Lambeth Life sixth Issue

30,000 Copies

FREE

JUNE 2018 NO 6

www.lambethlife.com

Feast your way around the world in Lambeth >> PAGE 16-17

The bitter outcome of the Windrush Scandal The Streatham-based lawyer for Windrush scandal victim Dexter Bristol tells Lambeth Life of her concern for the health of others caught up in the fiasco, and fury at mounting obstacles for present day and long-settled migrants as a result of “hostile environ>> PAGE 11 ment” policies.

Diverse, passionate, reforming: new faces on the council Born in Eritrea, forrmer nursery nurse Mohamed Jaser, one of three new Stockwell Labour councillors, says that as an Arabic speaker, he can help give voice and freedom to refugee women. He is on ‘a mission to change’ a historic lack of political involvement in his community.

His young Somali ward colleague Mahamed Hashi, who sits on a dozen policing and crime committees and is co-founder of Brixton Soup Kitchen, agrees. ‘If you’re a community that votes, people take you a lot more seriously’, he says. While May’s election may have tipped the balance of power only very slightly, it has brought some passionate new blood and a different dynamic to the Town Hall.>> PAGE 5

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

info@lambethlife.com

It’s Festival season!

Come out and play >> PAGE 20-21

The hottest restaurants: Kricket Brixton >> PAGE 23

After another huge landslide, Lambeth Labour gets to work •Fourth term for an administration is a Lambeth first •No complacency, says Lib Peck •Manifesto promises on private renters, youth violence and mental health to be implemented Lambeth Council leader Lib Peck has hailed Labour’s 57 seat local election victory with an increased share of the vote as a “historic achievement” and rebuffed accusations of complacency as she sets out her administration’s priorities.

Declaring her pride at being leader of an administration that managed to increase its share of the vote, she denied that the result was a given to her and her colleagues. No previous administration in Lambeth’s history has won a fourth term in succession.

She paid tribute to the diversity of the Labour Group, which includes Lambeth’s first Somali and Eritrean councillors. In a speech to councillors at Annual Council Meeting on 23rd May, she praised how engaged Lambeth voters are and their strong sense of community. “There’s a real pride living in Brixton… living in Streatham… living in Vauxhall,” she said. “We need to maintain a distinctive character and identity”.

Cllr Peck is making an immediate start on implementing manifesto promises, picking out as priorities

improving standards and security for private renters; creating 1500 apprenticeships; and increasing the council’s support for communityled and schools-based mental health initiatives.

On youth violence - of which Lambeth has experienced the highest volume of serious crimes over a ten-year period of any London borough - Lambeth’s Cabinet approved a programme before the election campaign built around a community-led, public health approach focused on long term prevention. Local plans tailored to each estate will be developed, and the council is increasing the Community Infrastructure Levy on developers, ring-fenced to invest in youth and children’s services.

Earlier in the day, the council leader had named a new Cabinet.

Cllr Jack Hopkins, who held the Business, Regeneration and Culture brief from 2014-17 returns as Deputy Leader for Jobs, Skills and Performance. Cllr Paul Gadsby has responsibility for Housing, Cllr Andy Wilson is Cabinet Member for

Finance and Cllr Claire Holland Cabinet Member for Environment and Clean Air. Cllr Jacqui Dyer and Cllr Ed Davie are Cabinet Member for Health and Adult Social Care on a job share.

Reappointed for another term are Cllr Jennifer Brathwaite (now

Deputy Leader for Children and Young People), Cllr Jim Dickson and Cllr Mohammed Seedat (Voluntary Sector, Partnerships & Community Safety on a job share), Cllr Matthew Bennett (Planning, Investment and New Homes) and Cllr Sonia Winifred (Culture and Equalities). >> PAGE 4

2

News

LAMBETH LIFE JUNE 2018

LETTERS In response to your article on the new Town Hall, I wanted to add another perspective. The Town Hall was built in 1908, before universal suffrage for men and when no women at all could vote: an age of political elitism. If we really want our democracy to change, we need to update our buildings in line with our laws and culture.

I attended the last council meeting before the local elections and it was a very alienating experience. The public gallery is elevated so high that it is an isolating physical barrier and silencer of the people. Signs reading ‘Ayes’ and ‘Nays’ on the doors of the chamber perpetuate the combative style of politics that we know stops people getting involved, particularly women. As a policy committee member of the Women’s Equality Party, a party that champions collaborative politics, I think this renovation tragically missed an opportunity

to re-imagine the chamber as a place for greater democracy, community and collaboration.

Eleanor Hemmens

There are so many events on the topic of youth violence. The event held on Thursday May 24th by Oasis at its Waterloo hub was quite different, as the prominent voice was young people; those who see the violence more often than anyone else and are closer to those involved. They have a far better understanding of the complex reasons behind it.

The event was extremely positive with young people given centre stage.

A manifesto and call for action were agreed, calling on decision makers and political leaders to: 1. Build better relationships between the police and young people; get police officers regularly going into

every London school 2. Create a text line or App where community members can report anonymously young people in danger 3. Work with schools, faith groups and others to set up training and mentoring schemes, particularly for those with few positive role models, aimed at building strong, supportive relationships 4. Encourage local business owners to provide paid apprenticeships 5. Listen to young people, schools, community organisations and faith groups as they ask for better-funded youth services.

We call on those in positions where they can act on the above to do so in whatever way they can.

Florence Eshalomi, Assembly Member for Lambeth & Southwark; Steve Chalke, founder of Oasis UK; Darryl Zhiwaki

Brixton feels joy at the Royal Wedding In January, volunteers from Brixtonbased community radio station Reprezent FM described meeting Prince Harry and his fiancée Meghan Markle as a magical experience.

Now they are delighted by the new Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s wedding, and feel it was an important moment for the black community.

Reprezent presenter Munya Chawawa, who met the couple in January, joined the crowds in Windsor. ‘The sun was shining outside and, seemingly, inside everyone at the wedding,’ he said.

‘The streets were packed and the collective excitement was tangible.’

Mr Chawawa featured in the BBC’s TV coverage of the event.

‘I’ve been hosting my show on Reprezent for two and a bit years, and for every 1am finish and 6am start, this felt like the ultimate reward,’ he said.

As creator of the ‘Mixed Opinions Podcast’, he reflected for 13.1 million BBC viewers on being mixed race in Britain: the UK’s fastest growing ethnic group.

Mixed-race Britons will be the country’s largest ethnic minority by 2020. In the US, one out of every ten babies today is mixed-race. In 1970, this figure was only one per cent.

Meghan and Harry chose Mr Chawawa’s radio station for one of their first public appearances together.

Among wedding guests were Brixtonian musician and youth mentor Karl Lokko and his wife Cassandra. Growing up on the Myatts Field estate, Mr Lokko became a gang leader; by age

T: 0207 1834272

16, he says, he had been shot at and stabbed in the chest, and one of his closest friends was killed days before their GSCEs. Steered away from violence by Pastor Mimi Asher, the 27-year old now is a close friend of Harry’s, who brought the community worker together with Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick to discuss knife crime.

Music producer Mark De-Lisser, who grew up in Streatham, arranged the gospel version of Stand by Me in personal consultation with the couple, and local singers like Lambeth Primary Care Trust pharmacist Celia Osuagwu were among the performers in the Kingdom Choir.

Barbados-born Canon Dr Rosemarie Mallett, vicar of St John the Evan-

Website www.lambethlife.com Advertising info@lambethlife.com Social Media Svetlana Yesilyurt

gelist in Angell Town calls the wedding ‘a joy-filled spectacle’.

‘As black folks were involved in planning the service, it had a huge dose of church too,’ she says. ‘Great to see the diversity present, let’s hope it wasn’t just for a day’.

Brandi Towler, a mixed-race 37-year old who lives in Lambeth—and, like the Duchess of Sussex, is from Los Angeles—calls the wedding ‘a nod to the fact that British and American politics have come a long way from excluding people of colour to one of them holding a position of considerable influence’.

Ife Thompson, an aspiring barrister in Brixton and founder of children’s charity Black Lives And More called it ‘a royal wedding like no other and it was definitely the people’s wedding’.

Editorial Team Emma Snaith Robbie Wojciechowski Victoria Bell Anne May ByrneNoonan

facebook @ lambethlife

An emotional farewell to Dame Tessa Jowell Tributes have poured in to popular Labour Baroness and long-time Dulwich and West Norwood MP Tessa Jowell, who died aged 70 on May 12th from a brain tumour.

Raised in Scotland, Jowell worked as a childcare officer in Lambeth before qualifying as a psychiatric social worker. She was first elected to Camden Council aged just 23, serving 15 years. She contested Ilford North unsuccessfully twice before winning Dulwich in 1992. The seat was soon expanded across several Lambeth wards.

Duncan Chapman, her constituency and parliamentary office manager until 2015, said that Dulwich and West Norwood was her anchor. “It was almost as though if anything moved in the constituency, Tessa would know about it.”. He remarks on her reflexive acts of kindness and the time she took to talk to everybody, leading officials to sigh that she operated on ‘Tessa time’.

New Stockwell councillor Mahamed Hashi met her through youth work, with no idea that this ‘small lady’ was a veteran MP. She helped him and Solomon Smith set up Brixton Soup Kitchen, letting them use her Portcullis House office every other day. Hashi was inspired to get into politics while working on her London mayoral candidacy. “She was one of those nice people. We maybe started to see politicians in a different light”, he says.

In government, Jowell introduced Sure Start, maternity and paternity leave, strengthened equal pay laws and tackled teenage pregnancies. As Olympics Minister, she pursued a vision which was about regeneration and harnessing the potential of London’s diversity. In her constituency, she pushed for five new schools, including the UK’s first parent-promoted secondary school, and was a cheerleader for King’s College Hospital staff.

“Whether it was young people, the formidable women running residents associations on estates, or Elmgreen School parents, Tessa’s love was with people and communities” Croydon North MP and former Lambeth Council leader Steve Reed told the Commons.

“Tessa had the ability to make deep empathetic connections. She recently described to me how, as a newly qualified social worker, she became obsessed with trying to understand how to support very young mothers to give their children the best chance in life. It was this passion that led to Sure Start”

Joshua Neicho Frank Brinkley Padraig Belton

instagram @lambeth_life

wrote her successor, Helen Hayes MP. “Tessa Jowell made you feel special. When I became politically active there were few senior female politicians - even fewer mothers. She showed how women politicians didn’t have to emulate men: we could do it our way “ said former Lambeth councillor and Family Rights Group CEO Cathy Ashley.

On behalf of Brixton riding school Ebony Horse Club, Susan Collins said “The logistical help Tessa gave us was invaluable. More than that, she transmitted her unique energy and determination. The result is over six years, thousands of Lambeth children have benefited.”

“She was always interested how she could support people working here” said Brixton Market operations manager Rachid Ghailane. “She was a big part of making the place more popular, but she also worked on issues like traders struggling to find parking”.

Lambeth Council leader Lib Peck said “Despite Tessa Jowell’s remarkable career, I will always particularly remember her passion for helping people in Lambeth and the enthusiasm that inspired many to get involved in local politics. That passion and drive has never been more true than [how] she responded to her illness with incredible bravery to lead calls for more brain cancer research funding”.

“Above all, I will miss her warmth, optimism and friendship.”

“The sheer force of Tessa’s humanity, kindness, and compassion made the biggest impression” said Peter Robbins of the Local Government Association. “I treasure my memories working on her campaign to be Labour Mayor, and like hundreds of others who knew her well I’ll be inspired by her example for the rest of my life.”

Jowell is survived by her husband, their two children, and three stepdaughters. The date of a memorial service open to all will be announced soon.

Features

Designers

John Whelan Kowsar Hoque

Olay Newspaper

twitter@_LambethLife

Photography

Ali Haydar Yesilyurt

News

LAMBETH LIFE JUNE 2018

Publisher’s Letter: My commitment to protecting vulnerable residents, encouraging entrepreneurship and championing communities Since the last issue of Lambeth Life I feel proud, and a great sense of responsibility too, to have won a seat on the council for Bishop’s Ward, and to be elected Deputy Mayor for a year.

I look forward to serving residents to the very best of my abilities.

It’s a challenging time in the borough with austerity cuts to grant funding from central government of 50% between 2010 and 2020, requiring more than £250 million savings in council services overall. The council has tried hard to ensure cuts don’t have too severe an effect particularly on the most vulnerable: for example all the borough’s children’s centres have been kept open.

But as welfare cuts start to bite deeply, we need to prepare residents, by signposting and investing in innovative forms of support. What can we do for more than 23,000 people on Lambeth’s housing waiting list and 2,000 homeless families in temporary accommodation? The increasing number of rough sleepers who shelter around Waterloo station are highly mobile - how can local businesses reach them most effectively?

Refugees are facing unprecedented pressures. Local people who want to host families should be encouraged and supported.

SME owners can offer jobs and training to people from refugee

IBRAHIM DOGUS Publisher info@lambethlife.com communities.

We’ve seen horrific gun and knife violence, including in recent weeks the fatal shooting of Rhyhiem Barton in Kennington.

We need to engage with parents, children and schools to explore the reasons for this violence, and back the work of frontline organisations. In this issue, youth worker Shomoy Dormer explains why she believes the key is facing up to the reality of abuse in the home and working with atrisk young people when they are at primary school, and we highlight the Triangle playground, going strong with backing from individual donors and a Business

Improvement District.

Councillors have a direct impact on citizens and voters and can have much more influence on their local environment than on national politics. Reflecting this, it is crucial to consult properly and make sure decisions involve residents. To ensure the right to decent housing, we need to build more affordable and council housing: how we do this requires consent and active participation of communities.

Business Improvement Districts, which bring together local firms to enhance their local environment are a fantastic innovation, but they need to be motivated to do more. At present BID membership tends to be restricted to businesses over a certain rateable value, which pay the BID levy. There needs to be a way to bring in smaller businesses at a different level of membership to energise the whole set-up.

There’s a huge opportunity for entrepreneurship in Lambeth, with so many ambitious individuals living here. Many more would try and start their own businesses given the right opportunities.

We need a supportive local business environment and attractive living environment to incentivise them.

Air pollution is a continual blight on London – you can get everything else right and still dissuade people from wanting to live and work in the city if you have filthy air. While not quite as bad as last year, Brixton Road still broke annual emissions limits before the end of January, the first monitored road in Lon-

don to do so. We need urgent action here.

I will take an international viewpoint as well as a local one when it comes to migration policy and the impact of Brexit. We shouldn’t lose a moment to guarantee the rights of European nationals, thousands of whom have made Lambeth their home. We should show our respect to the Windrush migrants who answered our call to take jobs in UK public services and have been punished for this. It’s an indictment of the Government’s approach to immigration and does not bode well for EU citzens after Brexit.

As always, this newspa per is focused on celebrating Lambeth’s communities. In this issue we bring you highlights from the Oval Cookbook, a collection of recipes from residents originating from more than 30 countries; coverage of events dedicated to a culture or bringing different cultures together; and an interview with former Rwandan international footballer and Clapham resident Eric Murangwa who runs a foundation that uses sport and stories to counteract hate. We wish our Muslim readers Ramadan Mubarak.

Do keep us in touch about events happening in your community.

The World Cup is about to start, and whether it’s a good night for Brazil, Nigeria, Colombia or Portugal, there will be plenty of cheering - but I also know Lambeth residents from every background will be getting behind England. That’s one of the great joys of our borough.

3

A challenge on a big scale Nurse Alison Cooper, 52 abseiled down the side of St Thomas’s Hospital on 11 May, to raise money for Guy’s and St Thomas’s NHS Trust where she has worked as a nurse practitioner for four years. She took on the challenge to thank staff for treating her after she fell seriously ill with a bowel obstruction during her shift on Christmas Day 2016. “The nurses and doctors who looked after me were fantastic” said Cooper. “They went out of their way to make me feel comfortable, and their compassion really helped me come to terms with what had happened. I really can’t thank them enough”

Credits roll at ITV It was the end of an era at ITV’s London Studios on 27th May, as Peston on Sunday was the last live broadcast filmed there before the building is redeveloped. ITV’s daytime shows are moving temporarily to Television Centre in White City, vacated by BBC productions in 2013 and now run by a commercial subsidiary of the Corporation. A new scheme for the ITV site, including a 31 storey block of flats, was approved by Lambeth council in February - the estimated finish date is 2023.

