2022-05-23 06:24
Naima Bock was the co-founder and bassist with Goat Girl, but has left the band to pursue a solo career. Her debut album is due out on Sub Pop on 1 July 2022. Naima spent her childhood… Read More
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Transpontine Blog
transpont.blogspot.com
South East London blogzine - things that are happening, things that happened, things that should never have happened. New Cross, Brockley, Deptford and other beauty spots. EMAIL US: [email protected] Transpontine: 'on the other (i.e. the south) side of the bridges over the Thames; pertaining to or like the lurid melodrama played in theatres there in the 19th century'.
2022-05-16 08:41
The music video for the latest Belle and Sebastian single “Talk To Me Talk To Me” features scenes shot in and around Ladywell Fields.The video was written and directed by 15-year… Read More
2022-05-15 15:20
The Goodyear Blimp airship has been in the skies of London and Kent this weekend, here seen over Lausanne Road in Nunhead on Saturday 14th May 2022 Read More
2022-04-27 14:47
A packed Amersham Arms in New Cross last month for the first of a series of 'Reweirding' events there. The theme for March was for 'Reweirding London: Authors on the Secret City', with inter… Read More
2022-04-26 07:08
Flowers in Fordham Park, New Cross, where 16 year old Teon Campbell-Pitter was killed on 13 April 2022Another child killed, more children charged with his killing. Difficult to say anything… Read More
2022-04-15 05:30
Redcross Way SE1The sadly closed White Swan pub in Deptford High StreetHamilton Street, Deptford Read More
2022-04-14 09:39
Billboard poster at Brockley Cross denounces the Government's plain evil plans to deport refugees to offshore detention camps. Press reports today suggest refugees arriving in the UK could b… Read More
2022-04-08 20:18
It's been a while since the 'Nunhead & District Municipal Museum and Art Gallery' opened its doors to the public, but for one weekend only this idiosyncratic collection can be viewed at… Read More
2022-04-03 09:17
Dark clouds gather over the Sainsburys petrol station on New Cross Road - an omen for the Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak as inflation rises and people struggle with the cost of livi… Read More
2022-03-06 19:47
Like most people watching terrible events continuing to unfold in Ukraine, I feel a sense of powerlessness. I have no armchair hot takes or new geopolitical analyses, other than to express s… Read More
2022-02-22 00:02
In 1907 the 5th Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party was held at the Brotherhood Church in Hackney. The 338 delegates represented the various factions of the party, chiefly… Read More
2022-02-19 17:08
An eye catching, if slightly storm frayed billboard advert in New Cross Road announces the paperback publication of Francis Spufford's novel 'Light Perpetual'. Spufford has been teaching cre… Read More
2022-02-15 19:15
'Reweirding' put on interesting talks and events at Conway Hall and elsewhere. Next month they are coming to the Amersham Arms in New Cross for 'Reweirding London: Authors on the Secret City… Read More
2022-02-09 09:54
A campaign group has been set up with the goal of establishing a Museum of Slavery and Freedom (M ō S a F) on the site of the old Royal Naval Dockyard on the bank of the River Thames at… Read More
2022-02-05 10:26
The buildings that today house the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich Park previously housed a school to train boys for the Navy, as well as at times girls for domestic service. The Royal… Read More
2022-01-25 08:02
A new mural was opened this week on New Cross Road to mark the 40th Anniversary of the 1981 New Cross Fire. The piece has been commissioned by Richard Simpson, his wife Sharon and family,&nb&hell…Read More
2021-12-29 14:52
Mobile Testing Unit, Canada Water Is anybody documenting the temporary architecture of COVID-19?All those pop-up testing, vaccine and booster centres. White marquees in lockdown-emptied… Read More
2021-12-07 10:27
'All Swell' - 'an unofficial bulletin published monthly by the Camberwell Branch of Nalgo for the special benefit of members serving with the Forces... Edited by David Leggatt, Food Office… Read More
2021-12-06 09:13
