No two words fill parents with more dread than these: half-term. Keeping little ones entertained isn’t easy, but the trick is to do your homework and ensure you’re prepared for all eventualities. Here Paloma Lacy gives out some top tips on what to do this half-term.
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It’s a brave person who opens a restaurant, but opening two in the middle of a global pandemic is to be greatly admired. When I first visited The Tapas Room in Deptford a decade ago, the joy derived from a glorious lunch, was tempered by the realisation that I’d be unlikely to visit again.
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Artist Frank Bowling, 86, who still paints in Peacock Yard, near Walworth Post Office, was last week named in the Queen’s Honours List to receive a Knighthood for his career and contribution to art.
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Bermondsey-raised Sir Tommy, awarded an OBE in 1980 for his work as an entertainer, topped the charts numerous times, appeared in films and on stage, and caused riots in the streets long before the beat boom of the Sixties.
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Brixton is famed for its Caribbean culture: Windrush Square, Black Cultural Archives, Brixton Jamm and many Caribbean restaurants.
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Building on the success of their return to live indoor performance last month, City of London Sinfonia (CLS) will return to Southwark Cathedral this autumn with six socially distanced performances. The Restore and Revive concert series features hand-picked favourites from CLS musicians across three concerts, in an uplifting and invigorating series that celebrates the long-awaited reconnection with audiences through the revival of live music performance.
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Thank you for giving so much coverage and feedback to LTNs. Since June 29, 2020, with just a few days notice, roads were closed in the chosen area, Lee Green ward, Lewisham.
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If there is one thing that the pandemic has made us challenge in the theatre industry, it’s the nature of theatre. What makes something theatre? A year ago the answer would inevitably have been something to do with a group of people coming together to watch or participate in an event, performed by another person or group of people.
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A new podcast series that highlights the heroes of our food system is now available. Who Feeds Us? focuses on food producers around the country and one of its episodes narrows in on two growers – in Brixton Windmill and May Project Gardens in Merton. May Project Gardens is a grassroots organisation, working from a permaculture designed garden in Morden, that supports community building and economic empowerment for young people in the area, including many refugees.
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I wrote to the six Lambeth councillors on July 13, 2020 (three from each of the two wards), asking for a barrier to stop children and adults running out of Brockwell Park and into Norwood Road, Pictured.
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Theatre Peckham Following six months of closure, Theatre Peckham celebrates its reopening with a multi-artform programme of socially distanced, in-person and participatory digital events, taking place throughout October and into November. The line-up features theatre, new writing, spoken word, poetry, scratch nights, panel discussions, workshops, seminars and exhibitions.
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I thought that the Government’s handling of Covid-19 could not get any worse, but the only thing ‘world beating’ is their arrogance and dismissal of the need to fix the track and trace system which currently is not able to track or trace.
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In September, we joined 22 of the UK’s major retailers and associations in publishing an open letter to the Prime Minister calling for more effective legal protection for our colleagues from an ever-rising tide of abuse, threats and violence.
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This month, in dedication to Black History Month, an artist will debut his inaugural collection of paintings with an exclusive exhibition display at Gallery@OXO, OXO Tower Wharf on October 21-25.
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Above is an interesting photo, showing recent additions (benches) to planters placed at the Brixton end of Railton Road, within a few metres of gridlocked traffic in Coldharbour Lane. Not exactly a good location.
Brian Willey by email
Wednesday of last week marked the 80th anniversary of a Second World War German bomb striking Balham Tube station. Here TOBY PORTER recounts what happened.
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Peckham Rye Park partially owes its existence to cricket.
When locals wanted to play the game in Victorian England, they converged on Peckham. Some of the matches descended into vicious acts of revenge and other passing pedestrians were in fear of being struck by the sloggers at the crease.
The National Maritime Museum has stressed it has no changes planned for its Nelson, Navy, Nation gallery or its commentary on the admiral. The statue protectors and Laurence Fox can sleep easy.
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Between 1809 and 1861 the East India Military College was based in Addiscombe. It was where soldiers trained for the company’s army in India. At the height of its rule in India, the East India Company had a private army of about 260,000, twice the size of the British Army, and came to rule large areas of India.
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Imagine my disappointment when I arrived at my favourite Peckham bakery to find it had closed down for good. I was gutted because the sourdough was to die for. I wondered if it had been a victim of people baking their own bread during lockdown. Alas, not. It had shut its doors last Christmas long before the other C-word had even entered the lexicon.
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The hardest thing about ice skating is trying not to picture yourself falling over and a passing diva slicing off your fingers. There are a lot of aspiring Tonya Hardings on the rink at the Tower of London, but thankfully, the marshals seem to keep them in check.
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John Archer, London’s first Black Mayor, reversed Churchill’s claim that “If a man is not a socialist by the time he is 20, he has no heart. If he is not a conservative by the time he is 40, he has no brain.” He moved to the left as he got older. He was first elected as a Progressive – or Liberal, but joined Labour by 1919 and was the election agent for Britain’s first Asian MP, a Communist, by 1922.
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Maurice Dorfman manned the counter of his haberdashers’ shop for 60 years until he was taken to hospital and died two months later in February, aged 87. He left hundreds of mourning customers but no relatives, so the premises will now become a set of units.
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Streatham Festival A festival set to take place this weekend will feature online events for the first time as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. Streatham Festival 2020, which starts today until October 18, will have virtual events, as well as a range of physical ones, celebrating all aspects of the arts.
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An exhibition tracing the history of photography through nature, touted as the first of its kind, will open this autumn.
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7 Hours on Earth, set in Graveney School in Tooting and crewed by determined students, re-works Shakespeare’s classic A Midsummer Night’s Dream into a wildly entertaining school caper with a twist of science fiction.
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A town hall has started a new platform to show off the best of the borough’s creativity in a digital setting. Wandsworth Art, a new website dedicated to helping residents connect with local artists, has more than 200 artists already signed up to take part, with the number growing daily.
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