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A walk through an improper wood: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3eDMdSsk5s

Yesterday the Angel of Southwark was removed from her place in the woods at Camberwell Old Cemetery - barely two days after the council rejected calls for the community to be consulted about the destruction of 10 acres of woods and monuments. She deserves better. Click here to see photos: http://www.lewisschaffer.co.uk/save/ Today is a fantastic day to see the woods and the remaining monuments. If you cannot go please have a 90 second video fly-over and fly-through. Click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b76wj7BO8yI There will be planning meeting for those who want to save the woods, preserve the monuments and make the cemeteries nature reserves, with respect for the people who are buried there. Please come and help us decide what to do next. Click here for more information: http://www.savesouthwarkwoods.org.uk/ Wednesday 7:30PM July 15th The Rose Pub 108 Forest Hill Road, SE22 0RS Lewis Schaffer Nunhead tree and ancient monument lover

PEOPLE OF NUNHEAD, COME TOGETHER AGAIN! THIRD YEAR IN A ROW! Join the Annual Nunhead Beats the Bounds on Saturday 4th July 2015 - 2PM on Nunhead Green. Nunhead's Annual Parade. The ancient tradition of Beating the Bounds has been reborn in Nunhead - Come together to celebrate what makes our home unique. While Rome has its Seven Hills, New York its Seven Bridges, and Rio its Seven Beaches, Nunhead has its Seven Pubs. Each different. Each special. Each magnificent. This year our parade will connect and celebrate the seven remaining pubs of Nunhead and highlight the plight and success of the public house in a rapidly changing London. Starting at the Old Nun's Head on Nunhead Green at 2PM, we will beat the bounds of Nunhead, passing the Man of Kent, The Ivy House, The Waverly Arms, through Nunhead Cemetery, The Golden Anchor, The Hollydale and The Pyrotechnists Arms Nunheaders young and old will pound the roads, trees and buildings with sticks and songs. We will sing of Angels, William Blake, Queen Elizabeth, Dr. Harold Moody and the other icons of Nunhead. We will rejoice in our Nunhead and in the pubs which make our ville great. We will end up with a shindig on Nunhead Green with music, refreshments and a free glass of Nunhead Whacker - an ale specifically brewed for this event. This year, Nunhead Beats the Bounds for Nunhead's Magnificent Seven - Celebrating the past, present and future of our public houses! NUNHEAD NUNHEAD NUNHEAD FOREVER! Live Updates: @nunheadradio To get involved, Contact Lewis Schaffer [email protected]

John K, Henry has given you the facts and you won't accept them. 10 acres of woods will be destroyed for 10 to 15 years of burial "provision" with nothing to show for it, only a need to find another ten acres for the next 10 to 15 years. 10 to 15 years. Lewis Schaffer, Come see me at the Museum of Comedy this Sunday at 6PM. "Lewis Schaffer, International Man of Misery" I am a real person who loves wild woods. (well, as wild as they can get in Zone 2)

After the ten acres of woods are cut down and 200 dead people a year are buried, in 10 to 15 years there will be no more space in the 10 acres for more dead bodies and the woods will have been lost. 10 to 15 years. 10 to 15 years. 10 to 15 years. 10 to 15 years. Whether there are 300,000 graves of mostly poor people or no graves at all, whether there are beautiful historic monuments under the bushes and the trees or whether there is building rubble, a beautiful wild wood has grown up on the 10 acres. 10 to 15 years. 10 to 15 years. 10 to 15 years and we will have lost a wood. Please see the video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b76wj7BO8yI Lewis Schaffer Nunhead, American, father of two English boys. Correction: My financial interest in not having the woods destroyed: I own a two bedroom flat in Nunhead and my flat should appreciate in value should the area be known an area of wild green places. Please state any interest you many have with the planned destruction of this lovely place.

