Love Clapham has received an email from the disasters historian, John Withington, who has a book out called London Disasters. In the book is a piece on Clapham disasters which is an interesting, if tragic read. In the book John explains how at the Arding & Hobbs store in Clapham Junction (now Debenhams)  in the run-up to Christmas in 1909, a fairy light bulb exploded in the window and set fire to tinsel and cotton wool decorations.

The fire engines were on the scene within four minutes, and eventually 30 fought the fire, but they could not prevent nine people being killed, and the store being completely destroyed. The heat was so intense it was said to have cooked the turkeys in a poulterer’s across the road, but Arding and Hobbs managed to get itself re-built and open again for the following Christmas.

John – one of Britain’s leading disaster historians – also tells how nearly 80 years later on a bright, sunny December morning, a train driver in a cutting approaching Clapham Junction saw the green light in front of him turn to red as he was almost upon it.    This was something that was supposed to be impossible under the automatic signalling system in use on the line.    When he stopped his train to call the signal box, another ploughed into it, and a third coming the other way hit wreckage thrown into its path.

A fourth train managed to stop short of the disaster.  If it had failed, the potential consequences “do not bear contemplating” according to the official inquiry.  As it was, 35 people were killed and 69 seriously injured in London’s worst rail crash of the last 35 years.   It transpired that the whole disaster had occurred because an overworked technician had connected up a signal wrongly.

More information on the Clapham rail disaster can be found on the BBC, Wikipedia and of course in John’s book, London Disasters.

Please donate just £2.50 (or what you can afford) to the charity Amy is volunteering for: Raleigh International. Your donation will build schools, protect endangered Elephants and support poor rural communities in India.

Love Clapham has just launched a new, better, easier to use online community to help our mission of bringing everyone in Clapham together using this site.  Whether you just want to see who’s in the area or voice a concern about Clapham issues, please join to talk and meet other people in your area. We have a new community events section and an improved directory on the way soon as part of the community. Together we are better connected, better informed and a stronger voice.

Join the Clapham Community!

It’s that time of year again when we all head to Clapham Common, strip off most (in some cases all) of our clothes and burn our skin to the sound of amazing music from some of the world’s best artists with an alcoholic bevvy in hand. Yup, it’s time for Clapham Common Festival season – just another typical summer eh? There’s tonnes going on and here’s a brief run through of what’s been, gone and coming up…

• Saturday, 24 July
  Ben & Jerry’s Sundae on the Common: day one (go to site) SOLD OUT
• Sunday, 25 July
  Ben & Jerry’s Sundae on the Common: day two (go to site) SOLD OUT
• Saturday, 28th August
  South West Four 2010: day one with Armin Van Buuren (go to site)
• Sunday, 29th August
  South West Four 2010: day two with Fat Boy Slim and Salt n’ Pepa (go to site)
• Friday, 24 September
  Toast Festival: South Africa (go to site)
• Saturday, 25 September
  Toast Festival: New Zealand (go to site)
• Sunday, 26 September
  Toast Festival: Australia (go to site)

Have you been to one? Was it good? Bad? Tell us on the Clapham Forum.

Tragic news Clappers. Fellow Clapham citizen @stuartleewhite stumbled upon the traumatic scene above where this little blighter – who we shall call Classie (do you get it? do you get it?!) – after being mown down on Northcote Road near Clapham Junction this week. A tear doth run down my cheek for poor Classie died of a severe case of stuffing being knocked out of her. Paramedics did arrive according to Stuart, but they were too late. If you were a witness, please write in ASAP to help the local police solve this pawful crime.

Love Clapham is prone to the odd over-the-top superlative here and there (obviously!) but believe it or not, that is the actual name of those new blue streaks down Clapham High Street. Yes ladies and gentlemen, thanks to the heads up from Clapper @XanderBrown, say hello to Clapham’s section of the Cycle Superhighway!

