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.

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.

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?

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!)

As the nights get colder and Love Clapham gets lazier, I’ve found myself eating out more often. This week I went back to ‘Daniel and I’ with a couple of pals for my second visit. “Where the hell is Daniel and I?” you’re thinking, and clearly very few know the answer because at the moment it always seems to be empty. At night Breads Etcetera transforms into a restaurant called Daniel and I, with a large range of home made soups and hearty main meals (although as the waiter warned, the soups are main courses in themselves!) Both times I’ve been here the service, food and atmosphere has been stellar, which makes it all the stranger that this restaurant, packed for breakfasts, hasn’t yet made its mark on the Clapper Massive. Check it out, you won’t be disappointed.

Love Clapham HQ had serious concerns for Clapham’s local shops and restaurants when the economy started to collapse. The area has done fairly well, although there have been casualties. As the recession continues to bite and moves into its sixth successive quarter, I’m shocked to see that many local businesses simply aren’t applying simple tactics to survive the the slump in spending. The majority of Clapham’s restaurants are extremely overpriced, yet often half empty; some even put their prices up this year! Some shops on Clapham High Street don’t stay open past 5.30; again, not ideal when the majority of Clapham’s resident’s commute to Central London, working until gone 6pm. Here’s a tip: restaurants, cut the price of your entire menus by £1 per dish and shops change your opening hours. Then tell everyone about it! You can use LoveClapham for free to do this… I still find it amazing how few Clapham businesses get in contact to tell us about their offers. This site has thousands of visitors and we don’t charge a penny for passing on news of good offers.

Address: Aquum, 68-70 Clapham High street, London, SW4 7UL
Phone: 02076272726
Opening times: Mon – Thurs 11am – 2am, Fri – Sun 11am – 4am

About Aquum

Catering for up to 340 guests this luxurious venue really does offer something for everyone, be it strutting your stuff in the large main bar, getting down to the beat on the basement floor, getting close and personal in the VIP mezzanine or simply watching the world go by on the sun drenched terrace (heaters and covers on standby!)

Designed with flexibility in mind (you can eat, drink, dance on every level) Aquum can also accommodate private and corporate groups looking for something more intimate by arranging whisky tastings, cocktail classes, spirit mixing and food and wine sampling to name a few.

Top brand spirits, fine wines and imported beers are also catered for, ensuring your favourite tipple is always on hand. And thanks to drinknowledgable bar managers and mixologists, Aquum by far offers the best cocktail selection this side of the river, with house specials such as the Fool’s Gold (created to a secret recipe), Classic Martini and Whisky Sour proving a hit with almost everyone who walks in.

May 2009 saw the arrival of a new chef who has worked wonders with the kitchen, and is fast helping to secure Aquum’s place on the map as a culinary delight by offering tasty treats including succulent Dim Sum, tender Thai Squid and a superb weekend brunch menu including a ‘cooked to perfection’ Sunday roast beef. What’s more, this Summer Aquum opened its doors to lucky midweek clients in the area, offering an outstanding £5.00 express menu, perfect for time-poor diners looking for high quality food in minimum time.

Address: 65 Clapham Park road, Clapham, London SW4 7EH
Phone: 0207 498 3388

Address: 64 Clapham High Street, Clapham, London SW4 7UL
Phone: 0207 627 2535

Address: 95-97 Clapham High St, Clapham, London SW4 7TB
Telephone: 0207 720 6642

Address: The Loft 67 Clapham High Street, London, SW4 7TG
Telephone: 020 7627 0792

Address: Rinky Dink Bar Clapham, 38 Clapham High Street, London SW47UR
Telephone: 0207 627 1036

Address: Two Brewers, 114 Clapham High Street, London SW4 7UJ
Telephone: 020 7819 9539

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.

Clapham Picture House is a legend in its own right. Its trendy film-buff feel works well with the unashamed casual blockbuster showings to make it the ideal venue for any film lover. Throw in wine and beer to take in with you and we’re in movie heaven. As Mike goes on to say later, the cinema is as much shaped by the wants of the local Clapham community as anything else, and that’s what makes the cinema a Clapham icon.

A film reel being put together in the Clapham Picture House projector room. It may not look much, but there was something fantastic about it.

Clapham Picture House is one of Clapham’s best known living landmarks and business, but can you share some of the cinema’s history?

The history of the cinema goes way back. The building actually took up the whole of Venn Street and started at Londis. That used to be the front door of the cinema and it used to go right round, literally to the end. This was before the war, and as times changed it had all sorts of different purposes. Then fifteen years ago when Picture House took it over, it was a snooker hall.

