Campaigning in Camberwell 02/28/2010
We at Gay Camberwell have been watching Camberwell’s recent bingo/church/cinema campaigning with much interest. In summary, Gala Bingo on Camberwell Road, previously a cinema (and with a glorious art deco interior), and more recently enjoyed by many bingo enthusiasts, has just closed, and is due to be purchased on Monday 1st March by the Redeemed Christian Church of God and Merindband. The Camberwell Online Blog community found out about this last week and have launched a campaign. They hope to halt the sale (an optimistic ambition given the timescale) and to prevent the purchasers from getting planning permission for change of use (which we hope has a good prospect of success). They would like the hall to be turned into a focal point for the community, perhaps a cinema/arts centre. This is an interesting campaign – as long as we’ve lived in Camberwell people have been talking about campaigning about various issues, but this one has really caught people’s imaginations. Their Facebook page already has nearly 500 fans, and featured on the front page of the South London Press this week. Why? Because people want to see SE5 improve. It’s nice to see people being so enthusiastic about things, and as one of Camberwell’s groups / entities, we thought we’d better have our say. I suppose the campaign boils down to two issues: one is the conversion of the building from public entertainment to private use, and the other is the specific purchasers. On the first, Camberwell is sorely in need of more non-pub based facilities and entertainment for its community. Indeed Gay Camberwell’s raison d’etre is to encourage people to enjoy living and playing in Camberwell. We have a fantastically diverse community and bringing people together in leisure is a great way of promoting community cohesion and development. Camberwell is on the up, and a few focal points are key to that. Thus we send our sympathies to the bingo players who have been left without a local bingo venue, and we would absolutely love for the old bingo hall to be turned into something that the community can enjoy. So we oppose the building being sold and given over to the exclusive use of a small portion of the community, or being used by people who drive in and out of Camberwell to attend without using any other facilities or contributing to the local economy, and excluding local people. The fact that this building is a beautiful listed building only strengthens the argument that Camberwellians should ideally be able to have access and enjoy it. On the second issue, the specific purchasers, please do not think for a moment that we have anything against religion. It’s one of Camberwell’s great features that people can worship in any way they choose, and yet our diverse community currently feels relatively inclusive. This is one of the reasons why Camberwell’s gay community feel so comfortable socialising in SE5: people for the most part do their own thing and don’t interfere too much in other people’s activities. However we can only oppose the massive expansion of a church that, by its size (it has a capacity of 2000), will overpower the other religious establishments in Camberwell, and specifically encourages some of the very behaviours that are least welcome in SE5. As Gay Camberwell, we are sorry to see that they promote homophobia, which means that a) Camberwell’s gay community are not welcome, and b) attendees are encouraged to develop active homophobia, impacting very negatively on Camberwell. As a doctor at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, I’m also personally very concerned that the church actively stigmatises people with any illness: they tell people that the cause of their illness is sin rather than pathology. In Camberwell we have Kings College Hospital, one of the country’s top hospitals. We have the Maudsley Hospital, one of the world’s most famous psychiatric hospitals. And we have the Institute of Psychiatry, one of the world’s top mental health research institutes. Camberwell is proudly at the epicentre of top scientific work in health, and is also devoted to reducing the stigma experienced by people with mental illness (including the fabulous Bonkersfest and Cooltan Arts). A huge church will bring huge numbers of people with these beliefs to SE5. Camberwell does not deserve this. And so, we will be very interested to see where this campaign takes us. Apparently said church tried to take over a building in Crystal Palace and were prevented by community protests. Let’s go for a bit of community cohesion and positive action in Camberwell. Churches are great but when they actively discriminate and promote prejudice against huge numbers of people, we have to question their benefits to a community. And with Camberwell drastically in need of more arts facilities and community halls, and a beautiful old cinema crying out to be used by Camberwell’s residents, this seems like a chance too important to miss… You can join the Facebook page here and the website here. CommentsSun, 28 Feb 2010 13:32:14 Great post, very thoughtful and well put together. Thanks for that... Andrew Mon, 01 Mar 2010 10:18:03 Good one .....so it is GAY vs Christianity Kevin Thu, 04 Mar 2010 07:39:12 It now appears the solution will be attempt to put both groups in a room and come to an agreement. The Church will own it, run it as a church, but may allow some community use. Leave a Reply | AuthorYour trusty Gay Camberwell hosts are constantly scouring the Camberwell gay scene for the best, the worst and the quirkiest, and tell you all about it here. 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