: gofundme.com/r3hh2t2c or get in contact via facebook, twitter and their blog: dulwich2dunkirk.wordpress.com. Born and raised in Blackheath, Phil is a freelance culture writer and musician. Can be found writing about or gigging in all manner of bars, cafes and venues across London.
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Alice Tye We were thrilled when the Camberwell College of Arts alumni Alice Tye agreed to illustrate our first issue of 2016 — the high rise theme particularly suiting her wonderful painting style. We caught up with her to find out a bit more about her practice.
SOUTH EAST LONDON JOURNAL:
How long have you lived in South East London and what brought you to the area? ALICE TYE: I’ve lived in South East London, specifically New Cross Gate and Brockley, since 2009 when I moved here from Kent to study at Camberwell College of Art. SELJ: What is your ideal working set up? AT: I work from home and love being able to just get up in the morning and start painting without commuting to a studio. I did try having a shared studio space in Peckham a few years ago but it didn’t work for me. Ideally my workspace would be my own studio in my flat as I could use a little more space, but for now my living room works pretty well!
my own self-directed work the starting point tends to come from popular culture - films, books etc.
SELJ: What is the starting point normally for your projects?
SELJ: Do you have materials you stick with for most of your work?
AT: It really depends on the project: for commissioned works the starting point always comes from the clients concept, for
AT: I almost always use oil paints on paper, I started using them in the last year of my degree after years of avoiding any kind of paint
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and it just clicked, working in oils makes the most sense to me. SELJ: What is your dream commission? AT: I would love for someone to sponsor me to make a body of work based on a yearlong trip around the USA! I did a similar and much shorter self directed project last year after travelling in
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the States for a few months and it was such an incredible trip and a brilliant series of images to work from. SELJ: What are your favourite places in SE London? AT: Camberwell College of Art will always be really important to me after studying there for
four years - I love going back to the college to see the degree shows each year and to catch up with friends who are still working there at Camberwell Press. But aside from the College, I often go to Bar Story for happy hour or Franks in the summer. For coffee I love St David Coffee House in Forest Hill, I also work in the kitchen there. alicetye.com 39
Award winning specialist Haberdashery, Fabric and Craft shop. For the past five years Stag & Bow have been celebrating crafting among South Londoners, with its popular workshops, fully stocked haberdashery, beautiful vintage curios and original gifts by designer makers. Workshop highlights include; Patchwork & Quilting, Felted lambs and ‘Faberge’ eggs, Screen printing, Clothes making, and Textile & Craft workshops for 8-12 yr olds every Sunday. See our full workshop listing on stagandbow.com/workshops-events *We’re offering South East London Journal readers 20% off your first workshop if you mention this advert when booking, or use the coupon SEJourn when booking online.
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Rufus the Hawk
One of the most rewarding things about running the journal is coming across interesting people who we wouldn’t normally get the chance to meet like wonderful Blackheath resident and Falconer of fifteen years, Imogen Davis and her infamous charge Rufus, the Hawk of Wimbledon Tennis fame. We were lucky enough to catch up with Imogen to find out more about Rufus and the work which takes them both to the heights of some of the cities best loved landmarks. Photo: Steve Braund SOUTH EAST LONDON JOURNAL: How
what is his official job and title?
old is Rufus,
IMOGEN DAVIS: Rufus
is a seven-year-old male Harris Hawk. He is not native to England, they would be found in North America in the wild, but his design lends itself perfectly to doing his job, which is being a Bird Scarer — so acting as a deterrent to pigeons at landmarks or sports events where they can be a damaging or a nuisance. It’s an ancient form of pest control and doesn’t harm the pigeons, they know it’s not a safe place to settle if I fly him there throughout the year. His wingspan is one metre and is he is very stealthy, making weaving between girders and buildings pretty easy — also for finding pigeons that may be roosting in small corners of buildings and in roofs. SELJ: What
does a typical day look like for Rufus?
ID: It is dictated by the time of year and weather. For example in the winter the days are much shorter as we cannot fly Rufus in the dark. We visit many places of interest around London throughout the year such as Billingsgate Fish Market, Westminster Abbey, Fulham FC and of course Wimbledon! As we work from the roofs of the buildings we get to experience amazing viewpoints all across the city. SELJ: Does
he ever catch pigeons?
ID: No! Rufus is trained as a deterrent, if he were to
catch his own food he wouldn't have any need to return to me, so this relationship and association with food rewards is built and strengthened from when we first began training him at sixteen weeks old.
SELJ: Does
Rufus have any personality traits?
ID: Rufus is such a friendly bird and loves meeting new people, the only time he is unhappy is when he is around dogs…he really doesn't like them! SELJ: Rufus is quite a fixture during Wimbledon even staring in his own advertising campaign, how did that come about? ID: Well he has been working at Wimbledon for over six years now; he is a much-loved part of the tournament, as the public seems to have built up a real affection for him, which is great. So Stella Artois just really liked the aspect of Rufus working behind the scenes of such an important event, and decided to showcase the work he does! It was so much fun and also just amazing to see him filmed in that way, showing the detail and mechanics almost of the how he takes off and flies. SELJ: How did you get into working with birds of prey? ID: It is a family business — my dad grew up training birds and turned his passion into a job and has always encouraged the rest of the family to do the same! SELJ: What
other work do you do with the birds?
ID: It is very diverse from bird control with Rufus to school demonstrations and educational events with some of our other birds of prey, there is never a dull day! avianenvironmental.co.uk @RufusTheHawk
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An Avian Invasion? likely they are the descendants of domestic pets which have escaped or been released into the wild over the last 50 years. First colonising South London and now spreading out from the capital into other cities, the population of feral parakeets is currently increasing at a rate of 30% a year, with an estimated population of 50,000 in the UK.
I’m sure by now everyone has overcome the initial surprise and delight of tropical birds zipping around London in screeching flocks. Ring-necked parakeets are found in West Africa right through to India and Bangladesh, but have started spreading in large numbers across Europe. There’s no denying how exotically beautiful they are with their vivid green plumage and red beaks; and it does feel rather strange to see them thriving here in the UK.
It does seem quite bizarre that these resplendent birds have managed to survive outside of captivity in a habitat that is a far cry from their native climate. In comparison to the stout, plump form of many of our native species, vital for retaining heat during the winter months, the parakeets’ slim, tall bodies make them ill adapted to the cold, and prolonged, harsh winters can cause a dip in their numbers. It’s suspected that this may be why these birds have clung to the relative warmth of our cities, rather than moving out to much colder rural areas.
There’s several fantastical theories of how they’ve colonised the British Isles: a pair released by Jimi Hendrix on Carnaby Street back in the 60’s becoming the ‘Adam and Eve’ of the entire population; that there was a mass breakout during the filming of The African Queen in West London in 1951; or that a colony escaped a large private aviary, which was destroyed back in a freak hurricane in 1987. Any of these could be true, but more than
As Londoners, we stand proud as a multi-cultural city, and would naturally welcome this avian fauna with open arms. However, aside from the fact that they drown out the native dawn chorus their high pitched screeching, they have waged war with the vineyards and orchards of the North Downs, earning them a spot on the ‘General License’ alongside pigeons and crows, meaning they can be culled if causing damage to commercial crops. More importantly parakeets could be affecting the population of British birds. It is thought that Parakeets spend half their feeding time at artificial feeders and research by the Natural History Museum has shown that other birds will feed less frequently when the more socially dominant parakeets are present, or even avoid them all together. The upside to this is that in recent years there’s been an increase of urban-dwelling raptors and owls in the capital. Many breeding pairs often feed on parakeets, which are easy targets — being bright green does tend to make you more noticeable. No matter our individual opinion of the Parakeet, these marmite birds are here to stay, but the question is how long will their population continue to increase before it plateaus and what further strain will they put on our native ecosystem in the process?
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Plight of the Sparrow the capital. There’s no definitive theory as to why this is happening but the most likely reason is down to lack of food available. Mature adults can survive on seeds and fruits pilfered from our gardens and bird tables, but it’s the juveniles that rely on protein rich live foods to help them mature into adulthood. It’s thought that air pollution in big cities is causing a reduction in the amount of flying invertebrates, a much needed food source for young Sparrows. And then there’s the lack of green-space; our gardens are vital havens for city dwelling wildlife, but the majority of our city gardens are now paved or decked, lacking shrubbery, grass and wild flowers reducing the amount of insects.
