Gay Camberwell

by Layla

Househunting in Camberwell at the moment is a tad disappointing - not many properties on the market, and at massive cost. I suppose the latter is encouraging - it means that Camberwell is on the up - and we were very happy to see our lovely gay neighbours featured in a recent newspaper housing supplement singing the joys of SE5 (though we were jealous of the interior of their flat)... and so scouring the pages of Rightmove has become a new hobby and we plan to spend today visiting various properties. Last week, curious about one of them, I cycled past and stood by my bike, peering nosily at it. Soon a man, who in other settings would deservedly have been described as 'a dodgy character' sidled up to me. 


"Wot you lookin' at, love?"
"That house that's for sale"
"You should buy it - it'll be worth more than a few bob in a couple of years. This part of Camberwell's up and coming. On account of that new school development, see."
"Yes... but I think it looks a bit like a prison..."
"Naw, it's not a prison. Look at that, wot you call it, terrace. Proper nice, that'll be in the summer. Here, did you hear about that chap that died? The house programme chap. You know, the gay one?"
"Er, no, what happened?"
"They dunno. He was only about 30. They're investigatin' the death. Maybe it was on account of him bein' gay."
"In what way?"
"Eh I dunno. Don't think there's a gay disease or nuthin'... maybe he was gay bashed, eh? I hope not - it's shocking what goes on. These people should be put away."
"What the gay people?"
"Naw, don't be stupid. The gay bashers."
At that moment the owner of the house we'd both been gazing at turned up and opened the gate, which was made of iron bars and closed with a clang.
"Eh, you're right love. It does look a bit like a prison."
And with that he strolled off.

We're going to see that property today. Maybe it'll be fate...


Speaking of up and coming, Roz and I climbed up the hill last Sunday to Hoopers Bar. We'd heard much of this bar, which claims an SE5 postcode yet perches atop a hill in the posh triangle where Camberwell meets East Dulwich in an enclave of large and beautiful houses. They have several music events, and comedy on the last Sunday of the month. A curious bar. We'll put up a review soon. It feels like a proper local bar, like the one in the village in Scotland where I grew up, but incongruously full of rather posh people. The comedy was quite good, though they did make the error of putting the best comedian on first. However it was free and they had a nice range of beers, so frankly we were grateful anyway. We strolled home afterwards past the big houses and wondered why we can only afford to buy a prison-like property...

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.

by Layla

Sometimes, in the quest for glamour,one is lured beyond the bounds of SE5. We at Gay Camberwell have often been intrigued by Dulwich's Beauberry House, and since they are running 'South London's First Gay Wedding Fair' in March, we thought we ought to check it out. A nice Top Table offer of 3 courses and champagne sealed the deal (though frankly it's still expensive!) and so last night, we cycled up and down hills and along a very dark road until we came across the venue. 

We felt rather incongruous, tying up our bikes in a driveway clearly meant for Rolls Royce cars, and as we ascended the steps to the front door, I whipped off my cycling anorak and tried to look posh... On entering, it became less clear whether posh was the order of the day or not. It's a funny venue. It gives off an air of modern country house glamour, yet doesn't quite pull it off: inappropriate clubby style music and  tacky vases that light up in different colours, and clearly some kind of 18th birthday party esque event upstairs. 

Onto the meal. The champagne was nice, but the food unremarkable. The atmosphere was quite odd. We spent much of the meal giggling, and frankly, we didn't know what to make of it.  Fortunately the Beauberry House food powered us up Herne Hill Road and home to SE5 in a speedy 15 minutes. Phew. Is it just me, or is Dulwich creepy? Maybe it's all those white arrows with pointing fingers. Or the pseudo-posh, overpriced establishments. Or sour grapes... 

