Camberwell Grove on Secret History of our Streets Next Week!

[????]

..the mexican was also a late night drinking option (and, of course, Bolus)

[Sharon_H]

I wish I'd watched this. I worked in the Grove House Tavern from 1984 to 1987, loved it.

[El Pibe]

It's still on iPlayer.

[steveo]

I tried to buy that house on the corner but couldn't raise the seventeen grand

[giggirl]

I watched the CG programme on catch-up and enjoyed most of it. It didn't start out well; just a bunch of people showing off their posh kitchens - that's of no interest to anyone. The Farm and the people who campaigned against the roads - that was excellent. The Farmer was SE London's very own Rooster Byron! What's not to like?

[Bluerevolution]

repeated tomorrow at 1120pm BBC2

[MrBen]

For a documentary I thought both have been excellently researched, produced and filmed so far. I love how they've found and focussed on true characters.

Projecting the old films onto a the side of a terrace in Deptford and that sweeping camera sequence of the high street and it's characters against the gospel music before the credits was telling and moving. It's amazing what can be said with a camera without dialogue. Beautiful and almost enough to make me want to start watching TV again.

[Sue]

MrBen Wrote:

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Beautiful and almost enough to make me want to start watching TV again.

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I started watching TV again when my daughter gave me her PVR when she moved to a place where she had to get satellite due to poor reception.

Being able to record only the programmes you are interested in and watch them any time you want is just brilliant.

There was a thing on last week (I think) called something like Britain in a Day, where they gave loads of people cameras to film what they were doing on one particular day, that was wonderful. I've kept it to watch again.

ETA: The Caledonian Road is the next programme in the Secret History, on this week. I'm interested as I used to work round the corner.

[DJKillaQueen]

I watched this and thought it was excellent. It interweaved the social history very well with the passion of those residents who fought to make Camberwell Grove their own. And as a narrative is a perfect example of socio-economic evolution (which has kind of run full circle). Look forward to watching the rest of the series and hope all the episodes will be equslly as intelligent.

[the-e-dealer]

The Great Thing about PVRs is you can record stuff then delete it without watching it.

[MrBen]

What struck me most was the utter folly of so many 60's planning decisions in central London, and how we are still living with the consequences in 2012. Knocking down crescents of 3 story victorian terraces off the Caldedonian Road (of which some remaining on nearby street now go for ?2M each) to put in place mouldering pre-fabs that have half the lifespan was a crime.

It's not all about "desirable" period property but you have to wonder if they could have maintained those old properties for less than it cost to build the concrete stuff. And then this weird subscribed view from planners and architects of what modern living was supposed to look like - people stopping for a chat on the subway under Elephant after doing their shopping etc. No consideration of simple landscaping that works and makes everyone feel better about life. As DJKQ says we've almost come full circle.

[????]

The state gets too big and knows best and that's what you get MrB

[DJKillaQueen]

I completely agree Mr ben. I think those 60s planners genuinely felt they were solving a problem with a cheap and imaginative solution, but I think most would agree it was an experiment with a high cost that completely failed. Hindsight is always easy though.

[Marmora Man]

DJKillaQueen Wrote:

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> I completely agree Mr ben. I think those 60s

> planners genuinely felt they were solving a

> problem with a cheap and imaginative solution, but

> I think most would agree it was an experiment with

> a high cost that completely failed. Hindsight is

> always easy though.

But it's still going in in Liverpool and similar places. The last Gov't's Pathfinder scheme devastated vast swathes and then failed to even replace the buildings that are now mouldering away for want of investment. I've seen a number of truly imaginative schemes that would upgrade / refurbish the old terraced streets to create wonderful 2 - 4 bedroom houses, with green spaces and all on a human scale. (4 bedrooms created by joining two terraced properties.

There's one here but I'm sure there are others.