THE BRIXTON SOCIETY NEWSLETTER Spring issue, April 2011 No.201, free to members, quarterly. Registered with the London Forum of Amenity Societies, Registered Charity No.1058103, Website: www.brixtonsociety.org.uk Our next open meeting Thursday 9th June: Annual General Meeting 7 pm at the Vida Walsh Centre, Windmill re-opening 2b Saltoun Road, SW2 A year ago, our newsletter reported that the Time again to report on what we have been Heritage Lottery Fund had agreed to support doing over the past year, collect ideas for the the restoration of the mill. Since then it’s made year ahead, and elect committee members to the front cover of Local History magazine, as carry them out. Agenda details from the above. Now the Friends of Windmill Gardens Secretary, Alan Piper on (020) 7207 0347 or present a series of events, with guided tours by e-mail to [email protected] inside the mill offered on each date. Open Garden Squares May Day Launch Parade, 2nd May: A theatrical parade starts from Windrush Weekend - 11 & 12 June Square at 2 pm and proceeds to the mill This year we plan to host two events on for its official re-opening. Ends 4-30 pm. Windrush Square: On Saturday our theme is Growing in Brixton with stalls Open Day, Sunday 12 June: selling plants and promoting green ideas. Windmill open 2 pm to 4 pm. On Sunday we switch to Art in Brixton, showing the work of local artists and Windmill Festival, Sunday 10 July: encouraging you to have a go yourself. Provisionally 1 pm to 5 pm, with stalls, music, Details are still being settled but watch the theatre and food. website for updates. Art in the Park, Sunday 14 August: If you can spare some time to help, or want to Practical art activities for all ages, plus tours. run a stall for your own group, please call Bill Linskey on (020) 7274 3835 or by e-mail to Windmill Gardens are between Ramillies [email protected] Close and Blenheim Gardens, off the west side of Brixton Hill, SW2. See website: More dates inside... www.brixtonwindmill.org 1 Diary of Events, Spring & Summer 2011 Society Meetings For events listed here, at All Saints’ Church, check directly with the Rosendale /Lovelace Roads The Executive Committee organisers if any queries SE21 8LN. For more dates usually meets on the second over times or admission. and details see website, Thursday of the month to www.lambeth- plan activities and agree our Saturday 16 April – orchestra.org.uk responses to current issues. The London Maze: Lambeth Orchestra These meetings are at 7 pm London’s biggest free at the Vida Walsh Centre, history fair runs from 10 am 2b Saltoun Road, SW2 (at Sunday 22 May – Circle to 4 pm at the Guildhall, the Effra Road end, facing the City: London EC2. The whole Windrush Square). Sponsored Walk of 6 km or Guildhall complex is opened 8.5km round the City, for 14 April, up for stalls, talks and tours, Christian Aid Week. 12 May, including the Roman Register from 1 pm at amphitheatre in the 9 June (AGM) St.Mary-le-Bow EC2 or All basement. Half-hour walks 14 July, Hallows by the Tower EC3: cover nearby City streets. 8 September, Details (020) 7523 2321 or City of London Corporation 13 October www.christianaid.org.uk/wal 10 November ks Thursday 21 April – Christian Aid – London Editorial Notice: Notable Sportsmen in South-East Team. Space permitting, we try to Norwood Cemetery: th feature local events and An illustrated talk by Colin Sunday 5 June – publish reminiscences or Fenn, 8 pm at the Phoenix Tree Celebration enquiries in our newsletter. Centre, Westow Street, Meet at 2 pm by the clock We welcome news and SE19. Norwood Society tower in Brockwell Park for comments from all the annual dedication of interested in the Brixton Wednesday 11 May – recently donated trees. area, so opinions expressed A Magistrate’s Tale: Friends of Brockwell Park. in these pages are not Kevin Fitzpatrick JP on his necessarily those of the experiences as a local Monday 6th June – Brixton Society. magistrate. 7-30 pm for 7-45 Bygone Streatham: start, Herne Hill United Presented by John Brown, All material should be sent Church Hall, corner of 8 pm at Woodlawns, before 18 June to the Redpost Hill and Herne Hill, Streatham Darby & Joan Secretary, Alan Piper, at 82 SE24. Club, 16 Leigham Court Mayall Road, SE24 0PJ, or Herne Hill Society. Road, SW16. by e-mail to The Streatham Society [email protected] Thursday 19 May – Phone/ fax enquiries to Brixton & Stockwell: Wednesday 15 June – (020) 7207 0347. An illustrated talk by Alan Clapham Portraits: Piper, 8 pm at the Phoenix Short talks by members on Links with Other Centre, Westow Street, some eminent Clapham Groups SE19. Norwood Society residents of the 19th