Kennington interruption TfL has apologised for any disruption caused by Bank trains not stopping at Kennington while passageways are built for the Northern Line extension, having faced criticism for giving little warning about the closure. Nick Biskinis of Clapham Transport Users Group has written to rail minister Jo Johnson inviting him to come and see severe rush hour overcrowding at Clapham Common and Clapham North, worsened he says by overground trains to Victoria not stopping at Clapham High Street.

“Delicious Food, Beautiful Atmosphere” Steaks&Burgers

020 7928 1986

www.westminsterkitchen.com

House, Unit 3A, County Hall, Belvedere Rd, Lambeth, SE1 7GP

4

News

LAMBETH LIFE JUNE 2018

Reach children early on to curb youth violence, says Lambeth author A Lambeth youth worker and children’s author has called for youth services to recognise the damage caused by child abuse, in order to address the wave of violence that has claimed the lives of more than 60 people so far this year.

Shomoy Dormer adds that consistent support from the same youth worker, work with the younger siblings of offenders and support for vulnerable primary school children are all needed, but the money for them is lacking and it looks like funding will become “more and more depleted”.

“I’ve worked in several local authorities in London and I’ve noticed that many boroughs don’t have enough resources to offer preventative support” Dormer said. “A huge number of young people are missing out on the support they need and we’re only helping them once there’s a problem.”

Dormer was inspired to write Noticing Faith and Hannah and Hibo’s Summer Holidays through her seven years of experience working with vulnerable young people. The two books cover in a child-friendly manner sensitive topics including neglect, child se-

xual abuse, domestic violence, online safety, forced marriage and female genital mutilation (FGM). Dormer identified that many of the abused young people she worked with were unaware that what was happening to them was wrong, defending abusive parents or lying on their behalf when challenged.

“The books don’t discuss the actual abuse itself but look at the signs of abuse and how the children experiencing it and their friends can report it and get help,” she said. “I think that

preventative work needs to be done at an earlier age and we need to start discussing these issues with primary school children - hence why the books are aimed at children aged five and upwards.”

Dormer grew up in an unstable home environment in Croydon, leaving home at 17 and living in a hostel before going to Brighton University aged 21 to study criminology and social policy.

She approached Coin Street Community Builders who helped her find

a vacancy in one of their housing cooperatives. She is a strong advocate of the co-operative model because of the ready-made community they offer and recommends other young people seek co-ops out.Her previous youth work roles in other inner London boroughs have focused on teenage pregnancy and sexual exploitation.

Throughout her career she has seen young people in inner-city environments facing significant pressure from media and social media, leading them to engage in risky sexual behavior and commit criminal offences.

Youth violence and murder have been on the rise in London. In 2017 there were 116 homicides, with just under a quarter of the victims in their teens. This year, more than 60 people have been killed already including 12 teenagers.

The issue is raw for Dormer as one of her friends from Lambeth was killed in a violent assault in another part of the capital five weeks ago. On May 5th Rhyhiem Ainsworth Barton, aged 17, was shot in Kennington. Barton was learning to work with children before he was killed.

“If you’re a young person and you’re watching the news and you see all these other people your age in your area being killed, you’re probably going be fearful”, Dormer explained.

“Now many young people feel they have to carry a knife to protect themselves. And they might draw for that knife in an argument because they’re worried that their opponent is going to draw a knife on them.”

“In terms of other crimes, there’s a huge pressure on young people now to keep up with new trends from social media. So they might do things they think will benefit them financially and end up getting involved in the youth justice system.”

She also appeals for councils to get behind community leaders, and for more parental involvement in their children’s lives. “Check your knife drawer, count them” she says.

Dormer plans to keep writing books to help vulnerable young people access the support they need.

Her third book, which she plans to publish later this year, focuses on cyberbullying and social media pressures.

‘For those that thought Labour expected this result, you don’t know me’ 1>> The

first full council meeting of the session was adjourned twice, as victims of historic sexual abuse in care who had gathered outside the Town Hall to protest heckled from the public gallery. Members of the Shirley Oaks Survivors Association say Lambeth’s compensation scheme fails to recompense victims fairly or adequately. “The council believes all applicants to the scheme will get at least as much compensation than if they went to court”, said a council spokesman.

Newly elected Mayor Cllr Christopher Wellbelove, who previously served as Lambeth Mayor from 2009-10, introduced mental health as his theme for the civic year.

He invited his guest Paul Davis to speak about his experiences suffering poor mental health and how the Mayor’s chosen charity, Mosaic Clubhouse on Effra Road, had supported him. Cllr Wellbelove told the Chamber about his own struggles with mental health, battling interruptions from the Shirley Oaks protesters.

The meeting relocated to another room after the second adjournment. Leader of the Opposi-

Lambeth Council’s new Green Group - left to right, Cllrs Pete Elliott, Nicole Griffiths, Group Leader and Green Party national joint leader Jonathan Bartley, Becca Thackray and Scott Ainslie

tion Cllr Jonathan Bartley urged the council to reconsider the decision not to offer the Greens the chair or vice-chairmanship of the Scrutiny Committee. Cllr Jane Edbrooke argued that proportionally there was already an overallocation of committee seats to Opposition members, and it would be unfair on Labour councillors to skew this further.

Conservative Cllr Tim Briggs unsuccessfully tried to challenge

a constitutional change to require five councillors, not just one, to call in a Cabinet or committee decision, warning this would frustrate communities and potentially cause unrest.

Former scrutiny chair Cllr Davie said Lambeth had the “most permissive call in system in the entire country” with the number of call ins proving a considerable drain on resources, and that the important thing was to have good

The Mayor and Deputy Mayor were inaugurated on 23 May at the council’s annual meeting. The Mayor is Cllr Christopher Wellbelove, the Deputy Mayor is Cllr Ibrahim Dogus. The Mayor chairs council meetings and as first citizen of the borough has an ambassadorial role in Lambeth and across London. The Mayor promotes Lambeth and helps initiate activities that boosts the wellbeing of residents. The Deputy Mayor’s role is to represent the Mayor when they’re unavailable.

pre-decision scrutiny. Councillors voted to cut special responsibility allowances from £486,895 to £471,274, except for an increase for the Opposition leader from £5,613 to £15,621: which Cllr Bartley says adamantly he didn’t want.

After the meeting, councillors re-

tired to the Mayor’s Parlour for a presentation to outgoing Mayor Marcia Cameron. In an affectionate speech, the former Tulse Hill councillor told members the experience “certainly was like herding kittens. Mr Mayor, I hand them all over to you”.

News

LAMBETH LIFE JUNE 2018

5

Lambeth looking at every opportunity to create more council homes, says Lib Lambeth is contemplating a bid for City Hall’s new funds for council house building, says council leader Lib Peck.

While welcoming the prospect of funding, the Opposition Green Party says it must not be spent on demolishing council housing for regeneration purposes unless as a last resort.

The £1.67 billion fund aims to see 10,000 new council homes built in London by 2022. Councils can bid for grant funding for homes for social rent at a special rate, and are also allowed to use Right to Buy receipts to build council homes to replace the ones sold.

Lambeth Council currently has more than 23,000 households on its housing waiting list. On 22nd May councillors gave the go-ahead for rebuilding homes on the South Lambeth Estate, the third of six ear-marked for regeneration.

In a speech to councillors, Lib Peck said she had spoken to “so many resi-

dents [who] really appreciated that not only did we put investment into council homes, but we were so proud of council homes that we wanted to build more”.

Cllr Peck told Lambeth Life: “We’re delighted to see Sadiq Khan leading the way on tackling the housing crisis by investing in new council home.

In Lambeth, we’ve delivered the first

of these properties for a generation, part of our commitment to delivering 1,000 new homes at council rent. We’re looking at every opportunity for funding and appropriate sites, and the Mayor’s fund is absolutely something we will be looking to use to do that”.

In 2014, Lambeth Labour pledged to build 1,000 extra homes at council rent

by 2019. At the start of this year, over 950 had been constructed, given planning permission or agreed at Cabinet. But campaigners query that in most cases new homes with council-level rent do not come with secure council tenancies.

Some experts argue that the Mayor’s programme will fail to boost the number of genuinely affordable homes. Cofounder of Architects for Social Housing Simon Elmer says that an ostensible “programme of council house building designed to offset those lost to Right to Buy is on closer inspection a financial model for handing over even more public money for [estate] demolition”.

This will lead, he argues, to the replacement of council housing by market sale, shared ownership and rent-to-buy.

Gipsy Hill councillor Pete Elliott, speaking for Lambeth Greens said, “While we are pleased there is funding for new council homes, that funding should not

Beat of the tambourine fades as Björn retreats from Waterloo It was the perfect choice – and it transpired was too good to be true. Björn Ulvaeus has passed up the chance of opening an ABBA-inspired immersive theatre experience in Waterloo following residents’ objections.

Lambeth’s planning applications committee had granted conditional approval to Mamma Mia! The Party for a temporary venue on the corner of Stamford Street and Cornwall Road, on land owned by Coin Street Community Builders (CSCB), pending councillors agreeing to a revised Visitor Management Plan. After reservations about arrangements for coaches and other transport to the venue at a meeting last month, the committee was due to convene again on Tuesday May 22nd.

Local campaigners worried about noise, disruption and inappropriate use of the site had other ideas, issuing 199 objections and a petition with more than 600 signatures. In March, as reported in Lambeth Life, retired financial advisor Barry Hetherington launched an application for judicial review.

On May 11th, Ulvaeus issued a statement on behalf of his Mamma Mia! The Party (MMTP) production company.

“Everything that Mamma Mia! has done - from its conception more than 20 years ago, to the new film being made right now - has been charged with positive energy” he wrote. “I’ve taken seriously the concerns expressed by some local residents living around Stamford Street and so have decided not to go ahead with our plans.

“We have been looking at some equally exciting alternatives in London and expect to announce a new location shortly.”

Ulvaeus’s co-producer Ingrid Sutej rang Coin Street’s Deputy Group Director Alison Pinner with the news. Pin-

be spent on the demolition of estates without the consent of residents through mandatory ballots.

“Demolition/regeneration makes people ill, damages the environment, pollutes the air and destroys communities.

Lambeth has lost almost 1000 council homes since 2014; we call on the council to work with us to fully explore housing solutions that address the problems without destroying more homes.”

Cllr Paul Gadsby, Cabinet member for Housing said: “Lambeth Greens continue to oppose new council homes that Labour is delivering, while offering no solutions of their own to tackling the housing crisis and siding all often with Lambeth Conservatives. They’re also trying to blame councils for the national government policy which forces councils to sell homes under right to buy, when the respnsibility lies with the Tories at Westminster’.

Diverse, passionate, reforming: new faces on the council Labour won 90 per cent of seats, crushing any hope of a Lib Dem revival, while the Greens leapt from one seat to five.

The Tories’ three seats were trimmed to one. Labour’s vote share of just over 50% is ‘very similar to that in broadly comparable boroughs such as Southwark, Lewisham and Greenwich,’ say Dave Hill and Lewis Baston, coauthors of a London Borough Elections Guide.Lib Peck enjoys the respect of fellow borough leaders, they say, demonstrated by her appointment to an executive role with London Councils.

‘The small reduction in her still enormous majority will have underlined to her what she no doubt already knew - that ambitious regeneration schemes can trigger determined opposition and bad press,’ they say.

‘People have spoken loud and clear that they want far more involvement in decisions, far more accountability,’ says Scott Ainslie, Lambeth’s sole Green councillor from 2014-18, now joined in his ward by national Green Party joint leader Jonathan Bartley.

Andy Wilson, re-elected for Labour in Larkhall, has a nine month old baby which has brought home to him a sense of responsibility to all residents.

‘I wanted to be a councillor because there are things I wanted to improve locally’ he ventures. ‘A lot of people complain and my way of dealing with that is to try and take part’.

‘I do have a bit of common ground with the Greens’ says sole remaining Conservative Tim Briggs. But he can’t hide his disappointment that politics in Lambeth will now be ‘Left versus Left, trying to grandstand each other’.

1>>

ner says MMTP “took all the steps that we wanted to see” in terms of making appropriate arrangements for dispersal, noise reduction and security, including ending the show earlier than first planned. She says Sutej and Ulvaeus were “excited and interested” by plans to provide 60 jobs to local people, plus apprenticeships and hands-on training, opportunities now lost.

Barry Hetherington says he is continuing with his judicial review bid, because his dispute is with planning permission being granted to a “temporary” five year entertainment venue on the site, rather than social housing.

He describes ABBA as “the innocent party” who had been misled. “A Swedish businessman has paid more attention to the community than the socalled community builders”.

He alleges “real anger” among residents over Coin Street’s handling of

a series of high-profile developments, such as the Rambert School’s purposebuilt facility and the Garden Bridge scheme, which CSCB at first conditionally supported. “They’ve only built two thirds of the houses they should have” he says. “They have become an organisation that funds their own salary bills. There’s no local accountability”.

Michael Ball of Waterloo Community Development Group is concerned that planning permission remains for an entertainment venue on the site, and suggests CSCB withdraws from the judicial review process to show it has listened to residents.

“In the commercial world, you have deals that [come] and go away, that’s part of life” says Pinner. She points to the CSCB’s wide portfolio, including shops, restaurants and other temporary uses to demonstrate that they are not reliant on any one strand of funding.

They are looking for alternative temporary uses (the site was previously a builders’ yard) but “it’s early days”.

She sympathises with residents’

concerns about the potential for noise and disruption. But she says “quite a small number” of campaigners are wrong to suggest that the site should be used for housing, as an office block was on this spot when it was passed to Coin Street and no covenant as on other parts of CSCB’s holdings covered this land.

CSCB is at pains to point out its extensive childcare, sport and leisure community provision, including a nursery. CSCB’s consultation processes included a team who door-knocked on every co-op property last Christmas.

Bishop’s Ward councillor Jennie Moseley, who with her ward colleague Kevin Craig strongly opposed the proposal said, “After months of uncertainty, we are delighted that MMTP has withdrawn its application in response to the community and our objections.

We worked hard to represent our community by opposing MMTP. We hope that we can now move forward to work constructively with Coin Street to find more appropriate use for the land”.

magic ad_v2.pdf

6

C

M

Y

CM

MY

CY

CMY

K

1

23/03/2018

11:20

LAMBETH LIFE MAY 2018

News

News

LAMBETH LIFE JUNE 2018

Dr KOWSAR HOQUE

Dear Dr Hoque Every year my sister-inlaw gives me really rubbish presents for Christmas and birthdays. I always buy her something nice, but there have been times when she’s even re-gifted those presents to me.

This meanness makes me so angry. I fear that if I try to say anything, I’ll lose control and blow my top. I’m desperate not to fall out with her for the sake of my husband as they are very close.

Jane Dear Jane Clearly you are disappointed, I suggest you end the whole present-giving business, because it’s farcical. Explain to your sister-in-law that you intend to take her out to dinner or contribute to a charity of her choice or better still, why

7

DR HOQUE ANSWERS YOUR LOCAL QUERIES don’t you cook for each other?

Perhaps your sister-in-law is seriously struggling financially.

If so, she will be grateful for your suggestion.

Dear Dr Hoque , Recently my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer. It was devastating news for her – and for me and our two young children.

After chemotherapy, physiotherapy, radiotherapy and a mastectomy, she has now, thankfully, been given the all-clear. It was a very difficult and challenging time. During this period, it upsets me that none of my family supported me. They did not call or visit. All my life I have been there for my family, yet not once have they asked how we have coped.

I try my hardest to ignore this and look at the positive things in my life. But I cannot suppress my anger. Admittedly, I have not explained to them how I feel as I want them to come forward of their own

volition, so I know that they genuinely care.

John Dear John I have no doubt that the stress and anger you are feeling are prompted not just by your wife’s illness, but by the desertion of your family at a time you needed them the most. Your inability to express your anger to them is worsening your feelings towards them.

