#Gipsy Hill School

[grantgoddard]

Life is a battlefield : 1966 : Barossa Common & Sandhurst Royal Military Academy

My childhood playground was a warzone. While my classmates were likely splashing around in inflatable pools in the safety of their back gardens, I would be on my bike following tanks on manoeuvres, riding alongside battalions marching across the countryside, and waving at camouflaged soldiers hiding in trenches with guns. Occasionally they waved back! Nights were regularly punctured by the sound of machine-gun fire and exploding shells, while my bedroom curtain would be illuminated by phosphorous flares. Outside our house, tanks would roll along the street between daytime traffic. Nobody took any notice. This was all perfectly normal.

I shared a bedroom with my younger brother, his bed under the window, mine opposite against a wall. On my bedside table were: a hyacinth bulb in a square cardboard box that I had to water daily up to the line printed on a little transparent side window; a tray of watercress seeds on blotting paper for a school project; and a little transistor radio with a white earpiece to listen to 'Radio Luxembourg' at night. Taped to the wall alongside the bed was a world map I had sent for from 'The Daily Express', on which every day I plotted the position of Francis Chichester’s boat 'Gipsy Moth IV' on its record-breaking solo round-the-world voyage. Under my bed was a line of Easter egg boxes which I rationed so that I could eke out my daily chocolate intake until the approach to Christmas.

Hidden against the wall behind the Easter eggs was a line of anonymous brown boxes in which I stored ammunition I had collected whilst biking through the warzone. More than a thousand identical brass-coloured bullet casings stacked in neat rows and, in an odds-and-ends box, a hoard of variously shaped larger artillery shells. Nobody knew about my hobby and they never would because my mum had little inclination to clean beneath our beds. I had no understanding then, but now I realise that most of the cartridges were blanks and had a tell-tale indentation showing they had been fired, though some bullets and shells remained unmarked and were probably still live.

Our house was 180 metres from the corner of Old Green Lane where two tarmacked, fenced tennis courts were hidden from the road by thick foliage. Their gates were never locked, enabling me and my mates from our street to bike there and mess around with racquets and tennis balls ‘borrowed’ from our parents. Only once did army officers dressed in whites arrive unexpectedly and admonish us for using military facilities. That was the most trouble we encountered the many times our mothers saw us off after breakfast during school holidays and weekends, not expecting us to return until ‘tea’ at the end of the afternoon. Anything could have happened to us … but it didn’t.

Although the front entrance to Sandhurst Royal Military Academy was manned, the back entrances were open, allowing non-Army residents to wander through the grounds. Every winter, my mother and I almost froze to death standing on the shore of one of the Academy’s two lakes while my father insisted on showing off his ice-skating prowess, learned as part of my parents’ earlier, unfulfilled plan to emigrate to Canada. My mother would occasionally swim in the indoor heated swimming pool where, if challenged, she would claim to be an officer’s wife, with me in tow expected to play the part of the officer’s son. Security was non-existent prior to the IRA’s mainland bombing campaign in 1973.

Adjacent to Sandhurst was ‘The Common’, 4192 acres of wooded common land shared by Camberley locals for recreation and the British Army for war games. The land was criss-crossed by perfectly straight paths and wide unmade roads dating from Roman times, though the ‘Caesar’s Camp’ archaeological site within was eventually determined to be an earlier Iron Age hill fort. One part of this vast landscape was where my father struggled to teach my mother to drive, me sandwiched between them, terrified on the front seat of our American Rambler station wagon. It was the blind leading the blind as my father had never taken a driving lesson. Conscripted to the Suez, he was ordered to drive trucks across the Egyptian desert, which he did as fast and aggressively as possible for two years. Demobbed with a British driving licence, his style of driving refused to change. How my mother subsequently passed her driving test I never understood.

The Common seemed enormous to me, bordered by the scary Broadmoor Hospital to the west and Windsor Castle to the east, eleven miles from our house, a destination my mother said she had reached on foot as a child accompanying her father. The only human imposition evident on the landscape was a single line of electricity pylons that crossed it, whose cables sizzled as you passed underneath. This noise scared me after having seen my father thrown across our living room when he recklessly drilled a hole in the wall above our house’s electricity fuse board. Now, whenever I watch 1960’s/1970’s Hammer historical movies with horse drawn carriages speeding along straight unmade routes through thick wooded land, I recognise The Common that I came to know so well.

Having access to so much wilderness so nearby to explore was idyllic as a child. There was the ‘Star Post’ raised lookout junction where ten perfectly straight paths intersected. There were army assault courses with tyres on ropes, wooden climbing frames alongside ditches full of water if you fell off. There were small ruined buildings that we could run in and around, chasing each other. There were trenches we could hide in, hoping to frighten a passing dogwalker or biker. Some parts were densely wooded while others were covered with undergrowth, offering scope for all sorts of games. Most of all, there were long straight unmade roads where we could reach great speeds on our bikes without the worry of traffic … except for the odd tank.

Before adventuring onto The Common, we would habitually meet up with our bikes on Old Green Lane, a long, wide, tree-lined straight cul-de-sac of huge residences for senior Sandhurst staff. At the far end was a ditch perpendicular to the road marking the border with the Sandhurst estate, rather like a miniature moat. In the ditch were black stag beetles, some of which grew to the size of an adult hand. My mates liked to poke them with sticks. I was more wary of wildlife after having spotted a large snake in the tiny front garden of our house and then having hidden indoors, peeking from the front window with my mother as my father hacked it to death with a spade. On another occasion, my father having asked me to bring him a tool from a tall cardboard box on our garage floor, I reached inside and a huge spider crawled up my bare arm. I screamed … and still do.

One morning, at our Old Green Lane rendezvous, my mates’ poking angered a huge stag beetle sufficiently for it to climb out of the ditch. This scared me, I climbed on my bike and rode away at top speed down the road, followed by my mates on their bikes shouting “It’s flying. It’s on your back. It’s attacking you.” I was absolutely petrified, reached the other end of the road, pulled my shirt off to find … nothing. My mates laughed at their cruel jape. I was not amused. I never spoke to them again or joined them biking across The Common. I travelled alone after that, having learnt a valuable life lesson. As Bob Marley sang: “your best friend [could be] your worst enemy”.

Not long after, my parents announced that we would finally be moving into the new house two miles away they had spent several years constructing. I had very few possessions to pack, but what should I do with the secret hoard of ammunition under my bed? I knew my bike-riding, bullet-collecting days over The Common were to end now. Initially I considered the easiest solution was to throw them in the dustbin for the weekly rubbish collection, but then I realised that the crushing machinery inside the dustcart might prove catastrophic. I had no ambition to be notorious as Britain’s youngest mass murderer … if I survived the explosion that would have destroyed our house.

Instead, I made dozens of journeys across The Common during the weeks prior to our move, carrying a portion of my artillery hoard each time and throwing it back onto the common land from whence it had been harvested. Nobody would notice because the Army demonstrated no interest in clearing their wargame debris from the landscape. Environmental damage? What was that?

Once we had moved house, I did not return to The Common for three decades. In the meantime, it appeared to have been named ‘Broadmoor to Bagshot Woods & Heaths’. Snappy! I was now taking morning runs alongside my brother-in-law. The deer were still there. The pathways were still in the same place. The electricity cables beneath the pylons still sizzled. The occasional camouflaged soldier with a gun could still be spotted hiding in a trench. And night-time gunfire and flares continued. Somewhere in the world there is always a war for which to prepare.

[londiniumlundene]

Lost London: Walking the River Effra

Part 1: Sources and stink pipes

Known variously as the Shore, the Washway, the Sewer, Lambeth Creek, Vauxhall Creek and Brixton Creek, the river that drains the south London areas of Norwood, Dulwich, Peckham and Brixton (among others) has only been recorded as the Effra no earlier than the late 18th Century. The exact origin of the name is unclear, though one of the more likely roots is from the Manor of Heathrow in Brixton, the land of which it flowed through: by the 1790s the name had morphed into Effra Farm.

From the mid-1800s, the Effra was covered over as a sewer, first at its northern end where it joined the Thames, then gradually culverted along its whole length as south London suburbs sprang up. Now, very little of this river can be seen, though its route can still be traced, providing one knows where to look.

This journey along the Effra starts in Westow Park in Crystal Palace (or, more properly, Upper Norwood), where a spring rises, often leaving the eastern corner of the park rather soggy after rain. The Effra stream then flows under several residential streets of Norwood New Town, named for a lost neighbourhood that was enclosed behind a six-foot high wall and demolished in the 1960s.

It continues alongside Upper Norwood Recreation Ground, which is sometimes identified as the source of the river, and possibly has a small tributary stream flowing under it. Nearby Hermitage Road is supposed to have a drain cover under which the Effra can be heard rushing, but this may have been built over by recent developments.

At this point the river passes beneath the Virgo Fidelis Convent School, requiring the walker to divert and follow the wall of the school along the main road. The Virgo Fidelis graveyard is reported to be prone to flooding from the underground Effra, and apparently once flooded to such an extent in a storm that it swept away the school gates.

The route then takes the walker along Elder Road and Norwood High Street, here walking parallel to the river as its sewer runs beneath houses and gardens. A diversion onto Eylewood Road leads to a definite dip, at which point a plaque in the pavement and gurgling water from a nearby drain cover clearly mark the course of the lost river. Another diversion onto Gipsy Road leads to another dip, and to a Victorian ‘stink pipe’ installed to vent noxious odours from the Effra sewer.

