Sue

It's the whole road. It's running with water! PM me if you want to be added to the road What'sApp group, where there is more information (though you wouldn't see posts made before you joined). A number of people have reported it to Thames Water. It's supposed to be being repaired today. Engineers are on their way, apparently.

At least one used to post but stopped posting, I think because he was given a really hard time on here, quite unfairly in my view. He had only just become a councillor, and to his great credit was trying to engage with the community, or at least that vocal part of it which posts on here. James Barber also used to post on here, but I think unfortunately he is no longer a councillor. He was a very good one.

I thought that re ULEZ, but actually other places do have similar schemes, eg Bristol. I got caught by this a couple of years ago when Google maps sent me through Bristol en route to somewhere else. Though I did manage to get the fine waived. And other places are apparently going to have them, eg Oxford. As I found when I was considering selling the car in Oxford. Which I think is a very good thing, but not helpful if your car isn't compliant Also in order to sell it I would presumably have to get it into working order, so I'd have to buy a new battery anyway. I use mostly buses and trains already, for travelling both within and outside London. That's why I rarely use the car except for transporting bulky/heavy items, or going to places which aren't easy to reach via public transport, or giving people a lift who are not very mobile. The problem with hiring a car to go to a festival, for example, is that I'd be paying for it to sit in a field for several days. And it would be impossible, or at least very difficult, to transport a tent and camping equipment there by public transport. Not that I've been to any festivals lately. I think I'm talking myself into keeping the car. I did do sums when ULEZ came in. I've had a Freedom Pass for over fifteen years, gulp 😂 This is all true, but you have to factor in my age, convenience, and the waste of money in hiring a car if you aren't actually going to use it once you've got to your destination until you need to drive home. If there was a system like zip cars where you could drive somewhere and leave the car for someone else to use, then pick up another car just to drive back, that would be different. And hire charges are greater for older drivers (even though apparently the stats say we are safer) even assuming you can find a company which will hire you a car. Thank you, that's useful. I keep meaning to check for ULEZ compliance. A mechanic once told me I should do this, because his son had a similar issue and then found his car was actually compliant, and I never got round to it. It's a Micra so I probably need to contact Nissan (or could a garage check NOx output? Is this part of the MOT?)

Really? I'm sure when I checked previously there was an upper age limit for zip car! I will look again! I have no wish to spend ten grand on a new car! But yes I might consider the new battery - lesson learned! I doubt I could sell the car, it's worth very little. And I probably wouldn't use another one much more than I use this one, tbh. I'm leaning towards keeping it at the moment!

Those studies are ten years old. I wonder if there is anything more recent. Also, I haven't looked at them, but from what you say, the studies apparently asked people if THEY thought they were "racially prejudiced". For several reasons, on the face of it that isn't likely to produce an accurate indication of the level of actual racial prejudice in that sample. Also, how was "racial prejudice" defined? And "racist attitudes"?

I scarcely use my ancient (1998!) non ULEZ compliant car any more, which I have had for nearly 20 years. It is presently used mainly to take bulky things up to my allotment or the tip, occasional weekends away, festivals or camping trips, and sometimes giving people lifts to and from stations. But that's mainly because I have to pay the ULEZ charge every time I use it. It has been very reliable, is in good nick and passes its MOT every year. Now, after months without use apart from opening the door to put things into the car, a new battery bought last September is dead and won't charge 😭 I realise this is my own stupid fault for not realising that you shouldn't let a battery completely discharge, and I should have gone for a drive or charged the battery before. I have hung onto the car because I am over the age limit for car share club type things and car hire companies (though my daughter has just found a website with car hire schemes for ancient people). Also I am not used to driving more modern cars! I looked into getting a (second hand) replacement when ULEZ came in, and it just all seemed like too much hassle. Now I don't know whether it's worth shelling out for yet another new battery (DUH) . The one I got is still under guarantee, but only for "manufacturing faults" and I imagine this won't apply in this case. But if I don't I will have to somehow dispose of the car, which also needs at least one tyre inflating, for which I need a working battery 😭 If you don't have a car, how do you manage, especially if like me you are very old (but reasonably mobile, touch wood!) ? And/or do you have any advice on whether I should keep the car, or if not what to do with it?

