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!)

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

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!

Not only did this leave me extremely annoyed over the Christmas break, but also worried about having to pay a penalty of between £60 – £120. Hardly a small sum of money. Now, I have faith that my appeal will go through, it’s pretty hard to ignore the times and dates on the tickets. However, my biggest concern is that such a ‘mistake’ could happen to other people. So, I’ve sent the below letter which I’d like to publish here as an open letter.

To whom it may concern

RE: Unfair Penalty Charge Notice

I bought a pay and display parking ticket for my car at 8.29am, expiring at 12.30pm on Tuesday 29^th December for ******* Road, Clapham (the road on which I live). The ticket was clearly displayed on the windscreen, however on returning to the car I found the Penalty Charge (no. LH42439027) had been issued at 11.36, despite having almost an hour left on my ticket. I have enclosed copies of both the penalty charge notice and the parking ticket on display. Please can you review this and cancel the penalty charge notice.

Although I understand mistakes happen, I would also like to register a complaint about Civil Enforcement Officer ****** who should at least have their processes checked. My parking ticket was clearly displayed in the windscreen of the car with considerable time left, so they either didn’t look at all or simply chose to ignore the ticket. Although this letter doesn’t take long to write and send, it is an inconvenience and a worry I shouldn’t have to do deal with, particularly after paying £8.40 for the car to be parked in the zone. My biggest concern is that this could be happening to other people.

One final comment is a recommendation that you please consider allowing this review process to be submitted by email. It would make the entire process far easier for both parties, particularly for people like me who don’t own a printer and would like to keep digital records.

Regards,

Jack Wallington

MilkInIt has been voted top mince pie retailer near Clapham Common in a taste test by local students. Four students tried mince pies from six food retailers in Clapham, which included Starbucks, Greggs, Esca, MilkInIt, McDonalds and The Windmill. The winning mince pie came top for both its pastry and mincemeat, and was served warm with a choice of brandy cream or frozen yoghurt.

MilkInIt shop owner Antonia Kadri said: “It’s what mince pies are accompanied with that makes them so special.” The mince pie retails for £1.55 with toppings, or a bargain 55 pence without. MilkInIt also had a French take on the mince pie, which consisted of crepes with mincemeat and brandy cream.

Esca, another independent retailer sold a mince pie crumble, which had a crumble topping rather than traditional short-crust one. Waitress Mathilde Delarse said: “The owner is very adventurous, so it’s typical of her to put a twist on tradition.” The pie retails for £1.50. Esca, a real festive haven, was also the reviewers’ favourite place to indulge in the Christmas treat.

Starbucks came out top of chains, with their luxury all-butter mince pie, which retailed for £1.65 if sitting in. Philippa Burton said: “I’m really impressed. The pastry just melts in the mouth.”

Staple high street bakery, Gregg’s, was described by Nneka Opara as “cheap and cheerful. The pastry let it down, but it was a bargain at only 30 pence.”

The reviewers were less impressed with the McDonald’s Festive Pie, which was described by Anna Parkin as “a festive fright” due to the texture of the pastry and the custard inside. The pies retail for 99 pence.

The Windmill gets a special mention for its melt-in-the mouth mince pies which they are selling to raise money for Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity. All the pies cost £2.00, so here you can have your pie and contribute to a worthwhile cause.

This review was written Syma Mohammed, a local student of Lambeth College. Thanks Syma!

As you may have seen on BBC news, this morning at 8.30am a bus overturned on the junction of Plough Road and Harbut Road in Clapham Junction leaving 20 people injured with four people, including the driver, seriously injured. The BBC has a set of high resolution photos here that show how serious the accident really was. Three people had to be cut free from the bus by firefighters and a number of the passengers were rushed to hospital. The bus was a ‘C3′ bus from Clapham Junction to Earl’s Court. We’re trying to find out more and will update as we hear it… See the first picture on BBC news and read more on The Guardian, Sky News and Daily Mail. Thanks to the Clappers following Love Clapham on Twitter for the info.

To celebrate the opening of the film adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are at the Clapham Picture House, the cinema has given us some fantastic prizes to give away. We’ve got two sets of prizes for you to win, both containing a fantastic Where the Wild Things Are t-shirt and kite (we’ll see you flying it on Clapham Common!) All you have to do is email with the answer to this question: who was the author of the original Where the Wild Things Are book?