Judging others for their shortcomings does seem to provide a vent. It is often because we are angry at the world for continuing to spin while we are going under.

That’s not to exonerate your family. It’s almost unbelievable that they could turn their backs on you entirely at such a traumatic time. I can’t help wondering what back history there may be. You say you have striven to avoid conflict in the past, but even if they have been allowed to entirely

take you for granted, helping shoulder your recent burdens seems a minimum requirement for those in your intimate circle.

Demand to know why they have let you down so badly, tell them how devastated you have all been by their callous behaviour and then try to listen to their excuses without exploding.

If a total change in communication isn’t enough to wake them from their stupor, you may need to look elsewhere for the support we all need.

Putting that pain aside, I commend you for being strong for your wife. She is lucky to have you, but more importantly under the circumstances you are lucky to have her.

Dear Dr Hoque I’ve been with my girlfriend for four years, and recently she has decided we should start a family. We both shared views on not wanting children. She now believes I will change my

mind. We have been arguing a lot recently, I’m scared she will start to resent me. Should I walk away or can I salvage our relationship?

James Dear James You’ve been together four years now without any of the groundwork for your future being laid out as far as you describe it. Is there any possibility that your girlfriend is actively trying to make you reconsider the relationship?

You either forge ahead with a deadline in a few years for a final decision on parenting, or accept now that on this important issue, you will most likely remain unreconciled.

Obviously, you can’t even consider having a baby until the future prospects of your partnership are part of the conversation, and your determination not to have one will affect how far you can embrace a long-term relationship.

5 Top Tips for Making Friends in London

By Joana Ramiro London has art and culture galore, food from every corner of the world, and the occasional hot day that turns Brockwell Park into the Garden of Eden. But these beauties might escape you if you’re new in town and have no friends to share them with. Here’s some tips on how to make friends in the city, by London resident of ten years’ standing Joana Ramiro.

1. JOIN A CLUB An oldie but a goodie. If there’s something you love doing, why not do it with others and make a bunch of like-minded friends? For energetic sorts, the Vauxhall Riverside Run Club meets on Mondays at 12:15pm (sign up at run@vauxhallone.co.uk).

Bookworms can meet in Brixton Library, where the Radical Readers of Lambeth get together on the second Friday of the month at 7pm (radicalreaderslambeth@gmail.com). For foodies there’s Club Lola, where a three course meal in a lovely garden costs £30 and new friendships come for free (contact clublolaldn@ gmail.com).

2. GO FOR A WALK… Just not on your lonesome. In Lambeth you’re spoilt for choice for group walks; the council offers six Secret Lambeth Walks for free (walking@lambeth.gov.uk). If a dollop of working class history appeals, why not try David Rosenberg’s Stirrings from the South walk, inspired by four Battersea social reformers; the next is on 10th June and prices start at £5 (eastendwalks.com)

3. VOLUNTEER OR CAMPAIGN Volunteering is a great way to

meet people while doing something good. Check supermarket or library notice boards, or Google your nearest soup kitchen. In a similar vein, to get involved with your local community keep an eye out for campaigns to save your park’s paddling pool or keep your library open.

4. LEARN SOMETHING NEW Remember how easy it was to make friends at school? Why not recreate those conditions? Morley College (morleycollege.ac.uk) has short-term courses in everything from singing to financial planning,

and if you’re over Duolingo, it’s a veritable Tower of Babel, with classes in Norwegian, Korean and Arabic. If three months seems like too much commitment, Turpentine in Brixton does Drink & Draw lessons for £18.

You read that right - you sketch while you booze. You’re welcome.

5. GET APPY You can be safe in the knowledge that for every need there’s an App, and that includes making friends.

Citysocializer is a great source. Sign up, look for events that take your

fancy (like a trip to an exhibition or a pub quiz) and join in. If as a woman the prospect of meeting three random blokes in a bar sounds daunting, check out women-only Hey! Vina. With so many great brunch places, you and your new girl crew will be bonding in no time.

8

News

LAMBETH LIFE JUNE 2018

Power to the people in 1848 and 2018 Marietta Crichton Stuart of the Kennington Chartist Project considers Kennington Common’s role in the history of protest When people voted in the local elections, did they give any thought to the Chartists, who campaigned so hard in the 19th century for what we now take for granted?

The Chartists are sometimes described as the first British Civil Rights Movement. They produced a mass campaign for democratic change, including votes for the working class and improved working conditions and hours. Their work began in the industrial North, but spread to the rest of the country. Kennington, Clapham and Walworth had many Chartist branches, there was a hall in Blackfriars Road and meetings took place in local pubs, such as the Horns Tavern (now the DHSS building opposite Kennington Park), the Angel in Webber Street and the Montpelier Tavern in Walworth (now the Beehive Inn). Chartists could be men, women and children. The groups were community based and organised locally.

The Chartists’ agitation took the form of rallies, marches, debates and the three petitions of 1839, 1842 and 1848, with their six demands: the vote for all men over 21, secret ballots, equalsized constituencies, no land requirement to become an MP, payment for MPs and annual parliamentary elections. Kennington Common was not only the site of public hangings but also hosted large religious and political meetings. Here, on Monday 10 April 1848, a mass Chartist rally gathered

Richard Galpin of the Kennington reads an excerpt from the April 1848 Northern Star newspaper

Community Gardeners Carole Wright, Peter Balzas and Christina Wheatley take part in the commemoration

prior to a peaceful march on Parliament to present the third Chartist petition (according to some reports it had as many as six million signatures). Europe was in turmoil, the French monarchy had been toppled and Karl Marx’s The Communist Manifesto just published.

The Government was terrified of revolution and prepared to resist a full-scale uprising. Thousands of troops were brought into London and 4,000 police were placed on duty, plus an additional 80,000 special constables. The Royal Family was packed off to the Isle of Wight and many public buildings barricaded.

In the event, the crowd on Kennington Common was smaller than predic-

ted. Numbers are still disputed today, with current estimates ranging from 15,000 to 150,000. The Chartists were contained on the South Bank by police and stopped from marching to Parliament. Instead, the petition had to be delivered in hansom cabs. When the signatures were counted, the eventual number was given as 1.9 million - a figure which is also disputed - as the document contained many forgeries.

In the wake of the march, the Chartist movement declined, but the political seeds had been sown. By 1928, all the demands except annual parliaments had been achieved.

The Kennington Chartist Project

Brockwell Park bike hire pop-up welcomed amid calls for more pro-cycling policies A Santander Cycles docking station made a two-day appearance in Brockwell Park in a bid to encourage more Lambeth residents to cycle.

60 bikes were available to hire from 12-13 May with support from Lambeth Council.

This was the first time the cycles have been brought to the park following the recent expansion of the hire scheme in Lambeth. Seven new docking stations arrived in February after the council paid TfL £750,000 to cover installation costs.

Since 2000, London has seen a 154% increase in journeys made by bike. On average, 730,000 trips are now made in the capital by bike per day. Tulse Hill councillor Mary Atkins welcomed the pop-up hire point and the expansion of the cycle scheme generally.

“The bikes had a positive reaction when they arrived and the take up so far seems really good.

The Santander bike hire scheme arrived in Brixton in February Lambeth Labour has lobbied for [the expansion] for years”.

However, she highlighted that more needs to be done to ensure all sections of the community are encouraged to cycle. “We need to offer even more localised cycle training to children and underrepresented groups,” she said. “Storage is a huge issue, which is why we have committed to doubling the number of bike hangar spaces. Some thought also needs to be put into children’s

bike storage in overcrowded flats.”

Brixton resident Simon Still, 46 of Lambeth Cyclists, the borough group of the London Cycling Campaign, says people’s impressions of road safety need to be addressed.

“The council has been very strong on encouraging people to cycle. But if you don’t feel safe to ride on Brixton Road, you’re not going to hire a Santander bike no matter how many cycle stations there are.”

“There needs to much stricter enforcement of the 20mph limit as when there is an accident the chance of being killed [doubles] between 20mph and 30mph.

“And Lambeth needs to start taking rat-running traffic off residential streets”.

William Wallace, 24, who lives in Oval and cycles daily to work, hopes for more docking stations.

“I think the scheme is sensible and of good value to the community,” he said. “But at the moment, the vast majority of people I see using the Santander bikes look like affluent young professionals. We need to make sure other portions of the community start using them too.”

was set up by a group of locals, supported by the Friends of Kennington Park and funded by a Lottery grant. Its aim is to tell the story of this nearly forgotten event on the Common. It is seeking ideas for a permanent Chartist memorial in Kennington Park and wants to highlight the relevance of the Chartists in an age of engagement with online campaigns, such as #metoo and #blacklivesmatter.

The project was launched on 10 April 2018, exactly 170 years after the “monster rally”. From each of the four Chartist London meeting points came walkers carrying flags bearing such slogans as “We are millions and demand

our rights” and “The Voice of the People”. Local historian S I Martin told the story of radical black Chartist William Cuffay, while Tom Collins spoke the words of the Irish-born Chartist leader Feargus O’Connor, concluding “Go on, conquering and to conquer, until the People’s Charter has gloriously become the law of the land!”

The Kennington Chartist Project also aims to offer workshops in nearby schools, and one for those aged 16-24 entitled “Text, Image – Action!” which looks at slogans, signs and sounds that have changed history.

Project manager Richard Galpin says: “We really want people to get involved. It might be researching the stories for the online archive, looking at the modern legacy or helping at events.

“Kennington Park owes its own existence to the Chartists as, following the 1848 rally, the Establishment moved to enclose open spaces where people gathered to protest. By 1854, the Common was transformed into a more formal place for leisure and sport surrounded by railings and gates.”

The project runs until the autumn.

On Saturday 7 July a day of Chartist celebration and participation is planned for Kennington Park (www.kenningtonchartistproject.org, mail@kenningtonchartistproject.org or search #kennington1848 on Twitter for the latest news)

Film confronts omerta around child sex abuse A south London filmmaker has produced a documentary to challenge the culture of silence surrounding child sexual abuse in the black community.

Kevin J Marshall, 34, decided to make the film after coming to terms with the abuse he claims he faced as a child.

Untold Story features interviews with six black men from the US and the UK who faced sexual abuse.

Kevin first started speaking to other black men about their experiences of abuse while writing his novel Running Away From Me, which deals with this type of trauma.

“These conversations turned into something bigger than I expected,” Kevin explained. “I realised I needed to encourage other black men to speak out.”

“There is a stigma behind black men coming forward,” he said. “It’s almost like the world is against us already so we are taught to be strong” “We feel like abuse is a sign of weakness so we try to ignore it - even tho-

ugh true strength is dealing with these problems.”

One of the men featured in the film is DJ and music producer Zeke Thomas, son of NBA star Isiah Thomas.

Zeke broke his silence last year as part of a campaign organised by the US National Sexual Violence Resource Centre. “We need to continue the dialogue so we can help the next generation,” said Kevin.

A private screening of Untold Story will take place at the Charlotte Street Hotel in Soho on June 12. For more information visit the Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/ events/174601673196349/

News

LAMBETH LIFE JUNE 2018

9

The Library that will help you run up a bookshelf DIY lovers and hobbyists with minimal storage space can rejoice at the arrival of sharing service Library of Things in Upper Norwood Library Hub. Power drills, Strimmers, sandwichmakers and a GoPro are among 65 items for loan on a day by day basis at costs ranging from £1/day for small tools to £20/day for a carpet cleaner, reduced if you sign up to one of a number of membership options. The items are top-of-the-range and spick and span: many of them donated or bought at a discount from brands including Kärcher and Bosch after the team raised £9000 in crowdfunding from 291 supporters. The Library is supported by local volunteers who offer demos of how to use the items properly, a repair shop and DIY and sewing classes.

Inspired by other product lending libraries around the world such as Leila in Berlin, university friends Rebecca Trevalyan and Emma Shaw came up with the concept when flat-sharing in West Norwood.

They launched a pilot with used and salvaged items in West Norwood Library, progressing from there to two shipping containers they designed themselves. With users taught to

Queen Elizabeth Hall reopens to fanfare of electronica The Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Rooms reopened last month after three years of redevelopment with a jamboree including exhibitions, music and dance shows.

The redevelopment work has been a joint venture between architects Feilden Clegg Bradley (FCBStudios), Arup, and BAM Construction.

“If you think they built this space in the 1960s, they did so many things so sensibly” architect Richard Battye of FCB Studios told Lambeth Life. “For

us it’s been an opportunity to strip out all the clutter collected over the last fifty years, and take the space back to the original room”.

The acoustics in the main spaces have been improved, a new heating system and 300km of new cables installed, the stage areas extended and new steel work put in to the top of the building. Much of the work is designed to cater for the wide variety of different artists who use the building.

“Many chamber musicians don’t want any direct lights in their faces,

abide by five rules of borrowing, only one item out of 2500 borrows was never returned, they say.

An invitation to move to Upper Norwood came via the partnership bet-

ween the library hub and Crystal Palace Transition Town, behind projects such as Crystal Palace Food Market and Patchwork Farm. It fits the vision of the library hub - run by a community trust

as it scuppers their ability to read their sheet music, while [for] more contemporary performers or any theatre where we want to see the actors, we’ve worked to find a way the lighting in the space can reflect this” said Battye.

The improvements to the building mean the spaces are now able to accommodate up to six different performances a day – meaning wider access to more Lambeth residents, bolder programming, and more free events in the space. New bars and cafes with better lighting mean the space will become more open to views of the river.

The Southbank has used the refurbishment as an opportunity to celebrate the iconic building, mounting an immersive exhibition, performances, and talks. Curated by Klanghaus and LYN Atelier, the exhibition throws open access to never before seen archive material, and backstage spaces rarely glimpsed by the public. The relaunch also saw the return to the Queen Elizabeth Hall foyer of Concrete Lates, a 1000-capacity club night, with Pan Daijing, Spanish producer JASSS and

Bristol duo Giant Swan among the first night performers.

In June, ex-Cure frontman Robert Smith’s Meltdown Festival returns to the Queen Elizabeth Hall, and in the summer audiences will have access to a garden space on the roof.

Elaine Bedell, Chief Executive at South Bank Centre said: “As these buildings enter a new era, we have crafted an innovative, modern take on their unique heritage features that will transform the experiences of audiences and artists.”

Concerts to mark the reopening included the London Sinfonietta’s interpretation of Philip Venables’ The Gender Agenda – presented as a parody game show hosted by “anti-drag artist” David Hoyle – and a performance by Europe’s only majority BME orchestra Chineke!, who played the final concert before the QEH closed.

The Observer’s critic Fiona Maddocks wrote, “The 900-seat space, with its warm, vivid acoustic sounding livelier than ever, has been cleaned, mended, cherished and upgraded. Cleverly it is at once the same and better. You don’t need to be a connoisseur of concrete to love this place.

The Spectator’s arts editor and curator of the London Contemporary Festival Igor Lalic however asked, “Did anyone really miss this bunker?... Closing the QEH invigorated new music.

It felt like the adults had gone on holiday. Now they want to shunt all that stuff back into the old format: it’s not going to work”.

But, he concedes, “The Concrete Lates series, where they open up the foyer to electronic music, might become something very special. It feels made for this”.

since 2016 - of an all-round local resource; an impression reinforced by a packed launch event where Crystal Palace Transition Town co-chair Joe Duggan introduced a succession of supportive organisations and individuals which have brought the Library of Things to fruition.

Library of Things “isn’t just about things - the ultimate goal is connecting people to each other”, says Emma Shaw: with their volunteers’ comprehensive local knowledge they link users to advice networks and local services. Now they’re looking for how to make their model sustainable while maintaining their communal spirit. There are smart locks on the products which will eventually allow borrowers to pick up and drop off when staff aren’t around, plans for nine more Libraries of Things in London by 2021, and assistance offered to communities around the country to set up their own on the same principle.

Magic carpet for adventure playground Children who play at the Triangle, the oldest adventure playground continuously on the same site in the UK, are enjoying a new astroturfed section.

The artificial surface was needed because the number of children using the highly popular facility had defeated all attempts to grow new grass on the games area. 750 children mainly from the Ashmole and Dorset Estates and surrounding streets are registered users.

