east-of-the-Rye

We're holding our Christmas Bazaar on Saturday, with cakes, mulled wine, preserves, Christmas cards & wrapping paper, arts & crafts, lucky dip, face painting, white elephant stall,tombola and Scavenger Trail... 12pm - 4pm, in the Community Centre of St Antony with St Silas, nunhead, corner of Merttins Road and Ivydale Road, SE15. All welcome!

I think it is very sad that the owners have not had the sense to put in temporary guardians to protect the building instead of boarding it up to prevent squatting. Several companies (Camelot Property, Global Guardians) can put in guardians at very low or even no cost to the owner, and at no risk to the owner i.e. the legal agreement ensures that the guardians have to move on when needed. (I'm not connected to either company but have used them as a customer via my work.) It makes me really angry that land owners are campaigning to get the law changed to make squatting illegal in commercial properties, when they are holding the building empty in order to maximise their profit. (please do not start the I-came-home-from-holiday-and found-my house-squatted story, these were incredibly rare cases.)

my son needed glasses at 3 years old, which is a bit older, but maybe some of what I can say may help: - he was very badly behaved in the tests (or possibly behaved in a totally rational way, i.e. "I don't want to be here, so I'll make a fuss")- I don't have much advice about how to help there. - the first optician that we went to had a toy box in the waiting area, that he settled down to play with, but then we were asked to go through to see the optician, so he made a fuss. we agreed to come back later. - then, when walking along Nunhead Lane at the weekend, he saw a picture of Superman in the local optician's window, advertising glasses. we went in, and Carol, the owner, was great, she suggested we just come, sit down and look around, and don't touch any glasses this time. we went a couple of times before we finally got some glasses on the boy, and once he received glasses with real lenses, that he could see well through he kept them on. that optician has now shut, but perhaps the tip is, to ask a local optician whether they are happy to let you come in and get comfortable a few times before trying lenses etc. - I say "local" optician, because you may become quite regular.... - NHS glasses are fine as far as I'm concerned - they are free if you choose from several frames, but they are all o.k., it's not like the old "NHS frames" that my sister wore in the '60's. - the NHS kindly mends & replaces broken ones, I suppose there may be a limit to how often before you have to pay, but we didn't reach it. Accidents included glasses being stuck behind a radiator, another boy (who wore glasses himself and had behavioural problems) stamping on them, and lenses coming out. - the NHS will issue 2 pairs, especially if it is essential that they are worn all the time. my son got used to his glasses very quickly and even now (he's 16) feels they are part of him in some way. The eye patch for the squint was another matter though...

I'm looking for one (or two) people to help with the above. Maybe 4 hours (plus?) at ?8.50 ph. It will involve - helping me get insulation up to 2nd floor and through wall hatch & old tank cupboard & into loft - helping me move round boxes of stuff & maybe bring some downstairs - helping me lay the slabs & rolls of insulation. it has to be Tuesday 10th December - no flexibility about the date. would suit a student or similar with a spare day. I'd need you to be able to show me some ID / reference to show who you are.

please! the rest of Europe think we in Britain are quite mad with our obsession with school uniforms. just let her/him wear something bright, warm, washable, reflective as mentioned above and hardwearing.

Could Health Involvement tell us roughly what time scale they are looking at? The site (of the demolished part of the hospital)has been empty for ages, and may be empty for another 2 or 3 years. What about clearing the site and installing modern prefabs, preferably by a co-op for local people but even if by a profit making student accommodation company, at least the land would be used not just empty.

if I see a good recommendation from e.g Bob Jones, I usually check what other postings Bob Jones has put up. I tend to take the recommendation more seriously if he/she has also done lots of other posts about local things - traffic on Barry Road, selling a cot, local events. If they only recommend tradespeople, I tend to discount them.

I went past at about 9am and, being nosey, asked the police officer what had happened - she said "There has been a fire" in a tone of voice that made it quite clear she had no intention of telling me any more...

while they are it, could they reinstate the pedestrian island on the north part of the junction? I don't understand why it was taken out, except to make more space for cars...

hi Val, try Camberwell Choir School - it's not a choir or a school. It was originally set up with church funding and meets in St Giles Church Hall but is not a church organisation. My older one went as a toddler, then after a gap as a Junior & Senior and eventually as a helper. He's now playing in a college jazz band which wasn't entirely down to CCS but it certainly helped! http://www.camberwellchoirschool.org.uk/

We usually use Woodfalls on Rye Lane - my son needed glasses when he was 3 and and had (quite naturally) kicked up a fuss about the various eyes test he had to have and about trying on glasses (without of course lenses) at another optician that was suggested. He saw a picture of Superman in the window of the branch of Woodfalls that used to be on Nunhead Lane and we went in: the staff were great, let us come in and just look around, then sit down and look at a book, and then finally actually try some frames on. We saw a lot of Woodfalls for the first few years (glasses would fall behind radiators, get grabbed & broken by other kids etc.,) and always got a friendly good service. 15 year old son's glasses tend to last somewhat longer now, so our visits aren't so frequent...