This is the list of local businesses abusing Clapham residents’ homes by ignoring people’s no junk mail stickers – which is completely unacceptable. All the businesses have to do is ask their leaflet delivery person to stop. Until then, the businesses will be listed here on LoveClapham, a site that has thousands of local residents reading it each week. And this is just the beginning of our Name & Shame Junk Mail Campaign, our messaging will get stronger. We recommend Clapham residents boycott these businesses completely until they stop. 

Businesses abusing local residents’ homes are:

1. 5 Star Building Construction
2. Curry Leaves takeaway, 103 Falcon Road
3. New Dewaniam, 225a Camberwell New Road
4. Pizza Valley takeaway, 316 Battersea Park Road
5. Plant Pizza takeaway, 155 Battersea High Street
6. Poppadom takeaway, 219 Camberwell Road
7. Wandsworth Guardian local newspaper

The Clapham Venn Street Market is back for its second weekend this Friday, Saturday and Sunday (11th, 12th, 13th December). Don’t forget, on Friday and Saturday it’s a high class food market with hot food stalls and on Sunday it’s the flower market but still with some food. It’s down by the Clapham Picture House Cinema and apparently Father Christmas will be there too! The good news is that the market will be monthly in 2010 – yippee! Full info below.

I’m sure I’m not the only one to have noticed this*, but if you skip 3min 25sec into Lady Gaga’s new song Monster I’m 91% sure** she’s singing “Clapham-Clapham-Clapham-Clapham-Clapham.” Conclusive proof*** that Gaga loves Clapham and has been on a night out in either Infernos or the Two Brewers.

* No one else would have noticed this
** Not at all sure
*** Not proof at all

This weekend saw the introduction of the Clapham Venn Street Market with locally sourced, seasonal produce piled high for Clappers to enjoy. As a local resident of Clapham, I have to say that this is probably the best thing to happen to the Clapham High Street area in years (it’s on Venn Street, outside the cinema). With a variety of hot and cold food, fresh veg, breads, cakes and even handmade Christmas decorations, it was a genuine treat, but it requires your support if you want to keep it.

Love Clapham enjoyed a hot Bratwurst with sauerkraut plus the biggest cup of freshly cooked churros and melted chocolate you have ever seen. There was plenty more on offer while it was open on Friday and Saturday, with local butcher Moen’s offering a fresh hog roast and other stalls selling food of the highest quality. On Sunday it became a flower market with hot food stalls too.

The next market is scheduled for the 11th, 12th and 13th of December (two week’s time) and it is being used as a test to see how popular the market will be for next year. So, if you want a high quality, weekly market in the future similar to Northcote Road and even a mini Borough Market, please make sure you a) tell people about it b) pop down to take a look for yourselves. I can guarantee you will not be disappointed. See more pictures in the Clapham Social Network.

As no one else has done anything about this, Love Clapham has created a three step pro-active plan to tackling Clapham’s junk mail problem including printing ‘NO JUNK MAIL’ stickers out of our own pocket, and they aren’t cheap! If you would like a free sticker, email in with your name and address. Otherwise we’ll be giving the stickers out for free in Clapham over the coming weeks, so follow us on twitter @loveclapham to receive alerts of where and when this will be (they look better in real life… I stuck mine on slightly wonky).

One of the biggest problems in Clapham is the large amount of junk mail that gets stuffed through our letter boxes every single day, and by ‘junk mail’ I mean unsolicited mail like leaflets, local newspapers and magazines. We need to send a message to the delivery companies that this is unacceptable, especially if they ignore stickers like the one above. The only way to do this is if the businesses buying mass flyer deliveries insist it no longer happens. By obliterating junk mail we’re helping all of us, the environment and local businesses by cutting out the junk that annoys people – surely no business wants to annoy customers?!

Name & Shame Campaign

If you have a junk mail problem, follow our 3 step guide to junk mail destruction…

Let's make this a thing of the past...

Simply marvellous news Clappers! Word has reached LoveClapham that we have a major new piece of amazing coming our way from the end of the month; an all new monthly food and flower market on Venn Street (behind Clapham Highstreet, by the post office depot). Yes, Love Clapham is totally over-the-moon. The first market, by Sourced Market, will be on Friday 27th – Sunday 29th November. Read on for more information.

