Perambulations on the Perimeter of .... SE4:I Suppose A Brock's Out Of The Question?

Two hundred and seventy three days had passed since I last partook of a walk on my Perambulations on the Perimeter series. During that time winter had come and gone, a second wave of Covid had killed tens of thousands of UK citizens, a lengthy and bleak lockdown had taken place, I'd changed jobs, and I'd aged a year (in fact it's not just that I'd had a birthday - I am nearly a whole year older now).

It was the first 'bloggable' walk since last October's wander along the London/Essex edgelands from Theydon Bois to Epping (with Pam and Adam) and, as befits how this particular series of walks has been designed - to fill in gaps when there's nobody else to walk with, it was a solo mission.

Following my two August perambulations around the perimeters of SE23 and SE15 I was staying close to home and heading out to explore, to see what I could find - either familiar or brand new, in SE4. A fairly small area, truth be told, that incorporates parts of Brockley, Ladywell, and Crofton Park and falls entirely within the bounds of the London Borough of Lewisham.

Even if I did pass briefly, at the start and again at the end of the walk, into neighbouring Southwark. That's where I saw the bedsheets hung on railings and festooned with legends like "SAVE BRENCHLEY GARDENS". Relating to a campaign by locals to stop Southwark Council building on their green space - which, like so many green spaces around the world, has been a saviour during lockdown. Interestingly, there is a large - and mostly unused golf course nearby - which doesn't seem to be under threat from developers.

Money talks. It has always done and under a government now synonymous with corruption, it's talking louder than ever. I hope the residents of Brenchley Gardens win their case and not just because it's been a regular, and rather pleasant, walking spot for me.

There's a good community around this part of South East London. As you enter SE4 proper, across the pedestrian and cycle bridge, one of the first things you'll see are tables and chairs in the dead end street for anyone to sit on and have picnics. There's a community allotment in the railway cuttings to the side of it and the whole thing is watched over not just by a curious badger (or brock - giving Brockley its name) and an elegant robin but a wise and slightly unsettling owl.

The first road you come to in SE4 is Eddystone Road which always reminds me, for rather obvious reasons, of my ol' Basingstoke mucker Ed(die) Stone. Funny that. I'd chosen this route, and direction round, SE4 specifically so I could make my first pit stop in Cafe Crofton Park. A proper greasy spoon cafe full of noise and banter.

Food arrives in massive plates. Fearing inability to move if I ate too much, I had baked beans and scrambled egg on toast (plenty of ketchup, obvs) and washed it down with a cup of tea and a can of Coke (Cherry Coke, alas, was not available) while reading the Saturday Guardian. This used to be one of the greatest, and most simple, pleasures in my life and one I had certainly missed during lockdown.

It felt so good to be doing it again and it wasn't the only time I felt that way yesterday. From the cafe I turned right off Brockley Road into Marnock Road while looking across to the Rivoli Ballroom. It's the last remaining 1950s ballroom in the whole of London. Famed for its original decor (so I hear, I've never been in), it has been used many times in films and music videos.

Oasis, S Club 7, Martine McCutcheon, and Charlotte Church have all done shoots there, Tina Turner shot her Private Dancer video and Elton John filmed I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues there, other artists who made their videos in the Rivoli include Lana Del Rey and Katie Melua, The White Stripes, Florence and the Machine, Noel Gallagher, Kings of Leon, and Damon Albarn have played live there and it's been used a location for Killing Eve.

It is, quite rightly, a listed building. It'd be a great place to have a wedding reception. On the other side of the road is Crofton Park Railway Garden. A tranquil spot alongside the train tracks with a handful of tables and chairs dotted about for people to sit and chat. Marnock Road boasted of not one, not two, not three, but four discarded mattresses, a highly topical (if you consider all the empty apartments in London owned by rich investors - most signed off during Boris Johnson's mayoralty) piece of street art reading "EVERY HUMAN NEEDS A HOME", and a highly unofficial blue plaque marking the supposed former home of the mother to Ambassador Spock!

To keep with the Star Trek theme, later in the day I'd pass along Vulcan Road. Marnock Road led into Manwood Road but the theme of fictional creatures was still strong. I passed a ZOMBIE OUTBREAK RESPONSE VEHICLE (a sight I felt sure would impress my friend Alex) and, back in the real world, a beautiful hedge of blueblossoms before eventually reaching Ladywell Fields.

Here I would briefly follow the route of both the Ravensbourne river (in total, an eleven miler that flows from its source in Keston to the Thames at Deptford) and our TADS 2019 curtain closing walk from Crystal Palace to Greenwich (Mean Streets, Mean Time). It's a pretty little stretch of bridges, shallow fast flowing water, knobbly old trees, iron sculptures that look as if inspired by the work of Richard Serra, and one of the few Dutch Elms in London that did not succumb to, and die of, Dutch Elm Disease.

The swirling bridge that takes you over the train tracks so impressed a passing child that he slowed down on his bike to shout "wow" to his parents. There's a smart athletic ground you can look over to, a tidy little cafe, lots of lovely green grass, and that warning board that forbids you from doing some of the most fun things in life (camping, loud music, barbecues, and, er, urinating) is still up.

As with TADS in November 2019 the walk took me out of Ladywell Fields and straight into the Ladywell Tavern for a first pint of the afternoon. The huge Pussy Riot artwork that once adorned the back wall had gone but, otherwise, it's not changed much. I had a pint, read the paper, and did the crossword. As with my cafe experience earlier, it was something I had much missed doing. I felt calm and content and when the barmaid asked me if I'd like another I was tempted.