The House Sparrow or ‘Spuggie’ as it’s known up north, is often characterised as the ‘cockney geezer’ of the avian world. This pugnacious little bird used to be seen in flocks throughout the UK, gangs of them chirping away and flitting erratically through the hedgerows. Throughout recent history sparrows have adapted with us moving from rural farms to the urban jungle of city life. To be honest the Sparrow isn’t the sharpest looking bird, the female is the classic ‘little brown job’, but the males seem like once finely dressed gents, who’ve let themselves go a bit — with their brown garb, silver caps and black bibs, their ruffled feathers are reminiscent of un-tucked shirts.
The best way for us to help is to keep our bird feeders topped up, put out meal worms through spring/early summer and to chuck up a couple of nesting boxes. Even better – leave a patch of your lawn to grow wild, plant some shrubs and scatter some wild flower seeds. We need to save our Sparrows!
Being social birds, flocking in groups of 10-20; they nest and roost in small colonies all year round and so a hierarchy system – a pecking order if you will – needs to be in place to help smooth social dynamics. As with almost every other species in the world, the bigger you are the higher your status, but for the males it’s all about the bibs. Basically the bigger the bib, the higher up the ladder you are the better the choice of mate.
Both of these articles were illustrated by Alice Tye and written by Aaron Dunkerton. Aside from having a strong fondness for birds, Aaron is Peckham based and practices as a product and furniture designer alongside running lifestyle blog Day Of Rest. dayofrest.co.uk
Although at one point one of Britain’s most numerous birds, over the last 25 years their population has plummeted by 60%, and the decline is at its worst in 43
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THE PECKHAM COAL LINE from
Traces of an old railway line that was once in operation to transport coal into Peckham Rye are still there if you look closely. Looking down from the roof of the multi-story carpark building behind Rye Lane, you can see a green sliver of overgrown sidings that run alongside the current railway track as far as the eye can see. Oblivious to the hive of human activity on the street below, silver birch trees and wild shrubs sway gently in the breeze on this stretch of forgotten land that hasn’t been accessed for over 60 years. From a different perspective, looking up above Ali Baba’s Juice Bar in the cobbled courtyard adjacent to the carpark, part of an old sign for Ricketts of London still hangs on the brickwork. In times gone by, Rickett Cockerall and Company were the largest supplier of house coal to London and the Home Counties, and their signs would have been a familiar sight all over the city. It
the
ground
is here that the proposed new Peckham Coal Line linear park would start. It would then run for 900 metres from Peckham Rye to Queens Road Peckham, opening up access to hidden Victorian railway arches and offering far-reaching views north over the London skyline. The concept for the Peckham Coal Line park came together when Nick Woodford, a local architecture student, collaborated with architect and member of Peckham Vision,
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up
Clyde Watson. Realising that the idea didn’t need to remain a theoretical one, Nick built a website to share the designs and invite a public response. What did people think? Was this a good way to bring old land back into use? Encouraged by positive feedback, Nick and his partner Louise, in conjunction with the team at Peckham Vision then organised a workshop and a group walk of the proposed route. Anyone interested to hear more was welcome to join. Nick and Louise had no idea how many people would turn up. The extent of the interest became clear when over fifty people arrived for that first workshop and walk in January 2015. The main benefit of the Peckham Coal Line is that it will be useful for local residents. If it does happen it will provide a seamless, traffic-free route linking Rye Lane and Queens Road Peckham — two nearby but disconnected, town centres. Instead of navigating busy, congested
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Rye Lane
that benefits those who would make use of it — whether that’s long-standing local residents, newcomers to the area or visitors. The vision is that the Coal Line can be what people want it to be. It’s an opportunity to go against the grain of the omnipresent faceless development projects currently sweeping London, and shape the agenda from the grassroots up. Since that first workshop in January 2015, the Peckham Coal Line team have campaigned hard locally and further afield to raise awareness of the project’s potential. We’ve now walked the route that the Coal Line would take (at ground level, looking up) with thousands of people. We’ve met a lot of people in person at our events, and a lot of people online through our social media channels,
roads people will be able to take a pleasant walk or cycle high above the busy streets, breathing in serenity and nature on their way from A to B. It would also bridge a gap in the existing cycle network, connecting safe cycling paths all the way from Brixton to the Thames. One of the principles that drives the now seven-strong team for the Peckham Coal Line is community participation and engagement. The team are keen to get the message out that this is not a project led by a big organisation or developer, but an initiative that started locally, from the ground up. Everyone on the current team has volunteered their time to help build the case to make the Coal Line happen. There’s no motive other than to create something good 46
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Queens Road
We’ll continue to collaborate with local businesses and organisations to make sure our plans compliment other projects and plans in the area. The next big date in our public diary will be to share the results of the Feasibility Study, and announce who we’ll be commissioning to lead this exciting next stage in design and development — this should be sometime in the summer of 2016. The invitation remains open to get involved with the project if it has captured your imagination. The more people who join us, the closer we get to making this project a unique twenty-first century case-study for what can be achieved by the people, for the people.
our newsletters and our blogs. Our team has grown as we’ve met more people who want to give us their time and muck in to make this idea a reality. We’ve raised £75,000 in cash in a crowdfunding campaign with Spacehive — the most successful campaign in Spacehive’s four year history. The money that we’ve raised is going to be used to commission a Feasibility Study, which will outline how and when the Peckham Coal Line could be built. It will also estimate how much the final project will cost. So, what next? 2016 will hopefully see our team of volunteers continue to grow and diversify. We’ll be continuing to host regular events to walk the route and to keep everyone in the picture with our progress.
Find out more visit peckhamcoalline.org 47
SE Views Benedetta Martini
With a little effort — or the cost of a bus ride — you can find some of the best views of the capital from the hills of South East London... weather permitting of course.
This page from top: Norwood Park, SE19 Canonbie Road, SE23 Previous: Blythe Fields, SE23 50
SE LONDON JOURNAL Clockwise from top left: Greenwich Hill, SE10 Telegraph Hill, SE4 / SE14 Nunhead Reservoir, SE15 The Horniman Museum Garden, SE23 Next Page: One Tree Hill, SE23
Benedetta Martini is a photographer that lives, works and studies in Camberwell. You can find more of her work on her blog, Exploring South London, as well as her new travel blog, Wonder Journal. exploringsouthlondon.tumblr.com wonder-journal.com
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SPEC. simple modern websites info@specwebdesign.co.uk
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Life WORDS: Bobby Diabolus PHOTO: Jim Eyre
T
he Shard, at 306 metres the tallest building in the EU, nestles into the crook of the River Thames and London Bridge Street. Its postcode is SE1 and therefore forms part of the South East London city-scape, technically. Located
from turning by noise complaints from upper level residents. Its split of housing-association, right to buy, private flats and penthouses can be seen as a microcosm of London; social housing butting up against multimillion pound high-rise living. In many ways it's the modern heir to 1960s optimism in vertical living — diverse communities living upwards, private homes mixing with shared spaces. This optimism continues as The Strata is one of the few recent mixed towers to not have the distastefully media-dubbed ‘poor doors’ — consisting of separate entrances for social housing and less well-off tenants. It currently overlooks the building site that once was the Heygate Estate. Designed by Tim Tinker in the early 1970s under the influence of Le Corbusier it was meant to be a beacon of optimism after the inner-London housing issues caused by the Second World War. These issues were still being felt well in to the 1980s with much East and South East London, particularly along the Thames, still bomb sites. The old housing stock of two-up-two-down terraces with outdoor toilets were also woefully out of date. One solution was to build New Towns, a new commuter belt. Another was to build up, communities in the sky with modern homes, heated, indoor plumbing, communal spaces, shops, pubs; everything a family could want or need all within the block.
