Dramatical Theatre School in Clapham, between Clapham North and Wandsworth Road, has sent in some information about the children’s drama classes it now offers for 4 – 8 year olds. They say that “At Dramatical, we are dedicated to teaching drama to your child in exciting ways that help their physical and mental development, as well as their confidence.” Keep reading for full information and to contact them.

“Our small, entertaining, classes in Clapham explore concepts, themes, physical movement, and words and sounds; nurturing creativity and improving concentration. And above all, they have fun!”

Liz, founder of Dramatical, has been working in the West End for 6 years on both the stage production, and film production of Mamma Mia!, one of London’s longest running, and most popular stage production. She set up Dramatical to encourage children to develop their drama skills from an early age, to build their interest in theatre, and increase their confidence.

Dramatical Children’s Drama Class Details

Saturday morning classes take place at St Pauls Church hall:

St Paul’s Church hall/community centre
Rectory Grove,
Clapham,
SW4 0DX

Ages 4 – 6: Saturdays 10am – 11am
Ages 7 – 8: Saturdays 11am – 12noon

For more details call 07782203178, email liz@dramatical.net or visit www.dramatical.net

Fantastic news in Love Clapham’s opinion, Lambeth Council is proposing the permanent closure of Windmill Drive on Clapham Common to traffic (the road that cuts across the common next to the Windmill Pub). We’ve nearly been mown down numerous times crossing this road and, highlighted by the above picture of the childrens playground, this is hardly ideal for a park that attracts thousands of families with children. Keep reading and tell us what you think.

According to the South London Press “The council has sent 4,000 questionaires to residents in the area asking for their views as part of a public consultation, which ends on August 10.” If you have a view, even a positive one, you are encouraged to email gbull@lambeth.gov.uk to ask for an opinion questionnaire.

You can view the full proposal, with good artistic drawings, by viewing the full plans (PDF) by the Council on their website. The plans specify that the main purpose of this proposal is to:

1. Stop ‘rat running’ traffic, its environmental impact and risks to park users.
2. Reconnect existing footways and cycle paths currently severed by the road.
3. Extend and rejoin the two areas of parkland while improving aesthetics.

However, the Friends of Clapham Common, a committee that helps safeguard the public interests of Clapham Common, seem to have some reservations. Specifically, Peter Burke-Murphy, the chairman of the group says:

A section of the road alongside the storage/recycling dump will be dug up and returned to the Common leaving a path for cyclists and pedestrians only. Approximately half of Windmill Drive lies in the Borough of Wandsworth and this part will not be affected, apparently because there has been no consultation between the boroughs!

Paved turning areas will need to be formed at both ends of this closure encroaching into the Common thus minimizing any gain of green space and 12 parking spaces will be lost close to the children’s playground. Your Committee is waiting for further details before making a recommendation but at the present time I have strong reservations.

In my opinion it is a half hearted measure which does not link the adjacent sections of the Common as envisaged by the Master Plan and does nothing to tidy up the dump which is an eyesore or address the problems created around Tom’s Cafe. When we last took a poll of members’ views there was no clear majority for or against so if you have a strong view you can respond to the public consultation details of which will be on our website.

What is the correct answer here? Closing the road sounds great to us, but do the plans not fully meet the needs as stated by the Friends of Clapham Common? Please share your views or help enlighten us with more information in the comments below.

Windmill Drive location

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Address: Big Squid, UNIT 2F Clapham North Arts Centre, 26-32 Voltaire Road, Clapham SW4 6DH
Phone: 020 7627 0700
Mobile: 07950 252 548
Email: info@bigsquid.co.uk

Big Squid organises dive travel throughout the UK and abroad and has an active dive club that meets at the Bread and Roses pub on Clapham Manor street on the first Tuesday of the month ( free to join ). They have regular Sunday evening pool nights at Clapham Leisure Centre on Sunday evenings at 19.30-21.30.

Like sports? Live in or near Clapham? Then you really have no excuse not to get off your backside and get involved in some Clapham sports. It probably hasn’t escaped your attention that Clapham has a huge common and guess what, local residents definitely make the most of it. You can walk, run, cycle and skate around it and the many local parks for free, but if you fancy a bit of group or one-on-one action, this page lists some of Clapham’s sport clubs. Clubs and teams range from football, frisbee and lacrosse all the way to canoeing. Yeah, canoeing. Believe it!

