Baroque the Streets. RUN for the Hill

How do you like the new mural in Forest Hill?

For some time now, one of our top priorities as a Society has been to reinvigorate Forest Hill's High Street.

To this end, we started the Food Fair, planted various locations in the town centre and reconvened the Traders' Association. We also received some funding from the Local Assembly to decorate the fronts of vacant units with a Horniman theme, with the aim of linking the Museum with the town centre and bringing some of their 750,000 visitors shopping here.

The first of our projects was the boarded up shop at 43 Dartmouth Road, which we decorated with a portrait of the Walrus before he went on his summer holiday to Margate.

However, this mural by RUN was funded by the Dulwich Picture Gallery's street art project, Baroque the Streets, and is an interpretation of The Translation of Saint Rita of Cascia by Poussin.

Our next piece will be appearing soon - keep your eyes peeled. In the meantime, additional photos of RUN's piece outside the Sylvan Post can be found on Dan Needham's Flickr page. Our thanks to Dan for documenting the process.

September Food Fair - Sunday 1st September

Improved Access at Honor Oak Park Station

On the 28th August, Transport for London will begin improvement works at Honor Oak Park station.

In order to ease congestion and reduce queuing at busy times, the gateline will be extended and repositioned within the ticket hall, doubling the number of gates. Extra ticket vending machines will also be installed to help reduce waiting time.

These improvements are part of an overall programme of works to increase capacity across the London Overground network, both in stations and onboard trains, with a new 5-car service due to arrive in 2015.

The work is expected to take around three months and the station will remain open throughout the works and services will run as normal, however access to some parts of the station will be restricted at various times throughout the project, to allow work to be carried out to passenger areas.

Later this year, Network Rail will be carrying out further work at the station to install lifts as part of the Department for Transport’s Access for All scheme.

Open House Weekend - 21st-22nd September

London Open House Weekend is a chance to explore some of the best architecture London has to offer. Locally there are a number of buildings you can visit:

Crystal Palace Subway - Crystal Palace Parade
Magnificent subway built by Italian craftsmen resembling a vaulted crypt. Part of the Crystal Palace High Level Railway system demolished in 1961.
Saturday:10am-to-5pm. Pre-book ONLY by email on openhouse@cpsubway.org.uk

Drake House - Lordship Lane - Sunday 10am-5pm
London's oldest concrete domestic structure and Grade II listed former vicarage. Now restored and converted by Hexagon Housing Association in partnership with Heritage of London Trust and converted to provide 5 apartments.

Brunel Museum - Railway Avenue, SE16 4LF,close to Rotherhithe Station
Guided descents of subterranean chamber half the size of Shakespeare's Globe. Trains to view Thames Tunnel portico, one time shopping arcade, banquet hall and fairground.

Horniman Museum and Gardens
A landmark building - Charles Harrison Townsend's original arts and crafts building (1901) and his ideas on the arts and crafts aesthetic. The 16.5 acre gardens have re-opened after major redevelopment by Land Use Consultants (2012) including a Pavilion by Walters Cohen plus a bandstand terrace with views over London.
Sunday behind the scenes tours at 2pm & 4pm, pre-book ONLY via Horniman website.

Forest Hill Pools - Dartmouth Road
New facility providing community pools, fitness, cafe and meeting rooms whilst retaining the original Victorian pool superintendant's building.

TNG Wells Park Youth Venue - 111 Wells Park Road
A new youth and community venue developed in consultation with young people, using a simple and robust material palette of exposed timber structure, porcelain-like pre-cast concrete panels and translucent curved polycarbonate. Dramatic, open spaces connect through the building with viewing points and stage-like staircases.

Walter Segal self-build houses - 8 & 10 Walters Way, Honor Oak Park
A close of 13 self-built houses. Each house is unique, many extended and built using a method developed by Walter Segal, who led the project in the 1980s. Both houses have benefited from extensions and renovations. Sustainable features include solar electric, water and space heating.

The Capitol - 11-21 London Road
Formerly Capitol Cinema, Grade II listed rare survival of a complete 1920's cinema in Art Deco style, later a bingo hall and now a Wetherspoon pub.

Coach House - 11a Sydenham Hill, SE26 6SH, London, England
Combining a rich palette of traditional and vernacular materials with a contemporary understanding of detail and space, this house proposes a new vision of domesticity based on craft, tactility and light.

