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.

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!

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

In the photo above I was aiming for a mix of “funny money” to go with the headline, but instead ended up with a blurry, poorly executed version of one of those “haha I can fold a note over and put it on someone’s face” photos. But enough of that, I know what you’re thinking: where’s LoveClapham been and is that a dollar bill? Why yes loyal Clappers, you have deduced correctly that Love Clapham left the confines of our amazing society for a brief jaunt in the Big Apple, New York! Verdict? It’s not Clapham folks, so I came back. Back to the crappy news that house prices in our area are still going up, up and away in Clapham despite the recession. Good if you’re selling, utterly rubbish if you’re buying. Claps better not get too expensive otherwise I might have to start loving somewhere cheaper (as if!) On a lighter note, in fact a downright amazing note, Comedy Carnival is returning to the Clapham Grand. It already has a huge line-up of comedians for you to book and see right now, check out their site for more details. Given that Clapham has such a poor amount of entertainment options this is a much welcome, much needed and much [insert own superlative] development. Nice one Clapham Grand – Comedy Carnival is high up on Love Clapham’s excitement list.

Internationally renowned DJs, The Freemasons are heading to Clapham this weekend to play at the White House on Saturday 15th August. The Freemasons can often be spotted dj-ing at clubs across South London, particularly in Vauxhall, but they’re better known for their remixes of international music artists like Beyonce, Kelly Rowland and Sophie Ellis Bextor. Not to mention their own albums from which you probably know more songs that you think.

They first came to clubland’s’ attention with the much loved, Jackie Moore sampling – ‘Love On My Mind’ closely followed by ‘Watchin’. Other hits you’ll recognise as being more recent are ‘Rain Down Love’, ‘Uninvited’, ‘When You Touch Me’ and current track ‘Heartbreak’ featuring Sophie Ellie Bextor.

The Freemasons website is running a competition to win tickets and signed CDs, but if you’re not feeling lucky – like Love Clapham – you can get in the usual way. Full info below:

White House, Clapham presents The Freemasons

VENUE: The White House, 65, Clapham Park Road, Clapham Common
SW4 7EH
OPENING TIMES: 9pm – 5am
DOOR COST: £10 concessions £12 door
DETAILS: The White House present’s THE FREEMASONS with support from ANDY M and David Minns
DATE: Saturday 15th August (PLEASE FEATURE)
WEB: www.thewhitehouselondon.co.uk

This Sunday is Gigalum’s 3rd birthday and to celebrate they’ll be holding a party from 3pm with the after party at Inigo taking you all the way through to 2am. DJ’s playing include Lee Ford, Scott Lummes, Andy P and Steve Butcher. With free drinks and food at 3pm and ‘Gigalum punch’ only £3, we’d advise you now to book Monday morning off! Gigalum’s had enormous success since it first opened and is always rammed, fully living up to its own statement of “busiest bar in Clapham”. Cheers to Gigalum for making that Clapham South corner so amazing!

There was I, perusing my @loveclapham Twitter account when ding-dong in comes this doozy of a link detailing the winners and losers of the Vegetable Figure competition at the Lambeth Country Show 2009. It’s always a brilliant event (the overall show too…) with hilarious consequences. LoveClapham’s personal favourite is the above Cauli-Sheep. It’s got such a nice smile. Check out the other entries including a King Edward Potato of Pop, Michael Jackson carving by the West End Whingers. The Mayor and Mayoress of Lambeth are fast becoming the area’s most amazing personalities. If you don’t believe me, check out the Mayor of Lambeth’s photo and video report from the show. If you’ve ever seen a Mayor that can rival the ‘on miniature train shot’, we dare you to get in touch.

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!

The equipment piled in over the last week, now the stage is all set!

Then of course you have all of the local clubs and bars like Infernos, Two Brewers, The Loft, Inigo, Artesian Wells, Revolutions, Aquum to name just a tiny selection. Clappers are well and truly spoilt for choice. With entertainment like that we’re finding it harder and harder to actually leave Claps on a weekend.

