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Dear Mark and Administrator Can I just say what a wonderful website this is. Well done! Its a real little community area and very good for info-sharing and gossiping. (tu)

There's 2 guys who sit in Dulwich Park (near the gallery gates) in black tie and top hats, watching cricket on a portable TV hooked up to the power in their car. The first time I saw them, I asked them what they were doing and they said they were on their way to a wedding later that day. However, I've seen them a few times since. Very odd. Anyone know anything about them?

Hi DM. England won. I heard someone across the road cheering. It was far too nice a day to be inside!

I think everyone, me included, has been enjoying the glorious sunshine this weekend.B) Dulwich park was overrun today - the number of people made it seem more like a hot August day and there were big queues at both ice creams vans. Those ice cream vans give you a good insight into the manners of Dulwich children. Once I was in a very long queue in the park for a lolly and when a dad asked his adorable darling which ice cream she wanted, she replied "All of them!" - I kid you not! I even went in the garden and started doing my spring pruning today. Good weather also forecast for next week - hurrah!

Hi there. She doesn't know and she doesn't have direct contact with the insulation person as her project manager is arranging for the quotes to be done and the work will then be sub-contracted out. If you ring up any good builder, he should be able to advise you on what is needed because all house-to-flat conversions now legally require sound insulation so builders have to know about it now. You can probably get some general builder names from this Forum's "Wanted" section or from the back of local mags like SE22 and Living South. Hope that helps and that you manage to sort it out and get some peace.

Hi Mike Miscanthus (a grass) looks great in pots. Mine's about 3 feet tall and looks great all year round. I know they had some for sale this time last year at Alleyn's Garden Centre in West Dulwich who can advise on the different types. They are cut back to the base at this time of year but the one I have is very fast-growing and gets back to the full height by the start of summer. I also have fushias and geraniums (hot pink and bright reds) and agapanthus in pots to give some bright colours. I also have a New Zealand Flax which can help give that med-style look - goes very well next to the Miscanthus. I like your veg idea - sounds very yummy!!(tu) Have you ever been to Morden Hall Park Garden Centre which is a bit past Streatham? Very big so you can have a really good think about what you want. The prices are reasonable (cheaper than some of the places around ED) and the quality is superb - the plants I have got from there always are the ones that do best. There's also a lovely park you can walk around and a National Trust teashop. Also, if you have kids (or if like me, you just love fluffy animals!), there's a small farm behind the park. I am going to visit in April to see the lambs and other spring babies. Aahhh.... I find B&Q is always good value too for certain types of plant - I got a Phoenix canariensis (canary island date palm) from there and that has done very well - that can be put in a pot too. Let us know what you decide on! I am also at that stage when I am thinking of planting a few new things.

Hi Amelie You can get sound insulation put between your ceiling and the upstair's flat's floorboards. The builders would need to take down your ceiling, but the work would not effect the flat upstairs. As it is a Victorian building, I assume you have high ceilings. The insulation would lower the ceiling by a few inches but that shouldn't be a problem for you. A friend of mine is having a quote done for this at the moment but it is outside London - so the quote will probably be a fair bit less than if they were living here. It would be worth seeing if the people in the flat below you would do the same. If not, maybe you could see about getting a slightly raised floor in your flat and insulate the void???

Had a look at the sites Beth mentioned and it made very interesting reading. I could be interested in something like this, but (!) as others have pointed out, it would be very difficult. It may be too late now to get this to work. Given what prices are like on LL, you would obviously need a lot of money. For the lot of 6 shops that came up last year, if each investor stumped up ?50,000, then you would have still needed 50 people. Even if you could get enough money initially for a few properties, it would be hard to maintain enough financial clout to take on bidding wars with the big guys.:-S I read that for the first 4 years the Coin Hill Community Builders were almost entirely dependent on income from temporary public cars parks (because of location - South Bank) to pay on the loan they had taken to buy the whole site plus other costs. Well done though, EDKiwi, for getting the discussion going and wanting to do something! (tu) Beth - as you know a bit about development trusts, could you see the idea working in ED?