The Transport For London website  explains it best with “The project is one of TfL’s and the Mayor’s main ways of bringing about a London cycling revolution. We aim to increase cycling in London by 400 per cent by 2025 (compared to 2000 levels).” Although it’s quite depressing that they set a goal fifteen years into the future, which may as well be 50 years into the future it’s so meaningless.

It is an admirable scheme though and one Love Clapham welcomes with its open arms to give it a massive bear hug to say hello. Not only is the blue quite cool, it will make cycling that little bit safer but there can never be enough superhighways in this world. Read more and watch a video here.

Exciting news! Local author Helen Smith, who lives on the border of Brixton and Clapham, has just had her two novels based in the area republished ten years after their original release. The first, Alison Wonderland, is about a woman who joins an all-female detective agency in Brixton – it includes a scene on Clapham Common and another in Battersea Park . The second, Being Light, is about a man who flies away on a freak gust of wind while setting up a bouncy castle in Brockwell Park. Love Clapham has managed to get our grubby paws on two signed copies of the books to give away to two Clappers. If you’d like to win them, email in the answer to this question: what other famous female author spent some time living in Clapham? Winner to be announced on Friday 16th July. Learn more about the two books below.

Alison Wonderland by Helen Smith
[ISBN:978-0956517005]

When Alison joins Mrs Fitzgerald’s Bureau of Investigation as a private detective, her new job takes her on a series of loosely linked adventures involving an abandoned baby, a transgenic animal and secret tunnels under The Thames. She travels from London to the seaside town of Weymouth and back again with her new best friend Taron, a girl with a hundred candle smile. But someone is betraying her. Is it Taron? Is it Jeff, the sweet-natured inventor who writes her poetry? Or are there darker forces at play?

Reviews:

• Only occasionally does a piece of fiction leap out and demand immediate cult status. Alison Wonderland is one. The Times
• Made me sigh and throw it to the floor in a fit of envious pique. Julie Burchill, Guardian
• A fantastical Thelma and Louise meets Agatha Christie adventure story. The dialogue is smart and the deadpan humour is perfectly judged. The List

Being Light by Helen Smith
[ISBN: 978-0956517036]

Roy Travers is swept away by a freak gust of wind while trying to install a bouncy castle in Brockwell Park , south London . Sheila, his wife, can’t understand why he hasn’t found his way back home. She begins to suspect that Roy has been abducted by aliens and enlists the help of Mrs Fitzgerald’s Bureau of Investigation to find him. Sheila travels to Kent with Alison, a private detective. Together they build a missing persons advertisement out of pebbles on a beach, hoping it will be seen by the aliens who have taken Roy . But Roy was not taken by aliens. The truth is far stranger.

Reviews:

• Smith has a keen eye for material details, but her prose is lucid and uncluttered by heavy description. Imagine a satire on Cool Britannia made by the Coen Brothers… very funny. Times Literary Supplement
• This is a novel in which the ordinary and the unusual are constantly juxtaposed in various idiosyncratic characters… Its airy quirkiness is a delight. The Times
• A screwball comedy that really works. The Independent

Author Biography

Helen Smith writes novels, poetry, plays and screenplays. She travelled the world when her daughter was small, doing all sorts of strange jobs to support them both – from cleaning motels to working as a magician’s assistant – before returning to live in London where she wrote her first novel, Alison Wonderland. She’s a long-term supporter of the Medical Foundation for the Victims of Torture and mentors members of an exiled writers group to help them tell their stories. Visit her blog.

As you may have heard by now, Network Rail has had to cancel a number of major UK station redevelopments after having its £100 million budget reduced in the new Government’s budget cuts. The busiest station in Europe, our very own Clapham Junction, was the first and possibly most high profile of the station improvement works to face the chop. So, the severely run down station will stay that way for a long time to come. Given how bad it is already, Love Clapham dreads to think how it will look over the coming years and that’s not even taking into account safety – some of those platforms are incredibly uneven and dangerous. The London Evening Standard has more details of some works that will still take place, but still, it’s a blow given how many people use this station every single day.

