Peckham Florida

[mockney piers]

Is it true about the Palm Trees on Peckham High St. I was listening to a very surreal conversation on the tube this morning, and this chap with a booming voice was decrying Southwarks use of ?30k of taxpayers' money to line Peckham with Palm Trees.

If so I demand Lordship Lane get a host of Saguaro cacti now!!

[Ant]

They'd be well suited to our future climate. (Unless of course they end up underwater.)

[MrsEd]

There was a half-page article in Monday's Daily Mail, with several photos; they're between the bus station and Queens Rd BR.

[bagpuss78]

Some have been planted near the bus station, I see them, close my eyes and pretend I'm really on my way to work in sunny Bermondsey! B)

[MadWorld74]

You can line the pavements with sand and have rum served up free on the way to work, but Peckham for me still remains a miserable and run down place. Sorry for those of you who love it (my next door neighbour has a sign displayed in their front window reading 'I love Peckham', but we both live in ED) Peckham used to be nice, just look up from street level and see the great old architecture. To me it's a place I have to travel through every day to get to and from work. Nothing more. The library and the farmers market bring it some class at least.

[ratty]

Having just been advised of Southwark Councils Maternity Pay package for my wife, I am surprised they can shell out 30p for something let along ?30 grand!

I shall use this as a stick to beat them!

[georgia]

I agree - it pi***s me off that their idea of regenerating these run-down areas is to put up a few palm trees. Surely the money would be better spent on improving housing, transport etc etc

[fractionater]

MadWorld74 - you be careful walking through there every day! Just make sure you're wearing your bullet/Stab proof vest, and don't look anyone in the eye... they might think you're dissin' them! (happened to me once and nearly started a fight - good job the cops were passing by)

[MadWorld74]

I've already been 'started' on by some bloke yelling abuse at me, and why? I walked 'too near' him as I was on my way to the bus stop. The police don't even go there unless they're en route somewhere else. Palm trees? Sort out the shootings first dear MP's.

[mockney piers]

I know Peckham's not to everyone's taste. Mrs Mockers looks positively alarmed every time we visit, but I do like it's charm (and scotch bonnet peppers) but strictly during the day. And yeah, you have turn a blind eye to people starting on each other etc

Admittedly this does seem something of a folly, but tracking down some minutes it seems to have been originally promoted by residents' groups back in about 2005, and anything that helps a troubled area buy into community can't be all bad can it?

Besides, I want those cacti ;)

[Parker's Folly]

As I'm sure you are all aware, quite a lot of money is being spent widening the Walworth Road pavements, in the process narrowing the actual road and in my opinion, causing chaos. I don't live around there, but is there really a need to widen pavements along there? The traffic is so heavy along that road that surely it could cause bottlenecks in future?

Who knows, if they plant palm trees there as well, it could become the Sunset Boulevard of London, with Dulwich and Cystal Palace neatly placed to take on the mantel of Hollywood Hills!

[mockney piers]

I was just thinking on the 68 bus last night how nice the pavement looks, and how much more of a congenial environment it makes Walworth Rd. Isn't it about time we did the same (cacti and all) to LL's shameful pavements, to make it Tenochtitlan to Walworth's Sunset Boulevard?

[Ant]

You don't happen to have a job-lot of cacti you're looking to shift, do you Mockers? Special price for the council?

[mockney piers]

Darn, found out :D. We could start at the Crystal Palace Road end of LL, just by that green door on the corner.

[Ant]

I think I know the one... by the Plough Cafe?

[Keef]

Flickr? ;-)

[Ant]

Possibly. ;)

[louisiana]

Ant Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> You don't happen to have a job-lot of cacti you're

> looking to shift, do you Mockers? Special price

> for the council?

I'm thinking about planting a pomegranate tree, as well as a fig.

Louisiana

[AcedOut]

I've been travelling to work via Peckham Rye for over 3 years now and have never seen any trouble - and that often includes travelling back quite late in the evening. The Rye area is hardly glamorous, but I've never felt threatened there. I wish people would give the place a break Rodney!

[fractionater]

You probably look to 'ard then Aced!

[AcedOut]

The only time I've seen any trouble is on or outside busses, and in innermost Peckham towards Old Kent Road. Both of which I tend to avoid.

What gets me are the people that sit in busses and openly listen to the similar sounding (crap rap, as I like to call it) distorted 'music' playing from their mobile phones for all to hear. I keep meaning to carry a set of cheap headphones to throw at those people. If they can afford the phone, surely they have some spare pocket money for headphones, no? One day I'll get beaten up for the looks I give them. It almost happened on a train, but I think he was more scared of me! A young child would have been able to flick that character to the floor with his little finger.

How about a new campaign - Headphones for Hoodies (HfH) ??

 

[Ant]

Apparently it's illegal (playing music on buses) but not particularly enforceable. I think I also heard that they might be changing or adding to the legislation to make it easier to enforce, but I can't remember any details so it's possible that I'm just making that bit up. Anyone else heard the same?

(Does this count as offtoppication?)

[Keef]

There is actually a website campaigne about this very thing, but can't remember the address off the top of my head. I would genuinely rather them play the music louder through a proper stereo than listen to the awful tinny round you get from a mobile speaker, it drives me insane! Doesn't help that I pass about 5 schools on the way to work! :-(

[mockney piers]

Perhaps we could plant Headphone trees on Lordship Lane, like those lovely spaghetti trees in Italy?

[mockney piers]

He he, I love this new functionality in google maps

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&om=1&z=15&ll=51.459622,-0.068192&spn=0.01615,0.034032&msid=116533662858830805344.00000111e12305c1d712b&msa=0&mid=1176304123