Cycling by the Thames yesterday we came across this impromptu memorial by Deptford Creek to the 27 people who died attempting to cross the Channel from France to England on 24 November 2021… Read More
2021-11-23 14:46
A good turn out at Goldsmiths College in New Cross today at a rally to mark the start of a three week strike by members of the University and College Union against threatened job cuts.Goldsm… Read More
2021-11-17 08:56
Channel 4 drama 'Close to Me' is the latest to make use of the Rivoli Ballroom as a location. In the story a fundraising event for refugees in Hastings actually takes place in Brockley Road… Read More
2021-11-15 10:47
Joy Crookes at Queens Road, PeckhamSinger Joy Crookes has a new album out, Skin, and very good it is too. She's been compared to Amy Winehouse, but she has a great voice of her own and… Read More
2021-10-28 07:34
At least a couple of thousand people turned out last Friday (22/10/2021) to greet 'Little Amal' to Deptford: a 3.5 metre-tall puppet of a young refugee girl that has been travelling 8… Read More
2021-10-27 16:49
The open mic session at The Telegraph at Earl of Derby pub (Dennetts Road SE14) continues to go from strength to strength. It was a full house last week (21st October) with featured ac… Read More
2021-10-18 22:18
In November 1830 one B.C. Challis gave a lecture that was published shortly after as 'The Substance of a Speech on Negro Slavery. Delivered at the Rev. Mr. Barker's Chapel, High Street, Dept… Read More
2021-10-05 20:10
2021-10-04 08:54
Out for a bike ride round the Greenwich peninsula last weekend we saw some people drinking at tables next to a warehouse on the riverside at Morden Wharf. So of course we stopped to investig… Read More
2021-09-20 07:10
Broadside Hacks is a new 'London-based collective committed to the celebration and perpetuation of folk music', with a great new album out, 'Songs Without Authors Vol.1'. The coll… Read More
2021-09-13 20:45
A small far right anti-refugee protest in Croydon was outnumbered by opposition on 4th September. Only around 20 racists got it together to turn up at Lunar House (Home Office UK Visas and I… Read More
2021-09-05 16:22
'Dub London: Bassline of a city' closed last week at the Museum of London, a small exhibition documenting the impact of reggae sound system culture in the capital. Exhibits included a speake… Read More
2021-08-29 18:12
As part of this month's Extinction Rebellion 'Impossible Rebellion' in London, some supporters have been camping out on Blackheath, as they did in 2019 and as their Climate Camp predecessors… Read More
2021-08-16 06:21
Long time New Cross balladeers Ceri James and Mark Sampson have collaborated on a new single, 'The Battle of Lewisham 1977', released last week on the anniversary of the historic anti-Nation… Read More
2021-07-22 23:11
Linton Kwesi Johnson’s New Craas Massahkah poem, about the 1981 New Cross Fire, is on display by the South Bank Centre where the track is being played on the hour every hour until the… Read More
2021-07-17 08:15
'Women's Day for Disarmament' took place on May 24 1983, with hundreds of events across Britain. This was the period of the Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp against cruise missiles and the… Read More
2021-05-25 16:51
'ACAB' 'Floyd' - Albert Embankment SE1, April 2021A year ago today the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis sparked off the latest round of the global Black Lives Matte… Read More
2021-05-18 18:56
With museums and galleries reopening let's celebrate two small but perfectly formed and radical museums in the borough of Lewisham, with a few photos from pre-lockdown period.The Migration M… Read More
2021-05-10 05:00
We've featured some of Elephants and Castles' South London-tinged songs here before, including Concrete Love (filmed in the now vanished Elephant and Castle subways) and The Worl… Read More
2021-04-19 07:03
The National Covid Memorial Wall has been painted over the last month by volunteers along the South Bank of the Thames between Lambeth Bridge and Westminster Bridge, opposite the Houses of P… Read More
2021-04-10 16:56
Fenton Ogbogbo was a 25 year old man who was murdered in a racist attack on the Old Kent Road in June 1981. Three white youths aged 15 to 17 from the Peckham area were jailed at '… Read More
2021-03-29 06:54
I heard 'Found it', the new single from South London MC Pinty, on Gilles Peterson's BBC6 Music show at the weekend. Wait a minute, does he actually mention legendary Peckham pub The Gowlett… Read More