Polly Dorner Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > The fantastic Gotan Project. Has anyone tried out > the tango lessons at the Thomas Moore Hall? I haven't done tango at Thomas Moore but I did do tango at the Horniman museum a year ago. Not sure if its the same people doing both - they were called Mandacaru Dance theatre. Was good fun and were fun people there. By the way Polly, congrats on the engagement!

Hi Jim-the-chin! I'm not against the idea of speed bumps. Not very good if the noise is disturbing you. I reckon they should also just completely re-do the dodgy surfacing and then they can also do the speed bumps if residents want them. My other half hates speed bumps but I think peace and quiet is more important. Do you know what other people on the road think?

Do the same people who own SMB also own Cheese Block? Good: Greetings card shop next to Somerfield (much better than a Clintons any day) AJ Farmers - always very helpful Black Cherry Thai Corner Cafe Hisar Northcross Rd greengrocers Dislike: Dulwich Garden Centre - overpriced, variable quality, very unhelpful (Alleyns Garden Centre in West Dulwich is good though) Dirty train station with litter everywhere

Given how long they've been building the houses, I reckon they will cost a bob or two to buy. We get an update through the door every now and then about what's the latest new super-dooper eco thing being installed and they have had some problems along the way . Maybe they should have listened to the man down the road who said to me 'What's all this eco thing, a house is a house as long as you can live in it'. Yeah I might mention that man to the TV company next time they're round and they can get him on the programmme saying 'More money than sense!'. That will make him a star - I'm sure he'll love that.

As someone mentioned Castaway, I thought I'd mention that Grand Designs (that Channel 4 programme) have been filming on Landells Rd. They are building a couple of eco-homes and a few months ago Channel 4 had a big crane with a camera on top to do aerial shots. The new series started last week but the houses aren't finished yet so not sure if it will make it into the current series. The houses won't spoil the Victorian consistency of the road though as they are being built on land behind the houses which used to be a wood yard - the access is through the house with the scruffy blue gates (which will at last get smartened up so we will no long have to look at the graffiti-ed gates). The people who sold the wood yard must have made a fortune on that land.

Polly - poor you! What wimps they must have been to have 3 of them! I'll walk anywhere during the day, but at night I'm a bit more cautious as I'm a bit of a scaredy cat in the dark with the dark shadows everywhere (must get it from my moggy who's such a scaredy cat that she won't even go out of the front door and will only ever go out in the back gardens! My other puss though is very brave and is always prowling around Landells Rd at night beating up any naughty cats.)

Mikewbate Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Muggings, shootings, beggars, thieves, hawkers, > dog poo, litter, dodgy schools, fake currency, > cloned credit cards ..... > > For God's sake CHEER UP you miserable bunch of > ........ miserable people. > > I stopped reading the South London Press because > it was so depressing, this place is going the same > way! Compared to 5 years ago, ED has better schools (according to the Ofsted reports), far less litter and graffiti, and I think the crime rate hasn't visibly (to me at least) got better or worse. There are indeed things to be pleased about: More trees are being planted, Dulwich Leisure Centre is getting lots of money invested in it to give it a much needed facelift, Dulwich Park and Peckham Rye Park have both had money from the lottery funds and been spruced up (although both were already pretty nice), and there are lots of other good things too!

Thanks Keef - I'll try Crystal Palace Rd. Ant - I contacted [email protected]. I also asked about road surfacing nut was told Landells Rd does not fall in the council's list of top 100 roads in the worst state of repair (that did make me chuckle because surely they should be called the bottom 100 roads rather than the 'top' one 100 roads - ha ha ha). Is it just me or has anyone else noticed that the Lordship Lane end of Landells Rd has the dodgiest surfacing ever?? The car goes bumpety-bump-bump all the way along it - the Whateley Rd end is surfaced properly though. Bizarre...