video of the scrubby bit. https://youtu.be/b76wj7BO8yI Lewis Nunhead

"I think it's important to have places where we have a chance to remember our loved ones. That's at the heart of what Southwark is trying to do" Perhaps Southwark cares which is why they will be bulldozing clear whole swathes of the cemetery of headstones and bones of your loved ones, leaving a denuded environment for new bodies and bones, which Southwark will soon clear out again. "Reusing graves" sounds good, like the old mill building being filled with silicon valley types. Unfortunately, with re-using graves it either involves keeping the headstone and putting a new person under it (which isn't in favour among those who want to pay the ?8k plus (?) to be buried)or wiping away the monuments of your loved ones. This doesn't take into account the pesky bees and birds that live in the untidy mess of scrub that has grown up above those graves. I am off to "Southwark Scrub" now in COC. Be there at Noon to maybe 2. Let's talk. Lewis Schaffer PS have no financial motive for expressing views here. 07886504221 Editing for clearness and to add my signature.

I'm from New York and I thought they were woods but if you call the 10 acres "scrub" then I'll call them scrub, too. And if only 10% of the plots are being sold off to people out of the borough (for ?6000 (or more?) that's only one acre of scrubland used so no big deal. And it'll keep the place "neat and trimmed". And I didn't know that in England it's disrespectful to the dead and their families to have a picnic for children in a cemetery but it is okay to for the council to strip gravestones and jcb the bones to bury in a pit with no markers or ceremony. I'm sorry. I'm learning. Lewis Schaffer Nunhead Radio every Monday. Failed comic. What is your name and what do you do?

Edhistory - It's not?

The Forest Hill Society says that 300,000 people are interred in COC. Wherever you look and there is not monument or headstone it doesn't mean there is no one buried there. It means there are probably thousands buried there. People without even a marker to show where they are buried. So poor they couldn't afford a marker. Hundreds of thousands of people who died in poverty and were buried in mass graves are now about to be treated badly by the council. We are really scared that people seem to be unaware of what the council is doing digging up the old graves. You, and almost everyone we talk to, care about the old graves and the people buried there. We care about that too. As for the council selling off the graves spaces to rich people, the council themselves say about 10% of sales are to out of borough people and the council is charging three times as much as residents. There is more info here: http://www.savesouthwarkwoods.org.uk/home/4588391435 And come to the walk Sunday and tell us what you think. Lewis Schaffer with two sons at Harris Boys, East Dulwich. They were previously at Fairlawn School.

I understand totally and it sounds like too much fun for a cemetery. But what the group is trying to do is highlight that Camberwell Old and New Cemeteries have some of the same beautiful areas that are in Nunhead Cemetery. We have grown to love Nunhead cemetery for its ancient monuments and its wildness. Why can't we have more of the same? Nunhead has it open day and no one says "boo". Here is a video of the 10 acres that are most threatened: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b76wj7BO8yI But that is not all. The council plan (after they cut down most of the trees and most of the bushes and wildflowers)to dig up (and or cover over) hundreds of gravestones, and dig up the bones of potentially tens of thousands of poor people (maybe 100 of thousands of poor people. Yes, most of the area, as far as i know, are paupers graves. The council want to rebury the bones of poor people and sell plots to rich people from out of the borough without a monument to them, without a ceremony, without any respect at all for those people and their descendants. It sounds like the Southwark Woods Day is all a lark but we are very very scared. The best way to respect the dead, as I see it, is by calling time on creation of "new" burial space, as 9 of the 13 boroughs in inner London have done. The best way to respect the dead already there, the living who want to visit their loved ones, and the rest of us who want to see history and experience wildness in our borough is by leaving the cemeteries alone. I am Lewis Schaffer, I have lived in East Dulwich and Nunhead for 15 years and now live in Nunhead. I love this place, as you do. You know me. I am your crazy New York neighbour. Here is a petition, if you feel you would like to preserve the historic monuments, respect the dead already buried there and have a wild place preserved. https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/save-southwark-woods