Later, we received an e-mail from Camberwell Library telling us that tomorrow (Monday) they are having a LGBT quiz. It's at 6-8pm in the library, and there are sweeties for prizes. Intriguing. I am busy but Roz is hoping to go along, so do join her!

by Layla


Sometimes I feel sheepish for posting about eating so much. You must have a vision of the Gay Camberwell team waddling from restaurant to restaurant in SE5. So I will try very hard not to mention the brilliant new Love Walk Cafe, possibly Camberwell's best breakfast venue and tea shop, having had a delicious meal in a completely full Buddha Jazz, or even having been to Angels and Gypsies twice in the one day (don't tell anyone!) first for a fantastic sandwich, and later with a group for my birthday festivities. No, I will try to distract you by demonstrating that far from being a very greedy girl, I am in fact an energetic, glamorous socialite.

First, energetic. Ah yes. I have been too ashamed til now to admit that sometimes I venture beyond the confines of SE5 but it is true. Once a week I cycle to Peckham Rye, hop on a train, and attend an ice skating lesson.Oh yes. Streatham may seem quite an incongruous place for ice skating, but in fact its rink seems to be its main attraction. Never have we managed to find a post-skate pub in the vicinity, alas. However I am proud to report that this week Roz and I passed our level 1, 2 and 3 ice skating tests. I can now go both forwards and backwards, and jump 1cm in the air on two wobbly feet. It is an accomplishment. I can heartily recommend it as an activity adventure day out from Camberwell... If any Streathamites read this blog and take great offence about their sorry lack of nice pubs in the ice rink vicinity, please do reply with suggestions of post-skate drinking establishments and I will retract at once. 

Next, glamorous. I was contacted by the Southwark Weekender last week. I was in fact in the middle of attending Roz's work leaving party and couldn't really make out what was being said. It turned out that they were doing a feature on South London's first gay wedding fair. On Monday 8th March at Beauberry House in Dulwich in fact. And before I knew what I'd done, I'd provided a silly quote and next thing I knew, we were in the paper. Clearly this implies glamour of the highest degree. Well, judge for yourself - click below to download the PDF!

And finally, socialite. Last Saturday was the famed and much-anticipated occasional Moona party, a lesbian cabaret party on a theme, in this case the French Revolution. Said party takes place in The Castle and is run by Karen McLeod, author of In Search of the Missing Eyelash (lesbian themed stalker story set in Crystal Palace). Having dined copiously, my birthday companions followed me nervously up the Castle stairs to be met with great music, mad costumes, wall-to-wall lesbians, and an occasional gay boy in a stripy t-shirt. We were serenaded on a ukelele and an impromptu life drawing class was commencing when I grew weary and headed home to bed. 

PS It's LGBT history month - Camberwell has quite a lot going on. Check out the calendar for details.

by Layla

I have been enjoying monitoring SE5 developments on my walk to work. A stroll through Camberwell Green brings me first to the ex-Silver Buckle, tentatively named Oberon, but now - if rumour is correct - about to be re-christened The Tiger. This is due to the new owners (the same ones who own the East Dulwich Tavern, apparently), having uncovered a beautiful old tiled display from the pub's bygone incarnation proclaiming its original name. Walking past it every day has been great fun. First the shiny dark green tiles emerged on its facade, then its lovely original signs - not for The Tiger a hideous and mis-spelled PVC computer-print sign ("Noodels City", I am referring to you). Suddenly there are windows: big and generous, and they are restoring original features inside and out with vigour. The owners intend this to be a proper pub, and you have to respect the efforts (and presumably expense) they are going to in order to restore it rather than quick fix dabs of paint as others have done before them. I am very much looking forward to seeing the result.