Turning at the Boat House (not that there were ever any boats on this part of the Effra – in fact, it was unnavigable for much of its length even before culverting), a quick look down East Place reveals, between the workshops and garages, another drain cover. Back up on Norwood High Street, another stink pipe can be found.

Where Norwood High Street merges with Knight’s Hill (and aptly marked by a fountain) another tributary joins the Effra, and it is here that the first entry on this walk ends, outside the main gates of West Norwood Cemetery.

[dulwichdiverter]

Treachery and treason

Words: Mark Bryant; Photo by Paul Popper/Popperfoto/Getty Images

This year, 2019, not only marks the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the Second World War, but also the departure for Nazi Germany of a former Dulwich resident who became one of modern history’s most notorious propagandists – William Joyce, better known as “Lord Haw-Haw”.

Joyce was born in Brooklyn, New York, on April 24 1906, the eldest of four children of an Irish émigré builder and a doctor’s daughter from Lancashire. When he was three the family returned to Ireland and 12 years later he was sent to England to stay with his mother’s relations in Oldham.  

Intending to study medicine, he moved to London in 1922 to attend the Battersea Polytechnic Institute (later the University of Surrey in Guildford), while living in digs  nearby.

The following year his parents and siblings moved to Allison Grove, Dulwich, just off what is now the south circular near West Dulwich Station, and William joined them. His father had set up shop as a grocer nearby.

Their new home, to paraphrase from Rebecca West’s book The Meaning of Treason (1949), was “a house as delightfully situated as any in London. Allison Grove is a short road of small houses which has been hacked out from the corner of the gardens of a white Regency villa in the greenest part of Dulwich.

“Not far off is Mill Pond, still a clear mirror of leaves and sky, and beyond it Dulwich College amidst its groves and playing fields. The neighbours all noted that William was the apple of the family’s eye, and they could understand it, for the boy had an air of exceptional spirit and promise.”

However, his studies at the polytechnic did not go well and he failed his exams soon after moving to Dulwich. Undaunted (he was still only 17), he got a place to study English at Birkbeck College, University of London.  

While at Birkbeck he became chairman of the Conservative Student Society and had ambitions to become a Tory MP.

In December 1923, while still a student, he also became a member of the British Fascists (BF) group which canvassed for the Conservative and Unionist parties and acted as stewards for their meetings.

In the run-up to the general election of October 1924, Joyce was a steward at a rally at Lambeth Baths hall near the Imperial War Museum (now the site of Lambeth Towers) for the Unionist candidate for Lambeth North, Jack Lazarus.  

However, a fight broke out with Communist hecklers and Joyce was badly slashed in the face by a razor. The Evening Standard reported the incident on its front page, quoting Lazarus as saying “The man Joyce, one of our supporters, fell down, his face covered in blood”. The article continued: “Mr William Joyce, of Allison Grove, Dulwich, had... to be confined to hospital.”

A week after his 21st birthday, when he was still living at home in Dulwich, he secretly married a fellow Birkbeck student. In June 1927 he received a first class degree in English and soon afterwards began a postgraduate course in philology.

He and his wife then moved to Chelsea, where he joined the Conservative Party (he had left the British Fascists in 1925) and, having failed to be nominated as a Tory candidate, he tried unsuccessfully to get a job at the Foreign Office. He then worked as a tutor of languages and history at the Victoria Tutorial College in Eccleston Square.

By 1932 he and his family (which then included two daughters) had moved south of the river again and settled in a flat on Farquhar Road in Gipsy Hill, near the Crystal Palace before it burnt down. The house was within walking distance of Joyce’s parents in Dulwich.

While on Farquhar Road Joyce continued working as a tutor and, having given up his philology course, he began to study part-time for a PhD in educational psychology at King’s College London.  

Meanwhile, he joined Oswald Mosley’s newly founded British Union of Fascists (the Blackshirts) in August 1933 and when he was offered a well-paid  job working for the BUF in November, he gave up his PhD and his tutoring  work.  Within two years he became the BUF’s director of propaganda and deputy leader.

Meanwhile, his relationship with his wife had deteriorated and in 1936 the marriage was dissolved. He then remarried and moved to north London. As Rebecca West says: “He left south London, which had been his home since he was  a boy with the exception of a few brief episodes; which was still the home of his father, Michael Joyce, and his mother, Queenie, and his brothers and sister.”

However, before long he returned to Dulwich. In 1937 he left the BUF and founded –  with ex-BUF members John Beckett (fomerly the independent Labour MP for Peckham) and John McNab – his own party, known as the National Socialist League.  

The NSL held a number of meetings in Dulwich on the corner of Calton Avenue and Dulwich Village, outside Dulwich Library on Lordship Lane and sometimes inside when permission for the use of St Barnabas’ Parish Hall in Dulwich Village was refused).

His brothers also supported the NSL. To paraphrase Mary Kenny: “Frank had spoken for the Mosley Blackshirt movement on a couple of occasions, mostly at local meetings in Dulwich. Quentin also became caught up in the fringes of fascist politics because of his unquestioning devotion to his brother William.

“Indeed, William seems to have roped in his whole family. He even had his teenage sister, Joan, hand out Fascist propaganda leaflets at Sydenham School for Girls. He also dressed little Robert up in a black shirt. ‘Poor Mrs Joyce!’ the neighbours in Dulwich used to exclaim. ‘With all those terrible children in their black shirts!’”

The NSL was disbanded in 1939 and Joyce and his wife moved to Germany on August 26 that year, only days before the Second World War broke out. Within a short while he began his infamous nightly propaganda broadcasts to Britain prefaced with the words “Germany calling”.

The nickname Lord Haw-Haw originated from an article written by Daily Express radio critic Jonah Barrington, who added: “I imagine him with a receding chin, a  questing nose, thin yellow hair brushed back, a monocle, a vacant eye, a gardenia in his button-hole. Rather like PG Wodehouse’s Bertie Wooster.”

In 1939 Barrington produced a humorous book, Lord Haw-Haw of Zeesen – one of the German radio stations Joyce broadcasted from).  It was illustrated by the cartoonist Ian Fenwick, who was killed during the war.

Many other cartoonists lampooned Lord Haw-Haw including William Heath Robinson and Leslie Illingworth, who lived in Dulwich in the 1960s. The Beano comic’s “Lord Snooty” strip even featured him during the war.

He was also the butt of comedians such as Max Miller in the revue Haw-Haw at the Holborn Empire, Arthur Askey as “Baron Hee-Haw” on BBC radio’s “Band Waggon”, Geoffrey Sumner, presenting “Nasty News” on British Pathé newsreels  and the Western Brothers in their song Lord Haw-Haw, the Humbug of Hamburg.

Joyce broadcast throughout the war years but, ironically, one of the first German bombs to land on Dulwich during the London Blitz in August 1940 completely destroyed his family home. His parents, sister and youngest brother then moved into a flat on Underhill Road, East Dulwich.

His parents both died there in the 1940s, after which his sister and brother Quentin lived in the flat for a while. Quentin was arrested as a possible spy in 1939 but was released from prison in 1943. He later married and lived nearby in Sydenham Hill.

His other two brothers, Frank and  Robert, both served in the British Army during the war. Frank’s first wife was the daughter of Harry Weeks, who ran the Magdala pub in Lordship Lane (now The Lordship).  

In the last days of the war Joyce was captured by the Allies and put on trial. By a strange quirk of fate the chief prosecutor was Old Alleynian Sir Hartley Shawcross (the future Lord Shawcross), who later became chairman of the board of governors of Dulwich College and was president of the Alleyn Club.

At first it seemed that Joyce might be acquitted as he was born in the USA (and was thus not a UK citizen), but he was eventually condemned of high treason and hanged as a result of  his application for a British passport in 1933 while living in Farquhar Road.

In 2009, when she was in her 80s, Joyce’s elder daughter Heather, interviewed on  BBC Radio 4, said that she was at boarding school when war broke out and was not aware of his activities.

However, she added: “I saw him in my mind’s eye at the parental home, where my grandparents lived, in Allison Grove and he was pacing the carpet of their living-room with the lace curtains and the piano, and he had his little German songbook and he was walking up and down and he was singing, ‘Dulwich-Land, Dulwich-Land Uber Alles’.”

William Joyce died in Wandsworth Prison on January 3, 1946 aged 39. He was the last person to be executed for high treason in the UK.

 Mark Bryant lives in East Dulwich and is the author World War II in Cartoons and other books.

[dutch-and-flemish-painters]

Jan Griffier the Elder - A view of Greenwich from the River with many Boats - 1700-10

Greenwich is an area of south east London, England, located 5.5 miles (8.9 km) east-southeast of Charing Cross. It is located within the Royal Borough of Greenwich, to which it lends its name.

Greenwich is notable for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich Meridian (0° longitude) and Greenwich Mean Time. The town became the site of a royal palace, the Palace of Placentia from the 15th century, and was the birthplace of many Tudors, including Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. The palace fell into disrepair during the English Civil War and was rebuilt as the Royal Naval Hospital for Sailors by Sir Christopher Wren and his assistant Nicholas Hawksmoor. These buildings became the Royal Naval College in 1873, and they remained an establishment for military education until 1998 when they passed into the hands of the Greenwich Foundation. The historic rooms within these buildings remain open to the public; other buildings are used by University of Greenwich and Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance.