The astroturf was funded by Vauxhall One Business Improvement District, which has a programme to support community intervention and activity, including performance arts academies and Vauxhall City Farm and Pleasure Gardens. “We take Corporate Social Responsibility seriously” says Vauxhall One CEO Bernard Collier.

The astroturf was officially opened on Thursday 19th April. “The kids were really sweet, they all ran, tearing around doing somersaults,” says secretary of the Triangle committee Juliet Hobday. “They took their shoes off and put them on the bench - they thought it was like a carpet”.

The playground is wholly independent but used to receive one-third of its funding from Lambeth Council; this contribution has declined over the years. It needs to raise £60,000 a year to pay staff costs. Recently the committee launched the One Thousand Donor Project, to find 1000 people to give £5 a month.

News

10 LAMBETH LIFE JUNE 2018

Music teaching that hits all the high notes

by Geoffrey Harniess (Head of the Centre for Young Musicians) Anyone going for a Saturday morning coffee in the vicinity of Lambeth North Tube station may notice a significant number of children passing by carrying musical instrument cases of various sizes. They will be making their way to or from London’s Centre for Young Musicians (CYM) based at Morley College.

CYM has provided access to high quality music training to thousands of talented children from across London and beyond since 1970.

Many of those children have gone on to successful careers, including jazz musician Django Bates, global DJ Jax Jones, Britain’s Got Talent winner Tokio Myers, J B Gill from boy band JLS, composer Jonathan Dove, music director and principal conductor of the London Chamber Orchestra Christopher Warren-Green, and principal cellist of the Philharmonia Orchestra Tim Walden.

Everyone who visits CYM on a Saturday is struck by the energy and sense of community pervading the building, with more than four hundred young musicians between the ages of five and eighteen taking part in a diverse range of programmes covering classical music, jazz, composition, music technology, gamelan, song writing, folk and musical theatre. “The thorough and inspiring education I received at CYM built a very strong foundation for my life in music,” Bates said, while for Gill, CYM is one of the few places “to offer such diversity in music and give young people the opportunity to try everything from classical to jazz”.

Since 2009, CYM has been a division of the Guildhall School. Students are from hugely varied socio-

economic backgrounds; because CYM is committed to the principle of “excellence and access”, over 50 per cent of families receive financial support for their child or children to attend. Much of the money for bursaries is raised by the Centre’s affiliated charity, the Foundation for Young Musicians (FYM). Other awards

come through the government’s Music and Dance Scheme and the Guildhall Young Artists, with vital funds for various projects – including instrument purchase and repair – found through the fantastic work and support of the parents’ group, the Friends of CYM. Performance is at the heart of the

Centre. Over ninety ensemble activities take place each week, preparing CYM students for performances with the likes of English National Opera, the New Vic and the National Theatre, and with artists such as Rod Stewart, Rufus Wainright, Aled Jones, St Etienne and Josh Groban.

Additionally, CYM manages the London Schools Symphony Orchestra, one of the country’s foremost youth orchestras, as well as the London Youth Wind Band and the London Schools Chamber Orchestra. These ensembles meet during the school holidays and are attended by Centre and non-CYM students alike. The symphony orchestra and wind band both undertake foreign tours each summer, a fantastic experience for the children involved, some 150 or more.

The benefits of studying and performing music are well researched and can lead to improvement in language and reasoning, memory, co-ordination, self-confidence and self-worth, emotional development, mathematical ability, cultural awareness, creative thinking and team

work. This has been recognised by governments, but rarely has that recognition been backed up by adequate funding and support. Music in state schools continues to be threatened. The percentage of students educated at independent schools who attend leading music conservatoires is worryingly high; this gives ammunition to those who declare classical music to be elitist.

For any child to become a successful musician there has to be a clear and affordable progression route. Currently the Music Commission is researching this and will no doubt produce an interesting report. It is clear to those of us who have been involved in music education for much of our careers that the fundamental requirement is access to more funding. East Sussex Music Service is currently under threat of closure for want of £80,000. Thousands of children and their teachers will be affected.

CYM is trying its best to plug the gap for as many London children as it can and give them the opportunity to enrich their lives through music.

Auditions for September entry take place in March and April but applications will be considered at any point, including during the summer term.

Forms can be downloaded from the website – www.cym.org.uk – where more information can be found.

Django Bates best sums up the impact CYM had on his musical ambitions and career: “There is no way my parents could have provided by their own means the thorough and inspiring music education I received at CYM. Luckily they had the foresight to send me to an inner London school, making me eligible for the programme. My attitude to teaching, practising and performing is all informed by my early years at CYM for which I am eternally grateful.”

A brand new caring start with Lambeth Adult Learning Last December, Lambeth Adult Learning service and care charity Certitude welcomed learners on to a new pre-employment training programme for support work in health and social care. One of the first graduates was local resident and mum, Terrie Blake.

Terrie has held a variety of jobs since moving to Lambeth in 2001, including working in waste services for a local authority, as a florist, and as a qualified childcare worker. Wanting to spend more time with her young son, she left her long-hours childcare job last year, but unemployment left her feeling low and struggling financially. She knew she needed a new direction but had no idea where to start.

A friend suggested the new care training programme at Lambeth Adult Learning, and Terrie went along to an open day. She

says, “I’m so glad I decided to give it a try. I thought that care work was scary. The course answered a lot of questions I had, it really opened my eyes.”

Terrie found talks from existing care workers at Certitude very useful towards deciding whether this was for her. She got help with preparing a CV and learning how to identify and apply her qualities.

“The course helped me gain so much confidence and a really positive outlook” she said.

Terrie has now been at Certitude full-time for two months and loves it. She says, “It’s lots of hard work, but I really enjoy giving back into people’s lives, and our respite house is like a family. At the end of the day our clients are people just like us.”

As the work is flexible, she can fit it around childcare.

The past year has seen an amazing change in Terrie. She has financial independence, confidence, and her health has improved. She has started working on her own businesses as well: one as a night nanny and another around party planning. She says: “A year ago I was in a job I wanted to leave, and had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. I never thought I’d be able to work full time, let alone start a business.

Now I’ve got job security and a flexible schedule. It’s given me that extra boost and brought my family closer together”.

Lambeth Adult Learning is Lambeth Council’s adult learning service, helping adults aged 19+ improve a wide variety of skills.

To find out more, contact adultlearning@lambeth.gov.uk or call Alex Bousoulengas on 07940 492 149.

News

LAMBETH LIFE JUNE 2018

11

A VERY BRITISH SCANDAL Neasha Clarke, director of Diaspora Support Network desdiber the betrayol of the Windrush Generation The Diaspora Support Network (DSN) is a small community interest company based in Brixton. Our usual line of work was to support foreign national prisoners facing deportation after their sentences. In the past couple of years, we noticed British citizens from a Commonwealth background being targeted for deportation from the UK for minor, non- custodial offences.

We began to see people who had lived in the UK legally since their childhood have their status in the UK questioned at any opportunity whenever they came into contact with certain government agencies. We understand that this was then extended to the NHS and housing providers.

We held events in Windrush Square to raise awareness but the message wasn’t getting through. Almost everyone we spoke to about this emerging crisis did not believe this could happen.

“Only illegal immigrants, newcomers or criminals could be deported” was the usual response.

The real shift in awareness came fairly recently. We found that whenever we spoke about this injustice people would say, “yes they tried to deport my dad/nan/my friend’s uncle, I know it’s happening”. What helped focus the public’s awareness is that the people being threatened with removal were typically as far removed from the criminal justice system as you could get.

People started to know someone aggressively questioned or who could no longer go to work because they did not have a valid passport and were not naturalized, or weren’t sure since they came to the UK as toddlers and never had any proof. But they were in the UK legally. People also talked about being asked to write letters to the Home Office confirming who their fathers were and describing the role they played in their childhood to prevent their dads being removed.

In light of this and the prominent cases reported in the media, we decided to launch Project Windrush in partners-

Elwaldo Romeo (credit: Martin Godwin for the Guardian)

Paulette Wilson (credit: Fabio de Paola for the Guardian)

Hubert Howard (credit: Sarah Lee for the Guardian)

Valeire Baker (credit: Michael Powell for the Guardian)

A protest in support of Windrush Generation migrants in April (Sky News)

Junior Green (credit: Martin Godwin for the Guardian)

David Lammy meets Windrush Generation representatives Anthony Bryan,Sarah Connor, Paulette Wilson, Sylvester Marshall and Elwaldo Romeo in College Green, Westminster hip with Lambeth Law Centre. Lambeth Law Centre (www.lambethlawcentre. org) had been working on a number of cases, helping people obtain documentation to show they had a right to be here. Most of this work is not funded as legal aid for immigration cases was withdrawn in 2013.

The idea of Project Windrush was to share the workload- with DSN helping people collect evidence and supporting them, and the Law Centre checking that people were eligible and then submitting the applications. More people wo-

uld be able to secure their status and the Law Centre would challenge refusals.

We also set up a government petition campaigning for less burden of proof to be on the onus of these applicants. In some cases they had been asked to produce four pieces of evidence for each year they have been in the UK – a tall order for those who have been here 50+ years. We knew of some people able to produce tax records going back years, but that was only regarded as one piece of evidence, not four.Since then, things have moved quickly - MPs were

outraged at the scandal (some of them genuinely), the Prime Minister shamed in front of the Commonwealth Heads of Government, and the Home Secretary resigned. The Home Office announced a new team to deal with the issue. They said that the “burden of proof “ would be relaxed and that applications would be free and processed quickly.

In the short term, this changes the focus of the project - we are supporting people by ensuring they have advice before contacting the Home Office to make sure it is the right thing for them to do. We are monitoring what happens at and after the Home Office appointments so we can build up a clear picture to counter rumours or misinformation.

We also offer emotional support, and can signpost our clients to services they

may need in light of temporarily losing their right to work, benefits, health care and housing.

Our project is currently voluntary so we are limited in the support we can offer. We are seeking funding for an intensive 24 month project based in Lambeth. We have set up a go fund me page - www.diasporasupportnetwork. org - and are submitting bids to fund the project.

DSN feels that the hostile environment has administered an attack on our community, purposely crafted to drive our near retirement age pensioners out of the UK, losing their pensions and boosting the government’s removals statistics. We would like to see a transparent and straightforward policy on how these residents will be positively processed and how those who have already paid for immigration services and lost employment and housing will be compensated.

Our fear is that there will be similar problems for European citizens postBrexit. If the government does not create a clear plan of action and support community groups like ours, Windrush will be the tip of the iceberg.

Ill-health of fearful Windrush victims is ‘a damning indictment of government’ Dexter Bristol, 58, collapsed and died in the street outside his home in Holborn on March 29th. Police told neighbours that he had a heart attack. Bristol’s lawyer, Jacqueline McKenzie of McKenzie Beute and Pope in Streatham Hill says his death is “attributable to the problems he had trying to prove he was a British citizen”.

Bristol arrived in the UK from Grenada aged eight in 1968; but a job offer in May 2017 was withdrawn when he was unable to offer evidence of his residency every year since 1973, and his right to benefits was challenged. In the months following, as he negotiated a bureaucratic quagmire, “we just saw him deteriorate in every way” McKenzie says. Bristol’s local councillor, retired barrister and founder of Doughty Street Chambers Julian Fulbrook said

the stress he was living under “must have been unbelievable.” The Windrush scandal is “absolutely outrageous”, he says.

Jacqueline McKenzie estimates that around 10 people of the 300+ she has seen at free legal advice clinics at Black Cultural Archives in Windrush Square since the scandal broke are not engaging with or have been turned away by the NHS. This number would be higher, she thinks, if doctors were not turning a blind eye to “health tourism” charges.

She describes one woman struggling to regularise her status despite living in the UK for 17 years as being unable to walk from self-medication to relieve the stress.

McKenzie and her colleagues have been working on Windrush cases since 2014, when new immigration check ob-

ligations came in for landlords. In contrast to individuals whose citizenship had been questioned being handed UK passports at Lunar House for the cameras, most migrants face a drawnout three stage process, she says: biometric visas for settlement first, then naturalisation certificates and only then being invited to apply for a passport.

With the doubling of the immigration health surcharge on 16th April, Home Office fees and lawyers’ fees taken into account, non-EU migrants seeking to regularise her status could have to pay £4000, she suggests.

She is angered by the denial of citizenship papers to those with criminal convictions as remote as a driving offence from the 1970s, when so many young black men were criminalised on slim pretexts 40 years ago. “We hope

the Home Office will explain what they are going to do in those instances quickly,” she says.

She slams the climate of fear affecting the most marginalised and vulnerable, as the better travelled and more clued-up would have resolved their immigration status at an earlier stage.

A call for evidence to set compensation for Windrush migrants continues until 8th June. Campaigner and Black Thrive Director Patrick Vernon suggests the government needs to be “as generous as possible to recognise this injustice,” accounting for the emotional and economic costs of requiring people to prove their citizenship. His petition for the government to stop all Windrush deportations, change the burden of proof and establish an amnesty for anyone who was a minor when

they came to the UK earned more than 100,000 signatures leading to a House of Commons debate on April 30th. The government contends is that no amnesty is required for the children of Windrush as they already have the right to remain.

Vernon has tried to establish permanent markers to Windrush to secure it a place in the national consciousness, but the Royal Mail told him there is no possibility of a Windrush 70th anniversary stamp, as it only commemorates 50th and 100th anniversaries. He has launched two crowdfunding campaigns to pay for Dexter Bristol’s funeral.

Of the impact made by his April petition he says, “People get jaded about democracy, they say it doesn’t work.

It does work. To your readers I say, if you feel passionate, you can do it! You need to register concerns.”

News

12 LAMBETH LIFE JUNE 2018

Building a great reputation

A boost to Lambeth's carers Lambeth has won £182,609 in National Lottery funding to support people who have become carers to stay active and involved in their local community.

Sport England works with a number of partners including Lambeth to promote an active lifestyle – particularly among those most vulnerable to dropping out such as people on a low income, older people and people with a disability.

Lambeth will work in partnership with social enterprise Carers4Carers, run by and for carers, to deliver Inspirational Us – Active; a programme of physical activity, complementary therapy, volunteering and training opportunities. Carers4Carers' current one day a week programme at Brixton Recreation Centre will be replicated and expanded to other parts of the

borough.In addition to the lottery funding, Lambeth will contribute £45,648 to the project. Walker Research Group will evaluate the success of the programme.

Lambeth council leader Cllr Lib Peck, said: “We’re delighted to have received this grant that, along with council funding, will help Lambeth’s unpaid carers stay active and well. This programme will help maintain people’s physical and mental wellbeing, offering new opportunities and providing a support network.”

Sport England's director of sport Phil Smith says, "Sport England will support this work and share what works more widely among the sport sector so more can be done to help support people to keep up their activity habits whatever happens in their lives.”

New developments in Lambeth have been celebrated at two prestigious architecture and construction awards ceremonies.

Waterloo Community Farm by Feilden Fowles Architects has received a RIBA London award, with the citation describing a "delightful building that can be used in multiple ways". All the structures are temporary and demountable, meaning the facilities on the site could move to another location in future. The barn houses offices for cha-

rities Jamie's Farm and Oasis Waterloo as well as for Feidlen Fowles.

Cottrell & Vermeulen’s scheme for Streatham & Clapham High School, a ground-floor extension including a new dining hall and school entrance, plus an extra storey at roof level with innovative learning spaces, also won a RIBA regional award. Lambeth buildings short-

Keep the South Bank safe London Assembly Member Florence Eshalomi and Vauxhall MP Kate Hoey, along with Lambeth Life publisher Cllr Ibrahim Dogus and his Bishop's Ward colleagues have written to Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime Sophie Linden to call for the site of Kennington police station to be developed with consideration of community

needs uppermost. "We do not need another high-rise hotel in Bishops ward and the surrounding area", they write. They ask for clarification from the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime about what it means by its reported statement that it is seeking "best value" from the sale.

Last October, Lambeth Council

listed by RIBA were The Department Store, Brixton, refurbished by Squire and Partners as their new headquarters, and a private house and studio development in Rita Road, Vauxhall

by Carmody Groarke architects. At the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors London awards, the renovation of Lambeth Town Hall by architects Cartwright Pickard was shortlisted in the Building Conservation category.