century, If you would like the Society 7-30 for 8 pm start, at to take part in some local Saturday 21 May – Clapham Manor Primary event you are running, it Orchestra Concert: School, entrance in Belmont helps our planning if you Mozart’s Jupiter symphony Road, SW4 0BZ. can contact us with the date (No.41) and Mahler’s Das Clapham Society as soon as possible. Liede von der Erde, 7-30 pm AdvN\ BSN\ Apr 11 diary.doc Page 2 Summer Highlights Summer Guided Walks Once again a variety of guided walks are taking place around Lambeth this summer, but we may not have the full programme in time to enclose with this newsletter, so here’s a few leads to get you started. Sunday 8th May – London Bridge to Gabriel’s Wharf: Meet at 2-30 pm at the foot of London Bridge (corner of Duke Street Hill, outside Evans Cycles) for a walk exploring Bankside, led by Alan Piper. Lambethans Society. Saturday 14 May – Dulwich Trees: Meet at 2-30 pm at the Old College Gate of Dulwich Park, College Road, SE21. Walk led by Letta Jones of the Dulwich Society. Part of the Dulwich Festival. Sunday 12 June – Brixton Murals: Meet at 2 pm at Stockwell Tube Station, for tour of murals around SW9 and SW2 led by Ruth Miller of the London Mural Preservation Setting out our stall Society. Walks on the Wild Side: In addition to the Open Garden Squares Aly Mir is leading some guided walks along the weekend featured on the front cover, we also South Bank of the Thames – meet outside have the opportunity to run stalls at several Bermondsey Tube Station at 11 am. No need events this year. Fortunately a grant from the to book, just turn up and pay £5 to the guide Big Lottery Fund enables us to supplement our on the day – he’ll be wearing a green cap! display kit, but we will also need enough See also www.walksonthewildside.net members to help out: Sundays 15 May, 12 June, 19 June Myatt’s Fields Park is hosting a Summer Fair on Saturday 18 June, from 1 pm to 5 pm. Sunday 15 May – 5 Parks Walk: A self-guided route round local parks, starting Brixton Windmill Festival will be on Sunday from Brockwell Hall in Brockwell Park at 10 am 10th July (as noted on front cover). Friends of Brockwell Park (events fundraiser). Lambeth Country Show will be over the Evening Walks: weekend 16/17 July, 11 am to 6 pm in Tuesday 14 June – Blackheath: meet at Brockwell Park. 7 pm at Blackheath Station for walk led by Richard Buchanan. Lambeth Archives Open Day has slipped Southwark & Lambeth Archaeological Society. back into October to ensure the nearby Michael Church is available for the programme The Clapham Society are contributing two of talks – we expect to have confirmation of evening walks (see next issue for final details). the new date by the end of April. That might Wednesday 20 July – Historic Clapham, even enable us to appear at the Stockwell Wednesday 17 August – Clapham Common Festival if it happens in late September again. South Side. AdvN\ BSN\ Apr 11 summer.doc 3 Local History Focus Plaques - Blue and Otherwise Remembering Brixton A function at the Stephen Lawrence Centre in In our last Newsletter, we reported on the February prompted Devon Thomas to record installation of a plaque to commemorate some of his early experiences at the sharp end lawyer, councillor and activist, Rudy Narayan. of “regeneration”... This is not a “Blue Plaque” installed by English Heritage under their scheme. It is perhaps not I have been involved in urban regeneration for widely understood that anyone can (subject to many years. In fact I can say I was drawn into appropriate permissions) pay to have a direct activism 44 years ago when my family commemorative plaque installed. Some received a letter from Lambeth Council telling boroughs, such as Southwark, run their own us they wanted to knock down our family home plaque schemes, as do some civic societies. and replace it by a 55-storey Council housing Unfortunately we are not sufficiently well- block. It was part of a futuristic vision that endowed to be able to do so at the moment. Lambeth and the GLC’s architects had dreamed up for us, without having asked us We have been asked by English Heritage if we about it. The same thing was happening to can let them have information about plaques, black and working class communities all round other than theirs, in our area. All Blue Plaques the country, for example in West London, are listed on their website (www.english- where the Department for Transport was heritage.org.uk/discover/blue-plaques) but emptying out multi-occupied houses in the they do not know about plaques such as the North Kensington/ Notting Hill area to demolish Rudy Narayan one unless someone tells them.