Further up the hill, I come to the other developing establishment: the Love Walk Cafe. Whose name I think you'll agree gives off a rather better tone than the Denmark Hill Cafe. On the former site of El Gallo/Willow, the Love Walk Cafe has been developing behind whitewashed windows for some time, but this week the whitewash is gone and my nose has been pressed against the glass, intrepid reporter style, to find out what's going on. It looks rather nice, actually. It seems to be a cafe, promising fresh juices and smoothies, as well as a nice-looking coffee set-up. The furnishing and decor looks purposefully eclectic and quite pleasant. It looks almost ready to open... With the lovely Cafe Bay starting to trade at the weekend, as well as during the week, perhaps this oft-neglected patch of Denmark Hill is about to become Camberwell's cafe district...

On the gay front, Camberwell is rather busy this month, thanks in part to LGBT History Month, and I'd like to think in part to Time Out proclaiming Camberwell 'London's new gay bar capital' a couple of weeks ago, in their glowing review of Angels and Gypsies. See the events calendar on the Gay Camberwell homepage and the history-themed films that we've programmed for Pink Screen Sundays . There are some interesting things going on, including a gay-friendly cabaret club night, Moona, on the 6th, a gay history walk on the 20th, a meet-and-greet Southwark Council LGBT-related workers on the 11th, and a launch of children's books at Peckham library celebrating same-sex parents and other types of families on the 17th. Enjoy!

PS We've done a few new restaurant reviews ourselves. Check out Angels and Gypsies, and Zeret Kitchen. And since Time Out positively reviewed  Silk Road last week (they can't stay away from Camberwell at the moment - their columnist proclaimed last week "inexplicably Camberwell has become a foodie destination"!), we'd better get down there and check it out. Got to keep that finger on the pulse you know! Queues out the door for Camberwell restaurants - it's happening now, folks! Better make a reservation...

By Layla


You may have noticed my bad behaviour in delegating blog writing to Roz of late. It has taken procrastination over a rather dull essay entitled 'User Charges in Healthcare' to drag me to the computer at last, but never mind the reason; here I am. 

I have been enjoying the snow. Perhaps not the slippery progress I've been making across Camberwell Green every day (though a man with a wheelbarrow full of grit managed to throw some in my face last night, so presumably they've finally realised people like to use it as a thoroughfare without skating to their death on icy paths, and thought they'd sprinkle their last bit of grit in SE5 once they'd ensured the more important parts of Southwark were rendered safe)... no, what I've been enjoying are:

1. African adults who seem to never have seen snow before, cavorting, giggling, spinning, sticking out their tongues to catch flakes, and making their first snowman attempts on Camberwell Green.

2. Smugly living AND working in Camberwell, and thus managing the 5 minute walk to and from work without the angst that befalls all my colleagues who claim three hour journeys of hell twice a day (though I cannot justify leaving mid-afternoon as they do, which is less good).

3. Hearing about the delights of the Camberwell Church Street Hotel (apparently it's wonderful) from a colleague who's been unable to get home for days (or that's his excuse). Apparently the homemade bread, eggs, and danish pastries get dull after a week, but frankly I'm unsympathetic. 


4. Socialising exclusively in Camberwell, in order to avoid cold and slippery trips home in the dark. Angels and Gypsies was completely full last night with people waiting for seats. Quality and service brilliant - best tapas restaurant in London. Caravaggio's was quieter when I was there on Wednesday, but the food and service was also great. Camberwell Church Street is turning into a gastronomic mecca.


5. Sniggering at Londoners' response to a sprinkling of snow and making smug comments about Scotland's hardier character in the face of winter. 


6. Purchasing Roz's mother's birthday presents in the pound shops of Denmark Hill.


7. Desperately planning a holiday in the sun.

By Roz.

I can’t quite manage to get over the amusingly futuristic sound of 2010.  But perhaps that’s because I’m feeling old.  A couple of nights ago we went to the Last Tuesday Society’s masked ball in the vaults of London Bridge and I realised, as I wandered around and observed a number of naked men that many, many years have passed since I was at an event where nudity did not result in being escorted from the building. Then, last night, whilst cooking dinner, I caught a little of Front Row, which featured a number of young women playwrights.  I happily assumed that young meant my age…until one mentioned being born in the nineties.  Alas.  Mind you, I don’t really feel that the lack of naked men has diminished my life (it’s harder to reconcile myself to not being a successful 19 year-old playwright).