If you run a Clapham sport club that isn’t listed here, please send us an email and we will add it.

Clapham area football clubs

Balham Blazers: a youth football club based in South London with age group teams who play in the Tandridge League and the London

Clapham Rovers: local football team that is part of the Senior Sunday Sportsman League.

Wandsworth Borough Football Club:  a friendly club run on traditional values of sportsmanship and good discipline now celebrating their 75th anniversary. They currently run three senior sides and a vets side.

Clapham area rugby clubs

Battersea Ironsides: a small, friendly social rugby club, renowned for its hard rugby. Located in Earlsfield, just 7 miles from the centre of London.

Clapham area running clubs

Clapham Chasers: based at Cannons Gym (Battersea) this is a very social and friendly running club that welcomes everyone of all abilities.

Other Clapham sports clubs

Clapham Canoe Club: established in 1990, this club has been running for a long time with some hardcore members but it is also very welcome to newcomers.

Clapham Ladies Lacrosse Club: meets Tuesday nights in the summer and the winter with matches usually held on Sundays during the summer.

Clapham Ultimate: the local frisbee team. With matches played, this is far more serious than throwing a frisbee around your back garden!

Softball Sundays: held on Clapham Common, this is softball for people new to the sport and people who have played before.

Supernova Korfball Club: formed on the Common eleven summers ago, Supernova play indoors and do still play outdoor games by the Windmill. Indoors games take place at the Latchmere Leisure Centre down the road.

The Wandsworth Demons: Australian Rules Football Club, established in 1990 and based on Clapham Common.  Played in the Summer and actively recruiting all year (but obviously the lead-up to the season is the most important time). Anyone is welcome to come down, from the seasoned veteran, to the Aussie guys who love the game but never really played, to the English/Irish/European etc who are keen to be taught the game.

Local Twitterer (is that a proper noun yet?) Jason Cobb caught up with our on and offline social networking Mayor of Lambeth for an interview that you can listen to in the rest of this post. We’ve noticed the Mayor, Christopher Wellbelove, has been using the likes of Twitter and Facebook to full effect, encouraging more and more people to interact with Lambeth Council in loads of different ways. It’s a refreshing change that we hope spreads throughout other local authorities.

Listen to Jason’s interview below, you’ll learn how to address a Mayor properly (something LoveClapham didn’t do when we interviewed him – slapped wrists for us). This comes in the same week that Mr Mayor has been in the local press for befriending California’s Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, on Twitter.

Here’s a cool thing, this month the sixth MSF Clapham Treasure Hunt takes place to help raise money for MSF, a charity that supplies medical aid around the world to people who might otherwise not receive it. It gets better because it’s held in Clapham, organised by local resident Sarah Turtle and you can support it by taking part and donating.

The MSF Clapham Treasure Hunt is exactly that and manages to also double up as a “pub crawl with a conscience.” It is in its 6th year and takes place on the afternoon of Saturday the 20th of June 2009. Love Clapham will be taking part because raising money for charidee, working out clues and enjoying a tipple are three of our favourite things. Combining them into one event is just genius!

Teams of no more than 4 adults must make a combined donation on www.justgiving.com/msf_hunt_vi of at least £40 to participate. Average age is late twenties – for details of times, start location and to register please see the MSF Clapham Treasure Hunt website. Even if you don’t take part, you can still donate on the Just Giving website above.

In an email to Love Clapham, organiser Sarah Turtle said, “Over the past 5 years I have raised over 23,000 for MSF a charity I respect for their aim to provide pure humanitarian aid where it is needed – particularly in places and situations which don’t make the news.” We’re looking forward to it and meeting other participants in a couple of weeks!

This week Love Clapham met with Christopher Wellbelove, recently elected as the Mayor of Lambeth and councillor for the Clapham Town Ward since 2006. It was an enlightening and hugely enjoyable discussion about local projects, Twittering for Lambeth and Eurovision – finger on the pulse? More than you’d imagine.