in the London Borough of Lambeth, it looks north, across the river towards the City. It's glass cladding echoing the rash of new skyscrapers, a beacon to those smaller homes of banks and insurance firms. It is as if it turns its back on its stumpier, more utilitarian brothers and sisters, the real high-rises of South East London huddled around the Elephant and Castle roundabout, such as The Strata, Guy's Hospital Tower Wing and the current and former estates at the Aylesbury and Heygate. The Strata (148 metres), variously called the Lipstick or the Razor, was completed in 2010 at the Elephant and Castle, a 43-storey residential building designed to be self-sufficient with wind turbines built into the roof and rain-water recycling facilities. It's only two years older than The Shard but seems much older already attracting some criticism that its eco-credentials may not be holding up with persistent rumours that the roof mounted wind-turbines are prevented
At its peak over 3,000 people lived in the Heygate, which along with its near neighbour the Aylesbury (current population 7,500), were part of the post58
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war Utopian dream of transforming urban living spaces through radical design. The brutalist architecture, a style that grew in reaction to preWWII art deco and chosen to reflect the more serious world of the Cold War (its pre-fabricated concrete was also cheap for countries still struggling with war debt), came to represent all that was right and wrong with the schemes. Simple, functional design, meant to be useful not pretty, whose good intentions fade in the face of damp British winters that can stain and leech the concrete of character. The social discussion is still ongoing, particularly with regard to the Aylesbury which is currently the subject of ongoing regeneration plans. Similar plans saw the Heygate demolished whilst the larger Aylesbury has been divided into phases, some of which have begun. It is without doubt that the first residents of both estates welcomed their new homes. Larger than the homes that made up much of London's social housing stock they enjoyed indoor plumbing, heating and large communal spaces including landscaped gardens. However, over the years perceived issues with crime and deprivation lead to Southwark Council drawing up plans for redevelopment in the 1990s. Many residents (and their testimonies form the basis of many online history projects such as heygatewashome.org) have complained that its bad reputation was due to media representation — both news stories that unduly focussed on crime and the subsequent fictionalised portrayals of urban decay that used the estate as a setting, such as the infamous dystopian Channel 4 ident (you can see a fantastic reaction by local residents online). Locals point to Metropolitan Police figures from the late 90s that show the Heygate with a crime rate 40% lower than the Southwark Borough aver-
age and that the council’s own survey from 1998 rated the estate as ‘above average’ for the condition of its housing stock. The redevelopment project has been highly criticised by former residents who see it is putting profit above community. The Heygate and Aylesbury are very attractive sites to developers with the space to put high-density housing, retail and commercial units right by major transport links within Zone 1. But the cost to the established community has been huge, with life-long neighbours separated widely across London’s boroughs. Promises of a Right of Return for former residents have been dismissed by resident groups who point to an end date of 2015 for the promise — and the fact that only one, unsuitable phase has been completed as symptomatic of mismanagement and broken promises at every stage. Aylesbury resident groups are making the same arguments as those at the Heygate did — that the estate just needs better investment in what they have, not a big ‘knock-it-down-start-again’ project, particularly one that will not reflect the diversity and community that has been replaced. The new development will add a new thirty-seven storey tower to South East London’s skyline — One The Elephant — a proposed mix of living, retail and commercial spaces. The council and Lend Lease, the developer behind the scheme, stand by their claims that the estate was (and “is” in the
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case of the Aylesbury) unsustainable and that the new development will revitalise the area. The Strata, the Heygate and Aylesbury and The Shard in many ways develop the approach to tower block living.The Heygate and Aylesbury were built solely for social housing use. Over time ‘right to buy’ has mixed in a large proportion of private owners and the increase of housing association management has blurred the lines between state owned housing stock and private rentals. The Strata was built with these developments in mind being designed to accommodate private ownership (including luxurious penthouses) as well as housing association part-ownership, whilst The Shard takes it even further, a glass monument to commerce and transient living where those that can afford to live there often spend very little time there. Communities in the sky are now a private enterprise. All four raise the question, what do we see social housing for? When the Heygate and Aylesbury were built it was for all, for families, for people starting out. Successive government policies seem to have shunted it to a position of ‘housing of last resort,’ justifying it as something that needs to be paid for by selling off prime real estate for private housing.
Sharing a similar aesthetic to the Heygate and Aylesbury, Guy's Tower (143 metres) has fared better in the public imagination. Completed in 1974 it was and remains (after some renovation work in 2014) the tallest hospital building in the world. Another brutalist edifice perhaps it's private ownership and status as a hospital has saved it from the opprobrium levelled at its neighbouring 1970s estates. These four edifices, all within the same corner of south east London, represent the modern history of high-rise living, from social experiment to thrusting commerce, as well as the ongoing political and social conversations to do with our ever-changing city.
Bobby was converted to the joy South East London six years ago and has never looked back (or north) since. A jobbing copywriter, fiction writer and wannabe film maker he can be found in pretty much any Antic pub. thebobbydiabolus.co.uk Jim Eyre is not sure he is really a photographer but he does capture images to prove to himself that what he is seeing in his surroundings, is what he is actually seeing. See more of his images on Instagram: @JIMEYREJIMEYREJIMEYRE
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Dawson's Heights When you first glimpse Dawson’s Heights looming above the rhodedendrons of Dulwich Park, it is a striking, almost shocking sight — its bold, muscular form entirely at odds with the well-tended gardens and genteel Edwardian mansions that back onto the park. Its scale, accentuated by the hill upon which it stands, makes it seem almost impossibly monumental in this leafy and quiet part of SE London. Words: Tim O’Callaghan Photos: Abi Jones
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'Local nicknames for the estate: 'the castle' and 'the battleships' echo it's monumental and almost military formal characteristics'
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It has a strange way of drifting in and out of view as you get near it, offering glimpses as you negotiate the South Circular before disappearing again, adding to its enigma. But as you approach Dawson's Heights on foot, past the neat rows of Victorian terraces and villas in this part of East Dulwich, it retains its imposing and striking presence; the balconies and recessed access decks sharply picked out in strong sunlight and it’s staggered/ziggurat-like form accentuating rather than flattening the hill — the bricks emerging almost geologically from the London clay of the site.
delicate foundations. These awkward ground conditions were worsened when the smaller hill was used as a dump for railway spoil from the construction of the railway linking the newly relocated Crystal Palace with the city. In fact, Dawson was the name of the railway’s main contractor. (The railway itself is now abandoned, its memory preserved only in a painting by Pissaro of the long-since abandoned Lordship Lane Station; the tracks running through Dulwich and Sydenham Woods are now frolicked upon by squirrels and urban foxes).
Local nicknames for the estate: 'the castle' and 'the battleships' echo it's monumental and almost military formal characteristics — but these nicknames are apt in other ways, as the estate has had to defend itself first against hostility towards its (until recently) unfashionable and unloved brutalist architectural style, but more recently and significantly, the forces of change and gentrification that threaten to destroy the very reasons for which the estate was built in the first place.
The site came to the attention of London Borough of Southwark in the 1960s; a time when local authorities were empowered and funded to build and pay for new social housing on a tremendous scale. Not only were they empowered to build this housing, they also took on the responsibility for designing and delivering it themselves with in-house architect teams staffed by some of the most brilliant and ambitious young architects working in the country. One of these young architects (and the hero of this particular story) was Kate Macintosh, who joined Southwark as a recently qualified architect shortly after working on the early stages of the National Theatre. Macintosh is now retired and living in Winchester but still takes a keen interest in her former projects and her work has started to gain the recognition it deserves, with a smaller scheme in Lambeth recently grade-II listed and Dawson’s Heights itself featured in the excellent recent documentary, Utopia-London.
In fact, the story of the Dawson’s Heights conception, design and more recent history of neglect and selling off, is not only compelling but tells much about how our attitudes to housing people in the city have changed to an astonishing degree within a generation. It also provides a microcosm of how the social fabric and diversity of London is changing at an equally astonishing rate.
The site itself had been exempt from the Victorian development around it due to problematic clay soil with a tendency A small design competition for the site to slip and heave, making it unsuitable was run internally within the department for the Victorian builders’ minimal and which Macintosh won with a design for 65
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two staggered blocks that, whilst clearly of obvious quality and drama, were also more cost effective than a proposal for a low rise, high density scheme and more sensitive than another scheme for a series of towers. Macintosh was just 28 years old when she won the commission — an astonishing opportunity in the context of a profession in which (now as then) anyone under 40 is considered ‘young’ and where, even today, just 17% of registered architects in the UK are women. When I asked her about this, she was clear that she was aware of the importance of the opportunity and was committed to making the best of it. Above: One of the original plans for Dawson's Heights. Below: A colour-coded diagram detailing how different sized properties would be distributed.
She also pointed out that, in fact, it was her most creative and energetic age and that this contributed hugely to the energy and vitality of the project. Certainly the building has an ambitious, almost heroic quality that may well connect to that youthful optimism. It is an interesting point to consider at a time where opportunities to build on any significant scale are increasingly scarce for ‘young’ architects. There was much in the way of politics and regulation to be negotiated before the project could begin. At the time, driven by central government policies, Southwark as well as many other London Boroughs were 67
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pursuing programs of extensive building with pre-fabricated slab blocks — the kind you could see in the recently demolished Heygate Estate and elsewhere. Dawson’s Hill was only spared this because of the awkward ground conditions that necessitated a unique and individual response.
should be of great quality and have great thought and care applied to its design. To this end, different tenure types and unit size are deliberately mixed so that they would share access routes, ‘I also wanted to ensure a mix of different family sizes, sharing the same access, as happens in classic village communities, rather than the stacking of identical dwellings as is the tendency with tower blocks’. This sense of community is still palpable around the estate with welltended gardens and a very low turnover rate with residents.