We originally opened it as a three screened cinema, two screens downstairs, one upstairs and a small bar. Eight years ago, we bought the building next to us and expanded down, extending the bar, opening the restaurant next door and building the fourth screen above it. It gave us a lot more foot space and more seats. I arrived in Clapham as the general manager about five years ago, but I’ve been with the company for fourteen years at other cinemas around the country.

I jigged things up to get it going again because obviously after fifteen years it needed a push. At the end of 2007 we started the refurb of the entire site, taking twelve weeks, opening the bar up more, putting in new screens, soundproofing, new projectors. Big changes – which is what you can see now.

Cinema in general is performing really well at the moment, why do you think that is?

People have batted around terms like “recession proof” and to me that’s silly to say, we’re all working very hard at the moment to keep the cinema busy. As long as I’ve been a cinema manager there’s been something against cinema, if it hasn’t been videos it’s DVDs. One of the things I’ve done as manager over the years is to change the cinema from being a spur of the moment thing, to more of a night out.

People plan their evenings to go to the cinema now, and what we’ve tried to do as a company is cater for that, hence why we have bars and food. You can have your whole night at the cinema; sit down, have something to eat, drink, take the drink into the cinema while you watch the movie. It gives you the whole night out, which is what people look for, particularly in a recession when disposable income is shrinking, they’re looking for good value for money. I think cinema provides that good value for money.

It’s about escapism really. You can go for a meal out and it costs you £20 – 30 a head, you come to the cinema on a Monday and it costs you £6.50 a head. If you’re a member of the Picture House we give £2 off, so that’s only £4.50. People get two hours of pure escapism, a good film and you’re happy. We try to steady the ship, like every business we’re looking where we can tighten more budgets but we feel confident that we’ll ride the storm out which is great.

Mike Matthews, manager of Clapham Picture House (and star of The Apprentice!)

And there’s a great line-up of films this summer to help…

Yeah, obviously this weekend it’s Transformers, then Public Enemies, Bruno, Harry Potter and at the end of the year from September onwards it’s the Cannes films, the high end, high brow films.

As a local cinema, you have more flexibility, what sets Clapham Picture House apart?

We do completely different things, we obviously show the blockbusters because that’s what the majority of people want to see but we mix it up with events like wine tasting, Q&A sessions, film quiz nights, kids clubs on Saturday mornings, silver screen for over 65’s on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons and then we do mums and babies on a Thursday morning. We do lots of different events to try and keep the community involved in the cinema.

That monster of a machine is what powers one of Clapham Picture House's digital projectors. Forget your DVD player at home, this is the real deal.

Is digital projection making an impact at Clapham Picture House?

We’ve got four screens and three are digital already – screen 1, 2 and 4 – with plans to make screen 3 digital as well, going completely digital. This is great because for a hundred years or so film hasn’t changed. Sound has, with mono to digital surround sound but the actual film hasn’t really until this new digital generation arrived in late 2007.

Now, the quality is unbelievable; I’d never seen anything like it before. Film stock is great when it first comes – and I love film stock, it’s what I grew up with – but the problem is that the more times you show a film it runs through machinery and degrades resulting in black spots. With digital, it’s the same quality ten years later and people notice how crystal clear the colours are. It makes the experience different.

Are you looking into the new 3D phenomenon?

Yes, we’re trialling it in the Ritzy cinema in Brixton, starting with Monsters vs Aliens and soon Ice Age 3D. Plus we’re looking at putting it into screen 2 in Clapham Picture House. The film everyone’s looking for is Avatar at the end of the year, James Cameron’s new title. Kids’ films are great, but you can’t judge the appeal for the majority of people and whether they want to see films in 3D. Avatar is different and will allow us to judge, so hopefully we’ll have 3D in for that.

It’s interesting how 3D has taken off recently…

Have you seen anything in it?

Yes, we saw Monsters vs Aliens and it did add a lot to film

Well, it needed to because the film isn’t great! I’m still sitting on the fence because I haven’t seen anything that’s blown me away, but visually it does add the wow factor. I really want a film to match that, and a film like Star Trek would have leant itself to 3D, it would have been unreal. That’s why everyone’s looking forward to Avatar with its setting in space and it’s great use of 3D, that will be the one to watch out for. Then you’ll see more and more films for adults in 3D and that’s when more cinemas will take it on board.

You're looking at a piece of Clapham history right here, the last of Clapham Picture House's traditional film stock projectors. There's a film being shown on it in the picture and those massive reels on the left hold the film.

You mentioned events earlier, are there groups people can get involved in?

