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This week’s Clapper is going like the clappers. Believe it or not, these stunning photos are from Clapham Common at the Toast Festival 2009 polo competition, the festival’s main highlight. From the first day, you can see South Africa vs Great Britain in the above picture. Great Britain won 7:6. Thanks to Eddie Clarke, who runs the Clapham Omnibus blog, for sending these in, see a selection of photos including the Umhlathuzi welcome singers in the rest of this post. Read More »

Now for something totally random! BBC journalist, Maggie Philbin, and her sister Nickie are organising June’s Twitter Tweet Cookoff. What the tweet is that you ask? Well, each month a challenge is set for Twitter users to bake and post their photos of a certain dessert. Entries are then judged by the previous winner and local Clapham celebrity chef, Adam Byatt of Trinity London. June’s dessert is a “summer tart” and entries have to be in by Midday tomorrow, so get cooking! Last month’s winner, chosen by Nickie and Adam, was local Clapper, Edward Clarke – can Clapham claim the crown twice in a row?! Read on for further details. Read More »

And so it begins. Last week the lorries moved in and now Clapham Common is even more equipped for festivals than Glastonbury (kinda). Toast Festival 2009 starts on Friday through to Sunday for music, BBQs and polo. Then the Abbeville Fete is on Saturday for stalls, food and entertainment. At the same time the Clapham Street Party will be partying hard down by Kaz Bar with celebs, performers and music. It’s all going off out there people! Read More »

Take celebrity Australian chef John Torode, three horses, a flock of sheep and some scantily clad Antipodean dancers. Stick them altogether on Clapham Common, take a photo and BAM! There’s your perfect launch photo for the Toast Festival 2009 this weekend. Update: the competition is now closed, Love Clapham reader Richard Kellow is the lucky winner! Read on to learn about the Toast Festivals. Read More »

In the summer Clapham is awash with sport, and our first report of the year is in. Earlier this week Clapham Common played host to the Supernova Korfball Club Tournament. What’s Korfball? In a nutshell, it’s a game with two teams, two zones and you score by getting the ball into raised rings with similarities to both basketball and netball. Supernova, a Clapham based club, holds the tournament each year. Read More »

What is this? Clapham Common has four of these blighters and they’re clearly a part of a conspiracy. Someone on our forum suggested Victorian rubbish, another said more air raid shelters, a friend thought old basketball courts. Any clues?

The big news for Clapham Picture House this week is that tickets for the summer blockbusters Bruno and Harry Potter & the Half Blood Prince have gone on sale already. Get in early by going to their website. Like opera or simply fancy pretending to be cultured? This week’s event is a live broadcast from the Royal Opera House showing La Traviata on Tuesday at 6.40pm. If you haven’t already, check out our interview with the cinema’s manager Mike Matthews to see pictures from the projector room and to learn more about the cinema’s future. Full cinema listings for next week are after the break. Read More »

The soundtrack to summer in Clapham is here. Check out LoveClapham’s Dead Without June’s Playlist for Spotify users packed with 20 of the biggest and best songs around at the moment – quite literally the most amazing set of songs you will find right now. If you don’t use Spotify, you can buy tracks from our Amazon shop. Other hot tracks yet to appear on Spotify to watch out for are Lovegame (Chew Fu Remix) by Lady Gaga ft Marilyn Manson and Heartbreak Make Me A Dancer by Freemasons ft Sophie Ellis-Bextor. More next month when we hope to own the above iPod boombox (thus the crap Photoshop job).

The London to Brighton charity bike ride saw 27,000 people mounting their wheels to raise loads of dosh for the British Heart Foundation today. Above is the calm before the storm with the start line empty on Clapham Common South side the day before. The BBC is covering it and our own Mayor of Lambeth is taking part. Elsewhere on the interweb, Getting Naked On Clapham Common is one couple’s take on the unique and regular occurence in the summer of clothing removage. Clapham Common Flickr Group has been running for some time now with hundreds of photos of Clapham from people that live here – can you add any?

Two very exciting things happened to us at the same time this week. Before your imaginations run wild (they’re already running wild aren’t they?) the two things were: 1. going into a cinema projector room 2. meeting someone that has been on The Apprentice. This was accomplished by meeting Clapham Picture House manager and guest star of the 2008 Apprentice series, Mike Matthews, who took the time to speak to Love Clapham about the cinema’s history, its renaissance and its future moves into digital and 3D. Read More »

Have you spotted our new Clapham Offers page in the top menu? Take a look, we’ve got a couple of excellent discounts for the Four O Nine restaurant in Clapham North including a tremendous Sunday lunch deal – check it out this weekend. On Friday evening it’s Northcote Road’s Summer Fare, see ya there! Then on Saturday it’s Clapham Common Fayre (note the spelling difference) at the Holy Trinity Church. Clapham clubbing offers and more below. Read More »

There’s a saying from Ricki Lake: “You have been told girlfriend!” And Love Clapham has been told. There we were, being all smug earlier in the week stating that “Clapham Band Stand is never used” when SHABAM! A whopping great schedule of Clapham Band Stand events comes flying into our inbox. Just for you, fellow Clappers, here is said schedule. Read More »