2021-03-28 16:19
Boys boarding school Dulwich College has been rocked in the last week by allegations of a culture of sexual abuse and harassment amongst its students, targeting in particular young women att… Read More
2021-03-26 08:09
Green Onions, the much loved health food and record shop in Clifton Rise, New Cross, has reopened after a period of closure.Sad to report that the co-founder of the shop, Stefan Finnis, died… Read More
2021-03-21 15:08
There was a vigil in Telegraph Hill Upper Park last night (20th March 2021) 'to remember victims of patriarchal violence' . A list of women killed by men stretched across the ground ending i… Read More
2021-03-17 07:55
The Haberdashers' Aske's school in New Cross is reported to be considering the implications of the links between Robert Aske (after whom the school is named) and slavery, with press coverage… Read More
2021-03-05 15:47
If you haven't been down Arklow Road for a while you might be in for a surprize, the new Anthology Deptford Foundry housing development is complete and lived in with little trace of the form… Read More
2021-02-26 10:53
A blue plaque at 164 Queens Road, Peckham, commemorates its status as the one time home of Dr Harold Moody (1882-1947). Moody moved from Jamaica to London to become a doctor, and established… Read More
2021-02-20 17:41
From the radical canvas that is the streetscape of South East London, a few recent interventions in the social fabric...Up against the wallSeen on the bus stop outside Goldsmiths in New Cros… Read More
2021-02-15 09:50
I have seen a few mentions on twitter and facebook about the case of Vincent (born Violet) Jones and Jean Lee who were each fined £25 in 1954 following their 'illegal' wedding at… Read More
2021-02-03 23:11
Sad to see the White Hart in New Cross Gate closed and empty. Leaseholders Patrick and Joseph Ryan, whose efforts had reinvigorated this iconic pub over the last few years, shut up shop for… Read More
2021-01-30 09:26
Designer and author Stefi Orazi has produced 'Perambulations', a series of risograph walking guides to modernist houses covering different parts of London (and indeed Brussels). As a l… Read More
2021-01-24 20:37
Sandwiched between Surrey Canal Road SE14 (near to the Den) and Rollins Street SE15 is a run down set of buildings named the Excelsior Works. Once upon a time this place had a role in musica… Read More
2021-01-12 18:28
'Blood and Sugar' by Laura Shepherd-Robinson (Pan, 2020) is essentially a murder mystery set in late eighteenth century Deptford - 1781 to be precise. Without giving too much away of t… Read More
2021-01-08 11:28
Percy William Luton was a photographer in the early 20th century whose Carlton Studio was at 34 New Cross Road SE14. Electoral Registers and Post Office Directories show that he was th… Read More
2020-12-30 19:20
Times were hard in the Winter of 1908, with widespread unemployment. There were protests in many places demanding work and relief including a weekly unemployed demonstration from Tower Hill… Read More
2020-12-28 07:57
Lots of Christmas and other seasonal decorations around the area, including in Telegraph Hill SE14 as part of an Advent windows initiative with new ones being unveiled on each day during Dec… Read More
2020-12-21 11:32
Some more flyers from the New Cross Venue in the 1990s, when the place was a key indie venue.December 1990 - A Certain Ratio, Band of Holy Joy and Teenage Fanclub (with the Pastels and BMX B… Read More
2020-12-11 10:54
Heading south-east, the A2 changes its name from the Old Kent Road to New Cross Road shortly after the junction with Ilderton Road. On the north side, the change is marked by the entrance to… Read More
2020-11-26 21:09
News this week that The Royal Albert Pub (460 New Cross Road) has changed hands - it is one of a number of pubs previously run by Antic which have been taken over by Portobello Brewing. The… Read More
2020-11-23 15:49
New Cross Fire Station, in Queens Road SE14, was built in 1894 and has survived two World Wars and a threat to close it from Boris Johnson.For much of the 19th century what fire servic… Read More
2020-11-05 18:06
Greentea Peng is the latest singer to have graced the legendary Rivoli Ballroom in Crofton Park, recording a performance of her song Hu Man for the 'Later... with Jools Holland' show on BBC… Read More
