onionbagblog

* yeah yeah, I know…

And so after all the waiting, does the new Windrush Square in central Brixton live up to the high expectations?

Sort of.

It’s a definite improvement on the ill-conceived geographic placement of disparate public space that was in place previously. But it’s not perfect.

First of all, let’s deal with the dynamics of the geography. Brixton needs a recognised central area. We need somewhere to meet, to celebrate and to generally reclaim as a public piece of land in the heart of SW9.

The new pedestiranised area incorporates the Tate Gardens and the old Windrush Square. The hellish one way gyratory around St Matthews Church has been removed.

I have severe reservations however about the safety of cyclists as they progress either up or down Brixton Hill. The single cycling lane is going to cause problems when you try and make a turning, and have to cut across the traffic flow from either side.

The landscaping of the Square also leaves me somewhat under whelmed. It looks like a giant car park has been placed right in the heart of Brixton. The opportunity was here to make this a genuine green space. The old Tate Gardens area remains thankfully grassed over, but that’s about your lot.

The provision of extra bicycling racks outside the Tate Library is to be applauded. I remain unconvinced if this will eventually become a trusted area in which to leave a bicycle. The Ritzy is known locally as a hot spot for bike theft. Brixton Rec at least has some use as probably the safest places for Brixton bicyclists to padlock up.

The naming of the new space is perfect. With the (hopefully) soon to be opened Black Cultural Archives overlooking the area, Brixton has a positive identity to take us forward beyond the old stereotypes.

But for all the ‘empowering’ talk of regeneration that is so often found in council press releases, some things just won’t budge. One of these is the closed public toilet beneath ground.

The ornate railings give the area a sense of tradition and perspective. Having them closed off is a sad incitement for modern times. The council press release covers all bases, by rather blandly stating:

“…with potentially a new cafe and public toilets.”

Never rule anything in, never rule anything out. Especially ahead of the local elections.

And so that is the theory, what about the grand opening of this major public project? I couldn’t tell you to be honest. It was all really rather strange, with the staging of an elitist opening ceremony involving local politicians from which the public were kept away.

Friday’s official civic opening saw the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, doing the ribbon cutting thing along with @cllrstevereed, the Labour leader of @lambeth_council. My man on the ground with his press pass tells me that both politicians tried their best to forge a smile for the cameras.

But at least the weather Gods were smiling on Brixton. Rain for the ring-fenced civic service on Friday, sunshine for the people on Saturday. The public opening of Windrush Square promised:

“live music performances, dance demonstrations and family art workshops. There will also be stalls by Spacemakers, Brixton Village and the Brixton Pound. The event will conclude with a lantern-lit procession led by local school children and a magnificent Phoenix.”

It didn’t disappoint.

Let the real people that matter into the area, and then the fun can commence. The events were pitched perfectly for the day - a mixture of music and local community stalls.

Maybe the music was rather slightly too loud, which caused a few problems with the @audioboos below. No worries. The event was all about community celebration and participation, and not providing a padded sound studio for a lone local blogger.

I was pleased to see the lovely @dougald promoting @spacemkrs and #brixvill throughout the day. The presence of @spacemakrs working alongside locals in Granville Arcade Brixton Village has been nothing short of brilliant this year. Long may it continue in South London.

If Friday was all about the elected representatives doing their cordoned off bit for the community, then it was pleasing to see an as yet elected representative enjoying the occasion. @chukaumunna, the Labour PPC for Streatham, was once again a friendly face to see in SW9. He very kindly agreed for a catch up. Apologies for the bass heavy soundtrack, but I like to think yer man Chuka would probably approve.

The Friends of Brixton Market seemed to be the busiest stall on the day. The group is promoting the importance of local business for the local economy. A popularly held misconception (including by me) is that the whole of Brixton Market development is owned and managed by Lambeth Council.