Or try something quite different - from Harris Girls School, it is about a 15- 20 minute walk to Honor Oak Park Station - I do it in 25 minutes from Nunhead Lane but I admit, I do walk quite fast. Walk south along Cheltenham Road, curve right into Kelvington Road, then when you meet Brenchley Gardens, you have a choice: either turn left then right into Camberwell New Cemetery, walk towards the chapel then turn right and follow the drive until you exit into the Recreation Ground and car park, then walk through this to Honor Oak Park (the road) then down to the station, OR when the sun is shining, when you reach Brenchley Gardens, turn right and cross the road and climb up & over One Tree Hill onto Honor Oak Park (the road). It's a lovely start to the day, the birds sing and the air is fresh. Admittedly, you can't really walk back either way in the dark, but the P12 stops outside the station and would drop you back quite near the school/nursery,.

This is a family service where children are especially welcome, on Christmas Eve at 6pm. There is also a traditional Midnight Mass at 11.30pm, and the Christmas Day Mass at 10.30am, where children are also very welcome. The church is the modern one on the corner of Ivydale road and Mertins road.

i love your answer Computedshorty, and look forward to seeing it all.

at one point there was even a notice pinned to the fence saying something along the lines of "we are mending your pipes, but won't always be visible on this site" presumably to forestall people saying "what are they doing there? is any work really happening?" .

Hexagon are actually a housing association, based in Sydenham but with properties in Southwark, (some in East Dulwich)Lewisham, Greenwich, Croydon and Bexley. They develop and manage social housing and shared ownership schemes - I'm not sure which this will be but will try to find out. Great to see the blog!

If you don't have a smart phone, as Peckham Poet says, you can text the reference number of the bus stop to TfL, and get back the arrival times of the next few buses. TfL says it will cost you 12p, but on my contract with t-Mobile (big numbers of free call minutes and texts, i never use them up) it costs 24p. I do still use it often as it helps me decide whether to wait for the bus i really want, or get the next arrival and change. I heard that TfL were stopping installing new information boards at bus stops - indeed, new bus stops were clearly being installed without them, and wrote to them pointing out that that is really unhelpful for people without mobiles or on pay-as-you-go. I got this answer: Thank you for your enquiry. We have no intention of discriminating against anyone and merely wish to make real time bus arrival information as widely available to as many passengers as possible. I can advise that new and improved Countdown signs will also replace all the existing 2,000 signs at bus stops, with an additional 500 new signs at selected key stops. The new signs have improved visibility for visually impaired passengers and will display more travel information than the old signs. (New technology means improved readability to ensure they comply with disability guidelines). We're also looking at bus stop independent audio options to help blind and partially sighted people. The roll out of the new signs at key locations across London will be completed in 2012. A full list of all locations that will receive a new sign can be consulted at our website: http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/projectsandschemes/11560.aspx I hope this information is helpful. Please don?t hesitate to contact us again for any further assistance you may require. Yours sincerely Alan Bignell Transport for London - Customer Services DO NOT DELETE............................. {ticketno:[2216840]} DO NOT DELETE............................. ______________________________________ Your enquiry dated 03.11.2011: Some bus stops have indicator boards to let passengers know when the next bus is arriving. This is very useful if you are trying to decide whether to get the first bus then change, or wait for the direct one. But I notice that these are no longer being installed. I have used the bus arrivals information text service a few times recently. It is useful, but takes much longer than reading an indicator board, and costs 12p each time, plus text cost. I think this discriminates against people without mobiles, against elderly people who may not be able to text easily, and against poor people who may have Pay As You Go phones and be unable to afford the text and the charge. Please reconsider your decision to no longer install the very useful bus arrival indicator boards.

interesting thread - I would like to replace the horrible, top-hung, aluminium (painted white) windows to my Victorian house in Nunhead, because the frames are bent, let the rain as well as wind in, and the people who installed them left the original wooden part next to the bricks, which is now rotten. (I had a window repair company round, who said they were unrepairable.) Of course new wooden frames would be best, but are so expensive - I've had a quote. Good quality uPVC sliding sashes would look a lot better than what I've got (not to mention save energy but as I'm in a Conservation Area (Nunhead) it sounds as if replacing them with new metal window frames might be an option!