Macintosh also had to contend with the kind of philistine attitudes towards housing quality and cost cutting familiar to all architects working in social (and market) housing today, but from a perhaps less expected source: the then Labour Housing minister (Richard Crossman) — Macintosh noted, ‘he spelled out the philosophy of ostentatious parsimony in a speech in which he spoke of the unnecessary extravagancies which LA architects were building into homes; things such as balconies. Nonessential fripperies, which if they were stripped away would allow government funds to stretch further. This culture of absolute minimal provision for those in need is responsible for gigantic waste in the long term…’
Formally, the development is focused on two large blocks that face each other over a central garden/courtyard. These blocks stagger up from smaller individual units that stretch further down the hill. This accentuation of the natural landscape was deliberate, Macintosh had seen the well regarded Park Hill Estate in Sheffield and felt it had the effect of flattening the dramatic natural landscape, ‘I wanted to design a complex, which formed a unified totality, growing out of the hill summit. Scottish castles were and are also a deep memory. A castle can be both imposing from the outside and protective from the inside.’
Macintosh worked around this, ensuring the proposed balconies had a secondary (and non-removable) function as a secondary means of escape in a fire, ‘it was necessary to exercise ones nous and ensure that aspects of the design with which one wanted to achieve an element of delight, were embedded in such a way that they could not be stripped out. The balconies at Dawson’s Heights are a case in point. They are duel purpose. Each one is allocated to one dwelling, but they also act as fire escape balconies, with a break-glass-to-enter lock into the adjoining flat.’ There was also a clear commitment to creating a successful sense of community and a passion that this housing for those who were most in need
The staggered façade with recessed walkways and projecting balconies provides a sense of depth and playfulness – particularly enlivened in sunlight and the yellow brick of the external façade offers a softer alternative to its contemporary slab blocks in concrete. Early photos show the windows in a thin dark metal that add to the sense of depth and playfulness across the façade – something lost with the newer white plastic windows. In fact, the historic and ongoing changes to the estate are a significant issue and 70
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a disappointment to Macintosh herself. Aside from the windows which greatly reduce the visual quality of the building, there were also some concrete bridges that linked the two main blocks and the smaller maisonettes which were removed several years ago. These not only had the effect of tying the overall composition together but also ensured that all dwellings had some kind of level access to the lifts for moving house or delivering a sofa.
(an act of cultural vandalism that is likely to be harshly judged by history) or even under the same scrutiny as the Central Hill estate in Crystal Palace. Indeed, Alan Townshend of Southern Housing Group that has, since 1998 owned and maintained the estate, confirmed that the only plans are for continued maintenance and up-keep.
Its future as a refuge of social housing is less certain however and the rows of ‘for sale’ signs on the approach along Underhill Road The access and security doors at the entrance tell their own story. It is something Kate to the blocks (something Macintosh agrees Macintosh is angry about — she describes were necessary) are insensitively inserted — it as ‘daylight robbery’ — particularly the not only visually but are overbearing and scenario whereby flats are sold on to buy‘prison-like’. The central courtyard, where a to-let-landlords then leased back to social number of trees were removed and a kind tenants at a colossal mark-up subsidised of off-the-shelf pergola solution has been by public money. In fairness to Southern introduced — not only completely at odds Housing Group — they confirmed they with the architecture of the site but also have no control over this as existing tenants completely out of scale with the surrounding still have the right-to-buy inherited from buildings. their previous agreements and new tenants will get it as part of this government's This dumbing down and poor management (heavily, and justifiably, criticised) new right is a theme in estates such as this across to buy proposals London — the original vision of their architects destroyed under a tidal wave of So ‘The Castle’ will remain; increasingly PVC windows and unnecessary security admired as a piece of architecture and measures. It seems even more perverse in treasured as a local landmark. And it is this case when the original architect is alive something of a cultural/social bastion too and well and at the end of a phone and — from a time where the state provided happy to contribute (Macintosh notes that housing for those who could not afford there were service conduits set out along to house themselves on a huge scale and the corridors that were completely ignored (in this case at least) to a great quality — during later upgrades with pipes and driven by architects who were empowered services insensitively mounted externally enough to deliver on their own passion and on the skin of the blocks.) commitment to create communities and places of ambition where people would So what of the future for Dawson’s Heights? O’Callaghan is an architect living in Forest Hill. Fortunately, (despite missing out on listing Tim As well as teaching at the Canterbury School of recently) there is no indication that it might Architecture, he is director and co-founder of nimtim a young architecture practice with a focus head the same way as the-soon-to-be- architects, on creative, pragmatic and thoughtful solutions for a demolished Robin Hood Gardens in Bow range of projects and clients. nimtim.co.uk 71
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Walter Segal London Reclaimed Antisocial Behaviour in Elephant & Castle 73
Walter Segal Modern day interiors: Taran Wilkhu
Archive Images: Jon Broome & John Segal
“In his life, as well as his work, he tried to pare away the superfluous and concentrate on the important.” Colin Ward Walter Segal (1907–1985) was born in Switzerland and moved to London in 1936, after training as an architect in Berlin. He was a modernist who maintained an ongoing interest in traditional building techniques, in particular those of traditional Japanese architecture.
He gained recognition and respect for the development of the ‘Segal Method’, which was designed to enable people to build their own homes without the need to learn it called wet trades such as bricklaying, plastering and cement pouring which Segal considered superfluous to house building. We are lucky enough to have some fantastic examples of the Segal Method in South East London, in the form of the Segal Close and Walters Way homes — they felt like a great fit for the High Rise issue, even though they don't tower above the surrounding buildings; in fact their stature is rather modest but because they all rest on stilts raised above ground level, nestled on hillsides amongst the trees they resemble a cluster of tree houses and benefit from beautiful views. The Segal projects were born out of collaboration with Segal and Lewisham Council. Colin Ward of the Lewisham Council's Architectural Department had read and studied Segal's ideas for the timber framed house and devised a plan to offer those on the Councils waiting list for accommodation a chance to build their own house. The first project — known as Phase One, started in 1979 and due to the success of this Phase Two commenced in 1984. In total twenty-seven houses were completed in the two Lewisham self-build schemes, providing quality detached houses with gardens for local people.
Having visited Walter’s Way on London Open House weekends, I always found such a wonderful quality of light in the homes and a sense of being close to nature. I also enjoy the way the houses are tied together in external design but completely different internally, each being modified to the occupants needs and personal preference — it’s hard to think of any other form of social housing being so self-empowering and responsive to the needs of its dwellers; the Segal homes make houses of standard brick construction seem ridgid and stifling in comparison.
The Segal method is in essence a bolt-together form of timber frame construction, which relies on using all the materials in their standard offthe-peg sizes, both user friendly and reduces the amount of cutting and waste. Segal famously said you just need to be able to saw a straight line and drill a straight hole. This type of timber frame construction also lends itself to awkward sloping, soft-soiled plots of land with lots of trees (the timber houses can be in close proximity. Like the Walters Way site, which had been vetoed by the council for building housing on, Segal thought this sight was perfect for the project. Segal carefully arranged the houses in a constellation, which made the most of the beautiful mature trees and meant none would have to be felled. This preservation of the environmental aspect along with the building materials used result in the houses having high eco-friendly credentials.
Now, more than ever, this kind of method feels like a relevant and very important reference point in finding another option in the face of a housing crisis which shows no signs of relenting. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if people in need of housing could be assisted to respond to that need in a self-empowered way — just like the Segal self-builders — to create not only eco-friendly home but a nurturing community and a legacy of wonderful houses in South East London that respond to each occupants' requirements. 75
Original self-builder Jon Broome
Original self-builders John and Pauline Kennedy
I got involved because Walter Segal needed someone to deal with the self-build projects while he was a visiting professor in America and I knew about his work as a student some years before. I already had some building skills but learned a great deal as we went along. It took my sister and I about a year and a half to build, building at the weekends and working during the week. It was pretty demanding.
We first became involved after seeing a piece in the local Lewisham free paper asking for those interested to meet at the town hall. Segal Close was one of four sites together, with two at Sydenham and one at Bromley Hill. I didn't have any practical skills but others did. The local Tech designed a course for us over eight weeks one evening a week to learn a little carpentry, electrical and plumbing skills. It was then learning as we went along; Walter Segal was on hand most weekends should we have any questions. It took about eighteen months to complete, evenings, weekends and holidays all self-build. We were very much a community; our children were all born and grew up together.