The town became a popular resort in the 18th century and many grand houses were built there, such as Vanbrugh Castle (1717) established on Maze Hill, next to the park. From the Georgian period estates of houses were constructed above the town centre. The maritime connections of Greenwich were celebrated in the 20th century, with the siting of the Cutty Sark and Gipsy Moth IV next to the river front, and the National Maritime Museum in the former buildings of the Royal Hospital School in 1934. Greenwich formed part of Kent until 1889 when the County of London was created.

Jan Griffier (ca 1652–1718) was a Dutch Golden Age painter who was active in England, where he was admitted to the London Company of Painter-Stainers in 1677.

[ret-uk]

The Great North Wood

December 2016

Here is the article that we wrote for PMLD Link. It says a little more about the work I do with Emmie and Keith as Sound Tracks.... (Coralie too but she is working hard as a Speech and Language Therapist at time of writing :))

SOUNDTRACKS AND THE GREAT NORTH WOOD

Sarah Glover, Emmie Ward, Coralie Oddy and Keith Park have formed a collective – Soundtracks - to provide multi-sensory storytelling, poetry, music, song and dance workshops for adults with severe and profound and multiple learning disabilities on the theme of The Great North Wood

Sarah writes:

The Great North Wood History

Oh the trees grew all around, even in, your own home town…

I first found out about The Great North Wood when studying for my MA in Museums and Galleries in Education. I was researching the history of Crystal Palace Park for various projects, which included the creation of a community audio trail. During my research, park and parish boundaries were frequently mentioned and there was talk of the ‘Vicar’s Oak’ that once stood on the triangle. Looking at area map excerpts through different time periods I became intrigued by the time before the palace and park and in particular with John Roque’s 1746 map of London. I found a copy of Roque’s map in Lambeth Archives and this map clearly marks ‘The Great North Wood’ in large lettering over Norwood and Dulwich. Having lived in West Norwood off and on over the years I had had no idea of the name’s origin. If ever you get the chance to take a look at the map, you should!

I can not confess to be the most knowledgeable person on The Great North Wood. The London Wildlife Trust are a good source of information and they are currently working on a Heritage Lottery Funded project on the theme. The trust manages areas of land which include remnants of the wood that you can visit today, such as Sydenham Hill Wood. I am fascinated by the wood and the stories it holds. I am particularly interested in the mix of tangible and intangible history of the area and I am passionate about helping to make local heritage accessible to as many people as possible. Key aspects of life in The Great North Wood are used as starting points during the sessions – the nature and characters of the wood.  We have always left these aspects open for development during the sessions – and the learning has been for us as project creators as much as for the students.

We are beating, beating, beating the bounds… we are beating, the bounds…

The Great North Wood once covered most of South London and stretched from as far as Deptford to Selhurst. Many clues about the area’s history are in names – area and street names such as Vicar’s Oak Road. The wood was centrally made up of Oak trees, and boundary oaks such as the Vicar’s Oak (that no longer stands) were important landmarks. People would have visited these oaks when taking part in the annual tradition of beating the bounds. From what I have heard, this was when the parishioners walked along the lines of their parish boundaries to make sure that they asserted which land was theirs. We celebrated the beating of the bounds in our April session. This included using real sapling wands and processing around a symbolic (hand drawn) tree while singing a song we created.

Have you seen Margaret Finch? They call her the Gipsy Queen….

Names continue to tell a story, such as Gipsy Hill, which refers to the gypsies who once held summer encampments in the area. The most famous of these gypsies was Margaret Finch who was given the name ‘Queen of the Gipsies’. Day trippers from all around visited the gypsies, apparently including Samuel Pepys’ wife, Elizabeth in 1668.* The thought of excited day trippers going to have their fortunes told and and the festival feel that must have been provided us with lots of stimuli for songs, drama and music on the theme.

Stand and deliver, your money or your life…

I am familiar with The Highwayman being taught in schools from when I working as a teaching assistant in a school.  We didn’t use the poem in this project. However, the highwaymen who would have roamed The Great North Wood were the first characters we introduced. The drama developed during the sessions. Sometimes we were all the highwaymen and sometimes one or two highwaymen and highwaywomen collected treasure from the rest of the group. This was supported by song and the words: ‘Stand and deliver!’

The plants and animals of the Great North Wood have been a theme throughout all of the sessions. Nature has been fundamental to the sensory storytelling and interactive storytelling. To date we have used more general animals and plants that could be found in woodland, but there is a huge scope for developing around nature particular to The Great North Wood.

The Great North Wood Sensory Stories

It was a long time ago...

I was first introduced to sensory stories at a day workshop with Joanna Grace at a Diversity in Heritage Group meeting. I had always been interested in how to make museums, galleries and heritage sites more accessible and had a fair amount of experience in education and disability. However, this was the first time that I learned about a clear, practical, interesting and instant way to get started. I then attended a training weekend with Joanna Grace. As well as learning more about developing and telling sensory stories, I also met Coralie Oddy. Coralie also had an interest in The Great North Wood and we resolved to write a sensory story on the theme.

It was the time of The Great North Wood and the trees grew all around....

Sensory stories are usually made up of about ten parts/sentences and throughout the story you try and cover as wide a variety of senses as possible, so that each sentence has a sensory experience connected with it. Our sensory story was the starting point for the themes we covered and continue to use during the sessions. We first thought about what we could use to represent the wood itself. We wanted to create the feeling of immersion in the wood and Coralie had the idea to use a hoop with leaves that dangle from it. We could then place the hoop over the heads of individuals so that they would truly be immersed in the leaves. The hoop proved helpful in creating a special atmosphere in the sessions. It helps us begin with a sense of calm and familiarity. This, combined with Emmie's beautiful flute playing means that there is a mystical feeling of being transported to the wood.

The trees grew flowers which bloomed and turned into rich, juicy berries...

The theme of woodland has given us a bountiful amount of ideas. Sensory stimuli are used throughout the story and the whole session. However, in each session at some point in the story there is a prolonged period for sensory exploration. We take around a variety of stimuli to participants and while introducing people to the different items we also observe what interests and simulates enjoyment. Items are mostly inspired by the workshops with Joanna Grace and include visual stimuli such as laminated pouches filled with coloured water and small objects; as well as touch stimuli of gak and various kinds and water beads in water. We always have a couple of scents on offer.

Coralie writes:

Highwaymen hid in the woods. You could hear the sound of horses hooves and running feet….

Gaining an understanding of what different individuals respond well to (or perhaps do not enjoy) has been really important for developing the sessions. In one group, we found that a wide circle arrangement was important to give some individuals space, whereas another group developed a real sense of intimacy by having the story circle brought tighter. Some individuals have developed their confidence in participating by being offered the chance to add extra sensory layers to what is now a familiar story (such as using clapping sticks to create a ‘tick tock’ sound during the part of the story ‘It was a long time ago…’). Others have shown subtle signs of greater engagement as the weeks have progressed. One visually impaired individual who found noisy stimuli difficult really benefitted from experiencing the story in terms of different kinds of touch on her arms and hands – light tapping fingers for rain fall, for example. It also gradually supported her to engage more fully with other sensory aspects of the story – she was happy to smell differently scented gels and hand creams when used within the context of hand massage, and matching speed and intensity of touch to music being played seemed to increase her tolerance of these sounds. Another individual who tended to wander and rummage through people’s possessions during the sessions was able to have her needs met and be included within the ‘action’ of the story by having leaves scattered in front of her, which she carefully picked up and placed in a bag for us to scatter again. Following and accepting the preferences of individuals has been helpful in supporting them to try new sensory experiences. Experimenting over time has been key!

Emmie writes:

I have recently completed my PG Cert in Sounds of Intent  (Adam Ockelford 2008) at Roehampton University. Originally designed to enable children with PMLD to access music,

Sounds of Intent 'maps' musical behaviour and development and divides musical expression into three distinct but interdependent areas: reactive ( listening to music), pro-active ( making music) and interactive ( making music with others). It emphasises an individual approach to musical expression in which the student is guided along at their own pace and direction.

Our aim in the sessions was to provide an array of interesting sounds for people to listen and respond to. This included the words in the stories, the rhythmic call and response of Keith’s poems and chants as well as instrumental music and songs and soundscapes to create the atmosphere of birds singing in the woods or wind blowing through leaves. When working with students with PMLD who might not be aware of sound as a separate entity its important to try out lots of different sound experiences and observe their response. One of the most important sounds for them to hear is their own vocal sounds. With this in mind some of the songs in each session are adapted or purposely created to include vocalisations, which everyone sings together. Students also consistently respond to hearing their name so we use their name not only in hello and goodbye songs but in songs that relate to parts of the story as well.

Its really important to make sure that sound is as different as possible from the background noise many of our students experience in residential homes where the tv or radio can be playing almost constantly. To do this, we have to bring the music over to people and sing and play close to them accompanied by lots of engaging eye contact, expression and a “live” sound. I also make sure that I provide lots of drama and contrast in playing quiet, louder, slow and faster and that there is a variety of sounds created from a range of instruments and voices to create changes in “timbre” Stops and starts are also utilized to create drama and to remember that “silence can be as important as sound!” ( soundabout)

To help students with PMLD make sounds using instruments, body or voice ( pro-active domain) we initially reflect back involuntary sounds to highlight awareness of them, if the student is not making sound intentionally. The next step is to find accessible ways to make sound and to enable people to have as much control in doing this with minimal support. We have lots of different instruments so people can experience the soft and resonant sounds of djembe drums or the pure metallic sound of a tone chime. We have lots of small shakers and hand held percussion instruments that are easy to hold and string them on to belts if the player does not want to hold the instrument for too long. This way it can be held and released at the players will. For tuned instruments we’ve had great fun with a small child’s accordion and playing guitar chords on garageband on the ipad.