Not so. Ben from the Friends group helpfully explains more below, including the very real threat of big business coming into our community and killing off the local economy. Westfield in SW9 is something we most definitely don’t want in Brixton.

And then finally I was most grateful to Suzy, one of the Brixton £ founders, for finding the time to have a chat. The B£ is booming, with many local shops now accepting it as the norm.

To my shame, I haven’t endorsed the B£ as much as I should. I don’t tend to shop in Brixton that often. Maybe this is the whole point of the local currency, to encourage people like me to make very real economic decisions that will be benefit the local people?

I cycled back to Sunny Stockwell late in the day, having found a real sense of community around Windrush Square. It was great to catch up with @brixtonalex, @brixtonblog and @andybroomfield. Sorry to have missed @langrabbie and @@lambethcpcg.

To be fair, @mayoroflambeth and @cllrstevereed (and others) returned on Saturday to mix with the public. I appreciated my chat with the leader of the council, and I thank him for being approachable. I left the good councillor pondering the question of how to find a central square for Sunny Stockwell.

The real success of Windrush Square won’t be judged until six months from now. What we need is one of those balmy Brixton summers. The whole area comes out to play in the heart of SW9. Seeing how the space can cope with this demand, and how the civic planning plays a part in influencing the social behaviour of locals will be the real test.

Will the street drinkers and blatant drug dealing be moved on? And if so, where to? It would be great to see the public toilets once again re-opened, and being used purely for the purpose for which they were originally designed.

Are we really a less civil society than some one hundred years ago when they were first built? Hopefully Windrush Square will play a part in helping to dispell this pessimism.

A decent day of work down at Herne Hill velodrome on Saturday. With the new track season optimistically scheduled to role out of SE24 next weekend, there was no shortage of tasks for the VCL working party to complete this weekend.

The main focus of course was upon the track. An outdoor velo is essentially a very large garden, with a rather steep concrete path running around it. Nature doesn’t respect track etiquette, and so our first job was to trim the overgrowing grass around the inner track.

Teamwork was the key here. We completed a circuit of the velo in probably about the same time my aching frame will manage once bike bound next weekend.

A quick tea break, and next up was the clearing of the Herne Hill leaves. The wonderful autumnal Ride of the Falling Leaves rolls out at Herne Hill, and it seems that the leaves from five months ago have remained all around the track.

I cleared three wheelbarrow loads, and started off our very own Herne Hill compost patch. Cycling and green fingers - it’s got a future.

But it wasn’t all about having a track ready to ride ahead of le grand roll out - you need bikes to ride as well. My mechanical skills probably weren’t quite up to scratch, but it was good to see a dedicated team of grease monkeys servicing the fleet of VCL owned track bikes.

Sadly there has been a break in at Herne Hill over the winter months. Sixteen club owned track bikes were stolen. Four of these were later recovered in a front garden at Burbage Road, suggesting that the bike thief scum took off with more than they could transport.

The wonderful people of VCL have invested in a new fleet of Fuji’s. These look pristine, and rather tempting to take out for a spin next weekend. Each bike had to be fully serviced, and then pumped up to 160 PSI max for that feel of complete track control.

And so shortly after lunchtime on Saturday, the VCL working party was complete. I’m very excited about the news season. It will probably be our last summer in South London before the Great Escape, and so I’m hopeful of making the most of Herne Hill.

A question mark hangs over the running of the track. The mysterious Dulwich Estate is now operating a yearly rolling lease with British Cycling, which in turn, leases out le velo to VCL.

With no long term control of the facility, British Cycling and VCL are unable to raise funds and invest in the much needed improvement of the infrastructure.

The fear is that the Dulwich Estate is happy to see Herne Hill deteriorate to such an extent that it becomes unsafe. Cycling is then moved out, and the leafy suburbs of Dulwich are prime for further property development.

Never underestimate the passion of a cyclist though. The working party on Saturday demonstrated the collective spirit within the South London cycling community. We will work together and promote cycling in South London, irrespective of the opposition.