We have changed the layout of the house to include an extra room for my study — the house has subsequently been improved and extended by others. Some, but not many, of the original builders still live in the Segal homes thirty years later but most have moved on for one reason or another — work, family etc.
We stayed together for at least ten or twelve years before the first people moved out, either retiring or needing a bigger house. As we were all on the council waiting list (a requirement) it was very much social housing at the time. I'm sure other schemes could be built along the same lines as social housing now. We are the last original builders still at Segal Close and just love it.
Now they are mostly privately owned, meaning that they are no longer affordable for people on average incomes. RUSS project in Ladywell however prevents this from happening. Knowing how to change, improve and maintain the house, changes the relationship with where and how you live. Self-build is not a solution, but opportunities to design and build for yourself are a necessary part of a functional housing market. Walter Segal was mischievous, knowledgeable and charming and his ideas were a work of genius, simple but profound.
A well curated and insightful exhibition Walter’s Way: the Self-build Revolution is on now at the AA Gallery (Architectural Association) and runs until the 24th of March 2016, it is free to visit.
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We caught up with Taran, a freelance lifestyle photographer, who lives with his partner Celine, an Exhibition Designer at the Victoria & Albert Museum and their two young sons Sohan, 5 and Nayan, 2 to find out about their home in Segal Close. SOUTH EAST LONDON JOURNAL:
How long have you lived here?
TARAN WILKHU: We moved from
North London to Honor Oak Park in 2008 and have been living in Segal Close since 2011.
SELJ: Were you aware of Walter Segal’s work before you moved to Segal Close? TW: Yes, our passion for everything
Segal began in 2009 after visiting Walters Way where a few of the homes were open to the public during Open House London. We fell in love with the uniqueness of the street, the architecture, the sense of community, the layout, the light, the timber… the list goes on.
In early 2011, we spotted a Segal home on sale with Modern House and although it was under offer at the time, we asked them to keep us on file should the sale fall through. Although we knew there was little chance it would, lo and behold three months down the line, we received a call notifying us that the house was due to be put back on the market. Celine is from Switzerland so for her it made total sense to live in a timber house and for me having lived in Japan for several years, I was also inspired by the compact living style and sense of close-to-nature Segal’s projects have. We knew this was the home we could see ourselves living in and found a way to make it happen! SELJ: Do you know much about the history of your home such as who built it and its original lay out?
layout of the toilet and bathroom, modernised the kitchen and we repainted all the timber to create a sense of light and airy openness to the home. Externally, we have added some decking in the garden and have plans to potentially extend the house in the future. SELJ: Do you feel a sense or pressure of having to preserve an important part of self-build social housing history?
TW: We also know our property
TW: My wife, who is an interior
was built by a carpenter in the early 80s and we still have blueprints and some images of the original layout which came with the house. There are some interesting internal features of our home designed by him, such as shelving and storage space, which have remained the same.
SELJ: The houses were designed to grow and adapt to the occupants requirements, how have the spaces evolved in your home? TW: Internally, since we have
moved in we have changed the 77
TW: There is only one house
remaining of the seven on the Close, which has the original self-builders still living there. It's always great to call upon them as a historical reference point and query them on how the homes were built and maintained, as well as how the ambience of the street has changed over the years. All the other homes are now privately owned and although we feel proud and appreciate the ethos of self-build, we know we can't call ourselves self-builders. SELJ: How did you decide how to decorate this kind of unique home, did you limit yourself to certain materials, furniture or colours?
designer, had a clear vision and idea of how she wanted the look and the feel of the house to be. The beauty of the house is that each room has built-in storage, which helps keep it tidy and minimalist. This dictated the contemporary look and feel that we wanted to create in the house. Consequently we re-selected our furniture choice to a more midcentury feel, and we repainting the majority of our interior walls Farrow & Ball Strong White to create a blank canvas with accent walls of grey throughout to contrast.
SELJ: Do you have good views from your home? TW: When friends and family walk
into our home, they often comment how they feel they have walked into a holiday home, the views from our balcony and main living spaces are incredible, overlooking trees and gardens from a high vantage point as the Close is positioned on top of a hill. We often recall one of the first evenings we spent at the house was on Bonfire's night and how we watched the fireworks going off across the borough all night from a fantastic view.
SELJ: The houses feel almost rural, do you enjoy the sense of being elevated and tucked away? TW: We love the rural, elevated and
private feel you get when you step into our home, and the Close, yet we
also appreciate the fact that we are only three stops away from London Bridge and the City of London. Although it was not an easy move for us initially coming to Honor Oak Park, after having spent many years living in hip and trendy areas of Dalston and Stoke Newington. Never comes a day now that we regret moving south of the river. SELJ: Other residents of Segal’s projects have often spoken about the strong sense of community they feel a part of, do you think Segal hit on something special and possibly hard to create in other forms of housing? TW: Without a shadow of a doubt,
it is rare in London to know your neighbours and although it is inevitable that over time people come and go, more often than not, the Segal homes seem to continue to re-attract people with similar values 78
about community living. Having also visited many of the homes of our cousins in Walters Way as a photographer, I can honestly say the one thing we all have in common, is our sense of pride in living amongst our neighbours who share our community values. Walter Segal hit the nail on the head with this one! SELJ: Has living here given you a passion for self-built homes? TW: Although we are proud to live
in a self-build home and perhaps even one day would like to build a home ourselves, its difficult for us to say that we know the real graft, sweat and tears which would go into making your home from scratch. Inspired and proud through Segal, that is without question, so much so that together with other residents in Walters Way and Segal Close I am putting together a self-
published book, which will hopefully provide a sense of the personalities living in these homes and provide contemporary photographic examples of Walter Segal's legacy and work. SELJ: What are your favourite south East London places? TW: We love the village feel of
Honor Oak Park, its parade and many of the independent shops on it. Similarly Forest Hill has blossomed over the years with some fantastic places to hang out from Montage, Sylvan Post, St Davids Coffee House, The Signal, and Canvas and Cream to the award wining Horniman Museum & Gardens. But as a family we love spending lazy Sundays in secret woods of Sydenham Hill and the Dulwich haunts, which are only a stones throw away.
taranwilkhu.com @taranwilkhu
SEGAL CLOSE
Fiona and Lev both studied architecture and work in public sector urban design and regeneration. Lev also advises on communityled housing. They are expecting their first baby in the summer. LEV: We've only been here a year,
but feel very lucky. The previous owners completely reconfigured the house to move the living room from the rear, to create sunken open plan living spaces, with big concertina windows opening out to a view of Forest Hill. A couple of roof lights and glazed openings in unexpected places bring light and glimpsed views of birds into the house. There is a sense that the house is made and adjusted over time. We’ve kept the grey-green walls and stained timber, which give a feeling of living in a forest, with a few modernist touches. We built a dining table from a slice of tree. But it’s great that many of the original self-builders created traditional Victorian style interiors popular at the time, and there is really no one-way of doing things - you can make it your own! Fiona is from South East London, but I grew up in North London. I’ve been enjoying exploring the hills and history of the area. So these might be obvious, but I do like Ladywell Fields
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Alice, a freelance journalist, who has lived on Walters Way for ten years with her partner Paul, director of Cradle to Cradle Marketplace and their daughter Emily. SOUTH EAST LONDON JOURNAL:
Were you aware of Walter Segal’s work before you moved here? ALICE GRAHAME: I'd never heard of him, and didn’t really know anything about architects or architecture. My partner Paul had studied at the Centre for Alternative Technology in Wales where there are a couple of Segal buildings and they teach the Segal self-build method, so he had heard of him. Since moving in I have done research and learnt about Segal and the self-builders. SELJ: Do you know much about the
history of your home such as who built it and its original lay out?