Oh yes people, it’s that time of year again – Clapham festival time! Love Clapham is going totally gaga thinking about the massive partying ahead of us this summer. With Orbital, Super Furry Animals, Eric Prydz and The Human League all paying a trip to Clapham Common to headline, you lovely Clappers are totally spoilt for choice this year. But why choose when you can go to them all?! Read on for Love Clapham’s definitive guide to Clapham’s 2009 festivals.

Clapham is getting quite a name for itself as party central. Scrap that, with a 20,000 person venue (hello Clapham Common) it already is party central. Londoners will pour into our cosy little suburb for music and drinking gallore with no less than eight festivals on Clapham Common in 2009. And what the hell, we’re gonna join them!

Festival essentials

We’re in touch with all of the festival organisers and this page will be updated regularly with loads of useful tips and info related to Clapham’s 2009 festivals, so be sure to save it and visit back often.

• Clapham Common Guide: for info about travel to and from festivals.
• Clapham events: for other events to the big festivals.

Festival schedule

South Africa, New Zealand and Australia all have a healthy serving of residents living in Clapham, so it will come as no surprise that Toast Festival 2009 is a three day festivalathon to cater for all three nations. With Polo, music, mayhem and more it’s a brilliant event. Throw in BBQ’s and wine tasting, and we’re there!

Gay + Clapham = hand-in-hand and as a celebration the local gay Clapper community put on a song and a dance every year on the road next to Kazbar. Drag queens and tonnes of celebs usually turn up to entertain between music and drinking. Plus it’s free, just pay for the booze and enjoy. [More info coming when we're sent it!]

Super Furry Animals are the headline act for the first day of Ben & Jerry’s Sundae on the Common festival. As usual there will be music, frollics, drinking and ice cream, possibly in reverse order (and then repeated).

You love icecream, we love icecream, most of London loves icecream – let’s go back for second helpings at the second day of Ben & Jerry’s Sundae on the Common festival. Tickets have sold out already, but if you nabbed yourself a ticket, you’ll be lucky enough to see the Human League performing.

Probably Clapham’s best known gig, South West Four has a steller line-up this year with Eric Prydz and David Guetta headlining. Yummy.

With a line-up as long as your arm, Get Loaded in the Park is the last Clapham festival of the 2009 season – so you better get your skates on, buy tickets and get us a pint ready when you’re there.

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.

The Ben & Jerry’s icecream machine has gone into full swing for the Ben & Jerry’s Sundae on the Common festival. Tickets are now available to buy for Saturday 25^th July with the Super Furry Animals and Teenage Fanclub headlining the stage. Icecream and fairground rides are also present to help the day along.

Supporting acts include I am Kloot, King Creosote, Marina and the Diamonds, Tommy Reilly and Telegraphs. If the Sunday is anything to go by (which has already sold out), the Saturday tickets won’t be around for long. Tickets are £8.95 plus postage and you can buy them visit from the Ben & Jerry website.

Cian Ciaran of Super Furry Animals comments: ‘We’re looking forward to playing sweet songs from our new album Dark Days/Light Years to the masses at Ben & Jerry’s festival Sundae on The Common!”

Our week’s been made after spotting Alan Carr in Itsu on Wardour Street yesterday, but what to do with the weekend? There aren’t any major Clapham events on this weekend and as our little weather forecast thingy on the left is telling us, Saturday should be sunny. Make the most of the sun and chill on Clapham Common. All’s quiet on the bar and club front too, although they’ll of course be welcoming people in. Here at Love Clapham HQ we’ll be making a long overdue trip to Clapham Picture House to watch Drag Me To Hell. Update: from @djchaseakack  Triggerfunk is on this Saturday at Inigo, Clapham house. It’s free before 11pm if you email your names to the guestlist.

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!

The Boiled Egg & Soliders, as the name would suggest, specialises in delicious breakfasts. With a good range of different meals and its handy location on Northcote Road makes it the perfect pit stop when you’re peckish on a weekend morning.

Address and details

63 Northcote Rd
Clapham Junction
London
SW11 1NP

020 7223 4894

Getting to The Boiled Egg & Soldiers

The Boiled Egg & Soldiers restaurant is on Northcote Road in Clapham Junction on the end nearest to the cross roads. 

[field name=map]

Do you own The Boiled Egg & Soldiers restaurant?