The new VCL track calendar has seen some slight tweaks for this season. The early Saturday morning 9am - 10am session has been put aside for the kids; adults roll out at the slightly earlier time of 10am, and then novices can be inducted at midday.

Do come down to SE24 and experience track racing. It’s the purest form of cycling, and VCL is an incredibly friendly, welcoming and supportive club. Plus don’t forget the highlight of the Herne Hill calendar - the Good Friday meet on April 2nd.

Chapeau!

Wigmore Street, W1, The Way We See It.

This week we’re back in the centre of town for Wigmore Street. It’s a busy street running parallel to Oxford Street and you’d be forgiven for thinking there was little there. But it does have some rather stunning architectural features if you take a little look upwards.

There’s also the very wonderful Wigmore Hall. It was built by C. Bechstein Pianofortefabrik, the German piano manufacturer whose showroom was next door between 1899 and 1901.

Other than this nugget of history, number 95 was the original home of The Beatles Apple Corp. It’s busy, hectic and I think there’s a lot to photograph. Enjoy!

The first rule of Democracy Club is that you talk about it. The second rule of Democracy Club is that you log it, publicise it and then revisit it. Failing that, then @democlub is a decent opportunity to meet up with like-minded folk in your local area for a pint and some political debate.

And so on a most miserable midweek night, I walked past the site of the great gathering of the Chartist movement at Kennington Park, and then made my way to the inaugural meeting of the South London Democracy Club.

The idea of @democlub is simple: collate political literature online, and canvas the views of any candidate that is standing for election. Once the ballot boxes are closed, keep track of the promises made, and make the elected officials accountable.

For all the nonsense written about this being the first online election, the fact remains that online networks are allowing local people to make connections, and put collective plans into place.

The first meeting of South London @democlub met at the Dog House boozer, right by Kennington Cross. We had no organisational agenda, but a clear cut political agenda of transparency.

We came up with ten questions that we are going to put to all candidates in South London. The answers will then be published in the central @democlub database, available for all to check back on.

On the very same evening, others were doing the same all around the country. @democlub can boast meetings in 98% of all UK constituencies.

We are working together online, sharing ideas, and learning new ways to track the vast amount of party political communication that is being spewed out by the party machines in the run up to May 6th.

Election literature is being crowd sourced, scanned and then uploaded online. On a very local level, I was able to track down the legendary Keep Clapham Swimming farce of a manifesto that Lambeth Labour deceived the good people of SW4 with back in 2006.

Local politicians have been allowed to operate with zero accountability for far too long around this little patch of South London. An apathetic local media breeds disinterest within the electorate.

Make no mistake - online communication is going to play a major role at this election. This is especially so on the ground at Lambeth, where the Labour group in particular are fond of feeding out endless press releases via twitter.

Say it enough times, and eventually the message will sink in. #lambethjohnlewis wasn’t quite a trending topic on twitter in the past seven days, but the number of times that a positive spin tweeted by a Lambeth Labour member was then re-tweeted nationally, is evidence that yep, the medium truly is the message.

There may be potential in the coop model of local governance preferred by Lambeth Labour. There are certainly parallels with local democracy groups and the sharing of social and civic responsibility.

The again it may just be a load of old twaddle. By collating this data now ahead of polling day, local democracy groups can then keep check on the pledges made.

Follow @democlub on twitter, sign up to the website and create a task that you want to keep track of. The vision of the Chartists is alive and well, and online, in my little patch of South London.

There’s been a great deal of debate about crime around my little patch of South London over the past week. Sadly first hand accounts of attempted muggings and burglaries have been on the increase. Sign up with the excellent Streets Ahead email network if you want to help to share information within the community.

I witnessed some extreme anti-social behaviour early on Thursday evening around Dorset Road. Local residents will be familiar with Mad Rupert. Six foot six, continual ranting and roars, and a very real, physical threat to the local community.