AG: Yes I’ve now looked into it and know quite a bit about the history of the street and our home. The street was built between 1984-87. It was a scheme where ordinary people could build their own homes, under the guidance of Segal, using his method. Segal sat down with each family and planned the layout of the home — so they were tailor-made for each family but all made from the same materials and to the same basic design. The self-builders didn't need any experience of house building. Segal believed that anyone who could saw in a straight line and drill a straight hole could build a house. However, the person who built our house was a carpenter so our house is very well put together. SELJ: The houses were designed to grow and adapt to the occupants'
requirements, have you made many alterations since you took ownership of the house, how have the spaces evolved? AG: We have added a room — a study that overlooks the garden. We took out a wall to open up the downstairs space and have insulated the house to make it warmer. The house was originally insulated with a product called wood wool, a mixture of wood fibre and concrete. We have reinsulated with wood waste, which is just compressed wood fibre and is eco-friendly with no glue, so any that wasn’t used could go in the compost. We have also added triple glazed windows and solar panels on the roof for heating and electricity. SELJ: Do you feel a pressure to preserve an important part of selfbuild and social housing history? AG: Not pressure, more excitement that the houses have a really interesting story. I am keen to learn about the history and tell others about it (hence the exhibition). We take part in London Open House every September so the public can come and experience the street. SELJ: How did you decide how to decorate this kind of unique home, did you limit yourself to certain materials? AG: I have found that the house works well with modern rather than Victorian furniture; I tend to avoid heavy, dark and carved wood pieces. I have a few pieces of 1960s furniture (family hand-me-downs), which fit in really well. Also Ikea and Habitat (ideally vintage 1970s Habitat) furniture looks great. At the moment our house is painted white inside as we have a large tin of white eco-paint so it's easiest to stick to that. I've not been brave with colour but some neighbours have got colourful walls or wallpaper which looks fantastic.
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The interior of the house has panels of plasterboard 60cms wide and vertical timber strips covering the joints. So it is rather striped inside the house. Instead of conventional pictures we have hung some decorative fabric on some of the panels, which seems to work. When we moved in we unfitted the kitchen — took down all the mounted cabinets and instead have a couple of standalone cupboards. We had a sink unit made at Deptford Sheet Metal and our plywood kitchen cabinet was made by SixNineThree in East Dulwich. SELJ: One of the wonderful things about the Walters Way houses is the sense of being elsewhere, elevated and set back from the chaos of London, how do you think this effects the quality of your families life here? AG: The houses are on stilts, which is part of the Segal design, and that means we are closer to trees than would be possible with conventional houses, we have a massive plain tree just outside our bedroom window. The trees attract birds, squirrels, foxes — I find that living close to trees is very calming. I'm writing this at 8am and all I can hear is birdsong. It’s amazingly tranquil considering it is just off a busy road. Visitors are always amazed when they walk in to Walters Way how it has a certain aura; I think that is partly because of Segal's layout and the piece of land chosen for the scheme. The road gently curves down a hill and the houses are all facing a slightly different way, although all have big south-facing windows - they are similar without being exactly the same. Walters Way is great for families, it being a cul-de-sac means children can play safely, once they learn to stay away from cars — Walters Way is not pedestrianised. The children all know each other and play together outside, especially in the summer. There has been a craze for hula hooping and racing down the hill on scooters. When it snowed a couple of
WALTER'S WAY years ago everyone was tobogganing down the hill. My eight year old says she never wants to move! There is a picnic table outside our house and on summer evenings adults congregate for a glass of wine. There is a summer party, bonfire night, Christmas and Easter events. SELJ: Has living here given you a passion for self-built homes? AG: Living here has given me a great admiration for the people that built these homes and an interest in the architect that enabled it to happen. I think this type of self-build scheme should be an option for people. I’d like to see more projects like this get off the ground. There is a new project called the Rural Urban Synthesis Society or RUSS, which is set up by the sons of one of the Walters Way self-build families. They are working with Lewisham Council to develop sustainable, genuinely affordable homes in Ladywell, Lewisham and there will be a self-build element to that project. SELJ: What are your favourite South East London places? AG: I love One Tree Hill. My favourite restaurants in the area are Sapporo Ichiban in Catford, my daughter loves the sunken tables and the very homely and welcoming Tse in Forest Hill. I’m freelance and sometimes set up in the Montage café with a big cappuccino. There are so many great parks in the area — Peckham Rye is a favourite. I love the Overground — I remember before it was there, and I have to say it has changed my life. Follow Alice on Twitter @alicesangle and Segal fans should follow @CelebrateSegal cradletocradlemarketplace.com
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Makers & Menders: SOUTH EAST LONDON JOURNAL:
Tell us a little bit about London Reclaimed. MIKE BIDDULPH: We are a charity that provides young people a step up into employment. We’re focused on providing a solid, stable job for young people and making high quality furniture at the same time.
London Reclaimed
SELJ: How do you balance the two?
MB: Our core premise is the employment part. We were formed three years ago as a direct result of the high levels of unemployment in the area — but we equally wanted to create something that was sustainable. We figured that the best way to do that is to utilise something you know a lot about, in this case, it was furniture making. Then we asked ourselves, what does a charity look like when it’s not all about handouts, and we ended up with London Reclaimed.
London Reclaimed is a Bermondseybased bespoke furniture and youth employment charity. They firmly believe that if the next generation is not properly trained, equipped and supported into working life, then we have vnot only let them down, but society as a whole suffers. They take on 16-25 year olds from South East London for an intensive year programme. They receive carpentry training and mentoring as well as being employed in their workshop. The experience that they gain is invaluable, enabling them to move on to further employment or training.
SELJ: Sounds like a pretty unique combination — are you the only charity of this kind in the area? MB: We fall into the bracket of social enterprise. We have additional costs and overheads that a straight business doesn’t necessarily have — things like youth workers and support networks, but we also funnel absolutely every penny made back into the business – so it’s a two way street. SELJ: So how did the concept come about? What’s your background?
Outside his furniture workshop, founder Mike can usually be found surrounded by girls…and nappies. He has two young daughters. We joined Mike for a pint in Peckham’s Beer Rebellion (after he’d finally got his children off to sleep) to discuss his pioneering employment charity, and their equally charitable new venture, Lumberjack Café in Camberwell.
MB: I’d been working as a youth worker in the area for several years, and the value of what we were doing was clear. But I found that too often a young person would reach their late teens or early adulthood and the services would suddenly drop off. To me, it seems the vital support young people needed was vanishing, and these people were left with only their own resources to fall back on. Everyone has sympathy for kids, but as soon
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as you reach adulthood, you’re expected to fend for yourself, and the sympathy drops off at the same rate as the support network. Society sees you as a burden. I’ve always found that the best way to help a young person find their feet is to provide an alternative. We wanted to be there to create viable jobs and options for these young people.
SELJ: So it’s a real family affair! How did he get involved? MB: He rang me up five years ago after I’d told him my business idea, and said, ‘do you want us to sell up and move back to London — we’ll give you five years’. I jumped at the opportunity to work alongside my dad. That was three years ago – and he’s showing no signs of budging. We keep trying to pack him off to the seaside!
SELJ: Why do you think this attitude towards young people in South East London exists?
SELJ: Your father clearly has a big influence on the design process. What would you say the aesthetic is?
It’s so easy to brush our hands of our young people. Your chance of making a good decision is limited by the factors around you. It’s not an excuse, it’s just a fact. The range of freedom you have in your decisions is reduced if you lack positive, viable options. MB:
MB: It’s really diverse, that’s the beauty of it. I guess the first distinction is that we don’t up-cycle; not that there is anything wrong with up-cycling, it’s just not what we do. The second distinction is that we use traditional furniture making methods and tools. Thirdly, our products are entirely bespoke, so the customer can have a real say over the end result — whether they want things chunky and farm-houserustic, or slim-line and more contemporary, like something that would fit in a London loft.
SELJ: If you’re background covers the youth-work side of things, why furniture? MB: My dad’s a furniture maker, a wood turner, and an all round craftsman. He has been all my life, so I’ve grown up around a culture of making. When I started London Reclaimed, I wasn’t a furniture maker, but I thought I would draw from my family’s knowledge and experience… and add in my own naivety and enthusiasm.
SELJ: Do you think this broad aesthetic gives the young people you work with an opportunity to add their own creative input?
SELJ: That sounds like a good balance!
MB: Absolutely. We’re not a factory or a production line. The young people (or Junior Furniture Makers, as they’re known) come in and get to be part of a dynamic team. On a daily basis, they get phone calls from a
MB: Yeah – all I had to do was tie the story together. My dad, Tom Biddulph, is now one our senior furniture makers. We call him ‘technical Tom’.
