Gay Camberwell

by Layla

As a previous Peckham-ite, I used to wander over to East Dulwich, or hop on buses to Forest Hill (Horniman Museum) and Crystal Palace (dinosaurs in the park)  fairly regularly. Since moving to Camberwell, which feels much further north, these delights weirdly seem far away, particularly with Roz's hatred of buses, and so in the last year, I had barely been at all. My recent bicycle purchase, however, has opened up a whole new world of Saturday afternoon options. We cycled to East Dulwich last Saturday (that hill is unpleasant on the leg muscles, but rewarding on the descent!) and wandered around fancy shops, including their indoor market, which I think is new, where stall owners forced free cake and wine upon us, and the outdoor market, where pesto and red onion marmalade were forced upon us. It must be admitted that it might be quite pleasant if Camberwell had some of the types of shops and stalls that East Dulwich enjoys... but on the other hand, this would completely change Camberwell's vibe, and at any rate, these delights are but a 10 minute cycle from home. Odd that having lived here for a year, I have failed to make that trip. I sometimes forget that strong Camberwellian loyalty does not ban me from enjoying other locales in the proximity! Though it must be said, we realised that we feel more comfortable walking along the street hand in hand when in SE5 than we do in East Dulwich, where we felt conspicuous amongst the rather homogenous-feeling set of Saturday shoppers...

Having enjoyed East Dulwich, we cycled on to the Horniman Museum, which is one of my favourite museums. Granted I'm not a big fan of stuffed animals, but if one has to see them, the old-fashioned displays are rather more pleasing than new-fangled modern displays of such things. But the Horniman's treats extend far beyond stuffed animals. They have a lovely aquarium with free entry, for instance, and we spend a happy time wandering amongst the jellyfish and listening to south London fathers explaining aquatic mysteries to their rapt offspring. This was particularly heartwarming as these family units were not just the usual museum-going middle-classes, but represented all walks of life. After tea and cake in the beautiful conservatory, and a stroll around their lovely grounds (with a great view of the city), we dashed up to the apostle clock to watch it chime at 4pm before cycling back to East Dulwich to enjoy the superlative wine bar, Green and Blue. We cycled home with a newly purchased bottle of wine hanging on Roz's handlebars and polished it off back in SE5, with a resolution to enjoy Camberwell's neighbouring areas on a rather more regular basis.

by Layla

Isn't it lovely when the sun shines! Camberwell has taken on a new glow: instead of people huddled under coats and umbrellas, rushing from place to place, Camberwellians are out in their drove, filling the parks and soaking up the warmth. Roz and I went for a walk in Burgess Park this morning: it was full of daffodils, and families and friends relaxing, playing football, cycling and generally enjoying themselves. We walked to Chumleigh Gardens, which is my favourite thing about the park. I hadn't been for a while, and though the themed gardens are looking a bit scruffy, and the ponds a tad murky, this is a lovely, serene little oasis and I love the cafe with a passion. We had tea and cupcakes in our first outside dining experience of the year, sun streaming down onto the patio of the cafe. Nice. One of my favourite things about Burgess Park is that everyone just does their own thing, and doesn't get too bothered by anyone else (such as two girls holding hands in a fairly amorous manner). Last night we were out at a friend's birthday party in Clerkenwell and were interested to realise that we felt far more comfortable holding hands in Burgess Park than we did last night on the streets of Clerkenwell, en route to a friend's birthday party, where the people around us felt homogenous and adverse to diversity.

Continuing the park theme, I later strolled through Camberwell Green, en route to Somerfield (which, rumours suggest, is about to turn into either Co-op or Morrisons - both good options, in my opinion!) and found the place heaving with people sprawled on the grass eating ice cream, and children teeming over the playground. I wonder whether we'll have much of an audience at this week's gay film screening when a sunny afternoon in the park is the alternative!

It’s all good news for Camberwell at the moment.  New art installations, millions coming to Burgess Park and a tube by 2012.  (I know the last bit of news has been around for a while, but it’s a choice between that and the fact that Teamwork hairdressers is to stay open.)  Which is all very cheery.  We’ve been out and about in Camberwell even more than usual and had a very jolly week. 