But my resolve held. I headed out into Ladywell and began to ascend Vicars Hill into Hilly Fields, a delightful spot visited more than a couple of times during lockdown that has commanding views to London in all directions. Photos will reveal views of both Crystal Palace Tower and The Shard.

They've also a pleasant looking cafe and the sun was coming out after a cold start so an ice cream would have been nice but I continued on. The park has a few mocked up megaliths that remind of the Eistedfodd Circle in Welshpool more than they do Stonehenge or Avebury, there's a Francis Drake Bowls Club, and not much else except people kicking a ball around or relaxing with their friends in the May sunshine.

Which was lovely - and didn't last long. I exited the park and headed north along Tyrwhitt Road, taking in foxproof compost boxes, veggie vans, and street signage nearly fully reclaimed by greenery. Just as I reached The Talbot pub (a place last visited in August 2014 on my birthday) the skies opened up. You won't need to be Sherlock Holmes to guess what course of action I took.

The Talbot, like The Ladywell Tavern before it, is a nice pub. Clean, characterful, friendly, not trying too hard to be anything it's not. I popped my new Samsung phone (check the snaps from it on this blog) on charge, read a bit more of the paper, supped a pint, and by the time I was ready to leave the rain had almost stopped.

By the time I reached the ground of St.John's church on Lewisham Way it had - and soon the sun was back out. I passed the rather forlorn looking Lewisham College (notable former alumni include Daniel Bedingfield, Keeley Hazell, the grime MC Novelist, and the actor Shaun Parkes). The building that impressed me most, however, was the former Barclays Bank building (below).

Now Grade II listed and converted into flats, it was built in the 1890s by James Edmeston whose other works include drinking fountains, grain silos, and more churches and was also noted for writing poems and over two thousand hymns. The building is described on the Historical England website as being of "red brick and buff terracotta in a baronial style" and that seems a fair description.

It certainly looked quietly majestic, if just a touch careworn, with its turrets pointing defiantly into a sky now slowly clearing of dark clouds. I passed to the left of the building into the excellently named Friendly Street and Friendly Gardens.

To be fair, it wasn't unfriendly - but it wasn't friendly either. A bit dull really. Some kids played on swings and some rubbish blew around in the wind. The nearby Deptford Railway Meadow no doubt serves a worthwhile service for local wildlife but fenced off it offered little to the passing visitor.

I was more impressed by the play of sun on the wet surface of Thornville Street, the clay likenesses no doubt made by the pupils of the nearby Lucas Vale Primary School, and a host of Himalayan clematis proving, yet again, that even in the concrete city nature always finds a way. The Royal George pub on the corner here, a rare Sam Smith's concern away from the West End or the City, is currently closed but is looking for a couple, all signs specified that, to take it over..

When they do I may one day pop back for a cheap pint of Ayingerbrau man-in-a-box lager. For now, I passed back on to Lewisham Way, had a quick look at the Lewisham Arthouse (converted from the old Deptford Library) before being distracted by some truly unusual Arts and Crafts houses on nearby Rokeby Road. I loved the way the doors are on the first floor and protrude out on to the street and I love the way function and form combine to make passing them, and hopefully living in one of them, something of a delight.

A hidden pleasure. Nearby Luxmore Gardens was quite nice too but I restricted my photos to one of the sign as there were small children playing everywhere and taking photos of other people's, stranger's, kids is never a good look. Instead I passed down Malpas Road, the sound of bashment joyously blaring out of the window, and turned into, as promised earlier, Vulcan Road (taking in the wry social commentary below) where I would make my final pit stop of the afternoon at The Wickham Arms.

A pub I last visited on the 7th of January 2014 (thanks, Facebook) when I corrected, annoyingly - no doubt, a man who thought Dave Edmunds was responsible for the song Cruel To Be Kind (it was Nick Lowe, catch up). For some reason I keep thinking it is spelt Wykeham, not Wickham, Back in 2014, I had a pint of Brockley Brewery Pale Ale. This time, in the sun and feeling so happy I took a picture of my smug simple face and even briefly removed my denim jacket, I had a nice cold Kronenbourg 1664 and listened to the lads on the next table boast of their drug and clubbing exploits.

Too old for that malarkey now or even making a night of it. So I began my final stretch homewards. Some street art depicting local legend, and ex-Crystal Palace and England footballer, Ian Wright caught my attention. As did a rather hectic image on the side of a post office, a Nepali and Tibetan eaterie called Urban Yak, and a rather fetching caprice which I believe is the home of an architectural practice who go by the name of Green Tea.

Better still, and certainly the best street art I saw during the entire walk or for a very long time, was the mural (below) on St Norberts Road underneath the railway bridge on the line between Nunhead and Crofton Park. Later research informed me that this work was by the Devon artist Koeone who has also made murals as far afield as Argentina, Australia, Brazil, and Romania.

It was a nice note to leave SE4 on and as I walked the last stretch home, bursting for a piss and now under a downfall of freezing cold hailstones - welcome to May in London 2021, I, as ever, thought of how much I'd seen, so near to home, that I had not seen in over two decades of living around here before.

I was glad I'd been on the walk and though it was nice to join Ian, Carole, Dylan, Sanda, Sharon, and Kathy for a Eurovision watch party in the evening I have to say I am looking forward far more to next week when not only will I be on another walk (the next leg, finally, of the Capital Ring from Hendon to Stoke Newington) but I'll be joined by some friends and we'll all end up, hopefully, in a curry house. The walks are back and, with them, I feel like a part of me that's been missing is also back.