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customer saying things like, ‘I want a fold-away dining table that’s 300mm wide so it will fit behind my sofa’, and they have to react and adapt.We are also of the mentality that roles are really important, but job titles aren’t everything — so it’s a real democracy. Our junior makers get to learn from two of the best furniture makers in London, taking myself out of the equation. Alongside my father, we have our resident design genius Mark Willett.
young people who might have struggled to find work elsewhere. A little like the workshop, they get the opportunity to learn from our master baristas. SELJ: I followed your recent crowdfunding campaign — was this to support Lumberjack? MB: The crowdfunding campaign actually came about after Lumberjack first opened. Unfortunately, on our first day open for business, our new façade window was smashed. Then, to add insult to injury, the following evening we were broken into again. They stole plenty, but the shadiest part was that they took the young people’s tips. All you can do in these situations is laugh — and then get crowdfunding, I guess. We raised over £8000 through the online site, and a further £4000 in private donations. The money has gone towards fitting an air-tight security system!
SELJ: Is the lack of importance placed on job titles the only thing that differentiates London Reclaimed from and any other ‘regular’ employment? MB: We want to create as smooth a transition as possible into the world of work. So there’s the usual stuff: everyone has a contract, an interview, there is a disciplinary process in place. Of course, there are rules and regulations to follow, too. In return, everyone gets paid above the minimum wage. But above this, we’re constantly asking ourselves what services we can provide to unlock the potential of our makers that they might not be given in ‘normal’ employment. Things like youth workers, mental health services, CV coaching, interview prep — because at the end of the day, we can only act as the first step into future employment. If you truly support someone, they’re more likely to offer their enthusiasm back.
SELJ: To end on a happier note, have you had any real success stories from young people you have worked with? MB: Absolutely, some have gone on to college placements, a few now have retail positions, and many go on to work in the furniture trade. One in particular springs to mind — our second ever Junior Maker, Jeuwel, went on to study at one of the leading carpentry schools in the country, Buildings Crafts College in Stratford, and is so impressive that we’ve asked him to come back to work for us fulltime. It’s gone full-circle. The system works!
SELJ: And you need bags of enthusiasm to run a successful business — especially one that’s expanding! MB: Yes, we’ve just opened our new café, Lumberjack at 70 Camberwell Church St. It spawned from a mad idea, and then very quickly became a fantastic reality. It’s a cosy, comfortable space, furnished entirely from products made by the makers at Reclaimed. We also support other local businesses; everything from the serving boards to the coffee cups to the chaircushions are locally sourced from small companies. SELJ: Isn’t
SELJ: How
can people get involved?
MB: The best way to support us is to go and order a cup of coffee at Lumberjack, or to commission a piece of furniture — although we also welcome donations!
there a shop too?
londonrecalimed.co.uk wearelumberjack.co.uk
MB: If you take a fancy to one of the cushions or coffee cups, it’s yours. We sell everything from lunch to lumber.
Words: Elly Parsons Elly is a writer and editorial assistant at Wallpaper*
Is Lumberjack part of the same charity as Reclaimed? SELJ:
Magazine, hailing from deepest Brockley. She's one of those Goldsmiths hangers-on who accidentally never left the area. In true SE London style, she also attempts
MB: Absolutely. All profits made go straight back into
to write short fiction and singer-songwriter-y stuff.
the charity, and many of the employees are local,
ellyparsons.com
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SE LONDON JOURNAL It was my antisocial behaviour that got me looking for home in a tower block. I was too noisy to live in a Victorian flat, even one already blighted by a shop downstairs, night market over the road and railway viaducts on either side. My main hobby back then was recording music, but the nocturnal synthesizer noodling had made enemies of my neighbors; so I went looking for a more suitable environment. I needed thick concrete walls far away from trouble.
lots of noisy music in, Perronet House is an architectural marvel, an overwhelmingly des-res, with L-shaped living space, galley kitchen and even an quirky kitchen hatch. Each flat benefits from the light of wall-to wall windows on two sides.
Antisocial Behaviour
Perronet House was my answer. It’s a ten-storey block of maisonettes built by the Greater London Council in 1970 designed by Sir Roger Walters. Its hulking roughcast concrete and undulating façade of steel windows sits right next to the infamous junction at Elephant and Castle on London’s Inner Ring Road, it looks a bit like a giant toaster. It was the last of the post war blocks to be built to circle the roundabout, the others being Erno Goldfinger’s Alexander Fleming House (now called Metro Central Heights Bossovain and Hannibal House that rises from the top of the Shopping Centre and the tower of LCC.
The arrangement is called “scissor-section” because the flats are slotted together like a row of open scissors with their entrances along a communal corridor in the core of the building. But far from the concrete highrise life being conducive to my flourishing music career it triggered the end. Pete Tong stopped playing my tunes, the record contract expired and my final output was a forgettable remix on track five of a top ten single that itself was a remix of a Hall & Oates track called “Out Of Touch”; the title said it all. By then I had found a far more involving hobby, a new form of anti-social behaviour than noise pollution, a new nocturnal activity that would, in a few years, lead me to being threatened with arrest for criminal damage. It was Perronet House that drove me to it. Life in a high rise had its upside but the downside was deep. Everytime I entered the building I felt an irritation, a mild depression, disappointment and embarrassment. Eventually, after living there for five months I snapped, and one Sunday afternoon made preparations to sort it out with a
in Elephant & Castle
But it is the curious configuration of each of the flats in Perronet House that clinched the deal and made me a high-rise dweller. The two-bed flat was spread over five floors! This was far more than a concrete cocoon to make 95
SE LONDON JOURNAL High-rises are unfairly criticized for creating an atomized environment for their residents because they are supposedly cooped up without the social interaction that comes from ground level street life. Critics fail to recognize the interactions that are inevitable from sharing a lift and a front door and the stronger collective identity between small groups of people that come from living on a corridor. So I soon learnt that my neighbours had noticed the change outside and liked it. I felt encouraged. There were many more neglected communal garden to take on than just the planter I had started. At street level a vast raised bed languished, a shrubbery jungle of buddleia, ivy and some box hedge that weren’t in the least bit boxy anymore. It was good for wild life, I even found a man sleeping in it one Sunday morning. Gradually I tamed it, chopping back and even entirely removing some of the older thuggier shrubs, patching in the gaps with more colourful and fragrant interest, canna lilies, fried egg-plants, winter honey suckle, curry plants and even some tomato plants.
preparatory visit to B&Q. Eager to avoid confrontation I set my alarm clock for 2 o’clock in the morning and headed out. My mission was to dig up a shabby planter by Perronet House’s podium entrance. It was a blot on the landscape but also an almost blank canvas to make my mark on. I’d always been a gardener and my green fingers were itching to make contact again with the soil. The urge was sufficiently strong for me to rule out seeking permission from the obviously disinterested Southwark Council officers who ran the building and neglected the poor flowerbed all summer. If they had a problem, or anyone had a problem then, like the sleepless neighbour hammering on their wall of my old flat, I would wait for them to tell me. Gardening without permission, or guerrilla gardening as I called it, inevitably brings with it an edge, not just because someone might disagree with your assertive intervention, but because you’re risking delicate plant life in a place where they could easily get destroyed. Unlike conventional graffiti with its instantaneous results, the impact of guerrilla gardening gets more impressive as time passes if you’re lucky as whatever you’ve planted matures. That first night, a cold one in October 2004, I planted two cabbage palm, some lavender, convolvulus and cyclamen. It looked a lot tidier, but it wouldn’t be until the following summer when it would start growing.
In parallel with the planting I was also sowing seeds online. Partly as record of progress in the face of any trouble or vandalism, partly out of pride, and partly to encourage others I began blogging about what I was doing. I registered GuerrillaGardening.org to do it, unaware at the time that the term guerrilla gardening had first been coined by a group of New Yorkers in 1973 who were doing the same thing in the dilapidated vacant lots of Bowery Houston. I came across a reference to them a few weeks later when googling and discovered another group of guerrillas in Toronto. But neither of them was seeking to encourage participation beyond their immediate locality, so I stepped up to the role and kick-started guerrilla gardening into a loose global movement. It wasn’t hard. Friends were intrigued and keen to join me. My discrete gardening attacks evolved into more confident digs at much more sociable hours. After work, around 7.30pm – 8.30pm is the best time.
And it did. Now every time I walked into Perronet House I got a little kick, seeing my guerrilla garden flourish. It still needed tending, adding mulch one day, clearing away chicken bones, sweet wrappers, cans, bottles, fag ends the next and the next. Litter is magnetic, it attracts more litter, and so a guerrilla gardener must act swiftly to remove it if they’re to avoid having to clear out a lot. The wind also plays a part, especially as my garden is at the base of a tower block. It is tunneled in a way that can whip up plastic bags in a spiraling frenzy as high as the tenth floor until the gust subsides and relinquishes its pickings on the garden below. 96
SE LONDON JOURNAL other for years of negligence and tried to portray me as an unreliable solution. But logic prevailed, permission was granted and when I asked if I’d have got clearance if I’d asked before gardening I was given a categorical, “absolutely not”.