Three other schemes in Lambeth were shortlisted at the RICS awards: the remodelled Garden Museum in Lambeth Palace Road, Ronald McDonald House at Evelina London containing 59 purpose-built bedrooms for families of children being treated at Evelina London Children’s Hospital, and new buildings and refurbishment of Streatham’s historic Thrale Almshouses.

leader Lib Peck wrote to Sophie Linden urging her to retain a police front counter presence in the north of the borough, following plans to close all of Lambeth's police stations except Brixton. Lambeth's riverside wards, which cover the South Bank, have some of the highest crime rates. Last August, 402 crimes were reported in Bishop's, compared to 196 crimes in Brixton Hill ward.

LAMBETH IN 1990 John Whelan

Ringmaster and historian Chris Barltrop, dressed as 18th centurycircus owner Philip Astley, with the Khadikov riders from Zippo's Circus at a plaque-unveiling on Cornwall Road to mark the 250th anniversary of modern circus

Lambeth 28 years ago was a troubled borough with many unresolved issues. At the 1990 borough election the authority remained resolutely Labour controlled with a majority of 16 over Conservatives on 20 and the Lib Dems on four. This was in the wake of the rate capping rebellion against the government of the day that had taken place in 1985, with Lambeth and Liverpool holding out the longest of all the authorities that supported it.

The angst didn’t stop there.

Lambeth took legal action against the Commission for Racial Equality because it wanted to continue to reserve two positions in its housing department for AfroCaribbean or Asian applicants, claiming these groups represented 50 per cent of the council’s tenants for social housing. The Court of Appeal ruled that the proposed jobs would involve limited contact with the public and dismissed the appeal.

Then there were the chilling allegations of sexual abuse – many of which remain unresolved today – particularly in the authority’s children’s homes. Opposition women councillors who bravely went to the children’s homes in the night to check records and mount an inspection were vilified for “causing trouble” but in many cases had been very well infor-

med by whistle blowers. Subsequently, Lambeth decided to no longer manage its own children’s homes and engaged outside agencies. However, 1990 was not all doom and gloom. In 1990 Lambeth became an education authority with responsibility for managing its schools which was a long journey but with outstanding successes including, for example, Corpus Christi primary school in Brixton and Rosendale primary school in West Dulwich to name just two.

Many members of the Windrush Generation had settled in Brixton and neighbouring areas, and were central to the life of

the borough. As a newly elected councillor, I recall visiting Hyacinth, a retired NHS nurse, who contacted me about some antisocial neighbours on her estate.

I managed to sort this out with council officials.

I saw then and there that Hyacinth was lonely, so I used to drop in to see her if possible once a week. I realised she had the same hard working, house proud values as my late mother. She always had a welcome cuppa for me in her immaculate flat. Those were the values of the Windrush Generation as a whole: Lambeth owes them a huge debt of gratitude.

News

LAMBETH LIFE JUNE 2018

13

IDEAS FOR LAMBETH As councillors settle down to work at the Town Hall, how can Lambeth run more efficiently and in a way that better meets people’s needs?

Lambeth Life has asked local campaigners, business owners and policy experts for their thoughts.

Nequela Whittaker, youth worker In the 25 years I’ve lived on my estate in Clapham, I’ve seen the area come up from nothing. Deprivation used to be rife. Now regeneration has been implemented in the culture. The council offered tenants money to move out - it was bribery, it was blackmail. Very few of the people I grew up with are still in Lambeth. Those who’d like to move back can’t afford to. I’ve been on the housing register since 2011 and expect I’ll always be on it. Regeneration disenfranchises communities, it breaks the culture when it wasn’t broken. We definitely need to build more social housing and protect what’s left.

In 15 years since I first got involved in gang culture, I’ve gone from being part of the problem to part of the solution. The media has a narrative about youth knife and gun violence, but they don’t seem to understand it’s a consequence of social factors, it’s part of a cycle. If residents are victims of austerity, is it a surprise if young people glamorise drugs and crime, so they can have their own commodity in this society? We need to highlight positive things young people are doing in their community - not portray them all as gang members - build bridges between police and the community, partner with local groups, communicate with parents and get more involvement from faith groups. Young people also need much more direct support. From my own experience, I would call for halfway houses or youth hostels for when young people come out of prison, especially young females, maybe for all young people who aren’t 100% on their feet. I invite local politicians to discuss these issues with me.

Michael Tuffrey, trustee, New Economics Foundation The power and wealth of the capital passes too many Lambeth residents by. We are officially the 22nd most deprived borough in England, with one in three people of working age falling below the poverty line.

The council’s top priority should be to build a new economy that

Sean Roy Parker, Brixton Pound Cafe

hing parks and beautiful neighbourhoods.

Mike Tuffrey was a LibDem councillor and has been a Lambeth resident for 35 years

Janet Baker, Women’s Equality Party 2018 candidate in Brixton Hill

works for everyone. That means four things: 1. Basic skills. Everyone entering the world of work should have a helping hand to get the skills needed for today’s good jobs. The apprenticeship levy gives local employers and those on our doorstep a real incentive to train up the staff they need 2. Keep money local. Money spent in local shops and businesses employing local people multiplies three times in the Lambeth economy. The Council should protect

firms under threat from rising rents and rates, and break contracts up into smaller parcels, promoting the opportunities to local firms.

3. Help people to help themselves. One in five Lambeth residents rents from the council. Move the management and maintenance of that more directly into the hands of the tenants themselves for a better quality service - and to give people more say over their lives.

4. Getting everybody above the poverty line comes first; but then enjoying that improvement needs healthy air, clean streets, flouris-

The Women’s Equality Party asks Lambeth Council to create a culture of transparency. We want seethrough spending, so residents can track how our council tax is being used. This means social housing tenants will be told about planned building maintenance, and an effective complaints system so when plans go awry residents can report it. We think it’s a good idea for councillors to receive financial training. Lastly, we call for the Council to set up a resident’s group that can hold the Council to account.

In times of austerity, every pound needs to be used intelligently.

We want all possible outsourced work brought back under council control and to ensure that the workforce represents the local population.

We want to see women and girls’ needs brought to the forefront. This includes making all council jobs available for part-time work, helping mothers, disabled people and carers back into local employment.

-Signposting local mental health charities and organisations to the most isolated must be a priority.

-Food waste is obviously a hot topic and Lambeth has been promoting good practice online over recent months. Brixton Pound saves 65kg of fresh produce from landfill every week, turning it into a delicious and seasonal pay-whatyou-can menu. Many residents don’t have access to the internet or food waste bins, so my suggestion would be that the council provides practical workshops in accessible community spaces.

-Perhaps most importantly, with noon-to-night traffic along most main roads in the borough, reduce congestion and air pollution on the roads by promoting walking and cycling to work and seriously penalising idling and multiple car ownership. The irony is, those already walk or cycle suffer the worst air quality, while drivers remain relatively unaffected.

Angella Williams, private chef - Angella's Kitchen, mentor and business networker As a Streatham business owner, I found limited information locally about business development support and funding, so I set up Ladies Who Latte, a monthly networking support group for women in business.

There is a need for improved communications with residents, since dealing with the council can be quite arduous and time consuming, especially when individuals move departments or leave. Local mums who run their own businesses say they have the impression that the council’s focus is more on earning additional revenue from parking charges than on supporting residents and SMEs. The hike in business rates is a major concern for many.

Lambeth Council May 2018

14 LAMBETH LIFE JUNE 2018

2018

Brixton Hill

Bıshop’s Kevin Craig Labour

Ibrahim Dogus Labour

Jennie Mosley Labour

Adrian Garden Labour

Joe Corry-Roake Joanna Reynolds Labour Labour

Linda Bray Labour

Coldharbour Donatus Anyanwu Labour

Emma Nye Labour

Jennifer Brathwaite Labour

Matt Parr Labour

Jessica Leigh Labour

Jane Pickard Labour

Christopher Wellbelove Labour

Joshua Lindsey Irfan Mohammed Labour Labour

Herne Hill Pete Elliott Green

Jim Dickson Labour

Pauline George Labour

Claire Holland Labour

Becca Thackray Green

Oval

Larkhall

Knight’s Hill Jackie Meldrum Labour

Nigel Haselden Labour

Ferndale

Gipsy Hill Matthew Bennett Labour

Martin Tiedemann Labour

Clapham Town

Clapham Common Tim Briggs Conservative

Maria Kay Labour

Sonia Winifred Labour

Tina Valcarcel Labour

Andy Wilson Labour

Timothy Windle Labour

Jack Hopkins Labour

Philip Normal Labour

Lambeth Council May 2018

LAMBETH LIFE JUNE 2018

St Leonards

Prince’s David Amos Labour

Jon Davies Labour

Joanne Simpson Labour

Scott Ainslie Green

Stockwell Lucy Caldicott Labour

Jonathan Bartley Green

Jennie Mosley Green

Streatham Hill

Mahamed Hashi Mohamed Jaser Labour Labour

Liz Atkins Labour

Rezina Chowdhury Labour

Iain Simpson Labour

Streatham Wells

Streatham South Danial Adilypour John Kazantzis Labour Labour

Clair Wilcox Labour

Malcolm Clark Marianna Masters Labour Labour

Mohammed Seedat

2014 Thornton Edward Davie Labour

Jane Edbrooke Labour

Thurlow Park Lib Peck Labour

Anna Birley Labour

Tulse Hill Mary Atkins Labour

Marcia Cameron Labour

15

Fred Cowell Labour

Peter Ely Labour

Vassall Ben Kind Labour

Jacqui Dyer Labour

Paul Gadsby Labour

Annie Gallop Labour

News

16 LAMBETH LIFE JUNE 2018

Feast your way around the world, Dismayed by the Brexit vote, Veronica Porter got thinking.

She had moved to Oval 10 years before to be near her daughter.

Her local area contained an incredible mix of nationalities. The house she lived in, she had discovered, was previously home to exiled Trinidadian communist and Notting Hill Carnival founder Claudia Jones. Since food from different countries rarely fails to engage people's interest, she had the idea of getting neighbours with roots across the world to suggest dishes to celebrate what brings us together, rather than divides us.

The response was fantastic she received recipes from more than 30 different countries from Chile to Malaysia. Given that this rich variety came just one corner of the borough, it shows what a culinary rainbow Lambeth represents.

"I don't know to thank all of you” Porter writes in her introduction. “I have been overwhelmed at the courage shown by so many people who have transferred themselves from their country of birth. I have loved listening to your stories".

Here we list a selection of the recipes to get your tastebuds going.

Copies of the Oval Cookbook are available for £6 from Max and Melia on Clapham Road or from Veronica direct at 4pandy4@ gmail.com. All proceeds go to the Triangle Adventure Playground.

Ajiaco (chicken soup from Colombia) - Andrea Peñarete 3 chicken breasts, skin removed 3 tbsp coriander, chopped 3 medium white potatoes, peeled and sliced 3 medium red potatoes, peeled and sliced 3 ears fresh corn, cut in half 2 chicken stock cubes 1 cup of capers 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped 1 cup of cream 3 shallots Salt and pepper 12 cups of water 2 cups papa criolla (Andean potato, can be bought frozen online or from Brixton market) 1/3 cup guascas (a herb which can be bought from a Colombian shop in Elephant & Castle) In a large pot, place the chicken, corn, stock cube, coriander, shallots, garlic, salt and pepper.

Add water and bring to the boil.

Lower the heat and simmer for 40 mins until chicken is tender. Re-

AJİACO (CHİCKEN SOUP FROM COLOMBİA) ANDREA PEÑARETE

move the chicken and set aside.

Continue cooking the corn for 30 more mins. Add the potatoes and guascas and cook for 30 mins. Add the frozen papa criolla and simmer for 15 to 20 mins. Cut the chicken into small pieces and return to the pot until it is heated through. Serve with capers and cream on the side.

Fishcakes – Glenfield and Gloria Benjamin 1 pack salt cod fish (found in Brixton market) 1 sweet red pepper 1/2 lb plain flour Pepper and thyme to taste 1 onion, chopped Water to mix Rinse fish to remove salt and tear into small pieces. In a bowl add flour, chopped red pepper, onion, thyme and ground pepper and fish. Slowly add water and stir to make a batter. Shape the cakes with a tablespoon and fry on a very low heat until they turn golden brown. Eat them on crackers or bread. They make a good snack.

Rasheed’s Hot Salmon – Tony Ramjohn Half a fresh salmon Tiger prawns 1 large onion 6 chestnut mushrooms 2 celery sticks 2 red chillies 4 spring onions 4 cloves garlic 1 large pepper 1 tin of peas 2 tins of tomatoes 1 bottle of hot pepper sauce Fish seasoning Remove the skin from the salmon and cut into 1”, 2.5cm strips, then cut the strips into 2.5cm squares. Place the salmon into a pan filled with cold water with a squeeze of lemon. Chop the onion, spring onions, pepper, chillies, celery, mushrooms and garlic into fine pieces. Place a large pan or wok on stove top, add a little oil and heat. Place all the chopped veg in the pan and brown. Add the peas and fish seasoning and stir. Add the tomatoes and mix well. Add the hot pepper sauce.

Bring to a boil, cover pan and lower heat. Simmer for 30 mins. Add

Madeiran Espetada (beef skewers) – Marta Nunes

the prawns and cook for a further 15 mins. Serve mashed potato or plain rice on a plate and add the hot and spicy salmon. Serves 6.

Chicken curry from Grenada – Deacon Dave Prince

3 lbs chicken 1 tsp black pepper 2 tbsp curry powder 2 tsp salt 2 medium onions, chopped lemon or lime juice 5 sprigs of thyme 1 small diced potato 5 cloves of garlic, crushed 1 tsp allspice

LAMBETH LIFE JUNE 2018

, in the kitchens of Lambeth

News

17

Cut out 12 cheese circles using a 7.5 cm cutter. Roll out the dough to about 3 mm thick. Cut out 24 pastry circles using a 10-13 cm cutter. Place one circle of cheese in the centre of one of the pastry circles and top it with a second circle of pastry. Crimp the edges together. Repeat until all the cheese and pastry circles have been used up.

Heat the oil in a pan and fry the pastries until golden brown on both sides. Remove from the pan and place on the kitchen paper. Do not let them get gold. Gently heat the honey. Arrange the seadas on a plate and drizzle honey over them.

Serve at once.

1 1/2 lb beef 4-5 bay leaves 1 onion, finely chopped Handful of sea salt 1 tsp of black pepper Chopped fresh parsley 4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped Trim any excess fat from the beef, cut into cubes roughly 2 inches in size. In a large bowl combine all the above ingredients and beef cubes. Mix well and leave to marinate for 2 to 4 hours. When ready to cook, put beef cubes onto skewers and place over a high heat grill.

Rotate the meat to cook evenly (about 2 to 3 mins for rare to medium beef, 5 to 6 minutes for well done). When cooked serve with traditional Madeiran bread, Bolo do caco.

Stewed cow's feet with butter beans – Cordilyn Graham-Weekes 2 cow's feet Carrots All-purpose seasoning Butter beans Soy sauce Lea and Perrins sauce Fish and meat sauce Garlic Thyme Scallion Onion Salt and pepper

2 scotch bonnet peppers 1 cup water Oil Clean, skin and cut chicken into pieces and wash with the lemon or lime juice. Drain. Add curry, onion, thyme, garlic, all spice, black pepper, salt and leave to marinate.

Heat oil in a pan. Add chicken

and seasoning. Lightly brown the chicken. Add water, scotch bonnet peppers and potato. Cook about 30 mins until done. Serve with white rice.

Madeiran Espetada (beef skewers) – Marta Nunes

Get a couple of cow's feet from the butchers (Brixton market sell them) - ask them to cut the feet for you in your preferred size.

Clean them, singe any excess hair, wash and season with allpurpose seasoning, add about 3 cloves of garlic, thyme, scallion, salt, pepper and the sauces. Leave the meat to marinade for a few hours. Cook meat in a large pan with some water until nearly soft. Add the carrots, butter beans and season to taste and cook until tender.

