It's a shock of an admission but for the first time in many, many years, I ventured out to Lordship Lane over the weekend. To date myself, the last time I visited LL was when it was full of antique shops. Anyone else even remember that decade so very long ago? Having read so much about it, I was sorely disappointed. Yes there are some nice shops, agreed. But let's be frank, it looks very much like Walworth High Street. Actually, architecturally, Walworth High Street is superior. And with its recent makeover and new paving/planting, superior in all ways save the quality of the shops. The pavement is dirty and dis-jointed and my favourite pastime of looking above the shops at the architecture met with great disappointment. The Christmas decorations look like something you'd see in an American film set in a depressed mining town circa 1976. I enjoyed a lovely meal and popped in to a few places and yes, the quality of shopping is high. It made me more depressed about Camberwell, which underneath beats Lordship Lane hands down. The architecture is so much better (yes, much of it beneath betting shops and off licence cladding) and the layout: a lovely village green with the parish church spiralling in the distance...and the housing stock heading south and, to a degree, west and slightly north. All of it so much closer to London. It really depresses one. I guess it comes down to what I've always known. Camberwell, despite having a superior canvass underneath, is overwhelmed by a poorer population and more than its fair share of high density council housing. That's it in a nutshell. Such a shame. Such a disappointment. With so much private investment there, surely you can get your share of what Walworth and Bellendon received from the public purse. It's those places in reverse: they take a 'if we build it they will come (and they really haven't)' versus you all - they've come and you've still to build it.