Obviously we have the Abbeville Farmers Market and Northcote Road has a weekly market, but finally Clapham Highstreet / Old Town is getting a piece of the high quality market action. Below are all of the details from the organisers:

The market will have a range of artisan produce and it will be a genuine alternative to shopping at the rather homogenised aisles of supermarkets, whilst also supporting the local community.

Traders have been sourced from all over London and include local butcher Moen’s and fishmonger Moxon’s. Additionally there are a number of Borough Market favourites, such as: Neal’s Yard Dairy, Flour Power City Bakery and Secrett’s Farm. There will be the chance to try an array of delicious hot food from a number of traders, including Pieminister, Arabica Food and Spice and Churros Garcia.

Venn Street market aims to…

• Help, encourage and build the businesses of local food, flower and plant producers
• Reinforce the seasonal nature of food and plants
• Reduce produce mileage and packaging
• Cut out the middlemen and reconnect people with the fantastic artisan producers in their area
• Support the local economy

The market will take place over three days – Fridays and Saturdays will be FOOD market days and Sundays FLOWER market days. There will be hot food and drink stalls over all three days.

DATES

• Friday 27th – Sunday 29th November
• Friday 11th – Sunday 13th December (Christmas market)
• From 2010 the market will run the last weekend of every month and from April the Market will run weekly (subject to Venn Street being pedestrianised as part of the Clapham Gateway project)

“Being a chef, and living in a big city like London means that getting inspired can be hard. Markets like this are a vital step forward not only just for the yummy food, but for the well being of our generation, and as a form of education for the next on where their food comes from, i.e. not just the big supermarkets. I believe in all things artisan and I am incredibly excited by this market coming to my door step.”
- Jason Atherton, Maze Restaurant and Clapham resident

“Local food for local people. This is a great opportunity for the growing foodie community in Clapham to support their local producers and gain a real sense of understanding for the contents of their shopping basket, shopping for food as it should be.”
- Adam Byatt, Trinity Restaurant and Clapham resident

OK! You got me, I give into Christmas! I’ve been avoiding Christmas at all costs. The IN YER FACE Christmas adverts on TV at the moment have been making me anti-Christmas – they keep filling me with the overwhelming urge to stick needles in my eyes instead of Christmas cheer. So thank heavens for the lovely little leaflet popped into my letter box this week that reminded me of what Christmas is all about: a fun ol’ get together! Tomorrow, Saturday 21st November from 2 – 4pm at St Peter’s Halls, Prescott Place off of the Highstreet is Clapham’s first Christmas Market of 2009. I love everything about the leaflet that promises “bargains galore” for the price of a mere fifty pence piece entry charge. There will be a tombola, gifts, toys, preserves, books and other goodies. Do the organisers a favour and nip in for a cup of tea and a look around.

Every now and then something comes along that makes Love Clapham go “holy crap” and this picture is one of them, found in a book by Clapper Christopher Anderson. During World War II, Clapham Common was used for more than buff posturing joggers, it was the location of four large anti-aircraft guns (pictured above). In the picture you can also see trenches, huts and possibly soldiers doing exercises. This is so far removed from the Clapham Common of today it’s hard to comprehend what it was like. Thankfully, the BBC has a report from a lady called Jean Vines who lived in the area at the time. Jean talks about cycling across Clapham Common to get to school with a very real “danger of being hit by shrapnel from the four big guns on Clapham Common”. Fascinating!

As you can probably tell, Love Clapham loves a bit of artistic flair, so imagine our delight when Clapham resident artist Katy Jackson got in touch to tell us about this month’s Open Studios Art Show.  The Open Studios Art Show is on from Thursday 26 – Sunday 29 November in Wimbledon and features a number of local Clapham artists, including Katy.

The exhibition is completely free to attend and has free parking too. It’s held at London’s largest studio complex, Wimbledon Art Studios which holds open studio shows like this twice a year. These exhibitions are the ideal opportunity to buy original work from over 100 emerging and established artists including painters, sculptors and ceramicists.

Love Clapham will definitely be popping down to the show to check out the local talent. Full address and contact details below:

Wimbledon Art Studios
Riverside Road,
London SW17 0BB
Tel: 020 8947 1183
enquiries@wimbledonartstudios.co.uk

Visit the Wimbledon Art Studios website for more information.