Last Wednesday, I spotted 2 minbuses dropping off boys from Harris Boys at Dulwich Leisure Centre. A bit later, I noticed a crocodile of (smaller) children heading for the pool from Rye Oak School. (My son used to walk from Ivydale to the pool with his class.) Maybe there's much more to this that I don't know, e.g. the boys were going on somewhere else after theeir swimming lesson, hence the mini-buses, but it does seem a bit strange... Wouldn't it give them a bit more exercise if they walked there?

There are also services at St Antony with St Silas - just over the Rye in Nunhead: St Antony with St Silas is the new (2005) church on the corner of Ivydale and Merttins Road, Nunhead. It looks like an industrial unit from the outside but is very different inside with 17th century wood altarpice from the original Wren church in the City. THere will be a Christingle service at 6pm on Saturday 24th - special family service with carols and readings - children espcially welcome, then Midnight Mass at 11.30pm, then the first Mass of Christmas at 10.30am on Christmas Day.

here's the response (and to be fair, she doesn't actually say it's only her job to run the cemetery, I suppose that's the impression I got!) Also, I'm fairly certain that she was not manager when the dumping took place - wasn't it the cemetery manager himself who let it take place? 4/6/09 "Thank you for your comments and concerns regarding the opening of gates within Camberwell New Cemetery. I apologise for the inconvenience caused in finding one of the accesses still locked at 8.30 and can only suggest on this occasion the gate mentioned was the last place to be opened that day or that there were other emergencies on site that needed to be attended too, prior to full access being made available. The main Cemetery gate is currently opened to allow staff access from 7.30am Monday to Friday. Between this time and 8.30am all buildings and adjoining gates are normally opened for visitors to the Cemetery. Our opening and closing times will be amended shortly to convey this message. Although you use the Cemetery as a cut through route on your way to work, I unfortunately cannot guarantee that this gate will be opened every morning at the exact time and would like to suggest that you use one of the alternative routes, a public foot path between the Cemetery and the Crematorium which can be accessed from Brockley Way and will take you into the park where you can cross through without any problems or One Tree Hill is also a public access from Brenchley Gardens over to Honor Oak. Once again I apologise for the inconvenience caused and if I can be of any further assistance please do not hesitate to contact me. Regards Avril Kirby Cemetery and Crematorium Manager Camberwell New Cemetery, Brenchley Gardens Forest Hill, SE23 3RD Telephone No 020 7639 3121" Maybe we should start a new thread to see if there is any support for trying to get better access through the cemetery?

yes, opening the gate opposite Kelvington Road would be good. unfortunately there isn't a lot of "joined up thinking" (apologies for jargon) at Southwark Council - I wrote to the manager of Camberwell New Cemetery asking that the gates on both sides be opened at the advertised times (after an annoying experience of walking across the cemetery then finding the gates closed.) Her response was, that she'd try and make sure they are always open on time, but her job is to run a cemetery, not provide access to the station etc. which is fair enough for her, but doesn't help, e.g reduce overcrowding on the P12

New Mother - as previous posters stated, secondary schools put the children in sets for Maths, English, Science, Design & Technology and (after a year or so) languages. So, if your child is academic and able, then yes, they would be in the top set and taught these subjects with pupils of similar abilities, who would at all times be under threat of the dreaded "moving down" if they don't perform. They may well have to share a class room for Art, History, Geography etc with less able pupils, until they choose their GCSE choices. Maybe that experience may teach them something else as well, who knows.

both sets of plans are now on Southwark's website: http://www.southwark.gov.uk/downloads/download/2777/peckham_rye_and_copeland-consort-heaton_gyratory_street_improvements

Jimmah, the cycle bypass that you use will remain, but you will have to stop at the end of it and give way to cars already on Peckham Rye. I think that the kerb of the nearest side of Scylla Road should be built out quite a lot to make cars slow down before they turn into it - or even put them off doing so, the majority are just trying to avoid the lights a bit further on. Then it would not be necessary to make cycles stop.