Sarmale (Romanian stuffed cabbage leaves) – Corneliu Toba Pickled cabage leaves (these are easier to stuff than fresh leaves) 500g minced meat, lamb or pork 2 tins of tomatoes 1 large onion, chopped 1/2 cup of cooked rice Dill, parsley, bay leaves, thyme, rosemary and oregano (whatever combination of herbs suits) Pepper and salt Water Lay and cabbage leaves out on the table. Prepare the filling. Fry the chopped onion. When soft, add the meat and when cooked, the rice. Season with pepper, salt and herbs.

Make a sausage of the mixture of each leaf and roll the leaves and place in a casserole dish. When all the leaves and mixture are used up, make a thin sauce of the tomatoes and water and spread over the leaves. Cook in the oven for 1 1/2 hours at 180C.

Sardinian Seadas (Honey and cheese pastries) – Ria Ulleri 500g plain flour 50g butter About 300g water to mix 300g of Pecorino cheese Zest of 2 lemons Olive oil Approx 300g honey Pinch of salt Make a dough with flour and salt adding water a little at a time. Add the butter and knead into the dough. Cover the dough and leave for 30 mins. Cut the cheese into cubes and melt the cubes over a gentle heat. Stir the lemon zest into the melted cheese. Line a baking sheet with baking paper and pour melted cheese over it and spread it out to make an even layer. Leave to cool.

Eritrean spinach – Tedros Isaac 1 large onion, chopped 2 jalapenos, chopped (be careful not to touch eyes) 2-3 cloves of garlic, chopped Olive oil 2 bags of frozen spinach Salt and pepper Cook the onions in a frying pan on medium-low heat. Add the garlic and stir in. Add the jalapenos and cook for a minute. Add the spinach. Stir in some olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Cook for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Serve with the lentils and Eritrean flatbread.

News NEWS

18 LAMBETH LIFE JUNE 2018

“This guy who they had sweated football training sessions, he wa Next spring is the twentyfifth anniversary of the genocide in Rwanda, when more than one million people were killed in just a hundred days.

Lambeth has its own high-profile survivor: former goalkeeping international Eric Eugène Murangwa. It was his gifts as a player that saved him from being slaughtered by Hutu militias. He’s now in talks to appear in a new documentary series for the Discovery Channel, produced and directed by Steven Spielberg Flora Bradley-Watson The ethnic tensions between the Tutsi minority and the Hutu majority in Rwanda stemmed from the colonial period when Belgian overlords favoured the Tutsi. Rwanda gained independence in 1959 and, with a sudden commitment to the principles of democracy and majority rule, Hutus came to power.

They often brought heavy-handed recriminations against their previous oppressors. In April 1994, when a plane carrying the Rwandan president and his Burundian counterpart was shot down, killing everyone on board, tensions boiled over. Hutu extremists blamed a Tutsi rebel group, before starting a campaign of slaughter.

On 7 April, the first day of the genocide, “my life was spared because one of the people who came to my house to kill me realised who I was,” Murangwa tells me over coffee in Brixton. A sticker book showing Murangwa in his goalie strip fell to the floor. “When he found out I was a player for the club he supported, everything changed.”

Murangwa’s Rayon Sports FC teammates risked their lives to save his. They hid him and his family in their homes before helping them reach safety, first at the ICRC headquarters and then at the Hotel des Milles Collines, made famous by the film Hotel Rwanda. “They completely defied the logic of the time, that every Hutu had to chase the Tutsi,” Mu-

rangwa says. He puts their loyalty down to the bonds of football: “This guy they had spent time with, sweating almost blood during training, he wasn’t going to be their enemy.”

The killing ended in July 1994, when the Tutsi rebels drove the Hutu army and the Interhamwe mi-

litia over the border into what was then Zaire (now the DRC). They left behind more than a million corpses.

Thirty-five of Murangwa’s family members were dead, including his seven-year-old brother. He resumed playing professional football and was happy to help with rebuilding

efforts. It was only two years later that an incident led him to be unable to see a future for himself in Rwanda.

“The losing regime had started to launch some attacks from refugee camps in Congo,” he explains.

“A group of insurgents almost reached Kigali… One had been part of

a militia that almost killed me during the genocide. When they were caught and interrogated, they said one of their motives had been to go after survivors. They mentioned me by name.”

Murangwa did not want to live in fear. In June 1996, during a stopover in Paris on the way back from a World Cup qualifier, he fled: first to Belgium and then Britain where, after a long wait, he was granted asylum.

The delay to his asylum application meant he was unable to continue his football career. “By the time I got it, I was no longer the player I was.” He shrugs. “I wasn’t allowed to do anything without the right papers… You can’t work. You are living off handouts. You are just in an open prison.”

He describes the ordeal: “It was hard to go through the process without any idea of how long it will take to receive the final decision. It creates a state of destabilisation in your mind.” Murangwa had to use an interpreter, which he found frustrating: “you are never sure if what you are saying is what exactly is being said.” He was granted indefinite leave to remain in 1999.

Murangwa concedes that managing asylum policy is hard for the authorities too: “there are so many cases that have not been genuine.”

He thinks the public’s attitude has taken a worrying turn for the worse, however. “I was able to settle very easily because of the usual British way of welcoming… Unfortunately, that seems to have changed. For the last ten years, the main topic during elections has been immigration… Politicians are using language I never thought I would hear.” He adds, “The main reason Brexit happened was that people felt that they were no longer who they were because of people like myself… When it

NEWSNews

LAMBETH LIFE JUNE 2018

19

almost blood with during sn’t going to be their enemy” moves into the public zone, that’s when you realise something is getting very serious.”

For Murangwa, Windrush is an indication of how bad things have become. “It is an absolute disgrace” he says. “These are people who are just as British as anyone; spending fifty years in a country and yet you are seen as an outsider? There is something fundamentally wrong with that.”

Murangwa founded two charities: in 2010 Football For Hope and Unity and then Survivors Tribune, now brought together as the Ishami Foundation to use the power of sport and storytelling to build equality, tolerance and lasting peace. Every April, to coincide with the anniversary of the genocide, is the London leg of Play to Remember, a five-a-side tournament . This year’s event included Grenfell Tower survivors as well as refugees from Syria, Sudan and Rwanda. “We thought it would be fitting to invite people who have suffered as much as we have,”

Eric at a tournament in Wales and right, with children in Rwanda Murangwa notes.

It may have taken Murangwa two years to gain British citizenship, but in January he was quick out of the blocks, as the first Rwandan to receive an MBE since the country joined the Commonwealth in 2008. “It was a great honour” he says. “I hope it will send a message about how pe-

ople who come to this country the way I did can achieve great things.”

Murangwa has been living in Clapham since he split up with his long-term partner two and half years ago. They have a thirteen-yearold son called Irankunda, which means “God loves me” in Kinyarwanda. “He’s a very big fan of foot-

ball,” he says. “He dreams of playing for Chelsea.” An Arsenal supporter, Murangwa pays tribute to Arsène Wenger for nurturing African players and the influence this has had in Europe, but also wishes he had quit long ago: “It's great that he’s finally realised that his time was up.”

Murangwa still hopes one day he will be able to go back to Rwanda fo-

rever. “I have loved my twenty years in London,” he says. “I am still loving it, but my true home is Rwanda. I hope, I wish I will be able to go back and stay.”

This month Murangwa will return to organise Play to Remember. He’s also in talks to take part in a documentary series produced by Steven Spielberg called Why We Hate. During our interview, he politely fields calls from producers. The series will investigate the human capacity for hatred and how we can overcome it.

Murangwa has seen humanity at its worst and he’s determined to educate others.

“I don’t want my children to experience what I went through,” he says. “The mistakes that the international community made in Rwanda, they are making in other conflicts – in Myanmar, in Syria. That’s why I go into schools to raise awareness.

To see if the younger generation can learn from what happened in my country, in Sudan, in Bosnia, and use that to prevent future conflict.”

Madeira President forges links with football-mad Lambeth

The President of Madeira Miguel Albuquerque visited the heart of the capital's Portuguese community in Lambeth on the last weekend of May as part of a whistlestop tour of London and Crawley.

The invitation came from South Lambeth community football club Santacruzense, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary. The club fields seven teams, from Under 8s up to men's and women's senior teams.

They play in a range of spaces in the local area, and in the course of the weekend were offered a new home

pitch in Nine Elms after regeneration.

The President presented ninety young players with medals and certificates in Heathbrook Park, followed by a community party for 500 people, with a live band, Portuguese singers and folk dancers. Santacruzense's teams include players from all communities but there is a very evident following for the Portuguese national team in the local area - "when Portugal play, Lambeth is paralysed" says Vitor Caitano, president of the club for the past 10 years.

The President attended Mass for

Pentecost at Scalibrini Fathers on Brixton Road, a Catholic church which serves the Portuguese, Italian and Filipino communities. He was guest of honour at a number of receptions for the Portuguese community including at the Pestana Chelsea Bridge Hotel.

Over the course of the weekend he met the Deputy Mayor of Wandsworth

Jane Cooper and the Deputy Mayor of Lambeth, Lambeth Life publisher Ibrahim Dogus, as well as the Mayors of Crawley and Bridgewater in Somerset, who are of Portuguese nationality.

Accompanied by a strong business delegation from Madeira, he addressed Portuguese business figures in London including in the property,

wholesale and restaurant industries.

He spoke about Madeira's growth and dynamism, making it an attractive place to invest. Referring to the lack of an MP in the House of Commons from a Portuguese background, he urged his audience to consider coming forward to help raise the profile of the community.

Events: Festivals special

20 LAMBETH LIFE MAY 2018

Robert Smith’s Meltdown Festival 15 - 24 June/ Southbank Centre, SE1

Morley College

Since 1993, the Southbank Centre has presented Meltdown Festival, handing artists the opportunity to curate a ten day line-up of events across the iconic cultural centre. The week sees the Southbank turned into a celebration of an individual’s influences, from the crowd-pleasingly expected to the seriously niche. This year, Southbank welcomes Robert Smith of The Cure, one of the most celebrated names in alternative rock, behind hits such as Love Cats, Close To Me, and Friday I’m In Love. Smith’s line-up includes music from Placebo, The Libertines, and Frightened Rabbit, plus a busy programme of talks, discussions, and film screenings. It’s set to be an avid celebration of the sounds and culture of the early 1990s. Past curators have included M.I.A, David Bowie, Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, and Massive Attack.

For the full list of events taking place, go to the Southbank Centre website soutbankcentre.co.uk

Morley College’s first Festival of Arts and Culture takes Holst’s famous Planets Suite as its theme and includes two performances of the work – a full orchestral version

by London Schools Symphony Orchestra featuring the Morley Chamber Choir, and an arrangement for piano developed by Morley’s Composition tutor Paul Sarcich, performed on four instruments by eight pianists. Around this is a host of other Holst-inspired attractions including poetry, lectures, Tony Palmer’s Holst documentary, a catwalk show and a new installation by Turner Prize-winning artist Elizabeth Price. You’ll leave feeling out of this world.

EVENTS June-July Art Exhibitions

Music Off The Cuff Presents: Caswell, Lizzy Laurence & Svetlana 31st May Marvin Gaye Bank Holiday Special Blues Kitchen 27th May North Sea Radio Orchestra, Clapham Library 2nd June Gwana Blues All Stars Hootananny Brixton 10th June Sister Nancy, Brixton Jamm 10th June Raka Balkan Band Upstairs at the Ritzy 13th June Binker Golding, Hootananny Brixton 22nd June Joel Culpepper, Brother Portrait, Contraband Breaks Ensemble 23rd June D’angelo, O2 Academy Brixton 20th June

The Big 3!

Pop Brixton’s 3rd Birthday Party 9th June

Foam Talent, Beaconsfield Art Centre 6th May – 10th June

Ceilidh at the Halls, Stanley Halls 8th June

The Production of Truth, Justice, and Histories, Tate Exchange 12th – 17th June

Threebop: Ella Hohnen-Ford, Rosina Bullen and Luca Manning Toulouse Lautrec, 8th June

Shape of Light 100 Years of Photography and Abstract Art, Tate Until Oct 2018

Lambeth Live Explosion, celebrating young people making music in Lambeth Pop Brixton, 24th June

Mozart: La finta semplice Queen Elizabeth Hall, 6th & 8th June Philharmonia Orchestra Korea-UK Year of Culture: Closing Concert Royal Festival Hall, 14th June

Migration Series: Muruals and Portraits with Dreph, Migration Museum at The Workshop 9th June Christmas Lights St Luke’s Memorial Garden – Sunday 10 December – 4–7pm Edward Bawden, Dulwich Picture Gallery Until Sept 2018

Events: Festivals special

LAMBETH LIFE JUNE 2018

UK Black Pride: ‘Shades from the Diaspora’ 8th July 2018 Vauxhall Park UK Black Pride marks 13 years since its origins in a minibus trip to Southend under the banner Black Lesbians UK. In the intervening years, it has grown into the largest celebration of African, Arab, Asian, and Caribbean-heritage LGBT+ people in Europe.

The event in Vauxhall Park will bring together voices from around the world, including performances and talks from a number of other Pride movements. To announce the event, UK Black Pride sent an open letter to LGTQ+ figures across the UK to celebrate their identities and take a stand against micro-aggressions experienced on a daily basis. Organisers invite people to “join us as we come together to dance, sing, laugh, cry and protest. We’ll remember those we’ve lost, celebrate those who are still here, and inspire those who are yet to come.”

Throughout the day, speakers and talks will be interspersed between DJ’s and poets, with over 10,000 people expected to turn out.

For more details, visit the website ukblackpride.org.uk Free event

ATTIC ARTS CLUB 4th-7th June Upper Norwood Library Westow Hill, SE19 1TJ

In the two weeks leading up to Crystal Palace Festival, there’s anything but hush in Upper Norwood Library as the Attic Arts Club turns the upstairs hall into a grotto for stand-up, music and cabaret acts. Highlights include Andrew Maxwell, silver-tongued hip-hop improviser Abandoman and poet Inua Ellams performing Iranian experimental theatre piece White Rabbit Red Rabbit.

There’s also family shows including a kids’ comedy club, and late night parties – this library is the proud possessor of a drinks licence.

EVENTS June-July Theatre

Comedy and cabaret

Absolute Hell, Lyttleton Theatre Until 16th June

Church of Phil, Landor Space 5th – 8th June

Connections Festival 2018, Dorfman Theatre 26th – 30th June Sea Wall, Old Vic 18th – 30th June Fun Home, Young Vic 18th June – 1st September

Doug Stanhope, Brixton Academy 7th June

Anna Morris: Bitchelors, Underbelly Festival, South Bank 18th June

The Yellow Wallpaper, Omnibus Theatre 5th – 24th June

Simon Munnery & Friends, Underbelly Festival, South Bank 20th June

Austerity & Me, Ovalhouse 14th – 16th June

Let’s Laugh Brixton: Susie Steed, Emily LS, Arielle Souma, Brixton Pound Café 16th June

Agatha Crusty & The Village Hall Murders, The British Home, Crown Lane, SW16 3JB 21st – 23rd June

Always Be Comedy, Summer Season Previews: Jen Brister & Jarred Christmas, The Tommyfield Kennington 14th June

21

News

22 LAMBETH LIFE MAY 2018

FOLLOWING RECENT SALES SUCCESS

NEW PHASE APARTMENTS

NOW SELLING! WITH HELP TO BUY FROM

£299,995 JESSICA HOUSE SW18 • Buy into Galliard’s latest growth zone.

• High spec studio and 1 & 2 bed apartments.

• Daytime concierge & secure parking.* • Little over 10 minutes walk from mainline and tube connections.

• 20 minutes from Knightsbridge and the heart of the West End.

!

E S A E L E R N O T U O D L O S % 0 5 FROM WANDSWORTH TOWN • Clapham Junction 3 mins • Waterloo 15 mins

FROM EAST PUTNEY • South Kensington 16 mins • Knightsbridge 20 mins • Victoria 24 mins

MARKETING SUITE NOW OPEN 7 DAYS

MARKETING SUITE 191 WANDSWORTH HIGH STREET SW18 4LS

020 7620 1500 galliardhomes.com

*Secure parking at additional cost. Price correct at time of going to press.