Our students with PMLD have different musical preferences and we constantly review how we can accommodate their needs within the class. Some students find it very difficult to relax within the class unless there is some music. For other students especially with sensory processing issues we have to be aware that loud sounds can be distressing and we have to make sure the volume of the music does not become too loud. For some students ( as Coralie said) experiencing touch stimuli enables them to more readily engage with the music as it seems to provide a focus that grounds them and allows them to enjoy listening.

The real joy comes in making music and sound interactively and Keith’s poems and chants do this beautifully. Working with Keith has inspired us to look for call and response songs and to create our own songs within which there is turn taking between music makers and a rich musical conversation emerges. It’s really important to leave time and space to as Keith says to “see what happens” and be ready to respond to our students and allow their input to flourish.

During the sessions we have learnt to look for “magical moments”. One of these was when we sang: “come and gather” a “campfire” song (written by Sarah) where we all sat close together in a circle around a flickering fire on the ipad. Something about the closeness and swaying to the music created a wonderful connection and calm between everyone. Another was when we marched around the room chanting and holding birch wands and re-enacting the ancient tradition of “ beating the bounds” There was a feeling of excitement and energy amongst our students. Is it the music, the movement, proximity to one another? We’re still figuring it out but when these moments happen we know we’re on to something good!!

Keith writes:

Our aim is to bring music, song, poetry, dance and storytelling together in a creative and accessible format for adults with severe and profound and multiple learning disabilities.  Both Sarah and Emmie are singers and musicians with a vast knowledge of folk song. Sorted!

And here, as a taster, here is our chant of The Great North Wood.  This can be performed as a poem using call and response but also as a circle dance, as the words suggest, or as both together.  Emmie has set it to music, so it is now a song: and so then, of course, we can perform it as a song, a poem using call and response, and a dance, all  at the same time.  We have also had guidance from British Sign Language users and teachers so in addition the chant is signed. An interactive poem, sung to live music, danced and signed at the same time.

A Guardian reporter, should one ever come and join us, might describe the workshop as an example of ‘Gesamtkunstwerk.’ We just think of it as putting it all together.

The Chant Of The Great North Wood

If come you can

Then come you should

To join us all

At the Great North Wood

Hand to hand

Each to each

We dance around

The copper beech

Eye to eye

So we can see

Us dance around

The old oak tree

If come you can

Then come you should

To join us all

At the Great North Wood

Side by side

Come and go

We dance around

The mistletoe

Toe to toe

You and me

We dance around

The rowan tree

If come you can

Then come you should

To join us all

At The Great North Wood

Circle dance

Beneath the sky

Our circle

Has no I

Root and tree

Flower and leaf

The Great North Wood

Beyond belief

If come you can

Then come you should

To join us all

At The Great North Wood

Anyone wanting more information on The Great North Wood is welcome to contact soundtrackscollective@gmail.com or by twitter at @Soundtracks16

[adrienneec]

Christmas List from I don’t know When.

Adrienne’s Wish List

Priorities: AAmiles (I'm saving up to get to New Zealand, sooner rather than later, to visit Colin), Airfare and/or accomodations for Amnesty International's Annual General Meeting in March (registration for the conference a kind gift from Christina),1-yr gym membership, Rosetta Stone Language Learning Software for Spanish, Dance Shoes from Capezio, Ball Gown, Black Flats for Work, Clothes for Work, or Money/Gift Certificates to be used towards the purchase of any of the above.

CDs: 2Pac*, 311*, A Tribe Called Quest*, Aerosmith*, Alicia Keys*, All American Rejects, Ani DiFranco*, Arrested Development*, Avril Lavigne*, The Beach Boys*, Beastie Boys*, The Beatles*, Beatnuts, Big Pun, The Black Eyed Peas*, Black Star, Blondie*, Bob Marley, Common, Cruel Intentions Soundtrack, The Cure, Cypress Hill*, D12*, Dane Cook, The Darkness, De La Soul, Dead Prez, Dilated Peoples*, Dr. Dre, Eminem*, Erykah Badu*, Evanescence*, Fiona Apple*, Frank Sinatra*, The Fugees, Gail Ann Dorsey, Gipsy Kings, Gorillaz*, Green Day, Il Divo, India Arie*, Jason Mraz, John Mayer, Joss Stone*, Janis Joplin, Jewel*, Jimi Hendrix*, Kanye West, The Killers, KRS-One, Lauryn Hill, Los Lonely Boys, Love Actually Soundtrack, Madonna*, Mariah Carey, Maroon 5*, Method Man, Mos Def*, Nas, Natasha Bedingfield, Nelly Furtado, N.E.R.D.*, No Doubt, NOFX, Norah Jones*, The Notorious B.I.G., Operation Ivy, Outkast*, The Pharcyde, Pink, Pump up the Volume Soundtrack, Radiohead, Rage Against the Machine, The Red Hot Chili Peppers*, Redman*, The Roots, Santana, Sarah McLachlan*, Save the Last Dance Soundtracks, Sean Paul, Shakira, Simon & Garfunkel, Snoop Doggy Dogg*, Staind, Sublime, Sugar Ray, Talib Kweli, TLC*, Tracy Chapman*, The Truth About Charlie Soundtrack, UB40, Usher, Weezer*, Wyclef Jean*,

TV Shows (DVDs All Episodes): Absolutely Fabulous**, Aeon Flux, Alias, Angel, Arrested Development, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Chappelle’s Show, CSI (Original, Miami, and NY)**, Da Ali G Show, The Daily Show: Indecision 2004, Dawson’s Creek, Dead Like Me, Desperate Housewives, Family Guy, Friends, Futurama, Gilmore Girls, The L Word, Las Vegas, Law and Order (Original, SVU, and Criminal Intent), Lost**, Malcolm in the Middle, Monk**, My So-Called Life, Newsradio, Pen and Teller’s Bullshit, Reno 911, Scrubs, Seinfeld**, Sex and the City, The Simpsons**, Smallville, The Sopranos, South Park**, Will and Grace**,

Movies (DVD preferred, but VHS ok too): 28 Days, A League of Their Own, American Pie (Unrated), Big Daddy, Billy Madison, Birdcage, Black Sheep, Black Hawk Down, Bruce Almighty, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Can’t Buy Me Love, Clue, Dazed and Confused, Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood, Empire Records, Ever After-A Cinderella Story, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Girl Interrupted, Grumpy Old Men, Grumpier Old Men, Half Baked, Happy Gilmore, Idle Hands, Iron Jawed Angels, Karate Kid, Kill Bill 1 & 2, Legally Blonde, Legally Blonde 2, Little Nicky, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Miss Congeniality, Monty Python (except the Holy Grail), My Fair Lady, Napoleon Dynomite Ocean’s Eleven, Office Space, Old School, Orgazmo(Unrated), Patch Adams, PCU, Pearl Harbor, Pretty Woman, Red Dragon, Roger & Me, Saving Silverman, Say Anything, Scary Movie, Seven, Singing in the Rain, Spaceballs, The Lord of the Rings 1 & 2(DVD), The Other Sister, The Princess Bride, The Silence of the Lambs, The Sound of Music, The Wedding Singer, The Wizard of Oz, The Wood, To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything Julie Newmar, There’s Something About Mary, Tommy Boy, Toys, Up in Smoke, Varsity Blues, Very Bad Things, Waiting, Waterboy, Wayne’s World, Wedding Crashers, West Side Story, What About Bob?, Zoolander,

Stand-up Comedy: Ellen DeGeneres**, Kathy Griffin, Martin Lawrence, Denis Leary, Eddie Murphy, Chris Rock

SNL Videos or DVDs: Best of: Clinton Scandal, Cris Farley, Game Show Parodies, 96-97, Tim Meadows, Eddie Murphy, Chris Rock, Adam Sandler 

Computer Games: American McGee’s Alice, Amerizone, CSI Games (Except Dark Motives), Grim Fandango, Law and Order Games, The Longest Journey, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Sanitarium, Seven Games of the Soul, Syberia, URU: Ages Beyond Myst, Vampire: The Masquerade Redemption,

Electronics: Shower radio

Books: By Bread Alone, Call Me Crazy, Carry a Nation: Retelling the Life, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, Cry to Heaven, Dracula, The Experience Economy: Work is Theater and Every Business a Stage, Feast of All Saints, Jon Stewart: Naked Pictures of Famous People,  Memoirs of a Geisha, Merrick, The Mummy; or Ramses the Damned, Nanny Diaries, Nice Big American Baby, Pandora, The Politics of Deceit, Sleeping Beauty Trilogy, The Stranger, Vittorio the Vampire, Waiting for Rain, Witches’ Companion: The Official Guide to Anne Rice’s Lives of the Mayfair Witches,

Books by Michael Moore

Travel books

Other:  Contour-foam silver slippers from Sharper Image

 *Any CDs by these artists, except:

 2Pac: Greatest Hits

311: Greatest Hits ’93-‘03

A Tribe Called Quest: Midnight Marauder, The Anthology

Aerosmith: Gold

Alicia Keys: Unplugged

Ani DiFranco: Living in Clip

Arrested Development: The Best of

Avril Lavigne: Let Go

The Beach Boys: Sounds of Summer

Beastie Boys: Licensed to Ill, Check Your Head, To The 5 Boroughs

The Beatles: Abbey Road

The Black Eyed Peas: Elephunk, Monkey Business

Blondie: The Best of,

Cypress Hill: Unreleased and Revamped, Black Sunday, Till Death Do Us Part, Cypress

Hill

D12: World, D12

Dilated Peoples: Neigborhood Watch

Eminem: The Eminem Show, Encore, Curtain Call

Erykah Badu: Baduizm

Evanescence: Fallen

Fiona Apple: Tidal

Frank Sinatra: The Very Best of

Gorillaz: Gorillaz, Demon Days

India Arie: Acoustic Soul

Jewel: Pieces of You, Spirit, This Way

Jimi Hendrix: Axis: Bold as Love

Joss Stone: Mind, Body & Soul

Madonna: The Immaculate Collection, Bedtime Stories

Maroon 5: Songs About Jane

Mos Def: The New Danger

N.E.R.D.: Fly or Die

Norah Jones: Come Away With Me

Outkast: Stankonia

Redman: Where is Reggie Noble?

The Red Hot Chili Peppers: One Hot Minute

Sarah McLachlan: Afterglow

Snoop Doggy Dogg: Rhythm & Blues

TLC: 3D

Tracy Chapman: New Beginnings

Weezer: Weezer

Wyclef Jean: The Preacher´s Son

 **Any DVDs of the series except:

Absolutely Fabulous: Season 5

CSI: Season 1

CSI Miami: Season 1

Ellen DeGeneres: Here and Now

Lost: Season 2

Monk: Season: 1

Seinfeld: Seasons 1 & 2

The Simpsons: Seasons 1 & 2

South Park: Volume 4

Will And Grace: Season 1

[taptakeoverbrighton-blog]

The Perfect Tap Takeover

We’ve got SO much beer-relate greatness happening this weekend, the main decision will be deciding how to fit it all in.

So, if we were coming to Tap Takeover as visitors, what would we do on Saturday to have the greatest day of beer in our lives? Find out below.

(This is a fun event. But as we all know, too much alcohol is not fun. Take it slow, drink smaller measures, eat regularly and drink plenty of water. If you’ve already drunk enough, just taste.)

12:00: North Laine Brewhouse - Venue 1

Our first stop is the hub of the event – the North Laine Brewhouse – to pick up our wristband.  We take some time to look at the first brushstrokes in the live art battle, play Human Whack-a-mole (yes, really) and get stuck into some beers from the 20-strong tapwall.

Drink: Five Points XPA, 4.0%

Do: Human Whack-a-mole

13:00: Four Pure at the Mash Tun - Venue 4

Onwards to the Mash Tun for the first of the Original Gravity tasting sessions. This one’s on Wylam and is a great way to get into the swing of things. We also try the Four Pure Lime Kolsch. Yes!

Drink: Limehaus - Imperial Lime Kolsch, 7.4%

Do: Original Gravity Beer School - Wylam tasting (13:30)

14:15: Two Tribes at the Mesmerist - Venue 13

On to the Mesmerist for some beer cocktails (Hoptails?) and laid back tunes from Vintage Re-mix.

Drink: Island Records Jamaica Porter Espresso Martini

Do: Vintage Remix DJs

15:15: Edge Brewing at the East Street Tap - Venue 14

We then swing by East Street Tap to try Barcelona’s finest Craft Beers and listen to Adrian Tierney-Jones give his tasting on “A Punk History of Beer” (15:30). Beery fascination.

Drink: Edge Appassionada - Passion Fruit Berliner, 4.0%

Do: Original Gravity “A Punk History of Beer”, wth Adrian Tierney Jones.

16:00: Laine Brew Co at the Black Lion - Venue 1

It’s on to the Black Lion to hear the Head Brewer of Laine Brew Co talk about Dirty Weekend, the “Brighton IPA” brewed with Brighton Rock and seaweed from the beach. While we are there we find a stand-up magician doing amazing things with beer mats.

Drink: Laine/Two Tribes Dirty Weekend.

Do: Stand-up magician at the Laine Brew Co Garden party.

17:00 Burning Sky at the Victory - Venue 10

Time to line the stomach, so we head to the Victory to try Burning Sky’s incredible Saison de Printemps with a famous Victory pie.

Drink: Burning Sky Saison Printemps - Spring Saison, 4.2%

Do: A delicious pie from the Victory.

18:00 Irish Collective at Fiddler’s Elbow - Venue 9

Suitably refreshed we carry on to the Fiddler’s Elbow to try some of the incredible Craft Beers now being produced in Ireland. We sit back and enjoy it with some live traditional Irish music.

Drink: Boundary Brewery Imbongo IPA,  5.5%

Do: Live Irish music

19:00 Gipsy Hill at the Western - Venue 8

A short walk up the hill to gets us to the Western and Gipsy Hill. We take a swift half of one of their cracking beers before moving on.

Drink: Gispy Hill Walloon - Belgian IPA, 7%

Do: Keep on movin'

19:45 Garden at the Hope & Ruin - Venue 7

A flying visit to check out Croatia’s finest. We gut stuck in to the vegan kebabs and Garden’s Citrus IPA before heading back down into the Laines.

Do: Vegan kebabs from Beezelbab

Drink: Garden, Citrus IPA, 7.2%

20:30: Moor Beer at the Earth & Stars - Venue 6

Just around the corner we stop off at the Earth & Stars to try some of Bristol’s best. After so much exciting keg beer we go for one of Moor’s fantastic options on cask.

Do: Briefly rest our feet

Drink: Revival - Modern Bitter, 3.8%

21:15: North Laine Brewhouse - Venue 1

We head back to the Festival Hub for a dose of Carnival Collective. Brighton’s incredible 20-piece brass band. We also head back to the tap-wall for another try.  

Do: Carnival Collective Brass Band

Drink: Laine Brew Co. - Lemon & Lime Gose, 4.5%

22:15: Fierce at the White Rabbit - Venue 2

Following the brass band onslaught we duck around the corner to check out Fierce at the White Rabbit. The beers blow us away. Of only we had longer… maybe back tomorrow?

Drink: Fuego Feroz - Chilli Pale, 5.0%

Do: Something fierce and rabbity.

22:45: Wylam at Dead Wax - Venue 5

We finish the night at Wylam for “Top of the Hops”, where wannabe DJs from participating breweries go back to back on the wheels of steel. We’ve got just about enough energy to dance into the early hours.

Drink: Hickey the Rake - Limonata Pale, 4.2%

Do: Top of the Hops, Baby!

Sunday:

Cask hub at the Bath Arms - Venue 11 & Five Points at the Fountain Head - Venue 3

Even we couldn’t work out how to get all 14 pubs in one day, so on Sunday we wandered through the South Lanes to soak up the atmosphere, stopping at the Bath Arms for a delicious pint (or two) of cask beer. We finished our walk at the Fountain Head for a late Sunday Lunch and indulged in a game of Bingo with Boogaloo Stu! (Warning, this is unlike any game of Bingo you have ever experienced).

Drink: Railway Porter, 4.8%

Do: Bingo with Boogaloo Stu

[hourlyjobupdates-blog]

Year 1 Teacher – Lambeth, South London, Lambeth Year 1 Teacher – Primary School in Lambeth – Near to Gipsy Hill/Crystal Palace Station January 2019 – Outstanding School…

[mccullytech]

Obscene graffiti transformed in Gipsy Hill

Two women have transformed an obscene piece of graffiti which faced a Gipsy Hill primary school. from This Is Local London | News https://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/news/17001688.women-transform-obscene-graffiti-in-gipsy-hill/?ref=rss

[bespokekitchesldn]

Obscene graffiti transformed in Gipsy Hill

Two women have transformed an obscene piece of graffiti which faced a Gipsy Hill primary school. from This Is Local London | News https://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/news/17001688.women-transform-obscene-graffiti-in-gipsy-hill/?ref=rss

[lewishamledger]

Villages people

Since launching their Deptford microbrewery in 2016, Archie and Louis Villages have spent hours crafting the perfect pint. The brothers tell us why basing their business in SE8 was a no-brainer

Words by Seamus Hasson; Photo by Paul Stafford

When brothers Archie and Louis Villages began setting up a microbrewery in late 2016, there was only one place they wanted to do it.

“Deptford has the pace of life that we both love,” Archie says. “There’s all sorts going on, there’s conversations everywhere, it’s just a wonderful community around here.

“I know I brew better beers by having a good community around me while listening to good music. The numbers will be the same but I know the beer tastes better. I don’t know why. Metaphysics, perhaps.”

It’s mid-week when I call in and the taproom furniture (the brewery opens to the public at weekends) has been stored away to make space for a forklift truck. They’re expecting a delivery of two new fermentation vessels the following day.

“It does get busy in here at weekends,” says Louis. “It contributes about 10% of our turnover but it’s a much bigger part of what we do. It’s kind of an embodiment of how we enjoy drinking and hanging out with friends.”

