Yes, Scotland! You just voted for an independent Bermondsey.

As Scotland votes ‘no’ to becoming an independent country, the inadequacies of our national and local political systems are exposed for all in Bermondsey to see.  Perhaps the most corrupt element is the concept of giving things to the electorate in exchange for votes.

© guardian.com

The idea that voters can be bought is not a new one, but Alex Salmond’s Scottish National Party took the practise to new heights: no university tuition fees, free prescriptions and votes for sixteen year-olds purchased over one and a half million pro-independence votes.  But Bermondsey need only look on its own doorstep to see that vote buying is alive and well, with local Conservatives promising £530 cashback, more free childcare from the Lib Dems and Labour paying off middle class parents with free school meals, as well as dangling the free gyms and swimming carrots in front of us.  It seems that demanding duty and responsibility instead of offering political presents and narrow rights-based self-interest is no longer deemed a vote winner.

© london-se1.co.uk

Even more striking is the hypocrisy that exists around the individual's right to express love for their country, its history and its flag.  A fiercely proud people, patriotism is fine it seems for the Scots.  Similar expressions in England are met with accusations of racism – it’s as if anyone in Bermondsey who loves Britain is a member of the BNP.  Local politicians should remember that its core working class Bermondsey vote clings country and flag close to its heart.

Since the Labour-led devolution revolution of the nineties, the trend has been towards greater local governance.  However, only Scotland has been granted truly meaningful powers.  The white elephant in the UK's living room is the urgent need for an English parliament, and the removal of the voting rights from Scottish and Welsh MPs on English matters.

For Bermondsey, the key lesson to learn from the Scottish vote is that local people should manage local services.  Why not give the electorate something they really need: it’s time to bring back the pioneering Bermondsey Borough Council and devolve to it key powers including education, housing and planning.  The old metropolitan borough’s policies, such as local homes for local people, underpinned by civic pride, passion and personal responsibility, demonstrated a radical dedication to improving lives in Bermondsey.  As an interim measure, the immediate separation of the unwieldy Bermondsey and Rotherhithe Community Council must take place to give Bermondsey people a louder local voice.

Bermondsey Town Hall

None of the political parties really understands the needs of Bermondsey, primarily because its candidates don't on the whole originate from Bermondsey.  A Bermondsey independence referendum, offering a simple in/out of Southwark vote, would remind those at Southwark Council Towers that our needs and priorities are very different from the Camberwell, Dulwich and Peckham sets.  Love Bermondsey?  Vote yes.

Bermondsey Coat of Arms

Flags of the UK nations

Didn't you know that old Bermondsey Town Hall ain't for the likes of us mate? We're only born an' bred 'ere!

Now that the dust is beginning to settle in Bermondsey Spa, ordinary Bermondsey men, women and children are starting to see a little clearer.

Thank you Southwark Council for rebranding our park, ditching the much loved moniker Spa Park and replacing it with the much more cumbersome sounding  Bermondsey Spa Gardens - 'park' sounds so downmarket, don't you think?

With news on Rightmove's website that a development of two and three bedroom flats (sorry, apartments) are currently for sale to local people (erm, that's investors from the Far East) for a paltry £1,300,000, it's only right to congratulate those at Southwark Council Towers for their work in creating a more diverse community: millionaires are welcome here and we're completely relaxed about them taking exclusive possession of one of the most attractive public buildings in town!

The new developers initially confused the building with the former public baths up the road renaming it Bath House Lofts!  While we thought this was perhaps a cynical attempt to strip Bermondsey of yet another brick of its glorious history, thank heavens for the highly paid marketing executive who woke in the middle of the night to the realisation that it was in fact the town hall of the now defunct but once pioneering Bermondsey Borough Council.  And, it's rather touching that the ordinary hardworking taxpayer will no longer be able to wonder at the ornate foyer and entrance designed and built by H Tansley in 1928.  Never mind though. While it's plush entrance doors are now slammed shut in our faces, we can see the inside on YouTube instead...

 

This year's masterstroke was to plonk a haphazardly built estate next to and behind the former municipal offices, with the promise of a Sainsbury's supermarket next door.  A mixture of flats (sorry, apartments) and townhouses, their design (bland, boring and rustled up on the back of an envelope by an architect without any knowledge of the heart and soul of Bermondsey) is just what its new residents love - after all, they're paying upwards of £1.1million for the privilege  of living in 'The Exchange'.  Still, at least they've thrown us a few affordable units to keep us happy.