Official letting and managing agent

News

LAMBETH LIFE JUNE 2018

23

RESTAURANT REVIEW

Turkish Anatolian cuisine with a touch of class TAS 33 The Cut Waterloo SE1 8LF Tel: 0207 928 1444 www.tasrestaurant.co.uk John Whelan TAS is a bright and lively restaurant on the South Bank across the road from the Young Vic. It is a favourite of many celebrities including Sir Ian McKellen, Boris Johnson and Sadiq Khan.

TAS’s reputation rests on the quality of its food, attention to detail and customer care. My companion remarked on the crisp white napkins and very helpful staff who steer guests through the incredibly comprehensive menu. The focus is on staple Anatolian dishes, ranging from hummus and kebabs to kidney, lamb’s liver and moussaka. The bread arrives warm.

TAS has an excellent fixed price menu for £19.95 per person offering a choice of two mezzes plus a choice of main course; otherwise you can go a la carte for around £25 a head excluding drinks. The house red and white are very good. It’s worth noting that they cater extremely well for vegetarian and vegan diners.

I can recommend the courgette fritter which is very light and accompanied by a fresh cheesy and garlic sauce. I followed this with a mixed grill in which the meat was marinated beautifully while my companion had chicken and minced lamb kofte. Pudding was cheese pistachio, shredded wheat, white cheese, and honey syrup.

TAS’s popularity with a young professional crowd can be judged by the fact that at 7.30pm on a weeknight it was packed to the gills, so it is advisable to book in advance. Unfortunately,

RESTAURANT REVIEW

PUB REVIEW

A feast of Kricket

The Windmill Windmill Drive Clapham SW4 9DE

Phil Clarke

Kricket Brixton 41-43 Atlantic Road Brixton SW9 8JL Tel: 0207 3826 4090 www.kricket.co.uk

Inventive Indian tapas place Kricket launched in a shipping container in Pop Brixton in 2015, before transferring to a permanent site in Soho last year. Now chefs Will Bowlby and Rik Campbell have returned to Brixton, with a 40-cover restaurant in two railway arches in Atlantic Road. They are treating it as their experimental lab with a rapidly changing menu.

There’s a fine-looking bar in the first arch. The dining room is in the second, with diddy marble-topped tables arrayed around a large communal one. Cocktails are an important feature, a compact menu of classics and Kricket creations.

It’s all small dishes, and the smallest ones work best - a scrumptious Bhel Puri with raw mango, tamarind and

the weather on our visit wasn’t good enough for the front of the restaurant to be opened up to the outside world, but no doubt in summer this is a delight.

With Turkish décor with subtle lighting and traditional Turkish music playing, the restaurant’s atmosphere is evocatively Anatolian, and if you pass it by on The Cut it looks bright and inviting. TAS has seven other branches in London including in the City, London Bridge and Bloomsbury. It is a great supporter of Great Ormond Street Hospital, donating 25p from every bottle of still and sparkling water sold; when so many London families have had their children supported by Great Ormond Street, including my own, we should all be grateful for this generosity.

lovely yoghurt; a fresh bowl of heirloom tomatoes, piquant with spring onion and ginger; moreish samphire pakora like fried zucchini. Oh my word this is delicious, said my companion.

I liked lamb breast feuille de brick, a crisp and fat deep-fried tandoori experience, more than he did. The asparagus with king oyster mushroom and peas was disappointingly a single stem, though made up for by the intriguing creamy malai sauce. The fried Keralan chicken is tasty but not finger lickin’ fabulous, and a bit overwhelming next to the more abstemious dishes. At £45 a head for nine tapas plates and drinks, the bill was nothing to complain about – a smidgeon lower and I’d be hoping for a Kricket on every corner.

As summer edges closer, the oasis of greenery packed with British Military Fitness freaks and Aussies in bikinis playing ultimate Frisbee that is Clapham Common exerts its pull over South Londoners. Rather than settling down with a tin of warm Heineken while charcoaling chipolatas on a disposable barbecue, why not take it up a notch?

The Windmill, halfway down the east side of the Common, is a gin palaceesque institution dating back to the 1790s. They’re already beach body ready for the season with a summer terrace, burger shack and a series of dining rooms.

Your first choice if you’re paying a visit is inside or out? Astronomy has dealt The Windmill a poor hand as the terrace faces east, meaning that you will be in the shade in the late afternoon and evening, but the burgers make up for it. Burger Shack is a Youngs Pubs speciality and basically means they’ve whacked down a shed and they’re serving burgers out of it.

I gobbled down the classic, served in a soft bun (perhaps too soft, mine disintegrated) and comes with cheese, ale onions and a bit of lettuce and

mayo.

Craving heating so heading indoors, the interior is classic gastro pub, with a bar stretching through most of the rooms and serving a wide range of beers and cider on tap. The main action takes place in a cavernous dining room, with a sort of ante conservatory tagged on the side where I went for a Ploughman’s Sharer.

Word from the wise: there is a lot of food here. The highlights are the scotch egg and the sausage roll. Hands down one of the best, runny, perfectly seasoned scotch eggs in London (and I say this as a regular at the annual scotch egg awards), though a shame it’s not individually on the menu as a side. The sausage roll was perfectly pitched. The bread (basically toast) doesn’t come with butter, which is

very mildly irritating, but is served with excellent cheddar and ham and very vinegary pickled onions.

To wash it down, the house white is a very reasonable Australian Deakin Estate Viognier.

Leaving just in time to catch the sunset across the Common I couldn’t help reflecting that if this is how well ploughmen eat, then get me a combine harvester, I’m changing jobs.

News

24 LAMBETH LIFE MAY 2018

Brexit already raising costs for local businesses, says Lambeth restaurateur Padraig Belton Brexit has started to pinch local Lambeth businesses in a way the 2008 financial crisis never did, says Waterloo restaurateur Raife Aytek.

Aytek manages three restaurants nestled near the London Eye: Troia, Cucina, and Westminster Kitchen.

‘We didn’t too much notice the financial crisis, but now, vegetable prices are going up,’ she says.

‘Our main suppliers for wines and beers send us emails to say their prices are going up because of Brexit’.

Higher import prices as a result of the weaker pound are expected to keep UK price growth ‘around 3 per cent in the short term’, the Bank of England predicts in its February 2018 inflation report. Inflation dropped to 2.5 per cent in March, but remains highest in food and the restaurant sector.

Meanwhile, Aytek says, local businesses are feeling the strain in other areas: from rising business rates, difficulties finding skilled staff, and slowing tourism.

The unemployment rate of 4.4 per cent, only slightly above its lowest since the mid-1970s, means businesses must look harder to find skilled staff.

Before, she found it easy to find kitchen workers with five or six years’ experience.

‘It is difficult to find the qualified chefs,’ with the number of restaurants far exceeding the number of skilled applicants.

Now, she says, applicants ‘coming from Spain and Italy don’t have any experience at all.’ Instead of intending to stay in the UK for a number of years, her applicants today ‘just want to earn

a bit and go back,’ she says. Meanwhile, ‘many people from Bulgaria and Romania are going back to their own countries, some of them say we don’t feel safe any more,’ she adds.

‘The business rate is going up much too much,’ says Aytek, ‘especially the last two years.

‘There is not too much profit, like before,’ she says, ‘but still, we survive, yeah.’

Tourist numbers hit ‘Last year was the worst for the number of tourists, in nearly 14 years’ says Aytek. According to the UK’s official tourist board, VisitBritain, business visits to the UK from the EU were down 3 per cent in the first half of 2017 year on year.

For Europeans, ‘the likelihood to visit has fallen since our research in August 2016,’ it reports.

‘I don’t think people want to travel, between Brexit and terror attacks,’ Aytek says, though ‘hopefully this year will be better’.

VisitBritain forecasts that trips to the UK from overseas and spending by foreign visitors will grow at slower rates in 2018 than 2017, however.

Meanwhile, many small businesses saw sharp rises in their rates in April, especially in London and the South-East.

‘Increases in rates bills are set to significantly outpace inflation,’ says Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) national chairman Mike Cherry. The FSB says half of companies facing rate hikes will reduce, cancel, or postpone investment, while 20% were thinking of closing down or selling their businesses because of rate increases.

Long hours but rewarding work

Aytek says she is in her restaurants at 8:30 each morning, and some nights, especially weekends, there until 2 am.

She goes home to put her children to sleep, around 8 pm, ‘then I come back,’ she says.

Running three restaurants places her in perpetual motion, between stock checks, payrolls and wages, and keeping kitchen machinery churning away.

‘The guy making pitas, if he calls and says I’m sorry, I cannot come today, I need to find a replacement.’

And ‘if the chef’s jacket is missing, I go and find another,’ she says.

Chains, such as Nandos or Pizza Express, send all of their restaurants their materials ready to cook.

‘Fine dining is so different,’ she says.

Regular updating of the menus and pe-

riodic refreshing the interiors, such as wall decorations, is required.

For all the long hours, she enjoys running a small business, she says.

‘I really like my job, and don’t get tired,’ says Aytek.

It reminds her of her childhood. Her family ran a hotel and restaurant, and extended families dined together.

‘You know, when we have a dinner, it was 20 people eating at the same time, our traditional things,’ she recalls.

‘I was so happy when I was a child, and then I see people enjoying these same things.

I really love people coming in my restaurant, eating and enjoying themselves,’ she adds.

Now, she says, she is looking for another premises in Leicester Square or Covent Garden, to open a fourth restaurant. ‘Nothing can stop us,’ she says, ‘even Brexit.’

Aytek, who is married to Lambeth Life publisher Ibrahim Dogus, was born on the banks of the Tigris River, in Amed (Diyarbakir) in the Kurdish region of Turkey, qualifying as a lawyer before in 2005 moving to London.

She studied for a master’s in finance law, but focused on immigration cases until turning full time to running the restaurants in 2014. Helping solve people’s immigration cases offered rewards that banking law did not, she says.

‘When someone was able to bring his wife, or an asylum seeker got their visa, I was so happy,’ she explains.

She may go back to law practice at some point, and open her own firm, she says.

‘But for now, I just enjoy the restaurants. I know this job, and I can make people happy as well,’ she adds.

News

LAMBETH LIFE JUNE 2018

Boosting business on the South Bank In London’s Living Room at City Hall earlier this week, the four Business Improvement Districts that operate in SE1 - South Bank, Better Bankside, Team London Bridge and WeAreWaterloo - organised a business-led symposium on recruitment. The event focused on identifying solutions to current and anticipated problems with recruitment in the SE1 area, such as the potential impact of Brexit, the perceived shortage of appropriately skilled candidates, and issues and opportunities around new employment practices.

In late April, South Bank BID held a breakfast event on Higher and Degree Apprenticeships, in partnership with London South Bank University. Organised in anticipation of the Mayor’s new Skills for Londoners strategy, the event underlined the benefits of strengthening the relationships between education and training providers and employers. When asked “what do you feel your biggest challenge is in terms of offering apprenticeships?” one respondent said: “finding the right apprentice, time and resource, understanding process and linking into other education programmes we run, partnering with other employers”. A number of South Bank employers and landowners have been keen to progress plans for a decentralised energy network (DEN) in the neighbourhood, an innovative project that would look at the energy needs and ge-

25

Golden prospects for Lambeth Airbnb hosts Homeowners in Lambeth who host paying guests using AirBnb earned around £3000 each in 2017, according to figures released this month by the home sharing platform

neration potential of the South Bank area. A group of businesses and employers have helped to shape the brief for this project, with has funding from the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).

With support from South Bank BID, the project is now underway, and a number of businesses are involved. We’ll be holding information events over the summer so that all South Bank businesses can learn more about the project, and contribute their thoughts on what an energy network can deliver for them.

We recently held a networking event with WeWork, in the South Bank Central development. We are excited about WeWork’s plans for developing their presence in Southbank Place, currently being finalised.

South Bank BID is keen to hear from those businesses that are new to the neighbourhood or have plans for growth and development. Please get in touch with us at bid@southbanklondon.com

Visitors can choose from more than 4000 properties in the borough and on average they pay £70 a night for their accommodation.

That’s a better deal than they’ll get across the river in Westminster, where they can expect to pay £126 a night, but if they’re prepared to venture south, the average price of a bed in Croydon is only £36 a night.

Since January 2017, homeowners aren’t allowed to host paying guests for more that 90 days in a year. After that, Airbnb blocks new bookings. The company’s relationship with London’s lawmakers has been much more cooperative than that of other San Francisco success stories like Uber.

It’s releasing the figures in the hope that the transparency will win trust.

Airbnb was, after all, the model business of the “sharing economy”, but its business has changed since the early days when people shared their spare living space with strangers.

“You used to be dealing directly with the owners. Now, when I try to contact the owners I just get through to management companies“, says Sergey, a software developer from Russia who needed somewhere to stay while he was working in London in April.

Most of the professional managers are in the premium parts of town - elsewhere some hosts are

just looking for a way to help with the mortgage payments.

“I thought that I’d end up getting Brits staying for a couple of nights...but I’ve ended up with a lot of French people,” says Georgia, who charges guests £50 to spend one night in her one-bedroom flat in Lambeth while she’s away travelling for work.

She bought her flat under shared ownership so her use of Airbnb counts as subletting. Georgia isn’t her real name. Like several other hosts who she’s observed in her neighbourhood, she’s breaking the terms of her agreement with the housing association.

Airbnb’s early success disrupted the hotel industry and angered some long-term tenants who felt that it made their rents more expensive. There are also occasional scare stories from noisy guests, especially the ones who hold parties.

The Times reported on a case in Brixton where neighbours apparently called the police on se-

veral occasions to break up parties in a flat that had been let through the website. One complained that a partygoer “landed with a crash on to his balcony from above,” and knocked on his window to get back in.

The company has to work hard on its relationship with city administrations around the world.

That has been particularly difficult in in Left-leaning cities like Berlin, where the city council has just lifted a ban that had prevented landlords from letting their flats to short-term visitors.

For other Left-wingers, sharing platforms like Airbnb represent an opportunity. The author Paul Mason says its profits are based on “a rent-seeking business model that has no innovative technology,” but he thinks that they could be replaced by non-profit platforms that are “repurposed so that all the benefit went to the consumer or to society.” He argues that a profitless marketplace could be built on the blockchain, the technology behind digital currencies like Bitcoin.

Meanwhile in London, it’s not just homeowners who’ve benefited from extra income through Airbnb. A lot of properties in the capital that you can find on the website are managed by professional companies, such as Airsorted, that collect a fee in return for handling books, cleaning and laundry.

Traditional dishes and foods from Troia Cafe Bar Restaurant 020 7633 9309 www.troia-restaurant.co.uk

£ SET MENUS 19.95

Charcoal Kebab Kitcen 3F Belvedere Road County Hall London, SE1 7GQ

News

26 LAMBETH LIFE JUNE 2018

The best Brixton wriggles: celebrating ten years of Wormfood at Hootananny Ian Bruce, The Correspondents’ frontman, recalls Hootananny’s New Year’s Eve parties well: “I remember backstage, which is a tiny sweaty box, and being in my underpants with twelve people around me … let’s say, that for that second, non-smoking rules did not apply…”

Wormfood, a booking agency, music label, management and promotion firm in one, celebrated its tenth year at Hootananny on 27 April. It was at one of Wormfood’s New Year’s parties that Bruce did his first stage dive. “I’ve been addicted ever since. I was carried all around the room. The venue has got that funny, wobbly Brixton bass,” says Bruce.

André Marmot, a co-founder of Wormfood, remembers the treadmill that Bruce used to run on while he performing. “I remember making the confetti cannons go ‘Boom!’ as New Year’s struck and Ian started on his treadmill…”

Marmot has been doing his thing with Wormfood for over ten years, since the Nu-Rave era of 2007, when the crew cut a slant through the scene with a night at the Bethnal Green Working Mens’ Club. The music fused African sound, IDM and jazz, with an aim to do something more than the Africanist, “othering” feeling in World Music at the time.

Historically, the World of Music, Arts and Dance (WOMAD) festival has garnered a reputation for being run by plummy colonial types and an increasingly out-of-touch Peter Gabriel; Wormfood wanted to establish something of its own.

