Jenny1

Yes. I agree with Steveo and abeattie on this and have added my objection. It was very easy to do and didn't take long. If you don't like the look of the proposals adding your own comment could make a big difference.

But that wouldn't preclude 'local listing' would it Chazzle?

These proposals are - in my view - highly destructive. Is there anyone here who has experience of campaigning in this kind of context who would like to take the lead on this? If so I feel sure there would be people here - myself included - who would be very happy to work on it with them. The suggestion of working via English Heritage (as made earlier on this thread) is a good one. I imagine the Victorian Society might also be helpful. Others may be more aware than myself of the appropriate timetable for action in relation to the latest planning application.

Thanks Chazzle. Yes - do please continue to keep us posted.

Even though these houses are not listed I think they are particularly characterful. They're unusual for the area - perhaps because (as Chazzle states) they were built in 1866 - which is twenty years or so earlier than the vast majority of the development of the area. It would - in my view - be a great shame to lose this particular aspect of the history of East Dulwich.

I've got to agree with treehugger and Otta. This is gold dust (mind you any opinion I express at the moment has to be filtered through the understanding that I'm currently on quite strong painkillers). The challenge now is to run with the concept. I wonder how many remember the hypnotic opening sequence of the classic 1987 movie set in our (newly) twinned city of New Orleans starring Dennis Quaid and Ellen Barkin? I think similar could be achieved using local musical talent and footage obtained by waving a mobile phone around on a balcony of the top floor of the Ladlands Estate. (Did I mention that the painkillers were strong?)

Hi Clare This is a really good idea. I already order from Suma - but would like the option of doing it as part of a group. Please keep me posted. Jenny

Just walked past the hoardings and saw the artists finishing the first phase of the pictures. I liked the cinematic theme and thought 'Audrey' was a particularly good likeness. Personally I enjoy street art even if it isn't to my taste - something about reminding me that I live in a city I think.

That's very interesting about the fireworks. I'd always assumed that The Pyrotechnists Arms was referencing some local connection with the Gunpowder Plot. I think 'Nun-head - Gateway to the East' has quite a ring to it - though clearly it doesn't pack the punch of 'Bal-ham - Gateway to the South'.

I expect you'll have thought of this already but probably a good idea to put an easily accessible saucer of water close to the bird.

A good rescue there The Minkey!

Yes - I think Seabag is right. A friend of mine who gathers information for a conservation charity about bees explained to me that they really don't cope well in wet weather. It's a really interesting question!

Yes - it is open now.

I've watched three attempts by robins to raise a family this year. Sadly one pair seem to have lost both their broods. But a young robin is currently being raised in my back garden by a really over-worked parent. What with collecting fat caterpillars and throwing itself in the path of local cats in an effort to distract them from the fledgling it never seems to get a moments rest. I hope this particular baby makes it to adulthood.

I was very pleased to hear about the stall - and even more so to know that the shop could be back in business. To my mind there's a real gap in Northcross road - not to mention the local shopping facilities - without it. Great news.

I just want to agree with BrandNewGuy that it's great to see - and hear - the swifts again. There were six screeching and reeling high above my garden this morning.

What a great thing to be able to see in your own garden! I'm excited because for the first time ever I have a clear view of a robin's nest from my sitting room window! They've nested in a hole some distance up a substantial tree trunk. Peeking out this morning I could see a substantial young fledgling sticking its head out eagerly - waiting to be fed. I'm being very careful not to go anywhere near. I learnt recently that robins can nest two or three times in a season if the weather's good.

That's pretty grim! But also very interesting. And I suppose it's a reminder that nature often functions in a fairly gruesome way. Congratulations on the Orange Tip!

I saw a bee-fly for the first time in my garden in late April last year - and only knew what it was because someone else posted about them on the forum. They're like tiny, woolly humming-birds. I saw my first of 2014 in the garden this morning. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombyliidae

I haven't seen any frogs out and about yet. That sounds interesting. But I did spot my first butterfly of the year this morning - a yellow brimstone I think.

Thanks to Penguin for clearly laying out the current system as it applies in the UK. I had some knowledge of that - but it's useful to have it reiterated. I would not - of course - suggest that it would be advisable or possible for anything to be done differently in this particular case - it's simply way too late in this instance and the shop in its current situation will close I expect. we can but hope that the business will enjoy a new incarnation elsewhere. What I am suggesting is that we start to put our heads together about how the current system might be improved in order to promote the development of a more varied and useful shopping culture - not simply in our own community but throughout the UK. But there may not be anyone here with adequate knowledge of alternative systems - French or otherwise - to sustain that debate. I understand that French regulations altered in 2011 - although not in such a way as to too closely resemble what we have here. People may have knowledge of other European models.

Whatever the causes of the likely closure of this shop we'll all be left the poorer if and when it happens. I sometimes wish we had local government planning regulations that were a little more in line with what I understand the French model to be. In other words that there was a proactive policy to promote a mix of 'practical' shops within a community. This would help to protect businesses that fulfill a useful role for a broad range of the population, are long established and are part of a wider retail 'mixed ecology'. There seems to be too much of a gap between the free market imperative which drives much of what remains open/closes down on our streets and big, publicity fuelled initiatives such as that run by Mary Portas - designed to 'revive' high streets. The latter are useful I'm sure - but how can we get something more helpful injected into the DNA of local decision making that helps to maintain the diversity and usefulness of our local shopping cultures? I'd be grateful for any ideas from people who know more about these things than I do.

There may be more than one thing going on here. ie a water issue and a gas issue. If you get the smell when the gas burners on the cooker are on it could be the same thing I experienced a few months ago. A kind of odd paraffin-like smell? Apparently there is some kind of additive that is sometimes put in the domestic gas supply in the winter months - something to do with cold weather conditions - that has this odour and is apparently harmless. I got the answer via Prof Google and will post the link when I can find it. I've found the link - this is it. Not saying that it is monoethylene glycol (as mentioned in the link) that you can smell. But it might be. http://www.diybanter.com/uk-diy/89441-paraffin-smell-gas-cooker-2.html

I've just spotted one of these bee-flies in my garden too. I thought for a while that it was weird, woolly little hummingbird.

You could see this another way though DulwichBandB. Slowly but surely - postcode by postcode - and then city by city - East Dulwich is stealthily, but effectively - becoming the very centre of the known world. Soon we'll have people in Shanghai advertising their secondhand sofas and farmers in Brazil wondering if anyone has a particular sized spanner that they'd like to borrow to mend their tractor - in exchange for a home brewed bottle of wine. Will not everyone - everywhere - soon be claiming residence of SE22? I think so.........and perhaps it will make the world a better place.