Love Clapham website is the local guide for residents and visitors of the Clapham area, London. This includes Clapham Common, Clapham North, Clapham South, Clapham Old Town, Clapham Junction and the surrounding areas of Battersea, Balham, Stockwell, Vauxhall and more.
Has Clapham’s nightlife grown stale?
Now don’t get me wrong. I love Clapham (most obviously) but recently I’ve grown a bit bored of all of the bars and clubs. As more have popped up and attempted to be trendy and fashionable, I can’t help but feel they’ve also become a bit, well, generic. Compare Clapham to Shoreditch and Soho, where you get a mix of trendy, casual and [insert style of choice] and it doesn’t stand up very well in terms of variety. Continue reading
Local election results 2010
Good grief, what a palaver we’ve got ourselves into. I don’t know about you Clappers but I stayed up until 4am yesterday, glued to my screen watching the results come in. I am shattered, and I bet Gordo, Nicko and Davo are too. Well, while the Government sort things out, at least we know the result of the local borough elections. In Vauxhall Kate Hooey won for Labour. In Streatham Chukka Umunna won for Labour. In Battersea Jane Ellison won for Conservative. In Tooting Sadiq Khan won for Labour. What a bizarre week this is all turning out to be. Onwards and upwards though, it’s Eurovision in a few weeks.
Clapham Election – make sure you vote!
This Thursday residents of Clapham will be able to vote in the general election and the local Lambeth or Wandsworth Council elections (voting is open from 7am – 10pm). I was planning an impartial blog post and I’ve been struggling with it because it’s so hard to differentiate between the parties and I actually feel the existing council has done a good job. So instead, as this is a personal blog about Clapham, an area I live in, I have chosen to give a personal view in which I believe – and this post is strictly on a local level – Labour should continue to run the council for Lambeth and Clapham. If you’re not interested in my personal opinion, it’s probably best to stop reading now! Continue reading
Clapham Spring News Round-up
Like a big bad pink boyfriend, I have let you down Clapham. Love Clapham simply hasn’t been paying you enough attention recently. With spring in the air however, it’s time for me to bring out the flowers and make things better. Yes, I am going to virtually snog you with an update on the latest Clapham news. Read on dear and loyal Clappers, read on… Continue reading
The White House – 10 years old!
One of Clapham’s best known night spots and actually one of its landmarks is celebrating its 10th anniversary of business this coming weekend. To help celebrate, The White House has an extravagant line-up of top class acts turning up to kick start the party. In fact, it’s nothing short of amazing with Maxi Jazz of Faithless, Basement Jaxx and The Freemasons all taking their turn to perform and DJ on different nights from Thursday to Sunday. Go to The White House website for all of the information and to buy a three night pass for £20. Love Clapham will definitely be stopping by!
‘No’ to local newspapers through letter boxes
If you’ve been following @loveclapham on Twitter you’ll know how annoyed I’m getting with the Wandsworth Guardian. I have a No Junk Mail sticker on my letter box, yet despite this and repeated requests to the newspaper to stop they are still ignoring my sticker and shoving their paper through my door. What’s worse is that it’s a Wandsworth borough newspaper and I couldn’t be further into the Lambeth end of Clapham if I tried. Since moving to Clapham North I’ve received one of these newspapers a week amounting to over 60 papers that have gone straight in the recycling bin. While some people may read it, I’d imagine others don’t want it. The same of all papers forced on people in this way. It’s a waste of money for the companies advertising in it and bad for the environment. Continue reading
Mayor of Lambeth Civic Service
Lambeth’s larger than life Mayor, Christopher Wellbelove, will be celebrating the year’s Mayoralty at the Holy Trinity Church on Clapham Common on Sunday 14th February at 2.50 – 4.00pm. It is open to all and followed by refreshments. Not only will this give you the chance to see this magnificent and historic building, it’s also an opportunity to raise money for the local charities Trinity Hospice, Clapham Youth Centre and Lambeth Womens Aid. Importantly, it’s also a chance to celebrate our Mayor – from Clapham! – who’s played a massive role in our community this year. Hopefully you can all make it.
Venn Street Market – 2010 dates
Everyone loved Venn Street Market when it rolled into Clapham town at the end of last year, although few people knew about it. Luckily, the market has committed to return on a regular basis this year and Love Clapham is bloomin’ over the moon! Nice hot sandwiches, burgers, churros and more for Saturday and Sunday lunch 
The dates are below. Continue reading
Clapham One development is go!
The future face of the Clapham High Street area, named Clapham One, is finally taking shape after a long delay caused by funding problems during the recession. But, it’s a new year and Lambeth Council has now secured the construction of a new library, mini shopping centre and housing unit on the High Street and an entirely new, renovated leisure centre to replace the (now closed) existing one. The scheme is exciting, but has been met with some criticism. We asked our Clapper followers on Twitter what they thought. Continue reading
Going, going…
Mary Seacole House’s number seems to be up. It’s the old Council building on Clapham High Street, and to be honest, the dated building was doomed the day the plans for the new Clapham library and shopping complex were approved to be built on the site. Lambeth Council leader Steve Reed expressed his desire to see the building removed as soon as possible last year, and with scaffolding being erected his wish looks set to come true! Love Clapham can’t wait. If you love pictures of scaffolding, see below (I promise these pics will get more exciting as the thing is torn down!) Continue reading
Happy New Year Clappers!
What a poor snowing we’ve had in Clapham. Promised 40cm we’ve woken to a maximum of 2cm and pavements covered in ice. On my way to work I thought we’d been overrun by zombies as people shuffled toward the tube station. I for one feel short changed… It does look pretty though, so please keep uploading your snow pics to our Clapham Network. I should take this opportunity to wish each and every Clapper a very happy New Year! 2009 was a fantastic start for Love Clapham and I’m so grateful for the support I’ve received. I’ve found it great fun keeping everyone informed of local issues and this year I plan to keep going with local news and info plus to start getting slightly political in the run up to the local elections to help all of us make the right decisions (usually I’ve got no idea who I should be voting for!) If there’s anything you think Love Clapham should be doing more of in 2010, please let me know
Clapham parking madness!
Well Clappers, you won’t believe what happened to Love Clapham yesterday. My sister is off to Australia for a month and I’m looking after her car (she lives in Leeds and flew from Heathrow). On Tuesday 29th December, I merrily popped off to the Lambeth Parking Shop to get a month long parking permit, the ladies working there were fantastically helpful. To cover myself in the meantime, I bought a pay and display ticket until 12.30pm. When I arrived back to the house at Midday, with half an hour to spare I found a penalty notice on my car despite the still active ticket being stuck in the windscreen. Oh yes, I was angry! Continue reading
| 1. | Le Petit Boulangerie, Abbeville Road | 1. | Lack of waffles on sale in cafes |
| 2. | Gastro, Venn Street | 2. | Too many Sainsbury's |
| 3. | Clapham's new Leisure Centre | 3. | Rainy weekends :o( |
| 4. | Venn Street Sat market | 4. | Rubbish shops on the High Street |
| 5. | Costa in Clapham Junction station | 5. |