2020-10-26 10:40
I love the notion that as the main road between London, Kent and the Channel, what is now the A2 has been travelled by so many historical personages and movements - everyone from royals to r… Read More
2020-10-18 10:35
Socialist Sunday Schools were set up in the UK from the 1880s as a secular alternative to the Church-run schools which many children were sent to to. By the time of the First World War there… Read More
2020-10-11 20:00
Some anticipatory conspiracy theory - this sticker spotted today on a lamp post opposite Skehans Pub in Gellatly Road SE14. Read More
2020-09-23 06:38
The Runaway Slaves project based at the University of Glasgow is gathering information from one key source: adverts placed in 18th century British newspapers offering a reward for the return… Read More
2020-09-09 11:31
I guess everyone knows about the 1977 anti-fascist Battle of Lewisham, less remembered is the 1988 fight by a group of workers against the employment of a far right activist in a local… Read More
2020-08-15 17:51
A stroll today around the area by The Den, starting with checking out the recently refreshed mural of Millwall FC legend Neil Harris, under the railway arch on Zampa Road SE16. I featu… Read More
2020-08-08 21:07
Summer evenings this year have seen some remarkable gatherings on Hilly Fields. In the area by the park's stone circle - an ancient monument dating back to 2000 - a group of young jazz music… Read More
2020-07-27 14:18
Some more Black Lives Matter-themed graffiti/street art, this time from the skatepark in Wandle Park in Croydon.'Stop killin' the mandem'the River Wandle (more of a stream at this stage) in… Read More
2020-07-25 06:55
Two months after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25th, the global wave of Black Lives Matters protests continues to make an impact around the world. This… Read More
2020-07-11 08:29
Earlier on in the pandemic I did a post on Covid-19 street art in South London. In that first month of the lockdown it was all rainbows and chalk messages in support of NHS workers. Here's a… Read More
2020-06-22 21:55
Today is Windrush day, commemorating the arrival of Jamaican migrants in Britain on the Empire Windrush on this day in 1948 and the wider impact of people of Caribbean origin in this country… Read More
2020-06-06 06:36
The railings around Telegraph Hill lower park in New Cross - specifically on Erlanger Road and Kitto Road SE14 - currently feature cardboard placards from the latest phase of the Black… Read More
2020-05-10 12:31
50 years ago the 1970 Miss World pageant in London was famously disrupted by feminists opposed to it objectification of women. Anti-apartheid protestors also demonstrated against the inclusi… Read More
2020-05-01 09:55
There will be no May Day demonstration or procession of the Deptford Jack in the Green this socially distancing May Day. The Jack though has been spotted in garden somewhere in South London… Read More
2020-04-14 10:20
Covid-19 might have led to physical distancing but, as many have observed, the need for social communication and organisation has never been more apparent. In this post I am focusing o… Read More
2020-03-09 21:41
The London Bus Strike in 1937 saw Transport and General Workers Union members walk out demanding a reduction in the length of their working day from 8 to 7.5 hours. 30,000 bus workers were e… Read More
2020-02-24 21:51
The new King Krule album 'Man Alive' is out, Archy Marshall has come a long way since hanging out on Deptford rooftops when first mentioned at Transpontine in 2013. He's playing Brixto… Read More
2020-01-26 09:18
New street art in Forest Hill on the South Circular put up last week on hoardings around former Co-op site on Waldram Park Road (apparently a hotel is being built there). Artists include @li… Read More
2020-01-02 16:32
The late great George Michael may have grown up in north London and Hertfordshire, along with his Wham! mate Andrew Ridgeley, but who knew that one of their best known songs was written in P… Read More
2019-12-27 18:08
Kylie's Secret Night, shown on Channel 4 over Christmas 2019, showed everyone's favourite Aussie pop star staging a surprize night for fans, hosted by Alan Carr. And where better to do it th… Read More
2019-12-21 22:55
