Tube strikes

The tube strike didn't really affect me too badly, seeing as I don't live near a tube line, but it did provide me with an excuse to dawdle on the way to work for a few days. The sun made for quite a nice addition, as well as the opportunity to grab breakfast as I passed Elephant & Castle. I also snapped this sparsely manned picket-line - perhaps the strikers couldn't get to work either?

Buses were not too problematic going into London as they all either pass London Bridge or Waterloo, but leaving work again was a slightly more annoying. Patiently waiting with several million other enforced users of the red-painted peasant-wagons, desperation grew, and eventually I gave up waiting for a 172 that would actually stop to let me on. So I opted for the 343 - and whilst it's claim that it did go to New Cross Gate proved true in the end - the journey took me through Peckham Rye, Nunhead, and then Brockley. Luckily, I was in no rush but getting home at 8.30pm after leaving the office at 6.30pm was a longer commute than I would prefer. Still, I spied a few nice pubs on the journey and learnt something about local buses.

Deptford Market

I found this totally unexpectedly, although I do now realise it's advertised pretty well too. I had been just going for a walk on a lazy day out of the office, and happened upon this fantastic little market down Deptford High Street.

Although a bit tatty around the edges, it had a good atmosphere, and the traders supplied copious banter alongside their wares. There was a really impressive range of items for sale - from fresh fruit and fish to whole wooden bedframes and luggage. Apparently, there are three seperate markets that specialise in different things although I didn't spot that, and it runs on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.

Deptford High Street has a pretty wide range of shops on it too behind the canvas stalls, although mainly on the cheaper end of the spectrum (Poundland "heaven"!), and is also home to the Deptford Arms pub (pictured here at the top). The Deptford Arms is apparently is pretty good for local bands, although a bit scruffy, and the hand-scrawled signs on the door telling non-customers to pee elsewhere are a little off-putting.

So this is what my tax goes on

I'm trying to turn over a new leaf, and actually pay attention to local authority propaganda, *ahem* I mean information and updates, that drop through my door.

Lewisham Council have a quite nicely produced glossy called Lewisham Life. My geography of the area is still very poor, and I can barely find my way to Sainsburys yet, so I may use this resource to find my feet a bit more. This really is a place full of green-spaces - something not immediately apparent on the usual dreary trek down New Cross Road on the commuter route. There are a number of 'festivals' planned in Lewisham's parks and fields in the coming month that definitely deserve a peruse.

The other article that piqued my amateur interest in regeneration, was advice for businesses suffering in the down-turn. People's perceptions of New Cross is really not helped when they stroll down the main high-street between train stations and see every other shop shuttered up and closing down sale signs everywhere. It's easy to see that this area could spiral downwards as people stay away from a dying area and compound the problems for those surviving businesses.

The other thing to drop through my door from the council was from the Safer Neighbourhood Team announcing that because it's war on street robbery was going well, it would now be diverting it's attention to street-drinking, drug-dealing, and youth disorder. After speaking to a friend of mine who was bottled whilst walking back from a nearby pub the other day, this does make me hope that higher-profile policing will be used, rather than being tempted to take their foot off the pedal.

New Cross small-pox hospital

I'm a big fan of maps me.

I just got bought a map of central and south east London from about 1890 that shows my neck of the woods on it. The picture here is centred on the quasi-conservation area north of the New Cross Road to the west of New Cross Gate station; this shows the full extent of the old hospital which was erected in the late nineteenth-century initially as a small pox hospital for paupers.

Hansard has a small interesting question and response on the topic of land that had just been bought in 1873 for the purpose of building a hospital: http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1873/jul/21/metropolis-small-pox-hospital-at-hatcham

Evidently, some residents who had the ear of a local MP were not to keen on the idea of diseased patients roaming within spitting distance of their part of suburbia.

It has been known as Deptford Hospital in 1877 when it opened, the South East Fever Hospital from 1885, and then New Cross General Hospital in 1949 before dropping the 'general' in 1964. It closed in 1991 and huge parts of it were demolished to make way for residential buildings, with some out-buildings such as nurses accommodation being listed and also being converted to small flats.

Other hints also exist as to it's use as a hospital, such as the close proximity to the Deptford Ambulance station which exits onto New Cross Road just near where it meets the Old Kent Road. The Medical Toxicology Lab and Poisons Unit is still is in use, it's entrance on Avonley Road just down from the old hospital entrance - conveniently located for Hong Kong City just opposite!

Just to regurgitate this again

I know this has been mentioned in numerous other blogs and the free-sheets, but my favourite London website, the Londonist, also posted on this the other day too: http://londonist.com/2009/04/new_york_times_loves_deptford.php

So, apparently, Deptford and New Cross are to be inundated with young hipsters trying to spot some real old fashioned gor-blimey.

I am in need of a favourite pub still, and the Amersham Arms was on my list of places to visit, but apparently according to the article, it is far too cool for me. The search continues...

Not that I want to jinx myself here...

So, whilst scouting areas to live I had put New Cross pretty high on my list early on due to affordability. Needless to say, stories like this did not help me much: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8020498.stm

Researching crime stats I suppose is one of those things that people do when checking out an area, along with schools, council tax and the like. Lurid stab and set-alight stories do not help people when deciding whether they want to move to an area or not. The Met's crime mapping (http://maps.met.police.uk/) does not help things either - there is plenty of red and orange when SE14 is typed in.

Having lived for numerous years in some areas that some may describe as 'rough', my views of New Cross being a 'bit lively' on the nighttime differ from those people who had previously lived in some leafy suburb of Surrey. The reality seems to be that unless you are hanging around at 4am in some ill-lit back street, or are yourself engaged in some illicit activity, or have lost basic common-sense that must be employed when living in any major city, then dodgy-dealings may hopefully pass you by.

I reserve this spot

As a new member to the home-owning fraternity, and in order to mark my assimilation into the local culture, and to anticipate being an "active citizen", I have decided to start this blog.

Hatcham, as I am sure South-East Londoners will know, is in South East London. Or was. But sort of is too.

Thesedays, it tends to get called New Cross, or New Cross Gate: names that were solidified in geography by the arrival of the railways into this part of the world.

This little post is to set out the parameters of the hackery it hopes to contain, namely: an exploration by this hack into this new part of London, details of local interest, news that is topical, experiences of local trade, and no doubt ultimately grumblings and gripes most commonly associated with amateur blogging such as this.