I wasn't in the area when the wilderness of Nunhead Cemetery was saved. But that was worthy. Nunhead Cemetery is now known as a true treasure. Today the Southwark Council is conducting a death of a thousand little cuts on the two other equally beautiful woods - Camberwell Old and Camberwell New Cemetery Woods. And just like Nunhead Cemetery, these places worth saving. [Look at the photos attached to be reminded at how beautiful and wild these places are.] I wrote about this two years ago. http://www.lewisschaffer.co.uk/2012/07/14/save-our-woods/ Environmentalist Blanche Cameron wrote "These cemeteries are havens for wildlife with ancient woodland which it is against Southwark's own policy to destroy. Woodland is not a number of trees, it is an ecosystem, an intricate web of a diverse range of species and habitats that, as a whole ecosystem, make up this specially balanced natural environment. These are exceptionally beautiful woods, with a diversity of species and habitats that support Southwark's Biodiversity Action Plan." Anne Stanesby is leading the campaign. Perhaps contact her - [email protected] ? Or contact me at [email protected] Lewis Schaffer Local Resident Nunhead American Radio Resonance 104.4FM

Totally recommend Steve. He came, he saw, he fixed. Found three coins blocking it up. Saved me from buying a new machine and I came away with ?2 and 4 pence. 07921 777428

This was an earlier thread about how the council is tearing down the Camberwell Old Cemetery Wood. Sad... http://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/forum/read.php?5,899412,page=1

Nunhead American Radio with Lewis Schaffer and East Dulwicher Lisa Moyle On resonancefm.com/listen and 104.4FM. 10:30PM UK Monday. With the Dulwich Ukulele Club with Richard Guard, Anna Crockatt and Peter Hudson The only radio program for Americans living in Nunhead (with additional focus on Americans in East Dulwich) For 25 March 2013 MONDAY! 10:30PM live Mondays on 104.4fm and streaming on www.resonancefm.com/listen Guests: Newly discovered Nunhead American Ashleigh Rosa, from Philadelphia. And comedian Tim Key, Edinburgh Comedy Award Winner and Malcolm Hardee Comedy Award Nominee, just like Lewis Schaffer! TWEET at #Nunhead VISIT YOUR FACEBOOK PAGE AND 'LIKE' NUNHEAD AMERICAN RADIO With East Dulwich American co-host, the beautiful Lisa Moyle, Chris Dixon and our house band, the Dulwich Ukulele Club with Richard Guard, Anna Crockatt, and Peter Hudson. And new sound person, Claudio! Wonderfully unusual local broadcasting. 104.4fm or www.resonancefm.com. Live or streaming. Visit our facebook page at Nunhead American Radio Listen to past shows on iTunes www.bit.ly/NunheadAmericanRadio. New! Lewis Schaffer's Guide to England every Sunday at the Leicester Square Theatre. Good fun for Americans and everyone in England. See my OTHER live show in London at www.bit.ly/londonfreeshow - Lewis Schaffer is Free until Famous. Every Tuesday and Wednesday in Soho. twitter www.twitter.com/lewisschaffer www.lewisschaffer.co.uk

Felt sad when I read it. Wished I had written it when I first posted it. " If anything can be done to preserve the wooded heart of this cemetery, the damage from trees to graves already done, it would be wonderful in my view. The tranquillity and opportunity to enjoy the atmosphere there must be precious to new mourners whose relatives are buried nearby."

-- moved topic --

Fromtheteys Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Renata - please could you advise who to contact to > ask them to cut the bottom meadow in the > Camberwell Old Cemetery so we can use it (again) > until it needs to be developed. I am a bit confused. Isn't this like a condemned man asking for a haircut before he faces the gallows? The meadow will be lost, as will the trees, the bushes and bee forage and the wonderful wildness of it. Or was I missing some good English irony on the part of fromthekeys?