“The best thing about this place is that when we opened, we had no idea who we’d be getting in and it’s a total mix every weekend,” Archie adds. “We get students from Goldsmiths and locals who have been living in Deptford for the past 60 or 70 years, which is brilliant.”

Before opening Villages, Archie dabbled in different careers – property sales in Dubai, carpentry in Brixton and travel journalism. After working in a few breweries in London and Kent, he obtained a master’s in brewing from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh.

Louis went to art school and worked as a designer before relocating to California, where he set up a studio. “When I moved back to London, Archie was working in brewing and he said to me, ‘I think it will suit you,’” he says.

The two then worked together at the London Beer Factory in West Norwood, which for Louis was an invaluable apprenticeship. Today Archie focuses on producing the beer and Louis works on other areas of the business. Does running a brewery fulfil his artistic instincts?

“Running a business, you really pin down your values about life and lots of different things, not just beer,” Louis says. “You try to imbue the space, the people, the product and everything else with your own personal expression. It’s the most creative thing I’ve ever done.”  

The brothers’ passion for brewing is palpable. “We’ve put so much time personally into this,” says Louis. “Yesterday for example, Archie started at 6.30am and we finished our canning run at midnight. That was working non-stop. And that has been a weekly occurrence now for two years.”

Villages produces a core range of three beers. Whistle is a Pilsner, which at 4.3%, is “not your traditional Czech Pilsner” Archie says. “There’s a little bit more sweetness, a few more floral notes to it from our increased hop editions.”

Then there’s their pale ale, Rodeo, as well as a session IPA called Rafiki. “It’s made how we like our IPAs but lower strength,” Archie explains.

“It’s got a great mull character to it, some caramel sweetness as well as the piney, resinous notes from one of the hops that we use. It’s also complemented with some more tropical notes.”

Villages also brew seasonal beers. “One of the new fermentation vessels arriving tomorrow will be dedicated to doing seasonal and experimental one-off brews,” Archie says. “We should be bringing out a lot more variety soon, which we’re really excited about.”

When the duo had raised enough capital to start the business – “our investors are basically all family or old school mates”, says Archie – they started buying equipment, some of which came from Gipsy Hill Brewing Company, where Louis was working at the time.

“When we were setting up they were expanding,” Louis says. “It shows the goodwill in the industry that one of their employees was leaving but they were happy to pass on the equipment.”

While independent brewing has enjoyed a period of rapid growth in recent times, its existence is threatened by the larger conglomerates. In the week I speak to Archie and Louis, news has reached them that two local independent breweries have sold their shares.

It’s something that conflicts with the brother’s ethos. “It’s going to be very interesting to see what happens over the next few years because we’ve seen a number of breweries either sell out entirely or sell part of their business to larger breweries,” Archie says.

“It’s quite upsetting in some regards because this exploration into what beer can actually be, pushing the boundaries of flavour and really experimenting with it has been in response to the long period of macro, fairly tasteless production of beer, where the people making it were really just focusing on financial profit over flavour. People are choosing to buy this product not just because they like the beer but also because it’s independent. There’s a little bit of sticking it to the man.”

“For us financial profit is as low down on the priorities list as possible,” Louis adds. “We care more about the product obviously, but also the people who work here, the environment and the community that’s around the brewery.”

Louis describes the rise of independent breweries as a “grassroots movement” and says it’s something that large breweries find difficult to deal with.

“On a micro level this industry that we’re involved in is based on community, so the bottle shops are run by individuals who really care about beer,” he says. “They’ve got their fingers on the pulse – they know where it comes from and they know the people who make it.

“Even though they’re few and far between, they actually inform the pub managers who buy the beer because they really care about flavours. It kind of percolates into the culture in that way.”

Corporate takeovers aside, Archie and Louis couldn’t be happier to be working in the industry. They have recently taken on a member of staff, Olly, who has delighted the brothers with his knowledge.

“Up until two weeks ago it’s just been Archie and me running this,” Louis says. “We’ve been doing it all – the brewing, the packaging, the sales and distribution, marketing, accounts, everything.”

“Brewing is very labour intensive so having Olly here has been fantastic,” adds Archie. “He’s full of ideas, he’s got a lot of experience and it’s just been an absolute pleasure working with him. It’s another brain to add to the creative solution.”

[dulwichdiverter]

Caribbean comforts

Trudy Darien and her husband Mel are relaunching their café this month to offer delicious Caribbean food with a twist 

By Katie Allen; Photo by Lima Charlie  

Rock Steady Rum Lounge on North Cross Road offers “Caribbean food with a twist”, according to owner Trudy Darien – and what’s more, it is also the only Caribbean sit-down restaurant in East Dulwich.

“There are a million and one cafés in Dulwich but not Caribbean restaurants, with all the different foods on offer,” she says.

The restaurant has existed on the same spot for 25 years, but this summer it changed its name from Blue Mountain Café to Rock Steady Rum Lounge. Trudy and her husband Mel wanted to “enhance” the café’s Caribbean offer and to celebrate its unique offering.

The difference isn’t only in the name, which is shared by the family’s other restaurant in Gipsy Hill. The menu has also evolved to offer more Caribbean dishes during the day and exclusively at night.

The delicious food on offer includes traditional jerk chicken, curried goat and ackee and saltfish, Jamaica’s national dish. Mel is vegetarian and Trudy is vegan, and the restaurant offers plenty of “healthy, authentic Caribbean food” to please them both.

A highlight is the vegan breakfast, made with avocado, portobello mushrooms, tomatoes, callaloo and spicy beans. Their most popular dishes are the vegan chickpea, spinach and sweet potato curry and, for meat-eaters, the curried goat. They also serve vegan cake.

All of their ingredients are sourced from local wholesalers and independent artisans, who make menu staples such as their patties and ice cream.  

The restaurant is expanding its bar too, to offer rums from around the world with a focus on cocktails. The bespoke Rock Steady cocktail is a “really refreshing” mix of rum, ginger beer, pineapple, grenadine and lime – a “knockout” according to Trudy.

Music is an essential part of Rock Steady and the restaurant holds a monthly Soulful Saturday night, combining a delicious meal with the freshest sounds from up-and-coming musicians.

Recent nights include the heady mix of salted cod fishcake followed by roasted red pepper stuffed with ackee and prawn jambalaya, accompanied by the sounds of Evangelista and Liv Cheung. And that’s all for just £20 per person, including a rum punch on arrival.

“Music and food is the heartbeat of Jamaica, the two go hand in hand,” says Trudy. “When there’s good food,  good music, good rum and great coffee, I’m happy all is good in the world.”

In September Rock Steady is planning to have a launch week, holding different events every day including poetry and book readings, a quiz and a music night, plus “a lot of food and rum punch”.

Trudy was born in Northampton and studied youth work and therapy in Leicester, where she had an early introduction to the food industry. “When I was a student I was waitressing part-time,” she says. “I loved the customer service element, interacting with customers and meeting people.”

She spent much of her childhood in Jamaica, where she lived with her grandma for a while. “Being Caribbean – well I suppose all cultures but especially Caribbean – food is a big part of life,” she says.

“My grandma was obsessed with food. We lived on a farm and I remember watching her pounding yams, making bammy [cassava bread] and baking cakes at Christmas.”

In her early teens she came back to live in the UK. “It was a huge transition, huge,” she recalls. “I went from living on a rural farm and only seeing my cousins to comprehensive school.”

After studying in Leicester, Trudy moved to south London and began work as a therapist – she still practises today. When she met her husband, who she calls “Mr Blue Mountain” after the café he founded in 1993, which is also where they met, she says “the rest is history”.

Today she and Mel live above the venue on North Cross Road, and she loves the area. “I love the market. [East Dulwich has] got all the shops, you don’t need to leave – shoe shops, clothes shops, lots of independents, gyms, cinemas, it’s got everything you need.”

Their business empire stretches as far as Gipsy Hill, where there is a Rock Steady Rum Lounge serving up Caribbean fare to customers from a cosy spot just opposite the station. “We have been in Gipsy Hill for three years as the Rock Steady Rum Lounge,” Trudy says.

“We started off as a delivery service on the takeaway platforms Just Eat and Deliveroo. As the concept developed, we were asked to do more outdoor catering and we decided to open the restaurant.”

Rock Steady recently launched an app that offers drop-off and pick-up from their menu, including Jamaican patties with sweet chilli dip, jerk wings and roti wraps, as well as puddings and cans of Red Stripe and Carib.

After such a long time in East Dulwich, the couple have a very close connection with the community – even finding their staff locally. “A number of young people who came in as toddlers have gone on to work at the café,” Trudy says, including their own daughter Atlanta.

“We have many regulars who have been very loyal over the years and have supported the development of the new concept. We are aiming to reach out to the new Dulwich community as well as hold on to our regulars.”

Trudy adds: “My hopes for the restaurant are that we are known for our Caribbean fare and people come for cocktails and to chill. That we’re known as a different offer in Dulwich. I hope that people come to try Caribbean food and see how yummy it is.”

[latestnews2018-blog]

Obituary: Dame Gillian Lynne was a leading light of dance

New Post has been published on https://latestnews2018.com/obituary-dame-gillian-lynne-was-a-leading-light-of-dance/

Obituary: Dame Gillian Lynne was a leading light of dance

The choreographer with ferocious energy helped create dozens of hits including ‘Cats’ and ‘The Phantom of the Opera’

Dame Gillian Lynne, who has died aged 92, was a figure of extraordinary versatility and longevity in the dance world, the choreographer of such world-renowned musicals as Cats and The Phantom of the Opera, the creator of scores of stage shows and television dance films, and also a former Royal Ballet ballerina, musical theatre star, and a Hollywood co-star — and lover — of Errol Flynn.