“For me what is interesting is

creating new music that is genuinely collaborative – for instance, Wormfood artists Afriquoi” (i-D

magazine described them as “UK house, funky, garage, dubstep and glitch and fuse it with traditional

African melodies”), “who are a genuine mixture of Africa and electronica, but all born in the UK.” Wormfood are community organisers for South London, too: Marmot started the Camberwell Fair in 2015 with funding from Southwark Council and an Arts Council grant, which allowed him to host the likes of Dawn Penn and Afrobeat originator Dele Sosimi. “We wanted to bring our sort of music to communities with low income, or young families,” he says, “that don’t usually easily come out to a venue like Hootananny. I wanted a festival for free.” The fair takes place on Camberwell Green on 1 September this year. Wormfood also represent Tony Allen, whom Fela Kuti called the initiator of Afrobeat. Allen, as Kuti’s drummer, is still fit as a fiddle, says Marmot: “People use the word legendary a lot – he’s seventy-eight – and in amazing form. The first time we did a UK tour, Tony was waiting for the sound check – and the stage was probably four or five feet up.

I was all ready to show Tony up to where the ramp was… Before I’d even started to explain he’d already jumped up!” Marmot also cites the importance of festivals such as Afropunk in forging the contemporary aesthetic of Africa and diaspora Africa.

He remembers working for Hootananny, which opened in 2007 and was previously the Hobgoblin pub, as a booking agent for owner Sophia Yates, and for the likes of Brixton promoter Cecil Reuben, who has hosted such reggae luminaries as Yellowman, the Abyssini-

ans and Don Carlos. This author attended the Abyssinians night back in 2009 when a scarlet-cloaked Donald Manning wielded a staff as the Hammond organ introduced their red-hot hit “Declaration of Rights”.

Yates hails from the Scottish Fraser of Lovat clan; her ancestor Lord Lovat, known as “the Fox”, was the last man to be beheaded in the UK, in 1747.

Marmot says the changes in Brixton inherently produce conflict: “Personally I quite like Pop Brixton – what they did was create something out of nothing – there was nothing there before. I remember the protests in Brixton” – against gentrification, which took place in April 2015 – “when they smashed the Foxtons window. I would ask myself – am I welcome here? I’m white, I’m from north London, I’m middle class. And then – on the way there, I was constantly bumping into people, black, white, people I’d worked with in music. And I realised there’s nothing wrong with that, you can be part of the community. People forget that Brixton has been a haven for people who are left wing, who are white, creatives, since the 1970s.”

I mention the subtle attitude you feel, of the us against them thing, that you get in Notting Hill as well. Marmot counters: “You’re always going to feel threatened if someone moves into your area.”

And just then as he speaks up for his community, a friendly musician passing through the Ritzy hails him.

Pierogi and passion at Lambeth Polish festival Over two weekends this month, Lambeth libraries hosted Polish festivals in honour of the borough's third biggest migrant population, also designed to strengthen links between Poles and Lambeth's other international communities.

Streatham Library celebrated Polish Heritage Day on 5th May with poetry and pierogi, and workshops, games and dance for children in partnership with a Latin American group. At Clapham Library on 12th May, literary historian and translator Ursula Phillips hosted an all-female panel discussing five Polish women writers of plays, poems, memoirs and novels, from the period of the late 18th century Partitions until today.

"They lived through wars and divisions. We brought out how European Polish culture was, and that women's experience was transnational" Phillips says.

At both events photographer Urszula Sołtys's portraits of members of the Polish Community Centre in South Norwood were exhibited. Sołtys’ subjects at first thought that she was taking pictures that she would force them to buy - by the time she invited them to the exhibition they were "very excited, they felt like film stars".

She is fascinated by how some of the older people she photographed look so Polish, and led a culturally Polish life, but have hardly spent any time in Poland as they come to Britain stra-

ight after the Second World War. A migrant who came to London in 2006 and has two daughters with her British husband, Sołtys cried when she heard the EU referendum result: "it's not connecting people, it's making them separate" she says.

The events were put on by the Stockwell Partnership's Poles Connect project in association with Lambeth Readers & Writers Festival, also supported by Lambeth Community Fund, Polish Cultural Institute and the Polish Embassy. "We are constantly seeking innovative ways of engaging, highlighting Polish community assets and Poles' hidden potential" says Marta Sordyl of the Stockwell Partnership.

News

LAMBETH LIFE JUNE 2018

27

An emotional portrait of the Windrush Generation Emma Snaith A new photography exhibition at the Oxo Tower celebrates the south London “Windrush generation”. Veteran photographer and Clapham resident Jim Grover, whose work has been featured in the Sunday Times, The Guardian, the Daily Telegraph and by the BBC, captures the current lives and traditions of this first generation of Caribbean migrants, from the dominoes club to family gatherings and church visits.

The sixty photos in the show, mainly shot in black and white, feature many Lambeth sites including St Andrew’s Church on Landor Road and Lambeth Cemetery. Grover took the photos over the course of a year and was inspired to start the project after he heard a fellow church-goer talk about his dominoes club.

“On that first evening I was simply after a ‘dominoes story’,” he says.

“But as I spent time with this lovely group of people, I realised that there was a much more important story to be told – a story about the very particular way this proud community of first-generation migrants from the Ca-

ribbean live their daily lives. It’s a story that many of their fellow south Londoners know little or nothing about.”

Many of the people Grover photographed, now in their late sixties to ni-

neties, still live in south London. When they arrived in Britain, these Windrushers were often accommodated in the war shelter at Clapham South Tube station and sought their first jobs at the

Brixton labour exchange.

Grover describes the project as his “most challenging yet”, as it required him to spend a lot of time getting to know and earning the trust of the pe-

ople he wished to photograph. “They were a little wary of a stranger with a camera stepping into their world,” he says. “It was such a privilege to have spent time with the wonderful Caribbean community. I have experienced a tight-knit community that is very supportive of each other.”

He points to the last set of images he took for the project, at a Friday “open house” when he was already over the deadline he had set himself as the highlight of the exhibition. “I am so pleased to have spent the evening with twenty-one family members, with Hermine Grocia there as the matriarch,” he said. “It was just so moving to see this wonderful family be so loving, relaxed and connected. I feel I’m capturing some things that most likely won’t be around forever as the subsequent generations just don’t live their lives in the same way as their forebears.”

Windrush: Portrait of a Generation is at gallery@oxo, Oxo Tower Wharf, Bargehouse Street SE1 9PH, until 10 June, 11am – 6pm (excluding Mondays). Admission is free. www.oxotower.co.uk/events/lives-windrushgeneration/

Rebels with a cause (and some musical talent)

All the universe’s a stage Clapham's Bread & Roses Theatre hosted the second London science fiction theatre festival back in March, called the Talos festival after the automated bronze giant "robot" in Greek mythology who protected Zeus's lover Europa. Twelve plays, involving robots, clones and unicorn fights, were showcased.

Science fiction theatre has not traditionally had a high profile, but "how can theatre-makers not engage with the same concerns and themes that film and literature are obsessed with?", asks Talos founder and director Christos Callow Jr. Callow remarks on the gender balance of the writers and directors and equal split between UK and international directors at the festival. Fruitful collaborations struck during and after the festival are key to its spirit, he says. Callow's Cyborphic theatre company, which specialises in

both science fiction theatre and Greek theatre, has been holding a series of sci-fi theatre workshops this month.

New Yorker Brooke DeBettignies, studying for a Masters at Mountview Academy, directed the premiere of Carol W Berman's In the Year 2125, which imagines a women-only planet earth after the Y chromosome has been wiped out. "The rehearsal process was compelling and fun," she says. "The Talos team all believe in the magic, relevance, and importance of sci-fi work and support each other". For his English language debut, Middlesex University Master's student Simone Guistinelli directed a Brexit-defying cast and crew of coursemates from Italy, Bulgaria, Portugal, Brazil, Poland and Slovakia in Been on the Job Too Long; while some US playwrights came all the way from the States to watch their plays and discuss them.

A monthly night of music and political discussion has been launched at the Rebel Inn in Streatham by Afrobeat sax player and founder of the 12 tone independent record label Edward Cubitt. Held on a Tuesday, it combines a house band, visiting a performers and an open mic element debating policy and social issues of the moment that audience members have scribbled on chalkboards.

The night is designed to help create a positive economic cycle for local music, supporting independent venues in a climate in which it is

difficult for aspiring musicians to get paid work. It is a rebuff, Cubitt says, to those who declare they like to keep their music and their politics separate. "Fundamentally, trying to deliver music lessons in schools with funding cuts, trying to deliver local music in places where half the venues are shutting down because property developers are moving in [or] they're getting sued for noise complaints, it's almost impossible" he says.

A proportion of the door fee goes to the local Labour Party, but pro-

ponents of views across the political spectrum are encouraged in the discussion part of the night: “I'm just trying to get people to engage", says Cubitt.

Audience member Ingo Marowsky from Brixton said, "What is nice is that it brings political debate to the ground floor, it's not just high level. That's what politics is about, debate between you and me, not just about Westminster".

Edward eventually hopes to expand the night to independent venues across London.

years. Some children have kept coming; others have inspired their younger siblings to join.

In 2015 Callis started Young at 'Art in partnership with Vauxhall Gardens Estate Residents and Tenants Association. Working closely with the Lambeth Walk Day Centre, it originally was designed to help older people overcome loneliness, and is now open to all adults including those with special and comp-

lex needs. Overall, Cool it Art has led 76 projects, eight of them year-long, many in Lambeth. Lambeth council was sole funder of Cool it Art Kids for three years and currently funds Young at 'Art. Cool it has supported 2 parents towards a qualification funded by Lambeth through High Trees. "The council are amazing, you can't ask them for any more" says Callis. "I've done arts facilitation for nine years and I'm passionate

Cool art project brings joy to Lambeth’s young and old Community art education project Cool it Art, which has given hundreds of Lambeth residents the thrill of making their own art, has celebrated its fifth birthday.

Kennington-based artist Amanda Callis set up Cool it Art in 2013 because of her concerns about art being cut from the school curriculum and child poverty levels. Cool it's first project, free art classes for 3-12 year olds at Vauxhall Gardens Community Centre, has registered 4,495 attendances in five

News Business

28 LAMBETH LIFE MAY 2018

“Delicious food, beautiful atmosphere” WESTMINSTER KITCHEN Steaks&Burgers Book now

020 7928 1986

www.westminsterkitchen.com House, Unit 3A, County Hall, Belvedere Rd, Lambeth, SE1 7GP

Sport

LAMBETH LIFE JUNE 2018

29

CAGE CRICKET: NOT JUST ANOTHER NETS PRACTICE

On 10th May, Lambeth College Princes Trust Team Programme at Bradfield Youth Club hosted a dynamic game of Cage Cricket.

Spectators included Matt Dwyer and David Mahoney from the English and Welsh Cricket Board, Princes Trust Ambassador Colin Salmon and Trevor McArdle, creator of the game.

Cage Cricket is high octane entertainment, bringing together cricket with the attitude of youth culture and extreme sports. It is the only form of competitive cricket played as an individual. Six people play at once, battling, bowling and fielding in succession across four zones. You score when you bat, bowl and field; each player bats for six overs and each time you’re out you lose a point. Runs are scored by hitting targets on the wall.

Princes Trust Team member Jake Elliott, 21 from Surbiton said, “I really enjoyed playing as it was something new. I liked the whole score system that was put in place, it was really clear and easy to use. I would recom-

mend Cage Cricket to anyone who is interested as you will no doubt have a lot of fun!

Princes Trust Team Programmes are 12-week programmes for 16 - 25 year olds, designed to help young people uncover their hidden talents and improve their confidence, as well as gain a nationally-recognised qualification. Some Princes Trust students will be helping to deliver Cage Cricket at Mulacake Family Funday on 2nd June at South Norwood leisure centre. We are already working with Surrey Cricket Foundation at Kia Oval and we are confirming Cage Cricket sessions with Lords as part of their community cricket programmes. Recently, the Princes Trust Team helped support cricket coaches as part of Disability Cricket Day at Kia Oval, the second year we’ve done this. We are confirming more Cage Cricket sessions over the summer.

If you would like to know more about Princes Trust Team Programme and Cage Cricket please contact sbrewster@lambethcollege. ac.uk or call us on 0207 501 5000

Caption: The London Unspeakables Quidditch Team, who train on Saturdays on Clapham Common near Clapham South station.

Training is open to everyone (£2 contribution for non-members)

Hamlet moves into the big town league Pink and blue smoke and songs filled the air on May Bank Holiday as fans celebrated Dulwich Hamlet’s promotion to National League South, the highest league position the club has achieved in its history.

This seems a fitting reward as Hamlet celebrates its 125th anniversary this summer, and what makes it all the more special is the adversity the club has faced this year, with the ground owners kicking them out of their home at Champion Hill forcing club-sharing with rivals Tooting and Mitcham FC eight miles away.

On Bank Holiday Monday afternoon none of that mattered: moral as well as literal victory was won as Dip Akinyemi smashed the winning penalty past the Hendon keeper, sending the majority of the 3321 fans in attendance cascading down the terraces onto the pitch for a party the likes of which had not been seen before. I was a long-term Lambeth resident until recently.

I first started following Hamlet in 2013, the year we were promoted from the Ismathian South to the Ismathian Premier. Over the last five years, the club has gone from strength to strength with crowds well exceeding attendances for other clubs in the area, and a local following that extended comfortably over the Southwark border into Norwood, Brixton and Streatham.

This is down to the hard work of volunteers, club officials and the Supporters’ Trust working on initiatives such as a friendly with Stonewall FC, collections for Calais refugees and helping local mental health charities raise funds. Lambeth charities to benefit include Lambeth Mind and Stockwell-based Football Beyond Borders. Exciting new collaborations were put forward for each home game and the community liked it, came to the game and came back for more, which is why we got such an outpouring of support when Meadow Residential

evicted us from our home and attempted to trademark our name and refuse us further use of it.

In March, 1500 fans gathered to demonstrate against Meadow Residential to send property developers a message that community clubs are not up for sale to the highest bidder.

Looking ahead, not of us can quite believe we are in the National South. Next season we will be heading to far flung places such as Truro and Newquay after spending so many years confined to a small corner of the country.

Amid all the extra travelling, we will have to find time to continue our battle with Meadow Residential. Between the team of professionals our campaign has got, a productive adjournment debate in the Commons and a pledge by Sports Minister Tracey Crouch to appoint mediators, a future return to our home looks a lot more likely. Of all the clubs they could have chosen to wage war with, they picked the wrong one,

30 LAMBETH LIFE MAY 2018

News

News

LAMBETH LIFE JUNE 2018

TAS Restaurants is proud to support Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity. Registered charity no.1160024

LUNCHMENU

£ 12.95 Per Person

MEZE PLATTER

CHOICE OF MAIN COURSE KOF TE

Minced lamb, onion and green pepper patties, seasoned with parsley and herbs, served with coucous

[ served with homemade bread ]

HEL L IML I ISPANAK

HUMUS

Pureed chickpeas with tahini, garlic, lemon and olive oil

TABULE

Spinach sauteed with chickpeas tomatoes and hellim cheese

SOMONLU PASTA

Salad of chopped parsley, tomatoes, onions, cracked wheat, olive oil and lemon juice

Pasta with salmon, fresh tomatoes and spring onions

Filo pastry filled with feta cheese and spinach

Chicken casserole withmushrooms, onions, tomatoes, ginger and coriander, served with couscous

BOREK

DOLMA

Homemade stuffed vine leaves with rice and walnuts

/tasrestaurants

/tasrestaurantsuk

/tasrestaurantsuk

TAVUK GUVEC KALAMAR

Marinated squid, lightly battered and fried, served with rose sour sauce and salad

020 7928 2111 • 020 7928 1444 • 33 The Cut, Waterloo, London SE1 8LF • www.tasrestaurants.co.uk • thecut@ tasrestaurants.co.uk

31

32

OLAY 25 Nisan 2017 Salı

Bira London, world’s first beer for kebabs!

info@biralondon.com | www.biralondon.com

BiraLDN

Bira London