MONDAY EVENINGS - The only Radio Program for Americans living in Nunhead. Nunhead American Radio with Lewis Schaffer and Co-Host Lisa Moyle of East Dulwich, Listen at 10:30PM live on 104.4fm and streaming on www.resonancefm.com Contact me if you have news or events or something else related to Nunhead, Nunhead Village or Nunhead Heights. Guests tonight, 23 July 2012: Doug Brooks of Friends of One Tree Hill, Graham Head, Trees Around Nunhead blogger, My postman, Nunheader Alan Lewis, Possibly Sharon Bassey, the Bee Lady of Nunhead. Wonderfully unusual local broadcasting. 104.4fm or www.resonancefm.com. Live or streaming. Listen to past shows on iTunes www.bit.ly/NunheadAmericanRadio. Read my blog at www.lewisschaffer.wordpress.com See my live show in London at www.bit.ly/londonfreeshow - good fun for Americans and everyone in England.

Renata, you are a very hardworking councillor and I am very fond of you, personally. I think we need to think about the needs of Nunhead and East Dulwich people. These are the Sad Facts: The beautiful Camberwell Old Cemetery Wood will be lost and a wasteland of dead graves put in its place - and those graves are just a short term solution. You cannot say the Council cares about families when the Council is proposing digging up the old graves of other families. "Re-using" graves is a polite way of saying deforestation. It isn't enough to save the trees. The bushes and brambles and wildflowers are what make a wood. This is true for all three cemeteries. The woods are a gift to the people of London, and to Nunhead and East Dulwich and Forest Hills. Are we going to preserve them for future generations? Here is a post I wrote showing views of the beautiful woods: Photos of what we'll lose. http://lewisschaffer.wordpress.com/2012/07/14/save-our-woods/ here is my original post http://lewisschaffer.wordpress.com/2012/06/07/cutting-down-the-new-forest/ Renata Hamvas Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > they [The Cemeteries] are there as > the deceased relatives of Southwark's residents > are buried there and a proportion of Southwark's > residents for personal or religious reasons are > still opting for burial over cremation and I think > this wish should be respected by posters on this > thread, whatever their personal opinions on this > matter.

Renata - We know the plans are just for the cemeteries. We are concerned about woodland and open fields IN the three cemeteries are being destroyed as we speak. The Council gave us a false choice - they had no intention of tearing up the playing fields - didn't they? Their intention was to rip out the life above the graves - all the bushes, and flowers and meadows and small saplings - that make the cemeteries the Lungs of London. Where are 5000 graves going? "Re-using" graves means destroying habitat. The false choice: destroy a playing field or "re-using old graves". Like nothing is growing on the graves. Renata - has an environmental impact statement been made on the loss of precious habitat? My earlier post where I accuse the Council of presenting a false choice: http://lewisschaffer.wordpress.com/2012/06/10/how-camberwell-old-cemetery-wood-was-lost/ Please Renata, help stop this devastation.

There are plans afoot to destroy wild and green places in all three of our cemeteries. [The photo is what the Council did to a wild bit in Camberwell New Cemetery.] Who is going to speak up for East Dulwich, Dulwich and Nunhead and stop this? The original post: "Will we regret cutting down the new forests of Southwark?" Click below. http://lewisschaffer.wordpress.com/2012/06/07/cutting-down-the-new-forest/ Lewis Schaffer, Nunhead.

Thank you, Renata. I think you're one of the most conscientious and hardest working people I know. What can we do to protect the Camberwell Old Cemetery Wood in perpetuity? It is still at risk. It would be a shame to lose it just because people were once buried underneath it. And what can we do to protect all wood and meadowland in the cemeteries? What can we do to reduce the number of burials?

Surely we can find a way to minimize the number of burials in our cemeteries so that we can save our beautiful wooded and open spaces? Lewis Schaffer, resident of Southwark for 12 years. My post on the subject: Will we regret cutting down the new forests of Southwark?

It is right to kill a tree to bury a dead body? The Council let the graves go to seed and now we have the most wonderful Camberwell Old Cemetery Wood. Will we regret cutting down a wood because it was once used for burials? What can we do save our wood? More details below. [lewisschaffer.wordpress.com]