Even as she approached 90, she kept a working pace of ferocious energy, recreating a lost 1940s classical ballet for Birmingham Royal Ballet and co-directing a large new production of Cats in the West End in 2014. She told an interviewer: “It’s only because I’ve been so busy I’ve not had time to die.”

Her CV of shows, roles and awards ran to 10 pages.

Two weeks ago she became the first non-royal woman to have her name on a West End theatre, when the composer of Cats, Lord Lloyd-Webber, renamed the New London Theatre, Drury Lane — the venue for the show’s record-breaking 21-year run — the Gillian Lynne Theatre. Lynne was borne onstage in a golden throne by four bare-chested men, bedecked with pink ostrich feathers.

With her long slim limbs, frequently displayed to great advantage in short dresses and leotards even in her eighties, Lynne insisted that her arrestingly youthful looks were the result of being married to a man 24 years younger than her.

Lynne crossed every borderline in dance, choreographing straight ballets for Western Theatre Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet and Northern Ballet, creating new television ballet dramas and enjoyed being known in the dance business as the “queen of sexy”.

“I remember saying to the cast of Cats that we wanted it to be the sexiest show ever,” she recalled. “I told them that our aim was to make people jump up from their seats, rush home and leap into bed to make love.”

Yet she also regularly created the dances for the Royal Opera and English National Opera — for Wagner’s Flying Dutchman and Parsifal, Tippett’s Midsummer Marriage and Berlioz’s The Trojans, as well as for popular films such as Wonderful Life, Half a Sixpence, Yentl and Man of La Mancha.

Despite two hip replacements (she shared a surgeon with the Queen Mother), she remained able to tuck her feet behind her ears at 88, and produced a fitness DVD to prove it. “Retirement’s the biggest mistake you can make,” she said.

Born Gillian Barbara Pyrke on February 20 1926, the only child of Barbara and Leslie Pyrke, a Bromley house furnisher, she lost her mother in an early tragedy that she said drove her achievements throughout her life. In 1939 her mother and three friends went on a shopping trip and were all killed in a car crash, leaving four families motherless.

The young Gillian had been encouraged in dancing by her mother, but the accident, and wartime evacuation, interrupted her progress. When her father joined the Army she was evacuated to Somerset, but ran away. Her mother’s sister became her guardian back in south London and helped her win a place at the Cone Ripman dance school.

As a teenager she began performing with Molly Lake’s Ballet Guild, and in 1944 danced the leading role in Swan Lake at a gala for the Daily Telegraph’s then ballet critic A V Coton. For the programme, Molly Lake changed the girl’s name to Gillian Lynne.

One of the guests was the founder of Sadler’s Wells Ballet, Ninette de Valois, who invited Gillian to join the company. During her seven years with the Sadler’s Wells Ballet Gillian collected a quiverful of new leading roles. The American choreographer George Balanchine picked her to double Beryl Grey’s role in Ballet Imperial, and Frederick Ashton cast her, aged 20, in the second night of his 1946 masterpiece Symphonic Variations.

She was frequently cast in dramatic roles such as Myrta, the queen of the supernatural Wilis in Giselle and the Black Queen in de Valois’s Checkmate, and she featured prominently in Robert Helpmann’s ballets Adam Zero and Miracle in the Gorbals. She was also a soloist in the historic Sadler’s Wells Ballet performances of The Sleeping Beauty that reopened the Royal Opera House in 1946, and at the company’s celebrated New York debut in 1949.

On the Sadler’s Wells Ballet’s second US tour in 1951 Gillian Lynne went to see the new Broadway production of South Pacific, which “changed my life”. Within two years, aware that she was likely to remain a secondary soloist in classical ballet, she took up the London Palladium’s offer to become its resident star ballerina, performing alongside such household names as Vera Lynn, Terry-Thomas, George Formby and the Billy Cotton Band.

Her salary jumped from pounds 15 to pounds 40 a week, and she turned down de Valois’s request that she return to the ballet: “I had smelled another world, one that I knew I could conquer.” Spotted by a Hollywood scout at the Palladium, in 1952 she was hired by Warner Brothers to play the sultry gipsy dancer Marianna in Errol Flynn’s The Master of Ballantrae, and the two had a brief affair.

In a characteristically unlikely sequence of events, she returned to Covent Garden to dance in the Royal Opera’s Tannhauser and Aida, then starred in Goody Two Shoes in Windsor and Puss In Boots at Coventry’s Empire, supported by Morecambe and Wise and Harry Secombe.

Soon after, she landed the first of many jobs dancing in BBC television productions, then performed live: she performed the Dance of the Seven Veils in Salome, played Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and narrated and mimed all nine characters in a 1959 live filming of Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf, with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. To train for the last, the BBC sent her to Jacques Lecoq’s renowned mime school in France, an experience that she later drew on for Cats.

Gillian Lynne’s first choreography was also for television, Western Theatre Ballet’s jazz-ballet The Owl and the Pussycat, composed by Dudley Moore. Moore next collaborated with her on her first original stage work, an innovative revue of jazz, ballet and words, Collages, for the 1963 Edinburgh Festival, which was so successful that it transferred to the Savoy in London.

In 1973 she and Moore accepted a BBC Two challenge to create a Saturday night live television Soccer Ballet, as a rival attraction for viewers of Match of the Day.

She directed award-winning dance sequences for episodes of The Muppet Show in the late 1970s, and in 1987 created a celebrated BBC television dance film about the life of L S Lowry, A Simple Man, which she adapted for Northern Ballet Theatre to perform in theatres. She also choreographed for her great friend, the skater John Curry, when he essayed a move from ice to the boards in 1978.

However, it was her creation of Cats with Andrew Lloyd Webber and Trevor Nunn in 1981 that was Gillian Lynne’s passport to world celebrity. An acrobatic “dance-ical” in cat costumes making a sexy semi-pantomime from T S Eliot’s poems was hardly expected to be a world smash, but it ran for 18 years on Broadway and 21 in the West End. Gillian Lynne would stage dozens of productions around the world till the end of her life, including a new West End staging in 2014-16.

The record-breaking popularity and longevity of Cats were overtaken in 1986 by the next Lloyd Webber musical with Gillian Lynne as musical stager and choreographer, Phantom of the Opera, directed by Hal Prince. Gillian Lynne used her backstage knowledge of the Royal Opera House to bring atmospheric veracity to the Paris Opera of the story, and it became the most financially successful musical ever created, winning Best Musical at both Britain’s 1986 Olivier Awards and New York’s 1988 Tony Awards.

It is still playing in New York, by a long margin the longest-running Broadway show in history. Aspects of Love, Lloyd Webber’s 1989 musical, which once again Trevor Nunn directed and Gillian Lynne choreographed, was less successful. It closed on Broadway after less than a year, losing $8 million (Dh29.38 million), and was described in The New York Times as “perhaps the greatest flop in Broadway history”.

Gillian Lynne directed or choreographed more than 50 shows, including the RSC’s The Comedy of Errors and The Boy Friend (both directed by Nunn), and on Broadway and in the West End Roar of the Greasepaint, Pickwick, My Fair Lady and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. She created several original shows for the London Palladium, including Queen of the Cats and Hans Andersen. Among opera productions she directed and choreographed for the Royal Opera and English National Opera were Bluebeard, Parsifal and The Trojans.

As a ballet choreographer she became associated with Northern Ballet Theatre, after the star of A Simple Man, Christopher Gable, became artistic director at the Leeds company. But her later works for the company, Lippizaner and The Brontes, were less successful than the Lowry ballet.

She was a tireless advocate for popular music and jazz dance, and made acclaimed television dance films on the Beatles (The Fool on the Hill for Australian TV) and on Burt Bacharach and Hal David (The Look of Love for the BBC). She enthusiastically joined Twitter when she was 85, but remained strongly sceptical of other modern developments in the dance profession, believing that an old-fashioned work ethic was what trained the best.

Among Gillian Lynne’s many honours were Olivier Awards for the RSC’s The Comedy of Errors (1977) and lifetime achievement (2013), a Bafta for A Simple Man (1987), and the Samuel G Engel TV Award for her BBC drama Le Morte d’Arthur (1985).

In 1997 she was appointed CBE and in 2014 DBE, for services to dance and musical theatre. She published her autobiography, A Dancer in Wartime, in 2011, and was elected vice-president of the Royal Academy of Dance in 2012, receiving its top honour, the Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Award.

Gillian Lynne’s first marriage to the barrister Patrick St John back in 1948 did not survive her affair with Errol Flynn. In 1980, during auditions for My Fair Lady, which she was directing, a 27-year-old actor, Peter Land, auditioned for the juvenile lead, Freddy Eysnford-Hill. “He was standing there at the bar, and he was drop-dead gorgeous. We just looked at each other,” she recalled. He was exactly half her age when they married in 1980.

Peter Land survives her. There were no children.

[williamemcknight]

Summer celebration of art, creativity and imagination at Borde Hill Garden

Borde Hill is celebrating its 125th year since Colonel Stephenson Robert Clarke purchased the estate and created the Garden. This summer will feature an event programme offering a feast for the senses, celebrating art, creativity and imagination throughout July, August and September.