It may have been the end of the day for most people, but the day was only beginning for the Mayor of Lambeth, Christopher Wellbelove, when I met him on Monday at the Lambeth Town Hall in Brixton. That’s not to say he’d had the day off, by day he still has to perform his duties as a councillor for the Clapham Town Ward. He’s an incredibly busy man, yet he managed to squeeze in the below interview to help explain his role in more detail.

Councils, elections, politics – ignore all of that. If there’s one thing I’ve gained from meeting Christopher Wellbelove, it’s not to allow terminology like “politics” from preventing your involvement in the local area and community. Whether it’s his instantly welcoming personality, energy or love of using the internet to communicate, there’s something refreshing and catching about Christopher Wellbelove’s enthusiasm for local community and yes, his love of Clapham.

For people who may not know much about politics or councils, can you explain your role as Major of Lambeth?

 

Lambeth Town Hall in Brixton

I actually have two roles, primarily I’m a Clapham Town councillor, for which I was elected in 2006. I was elected as deputy Major last year, who stands in for the mayor, and then this year I have become Mayor of Lambeth, primarily a civic role. People get very confused because you have the Mayor of London who has administrative power in a similar way to royalty.

As a local Mayor you have the ultimate signature but you do whatever the administration tells you they want to do. You actually sign over most of your power to the administration. One of the primary things is chairing the full local council, which is quite daunting, and there are eight or nine full council meetings a year.

In Lambeth we rotate the chair between the political parties because in my year as Mayor I’m not allowed to take political positions on things as I need to be able to chair the meeting totally non-partisan. Other things I’ll do include going to openings of events. Any organisation can contact me the through the website if they have an event or certificate, for example later today I’m presenting certificates to people.

If royalty were to come to the borough it’s also my job to go along with the chief lieutenant and greet the member of the royal family, or if there are any dignitaries that come from other countries or other cities it would be my job to meet them. 

Traditionally, every London borough has a Mayor, and with quite a few events in the other boroughs it’s a good way of reaching out and sharing experiences while also being a promoter of Lambeth.

How did you first become involved in politics leading to your role as Mayor?

I’ve always been an arm chair politician I guess. I don’t really like the word politician, but I’ve always been a bit of a campaigner and my friends are thankful that I got elected because it’s quietened me down quite a lot!

I lived on Heather Close estate by Wandsworth Road and I was on their tenants and residents association. I got it into my head “why do I need to go through a councillor to get things fixed, why don’t I try to get elected?” I only joined the Labour party in 2004 and then decided to stand – you first need your Ward’s Labour party members to select you as a candidate – and I was elected in 2006. That was quite interesting because while everywhere else the votes were swinging conservative, Clapham Town went from being Conservative to all Labour.

Tim Sargeant, Mayor of Lambeth 2003 - 2004

Tim Sargeant, who sadly died, I met before becoming a councillor and I was very cynical because he was talking about how wonderful it was to be Mayor and I was thinking, “what’s the point? You can’t vote on things, you can’t campaign for your party during that year,” and it was his enthusiasm for the role that made me think “hang on, that’s something that I could do”.

I used to live across the road in Brixton and I never knew there was a Mayor of Lambeth. I began to feel that there were lots of people like me, that unless you’re involved with the council, you’d have absolutely no idea. Because I know about technology, I thought what a brilliant opportunity to one become Mayor and two promote the job of the Major and all of the organisations that I visit through the internet.

It seems that Christopher Wellbelove’s time on his local estate’s resident association has served him well…

 

One of Clapham's estates

Since becoming a councillor my main focus has been on housing issues, that’s one of the things that is helped by me living on an estate – I’ve moved from Heather Close and now live on Notre Dame estate – in the heart of Clapham. It’s good to have someone that lives on an estate in the council so that when people say things about estates I can actually speak about them.

I sit on a couple of boards and I remember being on one board that was doing some research and they were saying that they weren’t going to go onto the estates because they wouldn’t be safe. I was able to stand up and say “look, that’s absolutely ridiculous, some streets are less safe than an estate.” It’s about beating that prejudice.

Are you enjoying it so far?

It’s funny, the last Mayor was very patient with me because I was almost pulling the chains off of her because I couldn’t wait to start! I joked that after my year I’d be locking myself in the Mayor’s parlour.

