aliceb

Oh no! It has to be up there in crazy ED street names (though my favourite is Troy Town)

Unless even more of the transport network is down today, you probably won't have to walk the whole way. I walked to Brixton, which took me nearly twice what it usually does, but was do-able, and reasonably pleasant. Then I took the Victoria line to Victoria, then walk to South Ken. On the way home, I even got the district line to Victoria.

I've tried a few alternatives but quite like the 185 route after Camberwell, though I sometimes get slowed by being safe around the bendys. At Vauxhall, you can go over the crossing with the pedestrians, then out on to the bridge with the 185/36/436. After Vauxhall, I go west up Vestry Road passed Pimlico school then by the river till Battersea and north over the Kings Road to Queensgate. I average on 50 mins, but that's from Peckham, and including taking the bike out of my house and dodging undergrads to get to my college bike park.

I want to second the best brownie and best corner shop ideas. Also, best coffee (in addition to best coffeeshop), tastiest bread and best grocer. I think a best stallholder (to include North Cross Rd and the ED Warehouse) and/ or 'most orginal business' would help include some of the less easily classified salespeople of SE22.

I think all the recent road works has increased the amount of pavement cycling. Something that should be mentioned is that there are parts of London (not many round our way, granted) where pedestrians and cyclists share the pavement. It is not always that well signalled - at best it looks like cyclists are somewhere they shouldn't, at worse pedistrians get scared because they aren't expecting things on wheels going around them. A lot of this is down to bad (or rather lazy) attempts at providing cycle paths, and really doesn't help cyclist/ pedestrian relations. It annoys me when cyclists cant be bothered to dismount (or stick to the roads) too, but there are occasions when a bit of responsible pavement cycling is the best way to stay safe. Ditto red-light jumping (though I'm always way too much of a goody two shoes to do that).

As has already been mentioned about the cycle maps - the best place to get them in Karavan on Lordship Lane. They have the best and most reliable selection in London - much better than TFL! On road rage, I had a bit of a nasty ride in yesterday. First I saw another cyclist hit a pedestrian on Peckham High Street. This turned nasty as the cyclist gave the pedestrian an earful (it was his fault, but he was only a kid, I would have given him a break), and peaked with a lorry driver shouting "I'm going to chop your head off in a minute" as the cyclist went off. Then, five minutes later, I was hit by a driver who wasn't looking where he was going at the junction in Camberwell. He was going very slowly and I just have a couple bruises (didn't even ladder my tights) but it did leave me feeling slightly persecuted with that lorry driver's voice ringing in my ears. That said, there were lots of lovely pedestrians who helped me at Camberwell and a great chap who intervened to stop a fight starting in Peckham.

How awful. Hope you are feeling better. Thanks for the warning.

Its moved to the Phoenix, Denmark Hill train station. (posts about it are in the whats on section)

It tends to depend on which member of staff is on coffee duty, how busy/awake they are and how clean the machines happen to be that hour. The place you are talking about is probably Green and Blue, and I have had great coffee there. I have also had very bad coffee there. The same could be said for any of the places on the Lane - from the EDT to the Horniman. That said, I never had worse than a mediocre cup in Liquorish, the Chandelier, Blue Mountian or the Thai cafe opposite the Horniman.

I've never had any Trick or Treaters round here. But that might be because our door bell was broken for four years.

That's horrible and plain silly on the part of the driver, especially as a Police officer had suggested it! I'm often scared of getting stranded with my bike in town and not being able to get it home because of that flat no bikes on public transport rule. I figure I'd just have to shell out for a cab. Defiantly complain - if only to make the point to the bus company as a whole, so all their drivers know that's unacceptable. (though still, no lock... kind of silly on her part too. I guess these things happen)

I'm another one. I moved to ED with another 20-something woman four years ago because we both wanted to take some time in our careers when we wouldn't earn much, and ED was (then) relatively cheap to rent. We're both still here, though we have moved from the south end of Lordship Lane to the badlands of Peckham Rye. I should admit we moved because we needed the space to accommodate boyfriends, but that's not because we're about to breed with them. I think the comments noting the differences depending on time of day are spot-on. Weekday-daytime, it's more an area for parents with buggies than freelancers with laptops (though there are still a fair few of those), but evenings are quite different. Even our knitting group is by in large childless professionals (and so far entirely women only, though that's not deliberate).

Yes, making your own cake can often be more expensive, but brownies should work out as less than ?1.50 a slice (or whatever the standard ED price is). Brownies often last reasonably well (if you let them) and most versions improve if you leave them a day or so. As well as Jamie's, I can also recommend this and this, from over the pond. Nigella's one in How to Eat is good too, as is her (very sweet) blonde brownie recipe. My flatmates all liked the batch I did from the Rose Bakery book, though I found it too eggy - like a chocolate omelette. Generally, I find too much sugar goes against the chocolate taste, and so always decrease the sugar (sometimes by two thirds), but that's a taste issue. I also tend to increase the cocoa suggested and prefer dark sugars which give a fudgey taste, though I generally just use whatever is in the cupboard. My brother always demands a chopped up Mars Bar added to the mix - this is sticky, but very, very wonderful. Most recipes work fine with soya-based marg substituted for butter (for dairy-free people), though use about a fifth less of the stuff as marg seems to go further. You use so little flour for a good brownie, gluten-free versions tend to taste fine. Do use good chocolate though, and melt it slowly. To keep ED-specific, SMBS often have the Green & Blacks cooking chocolate, which melts beautifully. A good brownie does need eggs, though there are options for the vegans... This blogger has hosted a few brownie 'roundups' (see sidebar) which links to a loads of brownie recipes - worth a look just for a drool. I'm thinking of trying spinach brownies for halloween.

If you really want brownies, it has to be Flour Power City Bakery at the Peckham Farmer's market on a sunday morning! Though I think they've gone downhill in the last year - too dry. I tend to make my own though. After many years of experimenting, I go for Jamie Oliver's recipe (on his website) but with a LOT less sugar and a bit more cocoa, substituting for some of the flour (I like them chocolate-y). I also do them milk-free, but that's a personal lack of lactase thing.

DKH - Nothing wrong with the hill in itself, just not an especially easy cycle (up or down). I mean, ok once you get used to it I'm sure, but not soemthing I'd put on a 'journey planner' style route (often used by people who don't know the area themselves). Maybe I'm just being a wimp. Walworth Rd - Don't worry. It can be quite nice even. No one goes too fast and the tend to keep going in the one direction. You do have to keep an eye out for people crossing the road without looking and all the buses, but if you are sensible, it's fine.