The poor chap is clearly unwell. He disappears for periods of a couple of months (hospital?) and then returns to spread fear within the community. His weapon of choice is a walking stick, which he isn’t afraid to lash out at random passers by.

Mad Rupert was in full flow as I walked down Dorset Road, en route to Nine Elms. A young mum came out of Bolney Meadow with her daughter, and walked straight into the path of Mad Rupert.

A racial insult, and then a swing of his walking stick at her legs - Welcome to Lambeth.

I walked with the mother and child back towards their flat and waited for the silence. Mad Rupert has a calling card that means he can be heard a couple of hundred yards away.

I spoke briefly with the mum about her concerns. Her poor girl look petrified. I’ve had similar conversations with Goran, my SW8 man with a Licence to Drill. Goran is also six foot six, and equally petrified of Mad Rupert.

And then by chance, I passed three coppers as I walked past the South Lambeth Library. Bingo. I relayed the story, and told them that Mad Rupert’s behaviour / illness was escalating.

Dorset Road remains a Police Dispersal Zone. Although this paints a picture more in line with gangland LA, local residents widely support the move. It gives the police the powers to move on anyone who is acting in an anti-social manner. I suspect the PDZ was brought in purely for Mad Rupert.

The coppers thanked me for the information, radioed for back up and then headed off towards Dorset Road. At least that’s what I think happened. It was hard to tell as half an hour later as I returned, Mad Rupert was bashing an old bloke around the ankles with his stick.

This man is ill. He shouldn’t be allowed to roam the streets of SW8, causing genuine terror amongst the residents. I wish I had noted the badge numbers of the police I spoke with. I would genuinely like to know what action, if any, they took.

Meanwhile, Mad Rupert is somewhere within a couple of hundred yards as I type. I can hear his calling card. His bark may be worse than his bite, but it’s a risk that my local community shouldn’t have to be prepared to take.

Plus: Fill in the @lambethcpcg questionnaire if you want to register any particular concerns involving policing around this patch.

A big night in Brixton as the Labour led @lambeth_council set the all-important budget for the next twelve months. The sense of occasion was so great that at its peak, the public gallery filled to three residents and one local council candidate.

No worries. A glance over into the press gallery revealed zero representation from the ladies and gentlemen of the local media. There’s no need to attend council meetings, what with local political parties very kindly writing your copy word for word for you.

Never mind. At the least the spectacle of well reasoned, passionate and insightful political debate from a packed floor of the council chamber was something to look forward to.

I’m afraid not. A half-empty chamber suggests that even our democratically elected representatives have given up on all debate in the Rotten Borough.

Fine work from those councillors that could be arsed to attend. They do receive an allowance for this, after all. Shame on the empty seats from across the political divide. Never did like Chelsea, anyway.

All of this matters CRUCIALLY, especially so now. Polling day is almost upon us, and the farce of setting a budget for the next twelve months is essentially each political party outlining their election manifesto.

I can’t speak for the missing Lambeth electorate, but Labour Councillor Toren Smith of Tulse Hill called it completely wrong when he claimed:

“The empty seats in the public gallery is evidence that the electorate is happy with the Labour party.”

Complete twaddle. The empty seats in the public gallery is evidence of political apathy from an electorate that has been let down badly by both local politicians and the local media. The smug quote from Councillor Smith should be made available to every resident in his Tulse Hill ward ahead of polling day.

But anyway. About that budget.

This wasn’t so much a Labour party setting a budget, or even a LibDem party opposing a budget. Like most political affairs in La La Lambeth Land, we take a backwards approach to proceedings around these parts.

Labour set up a budget by talking at length about what is wrong with the LibDem alternative budget. Likewise, the Love Me I’m a Liberal lot set out an alternative budget by banging on about why the Labour budget is balderdash.

The Tories?

Oh, behave.