As anticipated, we went to Angels and Gypsies on New Year’s Eve, prior to heading into Shoreditch for our 1920s party.  Angels and Gypsies is going from strength to strength with new additions to their menu (for the first time in 2009 Layla turned down dessert so that she could order another savoury item - the pan tomacia which was truly wonderful) and even more attentive service.  If you haven’t been yet, do so immediately! 

Earlier in the week, we headed into the depths of the north to see La Clique.  I’ve seen many of the performers before (since lots of them have been regulars at Queer Up North, which I have been involved with for a couple of years).  But it was quite remarkable to see them in such a large venue and with such an enthusiastic reception (from the mainly straight audience).  Ursula Martinez was fabulous as she always is (and will be bringing her new show (which previewed in Manchester last year) My Stories, Your Emails to the Barbican shortly).  Despite having seen her famous magic striptease a number of times, I remain absolutely bemused about how she does it…  And it’s worth going to La Clique for that alone. 

Dear me, this was supposed to be a blog about 2010 and not about nudity.  Alas too late now.  But to put your minds at rest, I should say that not only did Layla and I both keep our clothes on whilst at the masked ball, but it’s most certainly my new year’s resolution to continue doing so at all public events.  At least until I learn how to hide a red handkerchief in exciting places.  

I’m just back in London and I must confess to feeling considerable relief. 

First: that Christmas is over. The day before Christmas Eve I went to the depths of the Kentish countryside for some hard-core time with my mother.  In fact 90 hours of it.  It’s best not to linger on this experience, but suffice to say that it felt a little like listening to a broadcast of the Daily Mail.  For four days. 

The second source of relief is that I returned to London to find our one-eyed, one-eared cat is still alive.  Whilst we have a very excellent and lovely cat sitter (rather fabulously called Bruno), the last time we went away he (the cat, not Bruno) went into a decline. This time, however, he looks really rather well all things (the lack of eye and ear to start with) considered. 

And finally, I was able to check that the very excellent outfits that we have procured for our 1920s party on New Year’s Eve are as excellent as I remember.  Having eagerly got our tickets for the famed Prohibition New Year’s night a while ago, we’d failed to think through – until a few days ago – that we would in fact be required to come up with a 1920s outfit.  Indeed 2 of them.  I had, of course, begun the search in Odie and Amanda (who, you may remember, came to the rescue when I was in dire need of a wedding outfit), but without success.  Feeling that Camberwell had, for once, failed us, I had even contemplated going west (Amanda of Odie and Amanda had advised that this was the best way forward).  But I couldn’t quite bring myself to do it (I needed to save my strength for Christmas).  Having phoned round a number of vintage shops to find out what options they had (which fell into two categories – nothing, and vastly expensive), I felt desperate.  But then, on Tuesday of last week, whilst wandering back from lunch at Petitou, I found myself passing SugarMomma.  It’s a shop I always speak enthusiastically about, since I bought my favourite black ruffle lesbian shirt there, but for some reason haven’t been into for ages.  Within 15 minutes I was en route home smugly clutching a gloriously appropriate black dress and wondering why on earth I’d failed to remember that lesson I’d learnt when searching for a wedding outfit – Camberwell has all you need.  The next day, Layla and I returned to consider their other possibilities for her.  I had, of course, nabbed the best dress.  But intriguingly, there were actually four or five other options – in stark contrast to shops in the rest of London.  With its charming and helpful staff, I really must make sure I go in there more often next year.

So, in conclusion, there is much to be cheery about.  And I see that Angels and Gypsies open on NYE.  If you are passing that night, I rather think you’ll see us in there, adorned in our 1920s outfits, en route to Prohibition.  Let nothing keep me from the tapas – another resolution for 2010.