just_browsing

James, Out of your specific area, perhaps, but no doubt with some potential with regard to anything from traffic flows to local economy boosting - any initial thoughts on the burgeoning campaign for the Peckham Lido to be resurrected/exhumed? Thanks

On the EAst Dulwich Road parade, the barber is either being replaced or renovated too. As for Nigel Road, yes, the Blue Tit hairdresser came but nothing has followed. As for railway arches and the Sassoon Gallery' that's Peckham Springs - nice enough for a pricey beer/cocktail, although I gather Bar Story has a better range if food. Meanwhile, the Brick Brewery is really superlative and Choumert Road, with Southerden, Cafe Viva and Small White Elephant, has got a great range of quirky, cute caf?s. Peckham Refreshment Rooms has reopened with an extended premises today, and does great food (perhaps more of a treat than a regular haunt - dishes are delicious but not exactly huge and not exactly cheap), while we ate at the relatively new Artusi (reviewed by Jay Rayner, leading to the inevitable impossibility of booking for a few months) this week, and it really was sensationally good. Staying in Peckham (I ow this will already have riled Forumites for straying across the boundary but hey, it's in the subject and all eminently walkable from East Dulwich, assuming no mobility challenges) - agree entirely on Barry's In the arches being worth a visit, if only just to meet the lovely Barry. Finally, Peckahm Bazaar is back open, on a corner in a somewhat eerie residential area. I've heard great things but a booking a fortnight ago coincided with me breaking my ankle so had to postpone. Back in East Dulwich, there are positive noises being made about a new Italian cafe near the station elsewhere on the forum(excluding those who don't frequent caf?s who, despite sitting well outside the target market, still feel emboldened to critique their very existence and the, to my mind brave and admirable, entrepreneurship of those setting them up (sorry, brief gripe over)). Is the Hause of Wood definitely being replaced by a cafe? Even I, an accredited cafe and coffee addict, realises this can all get a bit much.

There's going to be a new place called Hop, Burns and Black on East Dulwich Road near Aneto Cafe and Flying Pig. As above, Cafe G is opening this weekend. There are a few places being done up at the lower end of Rye Lane (in addition to Lerryn's and Four Quarters) - no idea if they will be exciting, but they'll be new for sure. Still a mystery on what's replacing the East Dulwich Deli, as well as what is happening to Crown House opposite Goose Green.

Niko came round to ours a while back - came very quickly, fixed the problem, didn't charge the earth. My impression was he's a very good plumber indeed. The drawbacks would appear to be personal style and haphazard admin. For the latter, he's likely overwhelmed with work and may not be the best at planning out his workloads and callbacks. And on style, Niko was very (perhaps too?) personable when he came to ours - he certainly isn't a quiet, get on with it, quickly in and out sort of plumbder - he likes to talk and explain. Would I use Niko again? Yes, definitely, because he's a reasonably priced, and seemingly excellent plumber. But if I didn't hear back for a few days I might hedge my bets and see if someone else were able to commit sooner. The forum is by its very nature a platform for polarised views - we're all more inclined to write about someone who is brilliant, or terrible, as we're more excerised about it, than if someone is good but with a couple of foibles.

As are we - early thirties couple into our food and meeting more people in the area having just moved here.

First post on here having recently moved into the PR/ED area. There's a nice little row of shops on East Dulwich Road, with the Flying Pig (really really like the beer selection, food a bit hefty for me, and the staff could be improved immeasurably by adding a notepad to their tools), Aneto Cafe (lovely people, hope it works out for them but worry about quite how much they can achieve in that tiny kitchen), picture framers (again, brilliant people there), plus bike shop, newsagents, fish and chips etc. Among these are a couple of vacant shops, one which has now been let/sold which was previously the launderette, and has a lovely Laundromat sign that could well stay were a hip/wannabe hip bar/restaurant move in. Any idea what the plans are for the laundromat, and or the other vacant shop? Much of the gossip on here revolves utterly understandably, around Lordship lane, but there's this mini-hub here which has some lovely places and may get even better depending on what comes into these shops (don't take this as a failure to acknowledge the importance of a launderette to many many people, it's simply that when we moved in it had already closed, and anything is better than nothing in its place). Separately, what's going on with Crown House? It depresses me every time I see it but would seem to be in a good location and definitely needs some love. Thanks