It’s great, it’s tiring. I work fulltime and then I have this too. For instance I have meetings now, then there are presentations and then I go home to catch-up on work. Since I’ve been Major I’ve had a mouth infection a really bad back, both times on quite heavy pain killers and in the car I’d be thinking, I’m actually really exhausted. Then I’d get out the car and smile because people look forward to you coming so you have to forget your issues and just get on with it. But seriously, I absolutely adore it!

What’s at the top of your in tray?

One of the lucky things about it being a non-partisan role is that if anything does come through to me, my job is to pass it on to a cabinet member. It really is important for me during the year that I do keep away from issues that could be politically sensitive. Then, when I do go out to events, it doesn’t matter what party you are I am still your representative.

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If you’re anything like Love Clapham, elections can seem like a whole load of gobbledygook that only serious people take part in. No more! A year or so ago Love Clapham got serious about having a say in where our tax is spent and we’re going to help steer you through the upcoming European election in plain English. 

We’ll have more information in the future but right now the facts are:

• European Parliamentary Election day, the day you vote, is on 4 June 2009.
• If you are 18 and over, you can and should vote.
• This election lets you have a say in who represents the UK in European Parliament.
• You must be registered to vote and you only register once for all elections.
• Voting is easy.

Simple so far. Admittedly, while the actual process of registering and voting is easy as pie, deciding who to vote for is a bit trickier because you have to do some research into what each candidate offers. 

We won’t go into any more details in this post, but if you’ve recieved one of the white and black pieces of card like the one in the picture above, you’re already registered. If you haven’t, go to the About My Vote website to register now and for more helpful, easy to understand information.

If you have any strong views, tips or other pieces of advice, join in the discussion on our Clapham Community Forum where people are already discussing this and the imminent General Election.

Today Love Clapham HQ received a handy little leaflet updating us on the activities of the Clapham Town police force. Love Clapham has a particularly good view of the Clapham police force after they came to our aid on a couple of occasions in the past. In their leaflet the Clapham police highlight the priority to reduce anti-social behaviour in key areas of Clapham and the need to avoid illegal taxi touts.

The leaflet rightly states that “Clapham with its numerous bars and clubs is a target for taxi-touts; where unauthorised cab drivers target late-night party goers outside entertainment venues.” Given that most people hire illegal taxis when they’re not in the best state after a good night out (we’ve all been there), it’s all the more important to keep the message going that illegal taxis can be dangerous. 

Without getting too preachy, Love Clapham has had friends who went through rather nasty incidents by getting into taxi tout cars – and that doesn’t even take into account drivers without proper licenses. Always ask your venue to book you a taxi if you don’t have a number on you, alternatively make sure it’s a London black cab, visit one of the taxi firm shops on the High Streets or near Clapham South tube.

Finally, the best advice to avoid any bad situations: save the number 60835 into your phone and text HOME to it if you’re stuck. You’ll receive a bunch of numbers to call to order a taxi then and there.

The leaflet offers a few other tid bits of advice for a safer neigbourhood. In London it’s easy to ignore life outside of your own home, but Clapham ain’t like no other part of London. Get involved keeping Clapham safe by visiting the Police’s Safer Neighbourhoods website.

If you run a Clapham organisation or club that isn’t listed here, please send us an email and we will add it.

Clapham organisations

Clapham Society: The Clapham Society is a group of local residents that acts on behalf of the Clapham community on important issues like building developments and improvements. They produce an excellent monthly newsletter which Love Clapham would highly recommend you sign-up for. The Clapham Society is also responsible for walks, talks and an authoratitive series of historic books and publications about Clapham and the surrounding areas. You can become a member on their website for between £6 – 15 per year depending on whether you are an individual, family or business.

Friends of Clapham Common: Friends of Clapham Common is a voluntary organisation that again acts on behalf of the Clapham community to maintain and improve our much loved common. The Friends of Clapham Common work with other organisations like the Clapham Society and even the local Councils to make sure the community’s views are put across. You can become a memberfor £5 per year through their website.

Young Lambeth: Young Lambeth is run by young people for young people. It’s a great initiative that allows young people to have a say in local developments and policies. If you’re young and interested, definitely take a look. You might think that you can’t make a difference, but take it from Love Clapham – you can.

Weir Estate Residents Association: Website for Weir estate residents containing all of the information, news and events people living on the estate will need.