If you do, you can keep this page updated by registering with this site for free. You can add more information, offers to attract customers and pictures to bring this page to life!

Well, well, well. Another bank holiday weekend has snuck up on Love Clapham and we couldn’t be happier. Thanks to Mother Nature (via the BBC) it looks like Monday’s out weather wise, but we like the look of a sunny Friday, Saturday and Sunday. It’s Clapham Common time! Clubbing in Clapham celebrates bank holiday Monday with Inferno’s beach party on Sunday night, a mere £5 before 10pm.

Don’t forget that you can go to the Inferno’s website to book yourself on the guestlist if you look sharp – you must book two days in advance. No doubt the High Street will be graced with many a Hawaiian shirt and grass skirt. 

Two Brewers will have its usual array of drag acts and cheesy pop music all at a bargainous price. Revolution bar is offering 2 for 1 cocktails before 9pm across the entire weekend too. Print out the vouchers to make the most of the offer.

Is there anything else going on that we don’t know about? Please email us to help spread the word.

The best tasting festival in London is coming back to Clapham Common! Ben & Jerry’s Sundae on the Common festival will be gracing Clapham Common on Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th of July. No acts or attractions have been announced yet, you can’t even buy tickets, so there’s not much to say other than to pop it into your diary. You can be guaranteed of free icecream however. Check back on Love Clapham soon for the latest info but in the meantime, register your interest on the Ben & Jerry’s Sundae on the Common website.

Face it, this weekend is all about Eurovision. Love Clapham HQ will be holding its own Eurovision party – sorry, it’s private! – and it’s guaranteed not to be the only one in Clapham. With Eurovision only running until 11.15pm (saying ‘only’ knowing full well it starts at 8pm and lasts for an epic 3 hours), what are people in Clapham going to be doing after the show? Check out our new weekly Clubbing Clapham round-up to find out what’s hot, what’s not and for handy offers.

Infernos is definitely where the party’s going down this week after Eurovision. If you got your act into gear early, you could have booked in advance to get your party on the guestlist by sending everyone’s names two days in advance. Too late now, but remember for next time. You can sign-up for the newsletter and an E-flyer by going to the Infernos website.

If the three hour cheesathon sends you into pop overdrive, then head down to Two Brewers for its usual night of mayhem. With free entry before 10pm (£5 afterwards), what’s to stop you? If you have no Eurovision party to go to, Love Clapham believes the Two Brewers will be showing the show live. Eurovision purists like Love Clapham couldn’t take the crowd noise however. 

The White House is, as always, open until 5am and this Saturday has Marc Vedo and His Koolwaters… whoever they are. Oh wait, the website tells us, “Koolwaters with Marc Vedo is a live 4 piece band comprising of Vocals, Live Sax, Percussion and Marc on the decks. Reminiscent of a funky house jam session, this event really is one that will keep you dancing til dawn.” 

After Eurovision, it might make a nice change having a funky house jam session, but Love Clapham will probably opt for clubbing to dance/pop at Infernos. See you there!

Eric Prydz and David Guetta are the big DJs to be added to an already outstanding line-up at the South West Four festival. The day long festival has been running for a number of years now and always proves to be a massive event on Clapham Common. This year it’s on Saturday 29th August and costs £40 for the day or combine with Get Loaded in the Park on Sunday for a £70 weekend pass. The full line-up’s in the rest of this post. It’s all a bit “bang bang bang” for our tastes, but we’ll probably see you there anyway. Love Clapham loves a bit of Pjanoo and Call on Me. 

Tickets are still on sale although they are selling out fast and they can be bought here.

Kiss Main Stage

Hosted by Ministry of Sound

• Sasha
• John Digweed
• David Guetta
• Eric Prydz
• Sander Kleinberg
• Mark Knight
• Scarlette Etienne

Shake It

Hosted by The End

• Richie Hawtin
• Dubfire
• Timo Maas
• Steve Lawler
• Layo & Bushwacka!

The Gallery

Hosted by… er, no one. Poor Gallery

• Global Underground
• Danny Howells
• Nic Fanciulli
• Nick Warren
• James Lavelle
• Jim Rivers
• Anil Chawla

Further reading and useful links

• Clapham Common Guide – to find out how to get to the South West Four festival
• South West Four website