So, well done Southwark Council, for making Bermondsey Spa (or is it just Bermondsey, we can't quite remember) such a wonderful place to live: clean, quiet and clinical.  And, top marks for giving the nigh on £500,000 of affordable housing cash from the town hall's redevelopers to those living in leafy, distant Dulwich, thus preventing real Spa Road locals from mixing with the new Bermondsey Spa set.  Allowing social tenants to like cheek by jowl with leaseholders inside such a magnificent building would never do...

More information:

YouTube video tour of Old Town Hall

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTTAYn56nd8

se16.com's article on the affordable housing money

http://www.se16.com/1753-old-bermondsey-town-hall-affordable-housing-cash-to-be-spent-in-dulwich

Rightmove.co.uk's listings for properties in The Exchange and the Old Town Hall

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/new-homes-for-sale/property-45687668.html 

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-32264133.html 

Bermondsey Roads and Streets: Dockhead, SE1

What's your favourite part of Bermondsey?  Well, if a top ten existed rating the most popular Bermondsey locations, Dockhead would have to be up there at the very top.

Situated just north of Jamaica Road, Dockhead and the surrounding streets provide an insight into Bermondsey's proud history as the home to generations of dockers and their families.

The head of the dock? St Saviour's Dock seen from the Jamaica Road and Dockhead end

For it is here and along the Thames waterfront past Tower Bridge that they grafted in the 'larder of London', on the wharves and docks and in the many warehouses and mysterious alleyways.  Also known as London's breakfast-table, three-quarters of the butter, cheese and canned meat needed for the capital was stored there. 

The Italian Building, a former warehouse and now offices

Once home to Jacob's biscuits, the Dockhead area is now a shadow of its former self.  Turning off the frantically busy Jamaica Road, Dockhead can appear like a ghost town, even during a busy week day morning - but that's part of its charm.

Don't let its quietude deceive you, for the road is home to a bustling community of small businesses and residents.

Dockhead boasts a convenience store, a men's hairdressers, an art gallery, several restaurants and an intimate sandwich bar on the corner shared with Mill Street.

And, at the very heart of this hidden community is the Roman Catholic Church of the Most Holy Trinity, consecrated in 1960 and designed by architect H.G. Goodhart-Rendel.  Unfortunately, the church's predecessor was destroyed during the Second World War.

Just behind is the presbytery and the still active Convent of Mercy, which was founded in 1839 and sent sisters to serve alongside Florence Nightingale in the Crimean War. The convent is also home to the Bermondsey Heritage Centre.

The Bermondsey Review: Elemental Perspectives at ARTHOUSE1, Grange Road, SE1

 




Every kingdom has its royal family; every monarch has its crown, and with it an array of glittering crown jewels: one of Bermondsey’s is ARTHOUSE1.  A lesser known SE1 gallery, this Grange Road palace of art has supported established and emerging artists since 2013.  Part home, part exhibition space, it provides a masterful Georgian backdrop for displaying contemporary art. 
 

Raising the royal orb is Bath based painter and printmaker Ione Parkin.  Her collection of predominantly oil based paintings encapsulates all that is best about contemporary art: sophistication and sincerity; straightforwardness and seduction. 

Reminiscent of autumnal and gaseous or water-type scenes, her paintings reach out and invite an automatically tactile response.

However, West Yorkshire based ceramicist James Oughtibridge’s sculptures are the kingly sceptres of this exhibition. 

Standing tall, twisted and proud, it’s criminal not to touch or stroke them.  Whether used practically or admired as objects of beauty, his sculptures are tantalisingly attractive pieces of art.

In common with most local galleries, there is a noticable absence of Bermondsey born or based talent, something that must be addressed if local art for the people is to survive.

However, take the family to see the art (the magnificent house the gallery's curator are thrown in for free).  Then tell your friends that you’ve been to one of the few remaining royal palaces in Bermondsey.  And, thank God that Southwark Council didn’t label this building a slum back in the sixties and demolish it, too!

All Images © ARTHOUSE1

More information:

ARTHOUSE1, 45 Grange Road, Bermondsey, London SE1 3BH

Open to the public during exhibitions Thursday to Sunday 3pm - 7.30pm