SELCHP Energy Recovery Facility - Landmann Way, off Surrey Canal Road, SE14 5RS
First new generation 'state of the art' Energy Recovery Facility providing long-term sustainable solution for waste disposal, and producing electricity for National Grid. Designed to minimise visual impact whilst remaining a high quality landmark building.

Southwark Integrated Waste Management Facility  -  3 Devon Street, off Old Kent Road, SE15 1JR
One of Europe's most advanced recycling facilities, comprising many sustainable features including grey water, solar panels and green roof. Designed for the purpose of turning waste into a resource.

Tell me a story

Originally just a group of friends and neighbours living in Perry Vale, the Forest with the Big Hill are looking for helpers. In particular, they need people to

• maintain their website
• organise their finances
• write funding applications

Their objective is to bring people together using storytelling; it's also a great way to foster children's language development and to explore our understanding of the world. They want to make their neighbourhood a welcoming, safe, stimulating, happy place for us all to live and for their children to grow up in by putting on events with a broad appeal, while encouraging a love of (and facility in) the spoken word and the use of story. They have already run two events; the Snake King in October 2012 and a performance by Raventales in February 2013.

They're currently planning two performances/workshops on Saturday, 19 October 2013 for children and another for parents/grandparents who want to improve their storytelling skills – all of this at the Forest Hill Methodist Church in Normanton Street, followed by fruit, tea and cake. Then, in the evening, there'll be another special performance upstairs at the Blythe Hill Tavern. Performers will include Randolph Matthews, Effua Daniels, June Peters, Jacq Paschoud and Chris Wise.

If you would like to be involved in The Forest with the Big Hill, do get in touch. They are a volunteer run community organisation and are happy for new members to join them. You can contact them on Facebook, by email to theforestwiththebighill@gmail.com or by phone on 07551 803078.

Calling all Budding Young Entrepreneurs

Young people have an amazing enterprising entrepreneurial opportunity to work with RBS professionals and their business contacts to take part in exciting workshops that explore what it takes to set up a business.  They also get to create their own business model and test it on the high street, in real life with with real punters!

The sessions are at TNG -Sydenham's most amazing new world-class youth centre -  and start on Tuesday September 10th, running weekly during term time until Christmas. 

A staff team of 15 RBS professionals have purposefully created fun interactive modules, a unique offer for Lewisham-based young people.  All the young people need to do is apply via our website or download the form and post it to: Melissa Knight, Sydenham and Forest Hill Youth Forum, c/o The Here For Good Centre, 17 Sydenham Road, London SE26 5EX.

The deadline is Friday 16th August.
It's really important that parents and adults who work with young people are signposting them to amazing one-off opportunities like this one.  Best of all, RBS staff are prepared to create a legacy by offering mentoring afterwards to those who wish to pursue business.  It also means trips to the City of London, something really invaluable - knowing the City is accessible to them. 
 You can also support the Sydenham and Forest Hill Youth Forum by donating here.

Louise House - A Hub for Art

We are delighted to say that we have finally heard who will be running Louise House for the next three years (and beyond, if successful).

V22 Collection is an art organisation, with a shared ownership structure, which specialises in the collection of contemporary art, the production of exhibitions, events and educational initiatives, and the provision of artists' studios and artisans' workshops. V22 currently runs three studio buildings in London, providing affordable workspace for over 400 tenants.

The first property, which they have managed since 2006, provides for 27 artists and is situated at the heart of Dalston’s creative district on Ashwin Street. The second, V22 Workspace, is a massive 142,000 sq. ft ex-industrial space in Bermondsey which they moved into in October 2010 and has over 380 artists and creative professionals working in the building, a large exhibition and events space, a community café and workshop space. They are proud of the collaborative and friendly community that has arisen there. Their third property opened recently in De Beauvoir, London, N1.

V22 believes that artists will always be at the forefront of contemporary thought. They aim to enable better connections into the wider art ecology through their shared ownership structure.

Louise House is situated on Dartmouth Road between the library and the swimming pool and is Grade 2 listed by English Heritage. The involvement of V22 in this site is another exciting opportunity for the development of Forest Hill and we look forward to working with them.