Andrewjohn Stephenson Clarke, owner and managing director said: “To celebrate our special anniversary and the beauty of our Garden, which has been carefully planted and tended for 125 years, we want visitors to experience something extra special this year and are offering a wide variety of arts and music events, both free and ticketed, to make it a summer to remember!”

The school summer holiday begins with ‘The Garden of Imagination’, a mystical trail with fantasy creatures and other worldly beings, including unicorns, fairies, giants and a golden phoenix. The trail will run through the Garden and Woodland from 1 to 31 August. There will also be children’s activities on selected dates, including the chance to ‘meet a mermaid’ and ‘make your own fairy garden’.

Throughout July and August, visitors can enjoy the Rose Garden at its peak, with 750 David Austin rose plants filling the air with a heavenly scent, or relax in the serenity of the Italian Garden, with its striking water feature, created by internationally renowned sculptor Angela Conner.

Photographic workshops for adults, children and teens, on 15 and 25 July, offer budding photographers a chance to improve their skills in the beautiful surroundings of Borde Hill Garden.

From 1 August to 30 September, visitors can also enjoy meandering through ‘The Artist’s Garden’; an exhibition of artwork inspired by the beauty of nature in stone, stained glass, ceramic, resin and metalwork. Kindly sponsored by 1st CENTRAL.

Borde Hill will also host an eclectic musical programme, offering something for everyone to enjoy. This kicks off with a special 125th Anniversary Operatic High Tea, sponsored by NFU Mutual, offering an elegant afternoon of operatic delights, performed by Opera Brava with a sumptuous high tea and a glass of fizz on 1 July.

Opera Brava will be back again to perform full length open air productions of La Boheme on 27 July and The Marriage of Figaro on the 28 of July, against the stunning backdrop of the Elizabethan Mansion House.

On the weekend of 7 and 8 July, Borde Hill will host ‘A Boundless Summer’, in the Parkland. The legendary UB40 will be headlining on 7 July, supported by ASWAD, whilst The Gipsy Kings, featuring Nicolas Reyes and Tonnino Baliardo, will headline on 8 July.

As an added enjoyment for all visitors to the Garden, there will be ‘Musical Picnics’ every Sunday in August between 1 and 3pm, where families are invited to bring their own picnic, kick back and relax to live music in the beauty of the Garden.

Throughout July and August the Garden will be open 10am to 6pm daily.

Find out more and book for ticketed events at www.bordehill.co.uk, 01444 450326

The post Summer celebration of art, creativity and imagination at Borde Hill Garden appeared first on Pro Landscaper - The industry's number 1 news source.

[thurlowparklabour]

Quietways - update from the drop-in surgery this week

Surgery this week for Rosendale and Turney Road residents

This week we organised a surgery for residents on Rosendale and Turney Roads, who will be directly affected by the Quietway going past their homes – it was an opportunity for those residents to have a one-to-one discussion with the scheme designers to work through any potential issues with access to their homes or driveways once junctions are redesigned or speed bumps put in. Designers will use residents’ feedback and local knowledge to ensure the scheme doesn’t inadvertently cause issues for individual residents. Anyone who couldn’t attend, we have offered to visit individually - do let us know if you would like us to come and meet with you.

This surgery follows a number of meetings that we convened over the summer between designers and stakeholder groups like the Rosendale Allotments and the businesses on Rosendale Road to revisit designs and make sure their concerns are taken on board. We have also doorknocked residents and had individual meetings with anyone who wanted to discuss the plans but has been unable to attend meetings.

The feedback from these meetings is being used by the designers to revisit plans and draw up suggested changes to the design which take on board local residents’ and stakeholders’ input.

Full public consultation in September

These new designs will come to full public consultation – which will be four weeks of on- and offline opportunities to see plans, comment, and speak with officers and councillors throughout September. We will organise public exhibitions in Thurlow Park ward and Gipsy Hill ward, and will circulate plans by email and on the Lambeth website.

This work to involve the local community follows our “call-in” to the designs which went to a decision in June – we didn’t feel these designs accurately incorporated local feedback and asked the cabinet member to withdraw the decision to enable us to get the designers and residents round the table to revisit sections where the designs weren’t good enough. We were also concerned that cycling groups didn’t support the designs either. 

We have consistently, for the last two years, championed the importance of involving local residents – from the start, we challenged a road closure that hadn’t been consulted on and got it taken off the table. Over the last two years, we have organised many public meetings, design workshops, stakeholder meetings with businesses and other groups of residents, doorknocking, online surveys, public exhibitions and walkabouts.

Changes we have secured to the design

So far, we have ensured that parking is retained by Turney School, and that the changes to the Turney Road/ Rosendale Road junction meet the access needs of the allotments. 

We continue to be unhappy about the proposal to make Rosendale Road a through road at the junction with Parkhall, which would involve removing the existing roundabout. We believe that this will encourage traffic to speed up and will cause queues on Parkhall, without delivering the safety benefits that cyclists need – this is being re-examined by designers who will come back to us with some new ideas. 

The designers are also looking at adjusting the location of the proposed zebra crossing by Scotch Meats so that we retain shopping parking spaces, following our meeting with businesses.

Investment to tackle speeding we are pleased about

However, the scheme isn’t all bad. We have shifted the focus of the officers from just a cycling route to a scheme which delivers wider improvements for everyone, with a much greater focus on walking, reducing speeding and air quality than was possible when Boris was Mayor. 

The investment in Rosendale Road is a unique opportunity to make sure we do get some changes made that residents have asked us for – new zebra crossings, putting in a lot more cycling parking, getting rid of the useless “cushion” speed humps we have now which encourage cars to swerve and speed and replacing them with gentler humps which go across the full width of the road, more planting and trees put in, and raised informal crossings on the side roads so that cars must slow down instead of swerving round corners. 

As cyclists and pedestrians ourselves, we think that reducing average speed and preventing excessive speeding will have the greatest positive impact on Rosendale Road in terms of it being and feeling safer to travel along. We’re pleased that we will be able to invest in cycle parking and greening, and to work with businesses to improve the area outside their shops further. 

And while we’re happy to see these improvements on the table, we will continue to champion residents’ and businesses’ concerns about all the other issues raised such as shopping parking and the Parkhall roundabout. We are also keen to work with residents who live on the side roads, who experience high levels of ratrunning traffic, to secure additional investment to help them to reduce speeding on their roads too.

[redqueenmusings]

In May we visited the UK, in June it was Italy and as I write this blog, I’m planning a return to India in October, but it is while you think about one holiday that others from the past creep into the small corners of your mind.

Having been to Portugal several times it is fair to say we are not impressed. Logic says you can’t be disappointed with a whole country, there are areas that are beautiful and some not so, but we feel having given it a fair chance it hasn´t quite come up to muster.

In the Algarve, we booked the Oura View Beach Club in Albufeira. It was clean, the views lovely, but like the area outside the complex, tired. Seemingly locked in the 1970s, many premises were closed, although happy hour signs flourished, indicating in this area, you are more likely to hear English, than catch a snippet of the native language – similar to home.

Having hired a car, we visited Faro the capital of the region. It is far from a bustling metropolis but the old quarter has an old-school charm. There are no ‘sites’ to speak of but the storks that nest on church spires and chimneys are interesting. Dining in one of the cities family-run restaurants offers a sharp contrast to the Algarve resorts, where I found prices extortionate, but in the ‘cidade velha’ you can eat well for €10.

To the north of Faro is Loulé. Once again, not much for tourists, but we found the Nossa Senhora da Piedade (church) interesting, it looks like a spaceship sitting on its hill. We also enjoyed the market but as it wasn´t the weekend we missed the famous ‘gipsy’ market.

One day when the weather was particularly bad, we drove from place to place and spotted what we thought was a winemaking demonstration. It turned out to be the local firewater; nonetheless, it was fascinating to see the old machinery and the slabs of cork retaining the shape of the trees waiting to be turned into corks for the bottles.

We found Alte nestling at the foot of the Sierras a delightful village with its whitewashed houses lining the narrow streets. We saw the famous springs, although at the time we didn’t know they were famous. We wandered the picturesque area around Fonte Pequena (little spring) with its bridge crossing the stream, a series of waterfalls and local resident ducks. There is also a pretty, walled garden dedicated to Alte’s famous poet, whose name I didn´t know and now can´t remember!

Finally, after another day of grey skies and drizzle, the sun put in an appearance and there was no denying, it made Silves look good. The town is dominated by a Moorish castle, the largest in the Algarve. A stroll along the riverbank through the cobbled streets takes you past the ‘Cruz de Portugal’ to the castle and the gothic cathedral next door. Silves’ plaza, with gardens and ponds, features eastern looking figures, and numerous cafés offering lovely river views. We decided it was the best place we had seen during the week, or was that simply because the sun was shining.

Portugal is nice, not spectacular and the pace is different, similar in some ways to its Spanish neighbour but lacking the vibe. I was looking for the gems but sadly the ones we found didn’t really sparkle

For more Tenerife news read Queenie’s Daily Snippets everyone’s favourite Tenerife Blog  

Pondering Travels Past and Planning Travels Future. In May we visited the UK, in June it was Italy and as I write this blog, I’m planning a return to India in October, but it is while you think about one holiday that others from the past creep into the small corners of your mind.