@jimdickslambeth led the way for Labour. The main calling card for Labour in the election is the freezing of Council Tax for a second year. Fine work, but don’t confuse this fiscal policy as an isolated Lambeth led issue. The proposed policy by Labour is at least in line with what is happening nationally.

The LibDems rejected the Labour budget - you don’t say. Instead they favoured a budget that was “resident led.” Again, a fine ideal, but probably slightly unworkable. Especially so when the political apathy levels have risen so high in Lambeth that only four people can turn out to find out what the chuffers is actually going on.

And then we came to the Tories. Cripes. Our blue rinse friends favoured a 2% cut in Council Tax, plus the vote winner of scrapping Lambeth Life. I’m not sure if I could ever commit to the party of elitism, but getting rid of the council propaganda paper would certainly be a step in the right direction to light my festering blue touch paper.

Ideas and debate were then bounced back and forth. Labour’s @jkazantzis let slip that provision was in the budget for “temporary leisure facilities.” That second Lego Swimming Pool in the Rotten Borough might just be heading your way, my Streatham friends.

All that was left was for the respective party leaders to sum up. LibDem Cllr Lumsden huffed and puffed, and put in a fine performance.

Council Leader @cllrstevereed had been sitting on his hands all evening, eager to let rip. Cometh the hour, cometh the man. Cometh the @audioboo as well.

Surprisingly no mention of the much hyped John Lewis style of government. No worries. I’m sure our friends at Lambeth Labour have all the details worked out.

[Point of order - LibDems in my ward have responded to my email about their alternative to the cooperative style of government. My Labour friends have acknowledged receipt of the email, but are still trying to fathom what the fuss is all about finishing off the finer details.]

Step forward then the ever-resplendent @mayoroflambeth to do his democratic duties. Voting commenced, and then five minutes later, whaddya know - the Labour group have a budget passed.

But for how long?

Blimey - talk about a cliffhanger.

*oh yeah - and for no particular reason other than I forgot to include it in my original commentary, here is the most pertinent tweet from the night*

With limited opportunities available to swim in public pools in Lambeth, I thought I would attempt to uncover the other options available within the borough boundaries in which to swim. You would be surprised to know as to how many swimming pools there are in Lambeth. You just have to know where to look for them, or even whom to ask.

I’ve not set out to offer an exhaustive list. This is only the start. I was going to start a Help Me Investigate topic to try and collaborate the crowd sourcing. It’s a fine online tool that @paulbradshaw and others have established.

But given that I blog mainly about (i) swimming and (ii) South London, I thought perhaps this would be a better place to start.

And so my mission is to map the hidden (and perhaps lost) swimming pools of South London. I hope you are able to join me in the search, by offering assistance in the comments below.

This *isn’t* a historical or political quest; I want to share the options that are available to swimmers in the borough whilst our friends @lambeth_council attempt to save their leisure policy from complete meltdown. I found it ironic though to discover that I actually live in a specific part of the borough with the highest concentration of swimming pools.

The very essence of the search is going to be that most pools are private. Paying for a private swim in Lambeth is now no longer a crime against your political conscious (arf.) The privatisation of the public pools has already seen to this.

There’s some hidden treasures buried away in the borough (and on the map) such as the strip of pool at Tudor Court at the back of Brixton Hill, and the *shhh* private family pool just down from Streatham Common. Accessing the Google Maps via the satellite view will open up a whole new world of South London swimming pool snooping.

There are also some heartbreaking cases of previous botched Lambeth Council leisure policies, such as the filling in of the Kennington Park Lido during the late 1980′s.

Lessons to be learnt, swimming pools to be found. Please feel free to add any other suggestions. The count is currently on twelve fifteen sixteen - a pool a day for a fortnight would be my ultimate South London swimming fantasy.

The first person to put a pin on The Rookery at Streatham Common as a swimming location gets a dunking in the temporary pool whenever / if our friends @lambeth_council get round to building it.

Heads up @se1, @dominiccampbell and @lambethcpcg for assistance in pool hunt.