Well blow me down – will you just look at this Clappers! It’s only the bloomin’ phoenix of an approved hotel rising from the ashes of the rejected plans from last year.  Yep, this revised plan of a seventy room hotel with, from what I can tell, seven floors (it’s actually 8 – thanks Cyril!) has been approved by planners. A fantastic result for all concerned because not only does Clapham Junction receive a much needed development in a tired corner, local residents can now enjoy the service without the worry of the high sky line.

If you were walking or driving through Clapham on Sunday 4th July you no doubt saw the chaos caused by a fairly severe fire opposite Clapham Common underground station on Clapham High Street. The start of the fire, in the Float Centre health clinic, is under investigation, but The Sun is reporting it may have been started by a sun bed. Thankfully no Clappers were seriously injured although a 70 year old lady was taken to hospital for smoke inhalation and the two ladies photographed had a fairly traumatic experience perched on a second floor window ledge. Well, we do like a bit of drama in Claps, don’t we? (Source: Daily Mail)

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.

I’m not Clapham bashing I promise, you always have a good night out in good ol’Claps but it would be nice to have some cooler venues that at least tried to be quirky. It’s not just the nightlife either, Clapham, in its boom years has lost some of its quirky charm. It feels less like London and more like a small town from the Midlands. Not in itself a bad thing obviously, but the reason none of us are living in a town in the Midlands is because we want the best of both worlds.

There’s an interesting new cafe, come bar, come retro clothes shop called Sekonda (which I’ve mentioned before) under the arches by the Clapham High Street trainstation. That’s interesting, that’s unique. I’d love it if Clapham had a little bit more flair like this and fewer attempts to be generic, inoffensive venues whose sole purpose feels like it’s to make money. We all need to earn a living, but where’s the passion?

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.

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!

Most of Clapham is covered by Lambeth Council so I’m going to focus on this. Lambeth Council has done a good job addressing key issues locally over the years they’ve been in office. Importantly, they have addressed crime well, increased development correctly, frozen council tax in the recession and done many significant things for the local community. Below is my account of things as I see it, but I don’t claim to be an expert, so please add any extra info or corrections in the comments.

Crime

Firstly, the Labour Council has reduced crime rates for five consecutive years – this is what we expect from a local Council. I’ve been the victim of a violent mugging in Clapham and the local police force was exceptional. They addressed my attack immediately, helpfully and reassuringly. Labour are talking of increasing the size of the local police force by 25 extra officers while the Conservatives and Lib Dems do not support this. In areas like Clapham where the number of residents is huge, we need this extra number of officers to protect us. Without this extra support, attacks like mine will continue to happen to more people. Vitally, the Labour Council has engaged with the schools, colleges and youth centres to really speak out to the thousands of young people in Lambeth. To remove Labour now when they are running this successful youth scheme seems crazy.

Development

The Labour Council has protected a number of Clapham’s most important buildings like the Clapham Library. The other parties wanted to sell this off and they certainly didn’t have the grand development plans the Labour Council has begun to improve the leisure centre and look of Clapham High Street. The Conservatives and Lib Dems are promising “leisure development to be finished on time and to budget” which is a nonsense promise – Labour have already started it and they promise this too! If the other two parties had been in charge now, we wouldn’t have the same level of local development in the first place. The existing Labour Council is also putting into place plans to improve our damaged roads.

Frozen Council Tax

We all know Lambeth’s Council Tax is incredibly high compared to the rest of London because of the masses of local authority housing in the borough. However, in the recession the Labour Council froze the council tax for at least two years. This was the right decision.

Graffiti

Clapham (and indeed Lambeth) has a minor graffiti problem. The council has acknowledged this and is quick to remove it when impossible to prevent.