By then municipal workers have mostly gone home, the bin men, street sweepers, gardening contractors and assorted council officers who are prone to confusion and anxiety when seeing guerrilla gardeners at work. Mid evening is when you are more likely to strike up conversation with curious passers by, all potential new recruits or at least sympathetic supporters, sometimes even spontaneous cash donors. People are generally very grateful, more so than I expected or thought about since my motivations were not about doing good but doing a good job in the garden.
It is nearly a decade since I won the war outside Perronet House. While the garden has flourished under my legitimized care the adjacent public space has been radically and horrifically transformed. After years of mutual neglect by Southwark Council and Transport for London they set about squeezing a pointless new piazza into their dilapidated transport hub. The Roundabout has become The Bend to make way for the piazza and has become an intentionally more congested place for everyone, and now even more deadly. Mature trees were felled and guerrilla gardens on the roundabout were lost under a vastly wider seven lane wide urban motorway and swathes of new stone paving that have been laid right up to the edge of my garden outside Perronet House. All around new high rises are being constructed, dwarfing and partially replacing the old towers from the last century. The transformation makes my little garden oasis all the more precious to hang onto and my 10th floor concrete cocoon a refuge from the now widespread anti-social behaviour below as frustrated motorists and pedestrians regularly jump the array of new traffic lights and honk tunelessly at each other. If only I had a pneumatic drill I’d drown out all the noise and reinstate the roundabout and their glorious subways.
The guerrilla gardens around Perronet House blossomed. As the gardens grew so did my ambitions. I took on other local areas and took advantage of enthusiastic help to transform even bigger spaces. The largest of these is a pair of traffic islands near Lambeth North, which was scrubby grass, but over a decade has been transformed into a field of lavender, cherries, roses and iris. Guerrilla gardeners elsewhere got in touch to share their stories and seek advice. Patch by patch Elephant and Castle and beyond became more beautiful. After three years of a laid-back guerrilla war with neglected land, the negligent council and with a few skirmishes with police I faced my first serious setback. At the height of summer 2007, when the shrubbery around Perronet House was at its prime it was viciously hacked by some ignorant council contractors. This unnecessary outburst, their first involvement in gardening for years, turned out to be a clumsy attempt to reassert their role after some of my neighbours had complained about the gardening – not my work, but that the council was still charging everyone a service fee as if they had been doing it! It was a home goal, and just the kind of topsy-turvy behaviour that helps portray guerrilla gardening as heroic and respectable. Southwark Council’s unnecessary attack triggered me into seeking permission, which I secured after a meeting at which council officers and contractors blamed each
Richard Reynolds, is the author of On Guerrilla Gardening guerrillagardening.org herronethouse.com elephantandcastleroundabout.org 97
SE LONDON JOURNAL
Children & Families
What's On Children's Edit SE Little Journal Walter's Way Treehouse 99
SE LONDON JOURNAL
What’s
The Magic Beanstalk 05 MARCH
Stop Animation Workshop 06 MARCH
Little Disco 12 MARCH
Set in present day Cornwall, beautiful hand carved puppets, illusion and amazing experiments are used to re-tell the classic story of Jack and the Giant who lives through the clouds and over the rainbow.
Animator and author, Helen Piercy will be running a paper cut-out stop animation workshop, covering everything from storyboarding, to speech bubbles and music. All would-be animators will receive a link to their film after the event.
Blackheath Halls, SE3
Ottie & The Bea, SE3
The DJ will get you grooving with your little ones, playing dance floor fillers and kids favourites and there will be bubbles, fireworks & even snow to captivate the young ones. Games, action songs, competitions and prizes to give away, as well as a free glow or LED accessory for every child. There are child friendly drinks and snacks available to buy to complete this fun packed afternoon. East Dulwich Tavern, SE22
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SE LONDON JOURNAL
On
The Marvellous Imaginary Menagerie 25 MARCH
Mini beast Safari EVERY TUESDAY 29 MARCH — 05 APRIL
Clouds galore! 03 APRIL
Dr Longitude and his team of "experts" are here to guide you through a puppet-packed, ludicrously lyrical and magically musical tour of the Imaginary Menagerie's finest exhibits. From the acclaimed creators of Alice's Adventures Underground, The Trench, and Captain Flinn and the Pirate Dinosaurs, Les Enfants Terribles tour with the silliest, funniest and most entertaining family shows to date - suitable for big kids and small grown-ups!
Try your hand at searching for creepy crawlies and bugs in the Horniman Gardens and discover the variety of insect life to be found in London during the spring. Parts of the Gardens are carefully managed to encourage wildlife, and you will find a spring environment bursting with life. All equipment is provided and a tutor will guide you through the process and help you identify your finds.
Get creative together at Dulwich Picture Gallery’s practical drop-in. This session, explore the sky in Sunset Landscape with a Shepherd and His Flock and create your own cloud drawings and sculptural cloud lantern using wire, fluff and lights. With artist Erica Parrett.
Horniman Museum, SE23
Greenwich Theatre, SE10
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Dulwich Picture Gallery, SE21
SE LONDON JOURNAL
Children's Edit
Clockwise from top left: L’Oiseau — Gently Elephant, SE4; Architecture According To Pigeons Book — Ottie & The Bea, SE3; Inflatable Seagull — Ottie & The Bea, SE3; Traditional Diamond Kite — Gently Elephant, SE4
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SE LONDON JOURNAL
Clockwise from top left: Green Rocket — Ottie & The Bea, SE3; Paratrooper — Ottie & The Bea, SE3; Wooden Plane — Gently Elephant, SE4; Sky High Book — Ottie & The Bea, SE3; Mokulock Wooden Building Bricks — Cissy Wears, SE13
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That cheeky whippet called Captain...
really
loves 104
chasing kites!
SE LONDON JOURNAL
he tries and tries to leap and jump up to their dizzy heights, he sees them fly on Blackheath
and in Crystal Palace Park, he always tries to reach them, but they never hear his
bark! 105
gain!
tr y a
no tt his
on
e!
Rufus the hawk is trying to scare away that pesky pidgeon, which of the three lines will lead him there? 106
SE LONDON JOURNAL
Oh no, looks like a rainy day in London. Let's brighten things up! Fill in the blank buildings with lots of colour. 107
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Walter's Way Tree House We were lucky enough to check out the newest edition to Walters Way, the brilliant angular tree house, which is boldly perched on a tree next to the Truscott family home. It was impressively built out of found materials from skips and neighbours renovation cast offs complete with wire speakerphone to the house and electricity. We asked 9-year-old Iris and 7-year-old May some questions along with their tree house building extraordinaire dad, Matthew. SOUTH EAST LONDON JOURNAL:
Whose idea was it to build the tree house? IRIS: We both liked the idea and then daddy was quite keen, he kept asking us about it and then started building one.
I remember when he first started building it and there were only a few beams. MAY:
SELJ: How long has it been fully built for? IRIS: Since Christmas, daddy is a violinist so he is away on tour sometimes, which is why it took a little bit over two years to finish.
What’s the best thing you have seen from up here? SELJ:
I quite like the view of the woods but also looking the other way out of that window (the tall slim window by the door). IRIS:
I quite like being able to sometimes spy on the neighbours! MAY:
SELJ: Did you have any building experience before the tree house? MATTHEW: Not really, I mended and built things as a boy, so I knew how to use tools. I picked up a few techniques from living here, there is a lot of advice about tackling problems and there are always architects visiting Walters Way to get opinions from.
Have you had sleepovers up here yet? SELJ:
many
MAY: Not often but we have once with mummy and daddy. IRIS: Their mattress was there (by the door) and we were here (in the nook around the corner).
What kind of house would you like to live in when you are older? SELJ:
MAY: Something a bit like ours, I might like to build a tree house for my children. Or Daddy and
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Mummy stay living here when we come and visit children can play in this house while me, mummy daddy are chatting!
and the tree and
IRIS: Tom and Jenny’s well house, it was a very small stone cottage but right in the middle there is a glass trap door down to a well. MATTHEW: It’s hundreds of feet deep this well, in the middle of the living space, you could stand above it and look down. SELJ: Do you like living on Walters Way? IRIS & MAY:
Yes!
IRIS: There are a lot of children our age living here. Every summer we can play out until 6 or 7 o’clock, we go down hill on scooters, diddy cars or tricycles. When it’s hot enough we have water fights and a paddling pool. It’s so much fun!
SE LONDON JOURNAL
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