This work by Glasgow-based Iranian artist Iman Tajik was recently displayed in the window of the new building on corner of Borough High Street and Marshalsea Road SE1. Referencing the 1951 U… Read More
2019-12-14 18:26
As I post this it is forty years ago this very night that anarcho-punk pioneers Crass and Poison Girls played in Luton, along with home town punks UK Decay on 14th December 1979. A friend wh… Read More
2019-12-13 18:15
Villages brewery in Deptford is three years old and celebrating this weekend with a party. Must admit my visit to the Villages taproom in Resolution Way last weekend was my first. The brewer… Read More
2019-12-09 04:00
Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds' 'Wandering Star' single has a Christmas-themed video that sees a Santa coming to the aid of a desperate shoplifter. The shop used in the video is ac… Read More
2019-11-30 08:43
A new mural was unveiled last month at Goldsmiths commemorating the August 1977 'Battle of Lewisham' when anti-fascists mobilised to oppose a march by the far right National Front from New C… Read More
2019-11-14 21:03
Edith Tudor-Hart (1908–1973) was an Austrian photographer who studied at the Bauhaus. Born Edith Suschitzky, she came from a left wing Jewish background and fled rising fascism to move… Read More
2019-11-13 19:13
I was delighted by reports over the summer of a muntjac deer being spotted in the Telegraph Hill/Brockley area. Specifically in August there were apparent sightings in Dalrymple Road, Endwel… Read More
2019-11-04 21:58
Capillary Tissues, sound performances in the APT gallery and studio of artist Victoria Rance as part of the Deptford X festival, 2nd November 2019.Lia Mazzari/David Bloor/Charlotte Law:Costu… Read More
2019-10-28 07:58
SE London musician The DreZone has many talents - multi-instrumentalist, DJ and professional singer who can be found performing tributes to Prince and Stevie Wonder among others. He also wri… Read More
2019-10-24 22:13
I've fallen back in love again with the White Hart in New Cross Gate recently. This iconic pub has been overlooking the historic junction on the old Watling Street/New Cross Road for 150 yea… Read More
2019-10-20 18:46
Some stickers around Brockley photographed yesterday. We have:Jewish Antifascist ActionNever Seek Permission - pigeon-themed, artist is on insta as @neverseekpermissionExtinction Rebellion … Read More
2019-08-26 09:04
Last weekend (17-18 August) saw local supporters of the climate change movement Extinction Rebellion stage a series of protests, workshops and other events in Greenwich and Blackheath.The we… Read More
2019-08-18 14:03
At APT Gallerty, Creekside SE8, 'Deptford Island Disco' includes 'Deptford Island Discs', inviting people to select their own songs and tell us why.Careless Whispers, Being Boring, Yeah!, I… Read More
2019-08-02 15:50
Great exhibition at the Bermondsey Project Space (183 Bermondsey St SE1) on the history of skateboarding on London's Southbank from its origins in the 1970s through to the successful 'Long L… Read More
2019-06-30 12:54
From London LGBT paper 'Capital Gay' (2 October 1987), a report of police raiding a gay club in Forest Hill in 1987, prompting the headline: "Clear out of Forest Hill! Police Want Gays Confi… Read More
2019-06-03 20:54
South East London gaysoc apparently grew out of Goldsmiths gay society and by 1976 was putting on what may have been the first 'regular gay disco' in the area - 'with upward of 60 local gays… Read More
2019-02-17 16:35
Interesting recent article by James Rippingale at Al Jazeera. In 'Lewisham, London 1977: Notes on fighting fascism' (24 November 2018) 'Balwinder Singh Rana, a 71-year-old anti-fascist… Read More
2018-11-04 22:34
The end of October/beginning of November is a time for many religious, spiritual and popular festivals - Halloween, All Saints Day, Bonfire Night etc. I stumbled across one of the lesse… Read More
2018-10-26 18:01
'The Boy who stole time' is a new young people's fantasy novel by Ladywell-based author Mark Bowsher (publicity says 'for fans of Neil Gaiman and Philip Pulman'). A book launch and rea… Read More
2018-10-25 18:51
As mentioned before, I periodically look on Ebay and similar sites for interesting local photos (the ones here are all currently on sale, click links for futher details). I am particularly f… Read More
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