Community

The Mayor of Lambeth, Christopher Wellbelove, is one standout member of the Lambeth Labour team who has helped generate a local sense of community by making the local council approachable. He is also an extremely active councillor. Both attributes start at the top with Lambeth Council leader Steve Reed and seems to extend to many members of the existing council. Few councils across the country have such enthusiastic and passionate members.

Gay rights

To be blunt there are a lot of gay men and women in Clapham and you will either be one or may at least know someone here that is gay. The Conservative Party is not a gay friendly party in any way shape or form. Lib Dems have a better agenda for gay people’s rights, but Labour is incredibly supportive, making gay people’s lives in the UK much better.

Summary

So, whatever party you vote to elect in the general election, I would strongly advise that you continue to support the existing council – Labour – at a local level. I think it will be detrimental to the local community to remove a successful local council. Feel free to disagree, change my mind or share your views below…

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…

First, the good news – it’s not bloody winter any more! If you’re anything like Love Clapham you will have noticed the plants are growing, the psychotic squirrels are chasing birds around our gardens again and this giant ball of burning flame has appeared in the sky which you may – quite rightly – have forgotten is called The Sun. With the re-emergence of The Sun, Clapham seems to have sprung into life and activity.

Clapham is a buzz with local events at the moment with Venn Street Market now a regular on any discerning Clapper’s social schedule. There is also a Jazz Brunch (only in Clapham, eh Clappers?), an Easter Craft Fair and Street Hip Hop Dance Classes to keep you busy in the coming weeks.

There seems to have been some local shop activity too. Over on Love Clapham’s side of town, Clapham North (aka the best part of Clapham), a new clothes shop and hairdressers have opened under the recently renovated arches. Get this: they are both coffee shops too. Yes, a coffee shop in a clothes shop and a hairdresser. Proving that in Clapham we actually DO do things by halves, we just do two things by halves and stick them together.

Of course, with all that fun comes a serious side… WAIT right where you are. Serious is good too. Elections are looming and the local parties are becoming as hyper as the local squirrels, dropping off leaflets and trying to explain why Labour, the Conservatives or the Lib Dems are the best for our community. Labour have looked after Lambeth for some time now and have done an excellent job. Whether you want things to stay that way or you want to try something different is obviously your decision – we’d welcome your opinion though.

The only leisure you'll be getting out of this Leisure Centre for the time being is destruction

Which leads nicely onto the bad news, if bad news can ever be introduced nicely. Clapham no longer has a swimming pool, the leisure centre is in the process of being demolished (photos here), as is the massive old grey tower block on Clapham High Street. Also, we received an email from London Underground last week informing us the Northern Line is going to be closed early on some evenings in the week and over 1 in 3 weekends for the next 18 months or so. Ouch. Wasn’t it only a couple of years ago we went through this?

On the mega plus side, the reason for the pool / leisure centre smash up is because it will eventually be replaced by a spanking new leisure centre. Although we will have to wait until the end of 2011 for it to open. Rome wasn’t built in a day, so Love Clapham can deal with this time period (although some of our Twitter followers don’t want to).

The only other bad news from Love Clapham’s perspective is that Clapham High Street’s water pipe replacement by Thames Water is still on going, and that started at least 18 months ago. It’s been a right royal pain in the Clapham ass the entire time too.

Oh, and junk mail from local businesses is still an issue.

However, and it’s a big however, it looks like Clapham is continuing to be on the up. All of these improvements will result in eventual rewards to be reaped by Clapham residents. So, all will hopefully be well that ends well. Stay tooned Clappers, Love Clapham won’t be as lazy with the updates in future and I may even right them properly instead of the annoying way in which I’ve written this story.

(Thanks to @ishra for the photos!)

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!

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.

If I want to read their news I will visit their website or pick up a copy from a shop that distributes it. I do not want publications or any junk mail I haven’t asked for forced into my property. It’s an abuse of my home.