A rotten day at work mid-week made a visit to La Luna compulsory. It was lovely to see that they had enough customers for it to feel buzzy (the same, sadly, cannot be said of two of the best restaurants in Camberwell – the Red Sea and Su-Thai).  No male couples this time, though, and so we assumed that the large numbers on our last visit was an aberration.  However, our first visit to Safa (which met with our approval) on Saturday night found us yet again gazing at two men having dinner together.  Sitting diagonally at a table for four, they didn’t look like a couple.  So it seems that the men of SE5 are so 21st century that they are comfortable dining in pairs. 

And we went to the Blue Elephant Theatre on Friday – it’s currently showing a lesbian play– The Soldier With No Name – which is a mix of puppetry, dance, physical theatre and storytelling.  With one of the cast in dungarees throughout the play, we were prejudiced in its favour from the beginning.  But the cast and production didn’t need to woo us with such temptations: it was well worth seeing anyway.  The story’s absorbing, being the story of two female French surrealists (Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore) and their resistance campaign against the Nazis in occupied Jersey.  The performers were all very good, and the puppetry was entrancing (so delicate and precise) - though we did wonder later what it added to the piece.  Unless it was intended to link in to the artists’ art…  Feeling ignorant, we decided that this was the case.

This week’s film at the Castle (XXY) was very popular which is very pleasing.  We didn’t originally intend to do weekly films, but the lovely Michael Twaits, the compere for the launch night party of Gay Camberwell, mis-heard me when I said “monthly”.  And once we’d heard him say “weekly”, it seemed a good idea and the rest is history...  He also committed Winston to providing free popcorn (this wasn’t a mis-hear on Michael’s part, but rather a moment of enthusiasm) and this makes me very happy.  (I fear I’m far too easily pleased.) 

Walking from one Camberwell venue to another this week, we’ve thinking about what to show in April.  How do Bound, Boys Don’t Cry, Priscilla Queen of the Desert and Beautiful Thing sound?  Do let us know.  Particularly if you see us gazing at you in La Luna, or Safa, or some other restaurant, trying to work out if you’re part of the new contingent of metrosexual men in SE5…

Last weekend Layla deserted me for the glories of her homeland, leaving me responsible for screening Transamerica on Sunday.  Which should have been fine: generally her focus is on the free Maltesers rather than the difficult task of putting a DVD on.  But when our lovely creator of the trailers (and technical whizz) informed me that she too would be away, I was more concerned.  And then I discovered Winston (owner of the Castle and enthusiast for Gay Camberwell) was to be away and I must admit I was worried.  And rightly so: I momentarily turned into a girl unable to work a DVD player and felt very bitter indeed. 

Having finally stopped pfaffing and settled into the film, a member of the bar staff came up to whisper in my ear that the police were downstairs.  Quelling my instinct to hide under a chair until they went away, I cautiously went downstairs, to find three tall police officers awaiting me.  However, it turned out that they were there to ask whether there was anything they could do to help Gay Camberwell (one of them, apparently, being our LGBT liaison officer, or some such).  Having resisted the urge to ask them to stay for the film and assist if any further technical emergencies arose with the DVD, I said I couldn’t think of anything.  But it was very sweet of them to ask…

Talking of sweet and enthusiastic people, we made it along to the Cambria for Wicked Wednesday this week.  The pub is owned by the lovely Steve, and the night is hosted by Camberwell’s rising star, Michael Twaits. They had a great gay crowd and the night is apparently increasingly popular. And we have even prevailed upon Steve to start the night at an earlier hour, for those of us who are old ladies and need to go to bed before the clock strikes eleven on a weekday…

But all this enthusiasm from others for Gay Camberwell is not undeserved.  We have been making sacrifices this week. Guilty at the lull in our restaurant reviews, we have been dedicating ourselves to eating out.  And so this week we headed up to Buddha Jazz on Tuesday (bringing two Vietnamese food connoisseurs down from the depths of north London) and to La Luna on Friday.  We absolutely loved La Luna.  But were intrigued by the other diners: half of the other dining couples were males.  Well, I say “couples”.  None looked particularly gay, so it is quite possible that they were all friends.  But in our experience men don’t go out to dinner together.  (Well, an ex-boyfriend of mine did, but that was immediately before we both came out as gay.)  Is this the secret gay restaurant of south London?!  Or are the men in the area simply more focused on food-based friendship?  I feel further visits are required to determine this point.