There’s a monthly film group that comes along, but it’s a lady who runs it off her own back, nothing to do with us. They come, watch a film and have a discussion afterwards which is really lovely. We have a lot of different groups, like the mums and babies on a Thursday – they don’t even know what we’re showing, they just come and enjoy the social event.

The same is true with the silver screen on Tuesday’s and Thursday’s. Something we try hard to do is to be part of the local community and that is our main priority. If people ask me how we see the Clapham Picture House, I do see it as an integral part of the community because we service the community. Yes we’re a business, but we’re here to provide a service that the community wants and that’s why we always try to tailor what we offer to what people expect. A lot of cinemas don’t do that.

You can come to us and the majority of the staff want to be in the film industry, they’re actors and screenwriters who have a real interest in films. You can come in and hold a real conversation with them about your favourite film. That’s the way to stand out.

Upcoming events at Clapham Picture House

A massive thanks to Mike for taking the time to talk to Love Clapham and for the behind the scenes tour . Visit the Clapham Picture House website for more info and to book tickets.

What does “more than meets the eye” actually mean? I’m sure we’re about to find out because the Transformers are back with a sequel that appears to put the special into special effects. Transformers 2 opens this week at Clapham Picture House and Love Clapham is all set to relive childhood memories. If the above trailer is anything to go by, this is a more epic (and hopefully better written) film than the first. Let’s hope for less comedy and more destruction this time around. Full listings for Clapham Picture House in the rest of this post.

CLAPHAM PICTUREHOUSE LISTINGS
19th June – 25th June

NT LIVE: PHEDRE
Thu only: 6.45 (Thu)

ROBERT PATTISON DAY:
TWILIGHT (12A) 11.30 (Sat)
HOW TO BE (15) 2.10 (Sat)
LITTLE ASHES (15) 4.15 (Sat)

SUNDAYS WITH BOND: GOLDFINGER (PG)
Sun only: 3.00

TRANSFORMERS REVENGE OF FALLEN (12A)
Daily except Sun: 12.00 3.00 6.00 9.00
Sun only: 11.00 2.00 5.00 8.00

LOOKING FOR ERIC (15)
Daily except Sat & Sun: 1.00 3.30 8.50
Sat only: 8.50
Sun only: 12.00 8.20

THE HANGOVER (15)
Fri, Mon, Tue, Wed: 1.40 4.10 6.40 9.10
Sat only: 1.25 3.55 6.40 9.10
Sun only: 12.40 3.10 5.40 8.10
Thu only: 4.10 6.40 9.30

TERMINTOR SALVATION (12A)
Daily except Sun: 6.10 8.40
Sun only: 5.10 7.40

STAR TREK (12A)
Daily except Sun & Thu: 6.05
Sun only: 5.30
Thu only: 1.30

ANGELS & DEMONS (12A)
Daily Except Sat & Sun: 12.40 3.25
Sat only: 2.45
Sun only: 11.40 2.25

KIDS CLUB: BEDTIME STORIES (PG)
11.45 (Sat only)

OK, I admit it, in the grand scheme of things this is hardly news. But in the world of Clapham High Street this is a front page headline! The Boots pharmacy store on Clapham High Street opens next Wednesday, 3rd June at 8.30am. That’s correct early birds, you can even pop in for a nose around before work if you’re that interested. Boots has obviously done its research and has stuck a massive “BEAUTY” label above the doorway to attract Clappers who like to look their best around the streets of Clapham.

Walking past today I have to admit that as far as Boots stores go, this looks pretty swish. Boots of course replaces the slightly tired looking Woolworths that sadly closed down along with the rest of the chain earlier in the year.

Work seems to still be going strong with the store itself as people were still stacking shelves this evening (yeah, I’m really working this news story for all its worth). Love Clapham loves its food, so we were delighted to see that on top of the pharmaceutical bits n’bobs lining shelves, it will also have a large area for snacks. Boots were on a TV show recently that proved they have the healthiest sandwiches on the high street, plus they’re yummy. Good news there.

Superdrug on the otherhand, just a few doors down, must be quaking in their boots (bad-a-bing!) with their arch rivals opening with a bigger, sharper looking shop. Having said that, they seem to live happily with each other down the road in Clapham Junction. There’s hope yet Superdrug!

Interestingly, at least to Love Clapham, Boots is a major chain and during our interview with Christopher Wellbelove, the Mayor of Lambeth, last week there is a move amongst some of the Clapham community to ensure there are less of these compared to local shops. As it does replace another high street store we’re assuming Boots will get off lightly.