Are you sure they are not reported as Mock Turtles, by a confused reader of Alice in Wonderland? 🤣

I was in there recently and never noticed a smell, but I think it's been mentioned on here before. Have you asked the staff about it?

How do you connect pedestrian space being increased near the station with no longer caring about nature? Have I missed something here?

I presume the terrapins originally came to the park as unwanted pets. It seems to be fairly common for people to dump them in park ponds etc when they realise they don't stay the small size they were when they bought them.

Same reason that M&S's shelves were half empty recently. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/apr/30/co-op-forced-to-shut-down-part-of-it-system-after-hack-attempt?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

If memory serves, they disappeared one by one 😭

Yes, there have been goslings this year ❤️

At least there were still two adult geese with them. Hopefully they reached somewhere green and safe. Well done to the people who stopped the traffic for them to cross! I recently read a very sad story of a similar goose family where one of the parents had been run over by a car, and the other goose and the goslings were standing at the side of the road wailing 😭

I'd forgotten about that place. It wasn't a market as such, it was just run by one couple. They did have some quite interesting things. I still have a mirror I got from there, which had been put inside an old painted shuttered window frame from somewhere in India. Mumbai I think. There also used to be occasional indoor markets in the church hall where the cinema now is, next to where the Irish shop used to be. But if memory serves they were usually either jumble sales (do they still exist?) or craft sales before Christmas. There have also been occasional indoor markets at the church hall in Dulwich Village and the church hall at the church in Barry Road up by the Plough. There never seemed to be many people buying things at them. But it does all depend on what is being sold, whether it appeals to the local demographic, where the market is located and how it is publicised. And, obviously, whether it is profitable for the traders.

It was a weird place, and there never seemed to be many people in it. Stalls/selling areas (they weren't really stalls as such) came and went. For a while there was an area upstairs as well. Around the beginning of ED gentrification, someone opened a champagne bar near the entrance. I think it also sold oysters, though there was another oyster place in the market, possibly not at the same time. Whether it did or not, unsurprisingly it didn't last long. I can't imagine they had done any market research, or even wondered why anybody would want to drink champagne in that kind of environment. I'm not sure an indoor market would work now, but what do I know. It would depend on what it sold and whether people wanted what it sold, I suppose. It wouldn't get much passing trade in somewhere like Zenoria Street, so it would have to be very well advertised.

🤣🤣🤣

Their prices have shot up .. What with that and the above, shan't be ordering from there again. So sad 😭

Perhaps they only use it once a year to go to Glastonbury?!

It was lucky nobody was on the bridge beneath the tree when it fell. It's hard to see, but it doesn't look like a whole tree, but a branch? Or else it's a relatively thin trunk? What seems to be the point where the branch (?) joined the tree - or else the point where the whole tree broke off - (on the bottom left of the picture) looks like quite a clean break. It couldn't have been deliberate, could it? Or has someone trimmed it after it fell? It's hard to see how this could have happened accidentally. It has been a bit windy, but surely not enough to cause this. Shouldn't there have been a risk assessment when the bridge was built, to include assessing the risk of nearby trees falling?

Please keep us posted about the bees! And enjoy your new shed!

Why, in case a tree falls on them?!

I'm glad we agree on at least one thing, Cancerian 😀! How do you think Farage should be pronounced, then? Do you agree with Malumbu? What do you think is a "hard g" ? Good to be discussing the important issues of our time 😀

Could you describe what a "less liberal" Christian church might look like, Jazzer? Whilst still adhering to the basics of Christianity (the church, not you).

If all the details about it are known, surely rather than removing it, the council should contact the owner if they think it's causing some problem (though if it's legally parked there, I fail to see what that has to do with the council or anybody else).