I seem to remember that one of the biggest concerns about being classed urban is that taller buildings can go up. I think under suburban, the limit is 4 or 6 levels (but don't quote me!)

I used to love Surma but it has definitley gone down hill. I think they are so busy now (they also do a lot of takeaway deliveries) that the quality has suffered. The Coriander is fantastic. Tandoori nights is also good.

You will see above that in this instance the mugging was at night and it was on Landells Rd. Given that Landells Road (a very long residential road) is usually deserted at night (I usually don't see anyone as I walk down it as I make my way home) I don't think my changing my route at night is going to make much difference to the shops or eventually push out residents (oh please!) I don't use the Barry Rd way even though it is a main road after someone was attacked at night by someone hiding in a front garden and another person was also recently attacked there. I want to avoid the trauma of being mugged or physically attacked if at all possible. I'm not going to apologise for that, nor should I have to. As I live on Landells Rd, I would like to know what goes on there and feel that I should be able to ask on this forum where the mugging took place. Otherwise, I'm sure the community police officer will be able to tell me. Landells Road is so poorly lit at night that I actually walk down the middle of the road rather than the pavement. The street is so badly lit that any witnesses may not even be able to see much. Its common sense to take extra precautions at night. I also contacted my local councillor a couple of months ago about how to get the lighting improved. I think that's more positive and common sense action.

I've just read the full Ofsted report for Kingsdale and I was very impressed! A few months ago, a friend of mine who teaches at one of the private prep schools in Dulwich told me how good Kingsdale had become. I queried whether she had got the right school('Do you mean the one in West Dulwich in Alleyn Park?' Friend: 'Yes that's the one'. Me: 'Are you sure - I heard it was not a very good school and to be avoided'). After this chat, I muttered to my other half about how teachers in the private school sector were obviously out of touch with the state schools. I've had to eat my words now! Very good news for the area. I would definitely give the school a chance and its good to hear that talented children are also catered for and challenged.

Ant Whereabouts on Landells Rd was this?? I walk down that road on my way home in the evenings. I always worry that the Lordship Lane end is very quite, so would be interested to know what end it was - might have to change my route to Barry Rd but not sure if that's any better. Any info appreciated.

From what I hear, here aren't any 'no go' schools in East Dulwich now - any schools which weren't so good before have improved significantly and the Ofsted reports are encouraging. Parents seem to care a lot about the schools and get involved.

If the derelict site belonged to Southwark education authority, surely it must have been insured? - so what is happening to the insurance money they should have received to put the damage right? Its the children that are suffering.

Quaywe Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Reluctant, I agree that there are too many chain > stores however you do exaturate a little: Just > because the likes of Mootoo and ED Deli, H&G, have > another store it does not mean they are not > independant. EDD started in ED, hence the name, > and yes have now opened at Harrods. Moo too have > another store in West Dulwich. So what. As for > H&G and Blue Mountain, I wasn't even aware they > had other outlets. > > These are all locally owned and operated stores. > They give something back to the community and are > certainly not forcing locals operaters out of the > neighbourhood. "independant" does not necessarily > mean "one-store", it has more to do with the way > they operate. You can hardly put them in the same > basket as Iceland, Somerfield, etc. I read in the freebie saturday paper a couple of weeks ago (Southwark News or the Weekender?) that Hope & Greenwood now sell at Harvey Nichols, Waitrose and a few other places - I think they also said Selfridges and British Airways first class. Good on them for doing so well. I've seen their chocolate in Waitrose in coastal Kent and did a bit of a double take as it was far away from ED! Most interesting bit of article was that when they renovated the shop, they found out that it was once an old sweet shop as they found the old sign behind the facade. They also said that they started out by trying out recipes in their kitchen. As I can't afford BA first class, I'll just stick to Northcross Rd. Their hard work is paying off and I for one don't begrudge them.

If you call the council they come and clear it up on the same day usually. Yes it is a big problem. Especially with the roads being so dimly lit at night!