I want to support local businesses and I want to see the Wandsworth Guardian continue to grow, but it has to respect the wishes of the people it’s trying to represent. I don’t mind advertising in magazines and newspapers I choose to pick up, but I do if it’s supporting a newspaper conducting bad practice.

My recommendations for these newspapers are simple:

1. Immediately tell your distributors to stop posting these unwanted papers through letterboxes with ‘No Junk Mail’ stickers
2. Consider a better model where you offer your paper in shops instead of forcing it on people. You may have a smaller distribution but at least advertisers will know every one sold is being read rather than thrown away. Also, you won’t be damaging the environmant.
3. Focus more on your websites, they are far more important (ask me for help! I know a thing or two about building online businesses!)

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.

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.

Venn Street Market takes place over three days – Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays on the last weekend of every month. Fridays and Saturdays are FOOD market days and Sundays are FLOWER market days with FOOD.

Market dates for 2010:

• Friday 29 – Sunday 31 January
• Friday 26 – Sunday 28 February
• Friday 26 – Sunday 28 March
• Friday 23 – Sunday 25 April
• Friday 28 – Sunday 30 May
• Friday 25 – Sunday 27 June
• Friday 23 – Sunday 25 July
• Friday 27 – Sunday 29 August
• Friday 24 – Sunday 26 September
• Friday 29 – Sunday 31 October
• Friday 26 – Sunday 28 November
• Christmas Market to be confirmed

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.

Delays to the project, while understandable given the economic downturn, have caused concern among local Clappers with @Jason_Cobb saying “My concerns are that Future Clap’ham will continue to run behind schedule. Already 2 years late.” Indeed, with no leisure centre in the heart of Clapham until the new building is complete in 18 months or so, Clappers are being advised to hop on a bus to nearby Brixton for their fitness needs.

Us Clappers certainly know a thing or two about aesthetics and the importance of making a good visual impression, so it’s unsurprising that the most controversial topic is the look of the two buildings. About the main tower block building @edwardclarke says “I like the design! Big improvement on the very dull building that’s there now,” while @alliekeith says “I don’t like the suggested apartments on the high st – looks like a cartoon.” The fact that the designs are just diagrams at the moment probably doesn’t help, but Love Clapham can see her point; it does have a touch of the Flint Stones about it. Nevertheless, Love Clapham loves the main High Street block and it will certainly add to the unusual character of the street started by our spaceship styled Sainsburys!

The new Leisure Centre however is the biggest sore spot for most Clappers. Last April we reported a drive by residents in the area to object against the plans for more social housing on the site with only a few car parking spaces to cope. Also, Clappers weren’t particularly happy about the proposed ‘modern’ look of the building described then on a leaflet as “a big white monstrosity.”

Indeed, opinion doesn’t seem to have changed on this one, “new Clapham Leisure Centre looks like a multistorey car park mated with a supermarket. But it’s what’s on the inside that counts,” says @filmish. It doesn’t stop there with @bigsquiddiving likening it to “a storage unit rather than a leisure centre!” and @edwardclarke asking “Maybe should have preserved Victorian facade on modern rebuild?”

Here at Love Clapham HQ, we have to agree that we’d have preferred the leisure centre to have remained in keeping, at least on the outside, with the residential street it sits on. Having said that, with all progress comes change and there’s no denying that this huge investment in Clapham is nothing but a good thing. The Leisure Centre may look like a big greenhouse, but the facilities are going to be state-of-the-art and useful, while the High Street development is something everyone in Clapham should be proud of. Clapham High Street is desperately in need of investment and something to really put it on the map, this building will undoubtedly do that.

So, thanks to everyone involved for getting this huge project off the ground at last and here’s to hoping more delays don’t happen. To find out more Love Clapham will be interviewing people at the helm of the project soon – stay tuned!

What do you think of Clapham One? Tell us below and visit the Clapham One website for pictures and more information.

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!)