“Why do escalators feel like they’re still moving when they’re stationary?” One of the questions whirring around my head when I got on the tube at Clapham North this morning and one I am sure I’ll find the answer to on the internet. If not, then the Clapham North ‘thought of the day’ board will probably explain soon. A month since Love Clapham went live and the amount of questions I’ve had answered about my home town is incredible, thanks to the internet and the local people that use it.

It was a great start to the site meeting Christopher Wellbelove, Lambeth Mayor

As soon as I started looking for fellow Clappers online, I stumbled upon a decent little network of friendly, helpful people from the local community. It’s been great fun meeting new people and getting to know them but I bet it’s something most people living in London wouldn’t think to do. Which is bad. One of the reasons I enjoy living in Clapham is for its community that can be lacking in other areas I’ve lived in like Putney and Hammersmith. My upstairs neighbours (from down-under) are the prime example of friendliness – something I’m sure is largely unheard of in London neighbours.

It almost feels like Love Clapham has been around longer than it has with so much going on. It’s amazing what can happen in a month. Since this site launched Clapham seems to have deflected the global disaster threat of Swine Flu, MPs have been exposed for outrageous expense claims, Susan Boyle became an unlikely global megastar, we interviewed the Mayor of Lambeth, a major development was approved for Clapham High Street, another was rejected for Clapham Junction and Love Clapham secured our tickets to see Lady Gaga live at Brixton Academy.

If you’ve visited this site since its launch, you might be left wondering why this blog popped up out of nowhere full of random postings about “Clappers” and ramblings about Susan Boyle. Well, since I was a teen in my bedroom I’ve always used websites to help communities communicate. And that’s my single motivation behind Love Clapham, to offer a website where any person living or interested in Clapham can come to exchange and share information with each other. It doesn’t have to be about Clapham, in fact I’d rather talk about who you think will win Britain’s Got Talent (obviously because I keep banging on about Susan Boyle). 

I hope Love Clapham can be used as a facilitator for building the local community in some small way. Whether it’s the Mayor of Lambeth, staff at Lambeth College or the owners of local shops and restaurants, if you’d have asked me even six weeks ago if I’d be speaking to them I wouldn’t have suspected that actually, I would. Everyone I’ve met has been very passionate about the local area and supportive of this website, which I’m very glad about because I’ve created it for them. It’s nice to know that there is a network of support out there for all sorts of issues, even if you don’t have regular contact with them. And they’re right on your doorstep. 

If you’d like to find out more about the people in your area, or suggest something for this website, why not start or take part in a conversation on our community forum? Starting with Britain’s Got Talent. While the smart money is on Susan Boyle, I suspect it could be a closer race than you think…

Jack Wallington
Editor, Love Clapham